The motorcycle moving.
The streets empty at this hour. The left shoulder with every turn. The eyebrow hurting.
Neither of them spoke.
And when they neared Banpo-dong — he slowed.
"Here?"
"Yes."
He stopped the motorcycle at the kerb.
She got off. Stood.
Ji Hun Min killed the engine. But didn't move.
Kang Ha Eun remained standing on the pavement. She didn't move toward the building.
"Do you know who I am?"
Ji Hun Min looked at her.
"Should I?"
A brief silence.
"Obsidian Fist."
Ji Hun Min didn't move.
He had heard the name before. Seen it carved into the leather of an old bag. Heard it from Han Jae Won on the second floor. But when she said it — it was different.
As though he was hearing it for the first time.
"What do you mean?"
Kang Ha Eun looked at him with the calm of someone who doesn't find the question surprising.
"I'm Kang Tae Joon's daughter."
She paused.
"Do you know that name?"
Ji Hun Min thought.
Kang Tae Joon.
The name wasn't entirely unfamiliar — he had heard it somewhere. In an old news story. In a conversation that hadn't been directed at him.
Then he remembered.
Kang Group — cars, hotels, real estate, logistics. One of the largest conglomerates in Korea. A name that appeared in financial news, not in streets.
"Kang Tae Joon's daughter."
"Yes."
"And is there a problem with that?"
Kang Ha Eun smiled — a faint smile with neither warmth nor coldness in it.
"What do you think?"
"Work for me."
Said in the same tone as any other sentence.
Ji Hun Min looked at her.
"What?"
"Work for me. I'll keep you away from this." She indicated with her head behind them — toward the building, the ring, everything they had left behind. "And when the year passes — I'll help you. You go back to official boxing."
"And what do you want in return?"
"It's not free — that's true."
"Then?"
She smiled again.
"I'll give you a deal."
Ji Hun Min didn't answer.
Kang Ha Eun continued — with the same calm.
"You become mine. For life."
The word fell.
Mine.
Ji Hun Min looked at her.
"How?"
"You work for me. Whatever I need. Personal guard. Escort. Other things." She paused. "Everything."
"Everything."
"Yes."
Ji Hun Min looked at the handlebar in front of him.
"Why would I choose this? I have an agreement with Han Jae Won — after a year I go back to boxing."
"Did he confirm it?"
Silence.
"He said yes."
"But he didn't give you a final decision."
Ji Hun Min didn't answer.
Because she knew — and he knew she knew.
"You may not go back." She said it simply. "If you go deeper into Obsidian Fist — you may not come out."
"I'll come out."
Kang Ha Eun looked at him in a way no one had looked at him before.
The look of someone seeing something its owner knows but doesn't want to admit.
"You might die."
Ji Hun Min looked at the street ahead of him.
"Am I alive now?"
Said quietly. In passing. As though thinking aloud without expecting an answer.
Kang Ha Eun stopped.
Ji Hun Min didn't notice.
After a second — she looked at him.
"The offer stays open."
She turned her back and walked toward the building.
Ji Hun Min remained with the motorcycle.
The street empty. The night cold.
He rode.
And left.
The motorcycle moving through the night.
The left shoulder with every turn. The eyebrow hurting.
The phone vibrated.
HJW:
Where are you?
Ji Hun Min stopped the motorcycle on the side of the road.
He wrote: Dropped Kang Ha off at her place.
Two seconds.
HJW:
Come to me. Hangang Park — Yeouido entrance. Now.
Ji Hun Min looked at the phone.
He rode.
And left.
One hour earlier — in the building.
When the police entered — Han Jae Won didn't move.
He stayed in his chair. His hands on his knees. His face as it had been.
The chaos around him — people running, lights blinding, voices overlapping. And he in the middle of it like a rock in moving water.
A young officer approached him. His hand on his belt.
Before he could speak — a voice from the side:
"Leave him."
