Don't Talk About Bears
Han Daewong was gone.
Through the shattered doorway, Seo Jin-woo watched that massive back recede into the darkness. He stood motionless until the sound of footsteps had completely faded.
And the moment it did, Seo Jin-woo's face slowly changed.
The bloodless, trembling face from moments before—the face that had been begging for its life—shed its terror the way water drains away. What rose in its place was a smile.
"……Heh."
Seo Jin-woo looked down at the desk split clean in half and let out a hollow laugh.
"Well, damn."
From among the shattered liquor bottles he picked up one that had survived intact. The glasses were all gone. He took a swig straight from the bottle and settled himself at an angle on the cracked desk.
"A dog biting its owner. And on the very first day."
His tone was light, as if he had just watched an amusing movie. But his eyes alone were not smiling.
Seo Jin-woo had rolled through this underworld for decades. Starting with bare hands, he had bought and sold people, bought and sold beasts, and turned this place into his own private kingdom. No one entered his office without leave. No one raised their voice in front of him.
And yet just now, a rookie who had debuted only yesterday had smashed through the door, split his desk, left a threat, and walked out showing him his back.
"……I priced him wrong."
Seo Jin-woo muttered. The hand holding the bottle still trembled faintly. Even that tremor he regarded with something like interest.
"Expensive merchandise, no question. But thinking it was merchandise I could tame…… that was my mistake."
He slowly shook his head.
A beast that cannot be tamed is not merchandise. And a beast that is not merchandise is simply disposed of. That was the law of this world. You mark down anything that will not listen; if that fails, you scrap it. Beast or human, it made no difference.
There was only one problem.
That thing was not something Seo Jin-woo could take alone. A dozen bodyguards had been flung aside in seconds. Blades had done nothing. The cards he held were nowhere near enough.
"……Not alone, then."
He picked up the phone with its cracked screen. The glass was shattered, but it still made calls. He scrolled to a contact.
Park Sang-do.
He pressed call. The dial tone rang twice, and a thick voice answered.
"Yeah, Jin-woo. What's got you callin' at this hour?"
"Sang-do~"
Seo Jin-woo's voice stretched out, lazy. Whatever humiliation had been there moments ago had vanished; he sounded like a man trading jokes over drinks.
"I saw something really interesting today."
"Interesting, huh?"
"Yeah. One walked into our world. A very expensive one."
"……Sounds like you snagged another good piece. Callin' to brag?"
"If it's bragging, fine. Thing is~"
Seo Jin-woo tapped the cracked desk with a fingertip.
"That expensive piece just wrecked my office and walked out."
The line went quiet for a beat.
"……Your office? You keep heavy security there."
"I do. A dozen men."
Seo Jin-woo ran his palm along the cross-section of the desk, solid wood split like paper.
"They all went down to him. One punch split my desk in half. There was a guy with a knife, and that knife never even touched him."
"……Hey. That a person?"
Seo Jin-woo closed his mouth for a moment at the question.
Was it a person?
He did not know the answer either. The scene from the CCTV—bodyguards flying as if struck by a truck, that enormous shadow strolling forward like it was out for a walk. More than a man, it was more like—
"……A bear."
The word slipped out unbidden.
"A bear?"
"Yeah. Exactly like a bear. The size, that heavy way of walking. One swipe and people went flying—like some kind of animal."
"……Ah, don't talk about bears."
Park Sang-do cut him off flat, irritation thick in his voice.
"Lately just hearin' that word makes me want to throw up."
"Why. Something happen?"
"Don't even start. Not long ago I brought in one Kodiak bear wrong and the bastard escaped…… wiped out a whole branch. Cops and the National Intelligence Service both on my ass."
"Ah~"
Seo Jin-woo tipped the bottle with genuine interest.
"That Monster Bear incident. That was yours?"
"I said don't even. Ten years without a scratch, and one bear almost ruined my whole life. That thing's still holed up somewhere in the mountains. Just thinkin' about it makes my head ring."
Listening, Seo Jin-woo slowly lifted the corner of his mouth.
A man who had been burned by one bear. And a man whose office had just been wrecked by something that was like a bear.
This was starting to sketch a rather entertaining picture.
"But Sang-do. Here's the thing."
Seo Jin-woo tapped the cracked desk once with a fingertip.
"That bear-like bastard is on his way to you right now."
The line went quiet again.
"……What?"
"I told you earlier. Kang Seo-yeon's debt—he said he'd collect it from you himself. Coming at you straight and stubborn as a bear. Isn't that a coincidence? You got burned by a bear once, and now another bear-like thing is rolling right to your door."
Over the phone, Park Sang-do's voice dropped a full tone.
