I'll Knock the Soul Right Out of You

It was a leather miniskirt so short it barely qualified as clothing — shorter than hot pants, covering just enough to hide her panties and nothing more.

And beneath it, sheer black stockings that let her skin show through. Black high heels below that. For a top, she wore nothing but a single tight T-shirt of swimsuit-like fabric, clinging to her like yoga wear, every contour of her body on full display.

That was how his wife, Ji Hye-in, was dressed — her hair pulled completely up, exposing the full line of her neck. Her makeup was so heavy that from a distance, he might not have recognized her at all. Red lipstick, thick eye makeup, and what looked like a heavy layer of blush besides.

"Dong-seok. Ko Dong-seok. What the hell is this? Why are you dragging another man's wife around looking like that?"

"I hate that kind of thing, I really do. You go to a hostess bar, you pay, they send you young girls. So why aren't you calling those girls? Why are you out playing with someone else's wife?"

"S-sir... I was wrong. B-but... nothing like what you're imagining ever happened."

Ko Dong-seok had gone completely submissive, pleading with Yoo Kang-soo as if begging for his life.

"What am I imagining? Huh? What do you think I'm imagining? What the hell are you people, you fucking..."

Kang-soo's face looked like the ground had dropped out from under him as he shouted at Ko Dong-seok. But even as he yelled, something about the atmosphere felt off. It was Ko Dong-seok's attitude. He was on his knees, politely begging for forgiveness — and yet it didn't look like he was actually sorry. He didn't seem terrified so much as desperate to wriggle out of this moment by any means necessary.

Kang-soo had interrogated more than his share of guilty men in his time. One look at the eyes was enough to tell him what he needed to know.

There was only one way to break bastards like this. Whether they were high-flying civilians, gangsters, or street thugs — you broke them by ripping the soul right out of them. At least, that was how it had been in the military back when Kang-soo was in his twenties. By the time he was in his forties and getting discharged, the beatings inside the service had all but vanished. But Kang-soo was from a generation that had lived through the truly vicious internal violence of the old army, in the flesh.

"You're not taking this seriously, are you. You think if you just get through this moment, you can wipe the floor with a guy like me — grinding your teeth over it on the inside. You picked the wrong day. Dressing Lee Jeong-min up like this is a problem for later. Ko Dong-seok — today, I'm going to snap you wide the fuck awake."

"D-don't do this. I'm not a young man. You use violence the wrong way and people get badly hurt. They end up crippled. Don't use violence."

Ko Dong-seok's voice had gone urgent, as if he'd finally sensed that something about Kang-soo was turning dangerous.

"Fuck off, you piece of shit. If your wife was wearing a leather scrap like that over her ass, wouldn't your eyes pop out of your skull?"

"Eat this. Cerebral hemorrhage, you fucking bastard."

Kang-soo cracked Ko Dong-seok across the skull again. But he didn't hit him hard enough with his fist to actually cause a hemorrhage. Even when he threw a Liver Blow with his knuckles, Kang-soo never punched anyone in the head. If someone got seriously hurt, it became a headache he didn't need.

"Please don't hit my head. Who hits a man in his fifties in the head?"

Ko Dong-seok was practically screaming.

"I don't like your attitude. You might outrank me in service years, but you've never taken a beating like this. That little spark of fight still sitting in your eyes — I'm going to pluck it right out. Ripping the soul out of a man? I'm a goddamn master at it. Back when I was young, there were places in military investigations that ran interrogations in total secrecy. A guy who shot someone dead with a gun — you work him over a little, so what? Am I wrong?"

Kang-soo pulled off his unlined jacket. He rolled it up tight, compacting it like a towel, and pressed it against Ko Dong-seok's throat. Ko Dong-seok grabbed Kang-soo's arms with both hands, but he couldn't budge the muscle packed into those forearms.

With the rolled jacket set against Ko Dong-seok's throat, Kang-soo put a snap into his knife-hand and struck it — a sharp, precise tap.

"Ghk... ghk... ghk..."

The whites of Ko Dong-seok's eyes showed. Hit dead-on above the Adam's apple, he was in staggering pain.

"M-my... throat... my throat..."

Ko Dong-seok rolled on the ground, clutching his neck.

"Don't be a baby, you bastard. I hit you once. New kind of pain, isn't it? Think about it. Every place I've hit you today — those are spots that don't bruise or scar easy."

"Want another heavy shot to the throat? Or you going to confess like a good boy? Why did you put those clothes on Hye-in?"

"I was wrong. I really didn't put them on her. Hye-in put them on herself. But I... I won't do it again. I swear."

The look in Ko Dong-seok's eyes had changed completely from before. Now he actually looked terrified. Whatever spark of fight had been in there ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was gone without a trace.

That was when Kang-soo's phone started vibrating insistently.

Something urgent had come up at the company. There was no getting around it — he had to go in. It was a matter tied to a lawsuit involving a considerable sum of money.

"Hey. Get in the car."

"Yes."

Kang-soo loaded Ko Dong-seok back into the car and drove him, in a hurry, to the front of the building that housed Ko Dong-seok's company.

"Get out. You got lucky today. But this isn't over. Watch yourself from now on."

"Yes."

The moment the car stopped, Ko Dong-seok climbed out and ran into the building without looking back.

Honestly, Kang-soo had done all of this fully aware that Ko Dong-seok might report him to the police. There was no evidence. If the man stuck to his story no matter how tangled things got, Kang-soo knew perfectly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠well that it would never amount to more than a million-won fine. No bones had been broken. There was no physical evidence of assault. Even if circumstantial evidence were admitted, he knew a verdict would never go beyond a small fine.

Two days passed. It didn't seem like Ko Dong-seok had gone to the police. That much, Kang-soo had more or less expected. Filing a report with no evidence and no marks on the body was never going to be easy.

But even if he hadn't gone to the police, Kang-soo was certain the man would have said something to his wife. And yet from Ji Hye-in, he picked up nothing unusual at all. Not a hint.

Then, about three days later, the Legal Support Administration Manager — the man who oversaw all the insurance fraud investigators — suddenly summoned Kang-soo.

The investigators were almost all seasoned professionals, forty at the youngest, and none of them were full-time employees of the insurance company. They were contract workers on one-year renewable terms. If your results weren't up to snuff, you could assume there would be no contract the following year. And yet even in that brutal environment, the man the company had reached out to first for four years running — offering to renew before anyone else — was Yoo Kang-soo.

Kang-soo stepped ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into the small conference room to meet the Administration Manager.

"Whew. Manager Yoo. You've been working hard lately, haven't you?"

"Why did you call me in? Is something going on?"

The investigators all used "Manager" as a courtesy title among themselves. Kang-soo looked at the Administration Manager — a man several years younger than himself — with a puzzled expression. There was no reason this man should be summoning him. Aside from the occasional month when the variable salary calculation came out wrong, they barely saw each other at all.

"Ah, well, the Executive Director said he specifically wanted to meet with you. I don't really know what it's about myself. Has anything... happened? Recently?"

"Recently? No. We've won almost every lawsuit that's come up lately. There's hardly anything that should be a problem."

Kang-soo tilted his head as he spoke. The Administration Manager looked like he was about to say more, then closed his mouth. He clearly knew something else — ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠but Kang-soo didn't press. The atmosphere was strange enough that he already had a sense of what this might be.

Kang-soo went up with the Administration Manager to the Executive Director's office.

"Executive Director. This is Manager Yoo Kang-soo, insurance investigator."