AGENT 40

“Wow—teacher, how did a lie like that even come out of your mouth?”

“…I couldn’t think of any other specific excuse.”

It wasn’t a lie, it was the truth, but to them, it apparently sounded like something utterly preposterous. Seeing them shake their heads in disbelief—even unable to understand why the curly-haired man believed it and let them go—the words “If you saw Seo Soo’s face just once, you’d think differently” rose to the tip of his tongue, but he forced himself to swallow them.

“It seemed too reckless to say I came to negotiate for the joint distribution of E8 in Korea, and since Yiwon insists on absolute exclusive distribution of E8, I didn’t think he’d believe that excuse.”

“Even so, how did you come up with the idea that you followed him because you liked that right-hand man? If it were me, I would have gagged just saying it.”

“…They say there is no reason for love, don’t they.”

To return to their lodging in Tsim Sha Tsui, they crossed the long bridge they had traversed to chase the curly-haired man. Yongnae stared blankly at the sea between the mainland and the island.

They say love has no reason, but his love did. He loved Seo Soo’s face. Even if “Susu” wasn’t a cute nickname but a name given as an object of fear, he still wanted to see that face.

“But, that ‘Soo’ from Yiwon earlier? Who is that?”

Behind Yongnae, who was sitting in the passenger seat looking out the window, Pilgu suddenly spoke up.

“….”

Ah, come to think of it, he had mentioned the man’s name.

“…It’s not Soo.”

“It’s not Soo?”

“…It’s Suji. Lee Suji.”

“Eh? Lee Suji? A man’s name is Suji?”

He felt a bit sorry to Lee Suji, but he felt far too reluctant to let these men know the man’s real name.

“Yes.”

“So, that right-hand man of Yiwon is named Lee Suji?”

“…Yes.”

Technically, he’s the right-hand man’s right-hand man, though.

“That’s a pretty name. Anyway, where did he say to meet tomorrow?”

Jongtae, the hyung-nim, was surprisingly free of prejudice; he complimented the name Lee Suji, calling it pretty. Yongnae, almost letting a smile slip at the thought of whether he could speak so without prejudice after seeing the shaved head and snakeskin tattoo, kept his mouth shut and silently turned his head as if telling Pilgu to answer.

“He told us to meet at the pier in Ma Wan Village tomorrow. Howon, here’s the address.”

“The pier?”

“Yes. Currently, Soo—ah, I mean, that right-hand man Suji—is in Macau, so the courier is going there to meet him and told us to follow on our own.”

The curly-haired man didn’t seem to think Yongnae and his group were much of a threat, as he readily revealed his destination for the next day.

‘Come to the Ma Wan Village pier tomorrow. We have to take a boat to Macau.’

‘Macau? Is that Yiwon’s headquarters?’

‘No. Soo has some business in Macau right now, so he’s been there for a few days.’

He was going to Macau tomorrow to meet Soo. He said he would pretend not to know them, so they should follow on their own without being obvious.

So the man is in Macau right now. Yongnae took out his phone and opened the maps.

‘I don’t know. They say he went around poking into Won yesterday too.’

The man said he visited a place called Won yesterday. Won. Was that a club, too?

[Macau Won Search Result 1: Won Hotel]

A hotel? He searched for “Won” in Macau, but contrary to his expectation of a bar or club, only a single hotel appeared. And it was a massive hotel featuring a shopping center and a casino.

No, what does a hotel have to do with drugs… Ah, did he mean he stopped by the casino connected to the hotel?

‘Feiwin saved his life by handing over his largest casino hotel as ransom, but—’

Then could this Won Hotel be the very hotel that the third Triad boss, Feiwin, handed over as his ransom? A hotel this large?

“Ah, so this is why he was purged…”

“Hmm? What did you say, teacher?”

“It’s nothing.”

If Feiwin really handed over a hotel this large to Yiwon for his own life, there was plenty of reason for him to be purged when the civil war broke out. To hand over such a massive hotel managed by the Triads just to save one person’s life was quite disgraceful, even from the perspective of someone not in the Triads.

“Everyone, let’s rest early today. We might meet the boss of Yiwon once we cross over to Macau tomorrow.”

