Small Group, Small Conflicts (2)
"Hahaha, right? Exactly. It all comes from goodwill, doesn't it!"
At that, Kim Jungshik flipped his attitude in an instant, bursting into laughter as he poured himself a glass of the red wine in front of him and knocked it back in one gulp. He then quietly took a seat and called over the man who'd been sipping his drink beside him.
"Ahh, that's the stuff. Yeah, Deputy Lee."
"Yes, Section Chief."
"Take everyone and wait somewhere else."
"Got it."
Without a hint of protest, the man called Deputy Lee led the others off somewhere. Once Kim Jungshik confirmed they were gone, he got up from the seat next to me and sat down across from me instead. He swirled his wine glass and opened the conversation.
"Kim Junyoung, was it? You're from up north, right?"
"Yeah."
"What brings you to this trash dump?"
Trash dump. Quite the stingy way to describe the place, especially since it was where he lived. I let out a hollow chuckle and opened my mouth.
"Before that, why don't you tell me why you called me here."
I was already curious how they'd known I'd come in, so that had to come first.
"Ah, right, yeah, my bad. Heh. I got the order mixed up."
Kim Jungshik bowed his head in apology.
"Forget it."
I shook my head. They clearly weren't out to harm me. If anything, I was the one who might harm them—they hadn't done a damn thing to me.
Kim Jungshik chuckled and spoke up.
"I was curious what you talked about with Park Donghyuk."
"With Park Donghyuk?"
"Yeah. Park the agent—or that slimy weasel Park Donghyuk. What'd you chat about with him?"
'Slimy weasel?'
Yeah, that tracked. I'd figured talking to these guys would reveal something like that. But first things first.
"Before I answer, tell me how you found me—and how you knew I'd contacted Park Donghyuk. Then I'll tell you."
"Heh. You know the score."
Kim Jungshik smirked at my words.
"What? If you know, why play games? Let's keep it casual, yeah?"
"Casual how?"
I frowned. I didn't like how he was dodging.
Spotting my expression, Kim Jungshik waved it off with a sigh.
"Looks like testing the waters won't fly with you. Fine, whatever. It's all skills and abilities. Without 'em, we wouldn't even know you'd slipped in here."
"Abilities?"
"You probably know Park Donghyuk's skill already, right? That CCTV-like thing."
"Yeah."
"We have something similar. Not exactly radar, but it picks up on people's waves. Deputy Lee's skill. Lets us get a rough idea of who's coming."
"...I see."
That made sense. Kim Jungshik's crew's abilities weren't listed in Park Donghyuk's files, and since Park's group had been wary of them, it figured they had some solid skills of their own.
"So that's how you caught on. 'Oh, Park Donghyuk's meeting some outsider.'"
Kim Jungshik laughed.
He poured himself another glass of wine and continued.
"We clash with Park Donghyuk's lot a lot. Especially over manpower and food."
Clashes. Yeah, I'd seen it with my own eyes—anyone could tell.
"But in that situation, he meets some unknown guy and has a chat? Super suspicious. That's why I called you. Wanted to hear what you talked about."
Fair enough from Kim Jungshik's perspective. But.
"From what I saw earlier, it looked like you were trying to strong-arm that woman Myunghee into giving up her booze."
The problem was their "clashes" always seemed to favor Park Donghyuk's side. From the conversation I'd overheard, Kim Jungshik's crew were the aggressors, and the victims were Myunghee and her son Minhyuk.
"Hahaha, you saw that? Yeah, it looks that way on the surface. Yelling, cursing, even insulting their parents to cough up the booze."
"......"
But something felt off. From how Kim Jungshik talked, there was some hidden backstory. He was owning up to it so boldly—there had to be more.
"But that's because those fuckers don't pull their weight."
"They don't work?"
"Right. Sure, the two old geezers, Park Donghyuk, that little cop girl, and a few others hustle. They guard the front and back well, listen up nice. You probably saw it yourself, Kim Junyoung."
Yeah. The two elderly men standing watch despite their frail health, Park Donghyuk and Lee Euna contributing with their skills. And they were even keeping Kim Jungshik's threatening crew in check to save the group.
"And?"
"But the rest? The brats and the useless women yapping their heads off—they're dead weight. No help surviving, just burning through food like idiots."
"Don't they at least stand watch properly?"
"What's the point? They stand there freezing their asses off, gossiping, dozing off. Can't do real work, can't even watch properly."
True enough. When I'd wandered the subway tunnels earlier, one middle-aged woman had been dozing, another slacking off.
