Midday Guest Chapter 24

The sound of his head hitting the floor echoed with a dull thud, and his vision flashed white. Dizziness washed over him, and as he slumped to the side, a kick landed squarely in his stomach. This time, he truly could not catch his breath.

“Fuck, some really shitty piece of work had to go and interfere. Hey, Munyeol. This is getting exhausting. Auto-mode.”

“Yes, hyung-nim.”

Jang Munyeol balled his fists and lunged. Struck indiscriminately across his face and stomach, Yiwon was thrown back helplessly. He tried to raise his arms to block the kicks, but even those were seized by someone.

In the blink of an eye, a part of his face burned hot. Barely lifting his eyelids, he saw Kim Sunwoo taking a neatly folded piece of paper out of a white envelope and unfolding it.

“Now, focus. From now on, we are recalculating the math.”

“…Ugh.”

“I’m only going to explain this once, so clean out your ear holes and listen well.”

With his head tilted back, Yiwon looked out toward the wooden porch. He was startled for a moment to see the lights on in the spare room, and soon saw Kim Sunwoo’s employees rummaging through the belongings inside.

“Circumstances have changed, so we’re going to collect the money you borrowed earlier than scheduled. However, we aren’t exactly planning to just snatch it away; we intend to exchange a fair trade. Okay?”

One of the employees grabbed Yiwon’s phone and handed it to Kim Sunwoo. Kim Sunwoo waved the phone in front of Yiwon’s limp face to wake up the screen. Not long after he fiddled with the phone, a loud burst of music was heard.

“Take it.”

A game was running on the phone. A khaki-colored table sat against a yellow background, and several cards were placed upon it. Tiring-tting. The background music sounded strangely familiar.

“You know how to play poker, right? It’s fine. We’ve made it so even someone who knows nothing can play. Fucking incredible, isn’t it?”

Kim Sunwoo smirked and gestured with his hand.

“If you really don’t get it and think you can’t do it, you can just set it to auto-play.”

“… .”

“Starting coins are 300,000. Usually, we give people some time, but we’re in a hurry today. Let’s go with a best-of-five format.”

The image of Mr. Park from the mill playing the game with bloodshot eyes flickered through his mind. So, Kim Sunwoo was using the poker game as a pretext to steal both his money and Haeundang.

“What are you doing? Time is ticking. If the time runs out, you just forfeit a round.”

“…How can you collect it like this? This is all illegal.”

“Ah, this kid is a funny one. Why are you looking for logic and legality in private loans?”

Yiwon looked down at the phone with a face of utter despair. After his father’s business went under, there was something his mother always used to say.

It is best to never get involved in dirty business at all. Once a foot falls into the gutter, every path you tread will be a muddy one, and making a fresh start in that state will be harder than being born again.

Recalling those words, Yiwon curled his hands into fists and spoke.

“…I can’t do it.”

“What?”

“I won’t do it, this kind of thing. If you give me time, I can pay it back sufficiently; there’s no reason to do this.”

“Ah, the brat can’t understand what he’s being told. It’s not you—we need the money right now.”

Kim Sunwoo lit a cigarette inside the room. After a long trail of ash fell to the floor, he exhaled a long breath and spoke.

“You don’t want to?”

“… .”

“You should take the settlement money while I’m still offering it. Munyeol, let’s wrap this up.”

“Yes, hyung-nim.”

Jang Munyeol approached and slapped Yiwon across the cheek. Light flashed before his eyes and his head rang. While Yiwon was unable to move easily due to the dizziness, his body was flipped over.

“Let go of me… Let go!”

Yiwon grabbed a nearby lamp and struck the head of the man who had climbed on top of him. The flinching opponent wiped his forehead. Seeing the thick blood on his palm, the look in his eyes turned feral.

“…This motherfucker, seriously.”

Blood streamed down from the forehead of the hand-crippled Jang Munyeol. Yiwon tried to strike the same spot once more, but the lamp was snatched away. The lamp was hurled into the corner of the room and shattered with a crash.

“Move… I said move!”

Jang Munyeol twisted his body into a sitting position. As Yiwon tried to strike back with his knees, other thugs pinned all of his limbs, preventing him from moving.

While things were being broken and smashed, the game music continued to flow from inside the room. All-in. All-in! After several consecutive rounds, a pessimistic background melody poured out.

— One more round?

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. He didn’t care if he died right now, but he wanted to make sure he made a total mess of at least one of these bastards. As Yiwon reached out to grab the body of the electric fan, someone stepped on his wrist and ground it down mercilessly.

“…Ugh!”

“Ah, why is this kid so stubborn?”

“He’s stubborn, that’s why he acted out against you and me like that, hyung-nim.”

“We don’t have time, do it quickly.”

“This, the recognition isn’t working well.”

