Chapter 153
Chapter 153
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 153
Chapter Title: Live by Loyalty, Die by Loyalty (7)
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Incheon Port, where Huni had been nabbed. Not far from there.
A bridge spanned the Yeonha River, where fresh and saltwater mingled. Beyond it stood Incheon International Airport, gleaming like a glass palace in the morning sun.
"Looks like the tail-cutting worked out. Everything's going smooth."
"Really, hyung-nim?"
In front of the airport building, Joo Gwae-yul blocked the morning sun with his hand and grinned. He showed his phone screen to his brother-in-law.
"Yeah. Take a look at this photo. Someone Yoo Tae-chon sent took it right next to Huni. The guy's face says it's all over for him."
It looked like there'd been a fierce struggle before the arrest. The photo showed Huni with a crusted blood clot on his forehead and handcuffs on both wrists.
Everything was unfolding exactly as he'd planned. From tossing out the bait to the escape overseas. Smoothly... ideal, almost too perfect.
"Good thing, hyung-nim. Yoo Tae-chon charges a fortune, but he gets the job done right. Even wired the laundered money right away."
"Went to the right old man for it. Takes half as a fee, but that damn daughter of his got under my skin."
That damn daughter.
Yoo Se-na, was it? Joo Gwae-yul started recalling the unpleasant memory.
'Hah! Got a fall guy lined up? If he's pegged as the boss, it's life in prison. Even for a mob thug, who'd be dumb enough to have shit for brains like that?'
She'd come out swinging with the banmal and curses from the jump.
Her half-decent face didn't match the raspy tone at all—felt a bit off, awkward even. Like someone was puppeteering her from behind.
'And you think prosecutors are gonna buy some green kid wearing the boss hat? Shouldn't you pick from your higher-ups at least!'
'...Can't send him willingly. Just using him as a discard. Anyway, miss, watch your mouth. Show some manners.'
'Go take a shit.'
Joo Gwae-yul endured the awkward farce, '忍' etched in his mind.
He vaguely pieced together the setup. Probably Yoo Tae-chon using his daughter to seize the upper hand in negotiations. Wrong guess, but that's what he thought.
'Well, whoever the guy is, not sure he'll walk into the trap so easy.'
And Yoo Tae-chon, who unlike usual just sat there like a stone Buddha.
Figured he'd probed enough? He asked Joo Gwae-yul in a slightly off-beat, sluggish tone.
'Looks like you've got a plan? You're not expecting me to handle everything, I hope.'
'Plan... of course. Listen up. Got this perfect bait—guy named Huni.'
* * * *
Airport lounge smoking room.
Joo Gwae-yul exhaled the unpleasant memory with the smoke, sending it up the vent.
In the cramped four-pyeong smoking room, his exhaling figure seemed to foreshadow his future. Just missing bars on the windows.
"Anyway, it's done. 40 billion won, clean and laundered. Enough to make a comeback."
"You think you can rebuild the organization... from Cambodia?"
"Once this storm blows over, start fresh. Might as well set up shop abroad this time."
A fugitive now, but time would fix that.
Joo Gwae-yul had one foot in local politics already. He mulled it over and vowed.
"Set up the gambling site again, gather funds... fake some solid foreign ID, step back on Korean soil."
"Hyung-nim, so you plan to return for good eventually?"
"Your nephew's got the Pyeongtaek crew locked down, right? Bring him to Seongnam, put him in charge, then make my move when the time's right."
Tap, tap. Joo Gwae-yul knocked ash into the stainless ashtray and spoke with regret.
"If not for this mess... Power players up top always deal for cash. Black money or squeaky clean, doesn't matter."
-Passengers on Flight A to Phnom Penh International Airport in Cambodia, your departure is imminent. Please proceed to Gate 15.
The overhead speaker announced it was time.
Joo Gwae-yul straightened his collar and stepped out the smoking room door toward his new world.
Unaware those steps led to another cage.
"Right on time. Perfect. Hey, excuse me. Mind if I pass?"
"Sure, go ahead. You seem in a rush."
The suited young man cheerfully stepped aside.
Familiar face, like he'd seen him from afar once... but Joo Gwae-yul's frayed nerves had no room for that.
"Hoo..."
He placed his callused palm on the escalator handrail.
Texture, color, feel—all different, but it evoked the grip of his curved knife after his first kill.
Pounding heart ready to bolt. Legs primed to run. Head melting in anxiety and tension. All of it.
