Three months ago....
Flap!
"Mr. Bae! We've already told you this! You can't keep doing this! Your health is at stake here!"
In a small bookstore, there was a man wearing a red plaid shirt, he silently listened to the complaints sent to him by text messages, while he was taping sheets of paper with encouraging sentences on the bookshelf.
"You haven't been answering the phone or showing up to your appointments! At this rate.... You're only going to have three months left to live!"
Worrying complaints continuously came from the old man's phone. His desk is full of books and handicrafts, but is also full of plastic bags wrapped with supplements and medicine jars. And on those medicine bags.... was the man's cancer diagnosis paper. The old man was still silently cleaning his bookstore, putting new and old books on the shelves while thinking about doctor's words.
"It is not that I'm afraid of dying. I've always lived my life on the brink of death.
I devoted 50 years of my life to that company.
And I don't regret a single moment of it. I've lived a completely fulfilled life.
I really have.
However...."
The man was lost in thought while cleaning the shop. In his hand was a stack of books and on top of that was a book on how to take good photos. He looked thoughtfully for a long moment before looking up at the nearby mirror.
".... One thing I've never done is get my photo taken."
Clink!
The doorbell rang when a guest opened the door and walked in. It was a female student with long brown hair and was carrying a red bag on her back. She happily entered the bookstore.
"Excuse me! Hi, I'm looking to buy a middle school textbook." The female student stood at the door and spoke to the bookstore owner. The other man was silent for a moment as if he was wondering before turning around and happily answering the female student, "We've got anything you could possibly need at our little bookstore!"
"Do you have middle school-level textbooks?"
"We have textbooks from all over the world, starting from 1960 to current-day revised editions. Any particular year you're looking for?" The bookstore owner continued to carry stacks of books to put them away.
"Just the most recent ones. I've got a younger sibling in middle school." The female student answered and followed the bookstore owner.
"I see. And I'm guessing you're a student from the high school down the street."
"That's right."
"Judging by the color of your nametag, it looks like you're a third year student." The older man was looking for suitable books while chatting with the girl.
"That's right. You really know your stuff, mister." She replied cheerfully
"I know everything about this neighborhood."
"Haha, I see." The student also continued to nod happily, until the older man took out a stack of complete and intact textbooks and placed them on the table for the girl. She stopped in surprise. "Oh, my.... I don't need all of these. I've only got a thousand won on me. I can't afford all of this. Not to mention, these are all brand new."
"Well, I don't need these. So you can just have them."
"Oh, gosh. I couldn't....." The student was a bit startled and refused.
"It's fine." The older man answered calmly as he tore open the bundle of textbooks and pushed them in front of the female student. He smiled and replied then, "There we go. Now they're technically used."
"You really don't have to do this for me, mister...."
"I can just tell by the look in your eyes, that you really care about this younger sibling of yours." The man interrupted the girl's words, "Be good to your loved one while you still can."
"Pardon?"
"That way, you can live without any regrets." He continued.
"Umm, sir? I mean, sirster.... Wait, what? I mean, mister." The girl stuttered continuously.
"You can just call me Mr. Bae."
"Oh, right. Mr.Bae. Umm.... Have you ever regretted anything in your life?" The female student asked hesitantly, causing the bookstore owner to stop what he was doing.
"I've been on this Earth for a long time, so I definitely have my share of regrets. But some of them...." The man paused for a long moment as if lost in thought about past memories. In that moment, a woman hugged her daughter and pulled her away. The girl cried a lot and stretched out her hand towards the man. The words in that memory echoed somewhere in his mind.
"There's no other choice!"
"This is the only way you and your daughter will live!"
".... I just can't seem to let go of." The man continued speaking with nostalgia, his eyes filled with sadness as he looked ahead.
"I'm sure you don't understand what I mean right now. But I want you to do everything you can for your younger sibling and don't do anything you could possibly regret."
"It's not too late to leave. I won't kill you if you do." The older man named Bae suddenly said to the female student who was quietly standing on the table and holding a knife. She was surprised and frowned wondering how he could know when he never came back?
"I know the face of every single student that attends that school. I hadn't seen you around, so I had to ask a few questions to be sure." The man slowly stood up, in his hand he held a roll of string to tie up stacks of books.
"You said you were a third year, right? But the funny thing is.... It's only been two years since this school opened."
".... He caught me!" The female student thought to herself, a cold feeling running down her spine.
"And it was the smell that finally gave it away. I've lived my life surrounded by the smell of bloodshed. Did you really think a few sprays of perfume could hide the stench on your knife?"
"He's been toying with me from the get-go. Then it looks like I have no choice!" She thought in her head before deciding to stab the knife down on the older man. He is completely vulnerable right at this moment!
But she suddenly stopped mid-sentence when she saw the old man turn around. "What is this? I'm the one holding the knife here. Yet.... Why does it feel like I'm the one who's about to die?"
