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The Sangdong-pa was an organization formed by its boss, Jeong Sang-dong, in the year '90, and it was in the year '92 that it came to possess the proper form of an organization. Now, more than 10 years had passed since its formation, and it had become a respectable mid-sized organization.
Their main business was illegal immigration, smuggling, and the retail of some of the smuggled goods. Compared to most traditional organizations that worked within a somewhat legal framework, the Sangdong-pa primarily did things that were thoroughly illegal, but highly profitable. Therefore, their reputation in the industry could not escape the level of a group of thugs.
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In the entertainment district of Yeongdeungpo, a black Grandeur sedan slid into the parking lot of an old cabaret. The men riding in the driver's and passenger's seats, almost before the car's engine was turned off, shot out of the car and opened the rear door.
The figure who stepped out so boisterously that the Grandeur rocked was a man named Cheon Yeong-hu, who could be called a mid-level executive of the Sangdong-pa, and he was one of the few friends and trusted subordinates of Jeong Sang-dong.
This giant of a man, who had ears that were completely crushed from his amateur wrestling days in school, could be compared to a gorilla wearing a suit, and the waiters who had come out to greet him in front looked so small they only came up to his chest.
Most of the waiters were either holding their faces or had their clothes half undone, and by all appearances, it was not the attire for greeting a customer. As soon as they saw Cheon Yeong-hu, they welcomed him.
“You're here, hyungnim!”
“It's chaos inside right now. But that bastard kept looking for you, hyungnim.”
“Hyungnim?”
At that moment, Cheon Yeong-hu's expression contorted. His already fierce face became a hideous sight that one could hardly bear to look at, and the waiters became terrified. However, Cheon Yeong-hu was not the type to let his fists fly first.
Though other people cursed him out as an executive of a group of thugs, he and Jeong Sang-dong possessed quite the managerial disposition.
“Look at these sons of bitches~. Hyungnim? Are you guys trying to advertise that you're gangsters?”
“No, sir, it’s not that.”
“How long are you guys going to use that 20th-century way of speaking? Didn’t I tell you to fix that damn way of talking? We now have a need to refine our terminology, you see. Without needlessly advertising that we’re gangsters. Got it? From now on, call me Seonbae. Ehh? Anyway, to think the guys who call me for something like this are waiters. Good grief.”
He said that and walked past the waiters. At that, a sigh erupted from among the waiters.
“This is crazy. It's not like we're in the prime of our youth, what's with 'Seonbaenim'. Look at us, coming to this old-ass cabaret. Ah, damn it. Isn't there some way to transfer to a room salon? My bones are going to wear out dealing with only grandpas and grandmas.”
“Be quiet. He might hear you.”
“I heard that hyungnim, no, Seonbaenim, isn't even forty yet?”
While the waiters were talking like that, the self-proclaimed 'Seonbae' went up to the cabaret. To describe the situation upstairs in one word, it was hard to find a word beyond 'pandemonium'.
Several waiters were already lying calmly on the floor, and cups and broken bottles were strewn about, reflecting the dazzling lights.
The culprit who had caused this rampage was standing between barricades made of stacked tables, observing his surroundings, and his face was unrecognizable as he was wearing a baseball cap pulled down low. He had a rather thin build, but seeing as he had laid out this many waiters, he seemed to be quite a fighter.
‘What is this guy?’
Cheon Yeong-hu suddenly remembered the time a club previously run by the Sangdong-pa had been completely wiped out by some foreign bastard and inwardly clicked his tongue. Although the Sangdong-pa did a lot of thuggish business and was somewhat disliked by other organizations, there had never been a conflict for such reasons.
To them, it had been an incomprehensible attack. So it was a natural association to connect this guy, who had shown up for no reason and was causing a ruckus, with that incident.
‘Is that bastard the one? No, he doesn't look like a foreigner.’
The fully prepared man had waiters seated around the table, looking as if he was about to stage a hostage situation. Cheon Yeong-hu bellowed at the man in the baseball cap.
“Hey~ you son of a bitch! This is going too far. I've never seen a punk like you. What is this nonsense, coming into a private place of business?”
It was comical for a gangster to say such things, but in fact, there was some truth to his words. Cabarets and nightclubs and the like were mostly close to private capital, and organizations rarely aimed for more than the authority over personnel matters.
This was because since the war on crime, most organizations had shrunk in size, making it difficult to protect large establishments with their own bodies, so for someone to cause such a disturbance in a private business, it was understandable that such words would come out.
“Well now. I clearly paid in advance, but they didn't give me the goods, so this is what happens. And even if it's a private business, you guys hold the personnel rights here, don't you? In other words, this is your territory.”
He said that and, sitting in a chair, picked up his cell phone. Cheon Yeong-hu looked at the guy and clicked his tongue.
