The Deal and the Powder
I headed to the Association early that morning.
More precisely, I was going to Choi Hee-seok's office, which the Association had set up for him.
When I opened the door and stepped inside, I saw two people.
The office owner and Han Jin-hwan.
"Thanks for coming in so early."
"It's nothing."
Choi Hee-seok rose to greet me.
We had only seen each other last night, but the way he acted, you'd think we'd gone days without meeting. That was a little awkward.
I went to sit across from Han Jin-hwan, who was stretched out on the sofa. The moment I sat down, he got straight to the point.
"So why'd you call us here? And this early, too."
"Ah...."
Choi Hee-seok didn't answer. Instead, he looked back at me, his eyes asking if it was all right to skip straight to the main point.
He was considerate to a fault. Of course, it was because he was thinking about me, so I couldn't exactly dislike it.
I smiled and nodded.
He smiled back.
"I was planning to start this tonight."
"I've already handed over the whole operation, so do whatever you want."
"Yeah?"
"I brought you both here because I had something I wanted to say in person."
"Was that really necessary? You already sent the info separately last night."
Han Jin-hwan had a point.
The rough outline had been delivered in a PDF file last night.
It laid out information on Yoo Hye-joo and on drug-distribution guilds all over the country in a way that was easy to read.
I hadn't been able to sleep, so I'd skimmed through it all night.
Yoo Hye-joo.
Female. 28 years old.
Specialist in magic item manufacturing
Note: obsessive-compulsive disorder
Even with my half-baked skim, I'd still remembered that much.
Han Jin-hwan, who was leading this project on the ground, had probably read it in far more detail.
So there was no need for a separate briefing.
"There are three things I want to say."
Choi Hee-seok said, holding up three fingers.
At this rate, what he wanted to say probably hadn't been in the PDF file.
What on earth was it?
The ring finger folded down among the three raised fingers.
"First, capture Giver's Sung Jun-hyun and Dazol's Gong Woo-jae alive, no matter what."
Giver. Dazol.
I remembered both from last night's file.
Giver was the drug-distribution guild operating in Busan.
Dazol was the illegal drug-manufacturing guild operating in Gangwon Province.
Han Jin-hwan frowned. "Wait. Forget Gong Woo-jae for a second, why Sung Jun-hyun?"
Dazol looked worse on the surface, since they were the ones directly manufacturing illegal drugs, but that wasn't necessarily true.
According to the file, Giver was the nastiest of the drug-distribution guilds.
Because they didn't just distribute drugs.
"They're the ones who got people hooked and sold them off."
"I know that. I organized the file, didn't I? You think I don't know?"
"Then why tell us to capture them alive?"
Han Jin-hwan tilted his head.
Even though he knew they were rotten, Choi Hee-seok was telling us to take them alive. And he'd gone out of his way to call us here just to say it....
"Is it because of Yoo Hye-joo?"
"...Huh?"
"That's right. We don't have a clear read on Yoo Hye-joo's movements right now. There's a strong chance she went to Giver or Dazol... though, of course, she might not be at either one."
"Ah. So that's why you wanted them alive...."
He nodded as though that made sense.
Then he looked at me.
"You're pretty sharp."
He'd told us not to kill a guy who could have been killed.
There had to be a reason for that, and figuring it out wasn't hard.
It wasn't exactly praise worthy of applause, but praise was praise, so I accepted it.
Choi Hee-seok folded down his middle finger.
"Second, don't kill anyone unless you have to."
As he said that, he looked at me.
I could tell at a glance that he was talking to me directly.
He was probably remembering what I'd said about Lee Jeong-geun: "You said he's a criminal, so why don't we just kill him?"
This time, he likely thought I'd go and kill every last one of the drug-guild bastards.
I wasn't some mass murderer, for crying out loud....
I had no intention of going that far.
He took his eyes off me and folded down the last finger.
A large fist clenched shut.
"Third, don't let the two of you fight."
Huh? That came out of nowhere.
Why would allies fight each other?
I was tilting my head at the thought when...
"Tch...."
I heard someone click their tongue beside me.
Han Jin-hwan had done it, sounding genuinely disappointed.
...
What the hell is with this guy?
Was he planning to fight me?
Saessak is expressing confusion.
Yeah, Saessak.
You're confused too, right?
I stared at him with the same bewilderment as Saessak.
