I Became the Lousy Side Top - Chap 15

“Are you going in alone?”

Hyunjin asked.

Jaewoo nodded absently and sighed.

“Keep the door open.”

“The room’ll get cold.”

Mujin was still badly injured and could hardly move. Looking at it objectively, Jaewoo should have the advantage over him. However Hyunjin just repeated, firmly, with an expression that said he would not compromise.

“Keep. The door. Open.”

“Okay.”

It was only after Jaewoo responded calmly that Hyunjin approached the water tap. Jaewoo entered his room and checked on Mujin’s condition. On the boiling hot floor, Mujin was asleep, moaning with his brow furrowed.

‘What kind of main top is this?’

Shouldn’t a male lead keep his cool even when he’s burning up? Jaewoo squatted beside Mujin for a while and watched his crumpled forehead.

To Mujin, pain was an old friend. His body was littered with scars, every one a memento of the life he had lived thus far. Although they were painful, those scars made him the man he was today. Each scar had a story, and each story was filled with cruelty.

The wound this time was the same. One of his trusted subordinates had seized an opportunity to betray him, but he wasn’t able to finish the job. Mujin should have been able to handle the situation, but even though he had the resources to emerge victorious, for some reason, he couldn’t work up the motivation to strike back.

That was when he suddenly remembered the small hillside slum where he once lived. The place where he spent his childhood, his hometown where he was born and raised.

Mujin’s footsteps headed there. When he arrived, he found everything the same as he remembered. People were scrambling to get by in the small town, and everyone was busy fighting for their next meal.

Mujin had found a sheltered area and just sat there, staring blankly. A minute passed, then two. Any moment now, he thought, he’d return and clean up those that had plotted against him, but he still hadn’t moved.

That’s where he would have stayed if some gullible idiot hadn’t come over to help. He’d first tried to call 119, and when that didn’t work, he’d struggled to shift Mujin on his own. When he was young, there’d been a stray pup that he’d raised for a bit. Jaewoo reminded him of that pup, constantly trying to perform actions beyond what his tiny size was capable of.

Then Mujin passed out for a bit, and when he woke up, he was in a strange house. Over the course of his life, he’d learned never to trust anyone. Even people who looked innocent had hidden motives, and there was no telling who could be pulling their strings. So he tried to kill him. He was going to kill him.

And then he failed.

He wasn’t even able to kill one skinny bastard.

And then…

…it all just…

…It was so hot.

It felt like he was on fire.

It felt like there were coals pressing against his back. He groped on the floor with his hand. The heat was rising off of the tiles. Were they planning on burning him to death? Mujin lifted his heavy eyelids and instantly met a pair of round, innocent eyes that were looking at him from point blank range. It was that skinny bastard that he’d tried to kill.

He really looked like a puppy, with those round, light-colored eyes staring at him like that. Mujin had an unconscious desire to run his fingers through his slightly curly brown hair.

“You’re awake?”

He was talking a lot considering the gauze he had wrapped around his neck. Had he forgotten how Mujin had nearly strangled him? He was more of an idiot than Mujin had thought.

“Are you hungry?”

Mujin stayed silent. But the man seemed to understand him anyway, as he walked through an open door into another room, then returned with a small table.

“Can you sit up?”

Mujin did so without a reply. He peered through the open door. On the other side, the man who had forced medicine down his throat yesterday was staring back at him, his gaze fierce. Mujin ignored him.

From the darkness of the sky outside, it seemed to be evening. The room was still as hot as the lid of a cauldron, but his body felt strangely light. He hadn’t predicted something like this.

“Then let’s eat.”

The man stepped to the side, revealing an empty table, save for one bowl of rice and one side dish. Why was he so proud of a single bowl of rice? Was he so poor that he couldn’t afford anything else? Mujin thought like that.

Whether he knew what Mujin was thinking or not, the puppy calmly poured barley tea into the rice bowl. Mujin hadn’t even said he was hungry. As Mujin gazed at him in amazement, he looked over at Mujin and spoke softly.

“Do you know how delicious rice soaked in barley tea and topped with seasoned garlic is?”

“I have no idea.”

“Here, try it and see.”

The pup pushed the bowl of rice across the table to Mujin. Something about this whole thing didn’t make any sense. His wound was severe enough that they could have easily let him die, and yet they hadn’t. On the other hand, rice with barley tea could hardly be called a proper meal.

Mujin was stunned and refused to eat at first. However, his stomach was screaming for food after having not eaten for several days. Reluctantly, he picked up the spoon.

Could they have secretly hidden something in the food? Even if they had, the chances of it hurting him were small. Mujin had a keen sense of taste, and he’d quickly notice anything they might have added. In order for it to have an effect, it would need to be something that would act immediately.

