“You should’ve known what it was worth before you took it. You might’ve actually tried harder to run.”
His tone was almost reproachful — as if criticizing the careless way it had been stored. Dohui felt like he was losing his mind.
“Stop crying like an idiot.”
Something trickled from his nose. He wiped it with the back of his hand. Warm liquid smeared across his skin. A nosebleed. Heat rose in his cheeks too.
“……I’m, I’m sorry. It wasn’t — I didn’t — I only did what I was asked to……. But still, since it belonged to the Director……. Hic…….”
Dohui apologized out of fear. He begged — said he’d never do it again, told him to take the bag back. As he continued to plead like that, Gong Haejin laughed as if he were watching some amusing little creature. Even in the narrow space, his laughter carried weight. Dohui shuffled backward on his hips.
“Yeah, that’s more like it.”
“…….”
“The thing I’ve heard most in this line of work is exactly that. ‘It wasn’t me,’ ‘I didn’t know.’ But how many times has it actually turned out to be true?”
“I really, truly d-didn’t. Please believe me.”
The man let out a reaction that seemed quite satisfied, then grabbed Dohui’s padding jacket without any consideration. The force was so strong it felt like it might tear.
It was his only padding jacket, but that wasn’t what mattered right now. If he could just get out of here, the jacket didn’t matter at all. Things could be bought — but this terror clawing through him right now, how was he supposed to make that disappear?
His whole body swayed as he was dragged along helplessly by that force.
“P-please, don’t.”
The hands that had been shaking him released without warning, and his body crumpled. He had to clear up this misunderstanding, but his mind drew a complete blank.
He felt deeply resentful. Not toward the man in front of him — toward Jinho.
Just hold onto one thing for me. I can’t keep it at my place.
How could you do this to me.
That was why he’d so readily sent a million won as an errand fee. Because it was someone else’s stolen property, and the value of it was something Dohui couldn’t even begin to estimate.
Dohui realized he’d been used. Separate from the betrayal, he had absolutely no idea how to explain any of this to this terrifying man.
Whenever that arm — built from thick slabs of muscle — so much as shifted upward, Dohui’s shoulders seized up. An automatic response, born from not knowing where or how he might get hit.
“Hff…….”
Dohui curled in on himself, wrapping his arms around his head.
“They would’ve already sold off the rest of the items. It’s obvious what people like you do. You would’ve gotten rid of them for less than a quarter of their worth. So then — go on, tell me. How are you going to pay back the loss I’ve taken?”
“……Why should I…….”
“You pay off the debt, and then you get to leave.”
Gong Haejin added the explanation with unexpected courtesy — as if to say, all you have to do is settle the debt. Without him even noticing when it happened, the situation had morphed into something called debt. Dohui shook his head over and over.
“It wasn’t me who did this — so why are you telling me to pay it back?”
It was like a cave with no end in sight. Everything before him felt impossibly dark. He didn’t know how much loss the man was talking about, but he had no obligation to repay any of it. And yet — as though Dohui had done it all himself — the man calmly placed an enormous weight on his shoulders.
Dohui bit down on his lower lip. The split that had already been torn there stung as it split further open. Faced with the bleakness of what lay ahead, he couldn’t find any more words.
“Alright. Let’s do it this way.”
He couldn’t just let himself be saddled with all of this. He had to bring Jinho here and sort it out somehow. If he could get the items back, the man’s thinking might change.
Dohui clung to that idea with desperation, like spotting a single ray of light in a pitch-black road. It was the only thing he could do right now. He was furious, felt so wronged he could scream, wanted to demand why the man wouldn’t believe him — but the man radiated something deeply dangerous, and provoking him was not a good choice.
“……Please give me until tomorrow. I’ll ask my friend, and I’ll make sure to find the remaining items and return them to you.”
“Should I really be accommodating the demands of a thief? I’m the victim here.”
“…….”
“Don’t scrunch up that pretty face like that.”
The man grabbed Dohui’s chin and began studying his features. Every hair on Dohui’s body stood on end. Past the soft curve of his forehead, the crumpled brow, the large eyes — tear after tear trembling on the verge of spilling — it wasn’t a bad sight at all.
With every word Dohui spoke, his lips parted — and the man slid a finger straight inside.
Cough — Even as Dohui broke into a rough, hacking cough, the fingers probing inside refused to pull away.
“There is one way.”
“What…….”
“It’d be a waste to just let the time pass. And I’m a little annoyed at all the trouble you’ve put me through.”
Gong Haejin glanced at the watch on his left wrist. He let his gaze linger for a moment as though calculating the time, then turned it back to Dohui.
“I’ll play with you for a bit.”
