One Day, A Gangster… Chapter 3.2

Wooyoon’s large eyes trembled with anxiety. His mind was in even more turmoil than when he first met Pilsung. He still couldn’t believe that his hardworking brother owed money to a loan shark, and now this man claimed to be his brother’s sugar daddy. And there was another debt…? It all sounded like a lie to Wooyoon.

The man watched Wooyoon tremble, then scratched his buzz cut and asked,

“So, what’s your relationship with Baek Pilsung? I saw him leaving earlier.”

“…….”

“Judging by the strong omega scent, you must be the younger brother Nam Heejai mentioned. How do you know Baek Pilsung?”

“I, I….”

Just as Wooyoon was about to speak, one of the men standing behind the first interjected.

“I guess the rumor about Nam Heejai running off with Baek Pilsung’s money is true.”

“Then we don’t need to look for him now? Knowing Baek Pilsung, he’d chase Nam Heejai to the afterlife and drag him back. We can just wait, get the five million won Nam Heejai stole back, and teach that nasty ass a lesson.”

The man, echoing his companion, stared intently at Wooyoon with eyes almost buried in his puffy eyelids. Wooyoon, trying to avoid the uncomfortable gaze, focused on the man’s bulbous nose, dotted with sweat or rainwater, and tried to steady his breathing.

After a long silence, the man spoke.

“Damn it, we wasted our time. Let’s go.”

He stood up, fanning himself with his red silk shirt as if annoyed by the damp, musty air of the basement. But before taking a step, he crouched down again and slowly scanned Wooyoon. The openly predatory look made Wooyoon feel both scared and disgusted.

“But… before we go, I should get compensated for my wasted effort, right?”

A hand, adorned with several gold rings similar to Pilsung’s, grabbed Wooyoon’s shoulder. Before Wooyoon could react, he was flipped over and pinned to the floor, his face burning.

“He… Help… Sob, help me….”

He squeezed his eyes shut, straining his voice. A heavy weight pressed down on him, constricting his chest and stomach, making it hard to breathe. Trapped beneath the fleshy man’s weight, Wooyoon felt like his organs were about to burst.

“Ugh… uh….”

“Nam Heejai, that bastard, has scammed a lot of people. He’s been going around saying you’re his sugar baby and borrowing money.”

“Uh, sob….”

“I thought he was just a cheap whore who only talked about leaving this life, but no one expected him to actually backstab us. Damn it. He’s a worn-out beta, not even worth taking for free, but everyone fell for his face….”

“Huu….”

“But his younger brother, who he always badmouthed… looks delicious.”

The man grabbed Wooyoon’s hair, like seizing the reins of a horse. Wooyoon’s head jerked back, his gaze fixed on the old wallpaper inches from his face as he gasped for breath. His fear-stricken body released a surge of pheromones. The scent, a raw mix of terror and shame, quickly overpowered the mildew, and the men whistled appreciatively.

“Don’t… Ugh! Help… me….”

Large teardrops rolled down the corners of Wooyoon’s downcast eyes. He wanted to suppress the pheromones flooding the room, but his heart was pounding, and his body trembled uncontrollably. He couldn’t control it.

The man, still gripping Wooyoon’s hair, ground his hips against him like he was about to pop a balloon, then reached for his waistband. He was about to pull down Wooyoon’s shorts when one of his companions stopped him.

“W… wait a minute, hyungnim!”

“What?”

The man, clutching one of Wooyoon’s buttocks, which were now partially exposed by his lowered shorts, looked back at his companion.

“I just remembered, I think he’s Baek Pilsung’s thing.”

The man scoffed at his companion, who was cautiously raising his pinky finger.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Baek Pilsung, who doesn’t even mark his own toys, took Nam Heejai’s whore of a brother as his thing?”

His companion, flexing his pinky, whispered,

“I saw them hanging around the karaoke place yesterday. And I’m not the only one who saw them.”

“…Are you sure it was him?”

“Yes. He has those droopy eyes that are strangely alluring. It was definitely him.”

