On the humid summer night, a precarious air flowed through the dim alley.
Every time a valid shot was made in the World Cup match, cheers echoed from afar, but here and now was a world unrelated to that. Cold sweat dripped down his temples at the scene covered in violence.
“Still no reply to the text?”
“Nothing.”
“Did you send the photo of his lackeys captured?”
“I sent it earlier. It went as an MMS text, so maybe it didn’t arrive?”
“Fuck. Ah, fuck. I’m gonna piss myself waiting. Post it on his Sayclub guestbook too, hurry! Where the hell is this bastard, no reply either…!”
The red jersey who was getting heated from not being able to locate Hwang Jegu turned toward the hostages.
“You know we sent one of your school’s third-years to the hospital, right? That was my work.”
“……”
“I beat him half to death. When you jump and stomp, the ribs go crunch and break. You know where it hurts when ribs break? The organs. The broken bones stab into the intestines…!”
Yeon Cheonguk inwardly sneered at the swaggering bastard. If he wanted to beat someone half to death, he would’ve done it already. He was just too afraid of the consequences to do the same thing again, so he gathered all the acquaintances he could and was trying to handle this with numbers.
“Where’s Hwang Jegu.”
“Ha…! Damn it! We want to know too!”
The three hostages protested their innocence. That they didn’t know where Hwang Jegu was right now or who he was with.
The kid from Class 7, who had been shaking his head despite the threats pouring in from around them, pointed at Yeon Cheonguk.
“That guy really doesn’t know. I’m seeing him for the first time.”
He was trying to get the suddenly swept-up Yeon Cheonguk released. The red jersey, who had been repeatedly opening and closing with his chin the phone that wasn’t getting a reply, gestured. It seemed like he meant to let Yeon Cheonguk and his girlfriend go. It was the moment when they turned around with relief.
“Hey friend, wait. We’re collecting donations…”
“No…!”
Two guys who approached shoved their hands into Yeon Cheonguk’s pants pockets. It happened without any chance to resist.
They probably intended to steal all the bills before sending him off. The contents of the wallet ended up in their hands in an instant.
In that moment, his spine stiffened rigid. It wasn’t about losing the living expenses and date money he’d prepared by distributing flyers until his bones ached last week.
Damn it. Damn it…!
“Kkaebi Video… Hwang-je…. What! This fucking bastard… you lied, didn’t you?”
Damn it!
Three letters of a name written on the Kkaebi Video rental shop membership card with one corner soaked in blood. He’d been caught.
“You were super close, weren’t you!”
The face of his girlfriend he’d been dating for three days fell into confusion. Not only had his lie about not knowing him at all been exposed, but Yeon Cheonguk was now in danger of becoming half-dead and bloody.
He couldn’t possibly explain that he was a shuttle.
Pride aside, it was clear that nothing would change and it would only become more ridiculous.
A heavy kick struck Yeon Cheonguk’s stomach. It was truly the first kind of hardship he’d ever felt. The moment the shock and impact like striking his stomach with a boulder was transmitted, he couldn’t breathe.
Among the hostages, one scrawny kid whose fashion from head to toe was extraordinary screamed.
“Shit…! For every hit you give one of our guys, hyung will pay you back double!”
In the midst of it all, he was consistently using formal speech. The guy standing next to the red jersey slapped his cheeks repeatedly.
The red jersey approached Yeon Cheonguk. His legs trembled with fear. Grabbed by the collar by the bastard, he was separated far from his girlfriend.
He didn’t know how many times he was slapped after that. His mind was in chaos from the force of being struck. After being pushed back several steps, his back touched the wall. The bitter-sour taste of blood seeped into his mouth.
“Should we take this bastard and the girl to the warehouse?”
The warehouse meant the place that had recently become a social issue where members of Seoul and Gyeonggi violence circles had gathered to commit public group sexual acts and slave play. Kim Yuyoung’s face turned pale.
“Still no reply from that Hwang-je bastard?”
“Nothing! Did he hear the rumors and run? Why is he underwater. Ha…! Why is there no answer, no answer.”
Hwang Jegu didn’t show himself or send a reply text, whatever he was doing. In this war, no answer for 30 minutes clearly meant he was intentionally ignoring it.
The red jersey, who was looking at his phone clock and shaking his leg, firmly gripped Yeon Cheonguk’s neck. Then, click, a camera sound was heard.
They gathered in front of the folder phone, checked the photo, and sent it to someone.
“Your adult video friend and his girlfriend are also here…!”
The recipient would obviously be Hwang Jegu. A photo of Yeon Cheonguk with split lips must have been sent as a text to Hwang Jegu’s phone.