He shrugged with a smiling face, then said to Choi Hee-seok, "You're done talking, right, hyung?"
"I am."
"Then it's my turn."
"Your turn?"
"Yeah. So could anyone who isn't involved kindly leave?"
"...Are you talking about me?"
"Anyone who doesn't have a direct connection to the Association's quest. Anyone else here besides you, hyung?"
"You.... Hoo. You do realize this is my office, right?"
"That's just like you, hyung. Lending your office to your younger brother? Thanks. Man, you're the only man I acknowledge!"
"......"
Ah. He was pissed. That was him pissed.
A vein popped out on Choi Hee-seok's forehead.
Anyone could see he was angry.
Han Jin-hwan, for his part, just kept grinning.
How exactly are these two on such good terms?
"...Do-woon, I'll leave the rest to you."
"Ah, yes."
After saying that, Choi Hee-seok moved aside.
As he left the office, his shoulders looked oddly lonely.
I should probably be nicer to him, at least.
Click.
The moment the door shut, Han Jin-hwan asked, "What's the schedule look like starting today?"
"As long as I get one hour of free time like I mentioned yesterday, I don't care."
"Perfect. I was originally planning to leave at night, but since we're meeting from the morning...."
"Then let's do that."
"I like how decisive you are."
The faster this was over, the better for me too.
Han Jin-hwan took a smart pad out of his magic pocket.
After tapping a few times with his index finger, he handed it to me.
"The first place I want to hit is here. Looking at the distance and the route, it seems perfect."
The spot his finger pointed to was an alley behind Gangnam Station.
As he said, it was the closest place to the Association building.
By car, it would take about twenty minutes.
They had some guts, I'd give them that.
Did they really believe the old saying that the darkest place was under the lamp?
Personally, it wasn't far from the Coincidence Who building either.
Handy for a move-in cleanup.
"Sounds good. Let's start there."
"Right. You handle this one alone."
"Pardon?"
"Why, do you think it'll be too much for you?"
Not at all.
Taking one of them on by myself wasn't difficult.
Unless we were talking about a guild like the Scales, one specialized in assassination and the like.
Drug dealers? Guilds that just handled pills and distribution?
I could deal with them alone just fine.
I only asked because he suddenly told me to do it by myself.
Why should I have to?
As I stared at him with that thought, Han Jin-hwan nodded as if he'd read my mind.
"Don't misunderstand. I just want to check your skills."
"Ah."
"I was originally going to test them by fighting you... but if hyung says not to, then I won't."
"That's unexpected."
"What's unexpected?"
"I thought you wouldn't listen."
Han Jin-hwan snickered at that.
Was my remark really that funny?
"That hyung's got a bit of a narrow mind, despite his size. He'll sulk if you don't listen to him."
"That's unexpected too. Isn't he famous for being broad-minded?"
"They say the job makes the person, right? He's actually kind of petty."
"Heh. I see."
I wondered if Ji Sang-wook would be disappointed to hear that.
No, come to think of it, he might actually be pleased to hear there was a surprising side to someone he respected.
Han Jin-hwan put the smart pad away and asked, "The file... you remember the second page?"
"I do. It listed the rewards for the Association quest."
"Right. Especially this part...."
Han Jin-hwan and Baek Do-woon will take ownership of the property seized from the guilds eliminated in this project.
"Everything that comes out of this place is yours."
"Oh."
If the two of us were to own it together, then we'd have to split it.
But if he was willing to yield like this... then the property would be mine alone.
Not bad at all.
"There's one condition."
"Again? You really do love setting conditions."
"You handle the next guild by yourself."
Han Jin-hwan's eyes widened.
He understood what I was getting at.
Then he grinned.
"All right. I knew you'd be interesting."
Was that praise or an insult?
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The square room was perfectly symmetrical from left to right.
Two bookshelves crammed full of books.
Countless tools for experiments.
Four desks neatly arranged with tools laid out on them.
Everything was identical, as though stamped from the same mold.
Like a decalcomania.
The only things that existed just once were the square desk in the middle of the room and the person in a white lab coat standing right at its center.
She seemed to have carelessly tied her long, shaggy hair into a single strand, and she was staring at a flask where purple liquid was boiling away.
Bubble, bubble, pfft....
A hiss of air escaped from the flask she was watching.
Along with that sound, the purple liquid instantly lost its color.
