LM 111

Woo Jung-ryeol glanced around quickly, then pulled out a golf club from a nearby bag. The flawless new head gleamed as sharply as bonsai scissors.

“It’s one thing to be ungrateful after living off my charity, but you’ve gone too far. You haven’t been beaten enough yet.”

“Why did you do it?”

Unlike his enraged opponent’s voice, Woo Hyunse remained calm. He stared directly at Woo Jung-ryeol, who was breathing heavily out of his mouth.

“Why did you touch him?”

He was such a kind and gentle child that onlookers would feel frustrated. Others might have rushed over, grabbed him by the collar, cursed, and spat, demanding to know why they deserved such treatment. But he just internalized it all.

The measly compensation money forcibly given was another factor fueling his anger. A mere five thousand. It was a lot of money for Kwon Siyul, but worth less than a potted plant to Woo Jung-ryeol. It was priced according to rank. Just enough to prevent complaints.

Woo Hyunse knew better than anyone how Woo Jung-ryeol beat people. Though he smiled and said it no longer hurt, that he had recovered, his blood boiled thinking of Kwon Siyul being dragged here alone, slapped, and kicked. His fists clenched, veins and tendons rising chaotically over his knuckles beneath the gloves.

“What are you babbling about? Instead of being grateful that your father cleaned up after you, it turned out you couldn’t even handle one little rat!”

Woo Jung-ryeol gripped the club tightly and swung. In the past, Woo Hyunse would have quietly taken the beating and ended things  there. But not now. There was no reason to endure it. He had touched Kwon Siyul. That small, young child.

The one most precious to him.

Though he silently took beatings as a child, now he could snatch the weapon from those hands in an instant. Woo Jung-ryeol cursed as he stared dumbfounded at the golf club being taken from him. He looked around for another weapon. Woo Hyunse paid no attention, examining the club in his hand. A familiar 11-iron, with decent shaft elasticity.

“Secretary Yoon, you saw that. From now on, my actions are self-defense.”

Strictly speaking, it couldn’t be called self-defense since he hadn’t been hit yet, but considering Kwon Siyul was beaten one-sidedly, that should suffice. Two slaps to the face, and one kick to the stomach. Repaying in kind wouldn’t be enough. Interest was best collected with compound rates. Woo Hyunse gripped the club with both hands.

The golf club rose high and traced a large arc. The sound of the club cutting through the air was followed by the dull thud of the iron head striking flesh and bone.

After just one hit, Woo Jung-ryeol clutched his arm and rolled on the ground, wailing that he was dying. Woo Hyunse let out a derisive laugh at the sight of him whimpering. He hadn’t even gotten properly started, yet the man was already overreacting. He wondered where the man who used to beat him until his arms cracked and broke Woo Gibbeum’s ribs had gone.

“Please, young master, you mustn’t!”

Secretary Yoon, who had been fidgeting anxiously behind them, rushed forward urgently. Woo Hyunse tilted his head to one side as he looked at the man blocking his way.

“Move aside. Unless you want to die too.”

His gaze held sincere intent. The contents of the reports Secretary Yoon had secretly delivered to Woo Jung-ryeol flashed through his mind. Though he now lived as a respectable businessman in his older age, Woo Hyunse was once a figure who deftly navigated the line between legal and illegal, living with barely dried blood on his clothes.

Secretary Yoon hesitated briefly, then squeezed his eyes shut and stepped aside. He was quick to calculate his losses.

Each time the golf club plunged toward the ground, crimson blood spattered in droplets. It sounded like meat being tenderized. Plea for mercy mingled with vulgar curses flowed out incoherently, but there was no one to listen to these words. Secretary Yoon just flinched repeatedly, pretending not to see the situation before him.

How much time passed? The dark shadow on the wall lowered the hand holding the long club. The screams had subsided too. The thoroughly beaten opponent could only twitch on the ground, curled up in a ball. His coughs brought up blood mixed with white fragments of teeth. Bloody foam caked his quivering jaw.

With a deep exhale, Woo Hyunse set the golf club head on the ground with a thud. The head of the golf club was barely recognizable in its original color. Bright red blood dripped viscously like mucus before falling to the floor.

