PAX 17

“Don’t you realize you’re right on the verge of being given a glorious mission? Can’t you feel this exciting atmosphere? And here you are, making that ‘nothingness’ expression?”

Ahn Yutan’s palm flew toward me, and I dodged. It was a purely reflexive action, but the moment I dodged, I immediately regretted it. Thankfully, Ahn Yutan just redirected the hand he had swung through the air and slapped me across the face with the back of his hand. I took it calmly and even let him grab my chin.

“Look at this. Your expression changes even when you get hit, so why do you have that ‘nothingness’ expression on your face like you’re listening to someone else’s story in this moment of glory?”

Ahn Yutan rambled while shaking my chin back and forth. Despite the crow-claw-like strength in his grip and the way he thrust his face toward me to glare, his voice and tone remained gentle.

I stared into Ahn Yutan’s eyes, my lips puckered out from being pressed.

“Smile. Huh? Look glorious.”

I squeezed out a grin through the bunched-up flesh around my mouth. A smile bloomed on Ahn Yutan’s face as well.

“Yeah, that’s good. You look prettier when you smile.”

Ahn Yutan, who had been cackling, threw my face aside and started walking again. I pressed firmly on my stinging chin to soothe it and walked alongside him.

“You should gather the kids.”

“…The kids?”

“Build a group within the Pachulso that is perfectly on your side. Without your mom and dad knowing.”

What is he talking about now?

“Of course, it would be infinitely better if you could get your mom and dad on your side too, but you know, right? Those people are busy licking Ahn Juik’s ass. They won’t be swayed easily. And there’s no point in involving such old farts in revolutionary work, so don’t even bother trying; target the ones who listen to you well. The young blood.”

Ahn Yutan leaped up, hung from a tree branch, and swung his body hard before landing far ahead. With a crackling sound, leaves rained down in all directions. Ahn Yutan, who had snapped the branch he was hanging from while landing, walked along wielding it like a sword. I brushed the leaves off my hair and shoulders.

“The plan is this. First, when the day of the fitness test comes, enjoy the event. Ahn Juik will be sitting up on that crude podium. Looking over the kids one by one, deciding who to pick. And then, at some moment, I’ll appear. ‘Your one and only son has come to put on a celebratory performance.’ And then—swish, his neck is gone.”

Ahn Yutan pretended to grab something in the air and moved the branch in a swish motion beneath it.

“The Guardian bastards loyal to Ahn Juik will be shocked, right? Some will panic, but some will try to attack me immediately out of useless loyalty. I need the Pachulso kids to prevent that. The Pachulso kids, who have been positioning themselves all over the place during the event, will start moving right then.”

The branch stirred through the long weeds on the ground.

“Since they’ll do body searches when you enter the playground on the day of, it’s important to hide guns all over the inside the night before. Once they pull out what they each hid, they’ll suppress the Guardian kids. The Pachulso kids basically know how to use their bodies, right? So you gather those kids and train them well in advance.”

Now I finally understood. The reason he specifically needed the ‘second-in-command of the Pachulso.’ It was because the cleaning staff were the only ones in the vicinity who could actually put up a fight against the Guardians. Plus, since Director Ahn Juik invites the entire Pachulso family to every fitness test, it wouldn’t look suspicious for them to swarm inside.

“How about it? Can you do it? The Pachulso kids all listen to you well anyway. I didn’t call you the second-in-command without any basis.”

Something occurred to me.

I quickly weighed whether or not to ask this, then made my decision.

“It seems you have someone planted, doesn’t it?”

Ahn Yutan, who had been swinging the branch around in front of him, glanced at me.

“Plant what?”

“In the Pachulso—there’s someone else besides me that you’re in contact with, right?”

I watched out of the corner of my eye as a smile spread across Ahn Yutan’s lips.

“Are you jealous?”

“Who is it?”

“And if you knew, what would you do? Are you going to finish them off?”

“I don’t do things like that.”

Ahn Yutan grinned and twirled the long, thick branch in the air.

“Do you want to know who it is?”

“Yeah.”

“Good, keep wanting to know.”

