I'll Convert That Into Money
My hand was still hot.
The right hand I'd just swung. The hand that had connected with the man's face was still burning. My blood felt like it was boiling.
Strange. This was a human body, no question — but what was boiling inside me wasn't human. The same battle-high I'd felt facing a pack of wild dogs in the mountains, that heat that had filled every inch of me, was rising again now.
One step. Another. I was moving toward the man crumpled into the vending machine when—
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Applause. Slow applause. Unhurried, measured, as if there were no need to rush.
"Excellent."
A low, dry voice with no weight to it at all. And yet somehow that sound stopped me in my tracks, and I turned.
A man stood there — I had no idea when he'd arrived. Suit and tie. Polished shoes. In this underground reeking of blood, sweat, and booze, he alone looked like he'd stepped out of another world entirely. A thin trail of smoke rose from the cigarette between his fingers.
He looked at me. No — "looked" wasn't enough. He appraised me. From head to toe. The eyes of a merchant gauging the weight of cattle before a purchase. Those eyes felt somehow familiar. Not a predator stalking prey in the mountains — more like an old leopard sizing up its territory. He was in no hurry. Not impatient. Relaxed, as if he already owned everything.
"Name."
"......"
"You've got one, don't you."
"......Han Daewong."
"Han Daewong."
The man pronounced my name slowly. Like he was putting a price on it.
"That was one punch just now, wasn't it?"
He indicated the fallen man with his chin. The crumpled vending machine, and the body slumped beneath it.
"Not many people can do that to a guy with one hit."
It wasn't praise. Not admiration either. Just a tone of confirming a fact. And that made it all the more chilling.
"......Who are you."
"Seo Jin-woo."
The man put the cigarette between his lips.
"Owner of this place."
Owner. The owner of this underground?
"That friend of yours just now."
Seo Jin-woo pointed at the fallen man again.
"I sent him."
────.
My mind stopped cold.
"......What did you say?"
"I needed to see what kind of guy you were."
Seo Jin-woo's expression didn't change. Not the face of someone who understood the weight of what he was saying. Just the face of a man recounting yesterday's lunch menu.
"So I told him. Told that guy to pick a fight with the kid next to you."
"......You ordered that."
The heat rose again. Something that had been sleeping deep in a mountain cave, in the innermost chamber, was slowly opening its eyes.
"You used Seo-yeon. As bait?"
My voice cracked low and rough. It didn't sound like my own.
"Not so much bait."
Seo Jin-woo exhaled smoke.
"More like verification. Product inspection."
Product. He called Seo-yeon a product.
That word grated on me more than anything. Because until a few days ago, that had been me too. Behind the bars of a smuggling operation's cage.
The moment I went down to a tranquilizer dart and got loaded into a container, I wasn't a beast and I wasn't a man — I was merchandise. Retrieve it. Dispose of it. The words those people used for me. And this man was using that same word for Seo-yeon right now.
Before I knew it, I'd taken a step closer. My enormous shadow fell over Seo Jin-woo. A normal person would have backed away at that distance, but Seo Jin-woo didn't move. Not the hand holding the cigarette, not his feet, not even his pupils — not a flicker of movement. Even looking up at me, there was no fear in his eyes.
Rachel had trembled. The hunting dogs had wet themselves. Even Dominic had shown awe. And yet this small man stood in front of a bear, casually smoking a cigarette.
......What is this human.
"I know you're angry. But that anger..."
The man dropped his cigarette and crushed it out under his shoe.
"......"
"Get in the ring. Swing those fists of yours here."
For the first time, Seo Jin-woo's mouth curled up at the corner. Too cold to call a smile — the expression of a man whose calculations were already done.
"Identity, money, a place to go. I'll make all of it for you."
At those words, I couldn't say a thing. This man knew. That I had nothing. That even my name was only a few days old. That there was no place anywhere in the world for a person named Han Daewong. He saw straight through all of it.
And that made me angrier still. Because he was right.
Up close, he was even bigger.
Seo Jin-woo had seen big guys his whole life. Heavyweight fighters, bodybuilders, juiced-up monsters swollen with nothing but muscle. But this was different. You had to crane your neck all the way back just to meet his eyes. Those fists were bigger than his own head, and one of them had just driven a grown man into a vending machine.
......Whoa.
Seo Jin-woo looked down at his own hand. The fingers holding the cigarette were trembling, just slightly. Fascinating. Twenty years in this business. He'd been stabbed twice. Had a gun barrel pressed to his temple once. And even then, this hand hadn't shaken. But now it was shaking.
......Would you look at that.
Seo Jin-woo observed his trembling hand as if it belonged to someone else. Fear was rising. But he wasn't afraid of the fear. If anything, he welcomed it. If his body was shaking this much, it meant this was the real deal. Something truly dangerous. Something truly strong. And something truly expensive.
In twenty years, thousands of fighters had passed through his hands — and not a single one had ever made Seo Jin-woo's hand tremble. This one was the first.