The man’s thick fingers squeezed Wooyoon’s buttock, the white flesh spilling over the sides. He stared at the sight, then yanked Wooyoon’s hair roughly. Wooyoon’s head snapped to the side, and he opened his eyes slightly, looking at the man from the corner of his eye. The man, his nostrils flaring, asked,

“What’s your relationship with Baek Pilsung?”

“Sob… uh….”

“Are you really Baek Pilsung’s thing?”

The man released Wooyoon’s buttock and quickly extended his thick, short pinky finger. Wooyoon followed his instincts. He had no intention of dating Pilsung, but he nodded anyway. The man, his face filled with disappointment, cursed.

“That was close. Let’s get out of here!”

He yelled, letting go of Wooyoon’s hair as if throwing it away, and stood up. Wooyoon, who had been pinned beneath the man, who looked to be well over 100kg, coughed and curled up, clutching his stomach.

“That Baek Pilsung bastard goes crazy if anyone touches his stuff. Why bother provoking him? I’ll just call some omegas later after my workout and get laid.”

The large men filed out of the room under the man’s command. Soon, only the sound of the pouring rain filled the small basement apartment, as if nothing had happened.

Wooyoon lay on the floor, coughing for a long time, before slowly looking around the empty room. The small apartment, which had been invaded twice by thugs he never thought he’d encounter in his life, felt larger than ever.

The small apartment always felt big when he was alone, waiting for his brother to come home from work. Not knowing how to fill the loneliness that expanded the space, he would watch TV or read. The apartment would only feel full when his brother came home and lay down beside him, the swelling loneliness shrinking, leaving no room to move.

But today, even if his dead brother came back to life, it wouldn’t be enough to fill the damp room.

“Huu…!”

Wooyoon pulled up his pants and burst into tears, his pale lips trembling.

Escaping from one thug wouldn’t end his misery. A world without his brother would be a continuous string of misfortunes.

“Hyung…. Sob, hyung….”

His resolve to run away crumbled. Lost in grief, he sobbed, calling out to his brother, when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He clutched the buzzing pocket and lay on the floor, tears streaming down his face. His mind was a mess, overwhelmed by the incomprehensible events. He was exhausted, both physically and mentally. He just wanted to rest.

But the call, which had ended after a few rings, started again. He finally pulled out his old phone and checked the unfamiliar number. He remembered the earlier call, which he had ignored, thinking it was Pilsung. But Pilsung had appeared in person. This caller wasn’t Baek Pilsung.

If it wasn’t Baek Pilsung, then who…?

He answered the call, cautiously bringing the phone to his ear.

“…Hello?”

[Haa…. Nam Wooyoon.]

“Hyung…?”

[Nam Wooyoon. Are you home?]

The curt voice belonged to his brother, whose charred body he had seen with his own eyes just a few days ago. Wooyoon sat up abruptly, clutching the phone with both hands and crying out,

“Hyung…! H… how, how is this possible? Hyung!”

He cried out, too overwhelmed to think about how he could be talking to his dead brother, or whether he had finally lost his mind from the weight of his misfortunes. But Heejai’s voice was devoid of any warmth.

[Stop your noisy whining and listen to me. Get out of the apartment and secure the deposit.]

“Hyung was in the funeral home… Hyung was lying there…. Yesterday, I cremated you…. Is it… really you?”

He asked again, still unable to believe he was talking to his brother. A sigh, mixed with noise, came from the other end of the line.

[Don’t you recognize my voice? I wouldn’t be talking to you if I were dead.]

The forced gentleness in his voice urged Wooyoon to retrieve the three million won deposit, but Wooyoon couldn’t hear anything else.

He had thought his brother was dead. Strange things had happened since his brother’s death, but now he was alive. Relief and overwhelming sorrow washed over him. His nose turned red, and he mumbled through his tears,

“Sob…. Hyung…, come home if you’re alive. Where are you? Huh? Please……”

The world, which had turned upside down with his brother’s death, was finally righting itself. Back to the way it was. He had thought it would never be the same again, but it could be. Back to before the misfortune struck.

