Ch.14Chapter 14. The Second Attack

Under the bridge tunnel.

A small light suddenly flickered on in the darkness.

Two men with swollen faces emerged from within.

They shared the flame to light their cigarettes and began puffing heavily.

Sighs escaped naturally from their mouths along with the cigarette smoke.

“Shit… Is $100,000 a joke to you?”

“How much money do you have?”

“Not a penny. Spent it all on tuning my bike.”

“Ha. Damn it… How could we have known that house belonged to the boss’s friend…”

No matter how they thought about it, it was unfair.

It’s common courtesy in their line of work that people who shouldn’t be messed with are announced in advance.

Yet somehow, the owner of the house they raided yesterday hadn’t been on any list.

Was he not close to the boss? No, that wasn’t it.

There weren’t many people the boss spoke with so casually.

Why hadn’t information about such an important person’s residence been passed down to them?

No matter how they looked at it, this was the fault of the staff who failed to gather intelligence beforehand.

But they couldn’t dare say that in front of the boss and his staff.

“Even if we sell all the drugs we have, it won’t reach $70,000.”

“We can’t sell everything, idiot. We need some for ourselves. What about selling the bikes?”

“Yours?”

“Both yours and mine, dumbass. You think one would be enough?”

“Together they’d be worth about $50,000. If we sell the drugs and the bikes… shit, how are we going to live?”

Their only means of livelihood were drug distribution and delivery services.

If they sold everything to pay back the debt, they’d immediately struggle to make ends meet.

Before long, the tunnel was filled with nothing but the sounds of cigarette puffing, tongue clicking, and sighing.

“Let’s run.”

“I was thinking the same thing. But just run?”

“No. I want to stick an awl in that bastard’s eyes to feel better.”

“We could sell the kid to some perverts. That would fetch a good price.”

“Heh… Grab your stuff and guns. We leave in an hour.”

“Okay.”

As the two men emerged from the tunnel, raindrops began falling from the gloomy sky.

Crushing their cigarettes under their sneakers, they walked away with bizarre smiles on their faces.

***

A large SUV came to a halt in front of the house with a loud braking sound.

The asphalt here isn’t great, so that’s going to leave skid marks…

I grabbed Cuss’s hand and approached the SUV.

Or rather, I tried to.

“No! Where are you taking me?”

“Why are you acting up again? I thought you were finally behaving lately.”

Since she was throwing a tantrum, I had no choice but to forcibly grab her wrist.

I thought she’d become more compliant after I threatened to expose her identity.

Today especially, I feel a strong urge to abandon her.

“Good morning.”

“It’s already afternoon.”

“Good afternoon then.”

The window rolled down with a whir, revealing Juliane Stadtfeld wearing sunglasses.

She’s truly beautiful, even seeing her again.

However, her expression seemed a bit displeased, as if she didn’t like this situation.

“Thank you so much. I’ll definitely come pick her up tomorrow morning…”

“It’s fine. I’ll bring her back here.”

“Thank you. Really. Hey, Cuss. Say thank you too.”

“I don’t see what I should be thankful for!”

“You little…”

An angel has appeared who’s willing to take care of a bug like you for a whole night.

You should be on your knees with gratitude, but instead you’re being so rude?

If Juliane wasn’t here, you would’ve been beaten to a pulp.

Consider yourself lucky.

“I apologize in advance.”

“Pardon? For what?”

“Cuss might cause trouble… Actually, she probably will. If she breaks anything, I’ll compensate you 100%.”

“No, I’ll make sure to warn her…”

If she were the type to behave after a warning, I wouldn’t be saying this.

She doesn’t listen even when I beat her daily.

Would she listen to a mere warning?

But from now on, it’s not my problem.

It’s Juliane’s concern now.

Just the thought of Cuss being gone for one night already makes me feel relieved.

“So you’re really selling me off. I didn’t expect much from you, pathetic man.”

“What are you saying? Just behave until tomorrow morning.”

“Hmph…”

For some reason, I forcibly put the sulking Cuss in the back seat.

When I returned to the car window, Juliane had taken off her sunglasses.

“So. What’s the occasion?”

“Pardon?”

“Why do you need to leave Cuss with me tonight?”

“It’s nothing special. I just wanted to spend a night freely, you could say.”

“…”

“You don’t believe me.”

“Well, I’m not in a position to interrogate you, so I won’t press further. But what’s important for children is bonding. I hope you understand that. Once a child’s trust in their parent is broken, it’s incredibly difficult to restore.”

“I know.”

“Sigh… See you tomorrow then.”

The window closed, and the SUV accelerated forward.

Wow. Just having Cuss gone from within a 20-meter radius already makes me feel less suffocated.

Even my obsessive worry about hearing something breaking somewhere seems to have improved.

“Freedom! Yahoo!”

Just imagining it makes me excited.

Tonight is going to be quite long.

I can now hear the sound of rain starting to fall steadily.

***

On a rainy night.

Two men who had parked their bikes on the street and were walking took cover in an alley to prepare.

When a gun emerged from the bag, the man’s expression turned strange.

It had a makeshift silencer attached—cloth and cotton tied with string wrapped around the barrel.