......What's your price tag, I wonder.
Seo Jin-woo brought the cigarette to his lips with that trembling hand. He didn't hide the shake. There was no need. If this monster saw the trembling and decided to attack, running wouldn't save him anyway. So it didn't matter whether he shook or not. What mattered was the deal.
Seo Jin-woo exhaled a long stream of smoke.
"Let's make a contract."
The enormous beast looked down at him.
"Your pay per fight. Higher than anyone else here. Bonuses on top for every win."
"......"
"I'll have an identity ready within a week. Clean. Resident registration through bank account. You've got nowhere else to go, do you. Nowhere but here."
Silence. A long silence.
Seo Jin-woo savored it. The time a giant beast spent chewing over his offer. It had been twenty years since he'd haggled over merchandise this good. His heart was racing. Whether from fear or excitement, he could no longer tell. Probably both. For Seo Jin-woo, the two had always been the same thing.
At last, the bear of a man's mouth opened.
"......One thing."
"Go ahead."
"Apologize to Seo-yeon."
Seo Jin-woo paused for a beat.
......Apologize?
A variable he hadn't accounted for. Not demanding more money. Not pushing for the identity papers. Asking him to apologize to that small woman. For using her as bait.
Seo Jin-woo laughed soundlessly to himself. This monster. Strength of a mountain beast, and demands as innocent as a child's. Rage on Seo-yeon's behalf. That was this one's weakness.
......Note that down.
He wrote a line in the ledger of his mind.
──Han Daewong. Loses control if Kang Seo-yeon is touched.
Expensive information. This kind of thing always came in handy later. The more you knew about a product's weaknesses, the better. And he'd gotten it for free. For the price of one apology.
"......Fine."
Pride? In this business, nothing came cheaper than pride. Especially in front of merchandise this expensive.
Seo Jin-woo turned his head toward Seo-yeon, who stood at a distance.
"Seo-yeon. I'm sorry. Today's incident was on my orders."
Seo-yeon's eyes went wide. Fair enough. Seo Jin-woo was a man who never apologized to anyone. More precisely, a man who never made an apology that didn't pay.
"As a token of apology, I'll throw in a bonus. This month's pay — ten times over."
Seo-yeon's mouth fell open.
"T-ten times…?"
She looked more shocked by the sum than by the apology itself. Seo Jin-woo nodded lightly, as if that kind of money were pocket change. Then he looked back at Han Daewong.
"Satisfied?"
The enormous beast nodded slowly.
"Show up starting tomorrow. I'll set up your first fight."
Seo Jin-woo was about to turn away when the massive shadow took one step closer.
"One last thing."
A low voice.
"......That apology just now. If it wasn't sincere—"
Han Daewong looked at the vending machine crumpled beside them. That already-mangled hunk of metal. And he swung his fist lightly — truly lightly.
BOOM——!!
The vending machine folded in half, shards flying in every direction.
"......You'll end up like this."
Leaving only those words, Han Daewong walked over to Seo-yeon.
"Let's go."
He took Seo-yeon and vanished into the dark.
Left alone in the underground, Seo Jin-woo slowly began to clap.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
In an empty place, toward a back that was already gone.
"......Excellent."
And he meant it.
He looked down at the vending machine folded in half. Metal crumpled like a sheet of paper. If that had been a human head… what would have happened? Just imagining it, his hand started shaking again.
Seo Jin-woo raised that trembling hand and studied it in front of his eyes.
"......Still shaking."
A laugh came out. For the first time in twenty years, a laugh that came close to genuine. A hand that didn't shake under threats. A hand that didn't shake with a knife at him. And now, merchandise that made that hand tremble.
Merchandise like that was rare in this world. Rare things were expensive. Expensive things made money. Seo Jin-woo's calculations always ended there. Fear, shock, trembling. In the end, all of it converted into numbers.
"Han Daewong."
He pulled out a fresh cigarette and put it between his lips. This time he didn't care that his hand was shaking.
Audiences came to see fear. From outside a safe cage of bars, they wanted to watch that monster break people. They'd pay money to feel the same fear he'd just felt. Seo Jin-woo knew. That the most expensive thing a human being bought was fear. And that fear had walked right into his hands, whole.
In his mind, Seo Jin-woo was already drawing up the ledger. First fight: match him against someone decent, let him put them away in one hit. Once the rumor spreads, second fight: someone bigger. Third: someone with a name. The betting pool grows, the videos spread, and people come buy tickets of their own free will.
No need to rush. Match him against someone too strong too soon and the product gets damaged. Damaged product loses value. Slowly. Let him win. Build the undefeated myth. Until the audience's expectations are swollen to the breaking point. Then sell the most expensive match of all.
Exhaling smoke, Seo Jin-woo muttered once more into the dark.
"......I'll raise you carefully."
Because the more expensive the product, the slower you sell it.