“I've seen all there is to see with a bastard like this. Call the police, just do it. Hey, manager?”
Cheon Yeong-hu said that and looked at the manager. However, the manager just shook his head from side to side.
“Th-that's not it, that guy is threatening to report us to the police instead...”
“What?”
Indeed, the young man in the baseball cap was holding a cell phone in his hand and looked like he was about to make a report at any moment. Cheon Yeong-hu stared at the guy, dumbfounded.
“Are you fucking kidding me right now?”
“I just need to receive my goods. It would be better not to make a big scene. You Sangdong thugs who also deal in drugs wouldn't just be ordinarily fucked if the cops got on your case for something like this, you'd be royally fucked, wouldn't you?”
There was no need to say how much those words provoked Cheon Yeong-hu's temper. Even his crushed ears had turned completely red, to the point that it was noticeable even in the dark cabaret lighting, wasn't it?
“This son of a bitch's guts have crawled out of his stomach! I'll make sashimi out of you!”
Two hot-tempered gangsters moved first. They pulled out sashimi knives, commonly called sashimi, and long steel pipes and charged at him, looking like they were really going to kill him, befitting the name of a group of thugs. But the man in the baseball cap was faster.
Crash!
Just twice, with the sound of a thick crystal glass shattering, both of them were sent flying, covered in blood. He had thrown the crystal glasses with a shoulder strong enough to be a baseball player's, so it was only natural for even seasoned gangsters to collapse with a groan.
Besides, once your face is covered in blood, you can't continue a fight no matter how much grit you have; in an instant, two fists had been rendered unable to fight.
“I told you I gave you a 5 million won advance. I'm just the one being wronged. Or do you want to call the police and talk it over? I'm still a minor, you know?”
“What did you say!”
At that moment, Cheon Yeong-hu was so genuinely flabbergasted that his jaw dropped. Even for him, who had grown hardened through his life as a gangster, this was the first time he had experienced something like today. A minor storming into a cabaret, trashing the place, and picking a fight using the police as bait was something that would become the laughingstock of the neighborhood.
But to report this, it seemed it wouldn't just end with a loss of face; as the baseball cap-wearing man said, the Sangdong-pa was not in the police's good graces right now, and if the police really showed up, that minor would at worst go to a juvenile detention center, but the Sangdong-pa was in a position where the organization itself would be torn to shreds.
They had gotten tangled up with the wrong person, and badly.
‘Aigoo. We're really screwed, you bastards. So you're telling me all these guys got beaten by a single high school punk?’
Cheon Yeong-hu felt like his insides were not just burning, but about to explode, but he kept his mouth shut. His specialty was to change his tune with an opponent he had nothing to gain from by fighting anyway.
“Alright, alright. That's right. We should discuss business inside. Kid, isn't it better to keep the business obstruction moderate?”
“Do you think I got a bird's nest in my head from a gunshot? I'm staying alive because I'm holding my ground here, are you planning to wring my neck if I move from here? Since we're already fucked, why don't we just continue being fucked here?”
The man in the baseball cap sneered. For Cheon Yeong-hu, he had met his match.
His blood pressure was soaring from losing a verbal battle to someone whose neck he couldn't even wring when he got angry, but then again, he couldn't just beat up a minor in a public place, could he? Cooling his anger with that thought, he gritted his teeth.
“Ah, fine, fine. Kid. Let's talk here. So who did you give the money to.”
“Bong-su. 5 million won in cash went to a subordinate, and you, an executive, didn't know? You really are a bunch of thugs.”
At that moment, Cheon Yeong-hu saw the person in front of him as a fruit or vegetable. It must have been true, seeing as he wanted to grind him up and drink him. But Cheon Yeong-hu painstakingly suppressed his anger and asked.
“That son of a bitch took it all for himself?”
“In any case, you're the one responsible for not managing your underlings. If you just give me the goods, I won't say another word. After that, it's your internal problem.”
“Alright. What kind of goods are they?”
“A Dragunov, a Tokarev, and an AK-47.”
“What did you say?”
At that moment, all the color drained from Cheon Yeong-hu's face. It was a good thing the manager had noticed and sent all the customers and staff out, because if anyone had heard that, all hell would have broken loose.
Although it was true that the Sangdong-pa, being an incorrigible group of thugs, smuggled weapons, those were items kept within the organization and not something to be easily sold to others.
If they sold them to someone and that guy got caught robbing a bank or something, the organization and everything else would just be dissolved into thin air.
He had just called it 'goods' and assumed it was drugs and let it slide, but now he thought it would have been better to just pretend he didn't know Bong-su. Selling firearms to a minor, and on top of that, heavy weapons like an AK or a Dragunov!
“Y-you're asking for all that for a mere 5 million won?”
