Chapter 17. A Hyung Who Wants to Set You Up with His Little Sister
Chapter 17. A Hyung Who Wants to Set You Up with His Little Sister
Han Gwanggeun.
A self-made, rags-to-riches success story.
Born into a poor family, he had worked hard up until his late fifties.
Now he was wealthy enough to throw his weight around wherever he went.
The biggest chunk of his assets was the motel, worth about 12 billion won at current market prices.
A long time ago, right after the IMF crisis, he’d forced the purchase—taking out a heavy loan—to buy a property that had come up at auction for 1 billion won.
Back then, when Gwanggeun was in his late twenties, everyone told him he was insane.
In the end, the one who won was Gwanggeun.
The motel business was a cash cow.
The only expenses were utilities and labor.
The more he shaved labor costs, the more money went into Gwanggeun’s pocket, and he constantly poured his energy into cutting payroll.
But just now, he’d made a fatal mistake.
“Do you happen to know anywhere?” Seriously…
He should’ve told them to mind their own business and said he’d handle it himself.
But his mouth had already spat out that stupid line.
The manager had said they were gangsters who controlled the neighboring area, and that they were terrifying bastards connected to the mass-murder case the TV had been shouting about a few days ago.
He’d weathered countless crises on sheer guts to become self-made in Korea, but he’d never been directly entangled with gangsters.
People who exist above the law and use violence.
These days, there were more “smart” gangsters who hired lawyers and slipped through legal cracks.
The path to a long life was to avoid even the smallest connection with people like that.
And because he was so full of fear toward the Room 105 gangsters, he’d been intimidated by a simple question—and blurted out the worst possible thing.
“Hm… I do know a staffing agency pretty well… but instead of that, why don’t you have my boys do it until you find people? So. What’s the pay here? Minimum wage, I’m guessing?”
My boys…
What the hell was he even saying right now?
While the owner sat there confused for a moment, the manager started explaining the cleaning team’s wages and work hours.
“What? No—then that’s not even minimum wage! How does that make sense? And it takes 15 to 20 minutes per room, and you’re saying they clean 70 rooms a day? Then even if they worked all day without resting, they couldn’t finish! This is a straight-up violation of labor law! Owner—this is how you run a business? You’re basically a criminal.”
The owner’s face went white at being called a criminal by a gangster.
“N-no… not every room takes that long, and day-use rooms take three minutes…”
When the manager tried to pass that off as an excuse, Cheolmin hyung got even angrier.
“So you’ve been cleaning overnight rooms properly, and doing day-use rooms like garbage. Which means you’ve been giving customers filthy rooms cleaned like garbage this whole time. Do you even pass district hygiene inspections properly?”
The owner and manager looked like their souls had left their bodies at words like “labor law” and “hygiene inspection.”
Nice, Cheolmin hyung.
It looked like Cheolmin hyung would handle the situation on his own, so I tuned out and went up to the quarters to sleep.
1:00 p.m., Seoul underground bunker
The government officials who had rushed into the air-raid shelter at 9:50 a.m. were now screaming at each other at full volume.
“We have to respond immediately, even now. The U.S. military is conducting unauthorized operations on the Korean Peninsula. This is a clear violation of sovereignty. We must clearly define military authority and punish North Korea for firing a nuclear weapon!”
“What are you talking about? Do you not watch the news? They’re saying South Korea and the U.S. are working together to respond to the provocation! Why are you deliberately creating problems? Isn’t the U.S. response already within the scope that’s been approved in advance? Don’t you know wartime operational control is with the U.S.?”
“The nuke didn’t even detonate, and the shells that fell in northern Gyeonggi mostly hit military units—there’s almost no civilian damage. If we respond, then it’s real war. Things are being resolved smoothly—why are you trying to start a war? Haven’t you ever heard that peace is precious?”
“This entire situation happened because of excessive provocation by the South Korean military. We must protect peace, not war.”
The people who, until this morning, had insisted a nuclear strike would never happen were now claiming the South Korean military provoked North Korea into launching it.