Even when he was just told it was a drug organization, it felt distant, but hearing he was the right-hand man of an organization that owned such a large hotel made it feel surreal. Just looking at his appearance made him feel like a distant being, but seeing the scale of this hotel made him feel even more unreachable and far away. Furthermore, a sense of fear even began to arise.

However, that didn’t mean his desire to see the man had cooled or diminished. Despite the distance and the creeping fear, he wanted to see the man.

“Teacher. You can’t go to a club today, okay? Keh.”

“Yes.”

To Pilgu’s teasing, Yongnae replied with a coolness that bordered on chilling, then put his phone in his pocket and looked out the window again. His gaze had become very cold, matching his answer.

The man was one thing, but there was another person Yongnae was concerned about.

Just who, which damn bastard, poked the anus of a person wasted on booze and drugs?

He hadn’t even gone that far with the man in his dreams. So which bastard had unpleasantly rummaged through someone else’s asshole? Even if the man said he wanted to do it to that place, he would have refused with a serious face, yet which bastard…

Grind—

At the thought of the unidentifiable person, who grew more disgraceful the more he thought about it, Yongnae gnashed his teeth.

“What’s that? Who’s chewing walnuts?”

“Give me some, too.”

He hadn’t realized it when leaving the lodging in the morning because he was out of it, but looking now, the location of the lodging was quite good. It was in the middle of downtown Tsim Sha Tsui, making everywhere accessible; in particular, the back door area of W Club, which he had visited yesterday, was clearly visible from the restaurant below the lodging.

“I’m going to get mine to go and eat upstairs.”

“Me too. What about you, teacher? Are you going to eat here?”

“Yes. I don’t want to eat in the bedding.”

“Then do that.”

This restaurant with the nonsensical name ‘o umplin’ was quite old; regardless of the bright neon sign, the interior was very dilapidated. The wallpaper was yellowed and the wooden tables and chairs were covered in scratches; it was the kind of eatery one would never visit if it weren’t right below the lodging. However, the food was so good that when they ate noodles and dumplings here for a simple breakfast, everyone let out an exclamation of admiration after the very first bite.

‘Hey. If we sell these dumplings in Korea, we’d do great business. They’re damn delicious.’

As Pilgu said, the dumplings were perfectly suited to Korean tastes—enough that they would do well if sold in Korea. It made him wonder. Why weren’t Koreans, who are like “restaurant bombers,” lining up here?

Anyway, the five of them, including Yongnae, had devoured the food like crazy. Although Hong Kong is beautiful, everyone had trouble eating the food because of the distinct local scent.

However, if there was one disappointing point, it was that the tables here were only large enough for about two people and there were only four of them, so they couldn’t comfortably accommodate these bustling, large men. Because of that, the organization members said they would go to the relatively spacious lodging to eat comfortably, but since Yongnae never wanted to eat food in the bedding, he said he would eat alone before going up.

Actually, aside from that reason, Yongnae had a task to do while sitting here. That was to watch the back door of W Club. Although he didn’t remember at all who had poked his asshole, he still had human intuition. He thought he might get a feeling if he saw the guy.

‘Is it that good?’

‘…Yes.’

‘You’re like a pervert.’

‘…I love it.’

Damn it. There was a very high probability that the things he did with the man in his dream were actually things he did with that guy in reality. No matter how much he thought about it, those actions were far too vivid to be just a dream. Perhaps because of the strong hallucinations of the E8 he had consumed, he had mistaken the unidentified man for Seo Soo.

Yes.

So those dreams yesterday weren’t fucking dreams, they were actual sexual acts.

Grind—

So he had to see that face. He had to know. He didn’t remember at all and didn’t know who it was, but he still had to find them. He had to find the guy who took his purity.

“——,——.”

“Ah, thank you.”

Onto Yongnae’s table, as he watched the back door of W Club with fire in his eyes, the owner Mister placed down the dumplings. Since he didn’t know how to say ‘thank you’ in Cantonese, he offered a short thanks in English, the universal language. At that, the owner Mister gave a benevolent smile and went back into the kitchen.

“…It’s delicious.”

Yongnae, who had been in a terrible mood because of the unidentified rapist, almost felt his mood lift momentarily thanks to the kind-faced owner Mister and the delicious dumplings, but he soon returned to glaring obsessively at the club’s back door.