Once Choi Jong-Il realized the phone had a password, he and Kang Chan turned to Yoon Jong-Sup at the same timeâŠ
â2796. Itâs 2796.â
Choi Jong-Il immediately entered the passcode into the phone. After a while, he said, âThereâs more than a few recordings.â
âPlay the most recent once.â
Choi Jong-Il scrolled through the phone with his index finger for a moment, then double-tapped on the screen.
âYou were looking for me?â The recording started. After some time, they heard, âFind ways for Yoo Hye-Sook to get into a believable accident,â and âA robbery should work.â
They even heard, âThe line of people whoâd want to do it themselves would reach all the way to Vietnam if we offer a billion won.â
Kang Chan sat on a desk and handed over a cigarette to Choi Jong-Il, who accepted it. He then immediately took out a lighter and lit it.
âIs there any other evidence?â Choi Jong-Il asked.
âYoon Jong-Sup said the one billion won he received is in the trunk of his car.â
âItâs probably going to be one hundred thousand won cheques and cash. If we hand over the recordings, the people arrested here, Yoon Jong-Sup, and the two foreigners, then weâll be able to convict them of instigating murder.â
Kang Chan shook his head while exhaling cigarette smoke. âThat would only cut the tail of the problem. Letâs keep the evidence for now. Weâll settle this after paying Cho Il-Kwon a visit.â
âHow did you know I was here? As far as Iâm aware, werenât you told that the Yoo Bi-Corp employees are training?â
âManager Kim told me no country would ever leave a special security target alone. Honestly, I thought there would at least be someone else in my vicinity.â
âIâll take them to the hospital. If we leave them like that for much longer, theyâll bleed to death.â
Kang Chan turned his head and looked at Yoon Jong-Sup. A puddle of blood had formed under him and the two foreigners.
âTake care of them yourself. I already stopped a big incident from happening when I came here to warn them, so I have no more business with them,â Kang Chan ordered.
âPlease wait for just twenty minutes at the coffee shop that you were at earlier.â
âI canât go out in these clothes.â
Blood had hardened on his left hand, and his right sleeve, shirt, knees, and feet were covered in blood.
âWeâll contact the hospital and prepare clothes right away,â Choi Jong-Il said, then headed outside.
The agents also had to change anyway.
Remembering something that he had completely forgotten about, Kang Chan went to the table and looked at the photo of Yoo Hye-Sook, which seemed ominous due to the blood splattered on it. Leaving this in a place like this displeased him.
Kang Chan brought over the iron trashcan inside the desk, threw the photos in it, and lit it up with a lighter.
Crackle.
The photos gradually turned to ash as their corners curled up.
âYouâre next, Cho Il-Kwon.â
It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from "pawread dot com".
Now that it had come to this, Yang Jin-Woo and Cho Il-Kwon would be busy cutting their tails, so it would be difficult for them to start something else. Even if so, Kang Chan didnât want Cho Il-Kwon to just be sloppily convicted for something like inciting murder and letting Yang Jin-Woo escape.
After burning all of the photos, Kang Chan left the room. He didnât like the smoke stinging his eyes.
The ambulance and the police arrived almost at the same time. As soon as they did, they started receiving orders from Choi Jong-Il.
Kang Chan went to the bathroom, lightly washed his hands, and applied medication that one of the agents had bought from the pharmacy. Afterward, he bandaged his left hand. As he did, an agent prepared clothes and shoes for him. It was probably difficult for the agents to handle the cost of laundry with a low-paying job.
Choi Jong-Il had gauze on his forehead and bandages around his hand, but the blood seeped through them, making him look like he had been involved in a fight.
***
âTell all of the agents to come here,â Kang Chan told Choi Jong-Il.
They had already fought together, so what use was there for them to hide now?
Choi Jong-Il smiled awkwardly in response.
âWhat are you doing? We should all have a drink, then catch Cho Il-Kwon,â Kang Chan said again.
âAre we also going with you?â
âYou guys are going to follow me anyway, right? Do you guys have a car?â
âYes, and we do.â
âSee?â
When Choi Jong-Il took out his phone and contacted the agents, two of them appeared. Like Kang Chan and Choi Jong-Il, they also had bandages around them, so the people in the specialty coffee shop kept an eye on them.
âWhere are you going?â
âIâm going to a building in Sejongno[1]. Cho Il-Kwon has created a personal office on the twenty-first floor of that building.â
Choi Jong-Il didnât bother asking how Kang Chan found out about that. After spending ten minutes drinking coffee, they got in a gray mid-sized car and went to a building in Sejongno.
Lee Doo-Hee and Woo Hee-Seung sat at the front, and Choi Jong-Il and Kang Chan sat at the back of the mid-sized car.
Since it was a Saturday, the way downtown was quite crowded. When Kang Chan saw the cars that had densely filled up the roads, he as if he was being suffocated.
What were the limits of a personâs greed? Most individuals couldnât even dream of having as much money as they had, so how could some of these people still try to kill someone just because they couldnât own the distribution rights for cars they werenât even in line for in the first place? How can they think of killing a housewife of a family that didnât even know anything?
