The Desire of a Woman Drowning in Debt (2)
"Take your hands off her."
I had been watching from near Shin Yaeun's house. As the loan sharks were dragging the two women out by their hair, I stepped in and intervened.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Hmm... just a passerby."
"Then keep on passing by. Don't go around playing the hero if you don't want to get your ass kicked..."
The loan shark spat out the cliché lines of a thug about to get a reality check from the protagonist.
"That might be a bit difficult. As I was walking by, I realized they look like people I know."
"So what if you know them? Are you gonna pay off their debt for them?"
"That depends on how you guys behave."
"Ha! This little punk, have you lost your mind? Your mouth is running pretty fucking wild."
"Why? I'm being quite polite to trash like you, aren't I?"
"You son of a bitch, I was gonna let you off easy, but I guess that's not happening. Let's start with a beating."
The bigger of the two, clearly agitated, stepped toward me and threw a punch. It looked infinitely slow. Even before I gained the Eyes That See Desire, I could have easily dismantled a guy like this, but now that my physical abilities had been enhanced twice over, I could say without exaggeration that it felt like watching slow-motion footage.
— *Thwack*
I caught the slow-moving fist with my left hand, then slapped the guy across the face with my right.
— *CRACK*
"Gah!?"
With a crisp sound, the guy's head snapped to the side, his eyes losing focus for a moment before slowly returning. If I had punched him, he would have suffered a broken jaw at best, or died at worst. I didn't want to bother with controlling my strength, so I just slapped him. As he wobbled and started to fall, I pulled on the fist I was still holding to stand him back up.
"Hey. You definitely threw the first punch. Everyone here is a witness."
— *CRACK*
"Gah!"
I stood the collapsing guy up and slapped him again.
"Why are your legs so weak? Stand up straight. Come on."
— *CRACK*
"Gah!"
Seeing the guy who had approached with such bravado now unable to even stand straight after a few slaps, the guy with the tattoos let go of Shin Yaeun's sister and lunged at me. He took a stance that was slightly more agile than the big guy, but to me, they were one and the same. Since the gap between their physical abilities and mine was already astronomical, the idea of their fists touching me was impossible.
I let go of the big guy's fist, tilted my head slightly to dodge the tattooed guy's punch, and delivered a slap of my own.
— *CRACK*
"Gah!?"
The guy looked at me with eyes full of confusion, wondering how he’d even been hit.
"You look like you don't even know how you got hit. This is how. Remember it well."
— *CRACK... CRACK...*
"Gah! Ugh..."
— *Thud*
The tattooed guy’s eyes rolled back, and he slumped to the floor. The big guy was sitting on the ground right next to him. Looking down at the two of them, I released a strong, killing intent—a will to kill—infused with my energy for the first time.
"Both of you, kneel."
"H-huff! P-please, spare us, boss!"
"Ugh... please spare us. Please."
At my killing intent and command, the two guys knelt and trembled, begging for their lives.
"Anyone watching might misunderstand and think I'm trying to kill you. Watch your mouths, you bastards."
"“S-sorry, boss!”"
"P-please forgive us..."
Seeing even these guys, who had lived such rough lives, trembling and begging in the face of a deathly terror they’d never felt before, I realized once again how incredible this ability was. It was my first time projecting killing intent at a person, and I was secretly surprised by how potent the effect was.
"Forgiveness... but tell me, have you guys ever let anyone off the hook when they begged you to?"
"T-that is..."
"You haven't, right? Of course you haven't. If you had, would you still be doing loan shark work? You would've been running a charity."
"S-sorry, boss."
"Forget it. Get up and lead the way."
"Where to, sir?"
"Where else? Your office."
"Our... office?"
When I told them to go to their office, they asked back in a panic.
"Do you want me to say it twice? That’s the one thing I hate the most..."
As I frowned and flared my killing intent again, they turned pale and started moving immediately.
"Yes. We'll go. We're going right now. Let's go."