First, Mujin tried a spoonful of the rice mixed with tea. The slightly sharp, savory flavor of the barley tea seemed to enhance the taste of the white rice. He then picked up a pair of chopsticks and tried the spicy seasoned garlic. The taste of the garlic on his tongue made him crave more rice to go with it. He continued on, eating the rice, tea, and garlic together, until the bowl in front of him had been emptied.

“Do you want some more?”

Mujin held out his bowl without a word. He didn’t know that the harmony between rice and barley tea could be so delicious. Despite his finicky palate, he had finished off his bowl of rice in no time. Mujin devoured a second bowl just as quickly.

While he was eating, the little dog got up and went back through the open door, busying himself with something in the other room. When Mujin next looked up, he saw him carrying a larger tray than before. He noticed the variety of foods piled up on the tray without giving it much thought.

There was soybean paste stew in a bubbling earthen pot, meat marinated in soy sauce, egg rolls, stir-fried anchovies, and grilled fish1, with a few other dry side dishes added to fill the tray.

Seeing this, Mujin’s appetite was awakened once more. The little pup had gone all-out to prepare a proper meal. However, what he did next was something Mujin hadn’t imagined. He lifted the heavy tray with a groan and left the room entirely, heading outside. Then he exclaimed.

“Come and get it!”

As soon as the words came out, Mujin was startled by the appearance of three other people. One was the same man as before, while the other two were children. The man was leaner than Mujin, but almost as tall. The three of them sat down at the table as if they had done it many times before.

“Ugh, I’m sorry for making you all eat out in the cold.”

“It’s okay.”

“That’s right. We’re wearing our jackets!”

The cute voice of one of the children could be heard.

“Thank you for the food.”

The sound of their happy meal echoed through the door. There wasn’t a single thing on that table that didn’t look delicious. However, when the curly-haired man came back inside, the only thing placed in front of Mujin was a third bowl of barley tea rice.

Mujin felt a wave of loss rise up in his chest. It was a feeling he hadn’t felt for a long time. For a moment, he nearly blurted out a plea. However, Mujin managed to hold it back, and simply finished the third bowl of rice.

At the very least they could have given him some soybean paste stew. Upon thinking that, Mujin couldn’t help feeling his forehead with his hand. Had the fever rattled his brains? What the fuck2.

In the meantime, the people outside continued with their feast.

“Are you full now?”

The pup asked through the crack in the open door.

“Yes.”

Mujin gritted his teeth and answered. He didn’t know why this person reminded him so strongly of his childhood pet. The mannerisms were the same down to the smallest detail.

“You, what’s your name?”

“Jaewoo. Seo Jaewoo.”

The young dog, Jaewoo, replied in a carefree manner. The other man sitting at the table reacted differently.

“Why would you tell him your name! You don’t even know him.”

The man put down the spoon as he lectured.

“Just a name should be fine.”

“You don’t know the smallest thing about him.”

“Me?”

Mujin smirked at them. He reached for his suit jacket and searched through his pockets, taking out his business card case from inside.

“Here’s who I am.”

The black business card with silver lettering looked very sleek. When Mujin slid the door open a bit more and handed it over, Jaewoo was the one who accepted it.

Isak Finance

Choi Mujin, Director

Isak Finance, a financial company that had been established by gangsters in an attempt to stay relevant. Does that mean they were on the straight and narrow now? No, they weren’t. Behind the scenes, they were still working as gangsters, and Director Choi Mujin was no exception to that.

Seeing this, Jaewoo was horrified. He knew how much Hyunjin hated predatory lenders. Hyunjin’s father had borrowed money from an array of sources, and among them, he owed a fairly large amount to Isak Finance.

As expected, Hyunjin’s expression hardened when he saw the business card. He looked at the card in Jaewoo’s hand, then grabbed it, crumpled it, and threw it away. There was absolutely no hesitation. It happened before Jaewoo could do anything.

When Mujin saw this, his smile became sharper. Most people who saw his card and reacted like that were debtors. Come to think of it, that man seemed slightly familiar to him.

‘Now where have I seen him before?’

Mujin searched his memory. Ah, now he remembered him. It was the man from a picture that his subordinate had recently shown him, saying that he was working on him. Was his name Yoo Hyunjin?

Yoo Hyunjin. Hyunjin. He was a typical example of a person being dragged down by their parents. His mother had run off, sick of his father’s violence and gambling, and his father had spiraled into a full-on gambling addiction afterward. He was the head of the household now, supporting his two younger siblings. Those kids were the shackles binding him as their brother.

Footnotes
See the notes from the beginning of chapter 12 if you’d like more details on the food.
세상에! – “Wow!” Not sure what connotations this has in Korean, but having a sadistic gangster say ‘Wow!’ seemed far too soft.