GBH 86

The truth behind the organization’s name wasn’t as grand as one might expect. The culprit was a carbonated drink with the same name on the table when they decided to form the organization. If that was the case, they might as well have named it after Pepsi. Kim Dong-su, who was about to give a lengthy speech about the importance of names in life, tightly shut his mouth as he recalled his brother’s name.

Right, what’s in a name? It’s the person that matters. If a person is of high quality, does it matter if their name is a bit tacky? Kim Dong-su tilted the soju bottle with mixed emotions.

“Ah, shit…”

The soju glass, which appeared as two, quickly overflowed.

“Boss, you’re drunk. You should stop drinking.”

It was a smoky Pork Belly restaurant. A subordinate who was cutting the pork belly on the grill tried to stop Kim Dong-su. The pork belly, grilled crispy with a brownish surface and oil sizzling, was cut with scissors. Dong-su, who was practically slumped over the round stainless steel table, mumbled while staring blankly at the scene.

“My brother used to love the pork belly I grilled…”

It was when he had just joined the organization and was struggling to adjust. During times when he was constantly criticized no matter what he did, Kim Deuk-pal would silently take Dong-su to a meat restaurant and grill meat for him. Dong-su reminisced about those times, thinking about how many meat restaurants he had visited with his brother since then. Kim Deuk-pal had a habit of ordering at meat restaurants. He would multiply the number of people by two when ordering meat. When they went together, since there were two of them-

“Since there are two of us, let’s start with four servings. We can order more as we eat.”

As if Kim Deuk-pal was still alive, the order he used to make as soon as they sat down at a meat restaurant was heard without a single word out of place.

Even the intonation was the same as Kim Deuk-pal’s, and this was a pork belly restaurant they used to frequent when Kim Deuk-pal was alive. Hearing the familiar habit of the person he missed in a familiar place, Kim Dong-su sobered up instantly, feeling as if the deceased had come back to life.

“…!”

“Boss Dong-su?”

The restaurant was full of noise like smoke, bustling with all tables occupied during dinner time, making it impossible to tell where the order came from. Kim Dong-su strained his eyes, trying to find the person by voice alone among the similar-looking crowd. His eyes stung from the smoke rising from the meat.

He spotted an employee serving a thick stack of pork belly. It was at a table two tables away from where Kim Dong-su was sitting. At that table, which had just been occupied and the side dishes untouched, sat two people. Seeing the short brown hair and round head shape, his hand reacted first, remembering grabbing it.

“Hey, that bastard, that’s him!”

His subordinates also recognized the back of the head and pointed. Kim Dong-su, stumbling from the alcohol, made his way through the narrow aisle where customers sat back to back. People complained as he bumped into their backs, but Kim Dong-su could only see the brown back of the head.

His outstretched hand reached the brown hair. However, before he could grab the soft hair, his wrist was caught and twisted, bending his arm. The moment he realized the cap had been removed, he found himself face to face with the hot grill for cooking meat. The heat from the heated grill instantly dried his wide-open eyes.

With his arm restrained behind his back and the back of his head grabbed by Song Yi-heon, Kim Dong-su was pressed down towards the grill.

“…!”

“Cu-customer!”

Silence fell over the previously noisy interior. Everyone stopped eating and stared in shock at the boy who had subdued an adult man in an instant. Meanwhile, Se-kyung, who was at the same table, was meticulously wiping her hands with a wet towel.

“Boss!”

The Chilseong Faction subordinates jumped from their seats. As old stools rolled around causing a commotion, Song Yi-heon pressed down on the back of Kim Dong-su’s head. The gaps in the grill where the charcoal was splitting came closer. Kim Dong-su, now rigid, swallowed hard.

“Stay where you are. Before I leave grill marks on your boss’s face.”

“You bastard-!”

Sparks flew from the charcoal on the grill.

“Dong-su, close your eyes. Sparks are flying.”