“Hey… Is that thing legit?”

“Believe it or not, it reduces the sound pretty well.”

“By how much?”

“About as loud as a car horn?”

“You idiot. What’s the point then?”

“Look at the weather.”

The man pointed to the sky.

Heavy rain was pouring down, making it difficult to hear even conversations, and occasional thunder made their ears ring.

“A slightly loud noise won’t get reported.”

“I’m counting on you.”

The two men left the alley and checked where they had left their bikes again.

Since they planned to leave this neighborhood quickly after their deed, losing the bikes to theft would be a disaster.

Finally resolute, the two headed to the back of their target house.

Jinsoo Kim.

The two men gritted their teeth with the determination to kill that damn Asian.

After tearing him to pieces, they’d have fun with his daughter and then sell her to a brothel.

They climbed over the fence, entered the garden, and stealthily approached the back door.

‘It’s quiet?’

Strangely, there was no sound from inside.

They had confirmed through the window earlier that Jinsoo was there, though they weren’t sure about the daughter.

Had he already gone to sleep?

The two men made eye contact, nodded, and turned the doorknob.

When it wouldn’t turn—

Crash!

Without hesitation, they broke the window in the door and inserted a gloved hand.

Click…

The lock was released and the door swung open.

The man with the gun went in first, quickly entering.

It was pitch black inside.

And quiet.

If Jinsoo were awake, he would have heard the sound of breaking glass and the door opening.

Even if he had been asleep, he should normally be up by now, making some noise coming to check what was happening.

“…”

“…”

All the two men could hear in the darkness was the sound of rain pouring down.

Slightly creeped out, they slowly began to step forward.

Water dripped from their raincoats, wetting the floor.

With each step, there was a splashing sound.

But there was no sound at all from the homeowner.

Click, click…

No matter how many times they pressed the button, the lights wouldn’t turn on.

Looking up, they saw the bulb had been removed from the lamp.

“Damn it…”

Feeling a chill, one of the men held the gun close to his body.

In movies, people often jump out from corners and snatch guns, don’t they?

He had heard somewhere that holding the gun close to your body makes it harder to take away.

As the corridor came to an end, the dim living room spread out before them.

BOOM!

“…!”

Thunder roared, momentarily illuminating the corridor.

The two men, who had stopped in surprise, suddenly felt foolish.

With thunder this loud, there was a high chance the Asian wouldn’t have woken up from the sound of breaking glass even if he had been sleeping.

So the house was this quiet simply because the guy was sprawled out asleep.

The two men increased their pace and entered the living room.

They didn’t notice that they had just triggered a tripwire at knee height.

Ping…!

“Huh?”

The two men froze at the clear sound, like a grenade pin being pulled.

What had they triggered?

A booby trap?

Should they turn and run now?

Should they duck?

But nothing was happening?

Maybe they should just stay still?

While the two were panicking, they heard the creaking sound of a door moving behind them.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Ugh! Shit!”

The man who instantly turned around fired three shots.

The man standing behind him clutched his ears and crouched down, as the gunshots had gone off right next to his ear.

But there was no one behind them.

Not a person, not anything.

Just the steady rain falling.

“Ugh! My ears!”

“Lower your voice, idiot…”

Sweat trickled down the man’s forehead.

Something felt off.

It felt strongly like they had been manipulated into turning around.

The man swallowed hard and quickly turned his gun behind him.

Bang!

Instantly, something snatched the barrel.

The first shot was fired, but the muzzle was already pointing at the ceiling.

Though he kept pulling the trigger, the bullet was jammed and wouldn’t fire.

“Ack!”

A knife hand strike flew in, hitting his Adam’s apple.

As the man stepped back, the gun unexpectedly came free.

All that remained in the man’s hand in the darkness was cloth.

Who would have thought that bringing a silencer would be so helpful?

Grateful for his luck, the man quickly pulled the slide to eject the jammed bullet.

Click…

“Huh?”

The brass-colored bullet that should have been in front of the chamber was nowhere to be seen.

Had the magazine spring malfunctioned, failing to push up a bullet?

Looking into the chamber in confusion, the man finally realized the magazine was missing.

When he hurriedly looked forward, he saw the magazine in the opponent’s hand in the darkness.

The magazine was thrown far away, tumbling across the living room with a dull sound.

“Idiot. You let him take that?”

“Shut up and grab a weapon. Tsk.”

The two men stepped back and drew weapons from their bags.

One had a dagger, the other a red wrench.

While the two prepared to fight, their opponent just stood still in the darkness, waiting.

“Did you call the police? Tsk. I’ll kill you before they arrive.”

There seemed to be a faint sound of laughter, like “heh.”

The reason Jinsoo Kim had never been raped during his 10 years in the labor camp was simple.

He had killed the first ex-wrestler who tried by smashing his skull.

After that, the frequency of attempts decreased dramatically.

Sometimes groups would come with weapons, but Jinsoo always maintained his record.

With that experience, Jinsoo found short-bladed weapons and wrenches laughable.

Of course, not knowing this, the two men—

“Die, you monkey bastard!”

—charged at him recklessly.