PAHO 15

Nam Gyeonhwa stared at the deserted lot, which felt eerie despite it still being daytime, and quickened his pace. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he had a very bad feeling. Isn’t there a saying that even rats and vermin stay away from an area on the verge of disaster? Even if nothing was wrong, it seemed best to take Nam Haejin and take refuge at Jo Yongsik’s auto repair shop for the time being.

However, for some reason, Haejin, who should have been waiting in front of the entrance, was nowhere to be seen. Nam Gyeonhwa frowned as he looked around. Could he still be at home? While hurriedly climbing the stairs, Nam Gyeonhwa called him on his phone. Ring, ring, ring, the call tone continued, but there was no sign of him picking up.

“Nam Haejin!”

The moment Nam Gyeonhwa, who had rushed into the house in a fit of anxiety, pulled back the curtain that served as a room divider, he saw not his familiar brother’s face, but a man standing there. The blanket and encyclopedia that Haejin usually cherished were trampled and in a mess under his combat boots.

“…Who are you?”

At the cold question, the man turned his head, casually dropped the cigarette he was holding to the floor, and crushed it with his foot. The menacing face with a long scar from his cheek to his chin looked vaguely familiar.

“Are you Mr. Kim Juan?”

Nam Gyeonhwa’s eyes widened at the name uttered in a gruff voice.

The temporary name he had used when entering Seoul.

“I apologize for visiting without notice, but I would appreciate it if you would accompany us for a moment.”

For someone who had occupied the house like a common thug, his polite tone was unfitting. Seeing that he had no intention of leaving peacefully, Nam Gyeonhwa clenched his fists and was about to take a step back to assume a fighting stance when, from behind him, hands in work gloves shot out and grabbed both his arms.

“Fuck, let go of me, you motherfuckers!”

When he jabbed the person behind him hard with his elbow, a thick groan of keok escaped. Nam Gyeonhwa followed up by landing a punch on the chin of another intruder. Blood streamed down from the nose of the man whose head had been snapped back.

The man who had been silently watching the frenzied struggle strode over, suddenly grabbed his right arm, and drove his fist hard into his stomach. Ugh, Nam Gyeonhwa retched up sour fluid and supported himself against the wall, but the man kicked his right shoulder hard with his foot without a second thought.

His surroundings went dark in an instant.

With a bustle of activity, cold water splashed onto his face. Click, click, at the sound of fingers snapping, he laboriously lifted his eyelids, and his dim vision cleared, his senses sharpening one by one.

The first thing that came into view was a wall roughly plastered with cement. Seeing the dim light, was it a darkroom or a basement? As Nam Gyeonhwa was blankly assessing the situation, he looked up weakly at the shadow standing before him. The man with the long scar on his cheek gave a slight nod.

“Are you awake?”

At the feigned polite tone, Nam Gyeonhwa just coughed silently. His head was dizzy, but he also didn’t feel like responding. The man, as if he had no intention of hearing an answer anyway, pulled over a chair and sat down, swiping his fingers across a tablet computer.

“Kim Juan, born in Seoul, currently residing at E&U Village, Building D, Jung-gu, Seoul Special City, 29 years old, assistant manager in the marketing department of the fashion distribution specialist, W.S.”

“…”

“The entry record right before it was deleted stated this. Is that correct?”

At those words, Nam Gyeonhwa bit his lower lip. He couldn’t understand at all why the record, which was said to have been deleted as soon as he left Seoul, was in that man’s hands. Did he come from the residents’ office? But the residents’ office wouldn’t drag in a single unregistered individual just to ask if he was Kim Juan or not.

Racking his brain, Nam Gyeonhwa suddenly recalled the security team he had encountered at the underground fighting ring. The man’s impression was similar to that of the man who had been called the general commander. He wanted to deny it, but for now, it was the closest guess.

“Mr. Kim Juan?”

The business-like question returned. Nam Gyeonhwa, who had a dry cough, frowned and opened his mouth.

“If you’re going to ask someone something, isn’t it proper to identify yourself first?”

“I am Gil Useong, the general commander of the Underground Special District’s special security team.”

“The special security team…?”

While asking this, he fiddled with his wrists behind his back. A cable tie was tightened around his bound wrists.

“You can think of us simply as the autonomous police of the Underground Special District. And as for the reason you are here, Mr. Kim Juan, you are currently sitting here as a suspect in a case of illegal trespassing and robbery.”

“Illegal trespassing, robbery?”

“I’m referring to when you came down to the Wiyeonggwan in the Underground Special District a month or two ago and stole an important item.”

The answer Gil Useong gave with his arms crossed was, as expected, what he had guessed. In other words, it was also a situation he had not wished for. He was sure they had said it would be difficult to track him once he went up to the surface. He didn’t know how they had managed to follow him all the way to Mangmae, but for now, he had to draw a line and deny it.

