The Beast's Shadow
One week passed, then ten days, and before long, two weeks had gone by.
The room was under his control, and even the work yard and the common areas where inmates exercised had been taken over by him.
The rumor of 8869 had spread like wildfire.
8869 was Yoo Kang-soo's inmate number.
One beating and the rumor that he was terrifyingly brutal had spread, and no one dared to meet his eyes.
After beating Dong-sik, the action leader of the Yongmun O-geo-ri Gang, to the point of death and taking over the room, and then alone, with his bare hands, turning two mid-level subordinates of the Yongmun O-geo-ri Gang into pulp, the rumor had spread that he was a monster.
8869 had become the hot topic of the prison in just two weeks.
But... he never resorted to unnecessary violence.
Whoever attacked first... he would respond.
Other than that... he didn't engage in any pointless talk.
Whenever he had time, he did push-ups, squats, and kicks.
Seeing Yoo Kang-soo doing that, some inmates in the prison looked at him with fear, as if staring at a monster.
But... by making a portion of the prison, specifically the area where he lived, tremble in fear for two weeks...
Now... the one truly in turmoil was Yoo Kang-soo himself.
In the detention center... he hadn't felt any such mental collapse...
He was experiencing that mental breakdown, and since he couldn't show it on his face, Yoo Kang-soo was on the verge of going insane.
Out of the ten inmates living in the same room, five had killed people.
Of course... the real killers were two, and including Yoo Kang-soo, three were guilty of assault resulting in death.
At first... when he was trying to establish the atmosphere... by talking about killing people in a frightening way... his actions had been too childish, Yoo Kang-soo realized.
There was also a murderer in the same room who had killed two people.
Yoo Kang-soo's mental collapse was due to how many bad guys there were...
And the deeper collapse was that the killers... only when it was meal time... ate well, laughed, and chatted, living happily.
The dead had no voice...
The families of the dead would be shedding tears of blood...
But the ones who committed the crimes were laughing, chatting, eating well, and living like that in the prison.
Yoo Kang-soo... knew the realities of the military prison well...
He had been a military police investigator arresting bad guys for 21 years...
But the bad guys he had met in this prison for two weeks... were so bad that he couldn't even imagine experiencing it directly.
He saw a detainee who had raped and killed a minor during exercise... he couldn't believe how kind-looking he was.
He was too kind-looking... but later when he heard the story, he was a prisoner who had raped and killed a minor and received a life sentence.
After hearing the story... Yoo Kang-soo had greeted him first, thinking how kind and polite this young man was, but then when he heard the crime, he almost had a heart attack.
Next time... he felt like using the salsu... his hands were shaking.
Yoo Kang-soo... felt disgust towards these bad guys.
Controlling the prison or not...
Two years in here... he thought he might go crazy.
"Hyung... I fried some beef with gochujang..."
"It's the new one I received today, and it's really delicious."
Dong-sik scooped a large portion of the fried beef with gochujang onto Yoo Kang-soo's tray and piled on other side dishes as well.
Dong-sik was a 37-year-old action leader of the Yongmun O-geo-ri Gang.
He was a former kickboxing fighter and claimed to have a 4th dan in taekwondo.
His personality was so slimy... to survive in this room, he had made up his mind to show himself well to Yoo Kang-soo... and he was fawning all over him.
Especially after learning that the two mid-level male subordinates of the Yongmun O-geo-ri Gang who had directly confronted him to take revenge had been completely beaten to pulp with sharpened toothbrushes... from then on, in front of Yoo Kang-soo, he was completely prostrating himself as if serving a master.
There was also the situation where Yoo Kang-soo had warned him that he would pop one of his kidneys later, which had frightened him.
Actually... Yoo Kang-soo had been mentally drained...
He no longer felt like fighting...
Nor did he want to sleep and eat with these worm-like guys.
But... despite that... because he exercised so hard... his appetite would surge whenever it was meal time... Yoo Kang-soo was like that.
When meal distribution was done for each room, he would divide it again onto his tray... Yoo Kang-soo's tray was piled high with the special meals Dong-sik had bought with his own money... it was a mess.
Yoo Kang-soo... quietly ate it all.
The inmates who knew that 8869 Yoo Kang-soo only beat Dong-sik and didn't touch or interact with the other inmates at all... were in a better atmosphere than before.
They were laughing and chatting... the room's atmosphere had become cheerful again.
Actually... Dong-sik was the room leader...
But even before that... the room's atmosphere was good, they said.
Because Dong-sik's personality was so bright and optimistic.
After being beaten by the new inmate Yoo Kang-soo... the atmosphere had been a bit gloomy for a while, they said.
Yoo Kang-soo... outside of work time and exercise time...
He did push-ups in the room or read books.
Even in prison... he could read as many books as he wanted.
Now... two years later when he gets out...
Whether he could continue as an insurance investigator or not...
That was the problem.
Even though he was a repeat offender... a murderer... whether there would be an insurance company that would accept him was the issue.
But anyway, since it was contract work, maybe a small to medium insurance company might accept him... Yoo Kang-soo was thinking that.
Yoo Kang-soo... wrote almost daily letters to his son Pil-jun...
And he gathered them for a week and sent them all at once.
Later... the number of letters would decrease...
But now... he felt he needed to explain his innocence and grievances well to his son.
After several more days... Dong-sik came with bread and milk, tore open the envelope, and gave it to Yoo Kang-soo while speaking.
"Hyung... eat this..."
"I have something I want to tell you at length."
"What is it..."
"Originally, the Yongmun O-geo-ri Gang as a whole... was under the protection of the Haeyang Shindaeryuk gang..."
"Here... in the prison... one of the bosses of the Haeyang Shindaeryuk gang is in here."
"After hearing that the action leader of the Yongmun O-geo-ri Gang, me, and two mid-level hyungs got completely beaten..."
"Everyone... seems to have held a long meeting."
"This... for people like Hyung who practice martial arts..."
"You might not care..."
"But in our underworld world..."
"After being beaten... if you stay quiet... they see you as a pushover..."
"And other guys keep crawling over you..."
"So... from the boss's perspective, he can't just stay quiet."
Yoo Kang-soo... hadn't told anyone about his martial arts skills.
No... he wasn't in a situation to talk about his personal matters to anyone.
Nevertheless... it seemed that everyone had quietly told the guards and already knew who Yoo Kang-soo was.
"Probably... soon..."
"One of the Haeyang Shindaeryuk gang's mid-level bosses..."
"Will apply for a fight with Hyung."
"Of course... it was the boss giving the orders from behind..."
"So?"
"No... that's what I'm saying..."
"That Hyung is also a person I know well..."
"He's really a good person..."
"Just don't touch his tendons and..."
"Our direct hyungs two... can't even walk properly now..."
"They're begging..."
"We've hit and been hit all our lives... but we've never seen someone who only hits the vital points like Hyung..."
"Just... hit him a little less and finish it nicely, okay?"
Yoo Kang-soo... thought what kind of guy is this...
But he didn't want to mix words anymore.
"I... don't want to fight..."
"I don't want to get entangled with guys like you criminals..."
"I don't want to breathe the same air as gangster guys..."
"Haah..."
Yoo Kang-soo... while continuing to speak... kept eating the bread and milk.
No matter how much he ate... his stomach was still empty.
The amount of exercise... in his 20s early to mid... when he was really obsessed with hapkido in the military... the feeling was like matching the training he did during rest time in martial arts posture...
"No more milk?"
"Not white milk... but banana milk is there."
"This... damn..."
"Banana milk is tastier..."