Several people took turns attempting the biometric authentication. Yiwon clenched his hand so hard the bones on the back of his hand turned white, and he closed his eyes.

Then, a strange sound was heard.

“Should we just cut it off?”

“As expected of you, hyung-nim.”

“It’ll work even if we just have the hand, right?”

“Of course. There are many cases where we’ve cut off fingers to get authentication and take out loans.”

An bizarre sound was heard. As Yiwon, who was squashed against the floor, slightly lifted his head, he saw Jang Munyeol taking out a raw fish knife and pinning Yiwon’s wrist to the floor.

The hand pressing down on his wrist was intact, but the hand holding the knife had only a thumb and an index finger.

“You son of a bitch. Because of you, I’m in this state and even my knife work isn’t satisfying anymore.”

His body was bound, and his retreat was cut off. To make matters worse, even the speed at which he processed information was sluggish and slow, and his mind was not working properly.

He couldn’t believe it, even as he watched the scene unfolding before his eyes. What is this. Is all of this really happening to me?

“It’ll take a while to slice it off. It’ll be a headache if you die, so bite down on this. Got it?”

“Let go of me. I said let go… Mmph!”

Something was shoved into his mouth. It was the towel he had hung over the back of the chair after finishing his shower in the evening. From the moment his mouth was blocked, even when he screamed, only small muffled sounds rolled back into his throat.

“Uh-uh, don’t move. If you move, I’ll rip you all the way up to the elbow.”

The fish knife poked somewhere on his forearm. Yiwon squeezed his eyes shut and stiffened his body. He felt like he would lose his mind from the terror that made his head feel like it was going to explode.

“Well then, we’ll start from the wrist. I’ll slice the joint nicely for you, so relax.”

His temples throbbed so much he felt they might burst. Sensing the pain that was about to strike like a bolt of lightning, the thought crossed his mind that it might be better to just pass out and die. But even passing out was not easy.

The tip of the knife pricked the bone on the back of his hand. Just as he bit the towel hard and stiffened his body, a clack! sounded against Jang Munyeol’s forehead. Thud, roll-roll-roll. A lighter that had suddenly flown in spun around next to Yiwon.

“How many of you are ganging up on a kid who isn’t even worth a single fistful?”

Yiwon, Kim Sunwoo, and Jang Munyeol, who held the knife high, all looked back at the same place.

From the place where the low voice began to flow—there stood Cha Seokjoo. His gaze, which had been staring blankly at the room where several adult men were entangled, landed on Yiwon, who was pressed flat against the floor.

Yiwon, still lying in his spot, gazed endlessly at Cha Seokjoo. Cha Seokjoo’s black pupils were settled more calmly than ever. A faint, nearly invisible signal of some emotion seemed as if it were about to overwhelm Haeundang.

“Ugh, uwaaaagh.”

Jang Munyeol backed away in horror, and Kim Sunwoo also stood up with a deathly pale face. Creeeeeak, bang! The sound of the Haeundang main gate closing came from outside, and—

“…How is it that every single thing involved with this motherfucker is so shitty…”

Simultaneously with Kim Sunwoo’s mutter, the three men became entangled.

Cha Seokjoo’s long leg ruthlessly struck the side of Kim Sunwoo’s head.

As Kim Sunwoo lay with his cheek to the floor, drooling foam, a booted foot flew toward the back of his neck. Gasp, Kim Sunwoo exhaled his breath and hesitated while bracing himself on the floor, and in that moment, another blow was delivered.

“Ugh, aaaaagh!”

Cha Seokjoo stepped on Kim Sunwoo’s neck and yanked his two arms back. It was a movement as nonchalant as twisting and tearing the wings or legs off a well-boiled chicken.

Cha Seokjoo, having stepped over Kim Sunwoo to enter the room, headed straight for Jang Munyeol. The terrified Jang Munyeol was swinging the fish knife while pressed against the wall.

Cha Seokjoo bent his waist slowly. He picked up the electric fan that had been knocked over in the corner of the room and struck Jang Munyeol with it. The fan shattered before Jang Munyeol’s head could break.

The electric fan that had been with Yiwon for ten years passed away just like that. While a look of absurdity hung on Yiwon’s face for a moment at the farce-like scene, a heavy punch landed on Jang Munyeol’s cheekbone.

Cha Seokjoo’s fist, covered in scars—that very fist that looked as solid as a stone—was being driven into the face repeatedly. The fish knife Jang Munyeol had been gripping tightly became lodged in the floor.

Yiwon flinched. He tried to put strength into his fingertips and toes to stand up, but that was all. He could do nothing with a body consumed by tension and terror.

The sound of punching was heard from the wooden porch and the yard as well. The smell of blood began to rise, however faintly. He didn’t dare to look around.

Yiwon kept the towel in his mouth and quietly closed his eyes.