The meeting he had with Han DooSan drove SinJu crazy. Because of this, he started squeezing the small rubber ball in his hand so hard, which he got to wear with him all the time lately and used each time he needed to calm down or think. That day though, his trick didn’t work because, no matter how hard he didn’t squeeze it, he couldn’t calm down or think clearly. Why? Because, so suddenly, he felt surrounded.
„How not to feel that when… to be damned if I know how Han DooSan made the connection between the former sawmill and me. Particularly, how did they find out about that place, anyway? I also cannot understand how they connected Nam Guk Shik to me so fast. Did they know about this from Dja Iun? Or… is this a simple coincidence? No, I don’t think so: there aren’t coincidences in this world, not when things change so fast, and this tells me that we have a „rat” among us. Yes, it’s definitely that. Yet, who? Who’s the rat? Who?”
Such thoughts, which freely spun in his head, made SinJu really nervous. He got to torment himself so hard while trying to remember the faces of all those who worked or were still working for him. He even tried to remember the faces of all those he knew. Yet, too many people „knew” him because SinJu was famous, which made it difficult for him to remember them all. And, on top of that, none of the faces he remembered seemed suspicious. On the contrary, they seemed to be normal and feared him.
„Even so, I can’t stop feeling that someone’s behind us. Is it definitely a „ghost” as Han DooSan suggested? Ei, I don’t think so. It’ll be too much to be that. Why? Because… I know that he’s not the man who could risk someone’s life only to catch me. Yes, he won’t do that, not after he has found out so many things about me and knows what I can do. Still, it seems so and we have a rat spying on us. Yet, whom did Han DooSan send to keep an eye on me? Who?”
Thinking so intensely about all these questions, SinJu finally remembered SolHi’s face. „It can’t be!” He growled, shuddering from top to toe as though a cold snap hit him. „She’s not the ghost for sure,” he calmed himself this way. „She definitely isn’t the one whom Han DooSan hired to follow me because everybody saw her lying dead on the floor of the DOC parking lot. I also saw it. I saw how they took her out of there on a stretcher and covered with a white sheet, one that was stained with her blood. All this couldn’t have been a simple or cheap show.”
Looking through the inner mirror at SinJu, the driver saw him grimacing and seeming outraged. And, although he feared to ask something, he still did that eventually, „Something’s wrong, boss?”
The driver’s question made SinJu wince. Then, looking at the mirror where he saw the face of the man about forty who drove his car, SinJu frowned. „Is he the rat?” He wondered. „No, it can’t be. I know he’s a chicken and that he would rather bury himself alive than betray me. Even so…”
The ringtone of the entering call ended the nonsense thoughts that crossed SinJu’s mind at that moment. The entering call even made him breathe a sigh of relief, particularly when he looked at the screen and saw „unknown number.” This didn’t make him worry though. On the contrary, he seemed content because he knew very well who called him: someone whom he knew only. „A shadow, who has to remain like that always,” SinJu said through his teeth. Then, sternly glancing at his driver, he demanded, „Pull over and get out!”
„Here?” The driver asked with wide-open eyes. What amazed the man so much? The fact that SinJu asked him to pull over on a road that was known as being isolated and dangerous, something that was unsure for both of them. Realizing this, the driver wanted to refuse his boss and continue driving. Yet, seeing SinJu’s sour face and his eyes sparkling because of the hatred felt in his soul after hearing his employee’s reckless question as SinJu considered this to be, the driver affirmatively nodded and pulled over, leaving the car seconds afterward.
The moment the driver closed the door behind him, the ringtone stopped. Yet, this didn’t bother SinJu or make him call his driver back. The reason? He knew very well that the one who called him would call once again, something that happened only a minute later because the „ghost” with whom SinJu was about to talk was like that: uncontrolled and anxious, someone who couldn’t calm down until reaching the one he needed.