"You two, wait at home. I’ll go take care of this and come back to tell you the results."
"Ah... yes, yes. Thank you."
I left Shin Yaeun and her sister with instructions to wait at home and followed the two loan sharks.
Shin Yaeun still couldn't quite grasp what had just happened. Why was that man here? How could he handle those terrifying loan sharks like they were children with just a few slaps? Her mind was in such a state of shock that she couldn't organize her thoughts. But more than anything, the most important thing was that they had escaped the hands of those devilish loan sharks, and she was just grateful that her sister was safe.
"Yaeun, do you know that person?"
"That’s... I don't know if I should say I know him or not."
"What on earth does that mean?"
Her sister asked, clearly frustrated by Yaeun's vague answer.
"He’s just someone who’s been coming to the convenience store where I work lately, so we’ve only exchanged greetings."
"Then why would someone like that help us?"
"That's what I'm saying. I don't really know, sister. But he seems like an incredible person."
"You're right. Seeing him subdue those scary guys so easily... If there were a reliable man like that in the family, we wouldn't have to live through things like this."
"He's cool..."
She hadn't realized it until now because she was so frazzled, but as her heart settled and she looked back, he had appeared in their moment of crisis like a prince on a white horse from a fairy tale, saving the sisters with a few waves of his hand. Come to think of it, when he visited the convenience store yesterday, the last thing he said as he left was, "Everything will be fine. Sometimes in life, you get a stroke of luck." Was he that luck? Or did he say that because he knew this would happen? Either way, it was a fact that he had saved her and her sister from being dragged away by loan sharks, so there was no doubt he was a person she was deeply grateful to. She prayed silently that he would truly be the stroke of luck that had finally arrived in her life.
We arrived at the office with the two loan sharks. As I opened the door and walked in, thick cigarette smoke and two men sitting on a sofa came into view.
"Sangtae, boss!"
"What’s going on? Why are you guys the only ones here? Where are those bitches? Huh? And who’s that?"
The two guys who came with me ran to the man who seemed to be the leader, whining about what had happened like children tattling on someone after getting beaten up outside. They had eyes full of trust, believing that this guy named Sangtae would solve everything because he was a good fighter. I watched the situation, finding it amusing.
"So you two couldn't even handle that pretty-boy and got beaten up so badly your faces look like that?"
The cheeks of the two guys who had been hit by me were now swollen, making their faces look 1.5 times larger. For the record, I had gone easy on them. And my face wasn't soft enough to be called a "pretty-boy."
'Ah! Compared to their faces, I guess I am a pretty-boy.'
Compared to their faces, which looked like they had "I'm a bad person" written all over them, I really couldn't argue with being called a pretty-boy.
"You useless idiots, you're bringing shame to the business!"
— *Thwack, thwack*
"“Gah!”"
Sangtae kicked the two guys who had been beaten by me in the stomach, sending them rolling across the floor.
"Stay there and keep your heads down, you bastards. You'll be dead later."
"“Yes, boss!”"
After putting on a show for each other, Sangtae finally turned to address me.
"Hey, kid. You must have thrown a few punches in your time, but seeing as you came here without fear, I guess I need to teach you that the world is a scary place."
"Why is your preamble so long? It's not like we're going to talk it out, right? Come on in, hurry up."
As I picked at my ear and scratched at him as if I were bored, his eyebrows turned into a V-shape, making his already ugly face look even more menacing.
"You fucking bastard, I was just going to hit you a few times and get some compensation money from the kids, but I guess you won't learn until you get a bone broken."
He strode forward and threw a punch. Compared to the previous two, it was definitely a sharper punch with better form. But my body was too much of a cheat code for me to get hit by a punch that was clearly visible. I tilted my head back slightly to dodge it, and a flicker of surprise appeared in his eyes, but he immediately followed up with a flurry of blows.
