Hyunjin
It's Monday at three o'clock in the morning and I'm sitting in my darkened office. I'm leaning back in my leather chair, turning a small amber stone between my fingers. Inside the stone is a fossilised butterfly, representing NABI. In the flickering light of the table lamp, the stone casts cold, golden reflections across the desk as if trying to break the silence.
In that silence, I feel the weight of every decision I make, as if there were a black hole in my chest reflecting the consequences of my actions.
After Taesung told me about his stepfather, the decision was inevitable. That man does not deserve to breathe any longer. I hesitated for several days, entertaining the idea and considering the consequences. But now there is no room for doubt. I will take action. However, Taesung must not find out.
It is a brutal and definitive step, yet there is something cathartic about it. It is a dark release from the debts that man left behind in that young boy. I don't want the truth to make this life any worse.
There is a short, measured knock on the door.
„Come in," I breathe. Hanil, whom I called here, enters the room. He approaches my desk silently, his footsteps muffled by the carpet. I casually gesture to the chair where he sits down. I slide a piece of paper with a name on it across the desk with two fingers.
„Isn't it..." he begins quietly.
„Yes, it is." I interrupt him. Our eyes meet and Hanil understands why he is sitting there, clutching that piece of paper.
„So this is the target?" He raises his eyebrows.
„Yes. There's nothing to discuss."
„Can I ask why?"
„You can. But it won't change your task." I light a cigarette and watch the smoke lazily drift above the table. „Some things are better left unsaid."
I see a flash in his eyes. A mixture of vague nervousness and professionalism. He knows what it means. When a person is preparing to commit an evil act, they can do so with icy calm.
Hanil presses his lips together. „Standard procedure?" he asks in a calmer voice.
„Standard procedure," I confirm, my words sounding like a seal of judgement. „Take two guys from Saturnia with you. Just two. Fewer eyes, less risk. I want it clean, with no traces. Be back in two days." I ordered him.
„What if it gets complicated?"
I smile. „It won't. And if it does, you'll fix it."
„What about the boy? He has a right to know that..." I lean across the desk and interrupt him, adding quietly,
„Not a word to that boy."
Hanil nods silently, saying nothing more. The order has been given and I know it will be carried out. He leaves my office, leaving me alone with my thoughts. In two days, we have a meeting with Mishimoto. That's why I wanted them back by then.
As soon as the door closes, I sit in the dark, listening to my breathing. It seems to me that the walls of the room are absorbing the plan like a sponge, silently negotiating it with the night.
Hanil left very early, before dawn, so the job will be finished by evening.
I can't stop thinking about Taesung's scar and the moment he let me touch it. That image tightens my throat. That's why I'm doing this. Not for power, but for something closer to humanity — however twisted that may sound.
... ༺༻ ...
At two o'clock in the morning the next day, Taesung knocks on my door. He doesn't wait for me to answer — he's made a habit of barging in without knocking — and he enters the room holding his phone.
I'm standing by my bed with a damp towel on my head, having just left the bathroom, which still smells of soap. I wait to see what will happen, watching his Adam's apple bob as he swallows. It excites me. He takes a few quick, decisive steps and closes the distance between us, standing very close to me. I pull the towel off my head and throw it on the bed.
The tension between us is palpable, like smoke after a gunshot. It hangs in the air and burns my tongue.
„Was it you?" he asks calmly, showing me the screen of his phone. I had decided to give it back to him after our walk together. He did well and passed the test. Besides, I need to be able to contact him if we get separated.
My gaze slides to his outstretched hand, on which I can see the message he's showing me.
Phillip: I know you probably don't care, but my father is dead. I went to identify his body at the morgue today.
„I don't know what you're talking about," I say. Hanil did his job and took care of his stepfather. A fucking bastard like him didn't deserve to breathe the same air as Taesung.
Yet when I read the text, I feel a mixture of pride and remorse. He was a jerk, but he was part of Taesung's life that I had decided to erase forever.
„Tell that to someone else." He swipes the screen and shows me the rest of the message.
Phillip: I don't know what's going on, but I know it's somehow connected to you. Some guys showed up recently and threatened me if I didn't tell them about you. I caught them when I came home. My father was lying on the floor, covered in blood, and they threatened to kill him. So I told them everything. I'm sorry, but he was my father.
I frown at the rest of the message. Hanil with the man only arrived yesterday. If someone was there asking about Taesung, they couldn't have been one of us. Someone has blown on my carefully constructed house of cards and it's slowly falling apart.
„It wasn't me. But don't say he didn't deserve it. After what you told me, we both know he had it coming." I answered again, not wanting him to know the truth. Yes, I let Hanil kill that scumbag, but the people who visited him before us had their own reasons for seeking him out.
And that scares me more than the blood on their hands. It means that someone else is pulling the strings, and my world is no longer just mine.
„Fine." He lowers his hand, keeping the mobile phone against his body, looks me in the eye for a moment and then turns to leave. At the door, he looks back at me again. „Thank you." His words surprise me.
„For what? I told you I didn't do it.!"
„You know what for. Even if you won't tell me the truth, I'm not stupid." He disappears into the hallway, leaving the door open. His footsteps fade into silence, but the word - thank you - resonates in my mind like an echo of a gunshot in an empty tunnel. I feel like he's just seen right through me.
He's right, he's not stupid. Even an idiot could put two and two together. I asked him about his life, he told me about his stepfather, and then suddenly, he's dead.
But what bothers me more now is who those men were who visited him before Hanil.
... ༺༻ ...
I lay awake for the rest of the restless night, waiting for Hanil to return. We need to talk. I'll catch him just before dawn, when he opens the heavy front door. We'll hide in my office in case Taesung is awake and decides to listen in on our conversation. He looks tired, his eyes are bloodshot and his coat is damp from the morning air.
„Talk."
„The job went smoothly."
„I already know that," I reply quietly, my voice dangerously calm. „I want to know about the men who visited that asshole a few days ago." For the first time in my life, I see shock on Hanil's face.
„But how..."
„Taesung's stepbrother wrote to him and mentioned it in the message." I don't elaborate further — he doesn't need to know anything else.
Hanil falls silent, then slowly sits down opposite me. „They were Mishimoto's men. That asshole Harris mentioned someone named Nishimura. The only person I can think of is that gangster's right-hand man."
„Did he say anything else about them?"
„Just that they showed up, thinking we were with them. Then we came back. He said they asked him about Taesung, but he didn't know anything about him. Then his son arrived, caught them attacking him and told them everything. Then they left. I'm surprised they let him live. That's not like Mishimoto at all."
„You're right, it's not." I lean back in my chair and remain silent for a moment. An idea slowly germinates in my head, starting out vague, but gradually becoming clearer. Mishimoto wouldn't let anyone live just out of pity. He doesn't make mistakes — he makes them on purpose. Every move has meaning, every survivor is a trap.
„Maybe they wanted us to know they were there, but they weren't sure we'd show up. I don't understand it any more than you do, Hyunjin." I glare at him. „What? It's just the two of us here." I wave my hand dismissively.
I can't shake the feeling that Mishimoto let him live to leave a trail. Maybe he wanted us to follow it. But how could he have predicted that one of us would show up there? It was just a gamble. It would either work or it wouldn't.
„I had Mishimoto followed. So far, all I know is that he's minding his own business. Something tells me that tomorrow's meeting won't be easy."
„We'll be ready."
But I still hear something in his voice that worries me. Doubt. Mishimoto was always one step ahead of everyone else. This won't be an ordinary meeting.
... ༺༻ ...
BLOOD DEBT (피의 빚)