The Guro-dong Romanticist
Turning the clock back a little — outside the family home.
Having finally arrived home after a full four years away, my brother-in-law found himself hesitating at the entrance of the apartment building, unable to take another step toward the front door.
"...What are you doing?"
I asked, wearing a puzzled expression as I watched him dither for the umpteenth time.
At my question, my brother-in-law shot me an awkward smile, his face drained of color.
"Jaeseong. I'm sorry, but I just can't bring myself to walk in there."
"What kind of nonsense is that?"
"It's been four years, you know. I'm coming back after four whole years. I feel so guilty toward the kids — how am I supposed to walk in there empty-handed like this?"
I had completely forgotten.
Just how soft-hearted my brother-in-law was, compared to me.
Not that I minded. He hadn't only looked after me — he'd been just as devoted to my older sister.
How else would he have earned the nickname "Choi Soo-jong of Guro-gu"?
"So?"
"Do you think anyone's opened a fried chicken place in the shopping district? The kids love chicken. If I at least bring some of that, I might have a shred of dignity walking in there."
Frankly, I couldn't have understood him less if I tried.
It seemed obvious to me that the right thing to do was to show your family you were alive and safe as quickly as humanly possible, even one second sooner.
But that was my way of doing things. My brother-in-law had his own.
"Hoo. Maybe, if you look around."
It was already ten in the morning, but some places did open early.
I let out a short sigh and said as much to him. At my words, his face brightened, and after a moment of deep thought, he blurted something out.
"Hey, brother-in-law. Sorry, but could you go in first and set the mood a little?"
"...Set what mood, exactly?"
"Ah, you know. You just hang out with the kids like it's any ordinary day, and then I ring the doorbell and — ta-da! I appear. It's a surprise party. A surprise party!"
Watching my brother-in-law get excited all over again, I couldn't help but knit my brows.
Though to be honest, seeing him like that was what finally made his return feel real.
'He roped me into those surprise parties all the time before, too.'
When my sister gave birth to Seoyeon and Seojun, and on every anniversary imaginable, I remembered suffering through one half-baked acting performance after another at my brother-in-law's direction.
Back then, I'd wondered what kind of cringe-inducing nonsense he thought he was pulling — but looking back, those were memories all the same.
Even now, every one of them was coming back to me, vivid as anything.
'The only problem was that my sister never cared for it.'
Just one thing bothered me, though — I wasn't sure Seoyeon would appreciate this particular event. But watching my brother-in-law bubbling with excitement, I found I didn't have the heart to stop him.
"Brother-in-law. Then I'm counting on you."
Smiling at me, my brother-in-law bounded off into the distance.
"So. Where exactly did you go?"
All I could offer in response to Seoyeon's question was a helpless expression.
There was no denying that Seoyeon was my sister's daughter.
Her instincts were unnaturally sharp, and she was relentless with them.
"Just went out to get some air."
"Doesn't sound like it. Don't tell me — you had trouble with those people yesterday, didn't you? I knew it."
"...I told you I didn't."
"I'm right, aren't I? Oh — and what did you do about those weird people?"
Sharp instincts, yes — but the way she jumped to completely wrong conclusions was exactly like her mother, too.
The one difference from back then was that my sister had been older than me, while Seoyeon was younger.
"Hoo. I'll say it one more time. No. And you — aren't you a little too invested in your uncle's private life? Your uncle is a grown man, you know."
In other words, I could now simply crush her with seniority.
"Uncle. What's a 'private life'?"
"Hm? Well. How should I put this... The freedom to not be invaded?"
That was the moment Seoyeon's lips, which had been listening in on my conversation with Seojun, jutted out into an unmistakable pout.
"Wh-what did you say? It's your own fault for leaving without a word, anyway. What about food? You haven't eaten yet, have you?"
Watching Seoyeon so deftly change the subject, I let out a quiet chuckle.
Somehow, even the way she evaded a question looked exactly like my sister.
Ding-dong.
The doorbell rang right at that moment.
