Tomorrow, I'll Tear You Apart in the Cage
Tomorrow, I'll tear you apart in the cage.
Over the next few days, the doping suspicions faded away like a lie that had never been told.
The moment Rachel released the test results at the press conference, the public opinion that had been howling so loudly flipped in an instant.
Instead, voices defending me became the majority, accusing the others of piling on without any evidence. People who had been treating me like a junkie just days earlier were now rushing to take my side.
……Honestly, it left me a little dazed.
When the articles first dropped, even I hadn't felt completely at ease. But by the time I came back to myself, everything had already been cleaned up.
"Rachel. How did this even happen?"
I asked her. I was curious what kind of move she had pulled.
"It was nothing special."
Rachel shrugged like it was no big deal.
"This kind of thing is common in this business. Smearing a rising fighter with baseless accusations. It's not something that just started yesterday."
"But it got sorted this fast?"
"We got lucky. I'd already kept every doping test result from the past fights on file, just in case. That turned out to be a huge help this time."
She tapped a stack of documents. The fact that she had prepared in advance somehow made me feel solid and secure.
"And……."
Rachel paused for a moment, then looked straight at me.
"In the first place, you're not the kind of person who needs doping."
"……What?"
"Even without that stuff, you're already strong enough—no, more than strong enough. Relying on drugs is what weaklings do."
She let out a short laugh.
"That's why I never worried from the start. I knew you wouldn't pull something like that. I just…… believed you."
For a second, the words stuck in my throat.
……She believed me.
The way she said it so casually, like it was the most natural thing in the world, somehow tickled a corner of my chest. I felt grateful and a little sorry at the same time—a strange mix of feelings.
"Rachel unnie! You're the absolute best!"
Right then, Seo-yeon, who had been listening from the side, threw herself at Rachel.
"I knew it had to be our Rachel unnie! You totally flattened that dirty bastard's nose! Pure catharsis!"
"Oh my, Seo-yeon. What's gotten into you all of a sudden."
Rachel looked flustered, but she was smiling like she didn't mind at all.
Just a few days ago Seo-yeon had still been calling her Rachel. Now she was calling her unnie and clinging to her like a sticky plaster. That kind of friendliness was something I still couldn't quite figure out.
Watching them, I ended up letting out a quiet snort of laughter myself.
What I had thought would turn into a huge mess was wrapping up this warmly instead. Standing between a rock-solid manager and a hyperactive assistant manager, I somehow felt at ease.
"Alright then."
Rachel gently peeled Seo-yeon off and looked back at me.
"Don't waste any energy on small-time tricks like this. The real fight happens inside the octagon anyway."
Her eyes sparkled.
"Honestly, I'm really looking forward to this final. I can't wait to see how you cook that Yaksha guy. I'm dying of curiosity already."
At those words, I sank into thought for a moment.
……The final.
They were already pulling moves outside the cage. There was no telling what else they might try from here on. But whatever it was, I intended to protect my people.
Inside the octagon or outside it.
……Alright. Let's do this.
I quietly clenched my fist, then opened it again.
The day before the final, the weigh-in was held.
After the weight check came the media interviews. Both fighters stood side by side, trading final psychological blows in front of the reporters.
The moment I stepped up onto the stage, Pyo Sung-ho was already standing next to me.
In person, Pyo Sung-ho looked even more vicious than he had on video. Tattoos wound all over his body, and his eyes were laced with pure venom. The muscular giant stared me down openly and sneered.
"Oh, so this is the famous Han Daewong? Not as impressive as I thought."
Pyo Sung-ho came at me out of nowhere. I just stood there quietly. Provocations like this were already familiar. Kim Do-chol had done the same, and so had the others. There was no point answering every one of them.
But my lack of reaction must have annoyed him, because Pyo Sung-ho kept raising the stakes.
"What, you mute? Can't talk? Makes sense—some juiced-up meathead who only grew his body, his brain's probably fried."
The reporters murmured. Camera flashes went off nonstop.
"Tomorrow inside the cage, I'm gonna turn you into a goddamn rag. That pretty face of yours? I'll smash it so bad no one recognizes you. ……If you're scared, forfeit right now, you chicken-shit coward."
The curses poured out without end. Even so, I felt nothing much. ……If anything, the whole scene felt familiar.
Back when I was a bear.
The animals right before I ate them used to act exactly like that. Once they realized there was nowhere left to run, they would bare their teeth and snarl even harder. They would puff themselves up and roar at the top of their lungs.
But it wasn't because they were strong.
They barked louder to hide their fear.
Pyo Sung-ho was doing the exact same thing right now. Spitting rough curses, threatening with ugly words. And yet, underneath it all, I saw it.
The thin fear he was trying so hard to hide, leaking out anyway.
That man also knew it instinctively. That the thing standing in front of him was something he could never handle.
