Retribution (3)
"So... you're telling me my parents didn't die in an accident — they were murdered?"
> [Yes... Do you remember where your father worked?]
"Dad? ...Ha, holy shit."
I sifted through the old memory for a moment, and it came back to me where he used to work.
Cheonmun Investment — a subsidiary under the Cheonmun Group.
"So my dad saw something he shouldn't have while he was working, and no matter how it went down, he died because of it?"
> [Correct. There isn't enough digital evidence left to be certain, but judging by the timing, it seems your father uncovered some sensitive issues for the owning family during the succession process.]
I know that corporate succession creates all kinds of problems and noise, but killing someone over it? That's fucking absurd.
"Ha... been a while since I craved a cigarette."
My head was throbbing so badly I actually craved a smoke — something I'd quit after picking it up briefly during my military service due to stress.
> [The Cheonmun Group's founding wasn't exactly ethical from the start, was it?]
"Yeah, those rumors about ties to organized crime?"
There were allegations that stirred up noise for a while back then, but as time passed, they just fizzled out.
> [Yes. After looking into it, not all of them were true, but a good deal was. The company's beginnings weren't like a normal, clean business.]
I remember those allegations circulating in the early 2010s, but after that, nothing.
"They must have connections in politics, right? Otherwise it'd be hard to dodge all those allegations."
> [They went through Korea's economic transition period and cleaned themselves up neatly. Their ties to the political sphere ran deep, so they dodged it all smoothly. These days, almost none of that old color remains.]
After listening to Athena's full explanation, I was staring blankly out the window when Jacob knocked and entered my room.
"I apologize for not informing you earlier, Boss. We thought the truth would be too great a shock for you, and we wanted to handle whatever we could on our own."
Jacob and his team bowed their heads in apology, then placed a voice recorder on my desk.
"What's this...?"
"Evidence that Team 2 recovered from the Philippines."
The recorder played, and men's voices filled the room.
"...Driver Kim. You handle this job cleanly, and I'll guarantee you enough money to live on for the rest of your life. We'll get you a lawyer, so you serve a few years in prison, then head overseas and it's done."
"Are you... are you really going to pay me?"
"Do you know who we are? We're Cheonmun. With the traffic accident death clause, if we use good lawyers, you might not even serve time. Don't worry."
The first recording ended, and the second began playing.
"...Managing Director. If you don't keep your promise, I'll leak this recording to the media and the internet."
"You think we'll flinch if you release that, you son of a bitch?"
"Cheonmun might not flinch, but I guarantee you'll be finished, Managing Director. This recording is a copy — I have the original somewhere else. I also have my car's black box footage. So pay me and send me off."
The man's voice trembled as he more or less threatened the one called "Managing Director."
"This guy... he's the truck driver who caused the accident with my parents, isn't he?"
> [Yes... His name is Kim Tae-seok.]
"I know his name too. He's the fucker who came to me on his knees, crying and apologizing."
My mind had gone blank from the absurd truth, but hearing the recordings now, rage consumed me.
"Where is that bastard. I want to kill him."
> [He's in the Philippines... During the process of securing the recordings, it was difficult to bring him back to Korea, so we handled it on-site.]
Athena's voice dropped like a guilty child's.
I downed the cold water from my tumbler in one gulp and let my head cool for a moment. My judgment started to clear.
"Hey. This 'Managing Director' bastard. Capture him and bring him to me. I couldn't kill the truck driver with my own hands, but I'll be damned if I let this fucker live comfortably."
I was furious that I hadn't gotten to personally handle one of my parents' enemies, but after cooling my head and thinking it over, I understood the team's and Athena's judgment.
> [Are you going to kill him?]
Athena asked, her voice carrying a hint of sorrow — different from usual.
"Kill him? Death is a luxury. Just bring him here first. I'll figure out the method slowly."
It had been a while since I felt my mind go this dark.
"Ha... That useless fucker Kim Tae-seok."
A matter he thought had been neatly wrapped up years ago suddenly reared its head, tormenting Park Jin-cheol.
"I should have killed that bastard back then too."
There was too much political scrutiny and chaos at the time, so the cleanup hadn't been thorough — and now nearly a decade later, that karma was coming back to bite him.
He was berating his subordinates, but there was no harvest from the Philippines. They'd checked nearby cameras and questioned locals, but no one had seen Kim Tae-seok leave.
"Was it because I used cheap guards?"
He'd begrudged the annual costs and filled the positions with nobodies who could barely stand watch — and now that felt like the root cause.
Screech—!
As he was deep in thought, the sound of tires grinding against asphalt rang out. A car rear-ended his vehicle just as he was leaving work after overtime.
BANG!
Whatever hit him — a truck of some sort — his large luxury sedan was helplessly shoved into the guardrail.
"Ugh!"
The car body shook violently, and Park Jin-cheol's head smacked into the front headrest. The massive impact from behind sent a sharp ache through his neck vertebrae.
"Hey, you bastard! Can't you drive properly?"
Already stressed out of his mind, Park Jin-cheol snapped at his attendant behind the wheel, furious at this untimely accident.
"I-I'm sorry, Managing Director. The car behind suddenly rammed into us..."
He turned around at his secretary's words and saw a large black SUV stopped with its hazard lights flashing.
"Hey, get out and check that bastard's face. Which son of a bitch dares—!"
