MIM 118

The rope was thicker than expected, requiring much patience to cut through with the glass shard. Shin-woo continuously moved his hands, twisting them to keep the knots taut.

“Let me make a proposal.”

The shorter man leaned into the laptop screen with a smirk. They seemed to have finally reached a conclusion after their discussion.

“Suddenly switching sides in the middle of a job…No matter how good the money is, we can’t betray trust like that.”

“That’s right.”

The other man nodded in agreement.

“We’ll stick to the original plan. But you should show some gratitude for us maintaining trust despite turning down ten times the money.”

“True. Not just double but ten times…five times would be fair.”

Their back-and-forth resembled a couple skillfully dancing the tango. Unlike them in their good mood, Joo-yeon’s face turned red with anger at their sudden demand for five times the fee.

Meanwhile, while they renegotiated the amount, leaving Ma Jae-seung out of it, his screen became busy. Next to his hyung, who sat with tensed shoulders, Ma Jae-seung furrowed his brow and looked around. Though the audio quality wasn’t great, the sound of car engines could be faintly heard.

It seemed Joo-yeon’s men had already arrived. Damn it. Shin-woo gritted his teeth and kept sawing at the rope.

“Three times. No more than that.”

“Fine. We accept.”

Realizing time was running out, the men immediately accepted Joo-yeon’s compromise. As soon as the words ended, Ma Jae-seung grabbed his hyung’s neck and moved off-screen. Soon, the sound of machine gun fire rather than simple gunshots rang out, and Ma Jae-seung logged off.

“Deal with it quickly and join them there. You’ll get your bonus when the job is successfully completed.”

With that final order, Joo-yeon also disconnected. Pleased with their extra earnings, the men continued snickering about what had just happened. They chatted about how many rich but stupid people there were in the world, and exactly how much money those fools had lost in that short amount of time. Finally, after destroying the laptop used for the video call, they turned to Shin-woo to carry out their orders.

Bang. A gunshot sounded from outside.

After exchanging glances, the smaller man went to check the situation, opening the basement door. Shortly after he went up, multiple gunshots shook the quiet villa. Heavy footsteps of large men running thundered through.

“Time to say goodbye.”

Realizing the intruders were enemies, the man strode toward Shin-woo. Shin-woo quietly waited for him to come closer, within range, to strangle him. With little strength left to endure, his attack needed to be minimal but fatal. The man finally reached out his tensed arm toward the seemingly limp Shin-woo.

Shin-woo slashed the man’s carotid artery with all his might using the glass shard he had been using to cut the rope.

“…kuh.”

The man staggered backward, clutching at his neck where blood was spurting like a fountain. With the hands that had meant to strangle Shin-woo, he struggled to somehow stop losing blood. Shin-woo kicked him down, then stood with one foot on his chest, looking down at him. The cut was deep enough. Though it was a fatal wound that would cause excessive bleeding, to be absolutely certain, Shin-woo searched the man’s back pocket and took out his gun.

Despite having a gun, the man had tried to kill with only his bare hands. Guns must be too expensive here; like Shin-woo once was, this guy, too, must have been more comfortable with his hands. Shin-woo smiled bitterly as he aimed at the center of the man’s forehead.

“Goodbye.”

With the farewell, he pulled the trigger without any hesitation on his part. Bang. The widely opened eyes instantly lost their life. For a moment, an image of the man from years ago flashed by, but Shin-woo quickly shook off that luxurious afterimage and left the basement. The remaining man would also be a threat to Ma Jae-seung.

Must kill him. Before losing consciousness. Shin-woo moved forward, creaking like a half-dead man clinging to life. His broken ribs hurt with every breath he took, and his left arm had no strength left in it. He was dizzy from blood loss too. But he could still shoot with one hand, so it was worth trying till the very end.

He saw a corpse sprawled in front of the entrance. Carefully approaching, he picked up the man’s gun and stuffed it in his pocket. After a moment of quiet, someone screamed. Moving toward the sound, he could see the kitchen entrance in the distance. On the way to the kitchen, there were bodies—one, two, three. Including the one at the entrance, there were four corpses total.

All were men in black bulletproof vests, likely mercenaries hired by Ma Jae-seung. Though they might have dodged bullets, they were helpless against flying knives; every corpse was in a horrific state.