Tears welled up in his eyes with relief and hope. He choked on his sobs, his lips trembling, then he started pouring out his heart, like a child finally able to speak, recounting the events of the past few days.

“I’m scared, hyung. Strange people keep coming. They say you borrowed money from them. And….”

He had spoken ill of his brother, as if he was someone who sold his body to anyone.

He swallowed the last part, clutching the phone tightly in his hands.

“Hyung, the thugs are lying, right? You wouldn’t….”

[Damn it, Nam Wooyoon!]

Wooyoon flinched at the sharp yell, a choked sound escaping his throat.

His brother had never been particularly affectionate. He was usually indifferent, and when he nagged, he was sharp and irritable. But he had never cursed at Wooyoon directly. He only used harsh language when complaining about alphas or the people he worked with.

Despite being startled by his brother’s harsh tone, hearing the familiar irritability made it feel real. Wooyoon bit his lip and focused on his brother’s voice.

[Why are you so talkative? How long are you going to whine?]

“I’m sorry…. I won’t cry.”

Wooyoon forced the corners of his lips upwards and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

“Hyung, are you okay? Did you eat? When are you coming….”

[Go to the landlord right now and tell him you have to move out.]

His brother’s sharp voice cut him off mercilessly.

[Don’t mention me. Just tell him you want the deposit back by the end of this month. Can you do that?]

“Hyung, but the contract date isn’t until….”

[I’ll call you back in thirty minutes. Answer the phone.]

“Hy… hyung! Wait…!”

The line went dead. Wooyoon fiddled with the phone.

“…….”

From beginning to end, his brother had only talked about money.

The deposit…. Even if he said he was moving out, would he get it back? Even the end of the month was only about two weeks away. Would the grumpy landlord even listen to him?

Wooyoon shook his head and frowned.

He may have been a shut-in since graduating middle school, but he knew you couldn’t just move out of a rented apartment on a whim. He watched the news every day and saw stories about the world in dramas and movies. And he had moved so often that he knew the procedure for moving in and out of a place.

His brother knew this too, so it was strange that he was so insistent on getting the deposit back. Why had his brother’s belongings been found with an unidentified body? Where was his brother now? Why the sudden urgency to move out…? Wooyoon clutched his head, his mind even more confused than when he thought his brother was dead.

“Haaa….”

His chest felt tight, as if a weight was pressing down on him. He sighed repeatedly, then decided to believe that his brother had a plan or a reason for his strange behavior.

Ever since their parents died and they were left alone, his brother had always made the decisions, and his brother had always been right. He used to question and disobey his brother’s nagging, but since meeting the thugs at the funeral home, Wooyoon had realized his brother was right all along. So this time, he would obey. Whether he understood his brother’s actions or not, he was simply grateful that his brother was alive.

His brother had said he would call back in thirty minutes, so he could ask him then. He had sounded frantic during their last conversation….

Wooyoon glanced at the rain-lashed window and opened the drawer to take out some lotion. He rubbed a generous amount into his face and neck, like washing his face. Even though his beta landlord couldn’t smell pheromones, he felt tense and his heart was racing. He felt like he would suffocate if he didn’t mask the scent.

He properly adjusted his pants and left the room. The rain was falling even harder than when Pilsung had arrived. The drumming sound was deafening, as if it was the only sound left in the world.

He slipped his feet into his worn-out sneakers and looked around for an umbrella, but it was gone. He didn’t know if Baek Pilsung or the other thugs had taken it.

“Ugh.”

The thought of the thugs trying to undress him made his stomach churn. He gritted his teeth, swallowed the acidic saliva, and ran out into the rain, shielding his head with his hand. The heavy rain soaked him instantly. The rainwater felt warm against his chilled skin.

By the time he reached the top of the stairs, his shirt was completely drenched.

“Mister…, mister!”