Setting aside how Song Yi-heon knew his name, the casual way he addressed him as if they were friends made Kim Dong-su tremble with humiliation. Dong-su tried to straighten his back using his free arm to push against the table, but Song Yi-heon kicked Dong-su’s feet, making him fall onto the table, and pinned him down with his body weight. It was skilled and precise.

It was strange. When he was beaten up for exploiting Kim Deuk-pal’s name, he couldn’t resist at all, but now he skillfully gained the upper hand. It could only be explained that he had deliberately allowed himself to be hit in their previous encounter.

The problem was that this high school student acted like someone seasoned in fights, and that seasoned person reminded him of Kim Deuk-pal. Moreover, even his way of speaking was similar to Kim Deuk-pal’s, making Kim Dong-su growl as he tried to shake off unnecessary thoughts.

“I told you I wouldn’t let you off if I saw you again…!”

“Did you rent out the entire meat restaurant?”

Kim Dong-su twisted his body violently. Even good technique is useless without sufficient strength. There’s a reason weight classes are important. As he persistently resisted, Song Yi-heon seemed to struggle, and his hold loosened.

“Wait. It’s related to Kim Deuk-pal.”

The resistance stopped as if by magic.

“If you want to know, wait.”

Song Yi-heon pulled Kim Dong-su’s hair up. Pulling his chin up to reveal his bulging eyes, which even now reminded him of someone who was no longer alive, Kim Dong-su didn’t even attempt to free his grabbed hair.

As the dinner rush passed, customers at the meat restaurant began to leave one by one. Pleasantly drunk customers left, exuding the greasy smell as if there had never been a fight. The tables between Song Yi-heon and the Chilseong Faction emptied, and an employee wiped them clean with a cloth.

“Eat up. Don’t you like this either?”

“No, it’s delicious.”

Although Se-kyung was eating enthusiastically, he couldn’t keep up with the speed at which Song Yi-heon was stacking cooked meat. Like a grandmother in the countryside preparing a meal for his skinny grandchild, Song Yi-heon moved the fully cooked pork belly to Se-kyung’s plate.

At the next table over, the Chilseong Faction Subordinates were tilting green bottles.

“Let me clear these bottles for you.”

A restaurant employee came to clear away the soda bottles that had piled up instead of soju on the Chilseong Group’s table.

‘Listen to Kim Deuk-pal’s last words with a clear head.’

That one sentence had changed the green bottles from soju to soda. Song Yi-heon had also been brought to the hospital unconscious, but he was the last person with Kim Deuk-pal, who died instantly at the traffic accident scene. There was a good chance he had heard Kim Deuk-pal’s last words.

They flashed murderous glares, ready to bury Song Yi-heon in the mountains if his claim about the last words turned out to be false. However, their killing intent soon had to subside, trembling.

“You can’t even do that properly.”

Song Yi-heon was scolding Se-kyung for burning the pork belly black and taking the tongs from her, but for some reason, it was exactly like how Kim Deuk-pal used to scold his subordinates when he was alive, only with a different voice.

“Tsk, so clumsy.”

Then Song Yi-heon pulled out a tissue and wiped the ssamjang sauce from Se-kyung’s mouth.

“Look at you. I wonder if you even wash your socks before wearing them.”

They thought it was a scolding directed at Choi Se-kyung, but the more they listened, the more confused they became about who he was actually addressing. Se-kyung, who exuded class even in this shabby meat restaurant, seemed like someone who would only wear snow-white socks. Could he possibly be talking to them? The Chilseong Faction Subordinates were uncertain.

“Do you have money?”

“…”

“Do you think about your future?”

“…”

“Don’t live recklessly, you fool.”

“This bastard-!”

It was indeed directed at them, not at Choi Se-kyung. As the short-tempered youngest slammed the table, Song Yi-heon pulled out a yellowed document from the black backpack leaning against the chair leg and tossed it onto the empty table. Kim Dong-su gritted his teeth as he took the envelope and opened it. Inside were a file and a photo of a woman.

“This woman…”

“You know her. Lee Mi-kyung.”