WHOOSH!
The man radiated murderous aura as if he was squeezing her neck, not letting her breathe until she was startled and jumped back in a defensive stance. She looked closely and saw the man holding the other roll of string to tie up the textbooks she had requested earlier. He placed the stack of textbooks after tying them up on the table.
Thump....
"Take the books. I can tell that you weren't lying about having a younger sibling." The bookstore owner calmly said and put the pile of strings back on the bookshelf. "I can tell that you weren't lying about having a younger sibling."
"I've done this job for 50 years. I can just tell by looking into someone's eyes." The man continued to arrange the bookshelf without once turning to look at the girl with the knife in her other hand. "You're from Yeonggwang orphanage, just like me, huh? It's been decades, and their tactics still haven't changed one bit."
"P-Pardon, s-sirster? Wait, crap, I mean mister!" The girl was surprised but stuttered again.
"Also, it appears you haven't learned this part yet. In our organization, If you fail to provide your volunteer service...."
FWOOSH!
".... Then it's time to initiate plan B." The older man rushed closer to the girl and grabbed her by the neck and pushed her away with strength impossible for a 70 year old man.
"Plan B!? What the hell is he talking about!?" The startled girl thought to herself as she stared at the man in confusion, still not understanding what the older man was saying.
WHOOSH!
Suddenly two other men jumped down from above, both of them holding a pistol in their hands. They continuously fired bullets at the older man and the girl.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
THUD!
"If you fail your mission...." The old man panted as he covered the girl and took both of them to a hidden corner out of range of the gun, ".... Then their next course of action is to get rid of both the target and the Volunteer"
The girl calmed down after being saved by the man. She propped herself up to sit up and saw that the man's stomach had been hit by a bullet and blood was flowing to the floor in a large puddle.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The two men who had just broken into the bookstore continued to shoot, getting closer and closer to where the older man and the girl were hiding.
The bookstore owner quickly stood up and ran forward, where he hid a pistol. He quickly took it and pointed it at the other two men.
"Mmph...." One of the two men wearing a black hoodie grabbed the other girl's neck, pulled her close and pointed his gun at her face.
"Damn it!" The older man was shocked when he saw the other two men holding the girl hostage. Just a second later, the older man was punched straight in the face from the man wearing a blue coat. "I'm having a hard time controlling my body!"
KAPOW!!
"Seriously? You're telling me this is the legendary Peter?" The man in the blue jacket raised an eyebrow and asked sarcastically after punching the older man.
"I'm so sorry, sir Peter."Suddenly another man appeared and punched the old man away again.
Click.... Click....
THUD!
"You may be a legend..... That's accomplished more than any of us could dream of." The man who just appeared said sarcastically. He is tall with a bald head tattooed with red octopus whiskers from the top of his head to his neck with two flowers symbolizing the Yakuza on either side of his head. His pitch-black eyes look down the old man lying on the floor. "But it looks like even legends can't escape cancer."
『Code name: Octoman (九箱人)
The Boss's Informant
Specialty: ???』
"Just get to the point. Why are you doing this? What do you gain from killing me?" The older man put his uninjured hand down to support his body. Even though he was seriously injured, he still didn't whine or cry out in pain or anything.
"The boss is nervouse because of you."
"Because of me? Why?"
"There are thousands of people out there in the world that are after your blood, sir Peter. And it's all too late. Because...." The man with the nickname Octoman explained slowly. He paused for a moment before continuing.
".... The bounty on you is currently.... 7,600,000,000 won."
"Really now? That's the exact amount that's supposed to be in my bank account." The older man said, he looked a bit angry.
"Exactly. It's the money that you were paid for devoting your body and soul to this job. But now, that money is completely up for grabs." The tattooed man was speaking with a neutral expression before turning to a more sinister expression as he grinned. "Why the hell wouldn't I go after this easy money!? So come on. How about you just let me kill you?"
KAPOW!
"You should've just made this easy. You're basically going to die soon anyway." Before he realized it, the older man once nicknamed "Peter" had been hit with a series of punches from the subordinate man wearing a blue coat. The old man was grabbed by the neck and punched repeatedly by the other bastard. "Why'd you have to make things so difficult?"
POW! POW! POW! POW!
BOOOM!
"I think we knocked him out." The man in the blue shirt, after punching the older man, flew straight out the back door of the bookstore when he stopped.
"I was honestly pretty nervouse before coming here. But this was easier than I thought. Let's finish up."
"Yes sir."
"Here's a small gift from me." Having finished speaking, Octoman walked closer to where the elderly man was lying. He lifted the curtain to check if the old man was dead or not when he suddenly smiled and threw something at Octoman.
"A flare bomb!? Crap...." Octoman was startled and instinctively backed away when the flash was triggered, causing everything in the room to flash and nothing could be heard.
KABOOOM!!