He banged on the landlord’s tightly shut gate, yelling at the top of his lungs, afraid his voice would be drowned out by the rain. He kept banging and shouting, his eyes stinging with rainwater, for ten minutes before the landlord finally appeared, shuffling slowly.

The landlord, wearing a stretched-out blue tank top and boxer shorts, with shower slippers on his feet, glared at Wooyoon, holding an umbrella precariously over his shoulder.

“If you have something to say, use the phone! Why are you calling me out in the rain?”

His naturally loud voice boomed. Wooyoon squinted against the rain and bowed his head, stammering,

“I… I have something to tell you…. About our room….”

“Damn it! I can’t hear a thing! Speak clearly!”

At the landlord’s second rebuke, Wooyoon clenched his fists and shouted,

“I’m sorry! I’m moving out! The… deposit…! Could I get it back by the end of this month?”

“…….”

The landlord just blinked his droopy eyelids. Wooyoon was about to repeat himself when the landlord suddenly took off one of his slippers and threw it. The heavy, wet rubber slipper slapped Wooyoon across the cheek and fell to the ground. A sharp pain shot through his cheekbone and jaw.

Wooyoon clutched his face and cried out in pain.

“Ah… aaah….”

“You ungrateful bastards! You begged me to lower the rent when you moved in, and now you’re giving me an ultimatum about moving out? Do you think Oh Choongman is a pushover!”

The landlord’s thick finger, poking out from under the umbrella, wagged accusingly at Wooyoon.

“I clearly told your brother that you have to give at least three months’ notice! Go get your brother!”

“My brother…, it’s my fault, mister. I’m sorry. But something came up, something happened…, ugh!”

The pointing hand suddenly grabbed Wooyoon by the collar. He stumbled, dragged towards the landlord.

“Something? You ungrateful gold diggers! Tell me the truth. Did your brother really go to earn money? What are you two scheming?”

Wooyoon, his collar still in the landlord’s grip, just shook his head. He wanted to say there was no scheme, that his brother had really gone to earn money, but he didn’t know anything, so he couldn’t speak.

He mumbled, “It’s…,” his lips trembling as the rain poured into his mouth. The landlord shoved him away, releasing his collar. Wooyoon slipped on the wet pavement and fell backwards, landing in a puddle, his backside completely submerged.

He sat there, rubbing his sore backside, and looked up at the landlord.

“Mister, I….”

“Don’t try to seduce me and get out! How dare you come here in those see-through clothes, batting your eyelashes and spouting nonsense?”

“I… I didn’t….”

The landlord, seemingly not hearing Wooyoon’s words over the rain, glared at him and disappeared inside. Wooyoon stared at the closed gate, then slowly got up. The rainwater that had seeped into his pants trickled down his thighs.

What about his brother…?

He didn’t know what was going on, but his brother must have called him because he needed help. Would he be okay without the deposit?

Worrying about his brother, he trudged down the stairs to his basement apartment. Suddenly, he remembered the thug’s words.

— Your brother isn’t that good of a person.

Wooyoon shook his head, snapping out of it. Had he gone crazy from hearing so many bad things about his brother? Even if the whole world pointed fingers at his brother, he should be the one to trust him.

He touched his swollen cheek, where the landlord’s slipper had hit him.

He would ask his brother everything when he called back. He wouldn’t cry….

Back in his room, soaked to the bone, Wooyoon huddled on the floor, staring at his phone. Water dripped from his clothes, forming a puddle around him. Finally, the phone vibrated.

He picked it up with a tense expression and answered the call.

“Hyung!”

[The money? What about the money?]

His brother, once again bringing up money first, prompted Wooyoon to calmly ask the questions he had prepared while waiting for the call.

“Why do you need money? You can come and talk to the landlord yourself. Can’t you come home? I’m so worried because we can only talk on the phone. And who was the dead person? Why did that person have your things? I cremated him yesterday, thinking it was you. Shouldn’t we tell the police it wasn’t you? What are all these debts the thugs are talking about? Did you really borrow them? That thug, Baek Pilsung, said you borrowed thirty million won. What happened to that money, and now the deposit….”

