The Boss Who Did Everything Himself
“What’s with this older brother now?”
“Still, that’s a relief.”
“Huh?”
“At least he’s an older brother, not some old man.”
Do Jaehyun’s mouth curved slightly. And Jeong Taeyang could tell right then that Do Jaehyun had no intention of using violence at all.
“You there, old man.”
“It’s older brother, you little punk!”
“Yes, sir. It’s getting late, so you should head on now.”
“Ha…”
The violent clash that had been easy to describe with a single phrase like a group brawl had dissolved the moment Do Jaehyun appeared.
“Why are you all just standing there? Does that older brother have some different kind of vibe?”
“What the hell are you even saying?”
When Do Jaehyun had flown roughly five meters in an instant and shattered a wooden club with a kick, the momentum had already broken. In a real fight, people might pull knives, raise tools, or smash soju bottles, but none of them had probably ever seen a human body launch itself like that and split a club with a flying kick.
“Let’s see…”
Do Jaehyun glanced at his wristwatch and smiled. To Jeong Taeyang, it looked like the smile of a man with something up his sleeve. To the high school kids, it was the kind of smile that sent a filthy little warning crawling up from deep in the gut, the kind that told them something was very wrong.
“Boys. I’ll give you two choices.”
“A choice? What choice?”
The one holding the broken club seemed to be their leader. He glared and thrust the jagged end of the wood at him, trying hard not to look down on him.
He didn’t want to look weak. That was understandable enough, especially with all his lackeys packed around him.
“I checked the time, and there’s not even a minute left. So choose carefully. This is your first and last chance.”
“…”
“…”
“First, you apologize properly now and take your friends and leave. Second…”
The guy with the club cut him off with a shout.
“You little shit, what are you even talking about? Second what? You want us to apologize all nice and pretty and let us go?”
Watching that brat act like this, Do Jaehyun was reminded of something a philosophy professor had once said as a joke back when he was in school.
- Intelligence and patience are directly proportional.
Even now, it felt like one of those lines that cut straight through to the deep marrow of life.
“There’s less than thirty seconds left. At least hear me out, kid.”
“Kid? Have you seen a kid this big?”
“The second choice is that you do whatever you want and take responsibility for it yourselves. So what’ll it be?”
“Shit, what the hell. So you’re scared after all? You think we’d say sorry and back off if you told us to?”
Delinquent. Tough guy. School bully.
The terms changed from generation to generation, but in the end their destination was always one of two places. A man either came to his senses in the army, that final reform school of life, and learned to live properly, or he went on calling himself a thug or a gangster and treated a life other people pointed at as trash as though it were something cool.
“Hey, just trash him.”
Whether they were older or younger, the choices of boys with a taste for gang life were always the same.
“That older brother looks kind of agile, like he did some gymnastics or something.”
“His fists don’t look all that strong. Just trash him. What’s he gonna do against a mob beatdown? Kill him, just kill him.”
“Right. Those weaklings at Jeongcheon High can see it too, can’t they? Two thug uncles already lying on the ground over there. Shit, you think gangsters fight well just because of a movie?”
Once the leader with the club made up his mind, his lackeys followed suit and tossed in their own comments. That, too, was familiar. No matter how much the world changed or time passed, some things stayed exactly the same.
Really, soldiers or gangsters who had actually killed people didn’t start talking before an operation or a fight. The fact that these kids were even opening their mouths to say they were going to fight, kill, whatever, only proved they were trying to shake off their own fear and had no real experience to back them up.
“Then I’ll take that as your second choice.”
But by now, it was almost time for the cavalry to arrive…
So why was he late?
“You there, old man. Time to start the engine and head out.”
This time even Jeong Taeyang looked at Do Jaehyun in disbelief. It was the kind of look that asked, Do you not see these guys? Or are you saying they’re already lying flat on the ground?
“Ha, this older brother is really something. You talk like absolute shit. You said we could do whatever we wanted, so why are you deciding how the fight ends? Huh? We should keep playing, shouldn’t we?”
Just as the guy with the club stepped toward him and reached for his collar, a huge man appeared, rounding the corner of the alley.
“Kid.”
And then, behind that man, a swarm of others filed in after him.
It was Gong Hyeongtae, the Brown Bear.
“Let your older brothers play for you instead.”
It was the right entrance at the right time.
But…
“I told you to bring three or four.”
Gangsters kept turning the corner of the alley and pouring into the parking lot in a steady stream. At a glance, there had to be at least thirty of them.
“Mr. Kim told me to bring around thirty to forty.”
So that was why he was late.
“I don’t think the part about them being high school students got through.”
“No, sir. I heard it perfectly, boss.”
By now Gong Hyeongtae had gotten a rough feel for who he was dealing with, and the way he addressed him had shifted from Chairman to boss. Just like earlier, when he had replaced the usual “Musong hyung” with “Mr. Kim” because he said Kim Museong had told him to take them.