"He's gone!" The man in the blue coat immediately went out to check when the light was gone, but the older man had already escaped in the meantime. "Damn it! He intentionally lured us towards the back door!"
"He was bleeding pretty bad, so he couldn't have gone far! Hurry and find him!" Octoman ordered and his two subordinates responded and quickly followed the older man's trail.
"Yes, sir!"
At this time it was raining heavily outside and thunder and lightning were rumbling in the sky. The older man used the children's games as cover. He leaned against a nearby plastic wall and panted continuously.
"I couldn't even put up a proper fight."
The elderly man trembled in the rain and was still breathing heavily while thinking to himself how he had fallen with old age.
"Looks like I really have aged.
When I look back on it....
.... That company was my entire life.
When other kids were first learning to write with a pencil...."
His eyes gradually lost the light of life as hallucinations and memories flashed back before he died. Those were the moments when he was trained to the point of death, the moments when he was trained to maintain guns or assemble guns.
".... I was shedding blood while learning to wield a knife
When other teens were talking to their first crushes on the phone....
I was learning how to wiretap phone calls until my ears were ringing.
When other young adults went around going on their first blind dates....
I was busy being a russian spy, fending for myself in the cold.
When other adults were getting married and creating their own families....
I was out on the battlefield with terrorist groups fighting for my life."
"I devoted decades of my life to this job...
But after the new boss had taken over, everything had changed."
"He's basically going senile. I had high hopes considering Peter's illustrious reputation." A memory appeared, it was a man wearing an elegant suit, holding a cigarette in his hand and speaking. Then the man stood up and spoke to another person in the room. At that time Peter was old with gray hair, he stood outside and heard everything.
"But now that he's sick and basically ready for his deathbed, he's gone soft."
"We need to get rid of him"
"I gave up everything for this organization
It's not that I desire wealth and honor.
But you're telling me this is all I amount to?"
One moment the old man was panting and dying, the next he was trembling, gritting his teeth and opening his eyes wide. His eyes were filled with hatred as he looked forward
"How dare they treat me this way?
I can't die like this.
Anything but that money.
That money...."
He remembered the image of the little girl sobbing and reaching out to him, before tears streamed down his cheeks and he collapsed from losing so much blood. His body gradually became cold, blood flowed into a large puddle on the ground. The sky poured heavy rain as if crying for his fate.
"Hey, why are you continuing to cry like that?" In his mind at the last moment, another memory flashed back like his mind was searching for old experiences trying to survive and save the old man. That hoarse voice continued to echo in his head.
"What did I ever tell you?" It was an older woman wearing strange clothes, not traditional Korean clothes.... But it looked like clothes from the characters of the Chinese drama Peaking. The woman's strange outfit, she had many flower hairpins on her head with a fan-shaped comb placed in her hair.
That person has the gray hair of old age, but her appearance? That was something he couldn't see clearly when the light was shining down from above. But he could see the woman sitting next to him holding a long pipe to smoke.
"I told you, no matter how much you cry, no one can save you. That organization is only using you! Be brave and used it back!"
This woman.... She talks too much.... It's annoying
But.... That is my master....
She always holds a pipe in her hand, if not a pipe then a candy cane with a long stick in her mouth.
Sometimes she smokes.... But honestly, I find her cooler than all the other smokers
Yet I've never seen her face because she always wears porcelain masks in plays that she calls Peaking opera.
"Tch... You're so young and yet! You can't beat this old hag!?" Another moment of memory appeared, which was when the man challenged her to a practice match. But he was the one she always let lie on the floor. She clicked her tongue in mockery as she took her pipe and tapped the man's head. "You can't even make me sweat!"
That's right.... Others once said I've never lost to anyone...
But I lost to only one person... That was her
Although she talked a lot and often sarcastically mocked me, she always taught me things that helped me survive.
"Cough... Cough.... What are you looking at hm? Haven't you ever seen an old person cough?" The scene changes again, to where the woman is lying on her bed, dying. She coughed up blood continuously but was still irritable and alert enough to see the other man's face wet with tears. "Seriously, how long has it been since you showed up to visit your master?"
When I was 30 years old, that woman was 60 years old....
When I was 60 years old, she was 90 years old... I visited her while she was dying
"Peter, listen to me.... Leave the organization.... I only wish for you to have a family and live a peaceful life somewhere and give birth to a grandchild." She grumbled and continued to cough up blood, but there was no pain on her face..... Just peace. "Well, I was expecting you to have some grandchildren so I could hold them."
"But unfortunately I can't live to watch you... So after leaving the organization... Live a long life and if you die, die of old age...."
Those were the words she said to me before she passed away...
There was no one at her funeral except me. She didn't even have a decent picture to put on her headstone.
She is both a teacher and a mother who treats me well...
Even though she was clumsy in expressing her emotions or often irritable.... But in my life, she was also an important person to me....
I'm sorry, old hag.... I can't keep my promise anymore.