All the color drained away until only a transparent liquid was boiling.
"Haa...."
She let out a long sigh as she watched.
Then she took off her black-rimmed glasses and tossed them onto the desk.
She also snuffed out the blue flame that had been heating the liquid.
"There are still too many impurities...."
Creak.
The sound of the door opening swallowed her mutter.
The man who came in through the square wooden door was wearing a suit.
He had the kind of polished looks people would call handsome at first glance, and as soon as he opened the door, he spoke in a voice as soft as his face.
"Is Yoo Hye-joo here? Ah, there she is."
The man looked at the woman standing in the middle of the lab.
The woman called Yoo Hye-joo.
She had her right hand in her hair, tugging at her bangs.
Her already shaggy curls had only gotten more unruly.
"Hm? What, did you fail again?"
...
Yoo Hye-joo glared at the man.
She clearly didn't like the way he had so plainly used the word "fail."
Not caring either way, the man strolled over and leaned back on the sofa prepared in the middle of the lab.
He sat with leisurely ease, crossing one leg over the other, and looked around.
"Still a suffocating place."
"Gong Woo-jae.... Why are you here?"
She asked while putting her black-rimmed glasses back on.
The question had been thrown at him, but Gong Woo-jae seemed in no hurry to answer.
He kept his mouth shut and looked around instead.
She stared at Gong Woo-jae for a moment, then slammed her fist down on the desk.
"Damn it! You can sit if you want, so just sit!"
Only after that did Gong Woo-jae finally look at Yoo Hye-joo.
She let out a deep breath and walked toward him.
More precisely, she went to the sofa directly across from where he sat.
Fixing him with a glare, she snapped, "You bastard. You know damn well I have obsessive-compulsive disorder."
Gong Woo-jae merely shrugged and leaned back into the sofa.
The sight was enough to make Yoo Hye-joo sigh.
"Say what you came to say and go. I'm busy."
"You should take a break now and then. Besides, it looks like you just failed again."
"Failed... again...."
Yoo Hye-joo clenched her fist hard.
The blood drained from the tightly squeezed hand, leaving it pale.
"Gong Woo-jae."
"Yeah?"
"Even if it's you, keep poking at my nerves and our contract is over."
"Oh dear. That won't do."
There was no real alarm in his voice.
Only indifference.
Threatening to end the contract didn't bother him in the least.
...
Gong Woo-jae took a magic pocket from inside his jacket.
Then he pulled a square glass bottle out of it.
Purple powder filled the bottle.
"What you were looking for."
"What? You mean...!"
"That's right. One hundred percent pure Violet Powder, with not a single impurity mixed in."
"Finally....!"
Yoo Hye-joo reached out her arms toward Gong Woo-jae.
With the care of a priest lifting a sacred relic, she received the glass bottle reverently.
The instant she had it, she turned it this way and that to inspect it.
Her demeanor didn't suit the handling of a precious object.
That was only natural.
To her, the VP in the bottle wasn't some cherished treasure.
It was merely a rare and hard-to-get experimental material.
"Incredible.... As expected of you. I'm glad I rejected Giver and came to Dazol instead."
"Giver-"
Woom.
"...Excuse me."
Gong Woo-jae took his smartphone out of his pocket.
A message from one of his subordinates had appeared on the screen.
"Oh?"
"What is it? Something happen?"
"It seems the ones distributing VP in Seoul were taken out."
"Is that so?"
As she spoke, Yoo Hye-joo's eyes remained fixed on the glass bottle.
Her gaze didn't move to him at all, and her voice carried no rise or fall.
The emotion on her face was indifference.
Gong Woo-jae quickly realized it had been a mere courtesy question.
He rose from the sofa and said, "...I should head back up now. I need to find out exactly what happened."
"Do as you please. Ah, right."
"...?"
"After today, don't come back down for a few months. I don't want to be disturbed."
"Well? I can't promise that."
Yoo Hye-joo tore her eyes from the bottle and looked up at Gong Woo-jae.
That sharp glare she'd given the desk when she slammed her fist down on it was now aimed at him again.
He smirked and left the lab.
"Ah. I don't have time to worry about that bastard right now....!"
And then Yoo Hye-joo got to her feet.
She dashed back to the desk to continue the experiment she'd been working on all along.
"If I have this, I can get rid of it!"