Only Those Who Deserve to Die
In the basement of Crown Entertainment headquarters, Jeonghan sat on a chair with Kim Juseong and Kyung Minsu, the teammates he would be working with, waiting in silence.
According to the intel, Crown Entertainment’s main businesses are weapons smuggling and contract killings. To carry out operations smoothly here, it looks like I’ll have to do the same—kill people as my primary job…
“Hey, rookie. Nervous because it’s your first job? No need to be that tense.”
“Yeah. You probably heard this already, but just close your eyes and get it over with. It’ll be done in no time. The most important thing in this line of work is your mindset.”
“Ah… yes…”
A short while later, Department Head Yoo Kwangjin appeared and began briefing the team on their next target.
“Alright, pay attention. Starting the briefing on this target. Name: Song Junyeong. Age: twenty-three. Tier: C-class. He committed the rape of a minor but received a suspended sentence on grounds of diminished capacity. The victim’s father offered his entire fortune as payment to have this bastard killed.”
“Will we make it look like a disappearance?” Juseong asked. Kwangjin shook his head.
“No. We’ll stage it as suicide. He comes from a wealthy family that can afford to hire a former senior judge as their lawyer, so a sloppy kidnapping would be risky. Since he’s supposedly mentally ill, we’ll claim he committed suicide due to depression caused by complications from his condition.”
“What’s the detailed plan?”
“In three days, he’s scheduled to travel to a villa owned by his father. The scenario is that while he was fooling around with a woman there, he was suddenly overcome by depressive feelings, took medication prescribed by the hospital along with alcohol, but the drugs didn’t work properly and he ultimately took his own life.”
“Will you buy off the woman? Or are we sending one of our own?”
“We’re sending Chaeyoon with a slightly altered identity. That way it’s easier to match our stories. The dead don’t talk, so we just need to coordinate among ourselves.”
Jeonghan listened to all of this in silence. Kwangjin turned to him.
“Rookie. Any questions? It’s your first job.”
“……None in particular.”
“Good. Understood. That concludes the briefing. Rookie, follow me. I’ll give you a tour of the basement.”
“Yes, sir.”
Jeonghan followed Kwangjin through the basement, looking into several rooms. When Kwangjin opened one particular door and flipped on the lights, countless boxes came into view.
“This is the armory. It’s where we keep the firearms issued to executives.”
“What about that big box over there? Is it a shotgun?”
“That? An AK-47.”
“Don’t bullshit me. What the hell is an AK-47 doing in Korea? This isn’t Southeast Asia.”
Kwangjin pulled out the large box, opened it in front of Jeonghan, and revealed the AK rifle inside.
What the—? It really is an AK?
“It’s not an original AK, it’s a Chinese knockoff. But all the necessary functions are intact. Single fire, full auto—both work perfectly.”
As he spoke, Kwangjin repeatedly pulled and released the bolt of the Chinese Type 56 rifle. The metallic clack echoed through the room.
“Here, take it and see for yourself if it’s real or fake.”
Jeonghan accepted the rifle from Kwangjin. He pulled the bolt, peered carefully into the chamber, and examined the weapon from every angle.
It’s a real gun. The front sight is round instead of hooded, and instead of Cyrillic letters on the selector, there are Chinese characters. So it’s not a genuine Russian model—it’s a Chinese Type 56.
Kwangjin took the rifle back from Jeonghan, placed it inside the box, and returned it to its original position.
“Obviously we can’t use these domestically. They’re issued to operatives being sent abroad. Once they arrive at their destination and request weapons, we ship these over to them.”
The Gangryonghoe bastards… They’re more dangerous than I thought. They don’t just have one or two of these AKS—they’ve got dozens?
“We don’t only have AKs. We’ve got M16s too. The Gangryonghoe uses them, but they’re sometimes issued to the organization’s clients as well.”
“Clients?”
“……That’s classified.”
Kwangjin left the room with Jeonghan and turned off the lights. As they walked down the basement corridor, he spoke again.
“Anyway, I hope you carry out today’s job well. Don’t get too nervous just because it’s your first time.”
“Yes, sir. Understood.”
Three days later, Jaehyuk returned to the gambling den where he had fought Seongjun. He spoke to the guards at the entrance.
“Hey. Open the door.”
“What if I don’t? What are you gonna do about it?”
“……You’re acting like this because you’re counting on that bastard from last time, right? You really think I couldn’t turn one of you into a half-cripple before he gets here?”
The guards flinched at Jaehyuk’s threat and eventually opened the door for him.
