57. The Boxing Match
The moment the lantern went out, the interior of the container plunged into the dim glow of an interior mood light.
“What the—?! You bastard!”
The deckhand and his accomplice panicked in the sudden darkness.
But to my eyes, it wasn’t darkness at all.
There was a faint silver light—around the eighth grade—pulsing directly above their heads.
(999 / 2,071 / 10 years 3 months)
(17 / 114 / 15 hours ago)
The width varied by person, but reached a maximum of thirty centimeters. The height was ten centimeters.
It wasn’t sharp white. It was a subtle creamy white. The darker the surroundings, the clearer it became.
The numbers changed in real time. Or, when I wanted to read every detail down to the minute, they simply drifted above their heads like some floating billboard.
I never thought I’d end up writing them like this.
“Bi Liang Jie! Zhuwa Zhuta!” (999 / 2,071 / 10 years 3 months)
“I don’t know Chinese! Ah… Where the hell is my lantern?” (17 / 114 / 15 hours ago)
“Park Cheol-woo, just stick to me!” (999 / 2,071 / 10 years 3 months)
He stepped back one pace (no doubt keeping the blade forward) and urged the dockhand on. That useless deckhand, Park Cheol-woo, fumbled with his vest while stumbling.
Both of them rotated or lowered their heads, and the numbers moved at exactly the same angle.
The numbers hovered just above the crown.
Usually I’d have shrugged it off. But right now? It was ridiculously useful.
They couldn’t see me, but I could see them perfectly.
“Kill him! Kwa! Kwa!”
Li Su-jin was yelling at them to grab me fast and kill me.
She even swung a knife, trying to block my approach.
I couldn’t die the way she wanted… but I could hurry.
‘First the guy.’
Before they got used to the dark, everything would be over.
---
A thick black curtain dropped in front of Li Su-jin’s eyes.
“You bastard!”
Li Su-jin thrashed and swung her knife. There was no resistance.
Still, she refused to give up hope.
Who the hell was this guy? Even though it was two against one and Park Cheol-woo was just a smuggler’s trash, he was built like a tank. He’d put up a fight.
If Park Cheol-woo could only grab Joo Sung-hyun, I’d stab him with the knife.
That was it.
‘Then I can live.’
Joo Sung-hyun was a slippery bastard, she knew that.
By now the Coast Guard patrol boat—carrying National Intelligence Service agents and police—should have already set sail. If the ferry was caught by them, boarding searches were unavoidable. And Joo Sung-hyun had probably already tipped off the NIS about the container number.
But there was still a sliver of hope left.
Kill him, then take him out.
Make Park Cheol-woo seal the container with the spare seal.
Li Su-jin herself would hide in the staff room during the deck inspection. It wasn’t exactly a luxurious space, but it wasn’t visible from the outside either.
She planned to hide and wait it out.
The odds of slipping past unnoticed were good enough.
Based on her years of experience smuggling contraband—busted escorts or escapees—through this route, she judged the deck search as sloppy as she expected.
‘I can live. I… can live.’
Li Su-jin muttered to herself and swung the knife with all her strength.
She was hoping to get caught. Shick.
Sure enough, nothing happened. But Park Cheol-woo started cursing and moving instead.
“Boss Li, I’ll take this bastard… for ten billion!”
That’s right, you stupid shit. I’ve already paid you ten billion. Now you’re gambling your life.
Inside the narrow container packed with pallets and boxes, Joo Sung-hyun had no choice but to turn off the lantern. Li Su-jin was spinning hope circuits in the pitch black.
“Kwaak!”
Thud! The heavy metallic sound of something hard striking echoed.
“Shan Mu?! Teacher Cheol-woo?”
“Aaaah—fuck!!”
“Solid skull, huh.”
“You bas… gah!”
Two faint silhouettes appeared in my vision.
Park Cheol-woo had been hit and slammed against the wall. The container rattled with dull clangs. After that, noises kept coming. They didn’t sound good for Li Su-jin at all. …You bastard, stop hitting him already. You’ll be dead if you’re caught. Thud. Aaaah…
“Help me…”
“It’s too late.”
The final dull clang, then a heavy thud.
The useless bread and butter seemed to collapse onto the pallet. The entire floor vibrated faintly.
After that, only a short sigh and a heavy silence remained.
‘Was it that easy? Just like that?’
A human being I hired, promising ten billion and bringing in elite lines, was supposed to deliver dozens of escorts, negotiate, and take care of everything. He got hired as a meat shield and collapsed uselessly… Li Su-jin couldn’t understand it at all.
Park Cheol-woo was bigger. He was at his prime.
Yet he got beaten like a sandbag and retired uselessly. It was weird.
But that wasn’t the issue right now.
“Boss Li.”
“Hm?”
Joo Sung-hyun’s voice. Li Su-jin flinched and looked straight ahead.
She gripped the folding knife she’d been holding, the last hope. Somehow her palms were slick with sweat and about to slip—
the grip only tightened. Now the weapon was her only hope.
That’s right. Come on over, you stupid bastard.
Li Su-jin stood with her back to the wall and thrust the knife forward. Joo Sung-hyun’s voice was getting closer.
“I have one question.”