“Let’s never see each other again. They say you can’t sever blood ties, but fortunately, that doesn’t apply to us.”

Woo Jung-ryeol could only whimper, unable to respond. He squirmed away fearfully with each rustle of Woo Hyunse’s clothes.

“Even so, I can’t just send him to the farm after all the years he raised me. I’m not that much of a beast.”

Woo Hyunse carefully wiped the golf club head and shaft with a handkerchief. After checking repeatedly for any remaining blood, he replaced it in its original spot. Only after finishing everything did he bite the end of his glove and pull it off.

There was no trace of the neat and tidy Woo Hyunse from before. His narrowed eyes, relaxed mouth corners, and flushed face from the violence looked as satisfied as a beast that had tasted plenty of blood. The disheveled hair and even the blood spattered on his trouser cuffs seemed to be Woo Hyunse’s true form.

“Secretary Yoon.”

Secretary Yoon turned around, startled by the call. The blood had drained from his face, leaving it as pale as a sheet of paper.

“Make sure this doesn’t leak out. You understand? No matter where he came from, a son is a son, and parents should cover up their children’s faults. Revealing the truth would only bring shame down onto the family.”

“Y-Yes, sir.”

“He should get better with some rest. Though I’m not sure if he’ll have time to recover.”

“Pardon?”

After beating a man to a pulp, Woo Hyunse smiled brightly. It was a refreshed smile. Behind him, an old-fashioned telephone rang loudly. Simultaneously, Secretary Yoon’s pocket vibrated. It was an ominous sound coming from his mobile phone.

Woo Hyunse turned away, leaving Secretary Yoon to answer the call. As he was about to leave the study, he said “Ah,” turned on his heel, and strode to the window.

“I almost forgot about this.”

It was the bonsai tree that Woo Jung-ryeol cherished more than his own children. He said it was a gift, a cherry tree imported from Japan, worth its weight in gold.

Without hesitation, Woo Hyunse lifted the pot high and threw it to the floor. With a crack, the pot shattered. The branches that Woo Jung-ryeol had carefully tended snapped helplessly, and the twisted tree roots were exposed uglily above the clumps of soil.

It was this easy.

He should have done this long ago.

He only regretted the long years he had lived with his head bowed. Woo Hyunse lightly stepped on the cherry tree that would now become deadwood and left the study. Unlike the earlier display of anger, his departing steps were as light as someone who had shed all their burdens.

* * *

“Hey, you crazy bastard―!”

A shout tore through the air, reverberating through the office. There was no need to specify who had barged in,the booming voice made it clear. Woo Hyunse rubbed his ringing ears and lowered his hand. Just as his secretary desperately tried to stop the intruder, saying, “You can’t go in, ma’am,” the door flew open.

It turned out to be Woo Gibbeum, so angry that even her usually perfectly maintained hairstyle was a mess. Woo Gibbeum glared daggers at Woo Hyunse sitting in his chair, approaching with heavy steps and flaring nostrils. She raised her hand as if to slap Woo Hyunse’s cheek, then slammed it down on the desk with a bang that threatened to break it, her eyes bulging out of their sockets.

“You crazy bastard, if you’re going to lose it, couldn’t you do it more gracefully? What the hell is all this?”

The secretary fidgeted behind them, looking back and forth between the two. When Woo Hyunse gestured that it was fine, the secretary tactfully left the room.

“What?”

“The broken engagement, and what happened to Father?!”

“Did Secretary Yoon spill the beans?”

Woo Gibbeum hesitated. Secretary Yoon hadn’t said anything, and their hospitalized father hadn’t regained consciousness. The official reason was a traffic accident. Supposedly, he had an accident while trying to avoid an animal that ran onto the road on his way home. Conveniently, it happened in the countryside with no CCTV, and Secretary Yoon had meticulously scraped the car involved, making the excuse seem plausible.

In reality, the old man was better off hiding in the hospital. Woo Gibbeum was on the verge of fainting from the constant news reports coming in. Taking bribes was a common enough scandal, nothing major, but the leaked video was the problem.

No, the word “problem” was far too weak to describe this incident. It was a bomb. Some madman had tied a bundle of grenades and thrown them into their peaceful household.