The Empire Clan, Part 2
[Yes. Jeguk-pa is a violent organization operating in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. In the past, it made money by managing entertainment establishments, running illegal sports betting sites, and dealing in illegal drugs.]
“I know that much myself.”
When Kang-hae took his first vacation in his third year with the Intelligence Bureau, the first thing he did was investigate Jeguk-pa.
The information the private investigator’s boss had given him was already known to Kang-hae.
But with only a brief three-day, two-night leave, he hadn’t been able to dig up much.
[I’m sorry. But a few years ago, they used money made from real estate development and leasing businesses to take over failing firms listed on KOSDAQ. One of them is a clothing company, and another makes tire parts.]
“Of course they did.”
[Yes. The boss of the organization is Kim Seong-han, sixty-two, from Seongnam. He’s currently serving time in Wonju Prison on fraud and assault charges. He’s supposed to be released early next year.]
“Then Jeguk-pa has fallen apart?”
[No. The force currently running Jeguk-pa is divided into three main groups: first, the fifty-something veterans who started life alongside Kim Seong-han; second, the fortysomethings who, about ten years ago, moved into Southeast Asia and began managing illegal websites there; and third, the twenties and thirties who sell illegal drugs through social media or run coin and stock tip-off rooms.]
“Coin?”
[Yes. Their main trick is basically the same as those stock tip-off rooms—gather people, scam them, and vanish.]
“Where are they now?”
[They say they meet with people their own age at a Gangnam club five days a week.]
“What’s the club called?”
[The thing is, they keep moving from place to place every day, so…]
“Find out.”
[Yes, sir.]
Ten minutes after he hung up, the phone rang again.
[I’m terribly sorry to keep you waiting.]
“Did you find it?”
[Yes. I found out where he is right now.]
“Where?”
[It’s a club called Secret in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam. I’m sending you a photo now.]
Buzz—
Kang-hae checked the photo the taxi driver sent.
It was a man who, with his Ivy League haircut and eyes sharpened as if he were forcing them open, could have been mistaken at a glance for someone in his mid-thirties.
[Name: Kang Yong-sik. Age: 24]
“Wait.”
[Yes?]
“He’s really twenty-four?”
[Yes, that’s correct.]
Kang-hae couldn’t quite believe Kang Yong-sik was that young.
The taxi driver kept going.
[Kang Yong-sik is said to be the leader of the peer group that sells illegal drugs through social media and runs coin tip-off rooms.]
“Peer group?”
[Ah, these days even gangsters keep up friendships with others their own age, even if they belong to different organizations.]
“I see… But tell me something.”
[Yes.]
“How did you figure it out so fast?”
[The truth is…]
“Spit it out.”
[I dug through a little bit of Stargram.]
“Stargram…? You mean Instagram?”
[Yes.]
“Gangsters use Instagram these days too?”
[Don’t even get me started. They post quotes and callout shots on Stargram Stories dozens of times a day. They’re always showing off car photos, house photos, money photos—it's a whole mess…]
“Enough. I’ll call you again later.”
Kang-hae ended the call like that.
Then he left the goshiwon and climbed onto the motorcycle parked in the lot.
* * *
Secret Club, Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam.
It was a weekday night, but the club was packed.
At least two hundred men and women were moving to the DJ’s music.
Their outfits made it easy to forget it was winter.
Suggestive movements.
And lustful glances tangling in the dark.
In that place, where youth and desire had become one, a strange energy pulsed through the air.
And Kang-hae was standing in a corner, watching one particular table.
The man the taxi driver had pointed out, Kang Yong-sik, was at the table drinking with four or five other men.
Kang Yong-sik was much fatter than he looked in the photo.
The men with him were the same.
Every one of them had gold hanging from their arms and necks.
The phrase a pearl necklace on a pig’s neck came to mind.
“Excuse me.”
Someone called out to Kang-hae.
He turned his head, and a beautiful woman walked up to him, speaking as she approached.
