Hyunjin
Ryu didn't come alone, he brought reinforcements. Or rather, I should say reinforcement. Reinforcement, whom I am now holding by the hair and pressing the tip of my sharp knife against his throat. He is kneeling on the floor in front of me, his head tilted back. I bring my face close to his head, my lips almost touching his right ear, and whisper threatening words to him.
Ryu is kneeling on the floor opposite us, his hands raised and his head bowed. Taeju is pointing a gun at him while I talk to his companion, trying to get the information I need, which I soon discover he doesn't know.
It was all a trap to lure me here. I don't know what they expected. Did they come for money in exchange for information? Or did they think they could overpower me and rob me? They couldn't have expected me to come alone, without my bodyguards.
I press the tip of the knife against his carotid artery. If I press a little harder, it won't just be a trickle of blood flowing from the wound, but a veritable geyser of blood.
„Who sent you?"
„N-nobody!" He stammers, breathing rapidly.
„Don't lie to me!" I growl in his ear. „I can see you're shaking. I'm asking you one last time, then I'll stab you deep in the throat. Who sent you?"
„I-I don't know. It was an anonymous request."
"Anonymous? Am I really supposed to believe, that you don't know, who sent you here? Under the pretext of giving me information about the only person I want to kill? Isn't that person himself? Hmm?" I look at Ryu, kneeling and cowering under the gun Taeju is holding in his hand, and give him a vivid example of what will happen to him if he lies to me like his companion did.
I grip the knife handle more tightly and slowly and painfully push it into his companion's throat. His scream hits my eardrums, my head is still too close to his.
I pull back and enjoy the view. Warm blood pours out of the wound on his neck. No, it literally spurts out, up to three meters away. It splatters my entire forearm.
His companion begins to choke as his throat fills with his own blood. It flows out of the corners of his mouth, down to his chin. He looks up and meets my gaze. He knows his end is near. Very near.
I watch as the life slowly fades from his eyes. I enjoy the view until the very last moment, enjoying the fact that I am the last person he saw before his death.
„Okay!" Ryu exclaims. „Okay. I'll tell you everything." He looks me in the eye, but he's shaking like a leaf. "It was Mishimoto himself. He knows you're after him, so he sent us. We were supposed to feed you some false information and get something for Mishimoto in return." He spits out the words one after another. I still don't really believe it, but it's definitely more credible than what his partner was trying to feed me.
„We'll talk about it later." I look down at the corpse at my feet. This mess needs to be cleaned up. My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I reach for it with my blood-stained hand, leaving a bloody smear on my pants pocket. I try to answer the call, but my finger is sticky with red liquid and the phone doesn't respond to my touch. I wipe my hand on my pants, they're already covered in blood anyway. I answer the call, and only now do I realize who's calling.
„I guess I'm calling at a bad time, huh? You don't usually take this long to answer my calls," my sister's voice comes from the other end of the line.
„Yes, I'm busy. What is it?" I reply more sharply than I intended. She pauses for a moment, but finally tells me the reason she's calling.
„Are you counting on today?" She clarifies, reminding me that I promised to babysit Sofia, her daughter. My niece.
„I'll be there in an hour," I assure her that I will keep my promise. I'm looking forward to seeing my niece. I end the call and gesture to Taeju to go with Janil and help us remove the body.
„Take this for me," Taeju says to Taesung and hands him his gun, which he had been pointing at Ryu's head, while he runs to help us. I look back at Taesung, standing there motionless as a pillar.
„Put the gun to his head!" I order him, raising my voice and gesturing with my hand to indicate what he should do. I bend down to the dead man and am about to grab his leg when there is a bang in the room and Hanil, who was guarding outside the door, bursts in.
... ༺༻ ...
BLOOD DEBT (피의 빚)