“Are you out of your minds? We were attacked. With a nuclear weapon. And you idiots want to ‘protect peace’ with the other side? Do you even know how many soldiers died today? Tens of thousands. Tens of thousands of our soldiers in the prime of their lives died today!”
When a general roared, the ministers snapped back.
“Did you just call us idiots? How dare you say such nonsense! Apologize!”
“Where exactly did this ‘nuke was fired’ claim come from? Is it based on facts?”
“Nuke or not, it didn’t land! Isn’t it enough that we’re safe?”
In the chaos, the president—who had been silent—finally spoke.
“Officially, it has been confirmed that a nuclear missile was launched toward Seoul.”
At that grim statement, the room fell quiet.
“Then how was it stopped?”
“The U.S. possesses advanced technologies it has not publicly announced. Some say it even has UFO technology. We also believe the same type of technology may explain how the thousands of long-range artillery shells launched from the ceasefire line at 11:20 a.m. turned back mid-flight and struck the North.”
“Hah… damn.”
At that moment, one of the ministers seated there sent a message.
[Not Korea. Korean government assumes U.S. tech]
Then, from the seat beside them, another message was forwarded elsewhere.
[U.S. new tech. Even Korea doesn’t know what it is]
Then an aide came in and announced new information to the room.
“They say the North Korean leader is dead. It has been officially confirmed that he was hiding in a safehouse and was killed by a U.S. strike this morning.”
“What?!”
The government officials went blank.
Since 9 a.m., the nonstop cascade of events had made it hard for them to stay sane. That was why so many brainless outbursts were flying around.
“The North Korean military leadership has expressed unconditional surrender.”
“Ah…”
People in the room gasped, thinking, Is unification actually happening like this?
But the next report turned their brains white again.
“However, they are surrendering to the United States. North Korea has officially conveyed surrender to the U.S. government. And they also told South Korea not to interfere. They say this is a war between North Korea and the United States.”
The Pentagon.
“Accept the surrender. Then send an official inspection team and establish a new government on our side.”
The U.S. president said it indifferently.
The casualties were fewer than expected.
This was the best outcome possible. Still, even if casualties were low, blood had been spilled. He felt bitter, like his Nobel Peace Prize had just flown away.
“Intelligence from Korea. It’s certain that stopping the nuke and the shelling had nothing to do with the Korean government.”
“How is that possible? If Korea didn’t do something, then who did?”
“Scientists analyzed the missile trajectory that stopped in midair and believe an intangible energy was fired from somewhere in Seoul. The most likely location is north of the Han River.”
“Isn’t it some secret organization the Korean government raised in secret? They acted innocent while secretly researching nukes and all that.”
“We can’t tell yet whether the Korean government is truly uninvolved or simply pretending not to know. But all available CIA intelligence assets are currently heading to Korea.”
“North Korea isn’t the biggest issue anymore. The most important thing now is that unknown phenomenon in Korea. We need to identify it. Tell the CIA: this is a supranational matter—drop everything, and the government will cooperate as well.”
“Yes, sir.”
That unknown phenomenon in Korea.
It was a game-changer that would shake future international relations to the core.
Everyone was misunderstanding it as America’s power, but the U.S. president had no intention of correcting them.
He’d rather use that misunderstanding.
And he needed to make that misunderstanding become the truth.
The sun was sinking in the west.
But even this level of sunlight was fatal to Seorin.
From the darkness, she stretched out her arm and “grabbed” the sunset with her hand.
White smoke rose immediately as her flesh began to burn.
It hurt.
Getting cut or having limbs torn off didn’t bring much pain—but this burning heat made every single cell in her body scream in torment.
Seorin yanked her arm back into the darkness.
The burning skin slowly calmed, but the burn marks would probably last for hours.
From the news, it didn’t look like war would break out.
There had been turmoil, but it was settling down.
The Organization had ordered her to stand by for a few days, but Seorin planned to go to Seoul tonight and eliminate a guy named Choi Cheolmin and his subordinates.
And most importantly—the guy in the tracksuit who swung a broom.