âWeâre here. Itâs that building up ahead.â
Lee Doo-Hee twisted his head and looked at the building to their right.
After parking the car at the entrance, Woo Hee-Sung and Choi Jong-Il got out of the car with Kang Chan. The road was congested, but the building was quiet.
The three got in the elevator and pressed the button for the twenty-first floor.
âDid you check if Cho Il-Kwon is here?â one of the agents asked.
âHe stays here if he doesnât have any special schedule. Heâll drop by a womanâs apartment in Bang Bae-Dong later before eating dinner. Heâll then go home to his house in Daechi-Dong.â
This information was written in the schedule that Lanok had handed to Kang Chan.
Room 2107.
The keypad lock above the doorâs handle made it look difficult for them to open it.
âIf we knock, heâs going to ask who we are firstâŠâ
If he saw Kang Chanâs face, then Kang Chan would be basically saying âIâm Kang Chan.â What should they say? It would be detrimental to say his name from outside the office when its door was still locked.
As Kang Chan smacked his lips, Choi Jong-Il gestured with his eyes, then suddenly pressed the bell.
Ding-dong. Ding-dong.
Kang Chan blankly looked at the doorâŠ
- Who is it?
âI came here to run errands for Bong-Sup hyung-nim!â
Kang Chan stepped aside to get out of the peepholeâs field of view.
Would something like that fool him?
- He didnât say anything about sending someone to run errands?
âHe told me to inform you that he has to urgently go to Vietnam?â
Click.
Choi Jong-Il smirked while looking at Kang Chan.
But Cho Il-Kwon was a difficult guy to handle. He kept the door chain latched, preventing the door from opening all the way.
âJust give me the documents.â
The moment they clearly heard Cho Il-Kwonâs voiceâŠ
Choi Jong-Il put his arm through the gap between the door and the frame, then violently struck downwards.
Crunch. Whoosh!
The door chain immediately fell off, and the door swung open.
âWhat?! What isâ!â
Bam.
Choi Jong-Il punched the pit of Cho Il-Kwonâs stomach, causing him to double over in pain and preventing him from screaming.
âPlease go in.â
Kang Chan went into Cho Il-Kwonâs office, feeling dumbfounded.
âCough.â
Cho Il-Kwon kept screaming after barely getting his breathing under controlâŠ
Pow!
Choi Jong-Il struck Cho Il-Kwonâs neck.
âUrgh!â
Cho Il-Kwon hunched his fat body forward. He was standing between the desk and bookshelf, which were placed near the window, and the sofa in the middle of the office.
Tsk!
Kang Chan went to Cho Il-Kwonâs desk before anything else.
This son of a bitch.
As expected, a photo of Yoo Hye-Sook was on one side of it.
Just as spite radiated from Kang Chanâs eyesâŠ
Pow!
It seemed Cho Il-Kwon was about to make a sound again, seeing how Choi Jong-Il had punched the pit of his stomach once more.
By the time Kang Chan approached Cho Il-Kwon, his glasses were already halfway down his nose, and he was in so much pain he vomited saliva.
âThis fucker is definitely going to scream and spout some bullshit if he ever regains his senses. If you entrust him to me for just twenty minutes, Iâll make it so that wonât ever happen.â
Kang Chan realized how Choi Jong-Il felt when he looked into his eyes. Choi Jong-Il had interfered first because he had guessed that Kang Chan would kill him if he laid his hands on him.
Yeah. That could be the wise thing to do.
Yang Jin-Woo wouldnât budge even if they killed this son of a bitch.
âAlright. Youâve started to beat him up anyway,â Kang Chan answered, then sat on Cho Il-Kwonâs desk, took out a cigarette, and bit on it.
Chk chk.
âWhoo.â
Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow.
Cho Il-Kwonâs beat down sounded very rhythmic, perhaps because he was fat.
âUrgh. Ugh.â
Choi Jong-Il tightly grasped Cho Il-Kwonâs head and lifted it. He then took off the glasses that were hanging on his chin.
âCho Il-Kwon,â Choi Jong-Il called.
âUgh.â
Pow. Pow.
Choi Jong-Il struck the pit of Cho Il-Kwonâs stomach and his neck again. Afterward, he looked straight at him.
âHeâs going to ask you questions, and youâre going to answer immediately. If you scream or do something stupid, Iâll twist your neck. What happens to you is on you now.â
Cho Il-Kwon urgently nodded.
Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow.
Choi Jong-Il struck the back of Cho Il-Kwonâs neck a couple more times. The hits were light enough to keep him from fainting.
Why did he keep beating Cho Il-Kwon up when he had already said that he was going to listen to Kang Chan?
Kang Chan cocked his head while inhaling cigarette smoke.
âThereâs still five minutes left. If you faint, Iâll kill you and bury you where I buried Yoon Jong-Sup a little while ago,â Choi Jong-Il explained.
Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow.
Jeez, you cruel fucker!
When Kang Chan turned his head, he saw Woo Hee-Seung quietly glaring at Cho Il-Kwon from the corner of the room.
1. Sejongno is a street in downtown Seoul and is named after King Sejong the Great of Joseon. It has a great symbolic significance due to its central location â