I simply looked at Pyo Sung-ho with an indifferent face, the way you look down at a beast putting on a show of bravado while trembling with fear.
Maybe that total lack of reaction only pissed him off more. Pyo Sung-ho smirked and lowered his voice.
"Yeah, you don't care about any of this, do you? But you know…… that little girl who always sticks to your side. Kang Seo-yeon, was it?"
……What?
"She was fun to look at. Heard she used to scrap around underground back in the day? I've got plenty of big brothers in that scene. If I feel like it, I can anytime—"
That was as far as he got.
In that instant, something inside me snapped with a soft tuk.
The indifferent sensation from a second ago vanished completely. My head went ice-cold while something scorching surged up from deep inside at the same time.
It was the bear's instinct.
……You little piece of prey.
The thought flashed through my mind.
If I had still been a bear, there wouldn't have been any hesitation. A bastard like that would have had his throat torn out on the spot. There was no mercy for anything that threatened my territory.
I slowly turned my head and faced Pyo Sung-ho straight on. Then I smiled.
I pulled the corners of my mouth up, bared my teeth, and grinned like a starving beast that had finally found its meal.
In that moment, the sneering expression on Pyo Sung-ho's face vanished completely. That massive body visibly stiffened, as if he was barely stopping himself from taking a step back.
Looking straight at that face, I opened my mouth in a low voice.
With those words, I turned my body away.
It wasn't bravado. It wasn't a threat. I was simply letting him know in advance what was going to happen tomorrow.
In the cold air that settled over the stage, even the reporters and the cameras held their breath.
——Tomorrow, I'll tear you apart in the cage.
That line kept circling Pyo Sung-ho's ears all night long.
It had been a low, quiet voice. Not a shout. Not a threat. And yet that single sentence was colder than any threat he had ever heard in his life.
More than anything, he couldn't forget those eyes.
The smile that pulled the corners of the mouth up and showed the teeth. But it wasn't a human smile…… it was exactly like a bear.
A massive predator you might run into in the forest. A starving beast opening its jaws in front of its prey.
That was the image Pyo Sung-ho saw in that smile. It only wore the shape of a person; what lived inside was clearly a beast.
He had spent his whole life scaring other people. Even among the gangsters he was known for being vicious—the nickname Yaksha hadn't stuck for nothing. And yet that one look had almost made him take a step back.
"……Fuck."
Pyo Sung-ho kicked the blanket off roughly.
He was scared. He didn't want to admit it, but he was scared. That monster was exactly like he had looked on video. No—meeting him in person had been even worse.
But.
Strangely enough, right next to that fear, something hot was boiling up as well.
It was excitement.
……Yeah. It has to be at least that level.
Every opponent Pyo Sung-ho had faced until now had been boring. One hard glare at the weigh-in and they all pissed themselves and tucked their tails. Most of them crumbled from fear before they even stepped into the cage. Winning like that was no fun.
But that Han Daewong was different.
If he could break a monster like that. If he could step on that real deal and climb over him. That would be a victory that couldn't be compared to anything he had ever achieved before.
"……He's worth breaking. No—he's a guy I have to break."
Pyo Sung-ho muttered it to himself, forcibly crushing the fear and painting excitement and spite over the top of it.
Fight day.
In the waiting room, Pyo Sung-ho lifted a syringe.
Stimulants and painkillers. Ones whose timing and dosage had been calculated to the second so they would never show up on a test. Once these went into his body, both pain and fear would go dull. He could take hit after hit and still stay on his feet until the end.
Pook.
The needle sank into his forearm. The hot rush of the drugs raced through his veins and spread through his entire body.
"……Yeah. Even if he is a monster."
Pyo Sung-ho glared at himself in the mirror. The tattooed giant was already flushed red from the drugs.
"I just have to last until the end. One hit, two hits…… no matter how many I take, I don't go down. I hang on, I bite, I use every dirty trick, every submission, everything. In the end, I'm the one who tears that bastard apart."
The plan was simple. He already admitted he couldn't win in a straight fight. So he would get filthy and clingy, hang on until the monster got tired, and drag him down somehow.
"……And."
A twisted smile spread across Pyo Sung-ho's lips.
What he was thinking of were the faces he had seen at the weigh-in. The manager woman who had stood next to Han Daewong. And that tiny girl who always stuck to him like glue.
Even that monster had things that were precious to him.
"Right in front of them. I'm going to trample you so thoroughly it's pathetic."
Making those precious people watch Han Daewong fall apart. Just imagining it sent a thrill through him. That would be the most certain pain he could ever give that monster.
"Wait for me, Han Daewong."
Pyo Sung-ho tossed the empty syringe aside and stood up. The massive body swollen with drugs started walking toward the waiting-room door.
"Today, prove to me just how great a monster you really are…… right in front of my face."
And so the Yaksha walked out toward the cage.