At Least Double—3
“And why exactly would you need to know the auction date, if I may ask...?”
Son Gu-cheol had started to speak down at me, but caught my stare and hastily tacked on that polite little ending. Since I didn't look like a man to be pushed around, he was swallowing his irritation and deigning to treat me with respect.
Of course, no matter how Son Gu-cheol carried himself, I found the whole thing laughable. In strength, in brains, in connections—and even in money, the man couldn't reach the soles of my shoes.
I smiled and said, “What would knowing the date accomplish? You'd only want it so you could bid at the auction, wouldn't you?”
“No, I told you plain last time we met. Does our honored PR Ambassador have some incurable disease that keeps him from understanding what people say?”
The moment Son Gu-cheol finished, the crew flanking him let their menace show. Last time, in Ugok 5-ri, he'd been dragging along two scrawny goons; now there were five. Did they really think head count made them superior?
“Funny—I don't think I'm the one who can't take a hint.”
People really ought to think before they acted. If I were frightened, wouldn't I have tucked my tail between my legs and slunk away by now? And yet here I was, provoking him first.
And why would I do that, you ask?
Because at my back stood Somchai—the Thai man who considered Ong-Bak the greatest film ever made—and Bang Jeong-soo, who had once raised taekwondo hopefuls of his own. Solid ground to stand on, both of them. On top of that, I possessed monstrous strength.
But that still wasn't the end of it.
Sliide.
Abe drifted up beside me. No. 1 liked to enjoy his own private time, but Abe never left my side for so much as a moment. He was so loyal he'd wait outside the door even when I went to the bathroom.
Then again, Abe does have a tendency to lunge the moment he sees thuggish types like these.
[May I kill them, Master?]
There it is. See? Abe's angry.
I deliberately put on a stern face. You must never harm a human being, no matter what happens. Hurt so much as one, and you'll turn into an evil spirit. Is that what you want—to end up like No. 1?
A somewhat unfair thing to say about No. 1, who wasn't present, but No. 1 had already crossed a river of no return. He had become a mighty evil spirit, one who needed to hunt on a regular cycle just to keep himself stable.
[But men like that deserve to die. Jeong Hyeon-tak kept men like these around him, beat people, and buried them in the ground.]
You told me before that Jeong Hyeon-tak coerced and tormented you.
[It grows clearer. I can see it now—Jeong Hyeon-tak doing terrible things.]
So the memories he'd scrubbed clean after Cho Eun-sun beat him to death were coming back. Something in Son Gu-cheol's behavior seemed to be prodding at a buried corner of Abe's forgotten past.
Then, Abe—stay close to that man for a few days.
[You wish me to follow him?]
That's right.
Mirae Civil Engineering had taken out loans to buy up the Ugok 5-ri land. The lender had been SD Financial. And SD Financial was the funding conduit for Seongdo Construction. In other words, it was all money sitting in the same pocket.
And yet, in the thirty years the barrier had stood, SD Financial had never once asserted any right over Ugok 5-ri. They behaved as though they'd completely forgotten the land was theirs—then, the moment Yongsoo's story came to light, they suddenly pushed it to auction.
Who on earth would bid on a place where an entire village had been massacred, where a boy's skeletal remains had turned up in a basement? And yet, out of nowhere, Son Gu-cheol had stepped forward. Why would he attempt something so reckless—even leaning on people to make sure nobody else could buy that land?
Most likely, SD Financial offered to lend him money at rock-bottom interest.
If the ghost-village experience, the abandoned-house experience, were left exactly as it was, YouTubers would come swarming. And if those videos went viral, then Jeong Hyeon-tak, Mirae Civil Engineering, Seongdo Construction—the whole rotten chain could ride the algorithm until even SD Financial was on every tongue.
So they moved to bury the story at the source—handing Son Gu-cheol a pile of money to build a haejangguk factory, so the name would never come up at all.
Ugok marsh snail haejangguk was a soup beloved by the people of Pyeongcheong County. It wasn't like Seoul's oxtail soup or Yangpyeong haejangguk—known and craved nationwide. But suppose a Seoul franchise company had come to Son Gu-cheol with a business proposal. And suppose that, of all moments, land perfect for a factory site in Ugok 5-ri had just gone up for auction? If a private lender had even appeared, offering loans at that rate, it would have played out like a script someone had written in advance—Son Gu-cheol would have had no reason whatsoever to think twice.
