The Jungnamipa Raid
The evening of the Jungnamipa raid. At Cheolshin Gym in Seoul.
Jaehyuk and Jeonghan pushed open the gym door, and the cheerful jingle of a bell rang in their ears.
“Hello,” Jaehyuk greeted.
Seonwoo, who had been correcting a member’s stance, turned with a welcoming smile. “Oh, Jaehyuk. You’re here?”
From across the room, Jihun paused his push-ups, pushed himself up, and grinned at the two newcomers. “Hey there.”
Jeonghan stared blankly at Jihun for a second, as if he’d momentarily forgotten who he was. Then recognition flashed across his face. “Ah! You’re the guy who went full beast mode in that alley!”
“We never properly introduced ourselves back then, did we? I’m Kang Jihun. Let’s get along.”
Jihun extended his hand just as he had to Jaehyuk. Jeonghan shook it firmly.
“Have you trained in martial arts before?” Jihun asked. “Jaehyuk said he has.”
Jeonghan glanced at the member Seonwoo was still correcting, then answered, “I learned kickboxing back in middle school. Same time as Jaehyuk.”
“Really? So you’re a striker type?”
Jeonghan blinked at the unfamiliar term. “Striker? What’s that?”
Jihun explained patiently, like a teacher describing something to a student. “A striker focuses on striking techniques—punches, kicks, stuff like that. Think kickboxing, taekwondo, Muay Thai. Then you’ve got jiu-jitsu or wrestling moves that wrap up the opponent, break joints, or throw them around. Those guys are called grapplers. If you mix both, you’re an all-rounder. Make sense?”
“Hmm… Not really. I only ever learned kickboxing.”
Jihun flashed him a confident grin. “Then this big bro will teach you properly. Pay attention.”
“Uh… By the way, when’s your birthday?”
“Mine? September 21st. Yours?”
Jeonghan stared at him. “June 30th.”
Jaehyuk chuckled and teased Jihun. “Mine’s August 17th. So Jihun’s the youngest out of the three of us?”
“But I’m still the tallest, so I’m the big brother in that department.”
The three friends chatted and laughed as if they’d be best friends for life, steadily strengthening the bond between them.
That same night, in a rundown building somewhere in Seoul.
This was the headquarters of the Joseonjok criminal organization known as Jungnamipa. In the basement, a massive quantity of drugs was stacked high. The gang members moved with military precision, hauling the narcotics.
While everyone was busy, Jungnamipa executive Jo Haeseong asked one of the men, “Did you ship out all the propofol that was ordered yesterday?”
“Yes, sir. All shipped out.”
Haeseong’s face twisted slightly, as if something unpleasant had occurred. He turned to another subordinate. “When are those bastards supposed to get here?”
“They said they’re almost here.”
Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, one of Haeseong’s men from outside rushed in to report.
“Sir. They’ve arrived.”
“Bring them in.”
The subordinate went back out and returned with three mysterious men. At first glance, their plain clothes and ordinary appearances made them look like average civilians. But the faint, cold killing intent swirling in their eyes made it immediately clear they were anything but ordinary.
The one who appeared to be their leader scanned the room, then asked in a low, heavy voice, “Where’s the philopon?”
“It’s all in the warehouse. But you said you’d pay more than the production cost, right? How much are you offering?”
The leader’s lips curled slightly. “We’ll pay triple the production cost. However… we have guests we invited first. We’ll settle the payment once they arrive.”
“What the hell are you—”
Haeseong was staring at him in confusion when a Jungnamipa member came sprinting over in a panic.
“Sir!! It’s an ambush!!”
The entire Jungnamipa crew froze in shock and grabbed their weapons. The three men standing in front of Haeseong drew Browning Hi-Power 9mm pistols fitted with silencers from inside their jackets. Black cloth bags were attached near the ejection ports to catch spent casings.
One of the three said to their leader, “Perfect timing.”
He immediately pressed the barrel to the head of the nearest Jungnamipa member and pulled the trigger. The other two opened fire, spraying the gang members with bullets.
