Joo Do-hyeon, Direct Descendant of S Company.
Joo Do-hyeon, Direct Descendant of S Company.
Da-yeon turned around and looked at Ji-hoon, her face dead serious.
"What are you doing, hitting him...?"
"Felt good, right?"
Da-yeon, who'd been looking at Park Ji-hoon in disbelief, slowly nodded.
"...Yeah."
"Then it's fine."
"...But still..."
Just then, Park Ji-hoon tapped my shoulder, and I turned around.
"Did you get it?"
Without a word, I showed Park Ji-hoon my phone.
On it were the video and audio files I'd been recording just moments ago.
A little later, the brat named Joo Do-hyeon, who'd been knocked out by Ji-hoon's punch, came to.
"You... you!!! You hit me? You have no idea what you've—"
Park Ji-hoon slowly stood up again, and the pig called Joo Do-hyeon recoiled in terror and backed off.
Park Ji-hoon walked right up to Joo Do-hyeon and draped an arm over his shoulder.
And when he exaggeratedly curled up the corners of his mouth, Joo Do-hyeon panicked and tried to retreat.
Thanks to the strength in Park Ji-hoon's arm, that attempt was pointless, though...
The Park Ji-hoon I was looking at right now was the spitting image of a second-rate thug.
"Hey... you like pizza bread?"
"....."
Park Ji-hoon tightened his arm, and the pressure was so intense Joo Do-hyeon couldn't even get a word out and panicked.
There was an old saying.
A fist is closer than the law...
The bodyguards charged in again when their protectee came under pressure from Ji-hoon,
but Ji-hoon, with one arm still draped around Joo Do-hyeon's shoulders, planted one on the opposite cheek of each man rushing at him.
And those men fell right back to sleep.
'With that much shut-eye, they probably won't need to sleep tonight...'
Park Ji-hoon grinned as he spoke to Joo Do-hyeon.
"Why aren't you answering... I asked if you like pizza bread..."
"N...no..."
"I like it, though... what do you think?"
"...Should I go buy some...?"
"Ah~ yeah? If you're buying, well, I won't stop you. If you're offering, thanks."
"....."
Park Ji-hoon put his mouth to Joo Do-hyeon's ear and whispered coldly.
"We... friends now?"
"...Yeah."
"Alright~ let's get along real well."
S Company's youngest, Joo Do-hyeon, should never have walked into the classroom and spotted Da-yeon.
He should have just walked past us and minded his own business.
Those poor choices piled up, and ultimately landed him the title of Park Ji-hoon's personal bread shuttle.
And the successor of S Company, to boot.
School violence.
These days, even slapping a classmate, fighting, or bullying someone into isolation over text can get you forcibly transferred.
Compared to the 1900s, when I was alive, even things like that were basically child's play.
Back in my day, I tell you...
Human rights? We fed that crap to the dogs. It was pure wilderness, a food chain created by power alone.
Joo Do-hyeon had no choice but to put up with the kind of pranks we'd learned in that wilderness.
As Joo Do-hyeon got harassed by Ji-hoon, his bodyguards kept throwing themselves at Ji-hoon to the bitter end.
Ji-hoon didn't even knock the pint-sized bodyguards out; he started beating them so the marks wouldn't show on the outside.
Joo Do-hyeon flinched, watching his own bodyguards get smacked around like toys by Ji-hoon.
And Park Ji-hoon, without warning, smacked Joo Do-hyeon on the back of the head as he kept trying to duck away and said,
Smack!
"Your fucking head is so goddamn smackable, you little shit."
"S...sorry... I'll be careful..."
"Yeah, push it forward or something, figure out a way to make it less smackable."
"Uh...? O...okay..."
"I'm starting to get hungry..."
"I'll go get some!"
"Nine."
"...Got it!"
Park Ji-hoon got hungry every break, and every single time, Joo Do-hyeon sprinted to the snack shop.
The four bodyguards, seeing this, jumped Ji-hoon one more time, but they couldn't even graze his collar and got tossed around like laundry. After that, they couldn't even look Ji-hoon in the eye.
No matter how much professional training they'd had, they were still only seventeen.
No matter how much training a prey mouse gets, it will still tremble before a predator snake.
They'd started to fear Ji-hoon.
I put a hand on Da-yeon's shoulder as she watched the situation with trembling eyes.
I led Da-yeon outside and spoke up.
"Worried?"
"Yeah... we... we might have to drop out..."
I snorted a laugh at Da-yeon's words.
"Even if we do end up dropping out, you think that pig's gonna be able to do anything to Da-yeon now?"
"Yeah..."
And I showed Da-yeon the video I'd shot.
Everything Joo Do-hyeon had said and done was laid out raw and exposed.
"You know who my daddy is~"
"....."
