A Veil He Feared to Lift
He didn't want to let her go.
Even if his wife had been defiled — even though he could feel it now, to some degree, that she was using the affair with Yeom Seong-bong to cover something larger — Yoo Kang-soo was still a little afraid of peeling that veil back with his own hands.
She moved as if she were following a carefully written script. She had been the one to let the Yeom Seong-bong matter slip, bit by bit, volunteering the affair herself, as if trying to bury something else beneath it.
"Ah... hello. I was surprised you reached out first. What's this about? It would have been nice if you'd brought Hye-in along too..."
Ko Dong-seok spoke in a slightly flustered voice, looking at Yoo Kang-soo. Of course he was flustered. The business card he had given Kang-soo listed only the address of the sports association he belonged to — not the address of the company he actually ran. And yet Kang-soo had shown up at the office of the small trading firm Ko Dong-seok operated, a five-person outfit. It was personal information Kang-soo had obtained from a private investigator, paying only the minimum fee. Just as he had with Yeom Seong-bong, he had bought nothing beyond the most basic, non-sensitive facts.
"Director Ko Dong-seok. I have an urgent matter regarding my wife that I'd like to discuss with you. Would thirty minutes be all right?"
"Ah... of course. But... is something wrong with Hye-in...?"
"No. If you could just come with me for a moment. It's nearby."
Kang-soo kept his tone as polite as he could. He had done his homework in advance. Ko Dong-seok, who had come out in front of his office on short notice, climbed into the passenger seat of Kang-soo's car with a slightly bewildered look on his face.
The car headed up toward a nearby hillside sports park. It sat right in the middle of the city, but the park was so old that barely anyone came during the day. Kang-soo parked not in the mid-slope lot but on a flat patch of ground. It had taken maybe ten minutes from Ko Dong-seok's company. Kang-soo had scouted the terrain beforehand and chosen the spot with care.
"Get out."
Kang-soo dropped into informal speech and climbed out of the driver's seat. Ko Dong-seok got out of the car looking confused.
"Um... uh... Hye-in's husband. Where is this?"
Ko Dong-seok asked, looking at Kang-soo with a slightly dazed expression. Kang-soo pointed at the sun hanging in the sky. The moment Ko Dong-seok lifted his head to look, Kang-soo snapped a short, clipped punch with his left hand — a carefully measured Liver Blow delivered to the area around Ko Dong-seok's liver.
Hit too hard and you could rupture the organ. Hit someone who already had cirrhosis or liver cancer and it could be fatal. But even that, Kang-soo considered fate.
Ko Dong-seok collapsed to the ground. He lay there rubbing one side of his stomach with one hand, not knowing what to do with himself.
"Get up. Before I stomp you into the dirt."
"Wh-what are you doing...?"
Ko Dong-seok spoke with a thoroughly shocked look on his face. Still, he seemed to have some toughness in him. He grimaced, but got back on his feet. The moment he did, Kang-soo kicked his ankle and sent him tumbling to the ground again.
This time the blow wasn't as bad as the Liver Blow, so Ko Dong-seok got up immediately and assumed something like a taekwondo sparring stance.
"Y-you... what the hell are you doing? I used to work out too. I'm not just going to stand here and take it..."
Ko Dong-seok had apparently sensed that something was off. He took a defensive stance.
"Hey, you fucking piece of shit. Did I look like some easy mark to you? Hahaha... damn. I don't have much money, so I keep my temper in check — but back in the day, when they said Military Police Sergeant Yoo, even the guys with guns used to piss themselves. And some dog-fucking bastard like you plays around with another man's wife? I'll chew your balls off, you son of a bitch."
"I... I think there's some kind of misunderstanding..."
Ko Dong-seok was looking around as he spoke, as if hoping someone would be there so he could call for help. But Kang-soo had brought him to a place that was nearly deserted in the middle of the day, with no CCTV cameras whatsoever.
As Kang-soo closed in, Ko Dong-seok took a defensive stance again, determined not to just stand there and take it this time, trying to protect himself.
"What kind of workout does a piece of shit like you even do? Is recreational sports even exercise?"
As he spoke, Kang-soo feinted a punch at Ko Dong-seok's face. When Ko Dong-seok flinched and threw his hands up to block, Kang-soo used that instant to drive a kick into his stomach. Ko Dong-seok went sprawling on the ground again.
They were about the same height — both around five-nine — but where Ko Dong-seok had a lean, slender build without extra fat, Kang-soo was a solid mass of hard-packed muscle weighing over two hundred pounds. As Kang-soo approached the fallen man, Ko Dong-seok kicked wildly from the ground, resisting with everything he had. Kang-soo snatched one of those kicking ankles, then drove a fist hard into his ass. A thud, and a groan escaped Ko Dong-seok's mouth.
"Kneel."
Kang-soo said it, but Ko Dong-seok didn't move. Another thud. Kang-soo had kicked him in the back as he still lay half-sprawled on the dirt.
"I... I'm going to report you to the police..."
"Go ahead, you fucking bastard. I'll call up Lee Jeong-min, take her out for eel, then walk her into a hostess bar. Report me to the cops, report me to the FBI — I don't give a shit. Do whatever the fuck you want, you son of a bitch."
At the name Lee Jeong-min, Ko Dong-seok's expression froze.
When Kang-soo said it again, Ko Dong-seok got up and dropped to his knees.
Lee Jeong-min was Ko Dong-seok's wife's name. The bastard had a perfectly healthy wife. Kids, too. That made Kang-soo even angrier. At that dinner, Ko Dong-seok had clearly said he was a widower — that his wife was dead. But when Kang-soo looked into it, not only was she not dead, she was alive and well.
"Hey. Why do you keep eating with another man's wife? Drinking with her? Taking her to hostess bars? Go play with your own woman. Why the fuck are you messing around with someone else's wife, you bastard?"
Kang-soo smashed Ko Dong-seok's skull with an open palm like a volleyball spike. A thud, and Ko Dong-seok clutched his head with both hands, clearly in pain.
"P-please stop hitting me. You can't hit someone in the head. What if I get a brain hemorrhage...?"
"That's your fate, you fucking asshole. That's why you shouldn't play around with married women. How the hell am I supposed to interpret this?"
Only then did Kang-soo pull out his phone, open a photo, and shove it in front of Ko Dong-seok's face. The moment he saw it, Ko Dong-seok's expression flickered with panic — then he seemed to try to hide it by dropping his head. Kang-soo raised his hand high, about to smash Ko Dong-seok's skull with his palm again. Ko Dong-seok covered his head with both hands, wrapping his skull completely, protecting it.
"D-don't hit my head. Brain hemorrhage is one of the leading causes of death for men in their fifties. Please... just don't hit my head..."
"You said you work out. A guy who works out can't even defend against that? I'm a 5th dan in Hapkido. A piece of shit like you — I could beat you for twenty-four hours straight without raising a speck of dust. I don't have money. But when it comes to beating people, I've got a whole arsenal of techniques."
"Explain this photo. If you lie to me, I'll dress Lee Jeong-min up exactly like this, take her out to play, and I'll tear her cunt apart. You hear me?"
"P-please... stop talking about my wife..."
"This bastard. You're a complete thug, aren't you? You call my wife Hye-in right in front of my face, right in front of my eyes — and I can't call your wife Jeong-min?"
"I... I'm sorry. I won't do it again..."
"No. This isn't something you can just cover up like that. Ji Hye-in is such an innocent girl. What the hell is this? Is she a fucking whorehouse hostess? Who dressed her up like this?"
In the phone photo, Ji Hye-in was wearing a tight leather skirt that barely covered her ass.