PAHO 17

At the questioning voice, Haejin’s breathing hitched, followed by hiccups. Nam Gyeonhwa’s eyes, as he struggled to push down the hand covering his mouth, blurred red. If he startled him any more, it could lead to a seizure. Extending his arm out wide with all his might, he struck Na Taebeom’s wrist hard with his fist. The cell phone, which fell with a clatter, tumbled across the floor.

“Nam Haejin! Hyung is coming, soon, right away, so turn off your phone! And hide!”

─ Hyung-ah? Really hyung-ah?

“If you understand, turn off your phone! Now!”

While pushing away the arm that was constricting his body, Nam Gyeonhwa yelled at the top of his lungs toward the cell phone. Fortunately, it seemed he had understood, as a mechanical voice soon came from the phone, dryly announcing that the call had ended.

“The kid is admirable, he listens to his hyung well.”

Na Taebeom, who let out a low whistle, muttered as if amused. The moment those words fell, Nam Gyeonhwa shoved him against the wall like an arrow, then grabbed him forcefully by the collar and yelled.

“Where is the kid.”

“Well, I don’t know.”

“Fuck, where did you put the kid, you son of a bitch!”

Despite the fierce retort, Na Taebeom merely looked down at Nam Gyeonhwa’s face with a playful expression. Nam Gyeonhwa, who had slammed Na Taebeom against the wall with all his strength, continued.

“I’m warning you, don’t touch the kid.”

“You were pretending to be so calm, but you’re worried about your little brother, huh? Your voice is quite fierce.”

“I won’t say it twice. If you do something like what you did just now to the kid, I’ll rip your throat out first.”

Na Taebeom, who let out a small laugh at the grim, distinctly pronounced threat, shrugged his shoulders.

“Well now, that’s so fucking scary.”

Far from being intimidated, Nam Gyeonhwa’s jaw trembled at the nonchalant expression. If he had his way, he wanted to beat that face to a pulp, but if he rushed in recklessly, he wouldn’t even be able to collect his bones. On top of that, his trembling body was struggling just to stand. His right arm was throbbing, and his side and shoulder, which had been kicked countless times, felt like they would tear at the slightest movement.

Stay calm. The more he lost his temper and got swept up in his pace, the more he would just provoke Na Taebeom. Nam Gyeonhwa, who slowly inhaled, recited the Apostles’ Creed in his mind.

It was a method he learned from Father Nam Gijun when he was living at the orphanage.

‘Just think of it as simply talking to God.’

The face of the benevolent old priest flashed by and then faded. Even if he no longer believed in God, it was enough to quiet his noisy mind.

“What’s with you, all of a sudden.”

As if the long silence was quite displeasing, Na Taebeom frowned and asked bluntly. At last, Nam Gyeonhwa looked up at him with a silent face.

“So, what is it you want to do by keeping me locked up here.”

“Your attitude is one-hundred-and-eighty degrees different from before.”

“It’s just, I’m tired of being like this.”

The calm tone was less like resignation and more like refined anger. For a moment, a cold glint flashed in Na Taebeom’s eyes as the light from the lamp grazed them while he stared down at that face. Na Taebeom, who frowned as if displeased, grabbed Nam Gyeonhwa’s wrist that was holding his collar and forcefully pulled it down.

“Sit.”

He righted the folding stool that had fallen beside them and said, kicking it with his foot.

“For the record, I fucking hate repeating myself too. And I hate it even more when people avoid my eyes when I’m talking.”

“…”

Nam Gyeonhwa, who had steadily closed and opened his eyes at the arrogant tone, soon sat on the chair. Instead of pulling over the simple chair that was overturned by the door, Na Taebeom placed his hands on the back of the chair Nam Gyeonhwa was sitting on and lowered his waist.

“So what’s Haejin’s hyung-ah’s real name.”

“…Nam Gyeonhwa.”

“Nam Gyeonhwa? Does your name have the character for dog in it?”

“Not the gyeon (犬) for dog, the gyeon (堅) for firm.”

“Ah, the gyeon for firm.”

Na Taebeom licked his lips. He had a strangely disappointed expression.

“So who’s the one who sent our puppy here?”

Nam Gyeonhwa, who wrinkled his lips at the nickname “puppy,” soon continued.

“The security team leader of S-One Recycling Center.”

“S-One?”

“It’s a large waste recycling plant in South Jeolla Province. The security team leader was an acquaintance from when I was briefly part of a mercenary group, and we just happened to meet this time.”

Strictly speaking, it was because he had been caught by them for theft and illegal trespassing, but there was no need to reveal such details of the process.

“A month ago, the security team leader commissioned me to retrieve one item from Seoul. That’s why I came down to this basement at that time, and I had no other purpose.”

He didn’t feel particularly good about confessing so readily. It wasn’t that he had any great friendship with Min Chanyoung, but in any case, it was like selling out the person who gave him the job.

If he had been dragged here alone, he would have endured it as best he could, whether they pulled out his fingernails or broke his arm, but in a situation where he didn’t know Nam Haejin’s safety, he couldn’t act recklessly. So for now, he had no choice but to answer moderately, as Na Taebeom wanted.