From what she’d read via psychometry, he looked sloppy, but he was a strong opponent she couldn’t ignore. Not enough to require teaming up with other Discipline Knights, but not someone she could be careless with either.
She had five tasks left.
If she finished just five tasks, she would be freed from the Discipline Corps she’d been bound to for 300 years.
A single wish granted to anyone who completed service in the Discipline Corps successfully.
She’d endured everything for that.
Let’s finish this quickly…
Then her phone chimed with a message.
[To China… coordinate with the other knights to handle the matter. Transfer the remaining work in Korea to the probationary Discipline Corps.]
The details of the job didn’t matter.
If she completed just five more tasks, she would achieve her goal.
But she doubted whether a rookie from the Discipline Corps could handle that tracksuit man.
From the Incheon faction boss’s memories, it seemed unlikely…
But the Elders Council’s orders were absolute.
This wasn’t Seorin’s judgment to make. When orders came down, she only obeyed.
[Little Brother, how about tuna sashimi for dinner tonight?]
I woke up to the message Cheolmin hyung sent at 6 p.m.
How does this hyung know my wake-up time?
Tuna sashimi…
I’d kill for it.
After stretching hard once, I dragged my slippers toward the first floor.
In the elevator mirror, my hair was sticking up. I wet my palm with a bit of saliva, pressed the hair down, and fixed it in place with telekinesis.
Neat.
When I got down to the office, the boss and manager weren’t there—looks like they’d left early again today.
Bella and Cheolmin were huddled together in the office, watching a video with tuna sashimi on screen and saying “spasibo” to each other in Russian.
At the counter, Chanhyeok hyung looked sulky, like he was in a bad mood.
Two day-use customers all day…
Normally, even when business is bad, at least twenty come in. This was insane.
Ah… right. A nuke flew in today.
So anyone coming for day-use on a day like this isn’t normal.
Looking at the counter monitor, overnight-room cleaning was almost finished.
In the hallway, two cleaning teams were rotating—each team a trio of muscular men who looked like Isu Gang members.
On a day like this, if one aunty was off, two people would handle that workload—but right now, six men were working. Triple manpower.
When I checked rooms with telekinesis, the big guys Cheolmin hyung brought were cleaning by the book, without a speck of dust.
They were removing even the scale wedged into the bathroom, scrubbing away early mold growth until it was spotless.
The mirrors were clean without a single smear.
They could’ve cut corners since no one was watching, but they were diligent even without supervision.
He picked well…
When the aunties do a sloppy job, complaints come to the counter.
Every time, I pass customer complaints along and tell them to be careful, but it never gets fixed.
If cleaning stays this thorough, customer complaints might disappear from now on.
“Hyung, what are you doing for dinner? Want me to buy you burgers or something?”
When I said that to Chanhyeok hyung, Cheolmin hyung stepped in.
“Little Brother, don’t worry. I already ordered boxed meals for the cleaning juniors—and for the front desk staff too.”
“Don’t tell me you paid for it, Cheolmin hyung?”
“Come on. Of course not. The motel owner pays for this. I already settled it earlier.”
Was this hyung a righteous hero in a past life?
He doesn’t just solve difficult, messy problems cleanly—he even takes care of small details with care.
If I had a little sister, he’s the kind of guy I’d want to introduce to her.
“Let’s go. I already found a place.”
Cheolmin led the way, and Bella trotted after him.
She was in a pink tracksuit again today—same design, but a different outfit from yesterday.
Did she buy several identical sets and keep wearing only that?
She’s not sane.
As I followed while thinking that, Chanhyeok hyung could only feel like crying as he watched them.
He couldn’t run, and it felt like he’d become livestock.
Terrifying gangsters had been coming and going every day, and now six slabs of muscle had shown up as the cleaning crew.
Whenever life was hard, Chanhyeok used to relieve stress by nagging the aunties—but now he wouldn’t even be able to do that.
Chanhyeok’s mood darkened even further.
His only comfort was that he could see Bella—doll-like beautiful—right up close…