The Chairman's Night Raid
It was 6:00 p.m.
Jongno Helios Night.
Before club culture had fully taken root and before MB opened in Gangnam, Jongno Helios Night and Jongno’s ZicoBora Night had stood as the twin pillars of Seoul’s nightlife scene.
When I slipped the door open and stepped into Helios, where the lights were still off, the head waiter, a man with the name tag Kim Geon-mu, was gathered with the rest of the wait staff and barking orders as he prepared for business.
“Hey, Joo Yoon-bok. Why the hell isn’t that Cutie brat out here again? Isn’t he the one you brought in?”
“Ah, well, that bastard got wrecked at a PC cafe after pulling an all-nighter yesterday, so he said he wasn’t feeling well... ”
“What a piece of shit. Go drag Cutie in here. I added two more tables after he bumped up our sales last month, and now the little bastard’s already skipping out.”
“I’m sorry, hyung.”
“What the fuck kind of hyung are you calling me? What, you trying to move up into the fist-fighting world? You’re still playing gangster, huh? I told you to call me head waiter, didn’t I?”
“...I’m sorry, Head Waiter.”
“That’s better. Now go drag Cutie’s ass back here. Hurry up! He’s only been on the job a few days and he’s already taking an unauthorized absence.”
It had been so long that the sight of this place stirred something unexpected in me.
“Huh? Are you a customer?”
The mid-level waiter known by the alias Joo Yoon-bok had been leading the younger staff toward the door when he ran into me.
“We’re not open yet... did you come looking for someone?”
“I’m not a customer. I was hoping to see the manager or the head waiter. Are they around?”
“Ah, you’re here for an interview? Who sent you? Don’t tell me it was that Cutie brat?”
So he thought he was some senior waiter, huh?
Without even bothering to check my age, Joo Yoon-bok, who looked younger than me at a glance, immediately dropped the formalities and spoke down to me.
“Kid, so you know business is good here. At least you’ve got some sense. The clueless ones show up during business hours to apply for a job and get chewed out six ways to Sunday. The head waiter’s over there, so go on.”
“Ha, well now...”
I walked up to Joo Yoon-bok, set a hand on the boy’s head, which was slicked down with far too much wax, and casually mussed up the carefully arranged hair.
“Listen, kid. I said I wasn’t a customer. Since when did I say I was here for an interview? From the way you’re talking, looks like the Red Dog Faction hasn’t contacted you yet?”
“Y-you’re here from the Red Dog Faction? Sorry, I, uh, made a mistake... ”
At the words Red Dog Faction, Joo Yoon-bok bent at the waist in a full ninety degrees, and the younger waiters behind him hurriedly bowed with him.
Really now, what was this nonsense? They weren’t gangsters in training or something.
Then the head waiter raised his voice, dismissed the rest of the staff, and came over to me.
“Hmm... You’ve got a face I haven’t seen before. You said you were looking for me?”
“Helios’s head waiter... Let me think. The waiter named Kim Geon-mu wasn’t your real name, was it Kang Gugong? Pretty unusual name. Right?”
“W-wait, how did you...?”
“So I came to the right place.”
“...You’re with the Red Dog Faction? If you’re really one of us, you’re not my age, and even if I’ve put my old life behind me, acting like that is still rude. Who’s your younger brother?”
Same age.
That was underworld talk.
Things like nationwide reach or rank hierarchy only existed in movies; in the gangster world, age was what cut the line the moment you entered that life.
Maybe it was different for the yakuza in Japan, but in Korea there wasn’t any real hierarchy. Only age.
“I’m not a gangster.”
“What? Then what the hell are you, and why are you looking for me, kid?”
“The manager here, Wolf from the Baekho Faction, is your friend too, right? Still, with you here, there’s no need for a manager.”
“You little bastard. What are you talking about, bringing up Wolf like that?”
Head waiter Kang Gugong scowled and grabbed me by the collar.
“You know, don’t you? When Baekho comes here, what time he arrives, what he rides in, who he brings with him.”
“Agh, my arm, my arm... Let go, you bastard.”
I twisted the arm gripping my collar lightly and broke his hold.
“Hyung!”