He'd feel like a ladder straight down from heaven had lowered itself in front of him.
Sign on the dotted line, win the land at auction, watch the factory rise, sell the stuff nationwide. That had to be why he was baring his fangs now, trying to press me into backing off. Meanwhile, on SD's side, seeing no likely bidder at the auction, they would have extended that hand to Son Gu-cheol in the first place.
Which means if I put in a bid, SD Financial will come to me.
Because I intended to act as though I were buying not a slice of Ugok 5-ri, but the whole of it. And I could genuinely afford to buy it. I was rich, after all.
Either way, I needed to stockpile information for when that moment came. I spoke to Abe in my mind.
On auction day, I'll go to the courthouse. Let's meet there.
[If my master commands it, I shall obey.]
It's for your sake, too. If you want your revenge on Cho Eun-sun and a swift return to Japan, you must work through SD Financial first, one careful step at a time.
[Yes, Master.]
And you must not kill anyone. Absolutely not.
Abe drifted away and settled onto Son Gu-cheol's shoulder, one leg crossed elegantly over the other.
...That posture is somehow deeply unsettling.
The instant Abe perched on him, Son Gu-cheol's head must have rung like a struck bell.
“Argh! Did I wolf down that soju-and-beer boilermaker too fast?”
“Boss, should I run and get you one of those recovery drinks?”
“Don't stand there asking, you embarrassment—just go!”
Glaring as if to say don't ask, buy it, Son Gu-cheol whipped his head around and shot me a look. “I warned you clearly! Do not bid at that auction.”
“No thanks?”
“Ugh, damn it! I'm saying I'd prefer our Pyeongcheong County PR Ambassador to quietly buy the place. Treat me like a pushover and you'll be crying big tears, I promise you.”
At Son Gu-cheol's threat, Chai hurled a curse at him in Thai.
“Hahahaha.”
When I burst out laughing, Son Gu-cheol went scarlet, huffing and glowering at Chai. “What did you just say? You cursed at me, didn't you? Damn it, cursing in Thai? What did you say? What did you call me!”
“What's the point of asking, when finding out will only make you angrier? Anyway—see you at the courthouse on auction day.”
I gave Chai and Bang Jeong-soo a glance that said let's go. Son Gu-cheol hollered something at my back, but I didn't dignify it with an answer. Chai's Thai curse had been far too devastating a blow for that.
Bang Jeong-soo asked, “Chai, what exactly did you say to that man in Thai back there?”
“May Chai's whole family be eunuchs for three generations!”
“Huh? No—wait, that doesn't work. If the grandfather's a eunuch, he can't exactly have a son...”
“Then your mom is a—”
“Aigoo, honestly.”
Bang Jeong-soo threw up his hands, dissolving into incredulous laughter. An insult against the man's entire family line. I was snickering myself as I told them, “For the time being, whenever you go into the township, come with me. Guys like that might pick fights and cause trouble for no good reason.”
“Chai fights good! Hyah!”
“I'm not the sort to go around getting smacked anywhere either, but... yes, understood.”
“Wow, damn it! What the hell is that bastard, acting all high and mighty like that? Hey! Aren't you scared of me?”
Son Gu-cheol spun around and demanded it of his own men.
“Scared? Sure we are. There's no counting the guys who crossed you, boss, blew their entire life savings, and cleared out of Pyeongcheong for good.”
Son Gu-cheol's grandfather had been a farmer; his father had built the family's footing in the township fixing cars and tractors. Back in those days, his father was the only man around who could repair a tractor, so everyone sucked up to him shamelessly. Once a decent pile of money had come in, Son Gu-cheol's father opened a haejangguk restaurant. Business boomed. Word spread that the place was delicious, and customers came flocking.
Thanks to all that, Son Gu-cheol had grown up a country fat cat. Everything went exactly as he willed, and anyone who rubbed him the wrong way got beaten to a pulp. Whether he thrashed kids at school, or kicked over an old grandmother's basket of mountain greens in the dead center of the market. He even beat his wife and children at home, and not a soul ever said a word about it.