"I'm kinda curious how Dad would react if he found out that pig said stuff like that to me. You think he'd just sit still because he's S Company's direct line...?"
At my beaming smile, Da-yeon's eyes sparkled and she nodded.
Just like she'd looked at me back in the past, during our first meeting, when I'd broken that big kid's toys...
But Kim Tae-oh's expression grew steadily more grave.
Joo Do-hyeon delivered the pizza bread to Park Ji-hoon, and we naturally split it among ourselves.
The second Park Ji-hoon turned to look out the window, Joo Do-hyeon shot a murderous glare this way.
As if to show him, I stuck the bread in my mouth and tapped Park Ji-hoon with one hand.
Right away, Joo Do-hyeon snapped his gaze away, and I informed Park Ji-hoon of the facts.
Without a moment's hesitation, Park Ji-hoon stood up, smacked Joo Do-hyeon on the back of the head, said something, and came back.
"What'd you say?"
"Told him to stay after."
"Hah?"
Joo Do-hyeon squirmed miserably in his chair and gnawed at his fingernails.
'Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit...'
He racked his brain trying to think of a way out of this situation.
First thing he'd wanted was to get proof of his face on record, but there wasn't a scratch on him.
Even if he wanted to report that his eldest brother had assaulted him, he knew he'd get a group beating for not even trying to handle it himself.
As Joo Do-hyeon agonized for a long while, a knock sounded at his door, and the four bodyguards who'd attended school with him since middle school walked in.
"Fuuuuck!!!! Who the hell is that bastard!!"
"".....""
"And you call yourselves bodyguards after that!!!? Huh?! You useless fucks!!!!"
Joo Do-hyeon hurled a glass tumbler at the four of them.
"If I paid that kind of money to hire you, you should be able to land at least one goddamn punch, you sons of bitches!!"
Even as he threw the glass, Joo Do-hyeon knew.
It wasn't that their abilities were lacking in the slightest.
He'd felt like a king when he'd verified their skills back in middle school...
Hanseong's Kim Tae-oh?
Unlike the small-time punks playing around in Korea, these were talents handpicked from the kids with the highest potential worldwide.
He'd never had them fight the one they called Hanseong's little monster, Kim Tae-oh, but—
these were bodyguards he was confident could more than hold their own even one-on-one.
It was just... that lanky beanpole bastard was a monster beyond imagination...
As he replayed the day's events in his head, rage boiled over even more fiercely.
"Fuck! You suck down a shitload of money and four of you can't catch one guy? Get the fuck out!!! Fuck!!!"
At Joo Do-hyeon's words, the four dropped their heads and walked out.
Their expressions soured rapidly, because they knew that if they went back to their security team members, hellish training was waiting for them.
Left alone in his room, Joo Do-hyeon agonized, then made a call.
"Hey, do me a favor."
As he spoke on the phone, a smile began to spread across Joo Do-hyeon's face.
"Really? Is it okay to use the cleanup crew for something like this?"
Joo Do-hyeon gulped down some water, apparently overjoyed, and started laughing.
"Heh heh heh... I knew it, you're the only one I can count on."
Park Ji-hoon sensed something off about Joo Do-hyeon's expression.
A look in his eyes like he was waiting for something.
It was the look of people who, in the past, had invested everything they had to try to fuck us over.
It was exactly that look, so he used the excuse of exercising to escort Da-yeon and Si-yoon all the way home.
Si-yoon... no, protect Kang Han-seong? Me?
Bullshit. Even if the Boss was physically weaker than me right now, if we went at it with intent to kill, I was sure to lose at least ninety-nine times out of a hundred.
No matter how much physical disparity there was, to Park Gi and me in the past, he was an object of 'awe.'
Especially... when the Boss feels his life is under threat and lets go of all reason... no one would be able to handle him.
The reason I follow the Boss around is...
So that even in a situation where his life isn't necessarily threatened...
Because of his weak body, I'm there to stop him from ever thinking he might lose.
Because if he ever starts thinking that... there truly would be no turning back.
The Boss I knew, whenever he started getting worked up against anyone outside his family, was someone whose lines as a human being simply vanished.
If we're up against some thug who knows how to scrap a little, you might get to see someone disassembled alive. And to win a fight against superior numbers, he wouldn't hesitate to peel an opponent's skin off with a smile on his face, just to sow terror.
If something like that ever happened in Korea, even Lee Jin-seok would have a hard time stopping it.
Smiling, I sent Si-yoon and Da-yeon on their way, then fixed Tae-oh with a serious stare.
"Where are you off to?"
"Hmm... training, I suppose."
"You felt it today too, didn't you? Spill everything you know."
Kim Tae-oh flinched and tried to play dumb.
"What makes you ask?"
