First Mission: Divide and Conquer (6)
The next morning Jaehyuk, dressed in casual clothes, walked alone through a shabby neighborhood, eyes scanning the narrow alleys.
‘It should be right around here. Why can’t I find it…’
Then he spotted a run-down house with a faded blue gate. Once he confirmed it was Hyeon Dongchul’s place, he stepped up and pressed the doorbell.
“Anybody home? Hello?”
After a moment came the sound of footsteps. The door cracked open and a woman appeared.
“Who are you…?”
She had a cute face framed by short black hair, stood about five-foot-two, and possessed a delicate, lovely impression with thin lips. She wore old tracksuit pants and a matching top, slippers on her bare feet.
“Is Hyeon Dongchul inside?”
“What do you want with him?”
Tension bled from her voice. Her grip on the door told him she was ready to slam it shut at the first sign of trouble.
Jaehyuk guessed she had to be Minji, Dongchul’s girlfriend, and spoke gently.
“I’m an older brother of his. I’m not with any gang and I don’t work for one. I’ve called him dozens of times but he never picks up, so I got worried and came to check on him.”
“Oh… really?”
She doesn’t believe me. How do I put her at ease?
After a second’s thought he tried again.
“You’re his girlfriend, right? Dongchul talked about you a lot. Said you were cute and lovable… mentioned he sometimes calls you ‘baby,’ yeah?”
“……Did Dongchul really tell you that?”
“He did. So if you could just open the door for a second.”
Minji hesitated, then finally swung the door wide.
That actually worked.
“Come in. If he told you my nickname, you must be someone he trusts.”
Jaehyuk stepped inside and took a slow look around. For such a worn-out house it was surprisingly tidy—only a little dust, no mold, no bugs—but the furniture sat in haphazard piles.
In my last life it was never this clean. Living with his girlfriend must have forced him to straighten up a bit. After he moved to Seoul the place probably went to hell again.
“Um… would you like something to drink?”
“No, I’m fine. I really just came to see how he’s doing.”
“He even told you the pet name he uses for me? He said it was too embarrassing to tell his own family…”
“I only heard it by accident.”
As he spoke, Jaehyuk remembered a night in his previous life when a drunk Dongchul had whined endlessly about his girlfriend, slurring the word “baby” between shots.
He wouldn’t have said it unless the person was close. Even repeating it now feels cringey. Baby… I only found out because he was blackout drunk.
The memory made him shiver involuntarily.
“Where did Dongchul go, anyway?”
“He went to buy ramen. I told him I had money and we could get something better, but he said it was a waste and insisted on ramen. He’s going to wreck his health like that…”
“Ah… I see.”
“Yet the moment I say I’m hungry he drags me out to eat. Takes care of me but not himself… that stupid idiot.”
Her dialect is kind of adorable. I can see why Dongchul puts up with it.
Right then the front door opened again. Dongchul walked in carrying an armful of ramen packages in his casted hand.
“Minji, I’m ba—!!”
He’d been smiling brightly, but the moment he saw Jaehyuk standing in front of her his face froze solid.
“Uh… hey. We meet again?”
Jaehyuk tried to smile back, but the sudden chill in the air told him pleasantries were pointless.
“Dongchul, this is the hyung you—”
“Minji!! Get inside and lock the door!! This bastard’s with the Seok-i faction!!!”
Shit. Looks like force is the only option.
Dongchul hurled the ramen bags. While Jaehyuk batted them aside, Dongchul charged and tackled him to the floor.
“Ugh!”
In that instant Minji slammed the door shut. Dongchul couldn’t make a proper fist with his cast, so he swung his elbow at Jaehyuk’s face.
Jaehyuk bridged his hips, flipped Dongchul off, then stood and tried to talk him down.
“Hyeon Dongchul. Calm down and just listen—”
Still on the ground, Dongchul hooked a leg around Jaehyuk’s ankle and yanked, sending him crashing down again. Dongchul scrambled up and tried to stomp on his solar plexus with a heel.
Jaehyuk rolled clear. Dongchul pushed off the floor with his elbow and rose.
“Hey!! Just listen to me—!!”
Before Jaehyuk could finish, Dongchul launched a side kick. Jaehyuk blocked and retreated.
I have to calm him down first… but how? Talking clearly isn’t working.
Dongchul kept pouring on attacks. He leaped forward with a body slam that drove Jaehyuk onto the living-room floor.
“Argh!! Wait…!! Just wait and listen—!!”
Dongchul ignored every word, hammering down with elbows. Jaehyuk kept them at bay.
“You little son of a bitch!”
While defending, Jaehyuk suddenly snaked his legs up, wrapping both around Dongchul’s right arm and head. He pulled back, cinching the triangle choke tight, then used both hands to yank Dongchul’s head down.
“Guhhh…!! Guh…!!”