The woman in the photo was Lee Mi-kyung, and the documents were part of Choi Myung-hyun’s background check on Song Yi-heon.

Everything that should have belonged to Song Min-seo went to Lee Mi-kyung. All Song Min-seo received from the chairman was the detached house in Itaewon where she currently resides. However, according to the documents investigated by Choi Myung-hyun, a considerable amount of real estate and assets were gifted on the condition that Song Min-seo kept her mouth shut. The luxury goods, foreign cars, high-end villa, and land in Pyeongtaek that Lee Mi-kyung now flaunts were originally Song Min-seo’s share.

Song Yi-heon, chewing on overcooked, chewy pork belly, spoke to Kim Dong-su, who was carefully examining the list of assets.

“Take it back. Then I’ll give you enough seed money to get back on your feet.”

“You crazy kid. Getting all cocky. How the hell are we supposed to take this back?”

“For a gangster, you’re playing innocent.”

Song Yi-heon took a swig of soda. Though not as good as beer, the carbonation that stung his throat wasn’t bad.

“That woman, Lee Mi-kyung, her specialty is gathering thugs and causing chaos when things don’t go her way. Get in among those thugs and approach her. Kim Dong-su, you can’t do it because she knows your face, but the others should be able to. Isn’t that woman your enemy anyway?”

The humiliation they suffered from Lee Mi-kyung when Kim Deuk-pal died naturally came to mind. The file in Kim Dong-su’s hand crumpled.

“‘Love your enemies’… is basically bullshit.”

Song Yi-heon spoke slowly, licking his lips. The tip of his red tongue briefly appeared and disappeared.

“When have we ever backed out of wallowing with bad guys?”

Everyone here had experienced Lee Mi-kyung’s personality, which was almost as bad as theirs. They didn’t touch the wronged, the kind, or the weak, but they didn’t spare the bad guys. When bad guys competed at the bottom, the more vicious one was the winner.

“Just take care of it.”

Kim Deuk-pal was a gangster. He was someone who had won many times under those bottom-feeder rules. Soon, his red lips curled up into a smile.

* * *

It was a spacious hall with ivory walls and ceiling reflecting the light of chandeliers. As it was a social gathering under the pretext of a bazaar, the atmosphere became lively after the donations were collected and it was time for socializing. The calm music and formally dressed people exudes class.

Choi Se-kyung, who hadn’t shown his face at such gatherings for a long time, was surrounded by his peers. Unlike them, who mostly attended specialized high schools in similar school districts, Choi Se-kyung alone attended a national general high school. Though they hadn’t met often enough to grow apart, the rumor that Se-kyung’s mother was to succeed as the chairperson of S Department Store made the children approach him friendly.

Even without his family background, Choi Se-kyung, looking splendid in a black three-piece suit, was the type people wanted to befriend. A female student, unable to take her eyes off Se-kyung’s hairstyle with the bangs half swept back and his fair skin that looked as if it had been powdered, asked about his recent situation.

“Se-kyung, have you decided on a university? The others are saying you’re going to a domestic university, is that true?”

“Well…”

As Se-kyung responded ambiguously with a gentle smile, a male student wearing his suit casually patted Se-kyung’s shoulder, trying to form a connection.

“It must be frustrating attending a regular high school. The difference in level with the other students must be huge, right?”

The boy, who attended an international high school, didn’t have particularly good grades in the national mock exams. However, he had a father who could lay grass at universities and exempt him from military service, so he wore his father’s influence like shoulder pads. The children, who had been talking about their world around Se-kyung, who just smiled without saying anything, pointed to someone who had been bothering them for a while. They had seen him enter with Choi Se-kyung, but it was an unfamiliar face. On top of being brought by Choi Se-kyung, the chestnut-colored suit he wore was expensive. Naturally, they couldn’t help but be curious.

“Who’s that?”

The boy, who seemed quite uncomfortable in this setting and had been looking around, turned his head as if he heard them pointing at him. Then, pointing at himself with his index finger, he said. His blankly blinking eyes were quite cute.

“Me? Song Yi-heon.”