"……Jin-woo. No jokes. What the hell is that kid?"
The earlier irritation had turned serious.
"Han Daewong. Rookie who debuted yesterday. And in that debut, he one-punched a former Asian champion out of the cage."
"One punch?"
"Yeah. And today he wiped out my dozen guards in a few seconds and split my desk."
Seo Jin-woo picked up another intact bottle from among the shards.
"So Sang-do. This isn't the same as bagging some mutt. We need bodies. A whole lot of them."
"……How many we talkin'?"
There was no playfulness left in Park Sang-do's voice.
"Which is why I'm saying. Shouldn't we take this ill-mannered puppy out for a little walk?"
"……Beat him down and put a collar on him, yeah."
"If that doesn't work, bury him."
Seo Jin-woo shrugged.
"Ah, but should we pick the burial spot first? With that size, the hole's gonna need to be pretty big~"
"Jin-woo."
"What."
"So how many do I call. I keep askin'. Just answer."
Seo Jin-woo fell quiet for a moment, thinking.
The CCTV footage rose again in his mind. A dozen men gone in an instant. You did not count that thing by human numbers. That was…… hunting a bear.
To take a bear, you needed overwhelming numbers and no gaps. Nowhere left to run.
"All of them. Everything you can scrape together right now."
"Right now?"
"Yeah. Delaying makes it boring. Strike while the iron's hot."
Over the line came the sound of Park Sang-do thinking.
"……Funny enough, I got a pack of boys loose around here. Sent 'em out on other business. If I pull 'em in now…… should clear a hundred easy. Sashimi knives, steel pipes—they're still carryin' the gear."
"Oh~ See? Destiny."
"A hundred guys for one rookie. Word gets out, I'll be too embarrassed to show my face in this business."
"Sang-do."
For the first time, Seo Jin-woo's voice turned serious.
"If you saw my office yourself, you wouldn't say that. I guarantee it—a hundred might not even be enough."
Park Sang-do whistled on the other end.
"……Must've shook you pretty good. You talkin' like this."
"It did~ First time in a long while."
Seo Jin-woo admitted it openly, without a trace of shame.
"But that's exactly why I'm more curious. If we surround that expensive beast with a hundred men…… what kind of picture do we get?"
His eyes gleamed with interest, like a promoter who had just closed his hand around a new main-event card.
"……You're something else. Even now, that still sounds fun to you."
"Fun always comes from places like this, doesn't it?"
"Fine. Scrapin' the boys together now. Thirty minutes, an hour at most, we'll be there."
"Good. And Sang-do—"
Seo Jin-woo stood from the cracked desk and added, unhurried,
"When you get here, seal the entrance first. Drop the shutters, lock every emergency exit. Not even a rat gets out."
"……Cagin' him in, then."
"Caging him."
Seo Jin-woo grinned.
"Whether it's the one who came in…… or the one who went out."
"What's that supposed to mean."
"Nothing. Just making sure we do it clean~"
Seo Jin-woo laughed it off lightly, without even knowing what the words he had just let slip truly meant.
"Got it. See you soon."
The call ended.
Seo Jin-woo set the phone down and turned his gaze to the broken monitor. On the CCTV feed, one of the split screens caught a familiar silhouette.
Small frame, short black hair, a band-aid on her forehead.
Kang Seo-yeon.
She was lingering near the entrance to the arena, then stepping inside in a hurry, face urgent, searching for someone.
……Oh. Look at that.
The corner of Seo Jin-woo's mouth stretched long.
No need to set bait separately. The bait was walking in on its own two feet.
Seo-yeon had clearly come chasing that bear—the man who had wrecked the office and vanished. But the man himself was already gone. What remained was an empty underground arena and a hundred hunters about to arrive.
"……That's right. Stay right there, nice and quiet."
Seo Jin-woo lifted the broken bottle and tipped it toward the small silhouette on the screen, as if toasting.
"That bear will come back soon enough to save you."
He left the office at a leisurely pace. Bodyguards still lay sprawled in the corridor. Seo Jin-woo strolled between them and nudged one fallen subordinate with the tip of his shoe.
"Hey. Get up. We've got guests to prepare for."
Leaving the groaning man behind, Seo Jin-woo walked toward the empty Underground Arena.
Tonight, in less than an hour, more than a hundred hunters would pour into this darkness with sashimi knives and axes. The entrance would drop under steel shutters. The emergency exits would lock.
And right into the middle of it all, one bear would walk in on his own two feet to save the person he loved.
Knowing nothing.
"……Looking forward to it."
Seo Jin-woo muttered that to himself and smiled alone in the dark.