The noise suddenly stopped, and the sound of gasping breaths could be heard. Shin-woo knew this sound. It was the final scream of people drowning in their own blood, their throats cut.

The pool of blood was spreading larger, flowing out of the kitchen. Black dress shoes stepped through it—splat, splat—leaving crimson marks across the floor. In the thin man’s hand, a large kitchen knife used for cutting meat gleamed ominously. He must have used his hands as well as stabbing with the knife, as his hands were soaked in blood down to the fingernails and every joint.

The man, emerging from the kitchen in a horrific state, stopped when he spotted Shin-woo. His dark eyes, filled with killing intent, carefully examined Shin-woo from head to toe.

“Jin?”

Jin. Must be the big guy’s name. When Shin-woo raised his gun instead of answering, shock, followed by intense rage, crossed the man’s face that had remained calm even after killing several people. Realizing he had lost his companion and boiling with revenge, he looked like a ghost, eyes wild and covered in blood. Shin-woo fired at the man who was staring at him with murderous intent in his eyes.

Bang! The moment he pulled the trigger, the man moved swiftly. Dodging the consecutive shots, he closed the distance and swung the kitchen knife. Shin-woo felt the blade slice the air right beside his ear and ducked. He shot at the man’s feet, but he leaped up with an impossibly light body.

“Huff…damn…”

Shin-woo tossed aside the empty gun and felt for another in his pocket. At that moment, the man drew his gun first and fired wildly in Shin-woo’s direction. Bullets filled with rage poured down like heavy rain. Shin-woo grabbed a fallen corpse as a shield, then threw it aside when the man discarded his empty gun, and grabbed a fireplace poker.

Seeing Shin-woo choose the poker as a weapon, the man didn’t avoid the fight. He charged forward with the knife, screaming like a madman.

“Aaaaargh!”

The poker met the flying knife. The sharp blade struck the poker with a chilling ring. While blocking the knife slashing from all directions with the poker, Shin-woo recalled that there was a dead-end wall not far away.

Though tensing his abs made his broken ribs press against his organs, making it hard to breathe properly, Shin-woo jumped with all his might and used the wall as leverage. While giving the man a moment’s opening, he brought down the hook-like end of the poker onto his crown. The man quickly twisted his head, but the hook grazed the edge of his head, brutally stripping away flesh as it flew by.

Simultaneously, a knife plunged into his side. Right where the long scar was.

“Ugh.”

Shin-woo collapsed without even being able to scream. The man, with one ear and scalp cut, also staggered from the impact. Unable to stand straight and panting, he crawled on all fours and grabbed Shin-woo’s ankle.

He wanted to pull out the knife from his wound to use as a weapon, but his body wouldn’t move as he wished. He was sleepy. From losing too much blood. Once drowsiness settled in, he wouldn’t last long. He had to kill him before that happened.

He had to protect Ma Jae-seung. He had no other thoughts in his mind.

With trembling hands, he pulled out the knife. He tried to swing it, but when the man dug his fingers into the side wound, he dropped the knife.

“Argh!”

His consciousness flickered. He was confused whether he had briefly lost consciousness from the extreme pain or just blinked. Forcing his eyelids open while clenching and unclenching his fists, he saw the blood-covered man breathing heavily. Shin-woo gathered every last bit of strength to grab the throat of the man who was much smaller than him. As he pressed the Adam’s apple and squeezed the windpipe, the man’s face began to turn pale.

Die. Die. Die. Chanting this single goal internally, he put in all his remaining strength until his entire arm convulsed. He could feel the strength gradually leaving the hand that was digging into his wound.

Even after the man went limp, Shin-woo continued strangling him for a long while. He briefly wondered if rigor mortis would set in while in this position.

“Ha.”

Blood burst out with his breath. Though he was surely applying force, his hand that came into view was somehow hanging limply open. He couldn’t bend it or make a fist. Shin-woo slowly blinked and breathed calmly. The sound of breathing in his ears was strange. It was the breathing of someone dying, gasping for air.

I want to see him. Just one last time.

Shin-woo slowly closed his eyes. Like that day, the pungent smell of blood filled the air.