"Is there an organization around S Company that handles the dirty work for them?"
"... Phew... This is classified. First, explain what's going on."
Kim Tae-oh clearly already knew, but whether it was genuinely classified or he just wanted to see how sure I was about the situation, he seemed to want me to elaborate.
I started walking, and Kim Tae-oh fell into step beside me.
"You saw Joo Do-hyeon's face today, didn't you?"
"...HSW is instructed to avoid friction with S Company whenever possible. Especially the direct line."
I sat down for a moment on a bench in the apartment complex park.
I looked at Tae-oh sitting down beside me, then stared up at the sky and spoke.
"There's this... particular look people get, you know?"
"....."
"Like they've got their eye on something, as if they've got a weapon stashed on them..."
Kim Tae-oh studied me carefully.
Having said my piece, I looked at Kim Tae-oh with an expression that said, now answer my first question.
"...It's classified... but we absolutely need your strength for Da-yeon and Si-yoon."
Muttering to himself, Kim Tae-oh mulled it over for a moment, then nodded and began to speak.
"S Company... there's an entity called Taebaek hiding behind it..."
I nodded at the name I hadn't heard in a long time.
Seeing my reaction, Kim Tae-oh continued.
"But Joo Do-hyeon wouldn't be able to move Taebaek."
"Why?"
"Because S Company is Taebaek. The only person who can move Taebaek is the owner of S Company and the predetermined successor chosen from among his many prospective heirs..."
"Yeah?"
"More than anything, Taebaek operates globally. Mafia, gangs, yakuza, drug factories, arms trafficking, mercenaries, you name it..."
Kim Tae-oh looked me in the eye and spoke gravely.
"The gap in military power between HSW and Taebaek can be compared to a 'massive country' versus a 'small village.'"
"....."
I stared at Kim Tae-oh, my expression dead serious.
"Hanseong has grown considerably domestically through technology and business initiatives based on elite talent... but S Company is still on top, devouring other companies through sheer organizational might."
Kim Tae-oh's normally unflappable expression slowly crumpled.
"And then... the Mountain Ranges, and the Tigers..."
I flinched at 'Tigers.'
Because in the past, the Boss himself had been one of the Mountain Ranges representing the Tigers.
The Mountain Ranges referred to the executives, and the Tigers were... the enforcer unit composed only of the absolute strongest.
"The Tigers... among them, there was a low-level one named Riho... HSW fought him once. Just that one man."
I was curious about the Tigers' current level, after we had disappeared.
Just from the sound of it, it seemed like they'd already surpassed their past selves.
"Twenty-one dead, and my father's body was left with a thirty-centimeter knife scar. They are monsters. Though, of course, that was also partly because we had a no-kill policy up until then and were caught off guard."
Tae-oh went into far greater detail than "classified" information warranted.
I was about to ask, slightly puzzled, but Kim Tae-oh gave me the reason first.
"The reason I'm telling you this... is because we are currently cultivating gifted talents to face those Tigers, and you are our number one priority, Park Ji-hoon."
"Not interested."
At my firm answer, Kim Tae-oh quietly nodded.
"...Understood."
"So that means Joo Do-hyeon has no way of moving Taebaek, right?"
"Correct. Joo Do-hyeon, the tenth of twelve siblings, can't move them. But if he does call someone in... it'll likely be people stationed at the Korean branch of one of Taebaek's subordinate organizations... because those are ones the direct descendants can easily mobilize, even just by reaching adulthood..."
I interlaced my fingers and started to think.
From the sound of it, this guy Riho... I felt like I could take him with just a bit of time, given my current self, but the fact that he was low-level bothered me.
And considering the four bodyguards assigned to Joo Do-hyeon were all foreigners...
It must be because of the things the Boss did in the past...
I stopped thinking and let out a sigh.
"Haah... Anyway, tell your people first. Lately, just because you and I are around, they've only been assigning one or two bodyguards."
"...Got it."
"The Tigers... the name's fucking lame. Anyway, I get that we can handle it as long as it isn't guys like that, but still, be careful."
"...The odds of you being targeted are higher."
"What, you worried about me, runt?"
"...What?"
"Just from hearing about it, I figure I can beat this Riho guy?"
Kim Tae-oh, who'd been about to dismiss it as nonsense, began to seriously consider it.
Because I had never once fought him with everything I had.
Just then, from behind us, Si-yoon and Da-yeon came out wearing workout clothes.
"Hey! You two on a date!?"
I glanced once at Si-yoon and Da-yeon coming out, then quietly said to Kim Tae-oh,
"Let's talk more later."
"Sure."
Apparently feeling like I'd ignored her, Kim Si-yoon suddenly broke into a sprint and playfully threw a flying kick at me, and I dodged it with ease.