At Park Jin-cheol's shout, the secretary hesitated, then opened the door.
On the empty night road, seeing the black Escalade flashing its emergency lights, a sense of foreboding began to creep in.
"E-excuse me! How could you drive like this? Do you know who this is...?"
Before his words could finish, the driver's door swung open and a muscular Western man stepped out.
'A... a foreigner?'
Hiding his shock, he addressed the man in English.
"Hey! You! What are—"
Before the secretary could finish, a fist slammed into his gut and he crumpled unconscious on the spot.
Watching through the rearview mirror, Park Jin-cheol felt goosebumps erupt across his entire body.
"Wh... what the fuck. Who are those guys?"
Seeing men in military-style gear punch his secretary in the gut and knock him out, a wave of danger washed over him.
He lunged into the driver's seat, locked the doors, and grabbed his phone.
[You are outside the service area.]
No service — in the middle of a road from Seoul to a Gyeonggi Province new town? What the hell was this nonsense?
"What... what the hell is going on?"
The car had bulletproof glass. He'd be safe as long as he stayed inside. But his judgment clouded by instinctive panic, Park Jin-cheol sat in the driver's seat and tried to reverse the car — but trapped between the guardrail and the massive SUV, it wouldn't budge.
Masked men approached the vehicle. They tried the windows and doors, failed to open them, then turned back toward their own car.
"I'm saved...?"
He was feeling relieved when, moments later, the assailants emerged from their vehicle carrying something huge.
"Wh... what is that?"
Park Jin-cheol's eyes trembled violently. He gulped — and one of the assailants approached the driver's side and tapped on the window.
He gestured for Park Jin-cheol to roll down the window, but when he was ignored, the man's eyes crinkled in a smile. Then he pressed a massive tool against the glass and braced himself.
CRASH—!
With a deafening sound, the bulletproof window shattered into pieces. The last shield protecting him was gone.
"Hello?"
The assailant who'd blown out the window greeted him in a casual voice, then reached through the opening, yanked Park Jin-cheol out, and slammed him onto the ground.
"KYAAAAAH!!"
As he hit the asphalt, a scream tore from his throat.
A blow to the back of his head as he shrieked, then a black cloth and headphones were pulled over his head.
"Somebody help me! Money, you need money? I'll give you as much as you want!"
He thrashed as his limbs were bound, screaming — then pain spread from the back of his skull and his consciousness cut out.
"Team leader, what do we do with the car?"
"Move it to the Hwaseong factory. We'll disassemble it there and make it disappear."
The CCTV was already being manipulated. Eliminate the car, and the perfect crime was complete.
"What about this one?"
"Leave the car at Hwaseong. Orders are to bring this bastard to the Bio Center. Pack up and move out."
I was sitting inside the Bio Center, mulling over the rage I'd felt earlier, tapping my leg restlessly. The door opened and a vehicle pulled in.
The door swung open, and Team 2 members dragged out two men — limbs bound, black cloths over their heads.
"Good work. But what's that?"
I'd told them to bring Park Jin-cheol, not anyone else — I didn't remember ordering that.
"I think he's the secretary who was driving. It didn't feel right leaving him by the roadside, so we knocked him out and brought him along."
> [That secretary has worked with Park Jin-cheol for a long time. He was involved in your parents' incident too, so don't worry about it.]
"...Is that so?"
One plus one, I guess — lucky that he came along for free.
"Wake him up. Since it's our first meeting, I should at least say hello."
SLAP!
A sharp sound echoed through the space. Park Jin-cheol's eyes snapped open as if he'd had a seizure.
"Kkkeok...! Kkuk, heok!"
Through the stinging pain on his cheek, he opened his eyes. Eight men who exuded menace at a single glance, and one young guy sitting casually on a chair in the center.
"Nice to meet you? Managing Director Park Jin-cheol."
I greeted him with a calm smile, teeth clenched. I could see Park Jin-cheol's eyes darting around.
"Wh-who are you! Who the hell are you... and where is this?!"
"...Loud. Carlos, hit him again."
THWACK!
This time, it seemed he put some real force into it — Park Jin-cheol's head snapped to the side.
"Are your eyes not working? You sent people to my house, and now you can't recognize me?"
At my words, Park Jin-cheol froze for a moment — then his entire body began trembling.
"...You."
Park Jin-cheol's pupils started shaking violently.
"Finally remember. Nice to meet you for real? You even sent a wreath to my parents' funeral."
I stood up from my chair and walked slowly toward Park Jin-cheol. With every step I took forward, his body trembled more violently.
"M-mistake! That... that was an accident. I didn't order it — it was Kim Tae-seok, that bastard's accident!"
"Hey."
I cut him off, pulling a voice recorder from my pocket and holding it in front of his face.
"...Driver Kim. You handle this job cleanly, and I'll guarantee you enough money to live on for the rest of your life."
"What is this?"
His own voice flowing from the recorder — Park Jin-cheol's trembling stopped.
The recording that had been the reason Kim Tae-seok was kept alive for a decade was now playing right in front of his eyes.
"...Was it you? Who laid hands on Kim Tae-seok."
Heh—
A laugh escaped me unbidden.
"He's on a trip to the bottom of a lake right now, so stop worrying about him and start worrying about yourself."
At my words, Park Jin-cheol's expression darkened rapidly.