It was a textbook Brazilian jiu-jitsu triangle choke. Dongchul felt his carotid being crushed between Jaehyuk’s thigh and his own shoulder. His vision began to blur.
Fuck… is this how I go out…?
Just before he lost consciousness Jaehyuk released the hold and stood. He looked down at the coughing, wheezing Dongchul and grumbled.
“Goddamn it. When someone’s talking, listen. You’re not a runaway train on meth. Why the hell are you charging like that?”
The door flew open. Minji swung a baseball bat at the back of his head. Jaehyuk sensed it coming and dodged.
Whoa… that almost cracked my skull.
“Die, you bastard!!”
She kept swinging. Jaehyuk had no desire to hurt her, so he kept backing up, trying to calm her.
“Wait!! Wait!! Just listen to me! Hey, stop swinging that thing and listen!”
Minji planted herself in front of the still-coughing Dongchul, bat raised, glaring daggers. Jaehyuk lifted both empty hands to show he wasn’t armed.
“Easy. Easy. Calm down and help him up. He needs to hear this too.”
Dongchul struggled to his feet and snarled.
“Misunderstanding…? You fucker… you think I don’t know you’re with the Seok-i faction…?”
“I’m a gangster, sure, but I’ve got nothing to do with those Seok-i punks. One of our guys is friends with one of theirs, so I just tagged along. There’s no reason for me to come after you two alone. I’ve got my own organization’s business to handle. And if I’d come here to kill you, don’t you think I would’ve brought a weapon? You really think I’d try to take down a weapon master like you with my bare hands?”
Jaehyuk took one slow step closer.
“If you’re still suspicious, search me. I really didn’t bring anything.”
“……You serious? You said you weren’t with them.”
“One more thing. If it wasn’t for me yesterday, you’d be dead. You know that, right? I only nicked you and let you run. If the others had kept attacking, you would’ve died. I’m the one who bought you extra time.”
“Then why the hell did a guy like you stab me?”
Minji’s eyes widened as she looked back and forth between them. Jaehyuk sighed.
“I only stabbed spots that wouldn’t kill you. You’re the one who stabbed a really painful place. Lucky for me it was shallow. Any deeper and I’d have needed surgery for organ damage.”
“Aish, fuck! Then what about my hand?!”
“……I really am sorry about that. But I didn’t have a choice.”
“No choice my ass!! Pay for my hand treatment, you bastard!”
Dongchul waved his cast angrily. Minji nodded fiercely beside him.
Jaehyuk stared at the pair for a moment, then walked to the entrance, slipped on his shoes, and spoke.
“What? Where are you going?? You owe me for my hand, you better pay up!!”
“Follow me. I’ll cover the cost of your hand.”
Minji and Dongchul exchanged blank looks, surprised by the sudden turn. Jaehyuk opened the door, glanced back, and sighed.
“Haa… I’m not going to eat you two. Hurry up. If you’re late I won’t pay and I’ll just leave.”
After a long hesitation the couple finally followed him out.
Meanwhile, inside an isolated abandoned building on the outskirts of Busan. It served as a temporary headquarters hastily prepared by the NIS, military, and police for the Big Brother Project. Soldiers in black uniforms, armed with K1A and DD MK18 assault rifles fitted with various optical devices, stood guard.
At a Lotdonald’s fast-food restaurant, Jaehyuk watched Dongchul and Minji eat hamburgers. Minji scolded her boyfriend as he wolfed down the burger she held for him.
“Eat slowly. Nobody’s chasing us.”
“I’m starving, what do you want me to do? I’ve been eating nothing but ramen for days. How long has it been since I had a proper burger?”
“If you’re hungry, buy yourself something. Stop spending everything on me and take care of yourself too.”
“I’d rather starve than watch you go hungry.”
Bartender… get me a glass of bleach over here…
Jaehyuk felt an odd pang of envy watching the couple bicker while clearly worrying about each other. While Minji fed Dongchul a french fry, he suddenly asked Jaehyuk.
“But why are you doing all this for me? There’s no benefit in it for you.”
“You think I’m after money? You just feel like a little brother to me. That’s all.”
“Your little brother must be as handsome as you, then.”
Minji smiled brightly and pinched Dongchul’s cheek. Jaehyuk let out a soft laugh.
“Handsome… yeah, he really was.”
“If you miss him you can go visit later. Is he overseas?”
“……He’s dead. He died trying to save me.”
For a moment the twenty-one-year-old Dongchul staring blankly at him overlapped with the twenty-five-year-old version from his previous life—the one who had been hacked to pieces by gangsters while desperately begging Jaehyuk to live.
“Uh… sorry…”
“It’s fine. I’m really okay.”
After they finished eating, Jaehyuk asked Dongchul seriously.