He had even cleaned up the way he spoke so that Do Jaehyun’s name, and any details about him, and even Kim Museong’s name would never slip out by accident.
Was this what they meant when they said a man’s station made the man? The effect of that promotion and salary raise from a little while ago seemed to be showing up bit by bit.
“From this younger brother’s perspective too, I think Mr. Kim is right. You may not know this, boss, but real gangsters…”
“Agh.”
The Brown Bear snatched the club from the boy standing in front of him and casually slammed him over the head with it.
“I think there’s nothing more humiliating than getting jumped by a mob.”
He grinned. “Especially us, the Red Dog Faction. No, especially us.”
Red Dog Faction.
For a moment, he had forgotten. The place that had made its name through group beatdowns, club work, and all manner of mob violence was the Red Dog Faction.
“I’ll handle this here, younger brother. You two older brothers must be busy, so just leave it to me and go on ahead.”
* * *
Jeong Taeyang said nothing as he floored the accelerator toward Gangnam.
“Honestly…”
His ears twitched slightly, and his pupils trembled so faintly they were almost impossible to see.
“Embarrassed?”
“…”
“Yeah, aren’t you, Taeyang hyung? Heh…”
“Shut your mouth. I know you don’t smile like that for nothing just because Taeseong’s your friend.”
“Should we each give one piece of advice?”
“Ha. Advice? From you? To me?”
“Of course. But I get one in return.”
Tap, tap.
Jeong Taeyang drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, then rolled down the window and took a cigarette between his lips.
“Yeah. Even now, I’m so embarrassed I could kick the blanket off in the middle of the night. Thinking about the great Jeong Taeyang, boss of the Taeyang Faction, getting tangled up with a bunch of punks and getting jumped by a mob... if word got out anywhere, I wouldn’t be able to show my face. Happy now?”
He took a deep drag and then poured the words out like a machine gun.
“I’m tangled up in it too. Your name won’t come up. And of course I’m not telling Taeseong either. I’m embarrassed too.”
“Good. Our interests line up.”
“A gangster can quit the thug act and start doing proper business in the daylight, whether it’s loan sharking or finance, but Kim Museong still acts like a gangster through and through. And you, who already own several legitimate businesses…”
“I’m a gangster.”
Jeong Taeyang cut him off.
“Whether it’s a bar or a nightclub, a gangster doesn’t change. Do you think a life spent calling each other hyung and dongsaeng, like a bunch of middle school idiots with a syndrome, gets cured overnight?”
“Then why’d you do it if you know that?”
“What?”
“If you’re a gangster, live like one. Never forget that you could get stabbed and die anywhere, anytime. If you’re going to get caught in some ridiculous situation like that, then at least bring enough men that it won’t matter. Or don’t fight at all. You’re not even halfway legit, so what are you trying to do?”
“…”
“Or better yet, bring bodyguards like the chaebol chairmen do.”
“Is that your advice?”
“Take it as advice.”
It was advice spoken from the heart. And it was advice he had always wanted to give Jeong Taeyang. In his past life, Jeong Taeyang had at times been a rival, at times an ally, and in his later years had remained one of the few friends who stayed to the very end. But his end had been terribly shabby and empty compared to the wild life he’d lived.
“Fine. Then I’ll give you some advice too.”
As if it didn’t matter, Jeong Taeyang turned the wheel and spoke.
“Why are you looking at me like that? Weird that I’d give advice?”
“It’s give and take. Go ahead.”
“Maybe you don’t remember, but I saw you a long time ago. Until three years ago, before things went completely to hell with the president’s office—meaning between my father and me—we actually weren’t all that bad with Taeseong.”
Jeong Taeyang’s expression as he remembered the past was complicated. Anger and sorrow, regret and happiness, all of it jumbled together across his face.
“Unlike me, who’d been going crooked since I was little, Taeseong was the model student himself. Good grades, good athlete, listened to his parents. And above all…”
“He wasn’t the illegitimate one. He was the legitimate son.”
“Do you always have to say things like that?”
Though he grumbled at the remark, Jeong Taeyang’s eyes were warm. He almost never spoke about his family affairs of his own accord. The very fact that he was talking about them now was proof enough that he trusted him. But this was also the kind of story he couldn’t easily say out loud, and yet secretly wanted someone to say for him without any prejudice.
Until now, that person had been only one younger half-brother, Jeong Taeseong. From today on, it seemed there were two.
“Still, there’s one thing we should be absolutely clear on.”
“That you were better at fighting than Taeseong?”
“Well… I never once thought I’d lose to him. No, I never even thought about fighting Taeseong in the first place.”
Jeong Taeyang’s mouth curved slightly.
“What I’m saying is that I had way more luck with women.”
“Yes. I’m sure you did.”
“Every time this comes up, I find it suspicious.”
Jeong Taeyang’s gaze turned cold.
“I told you. I’ve known about you for a lot longer than you think.”
“Is that so?”
“So there’s something I want to ask Do Jaehyun.”
His tone changed too.
“Who are you?”