The Chairman Takes Care of It Himself
"Really? There wouldn’t be any evidence, would there?"
"It’s circumstantial evidence, you bastard. Circumstantial evidence! You and Tae-sung were classmates, weren’t you? And you graduated from Korea University Law School. You don’t even know that?"
"Of course I do. No evidence means not guilty. You know the presumption of innocence? You must have learned that a few times in school when you were young, big brother."
"I never went. That kind of place is for punks. At my level, how many guys do you think actually went to school?"
"Seems like a lot..."
"..."
As Jeong Taeyang kept trying to force his point through with sheer bluster, a thick vein stood out on his forehead.
"Enough joking around. What are we doing about Johwa Group? Are we just going to smash straight in? Or delay the appointment?"
"Taeyang hyung."
"Why. Why are you suddenly calling me all friendly like that? Stick to how you usually talk."
"I’ve got a few principles for how I deal with life, the kind I bury deep in my chest and keep living by."
"What is it? If you’re going to spout bullshit, don’t. There are only three hours left until our meeting with Chairman Cheon of Johwa Group."
Jeong Taeyang tapped his wristwatch with an impatient look.
"When there’s something you really don’t want to do, you put it off however you can. You dodge it, delay it, keep delaying it."
"You think you’re the only one? I do that too."
"But then think it through once."
"Think what through?"
"If it’s something you can avoid, or something someone else can do for you, then keep avoiding it until the end. Avoid it however you can. But if you finally reach the conclusion that I’m the only one who can solve it?"
"..."
"Then you deal with it as fast as possible and get some rest."
"Who doesn’t know that?"
"Huh? I don’t think hyung does. They teach this stuff in business, too. Things that can be handled fast but aren’t that important. Important things that should be handled fast. Things that can be done slowly but are important, things that can be done slowly and aren’t important..."
"Enough!"
Jeong Taeyang raised his voice.
"Let’s go outside and smoke a cigarette. I’m so frustrated I can’t stand it."
Jeong Taeyang got up from his seat and left the coffee shop, and I returned my cup before following him out.
"Where’d he go that fast?"
He was gone.
Jeong Taeyang had clearly stepped out of the coffee shop, but in that brief moment he’d vanished somewhere out of sight.
Had he gone to the car to get cigarettes?
"Y-yes, thank you. Thank you, sir."
"Yeah, be careful on your way."
Then I heard Jeong Taeyang’s voice from a little way off in the smoking area, and a student with one cheek puffed red and swollen came sprinting past me with his bag hugged to his chest.
"Aren’t you putting it out?"
"Sir, we got held back a year. We’re twenty."
"Big brother is telling you nicely one more time. Put it out and go."
"Haa... sir. Just smoke with us. Everyone else here’s keeping quiet, so why are you the only one picking on us? Have you even worked out, sir? Huh? So what if you’re big? You think we’re gonna be scared and put it out?"
"Ha... I’m getting challenged from a place I never expected. These tiny little high school punks."
From what I could gather, it looked like Jeong Taeyang had saved some student from getting shaken down by a bunch of delinquents in a back alley, but...
"Ah, is today that day?"
I remembered hearing something about Jeong Taeyang a long time ago.
He never seemed to realize when he himself was being rude, but he absolutely could not tolerate other people getting uppity, especially kids. There was an old story about him getting into it with a bunch of high school students and having the back of his head smashed open. Supposedly one of those kids had swung a club at him and cracked him on the back of the head so hard he needed ten stitches.
Maybe today was that day.
The smoking area was reached by turning left along the narrow alley behind the coffee shop, where the parking lot entrance opened up.
I lit a cigarette and watched the fight between Jeong Taeyang and the high school students.
"Boss!"
"What is it, boss?"
At that moment, two gangsters who had been waiting for Jeong Taeyang in the parking lot kicked open their car doors and rushed to his side.
"What the hell? That old man’s a thug?"
But the students didn’t look scared at all.
If it had just been a bunch of men, even with nearly ten high school students, they probably wouldn’t have been able to keep that brazen attitude in front of Jeong Taeyang and his men, but...
"Oppa, let’s stop and go."
"Yeah. Let’s go to karaoke."
"We’ve got that meet-up with the Jeongcheon Technical guys today, remember? Time’s up. Baby, let’s just go."
"No, don’t stop me. This old man’s talking like total shit."
The problem was that three schoolgirls in uniforms, with heavy makeup on, were mixed in with the group.
"Boss, we’ll handle it."
"Damn brats, not even dry behind the ears."
Smack. Smack. Smack!
"Agh! Ahhh!"
In the end, things exploded.
The rule of gangsters was simple: don’t touch civilians. But if someone looked down on the younger brothers serving the boss, whether they were police or whatever else, they didn’t hold back.
Two of Jeong Taeyang’s underlings grabbed the hair of the two biggest boys in the high school crowd and slapped them as hard as they could. With crisp cracking sounds, blood sprayed from their lips and noses.
"W-what are you doing, you bastards? What do you think the Jeongcheon Technical guys will say if they show up?"
"Fuck, kill them. We’re from Gyeongun Commercial High!"
"Waaaaaah!"
It finally blew up.
Jeong Taeyang still hadn’t moved, but his two underlings and ten high school students were already brawling in the parking lot.
"Ha... seriously, this is ridiculous."
Just like Jeong Taeyang had a moment ago, my hand went to my forehead without me even thinking about it. That was the first time I realized a person could actually feel heat rising in their head from sheer disbelief.
Unless Jeong Taeyang got beaten to death here, I honestly didn’t want any part in this mess.
"W-what do we do?"
"Shouldn’t we call the police?"