“Hyeon Dongchul. What do you want to do with your life?”
“What do I want to do? What kind of question is that?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. What kind of life do you want to live?”
Dongchul sipped his cola through a straw, fell quiet for a while, then answered.
“I dunno… never really thought about it. Why?”
“Then promise me you’ll never do anything that involves weapons or fists.”
“Why? Scared I’ll steal your spot?”
Minji smacked him on the back of the head.
“Ow! That hurt! What the hell!”
“As if that’s the reason, you idiot.”
“Damn it… Park Minji, how can you treat a patient like this?”
“A patient who was just rolling around throwing punches? Looked to me like you got your ass handed to you.”
She really is worried about him. Come to think of it, in my last life they broke up a month before I died. She finally told him she couldn’t take it anymore. After dating a guy who lived like that for four more years… she must have agonized over the decision.
Jaehyuk looked at Dongchul.
“Listen to your girlfriend. If you keep living like this…”
He couldn’t finish the sentence. The image of Dongchul with his throat half-severed, gurgling blood yet still begging him to survive, kept flashing before his eyes.
“If I keep living like this, what? Why do you always stop talking halfway?”
“……If you keep living like this, it’ll end badly. So listen to your girlfriend, take the GED, get your high-school diploma, go to college or find a real job.”
“Why can’t I be a gangster?”
“Even if they offered you five hundred million won a year, don’t become a gangster, you idiot. You already know—one slip and you’ll end up in a worse situation than yesterday. Getting stabbed is routine. You could get shot. Every single day is a war zone. If you don’t want to die young and don’t want to make the people around you worry, never become a gangster even if it kills you.”
Dongchul felt the stab wound on his stomach throb again. He glanced at Minji, lost in thought.
“But… you want me to study? Studying is such a pain in the ass!!”
When he complained, Minji pinched and twisted his arm hard.
“Instead of beating people up, study and become a decent human being. Getting a job at even a small company is better than being a thug.”
“Don’t you know I beat those guys up to protect you, you brat?!”
“I don’t know, you idiot!!”
“Then why were you working at that shady place and making me suffer?”
“One month there pays a whole year of tuition! What else was I supposed to do?!”
“No matter how you slice it, doing that shit and stabbing your boyfriend in the heart—does that make any sense?!”
Jaehyuk simply sipped his cola and watched the couple argue back and forth.
A little later he drove them home. By the time they reached their neighborhood the pair had fallen asleep leaning against each other as if they had never fought at all.
Sigh… dating at twenty-one like this… it’s cute. I’m twenty-six, still young myself, but theirs feels so much fresher. I’m jealous.
He parked near their alley and gently woke them.
“Hey, lovebirds. Wake up. We’re here.”
“Ugh… we’re here already? Minji, wake up. He says we’re home.”
“Mmm… okay.”
Jaehyuk got out, opened the trunk, and handed Minji one of the bags inside.
“Miss, this is for his hand. If it’s too heavy I can carry it up for you.”
“It’s fine. I can manage.”
“You’re really taking it when I was only saying it? It’s okay, you don’t have to.”
“Take it, man. I feel too guilty about punching you and stabbing you. If you don’t accept it I’ll feel uncomfortable. So please take it. I’d really appreciate it.”
When Jaehyuk looked at him with that distant, earnest gaze and asked so sincerely, Dongchul stared at the bag for a long moment before nodding.
“Well… if that’s how you feel… I’ll accept it. Thank you.”
Jaehyuk glanced at Minji and spoke to Dongchul like a big brother giving advice.
“Treat your girlfriend well while you still have her. Don’t end up crying and regretting it later.”
“Why is this bastard praying for us to break up? We are never breaking up!!”
“I’m not praying for you to break up. It’s advice that comes from worry. Worry. Anyway, take this money and think seriously about how to invest it in your future. I’m leaving.”
He got back in the car and drove off. When Minji opened the bag it was stuffed with fifty-thousand-won bills.
“Whoa… how much is all this?”
It was less than the amount Dongchul had seen in the money bag the night before, yet he didn’t feel the same dirty aftertaste. This felt more like receiving allowance from his parents with words of encouragement.
“Want to eat out together tomorrow? How about grilled hagfish?”
“Hagfish sounds great!!”
The couple walked through the alley hand in hand. Just before opening the gate Dongchul suddenly paused, frowning.
“Minji… did I tell that guy I only finished middle school…?”
“Didn’t he see the resume you submitted for the part-time job?”
“No. I never told him my background. I didn’t give him our address or phone number either.”
“You must have let it slip without realizing. Let’s go inside. I’m sleepy.”
“Really? Baby, you sleepy?”
“Eek!! Is this punk crazy?! Sneaking up on me without any warning!!”
Minji’s face flushed bright red as she pounded on his chest. Dongchul chuckled and followed her into the house.