“So what that security team leader bastard ordered you to do was just to get one piece of data from Seoul, and that was it?”

“Yes.”

“Then how much did you get paid for the job.”

“In Korean won, fifty million.”

“You were cheaper than you look.”

Na Taebeom tilted his head and whispered right in front of him, as if to make sure he heard. The voice, which put particular emphasis on the word “cheap,” seemed to be scorning not the money, but Nam Gyeonhwa himself. At the same time, it was a base provocation. However, Nam Gyeonhwa wasn’t particularly angry. He had lived a cheap life for over 30 years, so what reason was there to be angry for not being treated as a high-end product?

“I don’t know what you want to know, but this is all the information I have. So, go investigate that security team on your own. I’d like it if you’d let me go now.”

“I don’t know about that.”

At the lukewarm response, Nam Gyeonhwa continued calmly.

“I’ve told you everything I know.”

“It’s up to me to judge whether you’ve told me everything or not. I saw with my own two eyes how you were pretending not to know until just a moment ago, so how can I trust you and let you go?”

“If you can’t believe me, give me a lie detector test or something.”

“You were a mercenary. You know how to deal with a lie detector, don’t you.”

At the persistent rebuttal, Nam Gyeonhwa shut his mouth. In modern warfare, meticulous information warfare was more important than guns or cannons, so the mercenary group had also shared methods to beat lie detectors, and Nam Gyeonhwa also remembered some of them. Rather, for him, the part where Na Taebeom knew about the mercenary group’s training process was unfamiliar.

“And I’m an analog type, so I don’t handle complicated machines.”

In this situation, since there was no way to prove his own innocence, it was truly a dilemma. No, with Na Taebeom’s current attitude, it seemed he wouldn’t accept any claim he made. Nam Gyeonhwa, who swallowed a sigh, spoke.

“Think whatever you want. Then. I don’t care if you keep me locked up here as long as you like or do whatever, but the kid, just, send him home.”

“Why should I?”

“There’s no need to do this to a child who’s only eight years old.”

Nam Gyeonhwa retorted coldly, then shut his mouth as if he didn’t want to exchange any more words. The aftermath of being beaten, doused with cold water, and on top of that, rolling around on the floor mercilessly seemed to be hitting him late, as his vision swam. Na Taebeom, who was watching Nam Gyeonhwa swallow a hot breath while pressing his forehead, bent his knees slightly to meet his eyes.

“That factory’s business name, that, you said it was S-One.”

Nam Gyeonhwa, who nodded at the out-of-the-blue question about the company name, stared at him blankly. Whew. Na Taebeom let out a short whistle and then burst into laughter.

“Wasn’t S-One an affiliate of Samwon Group?”

“That’s right. A Samwon Group affiliate.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

The moment the strangely subtle questions and answers were being repeated, Na Taebeom’s hand grabbed Nam Gyeonhwa and shoved him against the wall. Before he could even counterattack, Nam Gyeonhwa was trapped between Na Taebeom and the wall.

“In Seoul, S-One refers to the Samwon Group security team.”

“What?”

The moment an exclamation escaped at the unexpected words, he pinned Nam Gyeonhwa’s body firmly with his arms and legs and, with his remaining hand, grabbed and pressed his chin as if to crush it.

“Looks like our Gyeonhwa is out of luck when it comes to going home.”

Crash. Before Nam Gyeonhwa, who had bumped into the chair, could get up, Na Taebeom kicked him hard in the side. He didn’t even have the strength to block the kicks that rained down on him one after another. Merely covering his head and curling his body up was the only response Nam Gyeonhwa could manage.

He had thought it was just a subsidiary’s security team, but the fact that S-One was the name of an unofficial security team within Samwon Group was information he too had only just learned. Now that it had come to this, a few things that had been puzzling were finally starting to make sense one by one, but at the same time, he couldn’t understand the reason for Na Taebeom’s intense anger. However, it was certain that the existence of Samwon Group was a huge trigger for him.

Nam Gyeonhwa, who was trying to push himself up from the floor with his arms, threw up bitter bile onto the floor. He had been beaten so much that his head was ringing like a rusty bell, and a throbbing pain from his shoulder to his side dominated him. Lying on his side on the floor, he let out a dry cough and a bitter smile. He hadn’t wanted to get involved in a troublesome situation, but to think he had walked into a pit of fire on his own two feet.

When he looked up out of the corner of his eye at the shadow cast over his body, a piercing gaze bore down on him. At the rough force that abruptly grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up, Nam Gyeonhwa reflexively grabbed his wrist and struggled to push it away.

Na Taebeom, who easily subdued the futile struggle, pulled on the collar he was gripping and brought their frowning eyes close together. His pale, sweat-soaked face was flushed as if with a fever, and his cheeks and the area around his eyes were tinged apricot. The impression of his neat features becoming disheveled each time he caught his breath was strangely provocative.

“Other bastards start crying after just a few hits, but how come you haven’t begged for your life even once.”