I froze in the same position, my head still pressed against the shoe.
What a mess. While everyone’s attention had been on me, I could have just let him go. I made a mistake.
He should’ve left earlier — why did he have to drag his feet? I was so frustrated I silently cursed Jang Ijung over and over in my head.
In the meantime, it seemed Go Sangwon had read the room and slipped out with only Jackson, because I heard the door close. As if my situation was none of his concern — the heartless move left only the Boss, Jang Ijung, and me in the room.
Jang Ijung was… standing somewhere behind me, so I couldn’t see his face, but I could tell he’d stopped moving.
“…….”
The Boss’s mood right now was at its absolute worst. Both his anger and his irritability had hit the ceiling. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen a person or two meet their end after getting caught on the wrong side of him in a state like this.
And if Jang Ijung, that idiot, so much as said one wrong thing, I’d be dragged down with him….
Damn.
No — stay calm.
The Boss said he had something he wanted to ask Jang Ijung. Maybe he’d stopped him without any particular intention. What mattered right now was what kind of answer Jang Ijung would give to the Boss’s question.
…The problem was that I had absolutely zero expectation it would be a good one.
I was biting at my lip with my head bowed when the shoe in front of me moved.
“You’re getting it wet.”
With an irritated voice, the foot shoved my head aside dismissively, as if I were an annoyance. Just as the Boss said, there were droplets of water on the tip of the shoe where I’d pressed my forehead.
I got rained on. I’d forgotten all about it in my panic to apologize.
I obediently lifted my upper body. Being careful not to provoke the Boss unnecessarily, I stayed kneeling and quietly looked straight ahead.
Then the sharp gaze that had been boring down at me from above shifted to somewhere behind me. The Boss asked, chewing each word deliberately.
“Are you in league with this one?”
“…….”
After a brief silence, Jang Ijung opened his mouth.
“We ran into each other by chance.”
“By chance.”
“Yes. On the ship.”
“Then tell me how you ended up on that ship.”
The Boss asked back with unexpected composure. He even appeared oddly calm, which was unlike him — but I could tell he was suppressing his rage. Because I had already seen the bloodstains on his clothing.
With the Boss’s notoriously short patience, I had no idea how long it would hold. Jang Ijung, completely unaware of the situation, dragged out his words without a care.
“Ah, well….”
As if he was struggling to answer.
Looking at him hesitate like that — he must be involved with the Association after all.
I pretended not to care while keeping my ears sharp. Jang Ijung made a few more uncertain hmm sounds before finally opening his mouth again.
“I woke up and found myself on a ship.”
“…….”
It was the kind of excuse that someone whose head was filled with suspicion would never accept.
As expected, the Boss’s reaction was ice-cold. He said nothing and leaned back against the desk. After coughing a few times, he spoke.
“Let me be honest. I’m suspecting this one was trying to run away.”
“!!!”
I just went to pocket a little extra and was planning to come back in a few days — running away never even crossed my mind.
How could he suspect something like that!
I was genuinely indignant. A little out of contact and he was overreacting again.
Sure, I’d been on a ship bound for China while I was out of contact. Sure, it happened to be with one of my colleagues from the organization. Sure, I’d also met with a guild member from Atlas before that. But! All of it just happened to occur while the Boss was busy — the accusation that I was trying to defect was absolutely absurd.
The injustice was so overwhelming that a retort flew out of me before I could stop it.
“Run away?! Absolutely not, I never — gck!”
Before I could even finish the sentence, the Boss’s foot slammed my head into the floor.
Pinning the side of my head down with his sole, the Boss continued without so much as a glance at me.
“And I’m wondering if you… helped this one.”
Nearly ten years together and he still doesn’t trust me like this. On top of that, we were the ones who’d contacted Go Sangwon and come back on our own two feet.
Well, nothing much had changed in the future either. I hadn’t expected it to.
…Hadn’t expected it.
Feeling the pressure, I was rolling my eyes around when they met Jang Ijung’s. I’d expected him to be looking at the Boss, but he was unexpectedly looking down at me.
