First Mission: The Enemy of My Enemy (5)
Dongchul swung his axe at Jaehyuk’s shoulder. Jaehyuk leaned sharply to the left while twisting his waist clockwise, slipping away from the blade. In the same breath he seized Dongchul’s wrist, drove him backward into the wall, and stabbed the knife toward his ribs.
But Dongchul’s left hand clamped down on Jaehyuk’s wrist while his right foot slammed onto the top of Jaehyuk’s foot. The burst of pain made Jaehyuk hesitate for half a second—long enough for Dongchul to shove him away with his whole torso, smashing him into the opposite wall. Jaehyuk twisted the knife in his grip and sliced a shallow cut across Dongchul’s arm. The moment Dongchul released him, Jaehyuk drove the blade into the man’s stomach and yanked it free again.
“Ugh…!!”
Good. One more shot—now!
Jaehyuk aimed for another stab at Dongchul’s side, but the man gritted his teeth, swallowed the pain, and spun his torso counterclockwise. The twist let him dodge while pressing his back against Jaehyuk’s chest. His left elbow whipped backward toward the back of Jaehyuk’s head.
Jaehyuk let go instantly and jerked his head aside, softening the blow. Both of Dongchul’s hands were now free; he scrambled backward, opening distance. Blood ran from his left flank and left arm. He glared at Jaehyuk, chest heaving.
If I charge in again… my hands will get tied up. The bastard doesn’t fear the axe—he just grabs it and locks me down. Once that happens, his short-reach knife has every advantage. So then…
Still glaring, Dongchul rushed forward again, this time keeping a careful gap as he swung the axe in wide arcs.
He’s going to maintain distance and chip away? Not letting me close at all?
Jaehyuk backed up farther, scooped up a handful of small stones from the ground, and hurled them all at once. Several struck Dongchul in the face.
“Argh!! You cowardly—!!”
A knife flew at him in the same instant. Dongchul reflexively batted it aside with the axe. The opening was all Jaehyuk needed. He dove in, wrapped both arms around Dongchul’s legs in a perfect double-leg takedown, and slammed him onto his back.
Jaehyuk’s fist crashed into Dongchul’s face. Dongchul tried to swing the axe again; Jaehyuk caught the arm, snapped the wrist with a brutal twist, and wrenched the weapon away. Then he drove an elbow straight into the screaming man’s face. The beating continued without pause.
While Jaehyuk rained down blow after blow, Dongchul slowly drew his left foot toward his body, slipped the pocket knife from his ankle sheath, and flicked the blade open.
Sanggyu saw it and shouted desperately.
“Jaehyuk!!! Left hand! Knife in his left hand!!!”
The blade was already buried in Jaehyuk’s right side.
Even with steel in his flank, Jaehyuk stayed calm. He grabbed Dongchul’s left wrist, snapped it too, then kept hammering his face with unrelenting fists while the knife stayed lodged in his own body.
“Why’s that punk only using his fists?”
“Beats me. Maybe beating people to death with his bare hands is his hobby.”
Sangman and Jincheol watched the one-sided pummeling with puzzled expressions.
Finally Jaehyuk rose slowly, breathing hard. He pressed a hand to his wounded side, suppressing the pain, and spoke to the men behind him.
“Get the kids to the hospital first…”
“Huh? That bastard’s getting up!! Grab him, quick!! I said grab him!!”
By the time Jaehyuk turned, Dongchul had already sprinted deep into the alley and vanished.
“Goddamn idiot!! Why the hell did you let him get away?!”
Sangman stamped his feet in fury. Jaehyuk could only scratch the back of his head with an awkward expression.
“Sorry… I thought he was unconscious…”
“Sigh… How am I supposed to face the big boss now… I bragged I’d catch and kill that bastard…”
Jincheol offered, “Want me to explain it to him? Or should we just tell the boss—”
“No way. He’s in a meeting with the Japanese right now. We’re not bothering him over one small fry.”
“Jaehyuk’s right,” Sangman muttered. “Let the Seok-i faction handle that kid. It’d look bad if we stepped in personally just to catch one punk.”
“Got it. Guess I was thinking too small because it involved my old family.”