“You told me to build a group that would be on my side.”

“Yeah, build that too.”

“How can I build a group on my side without any trust?”

“Why can’t you? I don’t trust you either, but I’m making you my ally.”

Ahn Yutan stopped and looked at me. I met his gaze and paid close attention to the thick branch held in his hand.

“I don’t trust you. Why would I trust a bastard who crumples and cowers just because he got a little threatened? Bastards like you will just scurry over to the side of whoever is stronger when they show up and wave a stick at you. Why would I trust a bastard like that? Of course, you’ll have to trust me because I’m the only reliable thing you’ve got. Since you’re on the same boat as me, your fate and the fate of the Pachulso will be determined by my fate.”

“Why are you making me do this if you don’t even trust me?”

“I’m not trusting you, I’m using you. Isn’t that what the Pachulso is for? Paying money and using them. Mercenaries. There’s nothing easier to use than things that get swept along by whoever has the money and power.”

“What if I just scurry off to someone stronger than you?”

“Do you think there’s anyone stronger than me?”

Ahn Yutan, who had moved right in front of my nose, peered into my eyes.

Ahn Yutan’s logic is flimsy. He’s volatile and impulsive. There’s no way it’s safe to be on the same boat as a person like this.

“Isn’t it possible that I might think lining up with Ahn Juik is a better choice than lining up with you?”

Ahn Yutan laughed.

“You knew that would be a fucking wrong choice even as you were saying it.”

“Who knows.”

“You haven’t even heard what I’m going to give the Pachulso in exchange for your cooperation yet.”

“I can’t imagine what you could possibly give people who are obsessed with money, other than money.”

With a crack sound, lightning struck. I almost fell backward, but I regained my balance and clutched my nose. Something felt hot, and then blood began to drip down onto the ground.

“That means the answer is wrong, you fucking bastard. Wrong.”

Ahn Yutan said while rubbing his reddened forehead.

“If it had been the right answer, I would have slammed my head three times. Ding, dong, dang.”

In rhythm with the ‘ding, dong, dang,’ Ahn Yutan slammed his forehead against the air three times. He really looked like a madman.

I grabbed my nose with the hem of my t-shirt and pressed on the bridge. Ahn Yutan started walking, so I walked beside him.

“You’re not going to pay me?”

I asked with a nasal voice.

“I’m going to give you something better than money.”

“What?”

“The merger of the Pachulso and the Guardians.”

Hmm….

“Why? Not good enough for you?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“I don’t care if you didn’t say anything, this is a reason to be jumping for joy… No, dammit, this fucking dimwit isn’t reading the room again. It’s the same as before. Nothingness. Before, it was a ‘nothingness’ expression. Now it’s a ‘nothingness’ reaction.”

I didn’t have the energy to even pretend to jump for joy, so I just kept pressing my nose and walked silently. I thought he might hit me or punch me somewhere else, but unexpectedly, Ahn Yutan didn’t get any angrier.

“Anyway, you know, right? That there are tons of people who would pay money just to join the Guardians. I’m saying I’ll give the Pachulso that opportunity for free.”

I nodded soullessly. The nosebleed seemed to have stopped to some extent.

“Then you guys won’t have to live your lives scrounging for pennies while cleaning up after the residents. You can just become Guardians and receive a comfortable monthly salary.”

I had never thought that life in the Nagon district was hard, nor that I was living while ‘scrounging for pennies.’ I had never dreamed of a life receiving a comfortable monthly salary, nor had I ever once wanted to become a Guardian. However, for Ahn Yutan, a life as a Guardian receiving a comfortable salary must seem like something grand.

Of course, I know that living as a Guardian is easier and more comfortable than living as a regular resident in the Nagon district. But that’s a problem that only matters to people inside the Nagon district; it has nothing to do with the people at the Pachulso.

“When we merge, I promise I won’t discriminate against the Pachulso kids. I’ll train the Guardians to be the same. But honestly, you won’t even need that—once you bump into each other a few times, drink together, and try playing around in all sorts of messy ways, you’ll get close in no time.”