A man in his fifties. Short hair greying at the temples. A dark grey suit over a carefully ironed white shirt. His face not the face of someone who gives orders — the face of someone accustomed to seeing more than he says.
Inspector Shin Jae Ho.
He looked at Han Jae Won the way someone looks who had already categorised what was in front of him before arriving.
"With me."
A quiet corner away from the chaos.
Shin Jae Ho stood. Han Jae Won before him.
"What are you doing here?"
"None of your business."
Shin Jae Ho didn't move. His voice didn't rise.
"We received a tip. Secret boxing matches in this building." A pause. "That is my business."
"Who sent the tip?"
"My superior told me. I don't know the source yet."
Han Jae Won looked at him.
"So you don't know who sent it."
"No. But I will."
Something in that last sentence — not a threat. A quiet promise from a man who knows how to wait.
Han Jae Won took out his phone.
"Wait."
One ring.
"What happened?"
A voice on the other end — quiet. Heavy. The voice of a man who had been awake before the call came.
"Police. A raid." Han Jae Won looked at Shin Jae Ho. "Ji Hun — do I prepare him now or find him another place?"
Silence on the other end.
"Is he ready?"
Han Jae Won thought.
"Almost."
A longer silence.
"There's no such thing as almost. Does it mean yes or no?"
He didn't answer.
"I think from your answer — no." Kang Tae Joon said it simply. "I want one final test. Something entirely different from what we've seen until now. You'll be sure as well."
The call ended.
Han Jae Won looked at Shin Jae Ho.
"Who was that?"
"Forget it."
Shin Jae Ho looked at him a second longer. His eyes reading something Han Jae Won hadn't said.
Then he turned his back.
"You're free to go. But this place is closed."
Han Jae Won walked toward the door.
The present. Hangang Park.
The water before them. The distant lights on the other side of the river. Cold clean air in the way Seoul's air only is at this hour.
Han Jae Won standing at the edge. Looking at the water.
Ji Hun Min stopped the motorcycle. Walked toward him. Stood beside him.
Neither spoke for a moment.
Then Ji Hun Min:
"Baek Sung Chul — where is he?"
Han Jae Won didn't answer immediately.
"Somewhere safe."
"You got him out."
Not a question.
Han Jae Won turned to him for the first time.
"He knows more than anyone should know at this stage. His presence now complicates things."
"Complicates for you or for him?"
Han Jae Won looked at him.
"Both."
Silence.
Ji Hun Min looked at the water.
"Kang Ha Eun — she offered me a job."
"I know."
"Did you send her?"
"No." Said directly. "She acts on her own sometimes."
"And her father?"
Han Jae Won looked at the water.
"Her father wants to see something before he decides."
"What does he want to see?"
"What can't be read in a file."
Ji Hun Min looked at him.
"The final test — the man I fought tonight?"
"No." Han Jae Won said it quietly. "Someone else entirely. Different from everyone you've fought until now."
"Different how?"
Han Jae Won was silent for a moment.
"The others entered this world because circumstances brought them. This person — chose."
Ji Hun Min looked at him.
"Like me."
Han Jae Won didn't answer.
The silence was the answer.
A minute passed.
The water before them. Seoul behind them.
Ji Hun Min:
"Who told the police?"
Han Jae Won looked at the water.
"Good question."
"Do you know the answer?"
"I think so."
"And will you tell me?"
"When the time is right."
Ji Hun Min looked at him.
The same sentence Baek Sung Chul had said on the fifth day — but from a different mouth and with a different weight.
He didn't ask more.
He went back to the motorcycle.
Before he rode — he turned.
"The file — when does it arrive?"
Han Jae Won took out his phone. Sent something.
Ji Hun Min's phone vibrated.
"It's arrived."
Ji Hun Min looked at the screen.
A file. A name. One page.
He closed the phone.
He rode.
The left shoulder with every turn. The eyebrow hurting.
The apartment waiting for him. And the file with him this time — not on the table. In his hand.