I lightly tapped his hands to deflect them, and he continued his attack. I kept defending, moving only my upper body slightly to dodge and tapping his strikes away. Thinking he was overwhelming me, he threw punches without rest. After a long time of failing to land a single hit and only swinging at air, he finally seemed to sense something was wrong. He stopped punching, panting for breath, and spoke with his guard up.
"Huff, huff... who the hell are you? Who sent you?"
"Are you done?"
"Wh-what?"
"I asked if you were done showing off?"
"You little shit..."
Ignoring his words, I asked if he was done showing off, which made him lose his temper. He lunged at me again, swinging his fist. But this time, I didn't dodge. I deflected it with one hand and slapped him across the face.
— *CRACK*
"Gah!"
— *CRACK... CRACK...*
"Gah, ugh!"
As I landed two, three consecutive hits, his eyes began to glaze over. I reached out one hand, grabbed him by the throat, and lifted him into the air.
"Gack, gack!"
When I lifted a man with one hand, the remaining guy watching from behind stared at me with wide eyes, keeping his distance.
"Why? Do you want to jump in too?"
"...N-no, sir."
Confirming that the will to fight had vanished from his eyes, I lost interest in him. I looked at the guy struggling in the air in my grip and flared my killing intent strongly once more.
"Gack, gack! P-please... spare... me..."
I could feel the body of the guy, who was choking and facing my killing intent point-blank, trembling in my hand.
"Your sentences are too short."
— *Squeeze*
I tightened my grip on his throat a little more.
"Gack, p-please spare me... please."
"Are you ready to listen to me now?"
"Yes, yes. Gack... I'll... listen. Gack..."
I held him a little longer, and just before his eyes rolled back, I released my grip and threw him to the floor.
— *Clatter*
"Gah, hah... huff... huff..."
The face of the guy who had been on the brink of death was washed in terror, and his crotch was soaked, giving off the smell of urine. A moment later, the four loan sharks were kneeling in a row in front of me as I sat on the sofa, their heads bowed.
"Hey! Bring me their loan contract."
"Yes. Boss. Please wait a moment."
The big guy who had been the first to get slapped by me ran and brought Shin Yaeun's loan contract. Principal of 20 million won, with a monthly interest of 5 million won.
"You crazy bastards."
At my mutter, the shoulders of all four men flinched simultaneously. The contract was under Shin Yaeun's father's name, and the date was over a year old. He must have thought he could pay it back quickly once his problem was solved by using emergency funds, or he was truly backed into a corner with no other options.
"Hey! How much money have you guys squeezed out of this house so far? If you're off by even a penny, I'll break your necks. Tell me the truth."
"A-about... 50 million... I think, boss."
"Cut the 'boss' crap. Take the principal and the legal maximum interest rate out of the money you took, and bring me the rest."
"Yes, bos—huff, understood."
When I glared at him for calling me 'boss', Sangtae hurriedly covered his mouth and went to get the money.
"Since the current legal maximum interest rate is 20%, that’s about 26 million won. I'll take 1 million won as payment for the slaps I gave you, so bring me 25 million."
"Yes, here it is. Bos—huff."
Habits are truly scary. Even when they're on the verge of death, that 'boss' keeps slipping out.
I took the money and the original contract, stood up, and gave them one last warning.
"I'm warning you just in case: if you approach these people one more time, it won't end with just slaps. You might spend the rest of your lives in wheelchairs, so don't even think about it."
"Yes, that will absolutely never happen."
"Good. And don't overdo it, you bastards. If I see you doing this shit again, I won't let it slide."
"Yes. Understood. We won't overdo it."
"You won't even say you'll stop, you bastards. I'm leaving. Let's never see each other again."
"Have a safe trip."
. . .
In the spot where the pretty-boy had departed, Sangtae, who had been kneeling with his pants soaked, stood up on his numb legs and spat out a word.
"Fuck! I thought I was going to die. I stepped in total shit..."
His legs were still trembling from the aftermath of that terrifying energy.