It was around the time cellphones were beginning to spread in earnest, so one by one people started pulling theirs out and calling the police.
From Yeongdeungpo Police Station to here, it would take about ten minutes...
"Hoo... I can’t be late for the Johwa Group appointment."
Do Jaehyun pulled out his cellphone.
"Yes, Chairman. This is Kim Museong."
"...No need for Representative Kim to come personally. Send Hyeong-tae and three or four others to the parking lot behind the Devil in Us coffee shop, in front of Yeongdeungpo Station."
"Pardon? What’s going on all of a sudden?"
"Our dear Chairman Jeong Taeyang has caused quite the incident."
"An incident? What kind of incident?"
"Looks like he’s about to throw down with a bunch of high school students. The police may show up soon, too."
"...Understood, Chairman. I’ll send the boys within five minutes."
"And just in case, don’t send them carrying anything."
"Don’t worry, Chairman."
Do Jaehyun hung up.
"What the hell? Hey, run! We were just going to deal with the Gyeongun Commercial High ringleader, and some bastard jumped the gun."
From the back alley, about twenty male students in uniforms with striking blue shirts flooded into the passage. A few of them had bicycle chains wrapped around their hands, and one bastard was dragging a club along the pavement.
The people who had called the police and were watching the fight with a mix of worry and anticipation immediately pressed themselves against the wall when they saw the new students appear.
"What are you looking at?"
"Hey, don’t start something for nothing. Let’s knock out the Gyeongun Commercial High kids first and get out. If the cops show up, we’re screwed. If we get caught again this time, they’ll kick us out of school."
"Tsk. Let’s go, let’s go."
The boys spat between their teeth, tightened their grip on the makeshift weapons in their hands, and charged into the parking lot.
"Ha... today’s the day I’m meeting Chairman Cheon of Johwa Group, and it’d be a problem if Chairman Jeong ends up with his skull cracked open..."
I had no choice but to help. Still, if my face got caught on a phone camera, that would be a problem...
I quietly put on a mask and followed after the boys.
During my previous life, after living through COVID, I’d gotten into the habit of carrying a mask around, and I really hadn’t expected it to come in handy like this.
"Ugh!"
"S-sorry, boss."
No matter how tough a gangster looked, his physical ability was still a long way below that of a professional fighter or a special forces veteran. And, well, their stamina was trash, too.
So even if they could intimidate people with the atmosphere and a gangster’s natural swagger at the start, once a fight seriously broke out, the outcome was obvious.
"What, I thought gangsters were supposed to be really good at fighting. Guess that’s all there is to it? Even a pack of them can’t do anything special, right?"
"Hey, hold those two bastards tight. Don’t let them go."
In that short span of time, the two underlings besides Jeong Taeyang had been turned into rags by ten high school students.
"Haah..."
Jeong Taeyang covered a face that looked like it might burst into tears with one hand.
"I told you to drink less and work out a bit."
"Sorry, boss..."
"...Sorry, big boss."
In the end, Jeong Taeyang stepped in.
"What, you want to fight? You should’ve all come at once from the beginning. What’s one old man supposed to do now..."
Thwack.
"Ah...?!"
Thud.
The guy who looked like the leader of the Gyeongun Commercial High group collapsed unconscious on the spot, his legs giving out from a clean straight punch by Jeong Taeyang.
"Shit, Tae-geun!"
"Kill him!"
"Waaaaaah!"
Jeong Taeyang didn’t wait.
As the high school students shouted and rushed at him, he actually ran straight toward them, grabbed the back of the fallen leader’s neck, and threw him directly at the students.
"Clamp your jaw shut. You’ll bite through your tongue."
If he threw a proper uppercut from below, someone could really get hurt badly. Jeong Taeyang slipped the chin of the frontmost student and, using the force of his own motion and the centrifugal swing of his body, slammed the elbow of his other arm straight into the philtrum of the next boy.
"Keuk!"
The student who took the elbow to the philtrum crumpled, blood streaming from his nose, while the one who got hit in the jaw staggered like someone stepping off a spinning ride before dropping to the ground.
The once-belligerent high school students flinched and froze at Jeong Taeyang’s sudden attack, and he quickly grabbed the hair of the nearest one and hammered him mercilessly in the abdomen.
"What are you waiting for? Hurry up and hit him! Minjung’s been grabbed!"
"Y-yeah!"
Trying to save the student with his hair in Jeong Taeyang’s grip, the Gyeongun Commercial High kids swung their arms and legs awkwardly at him, but Jeong Taeyang didn’t budge. He kept pounding the boy in his grasp like a drum until another one collapsed.
"Come on in, you little punks."
As expected of Jeong Taeyang.
He was on a completely different level from his underlings. The high school students were shaken by his overwhelming violence.
"Hey, take them all down."
"Okay. As long as we don’t kill them, right?"
"Yeah, breaking one or two bones is fine. We’re minors."
Then.
The Jeongcheon Technical boys, whether they were rivals or friends of the Gyeongun Commercial High kids who were already getting beaten, came charging at Jeong Taeyang.
"...Fuck. We’re already short on time, and now a whole damn dozen brats are running over here."
It was time to finish this.
Do Jaehyun moved in nimbly behind the high school boys charging at Jeong Taeyang like hyenas.
Four of the boys in front rushed Jeong Taeyang all at once, clinging to his arms and legs. Another boy with a club raised it high and brought it crashing down toward the back of Jeong Taeyang’s head.
Crack!
Just before the club could land on Jeong Taeyang’s skull, Do Jaehyun’s kick, launched with the spring of his full sprint, cleanly shattered it in one blow after he covered roughly four to five meters in a single leap.
"Kids. Sorry, but that old man has an important appointment today."