Shouldn’t a decent person avert their eyes a little when someone is getting their face ground into the floor? Even when I looked away first, that prickling gaze didn’t go away.
“…….”
Something felt off.
Setting aside Go Sangwon — I was lying here prostrated like this in front of that guy’s eyes. And on top of that, my head was being treated like a soccer ball, getting stepped on.
Is he just watching?
Once I became aware of having another person here, I couldn’t stop being conscious of it. It felt different from when it was just me and the Boss.
Of course, regardless of whether I minded the situation or not, the Boss gave zero thought to my dignity. Far from considering it, he pressed down with his foot even harder.
Crunch.
“Where are you looking?”
A sinister voice came from above. I felt a pang of guilt and hurriedly tried to look up, but the Boss’s face was nowhere to be seen.
“In any case, I didn’t go to help Seo Sinwoo.”
Since it seemed the Boss had been addressing Jang Ijung and not me, Jang Ijung answered flatly. But the Boss wasn’t the type to be satisfied by a statement like that.
“And you expect me to believe that?”
“Well… just hear me out. I can explain.”
Even with the Boss in front of him in such a foul mood, Jang Ijung responded casually, as though he couldn’t sense the danger. His face was calm, the face of someone who genuinely believed everything could be resolved through conversation.
Meanwhile, the Boss seemed genuinely furious. The foot that had been pressing my head against the floor lifted away. It was a signal to get up.
“…….”
I pushed myself upright. Once I was up, I slowly turned to look at Jang Ijung.
“…You still haven’t grasped the situation, have you?”
I dragged it out on purpose, then let out a quiet, dismissive laugh. As if I found it too ridiculous to bear.
“You’ve been played by me.”
“…?”
Jang Ijung’s brow furrowed sharply. His head tilted slightly to one side, as if he had no idea what I was talking about.
I put on a meaningful smile — for the Boss’s benefit. Something similar had happened before. Thinking back to how I’d resolved it then, the solution for this problem was just as simple.
Even knowing the method, actually putting it into practice required a bit of mental preparation. Maintaining that subtle smile, I swallowed once and continued.
“Of course I’m the one who brought him here, Boss. I thought he’d be useful for something I was planning.”
“Seo Sinwoo?”
A surprised-sounding voice came, but I steadfastly ignored it as if I hadn’t heard.
Just stay quiet and let your Karma get shaved off.
The Boss’s eyes were already turned inside out with fury. Whatever anyone said right now, he wouldn’t hear it — once his head cooled down a little, I’d deal with soothing him and explaining then.
The Boss standing before me was looking down at me with unparalleled coldness.
“What is that….”
Our eyes had been locked longer than expected, and it was just as Jang Ijung was about to say something.
Thud!
“Cough!”
A boot drove hard into my gut. I clutched my stomach, shaking, then collapsed. Curling up on the floor like a shrimp, I was met with a string of irritated kicks raining down on my body.
“How could you… how dare you—!”
The Boss muttered and fumed as he kicked me relentlessly.
“Ugh! Ngh!”
I groaned and played up the suffering so the Boss would feel a proper sense of impact. To anyone watching, I’d look every bit like a person in agonizing pain being beaten.
Good, I’ve drawn the aggro.
I had to hold onto this attention all the way through.
To do that, I needed to get rid of the interference.
I turned my head slightly to look at Jang Ijung. He seemed to have been struck dumb by the sudden outbreak of violence, frozen in place awkwardly. As I twisted my body under the pretense of dodging a blow, our eyes met immediately. At that, Jang Ijung seemed to snap back to his senses and started moving his feet.
As he made to approach, I shook my head at him frantically.
“…….”
Did my intention get through? Jang Ijung stopped. But I couldn’t relax yet. While my body was being jostled from the steady blows, I forced my hand into my pocket.
Let me see — where did I put it?
It wasn’t even my own clothes, so it was hard to find. I moved my hand frantically and the moment I closed my fingers around something round —
Thud!
A hard kick to my back. The impact made my hand slip, and I lost my grip on the item.
The object that fell from my pocket rolled across the floor and came to a stop at Jang Ijung’s feet.
