No Curs Under the Tiger
"Don't judge him by looks alone, now."
"What is there to judge past the looks? The man looks like Jason and Krueger had a kid together. And I'm supposed to sit down and haggle with that face? Don't make me laugh."
"Once you've seen him pull a dying man back from the brink, you won't be saying that. He's the kind who can bring the breath back to a drowning man."
"Oh, please. He's terrifying enough that people would avoid getting hurt just to skip the treatment. So you're vouching for his skill, is that it?"
"I vouch."
"Then why go out of your way to introduce him yourself?"
"Figured you could throw some work his way if it comes up."
"Why not just take him into your own crew, Hyung-nim?"
"No can do. My team can't match his price. The man's got a whole pack of mouths depending on him."
"But I heard he's all alone?"
"Circumstances left him alone. Still, don't let that fool you — he's loyalty through and through. Looks after even his people's people, that one. So he takes whatever work comes his way, and all it's earned him is hardship stacked on hardship and not a coin to show for it. You know how it goes, Director Gong. You can see what kind of situation he's in."
"Sounds like he's getting played for a sucker, is what it sounds like."
"Exactly right. And yet — skilled, loyal. Talent like that is damn hard to come by in this line of work. You know that better than anyone."
"Hm... Well, a spare healer or two in reserve never hurts, I suppose. We'll see how he performs this time. If he's worth staking your name on, we'll take it from there."
"Good. Understood."
The two men shook hands and parted ways.
He was still tidying up after the meeting when the next visitor arrived — Abal, of all people.
"How'd you wrap things up so early?"
"Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you're the one who's late?"
"I'd have been here fast if I were traveling alone. But I'm hauling cargo, remember?"
She had a chain wrapped around her fist. And at the end of that chain was a woman. Respect's wife.
The woman was still being dragged along in Abal's grip, and she looked far more broken than before — the defiance beaten clean out of her. Her eyes had gone cloudy and dull, and she flinched violently at the sound of Abal's voice.
"Hyun-jin. Nam Hyun-jin? You need to respond faster than that."
At the rise in Abal's voice, Nam Hyun-jin scrambled over and dropped to her knees beside her captor with startling speed.
"Couldn't help it. I had cargo."
"You're still out hunting for them?"
"It's fun. What did I tell you? Respect's like an onion. There's real pleasure in peeling him."
"No matter how I look at it, I don't see us flushing Respect out that way."
"Why? You interested?"
"Don't talk out of your delirium. Go read that contract over there and sign it."
"It's a good deal, right?"
"It is. But are you sure you can afford to swagger around like this?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"The winds are shifting. Heavy hitters have been climbing the ranks lately. You already got wrecked by that old-timer once, didn't you?"
WHAM! CRAAACK!
The words were barely out of his mouth before Abal's foot was already driving toward his jaw. Won-goo, expecting it, snatched up a chair to block — and the chair shattered into pieces under the blow.
"I underestimated the old man. That's all it was. Round two, I win. Want me to show you properly?"
"You look fine to me."
"Don't push it."
"That counts as pushing? Your mental game's gone soft, Abal."
"Why you—!"
Abal exploded — then caught herself the moment she saw Won-goo's face. He was grinning, sly and unhurried, and only then did she realize he'd just checked her condition in his own particular way.
"Anyway... let me ask again. It's a good deal, right?"
"The pay's good. The job itself, though, is no walk in the park."
"How hard are we talking?"
"Read the contract. Like I'd spell it all out for you."
After Abal came Fresh.
He arrived with a considerably tall woman in tow.
Her hair was swept entirely back and tied up, leaving a broad forehead bare. Unlike the frail, delicate builds of the other women survivors who nonetheless possessed monstrous strength, this one looked properly hardened — a body that had clearly been trained, and trained hard.
A solid frame. Good height. Skin smooth and faintly mature. She was a beauty with a healthy, athletic glow to her.
"And who might this be?"
"You know. From the Coin Exchange, a while back."
"The Coin Exchange? Kang Yu-min?"
"Yeah. I went after that Kang Yu-min, and..."
Fresh let the sentence trail off, and Won-goo snapped.
Kang Yu-min. The woman who'd fled the Coin Exchange after running a string of murders with her bugs.