“Are you here alone?”
“Yes.”
“Want to have some fun together?”
“No.”
She let out a little snort of laughter.
“Why? Shy?”
“...”
“Well, we could even step outside and have a drink somewhere else if you want.”
“I’m fine.”
“What did you say?”
Maybe she couldn’t hear him over the music, because she leaned in as if to press herself against him.
“I said I’m fine.”
Her expression hardened, her pride bruised.
“You’ll regret that…”
Leaving those words behind, she walked off.
Then the club music suddenly changed.
The crowd began to murmur.
A moment later, the big screen displayed the words Binsalman Set.
“Waaahhhhh!!!!”
The crowd erupted in cheers.
Women in one-piece dresses and club staff carrying bottles packed with sparklers began moving forward in a single line.
“Holy shit, that’s my first time seeing a Binsalman set.”
“It’s only Armand de Brignac—twenty bottles of it.”
“That’s fifty million won, right?”
“Must be.”
“Burning fifty mil on drinks in a single night… God, I’m so jealous, damn it.”
Kang-hae listened to the men around him.
The club staff placed the bottles on the table where Kang Yong-sik was sitting.
Everyone in the club turned to look.
The men seated with Kang Yong-sik all stood and bent at the waist in a ninety-degree bow toward him.
“Thank you for arranging such a great spot for us today, boss!”
Kang Yong-sik had made a killing a few days earlier through his coin tip-off room.
Pretending to be a stock and coin expert on social media and in various online communities, he had gathered a bunch of gullible people.
He’d urged them to make small investments and even shown them profits.
After building trust that way, he’d pushed VIP memberships, promising bigger returns.
Then he got them to send large sums to the private coin exchange his crew ran, and after that, he disappeared.
The victims of Kang Yong-sik’s recent tip-off room numbered more than a hundred.
Among them were people who’d been scammed out of more than fifty million won.
“Let’s have a drink.”
Kang Yong-sik raised his glass with a smug air.
The other men clinked glasses with him.
“Boss Yong-sik.”
Kim Tae-sik of the Anyang Lion Gang, barely past twenty, spoke up.
“Yeah, kid.”
“Could you maybe find us a spot on the next job too?”
“That’s right, that’s right. How long are you guys going to keep scraping together pocket change from holdem pubs? A man’s got to go big.”
“Thank you, boss~!”
The men at the table all broke into smiles.
“Boss. It doesn’t even make sense for a place this good to have no women around. I’ll go bring some classy ones over for you, boss.”
“Kid, that’s the kind of thing you should’ve set up before I got here.”
“Sorry, boss. Next time I’ll have the whole spectrum ready, from glam to slender, one of everything, boss.”
“Fine, go on.”
Kim Tae-sik got up and headed toward the women dancing nearby.
Kang Yong-sik took another drink.
Buzz-buzz—
Then his phone rang.
He picked it up from the table between the foreign car keys.
Kang Yong-sik stood.
“Where are you going, boss?”
“Stay here. I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Take your time, boss.”
Still on the call, Kang Yong-sik walked out of the club.
Kang-hae followed him.
But on the way out, women kept trying to stop him, stealing his time with their chatter.
Kang-hae shook them off and went outside.
In front of the club, a line of people waited to get in.
Kang-hae glanced around and searched for Kang Yong-sik.
Then he spotted him in an alley, talking with someone.
Kang-hae watched the other person closely.
They were wearing a padded jacket and had the hood pulled up, so their face wasn’t easy to make out.
Kang-hae moved toward them without making a sound.
And then he got a clear look at the face of the person talking to Kang Yong-sik.
…!
He knew that face too.
It was Lee Jun-ho, the man he’d met earlier that day at Gasan Digital Complex.
Kang Yong-sik and Lee Jun-ho exchanged a few words.
Then Kang Yong-sik went back inside the club.
Lee Jun-ho left the alley and got into a taxi.
Kang-hae got on his motorcycle and followed after him.