"Who could that be at this hour? Nobody's supposed to be coming."
"Go answer it. Your uncle stayed up all night — he's tired."
At my words, Seoyeon sprang up from her seat and headed for the intercom.
While she wasn't looking, I sank deep into the sofa, feigning indifference.
I had carried out my brother-in-law's mission flawlessly — but I had no idea how the results would land.
"Who is it—?"
Seoyeon's voice cut off mid-sentence as she checked the intercom screen.
An odd silence settled over the room. Feeling an undercurrent of unease, all I could do was stroke the head of Seojun, who sat beside me laughing brightly without a clue.
Ding-dong — ding-dong.
Outside, the doorbell was being pressed again without a shred of tact, but Seoyeon simply stood frozen, eyes locked on the intercom screen like she'd seen a ghost.
'...I had a feeling this would happen.'
In an instant, I saw Seoyeon shoot me a glare, her eyes rimmed red.
The girl was no fool — in that brief moment, she must have figured out that I was connected to whatever this was.
After glaring at me for a few seconds, Seoyeon walked to the front door without a word and opened it.
"Ta-da! My little princess, my little prince! Daddy brought chick—"
The moment the front door swung open, my brother-in-law beamed from ear to ear, waving the bag of fried chicken in his hand.
And in that instant, I knew.
I knew that this was, without question, the worst possible way to stage a reunion.
Thanks to my brother-in-law's ambitious surprise party, the entire apartment was plunged into an eerie silence.
"..."
'Unbelievable. She's exactly like my sister.'
I stared at Seoyeon's back, her fists clenched tight at her sides, and swallowed hard.
"...S-Seoyeon? Daddy's a bit late, huh? Ah — there wasn't any fried chicken place nearby, you see..."
Drenched in a cold sweat, my brother-in-law kept piling excuse upon excuse in Seoyeon's direction.
Of course, the excuses themselves were absurd even to my ears.
"What?! Chicken? Who said they wanted chicken?! Why are you only showing up now? Where have you been all this time?! I thought you were dead, and I was so scared! Everyone said you died, so I— so I..."
That was the moment Seoyeon's voice, pouring out like a torrent of grievances, began to tremble with tears.
Her legs seemed to give out beneath her, and as she started to crumple, my brother-in-law flung the bag of chicken aside and swept her into his arms.
"I'm sorry! Daddy's sorry, Seoyeon. Daddy took far too long, didn't he?"
A hulking middle-aged man was kneeling on the floor, wailing like a child.
And Seoyeon was crying just as hard at the sight of him.
That was when Seojun, who had been cowering at my side with a frightened expression, finally moved.
"...Daddy?"
"Seojun. It's Daddy. Don't you remember me?"
"Daaaaddy!"
After staring at his father for a moment, Seojun bolted across the room and threw himself into my brother-in-law's arms.
And I watched the scene quietly from a corner of the living room.
A strange sensation rose in me, as if something were brimming over in the depths of my chest.
It occurred to me that perhaps the lackeys of the Blood Sect had felt something like this — this ache — when they rampaged across Murim in their search.
'Not that comparing that to this makes any sense.'
My sister's family reunion was worth infinitely more to me than any of that.
Confirming that my brother-in-law's family had dissolved into a sea of tears, I rose slowly from my seat.
"...Uncle? Where are you going?"
Even with her face streaked with tears, Seoyeon noticed me moving and asked.
My brother-in-law and Seojun turned to look at me as well.
"Ah — there's some garbage I forgot to take out yesterday."
I said it with an apologetic smile.
Naturally, Seoyeon — who had inherited her mother's tenacity in full — was not about to let that slide.
"What garbage is there at this hour of the morning?"
"Well, you know, if I leave it, it'll just attract more bugs. Get the kids fed before your father's chicken goes cold. I'll be right back."
Without waiting for an answer from Seoyeon or my brother-in-law, I stepped straight out through the front door.
I hadn't slept, yet my body had never felt better.
'Yangcheon-gu, was it?'