"Those in-heat sick f*cks?"
"Hey!"
"What?"
Fresh leaned in close and lowered his voice. "That's the mother of the friend who died back then."
The woman met Won-goo's eyes.
Her handle: Yeongyeong.
She smiled, her eyes curving with the grin.
"Hello. Mother of that in-heat sick f*ck — Yeongyeong."
"Hold on. Mother?"
Won-goo looked her over again. Even granting that survivors aged far more slowly since the apocalypse began, this didn't add up. Yeongyeong couldn't have passed for more than her mid-twenties no matter how generously he squinted.
"I'm the mother. Birth mother, at that. Should I go pull the family register and show you?"
"No need to go that far. I've heard the name Yeongyeong before."
"And I've heard plenty about you, Director Gong."
"Have you, now."
"Outstanding skills — that's the plus. But then you talk it all away with that mouth — zero. Hence the nickname Ttaeng-goo, I hear?"
"Pfft!"
Fresh barely strangled a laugh, and the rest of Won-goo's crew wasn't doing much better. Won-goo himself, for his part, merely smirked.
"Your reputation doesn't exaggerate, I see. But how does someone as talented as you raise a child that badly?"
He made a little mouth with his fingers and flapped it as he spoke.
Yeongyeong's eyes were still smiling, but something had gone cold behind them.
"There's an old saying, isn't there? That a tiger never begets a cur. Guess that one's shot to hell, huh? What was it again — tigers don't beget curs? No, wait. Was it tiger mothers beget curs?"
"I'd love to keep enjoying our dear Director Ttaeng-goo's company, but now is neither the time, the place, nor the mood for it. So let me issue one correction to the record first. My son had rather unconventional tastes. Which is why I'd appreciate it if the word 'in heat' were struck from the articles."
"Hm? Now that's a novel request. Fresh. You following any of this?"
"Stop playing dumb. The two friends back then were a couple. Both of them men. Catching on now?"
"So then... no, wait. Then why did they end up like that at Kang Yu-min's hands?"
"That's exactly why I'm requesting the correction. Sick f*cks, yes. In heat, no. You're misreading the incident, Director."
"So you're saying Kang Yu-min had a move tucked away that nobody knew about?"
"It's possible. Or maybe... there was an accomplice."
"There were no traces of an accomplice. I confirmed all of that."
"Then she had a hidden move. Whatever else you say, my son did commit an atrocity in the end — but he wasn't raised so poorly as all that."
"Hm... Kang Yu-min was holding a hidden card, then."
"That's right."
"Well... we'll find out when we meet her. In any case, consider it filed. It's a reasonable request — I'll allow it."
"Kang Yu-min... I'll be able to see her again?"
"That's the plan."
"You think she's dim enough to come back? The way she staged that incident, she was anything but ordinary."
"She won't come back because she's stupid. She'll come back because she can't stand losing. A type like Kang Yu-min can't live with having been beaten. She'll return eventually. The question is what she comes back as — and who she hunts first. Both of those are points worth watching."
"Wouldn't all that be your problem, Director? Me, I'm just..."
"You took the Coin Exchange contract first. And order matters. She'll be gunning for every last one of us eventually anyway, won't she?"
"F*ck's sake..."
In the end, Kang Yu-min had been subdued by the people gathered here — and yet she had walked away alive twice. Which meant she was not a woman anyone could afford to dismiss out of hand.
"Then I'd best keep myself nearby. I'd very much like to meet her myself. See what kind of woman she really is."
"Your right — do as you please. But are you really her mother? You two don't look all that far apart in age."
"That, Director, is your problem to ponder."
BOOOM! CRUMBLE!
Everyone stood watching Rafael pulverize boulders.
She had adapted to coin enhancement astonishingly fast. Even though she carried the fewest coins of anyone in the crew, she was putting out the greatest raw power among them — a clear sign that Won-goo's judgment hadn't been off by so much as a hair.
"That might land a hit even on a Large Species. What's your read, old-timer?"
"Never faced a Large Species myself, so I couldn't say. But she'll earn her keep — that much I'm sure of."
"Earn her keep? You couldn't find talent like that anywhere at any price. From where I'm standing, we won the lottery. Think of it that way."
