AGENT 34

Club W, located in the middle of downtown Tsim Sha Tsui, where the lighting flashed and whirled.

Since it might look suspicious if a crowd of men swarmed in together, it was decided that Changsik and Yongnae would go in first as the advance party, while Pilgu, Howon, and Jongtae followed as the second group.

“But are there usually this many guards at clubs?”

“We usually have maybe three or four… Are these Hong Kong guys just standing there to look tough?”

Yongnae, who entered with Changsik, was a bit surprised to see the guards in black suits standing along the path into the club. Normally, if you saw people in black suits inside a club, you’d assume they were gangsters, but these men didn’t have the vibe of mere thugs. They felt like actual bodyguards meant to protect someone; unlike what Changsik suggested, they didn’t look like gangsters hired by the club just to “put on airs,” or rather, to show off.

Is there a celebrity inside?

Passing them and entering the stage area, Yongnae started moving his body slightly along with the crowd, pretending to be there for fun so as not to look too stiff. The moment Changsik, who was watching him quietly from the side, burst into a roar of laughter, Yongnae’s pride was wounded, and he stopped immediately.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

This was Yongnae’s first time ever in a club. Even though he hadn’t had a single drop of alcohol, his mind felt a bit hazy, perhaps due to the deafening music and the beat vibrating through his body.

“Teacher, did you sneak a drink behind my back?”

“Pardon?”

“I asked if you drank!”

“What?!”

The music and the beat were so loud that he couldn’t hear what Changsik was yelling right in front of him. When Yongnae shook his hand in an “X” to show he couldn’t hear, Changsik, looking frustrated, leaned in close and shouted into his ear.

“I asked if you drank!”

Wow—you really have to get this close and shout for it to be even slightly audible. But we’ve been together this whole time, so what drink? Yongnae made an “X” with his arms toward Changsik, signaling he hadn’t had any alcohol.

However, Changsik must have thought Yongnae was repeatedly saying he couldn’t hear, because he shouted into Yongnae’s ear again.

“Can’t hear?! Alcohol! Did you! Drink!”

“No! I didn’t!”

Yongnae drew an “X” with his arms once more, but Changsik still didn’t seem to get it, or perhaps he thought Yongnae was drunk, as he grabbed Yongnae’s shoulder to lead him somewhere quiet.

“Whoa—!”

At that moment, however, someone pulled Yongnae away from Changsik toward themselves. Startled by the touch, Yongnae looked back to see if it was someone he knew, but it was a total stranger with bleached blonde hair and sharp, slanted eyes.

What is this? Yongnae was momentarily flustered, wondering if this person had mistaken him for someone else.

“—, —. —!”

It was the same for Changsik. Some punk-looking guy he’d never seen before suddenly snatched Yongnae away and started barking something in Cantonese at him as he tried to follow.

“What are you saying?!”

“What, are you Korean?”

“What?! You’re speaking Korean right now?!”

They couldn’t hear each other properly over the loud music, but they could tell by reading lips. That bastard was Korean, too.

A Korean won’t back down.

“You prick! Give the teacher back!”

“He says he doesn’t like you, you ugly bastard!”

“What did you say?! You fucker, you just insulted me, didn’t you!”

The two of them stood with Yongnae in the middle, hurling silent insults at each other over the music.

“Hey, drag this mountain-bandit-looking prick out!”

“What?! Mountain bandit…? You… dick-faced bastard?! You son of a—!”

As the beat dropped slightly, their words became audible bit by bit. Yongnae caught the blonde-haired man telling the club guard standing behind him to drag Changsik out.

Drag him out?

Is this guy a club official?

If so, he might be able to buy E8 directly from him.

“Please get that man away from me.”

Having quickly assessed the situation, Yongnae looked at Changsik—who was huffing and approaching like a bandit—and asked the blonde man for help, pretending they weren’t together. He thought it would be good to get on speaking terms and become friendly with this guy, then subtly bring up the purchase of E8.

“Ah, are you Korean? Haha, don’t worry! Hey, what are you doing? Drag that guy out already!”

The blonde man’s eyes sparkled at Yongnae speaking Korean. Lowering his voice, he ordered the two guards standing near him again to drag Changsik out.

