I Became the Lousy Side Top - Chap 68
In a run-down warehouse on the outskirts of the city center, the group of gangsters had gathered, spreading out casually throughout the space. Compared to them, Hyunjin couldn’t help but stick out, standing by himself with his back held straight.
Occasionally, one of the other gangsters would look over at him and chuckle, then say something to their neighbor. Whatever they were telling each other, it didn’t seem to be good.
Hyunjin wasn’t sure how long they had been waiting there when the warehouse door suddenly opened and three people entered. Two of them were gangsters that he had met that morning, and the third was a blindfolded young man that he’d never seen before.
“Get in there!”
The young man stumbled inside with a frightened expression on his face.
“You can take off your blindfold now.”
At those words, the young man shook his head. The gangsters that had escorted him in didn’t care about his protests, and ripped it off of him.
“If I want you to take it off, it’s coming off. What sort of feeble rebellion was that?”
Now that the blindfold was off, the young man looked around the warehouse cautiously, then began to tremble so hard it was visible to the naked eye. Nobody looked surprised. He’d suddenly found himself surrounded by a group of obviously violent gangsters; of course he was scared.
Tank laughed, looking him over.
“You’re the chairman’s son, right?”
“I’m not.”
The young man denied it, but nobody believed him. One of the nearby men hit him on the back of his head.
“Don’t lie! You think we’d have brought you here if we didn’t know who you are?”
“Augh.”
“You’re the chairman’s son, right? You gonna try and lie to us again?”
Finally, the young man said yes.
“…You’re right.”
“So, are you and your father close?”
This time, the young man didn’t seem to know what to say. He hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.
“We’re like any family.”
It seemed as if he’d had to think hard before saying that.
“You sound like you’re close!”
Tank smiled at him brightly and patted him on the shoulder. Every time his thick, meaty hand impacted with the young man’s skinny shoulder, his whole body flinched.
“Then do you know about your father’s debts?”
“What?”
The young man looked surprised.
“My father’s in debt?”
“Yeah, he owes quite a bit of it. And, oh my, look at this! He’s how many months behind on his payments?”
At Tank’s words, the young man’s face went white. It looked like he had guessed why they had dragged him to this warehouse.
“Fuck, does your family think money grows on trees? If you borrow something, you need to pay it back with interest, right?”
“R-right.”
“Yeah? They told me that you’re attending a good university, that you’re a smart kid, so I’ll level with you. I was a little pissed off today, and decided we need to set an example.”
Tank spoke as if the two of them were comrades, sharing a secret.
“If we do that, the chairman will come to his senses, right?”
This time, the young man didn’t answer. His body was as stiff as a corpse, letting everyone know how terrified he was. He had imagined what might happen to him, and now those fears were about to become reality.
Thud!
The friendly Tank reached out, pulled the young man closer to him, and punched him in the stomach.
“Ugh!”
The young man writhed on the floor. Tank kicked him, and once again he was unable to resist it. He looked as if he was about to vomit from the pain. He looked around desperately, searching for an escape, but there weren’t any openings. Before he knew it, the men that had been milling around had surrounded them.
“Hey hey, you’re not going to pass out just from that, are you?”
Tank grinned and grabbed the young man by the hair.
“P-Please spare me.”
“I’m not going to kill you. You know how to fight at all?”
“I-I don’t know.”
“You’re better off knowing. Well, at least you don’t look like you’re going to puke anymore!”
Tank lifted the young man to his feet and pushed him towards Hyunjin.
“Here’s the deal. We’ve got this newbie here that doesn’t know how to fight. So, you two are going to learn together! If you win, I’ll let you go.”
Tank was practically chuckling, like some sort of demon.
“You promise you’ll let me go?”
“I’m no liar!”
The young man was shaking, but he clenched his fists.
“Show us your skills, newbie!”
“Phweeeeeee!”
Someone let out a piercing whistle. At the sound, the young man rushed towards Hyunjin.
“Yaaaah!”
No matter how thin and weak he looked, he was still an adult man. Hyunjin clenched his teeth as the man rushed towards him venomously. He sucked in a quick breath of air, then raised his leg and kicked the other man as he ran forward. The man didn’t fall, but he did stumble as he lost his balance. Hyunjin’s fist flew at his face.
Thud.
The man rolled across the floor once more. He tried to scramble up, but a foot pressed down against his back from above, forcing him down to the floor. It felt as if an iron bar was wedged across his back.
“Augh!”
As the man screamed out desperately, wiggling around on the ground, Hyunjin kicked him again. The man felt like he was going crazy. Every time he tried to fight back, he was beaten even worse. He cowered on the floor, his spirit breaking.
“Are we done?”
Hyunjin asked, looking at Tank.
“Huh, so you already knew how to fight?”
Tank came closer, standing in front of Hyunjin. Judging by his smooth face, he’d thought that Hyunjin was a weakling, but he turned out to be pretty strong. He glanced at the dazed-looking man on the ground and winked at one of his subordinates, who responded by quickly dragging the man away. Now all they needed to do was work on him a bit more and send the details to his father, so that he’d pay his debt in despair.