The colossal sledgehammer she'd struggled just to lift a few weeks ago now swung in Rafael's grip like an ordinary weapon.
"By the way, Director Gong — how long are we supposed to keep waiting? The other teams are already pushing into Buri Island's interior."
"Then wait. Rice only becomes rice if you let it steam long enough. The bastard who's supposed to play a key role in this job still hasn't shown up. You know him well yourself, old-timer. The one who couldn't keep a promise to save his wretched life."
"You mean Postech?"
"Postech, my ass. He's a junk dealer, plain and simple."
While the crew rechecked their gear and waited about an hour, a big truck finally came rumbling into view, chugging along with labored effort. Climbing down from it was a nerd-sprung man wearing dragonfly-like goggles, beaming ear to ear.
Postech.
"Heeey!"
Won-goo approached him with a smile of his own — and the moment he got within range, he kicked.
VREEEENG!
The kick never touched Postech. Halfway there it slammed into a barrier with serious rebound force and was stopped cold.
Taking the shock head-on, Won-goo was knocked skidding backward. A man with his strength getting sent flying several meters — the rebound on that thing was anything but ordinary.
THUD!
The crew moved instantly to catch their suddenly airborne boss — Lee Hyun-sung, and Rafael. But Rafael was faster. With that small frame of hers, she caught Won-goo effortlessly and shielded him.
She'd been even farther away than Lee Hyun-sung, no less.
"Nice catch, Rafael."
Rafael glanced into his eyes and gave the barest nod. That was all. The two of them had agreed she wouldn't speak outside, and she was honoring that agreement to the letter.
"You son of a— What is this?"
"I took the barrier we already had and tinkered with it a little. So? Works pretty well, right?"
"Works great. Now get out here."
"Nope. You'll hit me if I do."
"I won't."
"Liar. You pulled that on me last time, too. Think I'll come out?"
"You little sh*t — then don't be late in the first place! I told you, explicitly, do not be late this time."
"That's a flawed premise, Hyung. Time, you see, is calculated differently from region to region, and ever since the apocalypse began, the very concept of time has—"
KRAAANG!
Won-goo brought his warhammer down hard on the barrier. This time, he didn't get shoved back by the rebound.
Which meant he hadn't let his guard down this time.
"Do I look like I'm in a joking mood? Get out here before I rip your tongue out and play jump rope with it."
Postech laughed a tense, careful laugh. "Can't you go a little easy on me? You're getting a bargain here. I did you a favor."
"First things first — where is it?"
"In the truck."
"And how many did I tell you? At least twenty?"
Killing intent sharpened in Won-goo's eyes.
"Twenty. All twenty, exactly as ordered. They just need assembling on-site."
"Assembling on-site..."
"You said they only need to run for an hour — which is exactly why they get assembled on-site. If I'd hauled them all the way from there to here, your estimate wouldn't have covered a fraction of it."
"Make certain of it. I told you — at minimum, they have to be scooter-sized."
"They are."
"And they'd better have real speed. The Siamese frog reads better when you're moving fast."
"Checked every box, I keep telling you. And they'll run a full hour at minimum. Stop worrying."
"You're unbelievable... I'm cutting you slack only because there's a job on the line. But if this junk of yours turns out to be garbage, you're getting a psychiatric referral, I swear."
"Psychiatry? My mind's perfectly sound, Hyung. Besides — since when does physical therapy cover psychiatric care? Is that even a thing?"
Postech beamed.
Won-goo did not.
"Yeah. It's a thing. This here is my magic hands-on therapy wand. A few good whacks with it and depression clears right up. Well? Want a session?"
"Let's just go. Sorry about the lateness."
"Sorry or not, get in there and do the job right."
"What happened? Why are you so grim today of all days?"
"Hey! You mangy mutt! How many times did I tell you to take this one seriously — it's a big job? I swear to f*ck... Argh..."
"I am sorry I'm late, really. But I came fully prepped, I promise. Trust me. Isn't that exactly why you keep calling me, Hyung?"
"Because there's nobody else to call! Nobody else! And I'm done arguing with you, so hurry up and follow. You're already way the hell late as it is."