Once inside the gambling den, Jaehyuk approached one of the guards.
“Hey. Where’s your boss?”
“Why are you looking for our boss—?!”
When the guard answered with clear annoyance, Jaehyuk slapped him across the cheek and glared at him.
“That son of a bitch lost to me and now your attitude is fucking pathetic. Is that bastard here right now?”
“Uh… no, he’s not…”
“Then stop wasting my time and tell me where your boss is.”
“He’s in the room at the back labeled ‘President’s Office.’”
Jaehyuk headed for the president’s office. He spoke to the guard standing in front of the door.
“Hey. Open the door.”
“I’m sorry, but our president is currently…”
“I don’t give a shit what your boss is doing. If you’re not going to open it, get lost.”
Jaehyuk shoved the guard aside and forced the door open. Seohwan, who had been lying in bed with bandages wrapped around his face, sat up in surprise and shouted in irritation.
“What the fuck, which son of a bitch doesn’t even knock—!! Oh… oh my.”
The moment he saw Jaehyuk glaring at him, Seohwan’s attitude changed completely.
“S-so… what brings you here?”
“Do you have the contact info for the guy who came here three days ago?”
“Ah, you mean Brother Myungwoo?”
“No. The guy who beat me. I have something to say to him.”
“Um… I’m sorry, but I don’t have that person’s contact information.”
“Then how did you call him last time?”
“Brother Myungwoo called him… Would you like Brother Myungwoo’s contact info instead?”
“Whatever… yeah. Give it to me.”
Jaehyuk took out his phone and saved Seo Myungwoo’s number, then immediately called him.
“Hello?”
“Seo Myungwoo?”
“Who the hell is this calling someone else’s name so rudely?”
“The guy who beat the shit out of you three days ago.”
“Three days ago…? Oh, it’s you? So, what’s the call about?”
“I need the contact info for the guy who beat me that day.”
In the manager’s office of the Crown Hotel Suwon Branch, Myungwoo was spinning a ballpoint pen when he smirked and asked Jaehyuk,
“Heh heh… You turned me down so firmly before, but it looks like you’ve changed your mind? How about it? Our Gangryonghoe isn’t such an easy place after all, is it?”
“Shut your trap and just give me the contact.”
“Aish, look at this bastard… If you want to come in, you’d better start using polite speech with this senior. If you keep up that rude attitude that sends manners straight to Andromeda, even our boss won’t let it slide no matter who you are.”
“Haa… Understood. I’m sorry.”
“There we go. Now that attitude is much better. But I’m not just going to hand over the contact right away. Come to the Crown Hotel Suwon Branch tomorrow. I’ll be waiting.”
“What? Hey. Hey!!”
Myungwoo hung up the phone. Seongjun, who was sitting on the sofa in front of him, asked,
“What did he say?”
“He asked for the boss’s contact information.”
“Really? He’s not trying to bypass me and go straight to the boss, is he?”
“Doesn’t seem like it. If that were the case, he would have boldly said he was going to skip you. The fact that he didn’t suggests he wants to join under the boss but his pride won’t let him admit it outright.”
“Puhaha! When you put it that way, that bastard is kind of cute. When he gets here, I’ll have to interview him myself.”
“Looks like we’ll finally have a useful new recruit in a while.”
“Exactly. If we train him well, he might even be able to take on Kang Hoon. Hell… he could end up becoming the strongest guy in the entire organization.”
As he spoke, the corner of Seongjun’s mouth slowly curved upward at the thought of the strong new subordinate who would soon arrive.
That same night, Jeonghan was riding in a car with Minsu and Juseong, heading somewhere. Minsu, sitting in the back seat, pulled back the slide of his Glock 19 pistol slightly to check that a round was properly chambered.
“Okay. Firearm’s in perfect condition.”
“Do we really need to bring guns? He’s just a weak C-class punk. Can’t we just subdue him roughly and stage the suicide?”
“You never know. What if he resists harder than expected and we have to change the plan? Then we blow his head off with the pistol, dispose of the body, and treat it as a disappearance. In South Korea, about three hundred people go missing every year, and since adult men are rarely kidnapped, most cases are written off as runaways.”
“Hmm… With enough wealth to hire a former senior judge as a lawyer, making it look like a disappearance might be a bit difficult…”
“If his wealth was that significant, he would have been rated A-class instead of C. Anyway, just think of the gun as a contingency. Let’s stick to the plan for now.”