"Huh... what the hell is this?"
"Hyung-nim, something wrong?"
What if he got caught?
What catastrophic end waited?
And at that end... what would become of him?
Fear amplified. Blue veins bulged on the back of his white-knuckled hand.
And then.
"Won't uncomfortable things keep piling up from now on?"
"......?"
The young man who'd stepped aside at the escalator base.
Silent as a ghost, he'd appeared right behind him.
Joo Gwae-yul turned slowly, emotions triggering a memory fragment. Finally, the name hit him.
"Han Seo-jun... Chairman! Why the hell are you here...!"
"Not far off anymore. Ruin's closing in."
His finger pointed up.
At the top, men appeared before Joo Gwae-yul's eyes—ones who'd been invisible moments ago.
Classic plainclothes investigators, just from their vibe.
"Heh heh... Me, Joo Gwae-yul, taken down by some wet-behind-the-ears punk."
A hollow chuckle escaped him.
No need to walk or run—despair approached on its own. He took it in and asked.
"That play with Yoo Tae-chon and his daughter that day... your doing too, Han Seo-jun Chairman."
"The real show started at Nakgu, but of course before that."
A hand on Joo Gwae-yul's shoulder.
The faint smile before him crumpled like wadded paper, hardening into a blank expression.
Resolute. Terrifyingly so.
"You poked at Ammunition Group from the inside—something you never should've touched."
Clunk. The escalator halted like someone hit the switch.
He didn't even hear the investigators' approaching footsteps.
Just a short sigh and bowed head from Joo Gwae-yul.
"Hah... hooked myself to one hell of a vicious bastard."
"Joo Gwae-yul! This is Prosecutor Park Eun-ji of Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office! Hands up! Hands up! It's over!"
Prosecutor Park Eun-ji, gun drawn, bellowing loud enough to shake the building.
But Joo Gwae-yul heard only the man behind him.
"Know there are more investigators behind you too."
"Fine. No need to trouble more folks at this point."
He looked up at the ceiling. The glass poured down unusually warm sunlight, mockingly so.
"Karma. In every sense."
* * * *
Three months later.
"Yeah, yeah. All their own karma, pure karma."
Rustle. A gray newspaper unfolded, and Kim Won-cheol's voice rang out after ages.
As always, he'd raided the office fridge for snacks and plopped down in the empty chairman's office.
"What's the karma for the guy raiding Ammunition Group's chairman fridge?"
"Heh, fridge raider? That's my consideration—keeping our chairman from packing on pounds."
"I'm not the type to gain weight easily, though..."
I shook my head side to side.
Snacks weren't the point. The real deal was the front-page story Uncle was reading.
-Seoul Central District Court hands life sentence to Iljeong faction boss Joo Gwae-yul; key lieutenants including Park Huni get 12, 10 years each.
"She's smashing them good. Prosecutor Park Eun-ji."
"Fiery one. Like watching a fighting cock."
"High court appeal probably similar?"
"Legal team's saying it'll stick close. Evidence is overflowing, plus they screwed up big with that accident. Anyway, Chairman's real interest here."
Slide. He handed me the report.
Flip open the black binder cover—exactly what I'd been dying to hear, documented.
"The scraps left after those pickles rang their death knell?"
Disposition of criminal proceeds.
All assets held by Joo Gwae-yul's Iljeong faction were being force-sold at court auction.
A five-story building on Seoul's outskirts. Undeveloped land in southern Gyeonggi.
Undisposed cash bundles, gold bars, miscellaneous jewels.
And... the cryptocurrency I'd had my eye on.
"Bitcoin still warm from the dead. Nabbed it at auction like you ordered."
"Solo bid?"
"Yup. Nobody bit. Not the big corps, not the loan sharks or our line of sharks."
Total bitcoin hoarded by Joo Gwae-yul—no, precisely by Huni: 10,000 coins.
At $15 a pop, total around 150 million won.
People would scoff—past or future, man or beast.
"Honestly, blowing cash on this ain't my thing. But hey, weird chairman's weird hobby. Gotta roll with it."
"You'll see."
He couldn't imagine that hobby hitting jackpot in under 7-8 years.
I was about to bet him on future bitcoin prices when a voice called from outside.
Aide Yoo Se-na.
"Um... Chairman?"
"What's up, Aide Yoo Se-na?"
She looked a bit troubled. Then came the unwelcome words from her mouth.
"Call from the Blue House. The President wants to hear about the case straight from you."