“You sons of bitches!! What the fuck is this?!”
“Aaaagh!!”
“Shoot! Shoot them now!!”
The men prioritized killing anyone holding a firearm or dangerous weapon, slaughtering the Jungnamipa members without mercy.
A few moments later, five or six more mysterious men stormed in. They moved with practiced skill, cutting down gang members with knives and hand-to-hand combat. But the Jungnamipa men weren’t going down without a fight. They fired pistols and swung blades at the sudden invaders. The difference in combat ability, however, was overwhelming. The Jungnamipa forces were being massacred with no way to resist.
In the middle of the chaos, the man who seemed to be the leader of the three pointed his pistol at Haeseong. Haeseong grabbed the man’s right wrist with his left hand, yanked him forward, and twisted his body to the left, slipping out of the gun’s line of fire.
A shot rang out. Haeseong drew the CZ75 Pre-B pistol holstered at his right side and tried to fire it into the leader’s stomach. The leader caught his wrist and pushed it aside, dodging the muzzle.
The two men grappled, each gripping the other’s wrist in a contest of strength. Haeseong glared at him. “You bastard… Who the hell are you?”
“What does a corpse need to know?”
The leader kicked the back of Haeseong’s left knee with his heel while using his body weight to shove the now off-balance man to the ground. He released Haeseong’s right wrist. The moment Haeseong tried to aim his pistol, the leader grabbed his right hand again, jerked his head left, and avoided the barrel.
Another shot fired. At the same time, the leader used his left middle finger to press the magazine release on the CZ75, dropping the mag, then flicked the safety up with his index finger.
He let go of Haeseong’s wrist, clenched his left fist, and slammed the back of his hand into Haeseong’s face. Then he transferred the pistol to his left hand, pressed the barrel against Haeseong’s face, and pulled the trigger.
Haeseong tried to do the same, but his pistol—now on safety—didn’t fire. Two rounds from the leader’s gun punched through Haeseong’s face, blowing his head apart.
Bloody chunks of flesh splattered across the floor. The leader looked down at the headless corpse with a blank expression, then stood and surveyed the room.
The Jungnamipa members fighting his subordinates were on the verge of total annihilation. He helped them by methodically executing the remaining gangsters with his pistol.
About five minutes later, every Jungnamipa member was dead. The leader pulled a feature phone from his pocket and made a call.
“Mackerel 1. Mackerel 1. Tuna. Transmitting.”
A man answered. His face and clothes were splattered with blood, and he held an SRK SK5 knife that dripped crimson.
“Mackerel 1. Receiving.”
“What about Kim Jungnam?”
The man glanced around at the corpses, then spotted the body of a large man lying nearby. The man’s eyes were wide open, his throat cut nearly halfway through, blood still leaking from the wound.
After staring at the corpse for a moment, he replied, “Taken care of.”
“Understood. We need to move the goods, so bring your men down to the basement.”
“Yes, sir.”
The leader ended the call and gave orders to the men around him. “Check every floor. If anyone’s still breathing, make sure they stop. Once they’re all dead, leave the scene as is. Load only the goods and pull out.”
The men nodded and moved with crisp efficiency. They finished off any survivors, then carried every package from the basement warehouse and loaded them into trucks.
A short while later, several trucks loaded with the drugs stolen from Jungnamipa sped away from the building, now a field of corpses.
What exactly was the purpose of these people who had secured such a massive quantity of narcotics?
The next morning, at dawn.
Taeyeol received information from Seonggyun that the culprits who had stolen the philopon in Daegu had been identified. He drove toward the address Seonggyun had given him.
The place he arrived at was a shabby motel. He opened the door, and the bell jingled. Seonggyun, who had been sitting in a chair at the counter, stood up with a sly grin.
“You got here fast.”
“Skip the pleasantries. Who are these bastards?”
Seonggyun smirked and handed over the documents he was holding. “Jungnamipa. Those Joseonjok bastards. They caused trouble in Jilin Province, got kicked out, and came to Korea to sell drugs.”