It was a candy.
Whatever the circumstances, I’d managed to get it to Jang Ijung, so it didn’t matter. I’d been planning to throw it to him anyway. He’d been whining about being hungry since a while back, so I figured if I tossed him a candy he’d lunge after it like a dog.
He glanced down at the wrapped candy, brow furrowing faintly for just a moment — and then he disappeared from my line of sight.
Because the next blow was coming right at my face. I reflexively raised my arm to block it.
“Don’t block!”
“…!”
I had no choice but to lower my arm at the scream-like outburst. I wasn’t the only one startled by the loud cry — the Boss, who had stopped hitting me, grabbed at his own chest.
Had the movement been too violent? He staggered back a few steps and barely managed to grab hold of the desk. Bent over, the Boss gasped as if he couldn’t breathe.
“Running away — run, running away….”
I’d taken quite a beating, and yet the Boss’s fury showed not even a trace of diminishing. For some reason, he seemed even more worked up than when I’d first seen him today.
“…I’ll kill you.”
The Boss muttered darkly and looked down at me. Beneath the mask, only bloodshot eyes floated there. I found myself staring back, locked onto those violet irises as if I were held captive.
Unease washed over me, but I stayed still, unable to do anything. In that time, the Boss dragged his leg and drew closer.
Scrape.
The sound of a shoe dragging across the floor. The Boss pulled his foot back.
It was a stance ready to kick.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Then the hard toe of the shoe connected squarely with my forehead.
Crack!
The sound of a watermelon splitting open rang through my skull, and for a moment my consciousness slipped away. A wave of dizziness swept over me, ears ringing.
“Ngh….”
I hastily pulled my arms around my head and curled up. But I felt no pain at all. By the time my senses cleared, the Boss’s foot was resting quietly on the floor. A muffled voice buzzed in front of me.
“—.”
“Pardon…?”
“—me.”
I couldn’t make out the meaning. Reading the atmosphere, I guessed he was telling me to get up.
I struggled to push off the floor, but my strength gave out and I slumped flat on my face. The shoe in front of me stayed completely still. It looked as though he’d wait until I managed to stand.
I strained to put one foot on the floor with arms that refused to cooperate, and the moment I did, the neatly poised foot flew forward and slammed into my gut.
All that effort to try and get up, and I went crashing back down in an undignified heap.
“Hah….”
My mouth had fallen open on reflex and wouldn’t close. A long thread of bloodied saliva stretched from my lips to the floor.
I was choking, barely managing to breathe, when the shoe in front of me impatiently tapped the floor — tap tap.
Damn, what a personality….
Staying down would only fan the flames. I steadied my breathing and wiped my mouth clean. I pressed my knees to the floor and slowly began to move.
Getting up required planting my knees back on the ground more than once, but I managed somehow to stand on two feet.
“…….”
Now that I was upright, I felt a thin trickle of liquid running down from my nose. It was clearly a nosebleed, but I didn’t have the strength left to wipe it. My head was hazy, and I simply stood there with my hands clasped behind my back.
“—.”
The Boss’s voice buzzed and echoed in front of me.
Am I dizzy right now?
The floor was spinning. It felt like I’d topple over if I let my guard down.
Even without pain, there was no controlling physiological reactions. Probably a mild head injury.
“—Seo Sinwoo.”
I must have been hanging my head without realizing it. When I lifted my gaze, the Boss was looking over at me with displeased eyes.
“Yes, Boss.”
“What did I just say?”
I don’t know.
“Uh… haha.”
The Boss, who had been leaning against the desk, straightened up. Those burning violet eyes grew closer and closer.
Right — for now, just take the hits. Once the Boss’s anger wore down a bit, I’d explain everything properly. Show him the loot too.
I’m tired, but I can still take more.
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. Blood and saliva mixed together on my skin. The Boss also lightly rolled his wrist, preparing to enter round two.
Like a scripted match, it was a situation we were both used to. Aside from the one extra person added to the room.
But then something unexpected happened.
“Stop.”
Jang Ijung stepped in front of the Boss, blocking his path.