At that moment, Jeonghan asked them,
“By the way, how exactly do you determine the tiers?”
“Oh, that? The C-class targets we’re handling now are basically civilians with no real combat ability, no significant social influence, and only a lot of money. B-class are usually people with some martial arts training or those with moderate social influence—former prosecutors, police executives, that sort of thing.”
“Then what about A-class?”
“Former high-ranking figures in the legal world or high-level police officials. Dealing with active-duty personnel is extremely troublesome. There are also bosses or high-ranking executives of fairly large organizations. When facing them, we sometimes need to use automatic weapons—but of course, that’s handled overseas, not domestically.”
While they were talking, the three arrived at their destination. Juseong asked Minsu, who was taking out a laptop,
“Chaeyoon should already be working on site. How long will it take to hack the CCTV?”
“About five minutes?”
“Okay. The moment the CCTV goes down, we move in.”
At a certain villa. Three men appeared in front of Chaeyoon, who had been smoking a cigarette outside the villa.
“Where’s Song Junyeong?”
“Completely off guard.”
Chaeyoon glanced at Jeonghan, gave him a bright smile, and greeted him.
“Hello? So you’re the rookie the boss personally picked?”
“Uh… yes…?”
“Hmmm… You look like you’ll have a lot of women around you. If there’s anything you don’t know, feel free to ask. This big sister will kindly teach you.”
She licked her lips seductively at Jeonghan, then walked toward the villa’s front door. Juseong put on a mask and spoke to Jeonghan.
“Cover your face before we go in.”
The three entered the villa. Junyeong, who had been caught completely off guard by the sudden appearance of the men, jumped up in shock.
“Who the hell are you? What are you doing here?!”
When Junyeong swung a fist at Juseong, he dodged it and struck Junyeong’s throat with a palm strike. Then he rapidly hammered Junyeong’s vital points with palm strikes and fists, easily neutralizing him.
A short while later, the three men stood watching Junyeong, who was precariously balanced on a chair with a noose around his neck. Both of his hands were tied behind his back with Velcro tape.
“Who the fuck are you? Who sent you?”
“Let’s see… Mr. Song Junyeong? You’ve really piled up quite a lot of karma. At seventeen you already committed school violence and participated in the gang rape of a classmate. After becoming an adult, you raped two middle school girls. Quite the record.”
“So what? So fucking what? Those bitches followed me willingly. What do you want me to do about it? Do you think you’re some apostles of justice or something?”
Faced with Junyeong’s shameless attitude, Juseong let out a sigh.
“Haa… You’re seriously misunderstanding something. We’re not doing this out of some cheap sense of justice. We’re just getting paid to kill you. If we hadn’t been paid, we wouldn’t have any reason to do this to you.”
Having said that, he turned to Jeonghan.
“Jeonghan. Why don’t you take care of this one?”
“Me?”
“Yeah. Just give the chair he’s standing on a light push and it’s over. Simple, right?”
Junyeong stared at Jeonghan with terrified eyes. Jeonghan seemed to hesitate for a moment.
I’m a soldier, not a real killer who murders people for money.
Just think of it as something necessary for the mission, Lee Jeonghan. Pretend that kid isn’t a civilian but a terrorist threatening the nation. Besides, he’s garbage who did horrible things to innocent people. Just think of it as necessary for the mission. There’s no reason to hesitate. It’s necessary for the mission, so it’s okay to kill him.
“It’s fine. Jeonghan is simply killing someone who deserves to die. Trivial pangs of conscience like that…”
In that instant, Jeonghan placed his foot on the chair Junyeong was standing on.
“No!! No!! Please!! Spare me!! Please spare me!! Mom!! Dad!!!”
Junyeong wept and begged desperately, snot and tears streaming down his face, but to Jeonghan there was no longer any reason to hesitate. He quickly concluded that taking the life of this piece of trash was simply a necessary part of the mission.
And so Jeonghan pushed the chair Junyeong was standing on. The chair toppled, and the rope tightened violently around Junyeong’s neck.
“Guhk…!! Guuuuuurk…!!”
Junyeong thrashed about, but it was a meaningless struggle. A short while later, his body went limp. Jeonghan stared at Junyeong’s corpse, now devoid of breath, and rationalized the murder he had just committed.
That’s right. Trash like this can just be killed. I didn’t kill an unrelated civilian—I killed him because it was necessary for the mission. It was only something necessary for the mission. Just… something that had to be done for the mission. I didn’t kill an unrelated civilian. I only killed someone who deserved to die.