“Head Waiter!”
At the sudden turn, the waiters who’d been cleaning dropped their brooms and mops only just long enough to rush over.
“Hey, don’t let go. You really want to die?”
Only when the waiters came running did Kang Gugong seem to realize how humiliating he looked. He endured the pain in his bent arm and tried to preserve what little dignity he had left by threatening me.
He was still living on his mouth, even when he was about to die.
Of course, I didn’t take it as a threat at all. And if someone threatened me, they had to pay for it.
He wasn’t some ordinary civilian, either. He’d worked this life before. I could charge a little more interest.
“Aaaagh!”
Kang Gugong’s scream rang through the darkened nightclub.
“Next.”
Head waiter Kang Gugong rolled on the floor, clutching his bent arm and howling, but none of the waiters stepped forward.
“Don’t make a scene. I only bent it enough to need a bone setter.”
“Gghhhh...”
“There’s only one thing I want to ask, but plenty of places I can break. You won’t make me pull more out of you, will you?”
“...Yes.”
Only now, finally obedient, Kang Gugong dropped to his knees and nodded without being asked.
“Where’s Baekho?”
“Y-you mean the boss?”
Kang Gugong had seemed ready to answer anything, but at the name Baekho, his eyes began to tremble violently.
“Yeah. Where’s Kim Baekho? Who else even knows Kim Baekho’s schedule besides Wolf and you?”
“I really, truly don’t know, hyung. Wolf is just the action leader, and all I do is set up rooms when Wolf calls, or send women to wherever Baekho hyung is. How would I know?”
“You really don’t know?”
“Yes, I really don’t.”
Kang Gugong shook his head hard.
“Then Wolf knows?”
“Yes, Wolf would know. There aren’t any gang wars going on lately, and what else would Wolf be doing besides looking after the big boss?”
“Then we can check.”
“Pardon?”
I ignored the bewildered Kang Gugong and turned my head.
“Hey.”
“Huh? M-me?”
The waiter named Joo Yoon-bok, that wannabe gangster, jumped in shock and pointed at himself.
“Go outside and make sure nobody gets in.”
“M-me?”
“Then should I do it?”
“No, sir. I’ll do it.”
Joo Yoon-bok bolted away like a rabbit with its tail on fire, and the moment he threw open the nightclub door, the man everyone had been waiting for appeared.
“Manager!”
Standing in front of Joo Yoon-bok was Wolf Kim Sangmin, the Baekho Faction’s action leader and the man often mentioned as the next boss.
Kim Sangmin stood a solid 185 centimeters tall, with a broad, sturdy frame.
“You fucking bastard. You’re dead now. Sangmin, this son of a bitch just...”
At Wolf Kim Sangmin’s arrival, Kang Gugong, who had been kneeling, scrambled to his feet and ran over like a child running to tattle on someone to his mother.
“Hey, Sangmin, what the hell are you so silent for...”
Thud.
Kim Sangmin went sprawling forward.
And behind the fallen Kim Sangmin, a soldier in special forces fatigues was smiling broadly as he looked at Joo Yoon-bok.
“What are you doing? Why aren’t you blocking the door?”
“Y-yes?! Ah, roger that!”
It was Shin Gilwoo, Do Jaehyun’s blade, and the man who would one day become chairman of the financial holding company Jowha Financial Group, the largest in Asia.
“Captain... no, hyung. I brought him as gently as I could, but he fought back pretty hard...”
“Good enough. Bring him here.”
“Hey, stop making a fuss and get up. I avoided the vital spots as much as I could.”
Shin Gilwoo tapped the fallen Kim Sangmin with the toe of his military boot.
“...Yes.”
Wolf Kim Sangmin seemed to have no strength left to stand on his own. He crawled his way toward me, and only then, belatedly grasping reality again, Kang Gugong rushed over like a dog and dropped to his knees in front of me.
Then Shin Gilwoo, who had been standing behind me, stepped forward and asked with a worried look,
“Uh, Jae-hyun hyung?”
“Yeah?”
“Like you said, I brought him, but there were three or four thug bastards around him...”
“So?”
“I sent them off in an ambulance. Is that okay?”
