Fruit Flies
Even A-reum, who had been wound tight with tension, brightened at the sound of Seong-min’s voice.
“Open the door.”
“Coming right now!”
Min-hyeok went over and opened it.
Bodies lay sprawled across the threshold. Seong-min stepped over them without a second glance and walked inside.
“Hyung, you sure it’s okay to just leave those guys like that?”
“Don’t worry. The ones waiting downstairs will haul them off.”
“There’s more of them?”
Seong-min nodded.
“But how’d you even get here, hyung?”
“I got the call and something about it felt wrong, so I came by. Saw them causing trouble and handled it.”
“You okay? Those guys looked like they worked for some chaebol heir.”
“Relax. Nothing to be afraid of.”
Seong-min guided A-reum to the sofa and sat down with her.
“Min-hyeok, let’s have some tea.”
“Got it. Coffee for you?”
Seong-min nodded.
Min-hyeok filled the electric kettle and switched it on. He set out three mugs—one coffee, two cocoa.
“…Seong-min…are you okay…..?”
“Why wouldn’t I be…? Did Noona do anything wrong?”
A-reum shook her head.
“A-reum Noona, you don’t have to be scared or afraid of trash like that. I’ll make sure bastards like them never lay a hand on you…”
He meant every word. That was why he had dropped everything and run the moment the call came in.
“Hyung, I really didn’t think you’d just show up out of nowhere like this. You were that worried about Noona?”
“From what I heard, they didn’t sound like the type to give up. So I figured I’d better check, just in case.”
Even if nothing had happened, he would have had something to say. Once he knew the story, sitting still was never an option.
“What if they come after us for revenge, hyung? A chaebol’s son can do pretty much anything he wants.”
That was the part that worried Min-hyeok. What did he and his sister even have? The deposit on this two-room villa and whatever they scraped together from work—that was everything. No matter how well the delivery job paid, it was nothing next to a chaebol heir.
Of course, that was only Min-hyeok’s way of looking at it.
“That won’t happen, so don’t worry about it.”
Seong-min took A-reum’s hand beside him.
“I guarantee it. Anyone who tries to touch A-reum Noona won’t live easy.”
The words were so serious, so absolute, that Min-hyeok’s mouth closed on its own. A-reum simply stared at Seong-min.
The kettle’s whistle finally snapped Min-hyeok out of it.
“Whoa…hyung, you really love our Noona a lot, huh?! Noona’s lucky, having someone who loves her like this!”
“…Yeah…”
A-reum gave a shy little smile. It was pure and bright, completely unguarded.
“Tea’s ready~!”
Seong-min drank the coffee Min-hyeok had made.
In a high-end private room café in Itaewon, a good-looking man in his mid-twenties sat with his friends, smoking weed. Ever since the Central Association had cracked down on narcotics, even marijuana had gotten harder to find—but not impossible.
“So who’s this girl you marked this time?”
The brown-haired man on the right, nursing whiskey, asked. His name was Kim Gwan-hee, third son of a real-estate tycoon whose father had built a fortune in property.
“Han A-reum, apparently… Way prettier than that bitch from last year.”
“Compared to Yu-jin?”
The blond-dyed man on the left asked. Choi Ji-hoon—his father was Choi Pil-seop, a three-term assemblyman and floor leader for the ruling Daehan Party. His grandfather, Choi Han-mun, had even served as prime minister. A political dynasty’s son, through and through.
The three of them lived without a single worry about jobs or money, doing whatever they pleased and every kind of thuggish crap that came with it. Their families had long since given up fretting over them, and the three never gave it a second thought. They had grown up this way; they simply believed they were entitled to everything they took.
What really bound them together was how perfectly their twisted tastes lined up.
“Got a picture?”
“Yeah, one I snuck from behind.”
Lee Do-heon pulled up A-reum’s photo on his phone and showed them.
“Whoa… better than Yu-jin.”
“She’s actually cute as hell.”
Both of them looked stirred.
“You know the best part?”
“What?”
“This Han A-reum bitch. She’s a little slow.”
“Slow?”
“You mean she’s retarded?”
“Yeah. The job she has was set up through the community welfare center.”
“Waste of a face.”
“Retarded, huh.”
“But that’s what makes it hotter for me.”
Lee Do-heon tapped ash into the tray and grinned.
“Watching her, she seems like a total innocent—maybe because she’s slow… I keep thinking how good it’d feel to strip that innocence right off her.”