[Damn it!!]

A furious roar blasted from the phone, almost deafening him. Wooyoon flinched and cautiously called out to his brother, who felt more like a stranger than ever.

“Hyung…?”

[Stop pretending to be innocent and just answer me. Did you get the deposit or not? I’m asking you!]

Wooyoon listened to the furious yelling, then tightened his grip on the phone and said,

“How can I suddenly move out? The landlord won’t let me….”

[Damn it! Then get it from him by force!]

“…What?”

[Haa, what I mean is… Nam Wooyoon. Just scare the old man. You can do that much, can’t you?]

“…….”

[Come to Incheon once you get the deposit. I’ll send you the address. Don’t say a word to the police or those thugs, just do as I say. Do you understand?]

“…….”

[Nam Wooyoon. Nam Wooyoon! Nam Woo…!]

Wooyoon pressed the “end call” button and dropped the phone. He scooted away from it as if it were contaminated, his breath coming in ragged gasps as he stared at it lying on the floor.

— Your brother isn’t that good of a person.

The thug’s voice echoed in his mind again. But this time, he couldn’t dismiss it.

Something was wrong with his brother. He was acting like a different person. He didn’t know what situation his brother was in, so he had to help him, but….

-He’s been going around saying you’re his sugar baby and borrowing money.

“No…, no….”

He couldn’t listen to the thugs. His brother was relying on him…. He was all his brother had….

Wooyoon’s eyes darted around, desperately trying to deny the voices in his head.

— But his younger brother, who he always badmouthed… looks delicious.

His brother had been talking about him….

The thugs knew he was an omega. Why had his brother, who had forbidden him from stepping outside for fear of his secondary gender being discovered, told the thugs about him?

He wanted to know the truth, what was really going on. But his brother only talked about money, making threats about violence….

He felt nauseous and dizzy. The constant tension from the string of thug encounters, combined with the lingering hangover, had taken its toll. He fidgeted with his damp shirt, then pulled it over his head. His entire body, including his jaw and shoulders, was trembling. He pressed the damp fabric against his throbbing cheek and lay down on the floor.

He shouldn’t be sleeping, but a heavy drowsiness, beyond his control, weighed down his eyelids. A wave of heat emanated from his body, which had been shivering from the cold just moments ago. Had the landlord turned on the boiler in the middle of summer? Was he angry about the deposit?

He was sleepy… and hot….

His neck burned, and he felt weak. He closed his eyes, offering no resistance. The exhaustion was more powerful than the pouring rain.

Wooyoon woke to voices, the small room plunged into darkness. His cheek, where the landlord had hit him, throbbed. A sharp pain, as if all his teeth had been pulled out, shot through his face. He cautiously touched his cheek, then checked the time on the phone he had fallen asleep clutching. It was a little past two in the morning. Three missed calls from an unsaved number flashed on the screen. It was probably his brother.

The thought of his brother made his head pound. Just a few days ago, he had been weeping over his brother’s death, and now his brother’s being alive was tormenting him. Wooyoon didn’t know if the world had turned upside down or right side up. He couldn’t even tell which way was which. Meanwhile, the voices that had woken him continued to drift into the room.

“I got a message from Gidong. The workshop’s been taken care of.”

“It was that troublesome machine that broke down again, right? It’s because it’s so old. If we just replaced it, production would increase significantly.”

“Pilsung hyungnim doesn’t like throwing away old things.”

Wooyoon sat up, blinking his heavy eyelids, and looked at the doorway where the door had been broken down. Although he couldn’t see anything in the darkness, he could sense movement. It seemed the thug who had promised to come back for his answer in the morning had posted guards outside his door.

“Ugh….”

He glanced at the door, his hand flying to his mouth to stifle the rising nausea, and shuddered. The relentless rain had saturated the basement room with a dampness that made it feel like he was underwater, yet he felt a chill. He crawled to the chest of drawers, pulled out a fresh t-shirt, and slipped it over his head.