“Compared to the list price, it's an absurdly high profit, isn't it? The fact that the Sangdong-pa distributes Russian or Chinese weapons is something even the passing dogs bark about, it's hardly a secret.”
“Ah, I get it. I get it, so let's set a time. We can't make the transaction here and now, can we? It's not like the goods will just pop out of my pocket.”
“Alright. Then, since your territory is dangerous, let's do it in Yeouido. Let's meet tomorrow at 8 o'clock in the Hanshin Securities parking lot. I'm leaving then.”
The young man in the baseball cap said that and with a flick, jumped onto the table, then zipped through the obstacles like lightning. The waiters who were waiting at the entrance immediately moved to catch him, but as if he were a boxer, he dodged their punches by ducking and just went outside.
Once you got out in the Yeongdeungpo area, it was a main road, so no matter how powerful the Sangdong-pa was, there was nothing they could do.
“That little blood-clot of a bastard!”
Only then did Cheon Yeong-hu's anger explode as he rampaged about. But the target of his anger had already left.
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Vrooooom!
Se-geon rode his RX-125 and sped toward the gym. It was already deep in the night, and the shops on the street had all pulled down their shutters, but a small kickboxing gym located near a residential area had not yet turned off its blue fluorescent light. Se-geon got off his motorcycle, hung up his helmet, and went up the stairs.
“Yo, Se-geon. You're just getting here.”
The retired soldier Song Deok-yeon, who had arrived earlier and was getting ready, was warming up and waiting.
“Yes.”
Se-geon said, pulling a baseball cap from his pocket and tossing it onto a locker. Then he took off his clothes. Thanks to training with Deok-yeon for the past year, Se-geon's body had become as solid as that of any professional athlete.
However, he had never been in a real fight yet, nor did he have his own firearm. That was because Deok-yeon was worried about Se-geon's body and had not yet deployed him into a real situation.
“Don't tell me, did you just have a fight?”
“Pardon? No, I didn't.”
Se-geon, who was putting on his trunks and warming up, feigned ignorance upon hearing Deok-yeon's words. At that, Deok-yeon shook his head from side to side.
“You're still hopelessly inadequate, you punk. So don't get any funny ideas and just train properly.”
“Yes.”
Se-geon said that and let out a sigh of relief. It seemed Deok-yeon had only made a simple guess and didn't know that Se-geon had actually caused trouble.
“Yo, is that Se-geon.”
“Yes, Gwanjangnim.”
“Don't you want to enter the rookie of the year tournament? Gyu-seong seems like he'll have a tough time because his chin is weak.”
“Nah. What could I do. I'm also worn out, so I can't do things like that.”
Se-geon said that and got into the ring. In the ring, the slightly smaller-framed Deok-yeon was waiting. Although he was much older, Song Deok-yeon, a former special forces sergeant, was truly a monstrous man.
Due to the drugs he administered when fighting vampires, he normally even had tremors in his hands, but once a fight began, he paid no mind to such things and proceeded to pulverize bodies with precise punches and kicks.
Even for Se-geon, who had quit school and focused solely on combat training for the past year, he was still too much to handle.
Thwack!
As expected, Se-geon crumpled from a single high kick from Deok-yeon. He had blocked it with his arm, but it was to the extent that his guarding arm slammed into his own head.
“Owowowowowow.”
“Punk, don't make such a fuss over something like that. This kid, I've been grinding him for a year and he still hasn't come to his senses.”
“It's not that, isn't the power of your high kick just immense?”
“You moron. What are you talking about, getting your ass kicked by a dying old geezer like me and whining.”
Deok-yeon said that and kicked up at the ring corner with his knee. The ropes swayed and creaked.
No matter how you looked at it, it didn't seem like the power produced by a 'dying old geezer,' but Se-geon kept his mouth shut. The director, who was coaching, tapped a large Muay Thai heavy bag with his palm and looked at Se-geon and Deok-yeon.
“You're not gangsters, and you're not police, so why on earth do you torment your bodies like that. And you don't even compete in matches. Tsk.”
“That's true. Hahahahaha.”
Deok-yeon said that and turned to look at Se-geon. Recently, Se-geon had been getting antsy, asking for a gun and saying that he too would start hunting vampires soon. Having been tormented by harsh training for a year, it was no wonder he was becoming frustrated.
However, Se-geon was still in his growth period, and the drug that vampire hunters took, Psychedelic Moon, had terrifying side effects. Deok-yeon's honest feeling was that he wanted to postpone Se-geon's use of Psychedelic Moon as much as possible.
“A punk who's not even a match for me shouldn't be complaining already. I know your body is itching because you think your skills have improved a bit, but don't go causing trouble with random guys. Got it?”
“You worry too much. That won't happen.”
Se-geon said that and began to shadowbox on the ring.