“Watch and learn.”
Hyunjin silently followed behind the others. The distraught young man was forced down into a chair, his hands placed on the arm rests. Then they raised a knife.
“We’ll make it a clean cut. Since it’s your first time, just try your best to endure.”
The sharp blade gently touched the skin of the man’s finger, and for a moment Hyunjin almost thought it wasn’t going to go through. Then the man pressed down hard. Hyunjin felt like he was going to vomit. None of these gangsters could be said to be human – no human being could have done something like this to another person.
If he could, he’d defeat all of them and get their victim to safety. But then he thought about Jaewoo again.
‘As long as I can hold on.’
Mujin had swore that he wouldn’t touch Jaewoo. All Hyunjin could do was believe in that promise.
“Don’t look away.”
“Aaaah! Auuuuuugh!”
Someone else covered the mouth of the screaming young man.
Despite the terrible sight, Hyunjin didn’t close his eyes. The normal life that he’d wanted all along had collapsed like a sand castle and disappeared beneath the waves. Now he understood that he could never go back to that kind of life again. Those days when, after a hard day’s work, he’d returned home, eaten Jaewoo’s dinner, and rested with his family. His eyes ached as he thought that those days would never return.
“You’re stubborn, stubborn! I like guys like you.”
Tank tapped Hyunjin’s cheek playfully, ignoring how his body was shaking with disgust.
“Okay, job well done! Wake him up and send him back home!”
After being forcibly awakened from his faint, the young man could only sob pitifully.
“Huuu huu huu.”
“Hey, pull yourself together and listen to me.”
The gangster held out a finger in a plastic bag to the young man.
“Ah, ahhh!”
The young man flailed and took a step back.
“I’m telling you to take this.”
The man threw the plastic bag towards him, then gave a big stretch.
“Is that the last of today’s work?”
“Yeah, go take him home. Make sure he’s learned his lesson along the way.”
“’Course! Aren’t I good at that part?”
The man was dragged out the same way he was dragged in. The only people left were the other men, who had started to spread out lazily again, Tank, and Hyunjin. The only sign of what had happened was the blood that had dripped down, soaking the chair.
“Ugh, I told them to lay down some tarps first. Those bastards forgot again.”
Tank grumbled, then turned to look at Hyunjin.
“So, did you understand everything? Cause you look like shit.”
Hyunjin didn’t answer at all.
“This is what you’re gonna be doing from now on. You get it?”
“… … yes.”
“Haha, you pussy1, you look absolutely terrified! Still, you did okay for your first time, so let’s go get something to eat. I’m buying today!”
Food! There was no way any of them would pass that up. The fact that people could still be hungry in a place like this seemed almost insane, but some of them even cheered when Tank said that he’d pay.
“Woah, the boss is paying!”
“Buy me something expensive!”
Hyunjin followed them like a cow being led to a slaughterhouse. He couldn’t bring himself to eat anything at all.
“Eat, you’ll need your strength for work.”
One of the other men whispered to him, but Hyunjin still didn’t lift his chopsticks. That night, his first one after moving to the dorms, Hyunjin woke up early in the morning, rushed to the sink, and vomited. Since he hadn’t eaten anything, all that came out was stomach acid.
The next day, he still couldn’t eat anything. Any food he forced himself to eat came back up, like his body was rejecting it.
‘It’s too much.’
Hyunjin thought as he drank an entire bottle of water. Maybe because they were gangsters, the others ate a lot, almost like they were showing off their prowess. Living among these people, Hyunjin felt himself fading day by day.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t hungry.
‘I want to eat food that Jaewoo cooked for me.’
He could imagine himself eating a bowl of plain white rice with peppers and soybean paste. Soybean paste stew would also hit the spot – Jaewoo’s soybean paste stew was always cooked to perfection. There weren’t any special ingredients involved, but the flavor was deep and rich. Or those egg rolls that Jaewoo would make with dinner every so often? Even just simple grilled ham became delicious when Jaewoo made it.
‘Stop.’
He shouldn’t think about that. Hyunjin shook his head.
He had to forget about Jaewoo and his younger siblings, for their sakes. Even though he knew that, his mind kept bringing up the past.
‘I’m being stupid.’
He had to forget about it.
“Hey newbie~ It’s time for work!”
A gangster called out to Hyunjin from across the room. Hyunjin got up from his seat and walked closer. As he did, he glanced at a nearby mirror and saw an emotionless gangster staring back at him. He used to hate gangsters so much, but now he’d become just like them.
He hoped that his heart would shatter and rot away soon, so that he could stop feeling guilty. Then he’d be able to endure it for as long as it took.
“Why aren’t you hurrying?”
“… … coming.”
Hyunjin left alongside them.
Footnotes
샌님 – saenim – Nerd, geek, narrow-minded or petty person. I’m not sure about the exact connotations this might have in Korean, but nerd/geek seemed a bit too mild for a hardened gangster, so I used ‘pussy’ instead.