I hadn't forgotten the bastards who had laid hands on my niece in the first place.
They had simply been pushed down the priority list, below saving my brother-in-law.
Confirming the rough direction of Yangcheon-gu, I hurled myself into the air.
"I'm sorry, Jiseok."
Jang Yeongsu said those words to his friend Yoon Jiseok, the man who led Cheongseol Guild.
Yoon Jiseok's face was a mangled mess.
Say what you would about the gap in their strength — the conditions Jin Dohyuk of Heukchi Guild had demanded were simply too cruel.
Yoon Jiseok had refused, of course, and that was when Jin Dohyuk's rampage began.
He had quite literally seized the guildmaster of an entire guild and beaten him within an inch of his life.
"Hngh. It's fine. I agreed to it, after all. Whatever."
Yoon Jiseok pulled the crumpled tissue stuffed up his nose and dropped it on the floor as he spoke.
"Right. Even if I was the one who egged you on."
Jang Yeongsu couldn't help but say it plainly to his friend's face.
Yoon Jiseok had shown a lukewarm reaction to Jang Yeongsu's plan from the very start, after all.
Even so, the reason he had backed Jang Yeongsu's play was simple.
"Ah, drop it already. Honestly, if it weren't for me, would you have made it this far? Your head's basically a rock. We just start over from scratch, that's all."
"...Never again, damn it. Everything's been stripped away."
Yoon Jiseok said that, but honestly, Cheongseol Guild's situation was dire.
Nearby guilds with aligned interests had banded together, scheming to carve up Yeongdeungpo at the center for themselves.
But with Jin Dohyuk's visit, Cheongseol Guild now stood to lose even the interests it had originally held.
No — if that was all, it would have been a mercy.
Disillusioned by this whole affair, guild members could well have turned their backs, and the entire district of Yangcheon-gu could have been snatched by another guild.
"Yeongsu. Honestly, there's just one thing I regret. If it was going to come to this anyway, we should've fought him like men. Not gone trying to kidnap some kid."
"Just curse me out instead. Bastard."
"...By the way. That person — why hasn't he shown up?"
"..."
Jang Yeongsu wanted to ask the same thing.
When he'd spoken to that man on the phone, he'd been bristling with every intention of charging straight in.
'If he'd just robbed us blind instead, at least I wouldn't feel this cheated.'
That was the moment both Jang Yeongsu's and Yoon Jiseok's phones rang at once.
And the two of them checked their phones simultaneously.
[NOTICE] The Yeouido Gate has been cleared as of this morning. Further details will be provided in an upcoming briefing.
"Huh?"
Something foolish tumbled out of Yoon Jiseok's mouth as he read the message from the Hunter Management Bureau.
Jang Yeongsu was equally stunned by what appeared on his own screen.
Out of nowhere, the Yeouido Gate — unconquered all this time — had been cleared.
"...Don't tell me?"
It wasn't a guess for Jang Yeongsu. It was near certainty.
That mysterious Returnee who had appeared in Guro just yesterday — he was the one who had cleared the Yeouido Gate.
Every ranker in South Korea was known by name, and not one of them could have suddenly cleared the Yeouido Gate at this exact moment.
After all, even Jin Dohyuk — the other Returnee who had torn Cheongseol Guild apart just this morning — had fled from that very place with his tail between his legs.
"...He wasn't a wolf. He was a dragon."
"Huh? What's that supposed to me—"
CRASH!
At that moment, the door to the guildmaster's office exploded, splinters flying everywhere.
"Which one of you is Jang Yeongsu?"
The one who had blasted the door open and stepped through was none other than that Returnee.
By Jang Yeongsu's reckoning, this was the man who had cleared the Yeouido Gate — a gate no one had ever conquered — in a single day.
In that instant, a hollow laugh caught in Jang Yeongsu's throat.
"...He really is out for our lives, isn't he."
How could things go wrong this spectacularly? Jang Yeongsu felt, in some small corner of his heart, genuinely wronged.