THM Ch 2

Joo Nanchul, who had kicked off his combat boots, left the study, and he remained alone in the silence, picking up his clothes and putting them on. He could feel a burning heat from his left thigh—scraped by the soles of the combat boots—and his entire back. When he wiped his thigh, which was wrapped in a dragon’s tail, with his palm, damp blood came off. It was bound to be the same for his back, whether he looked or not. Fortunately, thanks to the pitch-black dragon tattoo that started from the nape of his neck, spanned his entire back, and ended at his left thigh, even if scabs and bruises formed, they wouldn’t stand out.

After becoming an adult, Nando had rashly carved the current tattoo onto his body without even getting permission from Joo Nanchul. It was because he hated seeing his body constantly plastered with bruises, and it was something possible at the time because Joo Nanchul was staying abroad for a long period. Just as he was about to engrave it on the entire front including his upper arms and chest, he was caught by his father who returned without notice, and it stopped at that.

If I knew it would turn out like that, I should have had them stick to both sides from the start and engrave it at the same time. He made the regret he always had on days with violence without fail, reluctantly putting clothes over his sore skin. Going to the bathroom attached to the study and looking at his face reflected in the mirror, his hollow eyes were trembling with rising anger. His two hands, unbinding the hair that had been disheveled from being beaten, trembled even more severely than that.

“…Fuck.”

Gritilng his teeth, he wetted his hands with water and calmed his hair down. Only after sweeping back his slicked-back hair once more coarsely did he kick open the door and walk out to reclaim his daily routine. He had to quickly pour out the anger filling up inside his body.

While crossing the yard as if running past the main entrance, a voice calling “Hyung-nim!” came softly from behind. He wanted to ignore it and go, but his ankles were caught by the anxious voice of his young younger brother, and he ended up stopping in his tracks. Turning around, Joo Nanbaek was running toward him while looking around at his surroundings.

Receiving the gaze of Ham Yonghoo who was standing in front of the main entrance, he wrapped his arms around Joo Nanbaek who was jumping into his embrace. The moment he received Nanbaek’s body, pain flared up from his ribs, but because he was holding his breath in advance, not a groan leaked out.

The guy who would become an adult in just one more year was still acting like a child. Nanbaek remained quietly in his embrace, conveying through silence whether he was okay. He smiled and nodded his head above Nanbaek’s head. With hands trying hard to hide the trembling of anger, he stroked down Nanbaek’s back and waist.

“Go inside. Mother might see.”

“…Hyung-nim.”

“Don’t tell Nanseok that hyung was here.”

“…”

“Got it?”

Detaching their bodies and looking into the tear-filled eyes as he requested once more, Nanbaek nodded his head forcibly.

“…Yes.”

Wiping away the tears with his thumb, the guy tried to embrace him again. He smiled and said, “Enough.” After stroking the head of the hesitating fellow smoothly, Nando commanded Ham Yonghoo.

“Please take him to his room.”

Staring for a moment at Ham Yonghoo who was approaching, he turned around. How could he not know the heart of Nanbaek, who had run out wearing pajamas? Today, at least, the guy simply couldn’t send back his hyung who was suffering by getting beaten for his own portion.

‘Don’t touch Nanbaek and Nanseok anymore. If you lay a hand on the kids just one more time, I won’t stay put.’

‘Are you saying you’ll take all the beating for those kids’ portions?’

‘Yes. I’ll take it all. So please only touch me.’

From behind, the deep-guilt-ridden voice of Nanbaek calling “Hyung-nim…!” was heard once again. He didn’t look back.

“Hyung…!”

Wondering if he was so delicate because he hadn’t grown up getting beaten like his now-dead eldest hyung-nim Joo Nansung and Joo Nando himself, he left Nanbaek further and further behind. Even so, he had no regrets about his choice. There was no point in growing up getting beaten under the excuse of getting used to pain and becoming manly. Those kids would also come to realize that it was nothing more than venting anger, not education, and then wouldn’t they end up committing suicide like eldest hyung-nim one day or growing up as a mess just like himself?