Taeyeol took the papers and flipped through them quickly.
“I checked other CCTV cameras near the scene and tracked their movements. A few of them went to an office managed by Jungnamipa and took off their masks. There’s also a guy named Jo Haeseong. There’s a decent chance he was involved in this incident.”
At Seonggyun’s words, Taeyeol searched the documents for information on Jo Haeseong.
“Reconnaissance General Bureau?”
“He was an instructor with the 72nd Reconnaissance Battalion of North Korea’s special forces. He defected and joined Kim Jungnam’s crew.”
Taeyeol kept reading, then asked skeptically, “Are you sure about these guys?”
“Have I ever lied to you? If you don’t trust it, give them back.”
Seonggyun reached for the documents, but Taeyeol lifted them out of reach. Seonggyun withdrew his hand and smirked again. Taeyeol narrowed his eyes slightly, looking annoyed.
“I was just double-checking.”
Seonggyun kept smiling and nodded. Taeyeol left the motel.
The moment the door closed behind him, Seonggyun’s expression hardened completely. He pulled out his phone and sent a text.
A very short reply came back moments later.
A short time later, several Starex vans pulled up outside the Jungnamipa hideout. Gangryonghoe thugs poured out of the vehicles.
“Move in,” Taeyeol ordered, pulling on a pair of leather gloves.
The thugs entered the building armed with sashimi knives, steel pipes, hatchets, and other weapons. What greeted them made them stop cold.
“What the hell is this?”
“It’s completely trashed.”
The place was littered with the blood-soaked corpses of Jungnamipa members. Taeyeol entered last, frowning as he slowly walked through the carnage, examining the bodies.
Clean cut to the carotid artery. And…
He turned his head and studied the other corpses. Many had bullet wounds in their chests or heads, eyes still wide open in death.
Gunshot wounds… But there are no spent casings on the floor like there should be. No brass left behind. This wasn’t done by amateurs.
Taeyeol gave orders to the men around him. “If you find any survivors, report to me immediately.”
“Yes, sir!”
After issuing the command, Taeyeol continued walking while scanning the area. He eventually made his way down to the basement, where even more bodies awaited.
As he walked through the underground space, he spotted Jo Haeseong’s corpse lying on the cold floor, his face riddled with bullet holes.
Who the hell got to them before us?
Still wondering who had struck Jungnamipa ahead of them, Taeyeol opened the warehouse door. He saw traces of white powder scattered across the floor.
He removed the leather glove from his left hand, licked his index finger, dabbed it in the powder, and touched it to his tongue.
The bitterness is stronger than regular philopon. There’s a high chance this is our product… So it really was here. Then who killed all these guys and took the drugs?
While Taeyeol was pondering this, several Gangryonghoe members came down to the basement and reported to him.
“Executive. We’ve confirmed there are no survivors. Kim Jungnam is already dead as well.”
“……Did they hide any drugs somewhere else?”
“No, sir. There was nothing but the bodies.”
Taeyeol let out a long, hollow sigh. One of the men beside him asked, “What should we do with the corpses? If the police see this, we might end up as suspects.”
ROLE: Right hand of Ju Taeyeol
AFFILIATION: Department Head of Gangryonghoe
SPECIALTY: Close-quarters knife combat, wet work management
After thinking for a moment, Taeyeol gave his orders. “We brought the cleanup crew anyway. Dispose of all the bodies and let’s move out. Since they’re all already dead, we have plenty of time. Use chemical processing.”
“Understood.”
The Gangryonghoe cleanup team Taeyeol had brought began dismembering the Jungnamipa corpses with hatchets and machetes, then stuffing the pieces into large black bags. Once all the bodies were bagged, they sprayed an unknown liquid over the remaining bloodstains to disinfect the area, thoroughly cleaning the Jungnamipa hideout.
As if no one had ever been there. As if nothing had ever happened.
After finishing the cleanup, the vehicles carrying the Gangryonghoe members sped down the quiet predawn roads.