“Would some gangster really call the cops because he got hit a few times and embarrassed himself? And it’s after midnight, isn’t it? You’re not even in the military anymore, so what are you worried about?”
“Oh? Right.”
At my words, Shin Gilwoo finally relaxed and smiled.
“Head waiter.”
“Yes, hyung.”
“Get that soldier some drinks. The most expensive stuff you’ve got here.”
“Roger!”
* * *
Seoul Yeongdeungpo Police Station.
The Baekho Faction’s boss, Kim Baekho, left the police station with Kim Gongmu, the managing partner of the nation’s top law firm, Kim & Kang.
“You’ve worked hard, Attorney Kim.”
“What did I really do? Director Han took care of most of it. There won’t be any additional questioning, and as long as you’ve got the stand-in actor ready, it should go fine.”
“Yes. I’ll handle it without any mistakes.”
At that moment, the executive secretary who had been waiting for Attorney Kim Gongmu pulled up in a luxury sedan and opened the back door.
“I’ll be going now. I have an important appointment this evening. Please pass along my regards to Director Han as well.”
“Thank you, Attorney Kim. Take care.”
Even as they parted, Attorney Kim Gongmu didn’t so much as nod, but Kim Baekho bowed deeply and showed his respect.
That was the nature of the Kim & Kang law firm.
Lawyers from Kim & Kang never bowed to anyone outside their clients, not even if the other man was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Come to think of it, the chances of a mere gangster boss like Kim Baekho being able to retain Kim Gongmu, the managing partner of Kim & Kang, were close to zero.
Then, after Attorney Kim Gongmu’s car drove off, a fully loaded Rolls-Royce Phantom came to a stop in its place, and the rear window rolled down.
“Did it go well?”
“Yes, Director.”
Kim Baekho bowed to the man who looked to be barely in his thirties.
“Straighten your shoulders. You’re going to be the chairman of an entertainment company now.”
“It’s all thanks to Director Han looking after everything. Especially for bringing in a lawyer from Kim & Kang, I was able to get out safely.”
“You were doing what I told you to do, and one of my own got hurt. Of course I had to take care of it. Keep talking like that and I’ll feel hurt.”
“Thank you.”
“Are you going to keep standing there? Get in.”
The front passenger door of the Rolls-Royce opened. It was, after all, a silent declaration that even the boss of one of Seoul’s three major organizations did not have the standing to sit beside him in the back seat, but Kim Baekho got in without a word of protest.
“You finished up the Reconstruction Faction, right?”
The reason Kim Baekho had been questioned at the police station was simple.
It was because, on this man Han’s orders, Baekho Faction had completely wiped out the Reconstruction Faction.
Since they’d gone at each other in a luxury hotel in the middle of Myeongdong at dawn, it was only natural for the heads of both organizations to be questioned.
“Yes. They won’t be getting back up again.”
“I heard most of the Reconstruction Faction’s action leaders were arrested, but their boss is still missing.”
“He’s probably resting deep in the waters off Yangyang.”
“Good.”
“Nothing will come back to tarnish Director Han. From now on, anything filthy that blocks the road in front of you, I’ll clear it out before you even have to ask.”
“Mr. Kim.”
“Yes, Director.”
“You should do only what a servant is told to do. Why do you keep trying to trespass on a gentleman’s seat?”
“...I’m sorry. I was out of line.”
In an instant, the atmosphere inside the car went cold.
“I’m joking. Relax.”
“No, Director. I’m simply glad you made time for me today, and I let my words run ahead of my sense.”
Kim Baekho quickly lowered himself and played to Han’s mood.
“Let’s go. Today I’ll introduce you to my younger brothers. They’re quick on the uptake and sharp, so I’m planning to put them in charge of the entertainment subsidiaries.”
“Handle something that small however you like, Mr. Kim. You know what I care about, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Then that’s enough. How long are you going to keep covering things with your own body? It’s about time Mr. Kim watched from above and handed your work down to your younger brothers. Don’t you think?”
“That’s right, Director.”
The luxury sedan carrying the boss of the Baekho Faction, Kim Baekho, glided smoothly out of the police station.
---