I asked another question.
"And you were gonna get Lee Euna drunk and do what, exactly?"
"Hah."
Kim Jungshik snorted derisively, his tone incredulous.
"Do what? When we chewed out the women for slacking, they spread bullshit rumors."
"The women did?"
"Yeah. If we'd actually planned something, do you think we'd still be sitting here fine? Nobody believes that crap except them and Park Donghyuk."
True. From the 20-something women's chat earlier, there was no hostility toward Kim Jungshik.
'Kim Jungshik's got a point, but...'
Still, his group wasn't exactly problem-free. Because.
"......"
"Taking care of those fuckers is a luxury—a hypocrisy. Especially in this shithole world that's gone to hell."
His words were brutally direct, laced with dangerous undertones. But I didn't push back because, to some extent, I agreed.
'Tricky.'
Maybe he read my frown as disagreement, because Kim Jungshik continued in a hesitant tone.
"Ah, of course, some are useful. Good skills or hard workers. But."
He smirked, curling one corner of his mouth.
"Guys with shit skills but big mouths leeching off the capable ones? Fucking annoying, right? If you're gonna stick together, everyone pulls their weight. Can't have them ducking out and hogging the benefits."
The wine glass chimed with a ding.
"Kids, fine. But the rest? Myunghee at least has a decent skill. But now the aunties are slacking off, pretending to raise kids. Back before the world ended, sure, whatever."
For a moment, I was speechless. Not because of his mindset or tone.
"But in this fucked world, they wanna live easy while not knowing when they'll die?"
I'd felt myself swayed by his words, even briefly.
'Dangerous.'
I shook my head to clear it.
'Makes sense, though.'
So here they were, a group of under thirty at Northdong Station, carving out their own turf and throwing their weight around.
Sensing it, Kim Jungshik let out a hearty "Kuhaha!"
"Alright, enough. We've laid out our side. We just wanna eat well and live good here, but carrying dead weight who don't work pisses us off. Wish those goldbricks would shape up, but our 'leader' Park Donghyuk won't listen and just bitches at us. End of story. Hahaha. Now, why're you here, and what'd Park Donghyuk tell you?"
He tossed the question my way. Since he'd been straight with me, I returned the favor.
"Fine. First question: I'm gathering ability users to escape Seoul. Came to Northdong Station for that. From up north."
"Escape Seoul?"
Kim Jungshik's eyes widened. But unlike Park Donghyuk, he pieced it together fast.
"Ho. So Seoul's too risky, you're recruiting to make a break for it?"
"Close enough. Ideally with a base."
I nodded. Bases and ability users were essential for busting out of Seoul's millions.
"Up north—where exactly? Hospital? Or over by Northhyang Apartments?"
"From Northdong Office. Using Our Love Church as our base now."
"What? No way. You're nuts."
"Why?"
"Nah, whatever skill you've got, crossing the old downtown means I can guess your level."
Kim Jungshik's eyes bulged. But before I could ask, he pressed on.
"So, you get what you wanted here?"
"Not yet. About to."
"About to, huh."
Kim Jungshik pursed his lips, rubbing the empty wine glass against his nose and mouth. After a moment, he seemed to figure something out and clapped with an "Aha!"
"Some kinda deal with Park Donghyuk, right?"
"Yeah."
"What? Convincing us? Or mediating between us and those losers?"
But he didn't know Park Donghyuk planned to wipe them out.
I sighed, looking at him.
'Just like I figured.'
They'd bully and intimidate, but not kill. Annoying tempers and grating speech, but not straight-up villains. Cold realists, maybe?
'No need to kill them.'
Or rather, they were evil-ish, but just barely over the line. The division-sowing with Park's people, the attempted rape on Lee Euna, the "pig" remarks from Kim Gapsu and Choi Youngchul—truth was murky.
'Hard to say.'
That was my read.
'Problem is, it's credible.'
Kim Jungshik's claim that the women framed them as criminals had legs too. The chats I'd overheard backed him up.
But.
'They did swing first.'
He'd admitted using violence on a middle-schooler, so judgment was fuzzy.
One thing was clear, though.
'Easy fix for times like this.'
Whatever the facts, resolve it all positively and come out ahead. I turned to Kim Jungshik, who was waiting.
"Park Donghyuk told me to take you out."
"Take us out? What the hell does that mean?"
Kim Jungshik's eyes went wide. I continued.
"Kill you. All of you. Park Donghyuk's orders."
"....."
Silence fell over the table.