Sangman sighed and clapped Jincheol on the shoulder. “Still, thanks for the help, brother. We’ll take it from here.”
“……Understood. Sorry about that.”
“Apologizing for something this small? Just go already. Your boss will wonder where you are. I’ll call one of my other sons to take our boy to the hospital. You come with us and get that stab wound treated.”
Jaehyuk, Jincheol, and Sanggyu stopped at the hospital the Seok-i faction used, had the knife removed and the wound dressed, then headed back to their lodgings together.
On the way, Sanggyu asked quietly, “You really thought that kid was out cold?”
“I really did… Maybe the bastard just has a freakishly strong chin.”
“You let him go on purpose, didn’t you?”
“Why would I have any reason to let that kid escape?”
“That’s what I thought, but… after seeing you beat the hell out of Manager Seo Myungwoo and President Kim Sehan, something about this feels… off. By the way, why didn’t you kill him?”
“Killing him outright would be wasteful. If you’re going to do it, you harvest the contents first for the organ value. How am I supposed to extract anything if he’s already dead?”
“Oh, right… Yeah, that makes sense. Better to turn him into a tongnamu… at least we’d make some money off the parts.”
Thankfully, neither Sanggyu nor Jincheol brought up Dongchul again after that.
I left him just enough strength to run away after the beating. But did it look that obvious I was going easy? I stabbed him properly and hit him hard, taking his toughness into account…
Jaehyuk watched a group of college students laughing in front of a nearby bar and remembered the venom in Dongchul’s eyes as he butchered gangsters.
If I had stubbornly refused your help back then… if I had forced you to leave even against your will… could you have lived an ordinary life like those kids?
“Park Jaehyuk? Hey. Park Jaehyuk.”
Sanggyu’s voice pulled Jaehyuk back to the present. He blinked and looked at the man who had been calling his name.
“Uh… yeah? What?”
“What do you want for dinner?”
“Are you possessed? Why do you suddenly look like your soul left your body?”
“We skipped lunch, remember? I want something really good tonight. So what are you eating?”
Jaehyuk thought for a moment, then answered.
“Let’s go get milmyeon. I’ve never tried Busan’s cold wheat noodles before.”
“Okay, let’s go! And if that’s not enough, we can grab some fish cakes too.”
“Oh, right. I need to buy Director Kim some Samjin fish cakes.”
The three of them walked down the street, chatting casually.
Meanwhile, in a hospital in Busan, Ha Seongjun stood beside a bed where a man lay.
“It’s been a long time.”
“What brings you here?”
Hyeon Donghwan
Dongchul’s Father
“I had business in Busan. While I was here, the big boss told me to stop by and see you, Detective.”
“Tsk… Kang Jiyong really is one of a kind.”
Seongjun glanced around the room before asking, “I heard your son visits often…”
“Ah, Dongchul? He said he couldn’t come today because of his part-time job. Gayoon’s been busy with work too. He sent some money and a gift card… or whatever they call it, saying he was sorry.”
“They’re called gift icons. Still, it’s good he’s sending something.”
“Our kids are more mature than their ages suggest. I do worry about Dongchul a little, though…”
He looked at Seongjun earnestly.
“Just in case—don’t even think about giving my children money because Jiyong told you to. Tell that Jiyong bastard I refused flat-out.”
“Understood.”
A short while later, Seongjun left the room with two subordinates. As they walked down the corridor they encountered someone. Seongjun’s expression hardened slightly.
“Well, well. Look who it is.”
“It’s been a while, Ha Seongjun.”
Ma Seungcheol
Police Chief of Investigation
“What brings a busy, high-ranking officer like yourself to a place like this?”
“Even if I’m a police inspector, am I really more pathetic than animals like you who walk around covered in blood?”
Seongjun’s two subordinates stepped forward, but he raised a hand to stop them. A cold smile spread across his face.
“These days people say cops and gangsters are two sides of the same coin… and they’re right, aren’t they? It was true nine years ago, and it’s still true now. When money’s involved, everyone’s the same kind of trash. That includes you, Chief.”
At the word “Chief,” Seungcheol’s eyebrow twitched.