“Wait, uh, uh…!”

Changsik reached out toward Yongnae in panic, but Yongnae pulled back slightly as if feeling unpleasant that a stranger was trying to touch him.

“Hehe. It’s exhausting, right? Having mountain-bandit types like that clinging to you.”

“Ah, yes…”

The blonde man slid his arm around Yongnae’s shoulder, almost embracing him, and gave a greasy smile. Yongnae felt an indefinable sense of discomfort and pulled back slightly. Just then, a guard who had taken Changsik away returned and whispered something into the blonde man’s ear.

“What? He came in person? Ah…”

Was the guard also Korean? The blonde man replied to the guard in Korean, his face scowling as if something were troublesome. Then, tsk. He clicked his tongue once, instantly wiped the scowl into a smiling face, and spoke to Yongnae.

“Would you like to go to the second floor?”

“…The second floor?”

At the sudden proposal, Yongnae looked up toward the second floor of the club. Unlike the first floor where everything was open, the second floor had several rooms with entirely black glass. At a glance, it looked like a place where officials or wealthy people played. From the outside, nothing of the interior was visible.

To be honest, he didn’t want to go since he didn’t know what might happen in a place like that, but figuring he was a man and nothing much would happen, he nodded.

Let’s just get the E8 quickly and leave.

However, as soon as he followed him up to the second floor, Yongnae realized he had made a huge mistake.

“Not drinking?”

“………”

“Are you playing hard to get right now?”

Inside a room on the second floor where he’d followed the blonde man. Honestly, he thought he’d be able to get E8 after a bit of conversation, but this blonde guy was stuck to his side, constantly pushing drinks on him.

“I’m not very good at drinking, so…”

“No, fuck, you said you’d follow me up, so why the hell are you playing hard to get? Huh?”

When Yongnae continued to refuse the alcohol, the blonde man started swearing and giving him the cold shoulder out of annoyance. It seemed the blonde man had a strong “old-school boss” streak. The way he pressured him for refusing a drink was no joke—just like a manager at work.

“…Then, just one glass.”

Actually, he was a bit afraid to drink this. He worried that if he got drunk, his organs would be harvested and his empty shell would be sunk to the bottom of a Hong Kong river. But figuring such a thing couldn’t possibly happen between fellow Koreans, and thinking he should just humor him quickly to get the E8 and leave, Yongnae downed the small glass containing a yellow liquid.

“That’s it! That’s the way!”

He had tried soju, beer, and even the three-year-aged wild ginseng liquor—which his oldest hyung, Yongmi, had made him an accomplice in drinking by claiming it was wild ginseng juice—that his father had cherished for ten years. But this was his first time having hard liquor. A bitter taste that was neither this nor that traveled down his throat—no. It burned as it went down. It felt akin to undergoing a new kind of torture.

“Cough, cough—.”

Yongnae clutched his throat and coughed in pain. No, how on earth do people drink such strong alcohol?

“I guess you really can’t drink? Sorry.”

Before he knew it, the blonde man had moved right up next to the frantically coughing Yongnae. Pretending to be worried, he filled an empty glass with water and handed it to Yongnae, but his expression looked somewhat devious for some reason.

“Ah, thank… cough—, thank you.”

But Yongnae, unable to check for such things in his state, hurriedly gulped the water down the moment he received it. As he did, the blonde man’s eyes sparkled and shone even more brilliantly.

“…The taste is, a bit.”

“Hmm? What’s wrong with the taste?”

Ah, but did drinking the hard liquor mess with his sense of taste? Yongnae sensed a familiar, sweet taste in the water he was gulping down, but by the time he realized it and tried to take action, it felt as though it was already too late.

“It’s strange…”

Thud. Eventually, Yongnae’s body collapsed onto the table. He tried to stay conscious, but his head felt like it was spinning so fast he might pass out at any moment. Yongnae barely opened his eyes to look at the blonde man’s face in front of him.

Grin—the blonde man smiled at Yongnae. This is rape at minimum, and organ trafficking at maximum.

“No… way…”

“It’s okay. Heh—this is the good stuff.”

Licking his lips while looking at Yongnae, the blonde man muttered quietly.