“You’ll get stabbed, you bastard.”
“From the ninth grade, did you deliberately stop at nine hundred and ninety-nine? Or did it just happen that way?”
“Huh?”
A bizarre question that didn’t fit the situation.
Li Su-jin was about to swing the knife in warning, but she paused.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine.
Of course she knew what it meant.
That only made it worse. How the hell did he know?
“Cheon Mu… how, did you.”
The number of men she had slept with was nine hundred and ninety-nine.
The first was her childhood sweetheart Park Gwang-myung from Yanbian.
The rest were all customers she met while selling her body in Korea.
Li Su-jin had actually counted them one by one.
It wasn’t because counting how many Koreans she got fucked by was a hobby. It was just a record. She used a Chinese-style calendar diary sold at the Changjoseon store for that purpose.
Every day she wrote down how many cunts she sold.
Three hundred and sixty-eight thousand… First basic (20), second basic + oral (23), third basic + time extension (25, the bastard talks too much)… and so on. She even added body condition and special notes for each day. She filled two diaries like that.
She stopped at nine hundred and ninety-nine.
One thousand felt impossible.
Around her at the time, everyone was an escort. But even among them, no one hit a thousand.
Not full-time escorts like her, but ordinary Korean escorts who came and went in six-month cycles.
Thinking about it now, it wasn’t a big deal…
Until 2014, Li Su-jin had secretly worried about the number. She had a businessman’s mindset, but she was still young.
Joo Sung-hyun was already weird back then.
So why did it matter?
In this situation—beating the useless Park Cheol-woo unconscious with the lantern, facing Li Su-jin who was now shaking while holding a knife…
Did he have that much confidence in a fight? Or was he deliberately digging up the past to provoke her carelessness?
Her suspicion was quickly cleared up.
“If it was ten years ago, I should’ve gone for one thousand as revenge.”
“Pingzi…”
“From my perspective, Boss Li seems even more insane. Even in this mess, you tried to kill me and escape.”
Joo Sung-hyun was studying the method to deliver the maximum pain to her.
‘Insane bastard.’
The strength in the hand gripping the knife was about to slip, but Li Su-jin held on.
She stared him down.
Until a moment ago she was pure pitch black. Even now it was dark.
“Come closer, you bastard.”
Thanks to her eyes adjusting, she could make out the silhouette.
The figure of Joo Sung-hyun slowly approaching her.
The man who had shoved her into this tiny container. He was supposed to save only money and his life and flee back to his hometown of Yanbian. Instead he’d become a demon who denied even that.
“Joo Sung-hyun. Why the hell are you doing this to me?”
“You tried to kill me.”
“Mother… that’s not all, is it.”
“Honestly? Yes, it is.”
Joo Sung-hyun was quietly enjoying the situation.
Revenge?
Or insurance against future trouble?
Of course there was that too. It was true that Li Su-jin had stolen his job, and it was true that she’d used the kids left in Annam to try to sink him. But that wasn’t everything. The reason this crazy bastard had chased him this far was—
“You bastard. What the fuck do you want?”
“Think whatever you like. It’s time to go.”
“Die!”
Li Su-jin swung the knife at the faintly distinguishable Joo Sung-hyun.
It was still just a threat.
But Joo Sung-hyun didn’t care. He stepped forward again. It felt like he was saying that even a fucking knife couldn’t hurt him, and he was willing to take a single cut from the blade and still crush her head.
And, this is pure guesswork, but—
‘I’m not looking at me.’
Of course he was looking. That’s why even in this pitch black—
inside the container where barely any light leaked in and silhouettes were the only things visible, he was still walking straight and steady. But Li Su-jin felt something was off. The unease, disgust, and revulsion she’d felt from the very first time she faced Joo Sung-hyun in the counseling room.
She somehow understood what it was.
“Stay back.”
Li Su-jin warned the approaching Joo Sung-hyun.
Don’t come closer.
But knowing he wouldn’t listen, she gripped the knife—especially tightly. She didn’t know if this was smart. Even a big man had been crushed by Joo Sung-hyun. What the hell could a knife do?
‘I can’t just get killed.’
Right now she was the disgusting bastard she couldn’t even scream at.
She would have stabbed the approaching Joo Sung-hyun if she could. If she succeeded, great… even if she failed, it wouldn’t be pointless.
‘Die.’
Li Su-jin shrank her body and charged toward the faint silhouette, knife forward.
Her last and only strike.
But before the knife reached Joo Sung-hyun—
Thud!
Cold metal slammed into the side of her head. It didn’t hurt so much as the world tilting and shaking… Li Su-jin clenched her teeth and stabbed forward, but there was no sensation. Miss. At the same time, a heavy impact struck her jaw.
“Ah.”
It was over.
While consciousness was rapidly fading, Joo Sung-hyun’s voice rang out.
“I won’t kill you. There are still things I need to prepare.”
As expected, the insane bastard.
Park Cheol-woo’s body collapses onto the pallet with a heavy thud. The entire floor vibrates faintly. A short sigh follows, then silence descends.
Joo Sung-hyun’s voice echoes as consciousness fades: “I won’t kill you. There are still things I need to prepare.”