“Still a smartass… You think I’m still just a police lieutenant?”
“From where I’m standing, nothing about any of you has changed. Not nine years ago, not now. A new rank doesn’t change the person, does it?”
Seongjun glared at him with open hostility. Seungcheol stared back for a moment, then brushed past as if he couldn’t be bothered anymore.
“If you’re going to keep barking, I’ll just leave.”
“Are you here to visit Detective Hyeon Donghwan?”
Seungcheol paused. Seongjun slowly turned and spoke to the man’s back, voice cold.
“You people are just as shameless now as you were nine years ago. You send a man into that hellhole, he ends up like that, and all you do is show up for a personal visit like it’s some kind of comfort. You should have given him proper compensation.”
Seungcheol stood motionless for a second, then walked away without another word, almost fleeing. Seongjun watched his retreating figure and muttered with pure contempt.
“Fucking pathetic pig.”
He turned to his subordinates.
“Before we go back to the hotel, there’s somewhere we need to stop. Head there first.”
A short time later, Seongjun and one of his men were walking through a poor hillside neighborhood. The subordinate carried two large bags. They stopped in front of a shabby house with a blue gate.
“Leave the bags in front of the door and watch to make sure they’re taken inside.”
The subordinate set the bags down and asked, “Is this really okay? Hyeon Donghwan specifically said not to give it and to tell the chairman he refused…”
“It’s the chairman’s order, but…”
Seongjun stared at the bags with a complicated expression and spoke quietly.
“I just… wanted to give him this much at least. Even if it’s only this…”
Several hours later, Hyeon Dongchul—both hands now in casts—walked through the same neighborhood, cursing under his breath.
“Fucking bastards… Next time I see them I’ll really… goddamn…”
He stopped in front of the house with the blue gate and stared blankly at the two bags left on the step.
“What the hell is this?”
When he opened one, bundles of 50,000-won bills appeared. The sight brought back his father’s words.
“Dongchul. If anyone ever offers us money, you must refuse it no matter what.”
“Why? Wouldn’t it be good to take money?”
“But what if that money means ‘take this and stay quiet from now on’? Or ‘you’re pitiful, so just eat this and disappear’?”
“……Then it would feel bad.”
“Exactly. The police give money with the mindset that we should shut up, keep living as addicts, and die quietly. The gangsters give it out of cheap pity. The moment we accept it, we throw away our pride. Never forget that.”
Dongchul closed the zipper, stood up slowly, and walked into the house, leaving the bags exactly where they were.
Seongjun’s subordinate, who had been watching, reported back.
“He didn’t take them. He just went inside.”
“……Understood. Retrieve the bags and come back.”
“Yes, sir.”
Later, inside a suite at the Crown Hotel, one of the subordinates who had been with Seongjun at the hospital watched his boss drink Buffalo Trace whiskey and asked carefully.
“By the way, sir. Who was that detective in the hospital?”
“That man? He used to be an undercover detective in another organization. He was also an old hometown friend of the chairman.”
“Undercover?”
“Yes. Undercover. The kind of people who infiltrate organizations, gather information, and send it to the police. Detective Hyeon was a very dedicated man. During his active years he took down the heads of countless drug rings.”
Seongjun took a sip of whiskey and continued.
“But while he was undercover, he was on the verge of being exposed by the addicts we did business with. To protect his identity completely, he actually started using the drugs. That was the beginning of the tragedy.”
“What do you mean…?”
“He became genuinely addicted. Ironic, isn’t it? The hunter of addicts became an addict himself. In the end he succeeded in dismantling the entire ring, but the price he paid was devastating.”
Seongjun emptied his glass in one swallow, expression dark.
“They labeled him an addict, gave him no compensation, and even made him serve time in prison before abandoning him. During that process his wife worked herself to death trying to support her unemployed husband and died in an accident. Now their eldest daughter, who got a job at a small company, is taking care of her twenty-one-year-old younger brother.”
“That’s… truly tragic.”
At his subordinate’s words, Seongjun poured another drink and muttered.
“This is why I hate cops.”
He downed the second glass just as quickly, as if trying to wash away the bitter feeling in his chest.