“…….”
“That’s alright, isn’t it?”
He made it seem like he was offering a choice — but in reality, there was only one answer. If Dohui refused here, there was no telling what other strange thing he might do.
“Go on out. Prepare to catch that bastard tomorrow morning.”
“8 o’clock…….”
Dohui quickly tacked on a time.
“Yeah, 8 o’clock.”
Without turning his head, Gong Haejin gave the order to the man who had been standing guard at the door. Clean and decisive.
As the door swallowed him whole and the man disappeared completely, a trail of longing dripped in his wake. I want to leave. The eyes that had been chasing the long, lingering afterglow of light turned hazy. Tears wet his cheeks — dried out from the cold — and pooled at his chin.
“What’s got you so wronged that you keep crying? Aren’t I the one who should feel wronged here?”
The man closed his hand around Dohui’s throat. It didn’t seem like he was using much force at all, and yet Dohui’s airway began to constrict.
Gong Haejin had been in a foul mood since yesterday. It wasn’t the kind of item that should have been lost along with the whole bag — and on top of that, when he finally caught the culprit, it turned out to be this scrawny little thing. He was dumbfounded.
The subordinates who’d made the mistake were dealt with appropriately. They wouldn’t be walking on two feet again. Even so, his frustration hadn’t eased. Wasn’t it absurd? That men who’d worked under him for quite a long time had been robbed in such a pathetically easy way.
When he’d seen the scene, he was floored. Said they hadn’t noticed because the bag was stolen during a power outage and no one had seen a thing. And then they told him they’d found one of the culprits.
Just a college student. What that meant — Gong Haejin’s black irises went cold.
Business losses were something he could encounter at any time. But he never in his wildest dreams expected that such a small, bothersome existence would manage to churn up his insides. Just one day to retrieve the items. Barely enough time to quiet the noise raging within him.
Dohui’s breathing was ragged, like a beast caught in a loose snare.
“Keep talking.”
“……Hic.”
“Come on — what were you planning to do after getting the bag? Wasn’t pulling a job this big a little much for a quick one-time hit?”
It wasn’t simply a matter of the items’ value. Compared to everything he’d built up until now, and everything he would go on to build — it was pocket change. But he couldn’t have someone poking at his nerves like this, little by little. On top of that, this bright-eyed kid had landed a solid hit right to the back of his head — so just how should he discipline him? Simply killing him was too easy.
“Go ahead and babble. Don’t you want to go home?”
Something like hope flickered in the small figure’s eyes — and then quickly sank.
“……N-no.”
“Then why do you keep making that nasally sound. Kills the mood.”
“Hic…….”
Im Dohui, wasn’t it. Tracking him down hadn’t been difficult. From the incident onward, he’d followed the trail of breadcrumb-like clues they’d left behind. And then he’d seen this bastard receive the bag. Did he even know how many CCTVs there were in this cramped little country? If he had half a brain, he should’ve used the blind spots.
Gong Haejin struck the bag with a thud. Dohui flinched as though he himself had been hit.
“How do you think I got my hands on this?”
It was an unremarkable household. Run-down, like the underside of a city.
If someone had been born and raised in a place like that, even small stimuli could be used to press them down efficiently. Gong Haejin had exceptional talent in that regard — and for Dohui, who had grown up along a stable, steady path despite the poverty, it was a disaster. It would be an emotion he was feeling for the very first time in his life.
“Stop crying.”
Gong Haejin brushed the corners of the boy’s eyes with his rough hand. Even that small pressure made the already-flushed skin around his eyes go even redder. Gong Haejin didn’t look away until time passed and it slowly began to settle.
He grabbed Dohui’s arm and sat him down in a chair. The metal chair rattled faintly as it caught the boy’s body. With trembling fingertips, Dohui gripped it desperately to keep from falling. Was he planning to bury himself inside that padding jacket? He didn’t like the way the boy’s neck shrank back like a tortoise. Wipe your nosebleed.
“H-how…….”
He was so consumed by fear he couldn’t even finish the word. For someone who’d boldly carried out a crime, the sight was laughably pitiful. He was probably frantic, unable to reach his accomplices. Run. Hide. Erase the trail. He’d have a sea’s worth of things to say to them.
“It’s no fun if only I’m the one asking questions. How about we take turns — you ask one, I answer one. How many of them are there?”
“……Huh?”
“The ones who were in on this with you.”
“……There, there aren’t any……. Really, I……. I don’t know anything.”
A predictable answer. Every time something like this came up, whenever he’d had to press someone like this — people always said the same thing.
“Director, please spare me. It wasn’t me. I swear. If you’ll just let me live——!”