Thirty minutes later,
the taxi arrived at the villa where Lee Jun-ho lived.
It was only a five-minute walk from Lee Jun-ho’s office.
As soon as Lee Jun-ho got out of the taxi, he went up to his one-room apartment on the second floor.
Just as he was opening the door to go inside, he felt someone seize the back of his neck.
Thud—
Kang-hae grabbed the back of Lee Jun-ho’s neck and slammed him to the floor.
“Ugh…”
A groan escaped Lee Jun-ho’s mouth.
When he saw Kang-hae’s face, fear twisted across his own.
“W-what are you doing…?”
“Why did you meet Kang Yong-sik?”
“Huh? W-who?”
Kang-hae pressed a foot hard into Lee Jun-ho’s thigh.
“Aaaagh!”
Lee Jun-ho screamed.
“The man you met at the Gangnam club just now.”
“...”
“Tell me why you met him.”
“...”
Kang-hae raised his foot again as if to stomp down on his thigh.
“I’ll tell you!”
Lee Jun-ho blurted it out in a panic.
Kang-hae looked down at him with an impassive face.
“Because of drugs…”
“Drugs?”
“Yes…”
Lee Jun-ho pulled something out of his padded pocket.
It was a clear plastic bag holding a white powder.
Then he rolled up his sleeve and held out his arm.
Blue bruises and needle marks covered his left arm.
“After I came back from Cambodia, I got panic disorder and insomnia. Even the usual meds wouldn’t make it go away, so…”
“So you turned to drugs?”
Lee Jun-ho nodded tearfully.
But Kang-hae still found him suspicious.
No matter how addicted he was, a man who had been harmed by Jeguk-pa buying illegal drugs from Jeguk-pa?
And buying them face-to-face was strange too.
“Illegal drugs are usually handed off through a drop, not direct exchange.”
Drug dealers avoided police crackdowns by leaving the stuff in places like outdoor air-conditioning units or public restrooms, then taking photos and sending the location to the buyer.
Kang-hae knew that much.
“It started that way. But once we’d been doing business for a while, they said delivery fees were a waste, so starting this year we began meeting in person…”
“Do you know who sold them to you?”
“No. I first met them through Twitter, and after that we only kept in touch through Telegram…”
“When did you start using illegal drugs?”
“The year before last…”
“So you always deal with the man you met today?”
“No. I met him for the first time today too. There was always someone else I dealt with, but he’s wanted now, so this guy came in his place…”
“Give me your phone.”
After unlocking it with his pattern, Lee Jun-ho handed over his phone.
Kang-hae checked his Telegram.
The only person Lee Jun-ho had been messaging through Telegram was someone listed as 0.
Kang-hae went through the conversations he’d had with that account.
- 1g, 2:11 p.m.
- 10 p.m. Gangnam Miracle, 2:15 p.m.
- 3g, 6:29 a.m.
- Noon, Yeoksam-dong 121-2, Room 702, 11:49 a.m.
- 1g, 7:31 p.m.
- 11 p.m. In front of Seven-Eleven, 73-2 Nonhyeon-dong, 8:05 p.m.
- 2g, 6:05 p.m.
- Midnight, Gangnam Secret, 10:00 p.m.
That was all the conversation contained.
Lee Jun-ho and 0 had not exchanged a single word of small talk.
And yet something still felt off.
Then, all of a sudden, Lee Jun-ho began shaking uncontrollably.
He looked exactly like a textbook drug addict.
“Don’t come back again.”
Kang-hae put Lee Jun-ho’s phone in his pocket.
Then he picked up the clear plastic bag from the floor.
“Hey, th-that… The phone’s fine, you can take that, but the drugs…”
Lee Jun-ho grabbed at Kang-hae’s leg as he spoke.
“Quit.”
Kang-hae shook off his hand and left the apartment.
Then he headed back to the Gangnam club where Kang Yong-sik was.
There were a few things he needed to confirm with him.
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