“Yeah, a pure little thing’s way more exciting than those worn-out bitches who’ve already been bought a hundred times.”
“So what’s the status? Is she coming or not?”
“Relax. I gave those retards clear orders.”
When they came back empty-handed after being turned down, Lee Do-heon had cursed them out for not even handling something that simple. Then he told them to go back to the house and bring her properly—politely, of course.
A knock came. A man in his mid-thirties stepped inside.
“You bring her?”
“Well… we couldn’t.”
“Couldn’t? Why?”
“The guys we sent… they got taken out.”
“What the hell?!”
Lee Do-heon’s face twisted.
“Do you have a reservation?”
The café manager asked the man who had just walked through the front door.
“I heard Lee Do-heon is here.”
“Ah, are you a guest of Young Master Lee Do-heon?”
The man nodded.
“One moment.”
The manager sent a staff member to check.
“We can’t just let anyone in. Please wait a moment.”
The staffer returned with two men in tow.
“This man is looking for Young Master Lee Do-heon.”
One of the men stepped up to Seong-min.
“You’re looking for the young master?”
Seong-min nodded.
“Would you mind identifying yourself?”
“A-reum Noona’s boyfriend.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m the boyfriend of the woman that bastard Lee Do-heon tried to strip and use.”
The man’s expression changed in an instant.
Thwack!
A brutal impact smashed into his face. The startled manager fumbled for the alarm bell. In the same breath the second man charged, arms wide.
“Huh?”
Seong-min slipped the incoming hands and drove a clean uppercut into the man’s gut.
Thud!
“Ghk—?!”
Clutching his stomach, the man staggered and crumpled to the floor.
More men came pouring down the hallway.
“Grab that bastard!”
Seeing their two colleagues down, the newcomers rushed Seong-min at once.
Whoosh! Crack! Thud! Smash!!!
A blur of motion. Heavy impacts rang out one after another.
“Urrgh…”
In moments the hallway was littered with bodies. Seong-min left them behind and spoke to the terrified manager as if giving an order.
“Take me to Lee Do-heon’s room.”
“You useless piece of shit! You can’t even handle one simple job and you still want to get paid?! Making me look like an idiot in front of these guys is one thing, but this is beyond the pale!”
“…I’m sorry.”
“If you’re sorry, go get that bitch right now!”
That was when the commotion outside reached them. The man who had been standing with his back to the door, taking the scolding, turned his head—and the door flew open.
“Wha—”
Crack!
A fist drove straight into his face and dropped him where he stood.
“Huh?!”
“Wh-what the hell?!”
“Who the fuck is this guy?!”
Lee Do-heon and the other two shouted in shock.
Seong-min ignored them, walked up to the table, and stopped.
Choi Ji-hoon shot to his feet, face twisting.
“You little shit… do you even know who we—”
Thud!
“Gah!”
Seong-min’s kick slammed into Choi Ji-hoon’s chest and sent him flying into the wall. He hit the floor in a heap.
“J-Ji-hoon!”
Kim Gwan-hee cried out.
“Do you even know who that guy’s father is—gahk!”
Crack!
A precise blow to the gut launched Kim Gwan-hee backward. He tumbled across the floor in an ugly sprawl.
“You’re Lee Do-heon?”
“Y-you think you can walk away from this? One word from me and the prosecutors—urk!”
Seong-min’s hand shot out and locked around Lee Do-heon’s throat.
“You can play thug and run around all you want—that’s none of my business. Do whatever. But… you should’ve picked the right person to touch. The second you decided to strip A-reum Noona, you earned every beating you’re about to get.”
Slap! Crack! Thud! Smash!
Still gripping the throat, Seong-min hammered his fist into Lee Do-heon’s cheek again and again without mercy.
“Grrrk…”
In seconds the face was a swollen, ruined mess. Seong-min flung the limp body aside.
Thud.
He was not finished.
Crack! Snap! Crunch!!!
He shattered the arm and leg joints of the other two, guaranteeing them long hospital stays.
Snap.
Then he broke Lee Do-heon’s spine.
Crunch…
And ruined him so thoroughly he would never casually swing his dick around again.
“You’ve been stripping and fucking whoever you wanted until now… but A-reum Noona is not a woman you get to take.”
Seong-min muttered it over the man who had even shit himself, then walked out of the room.