However, Nanbaek definitely needed to become strong. As long as he was plainly and clearly designated as the successor to formally inherit Father’s business along with Nanseok.

In ‘Junan’, Nando’s position was no different from a trash disposal site. It was his role to solve all kinds of illegal and dirty work from behind to push their backs so that the enterprise could stretch far into the sunlit world. It was a punishment given by Father as the price for failing to prevent his brother’s death. He had no complaints like that about it at all. Nor did he have any desire to beat his younger brothers and occupy a high position.

‘Junan Future Information & Communications’. He thought that single position was enough for as long as his life lasted. In fact, he could do without even that, but since he still had to live doing something, he was fulfilling his assigned duty. Also, only when he had money could he drink alcohol, fuck around, and vent his anger on people as he pleased.

Receiving his younger brother’s gaze intensely, he crossed the vast yard. As he grew farther from Nanbaek and the house where he himself was born and raised, his footsteps turned hasty.

In the fast-running car, he hurriedly drank whisky contained in a bottle. There was nothing like the same violence to quickly soothe the anger and depression created by violence. Sticking his dick into a hole and shaking his hips like a crazy bastard was something to throw himself into only after seeing blood.

Having called over and beaten even the extra guys he had secured, the office floor became dirtier than usual. The amount of blood spewed out from the mouths and noses of the three dogs was by no means small. Out of consideration for the bastards who were unaccustomed to pain, he had usually thrown fists after having them wear headgear as much as possible, but drunk on the medicine’s effect swallowed together with alcohol on the way over, he had started the beating without measuring front or back.

Wading through the naked punching bags who were unconscious in a bloody pulp state, Nando went to the desk and sat down. Accepting the cigarette handed by Kang Sanggoo with his lips alone, he wiped his blood-soaked hands on a wet towel held and stood by another guy. By now his mood should have been relieved, yet it was in a state that hadn’t improved even a little bit. It seemed to be because of his shin, which was still aching from being kicked by the combat boot.

Leaning his body fully against the backrest of the chair, Nando looked at the punching bags whose legs were being grabbed and dragged out by subordinate employees. The limply stretched bodies looked almost like corpses. Generally, after getting beaten to that extent, a hundred out of a hundred would submit a resignation letter and go into hiding as the proper sequence. So today would likely be the last time seeing those guys’ faces too.

“…”

Bloodstains spread out long like tire marks entered his smoking eyes without much emotion. His fingertips, turned red soaked in blood, flicked off the ash gathering at the end of the filter. A tedious, short bond. Weak species that didn’t even know patience.

“Sanggoo-ya.” The voice calling was desolate as could be, failing to be swept away by the heat blood gave. To Sanggoo, who bowed his waist close to his face saying, “Yes, hyung-nim,” he opened his mouth like a habit.

Let’s go and cull them again.

∞ ∞ ∞

It was on the way back after knocking out a simple meeting scheduled in the morning. Coincidentally, since the redevelopment zone scheduled for construction by ‘Junan’ starting the year after next was nearby, he decided to look around on the way, also to report to Father. Kang Sanggoo skillfully drove along the narrow road between long-built villas and worn-out houses. The gap between the moving car body and the walls was only a few centimeters, raising the tension of those watching, but the driver and the passenger riding in the back seat there had indifferent faces from start to finish.

Just as they smoothly looked around the grounds that were thus departing one by one and were going down the downhill road connected to the main road on the wheels. Out of nowhere, because of some giant figure in short sleeves that suddenly jumped out in front of the car, the car ended up coming to a sudden stop. Kang Sanggoo, who slammed on the emergency brakes making a screeching sound, immediately turned back and checked Nando’s condition.

“Are you all right, hyung-nim?”

Nando’s expression, stretching his left arm to support the passenger seat backrest, was contorted to the fullest. Because the car stopped abruptly, he had ended up dropping the cigarette he was bringing to his mouth. Nando, who uttered a low curse, rubbed and extinguished the stub that fell onto the floor of the vehicle while birthing sparks over his smooth suit pants with his dress shoe foot. Then, with fiercely opened eyes, he glared beyond the front windshield.

“Son of a bitch, where did he go.”