“I’m sorry, but you seem to have mistaken me for someone else. I’m not Kim Juan, and I’ve never heard the name Wiyeonggwan before.”

“You’ve never heard of it, you say?”

“I don’t know what kind of misunderstanding you have, but dragging someone here without warning, confining them, and even tying their hands and feet to interrogate them, I can only think of this as an excessive act.”

Then, Gil Useong turned the tablet over and showed the screen. The face that had been captured by the camera at the time of entry was still there. Gil Useong, looking back and forth between the tablet and Nam Gyeonhwa, said.

“To my eyes, this face looks just like yours. How would you explain this part?”

“…”

At the photo, so clear it was impossible to deny, Nam Gyeonhwa pressed his lower lip tightly. It was disadvantageous to feign ignorance and deny it outright, and it was too clumsy to claim it was a disguise. He couldn’t just maintain his silence either, as he didn’t know Haejin’s situation, so he couldn’t just sit here and wait.

Just as a long silence continued, creak, the door burst open with a sharp metallic sound. Even though he couldn’t turn his head because his hands and feet were tied to the chair, the presence of the person standing behind him was distinct. The shadow, cast long and diagonally by the incandescent light, was like that of a beast.

Gil Useong, who confirmed the identity of the person entering without hesitation, immediately stood up.

“What brings you down here?”

A strange sense of familiarity was mixed in his stiff tone. The visitor standing behind him shrugged his shoulders.

“What do you mean? I came to see the face of the bastard they caught outside of Seoul.”

At the immediate response, Nam Gyeonhwa swallowed his breath. The tone of voice that followed the low breath was not unfamiliar.

“At this hour?”

Gil Useong, as if suspicious of the sudden appearance, tapped the watch on his wrist. It is currently 7 a.m. An AI’s clear guide voice flowed out.

“I couldn’t sleep at all, maybe because my body isn’t warmed up yet.”

Na Taebeom, who stretched nonchalantly, then tilted his chin toward the door.

“Anyway, I’ll take it from here, so you go out and rest.”

“But the interrogation is not over yet.”

“I know.”

He replied nonchalantly and patted Nam Gyeonhwa’s shoulder.

“It’s just that I’d like to have a long, serious talk with this one, and it would be awkward to talk with our Commander Gil in the middle.”

Gil Useong, who let out a silent sigh, ran his hand through his hair and then obediently stepped aside. Put the interrogation room camera on standby, and you two wait outside the door. The voice giving detailed instructions gradually faded, and then the door closed with a heavy bang.

The sound of the folding steel stool legs scraping against the cement floor was harsh. He draped his arms over the back of the chair and leaned forward.

“Hello.”

Unlike the gloomy basement, his voice was exceedingly cheerful.

“We’ve met before, haven’t we?”

“…I don’t know.”

“You don’t know? I don’t think I have a face that’s easily forgotten. Do you have a bad memory?”

Instead of answering the taunt, Nam Gyeonhwa silently stared at the hand resting on the back of the chair. He had thought there was a smell of wild roses mixed with the scent of blood from the moment he entered, and sure enough, there were specks of dark red blood from the back of the fingers wearing the steel knuckles to the wrist. Na Taebeom, noticing his gaze, shook his hand.

“I had to use my hands a bit before coming here. Just when I thought things were quiet for a while, all sorts of shit is happening all over the place. Thanks to that, I’ve been running around like a headless chicken with no time to sit down.”

His grumbling voice was playful. Nam Gyeonhwa looked to the side with an indifferent expression. Suddenly, Na Taebeom’s hand grabbed his chin.

“You did that last time too. I guess it’s a habit of yours to avoid people’s eyes, but I don’t like that kind of thing.”

“…I don’t like it when people suddenly grab my face either.”

“Then you shouldn’t have looked away first. Hmm?”

Nam Gyeonhwa, who had creased his brow, averted his gaze, his eyes darting to the side. Na Taebeom, who made a tsk sound with his tongue as if to tell him to focus, smiled broadly. He was clearly smiling, yet instead of a sense of relief, he gave off a ferocious impression that seemed to crush the other person.

“I told you to wait in the room that day, but you left without saying goodbye. To be honest, I was a little hurt. My room isn’t some fuck house where anyone can just come and go. You broke the door, rummaged through the closet, and even took my favorite shirt.”

His face tensed up automatically at the vulgar words. Na Taebeom, who had taken something out of his inner pocket, rustled and unwrapped the packaging. He had thought it was a cigarette, but it was a reddish lollipop.

“Anyway, let’s finish what we started that day.”

“What finish? You want your favorite shirt back?”

He leisurely put the candy in his mouth and continued.

“The data chip. Where is it?”