He’d probably think “whatever” and turn it off. Even when his close comrades were taken hostage there was no reaction. He’d obviously pass over Yeon Cheonguk’s photo even faster.
He needed a method. He had to get at least his girlfriend, who had turned pale as a corpse, out of here.
Yeon Cheonguk displayed quick wit in the moment.
“Let my girlfriend go. While Jegu doesn’t know right now.”
“……”
The red jersey’s eyes changed for a moment as he understood what was meant.
Where did this gutsy bastard come from? Was it because he thought there was something to rely on? He became convinced that there wouldn’t be a big problem even if he falsely pretended to be close with Hwang Jegu. At the very least, he’d only have to pay the price for using Hwang Jegu’s name, right?
The guy who was chomping on his cigarette sneered faintly.
“Jegu…?”
Oops, habit is scary. It was Yeon Cheonguk’s mistake for not being in the habit of calling Hwang Jegu “Your Majesty.”
“Haha, shit. When were you insisting you didn’t know him. You’re super affectionate. You’re calling him by a name that even those lackeys crawling on all fours in front of Hwang-je can’t call him…?”
“……”
“If you were that close, there should’ve been a reaction after seeing the photo of you captured. Wait, wait, aren’t you selling his name when you’re not even close?”
Yeon Cheonguk met the gaze of the approaching guy to the end. He was indeed worthy of being called someone who held in his hands a school called a lawless land. They were intense, sharp eyes. Though compared to when Hwang Jegu had patted his cheeks, there was absolutely no impact.
The guy who finished his own verification process turned around abruptly.
“Hey, let her go. Too pretty to waste…. And you need to be punished for lying to me. Ever been a human punching bag?”
The red jersey dragged Yeon Cheonguk and placed him at the very front of the hostages. Yuyoung, released outside the group, said in a crawling voice.
“You can’t…. No….”
“Go. Right now.”
When Yeon Cheonguk coldly got angry, Yuyoung couldn’t open her mouth anymore. She hesitantly backed away toward the main street and disappeared. The jersey loosened his arms widely in front of Yeon Cheonguk’s face.
“Ah, shit…. Looks like he probably ran after hearing about our numbers. We’ll have to beat these bastards more. What about the Rodeo side?”
“Nothing.”
The guys who gave up on getting a response from Hwang Jegu decided to beat the hostages more. Yeon Cheonguk was the new punching bag. Whoop. A strong wind blew from the punch that stopped near his jaw. Now a real punch was preparing to fly toward his chest.
“Huh…?”
The guy standing next to the red jersey opened his phone folder and was shocked as if his eyeballs would pop out. As if he couldn’t believe it, the guy who checked the screen again said in a trembling voice.
“We got a reply from that Hwang-je bastard…!”
“What. What does it say! Fuck, where does it say! What!”
The jersey who threw away the cigarette butt deliberately acted composed. Yeon Cheonguk sensed the tension that bound twenty people in an instant. The atmosphere freezing over happened in a flash.
“…It says to stay right there?”
“……”
They spat noisily and re-gripped their pipes. Anxiety could be felt from the excessively swaggering red jersey’s shoulders. The three hostages standing behind Yeon Cheonguk murmured.
– What, he’s coming now?
– Don’t we need to stall for more time?
…Aha. So Hwang Jegu’s friends being captured here was a planned thing. It could be guessed that it was an advance strategy to buy time while draining the opponent’s stamina.
When someone whispered “Hey! Hey!” from behind, he turned around. From the sunglasses worn upside down pushed back over his head to the silver shiny baggy pants, the owner of flashy fashion was scowling.
“If you call him by his name like that in front of Hwang-je, you’ll get beat to death!”
The layered vest over the反発 T-shirt didn’t look stylish but looked shabby just like Gakseori. Yeon Cheonguk named him ‘Gakseori’ on his own as Hwang Jegu’s comrade.
“I won’t have any reason to call his name.”
Gakseori, who had been glaring at the bluntly answering Yeon Cheonguk, turned his gaze away. The dark alley began to stir. Beyond the heads of the men reorganizing their formation, a large car was entering from afar.
The car stopped at the alley entrance, defying everyone’s expectations. It wasn’t a van, taxi, or motorcycle but a meat logistics truck.
“That freezer compartment in the back is big! Did they load them up in there?”
Everyone’s breathless gaze turned toward the back of the truck. When the stopped car’s engine turned off, the silence deepened even more. The sounds of cheering for the World Cup match from nearby shops and villas could be heard.
It wasn’t like the Trojan Horse, so surely not. However, because Hwang Jegu was the kind of person who would pull off something like that, everyone’s eyes focused on the refrigerated truck. A man with a cap pressed down came to the back of the car and unlocked it.