So Son Gu-cheol loafed around like a stray mutt until Ugok 2-ri and 3-ri were slated for development, at which point he rode his father's connections into every lucrative venture within reach. Country-home development, road paving, demolition of derelict buildings—even the construction of a village community hall for an entire ri, he skimmed the cream off it all, graciously. He grew the business by snapping up permits handed down from the county office, but the moment Na Jeong-hwan became governor, he found himself in trouble. Palm-greasing alone could no longer land him public works contracts. Everything, apparently, had to go through open bidding now.
He still kept up a proper office and played the great CEO, but he had no intention of sacking every employee and living out his days as the owner of a soup joint.
CEO of an actual corporation, maybe. But a haejangguk shop?
Still, when he heard that Ugok marsh snail haejangguk could be franchised and sold across the whole country, Son Gu-cheol's heart had pounded. Better to be a leopard with national range than a tiger in some country backwater—or so he figured.
“We'll have to pull down more money after all.”
The next day, Son Gu-cheol set off for Seoul to meet the CEO of SD Financial.
“Ha, shit. Unbelievable.”
Having parked in front of the SD Financial building in Yeouido, Son Gu-cheol spoke to the man gripping the wheel. “Find somewhere close, park, and get yourself some lunch. Today I'm meeting that CEO if it kills me.”
The man Son Gu-cheol had dealt with so far was a certain Section Chief Lee Jun-seok. They'd exchanged business cards back when Son Gu-cheol was doing country-home sales, and this time it was Lee Jun-seok who had reached out first. We'll lend you the money—try your hand at a franchise business. Wondering what kind of windfall this was, Son Gu-cheol had pressed for details, only to be told each time that they'd report to their superiors and get back to him. Until now, that arrangement had been fine. It just wasn't fine anymore.
Because he needed over 2 billion won in investment.
If meeting the CEO of SD Financial proved impossible, he'd have to sit down with a director, one rung down, face to face. Low interest, sensible repayment terms, even consulting for the franchise launch. His plan was to demand that in exchange for honoring every promise they'd made, they simply raise the loan amount.
But.
“The CEO only takes meetings by prior appointment. The same applies to our directors.”
The receptionist at the lobby desk shook her head with flat finality.
“What, do I look like some street peddler to you? I'm Son Gu-cheol, CEO of Ugok Marsh Snail Haejangguk. That Lee Jun-seok came to me, crying and clinging, begging to do business together.”
“Ohh, sir.”
Having apparently received word, Lee Jun-seok came sprinting out of the elevator, his face crumpled near to tears. “If you wanted a meeting with the CEO, you should have told us in advance! Then I could have consulted my superiors and—”
“And just how long is this ‘consulting' supposed to take? I have to bid at that auction next Monday.”
“This is exactly what you mustn't do, sir. You need to show trust as a business partner before we can place our faith in you and execute the loan—”
Crumple-faced, Lee Jun-seok tried to muscle him out of the lobby, muttering that barging in like this would mean he couldn't get a single won.
And then—the lobby's automatic doors swung wide open, security guards came pouring out from every corner, and lined themselves up on either side to form a long corridor.
A black sedan braked to a halt right at the entrance. The rear door opened, and out stepped a woman's leg in stiletto heels.
Her hair was gone snow-white, but her skin glowed with the luster of a woman in her twenties as the beauty descended from the car.
In that instant, Son Gu-cheol felt a skin-crawling chill in the wind at his back. His body shook uncontrollably, all on its own. Lee Jun-seok seized him by the arm and hauled him behind the line of security guards.
Click, click—the woman entered the lobby, heels striking marble, and abruptly turned her head to fix her gaze on Son Gu-cheol.
“Abe?”
Ashen-pale, the woman was addressed by her executive secretary. “Ma'am—who do you mean? Abe?”
“Ho ho ho. What took you so very long to come find me?”
Bursting into laughter, the woman murmured to herself. She was Cho Eun-sun of Boram Loans—godmother of the Myeongdong loan sharks, and the true power behind SD Financial, its de facto parent. Though she was arguably even more famous as a shaman who read the fortunes of chaebol families and divined their lucky windfalls.
And at that very moment, I—
“The characters on the talisman Abe left me had started to move!”