“Is hyungnim collecting debts?”

“Yeah. He said he’ll call after one more stop.”

“Wow, damn. Hyungnim is serious this time. Is he going to get married or something?”

The two men chuckled, their voices rough. Then, the acrid smell of cigarette smoke drifted into the room. The smell intensified his nausea. He was in the middle of changing out of his wet pants and underwear when he froze, his hands clamped over his mouth, his eyes darting around. The guards outside his door were talking about something unexpected.

“It’s really pitiful, though.”

“Who?”

“Nam Heejai’s brother inside. Judging by the way he acted around hyungnim, he seems clueless about what his brother’s been up to.”

“No way. He can’t be completely clueless. His brother was always drinking, gambling, and going to brothels. How could his family not know?”

“Damn, didn’t you see him at the crematorium? He was crying his eyes out. Would he have cried like that if he knew what his brother had done?”

The men clicked their tongues in unison. Wooyoon pulled his half-removed pants back on, forced himself to stand on his shaky legs, and crept closer to the door. The conversation, muffled by the rain, became clearer.

“No matter how messed up Nam Heejai was, who locks up their own brother? Damn, is that normal? Even I, a thug, wouldn’t do that.”

“That bastard, he’d always whine about being a sled dog, pulling his omega brother’s life along. It’s obvious, isn’t it? He was taking his frustrations out on his clueless little brother.”

“True. There are tons of unregistered people out there. It doesn’t make sense to lock up a kid for years just because you’re afraid of getting caught for illegal non-registration….”

A phone vibrated. The men, squatting by the shoe rack and smoking, looked up at the same time. Wooyoon was standing there, his face pale, swaying unsteadily, phone in hand. One of the men stubbed out his cigarette on the shoe rack and approached him.

“Hi there? We’re from Baek Pilsung’s office, hey, damn it! Call an ambulance!”

The man caught Wooyoon as he collapsed and yelled. Wooyoon’s face buried in the man’s chest, the smell of cigarettes overwhelming him, his eyes closed as he thought of his brother. He replayed every word and action of his brother, one by one.

— You can’t go to high school because you’re not registered. From now on, don’t wander around outside and just stay home. Endure it, even if it’s frustrating.

— It’s better to have one proper meal than several small, inadequate ones. Eat when I get home from work. Endure the hunger.

— Don’t show me your disgusting heat in front of me and get in the closet. Endure the pain.

— Enduring is winning.

— If you have nothing, you have to endure.

— Endure, Nam Wooyoon.

— Endure.

His closed eyelids trembled, his eyelashes wet with tears.

“Sob, uh….”

A suppressed whimper escaped his lips.

— Do you drink? Your brother was a drunkard.

-Nam Heejai didn’t send you to school to hide the fact that you’re not registered? Yet he went to night school himself.

— Your brother isn’t that good of a person.

Why didn’t you endure, hyung? Why did you only tell me to endure? Why me…?

The man lifted Wooyoon into his arms, slinging him over his shoulder, and quickly brought his phone to his ear. Wooyoon, draped over the man’s shoulder, finally let out a loud wail, the tears he had been holding back overflowing.

“Let go of me!!”

He screamed, his voice raw and loud, cutting through the sound of the rain. The men, who had been calling for an ambulance and making calls, froze at Wooyoon’s scream.

“Let go! Aaah! Let go of me!”

Wooyoon’s face was flushed crimson, as if he was about to explode. The man carrying him looked around in a panic.

“Hey, hey, damn it. What do we do with him? He… he seems to have gone crazy.”

“Did you call hyungnim?”

“I was about to….”

While the man hesitated, trying to hold onto the struggling Wooyoon with one arm, Wooyoon opened his tear-filled eyes and punched the man’s back. He put all his strength into the blow, having never hit anyone before. He unleashed his anger, disregarding the other man’s pain. Wooyoon would not endure anymore. The world had turned upside down, and there was no reason to endure.