What exactly made the „ghost” so anxious? Not even SinJu knew that, and he didn’t know this because he hadn’t ever been interested in something like this. All that mattered to Min SinJu was that the „ghost” was useful and did everything he needed. Even so, SinJu was sure that… if he had been authoritarian with the „ghost” or shown nervousness, he would have definitely risked his life. That’s why he suddenly „calmed down” before answering the phone with a simple „Hello?”
A weird growl was suddenly heard at the other end of the wire. Hearing it, SinJu frowned. Yet, he said nothing about this but calmly waited until the stern voice of his interlocutor wasn’t heard yelling in the receiver, „I wait for you at the usual place, maximum in an hour!” After that, SinJu heard the sound of the interrupted call.
„Dog!” SinJu hissed through his teeth when he heard the command. „Does he think that I’m his well-trained quadruped to give me orders or what? Ah, you… son of a…,” he swore sternly. Later, unable to control himself, SinJu started to kick and punch the front seat. What drove him crazy to punish the poor car for that? The simple fact he hated others to give him orders, something the „ghost” was doing since they knew each other.
His boss’s nervous breakdown didn’t amaze the driver, who was only a few meters away from the car as SinJu ordered him, not to „find out secrets that had to remain secret.” At least this was what the driver thought when SinJu kicked him out of the vehicle. Even so, although it wasn’t the first nervous breakdown he had seen, the driver still started slowly shaking when he heard SinJu’s yells from inside the car. The reason? He knew very well what his boss could do. That’s why he preferred to stay outside until SinJu calmed down because he really didn’t want to be his victim. What made him think this? He was sure that Min SinJu was unable to control his nervousness and that everybody could be turned into his victim in such moments and killed instantly.
This… „killed instantly” wasn’t at all an exaggeration but the truth because the driver hadn’t only once witnessed such „shows” with Min SinJu in the role of the butcher. No, it wasn’t definitely the first time he attended something like that. Besides, the driver not only once saw someone at his boss’s feet, whom this one was cruelly kicking.
The last time he saw this was a night ago when Min SinJu killed someone. Who exactly? The driver also didn’t know because he saw the victim from far away when he entered the club to tell his boss that he finished the mission of „delivering gifts to all the women with whom Min SinJu spent the nights.”
Honestly, he could have simply sent a message to SinJu or the barman, one of his boss’s assistants, and told him that he finished the mission. Then, he could have simply waited outside the club until SinJu had asked him to take him home or whenever he would have needed to be taken that night. Yet, realizing that he didn’t have water to drink and no supermarket was open at that hour, he dared to enter the club, thinking of filling the bottle and hitting the pike. Nevertheless, two steps from the club, one of the bodyguards stopped him and asked him to go to one of the liquor shops and buy a box of expensive whisky.
The bodyguard’s request amazed the driver a lot. The reason? It seemed strange to him to hear that one asking him to buy more alcohol when they were in a club that sold alcohol. A club that had alcohol in stock for weeks. How did he know all this? Because, as Min SinJu’s driver, he had to be also present in the storage room when the boxes with drinks were delivered and help the barman to take them to a safe place. Actually, a few boxes of that expensive whisky the bodyguard asked him to buy had been delivered to the club that morning, and it was impossible to have finished them in one single day.
Even knowing all this, the man decided not to ask more questions about this and went to buy what the other man asked him to buy. Arriving at the drinks store, which was empty at that hour, he bought what he needed and returned to the club earlier than a quarter of an hour. Getting behind the club, he saw in amazement that nobody guarded that door, although there was always someone there. He remembered that the same guardian who asked him to buy the box of whisky had to be there that night, but not even that one was seen around. „Something that’s strange already,” the driver told himself, frowning. „Did he go to the bathroom while I was missing? Or maybe to buy something to drink? It’s also possible because I know he loves to drink a lot and…”
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Suddenly, he silenced the voice of his mind when he realized that he stood for too long in the same place and entered the club. Once inside, a damn strange feeling sneaked inside him because, even though the other clients were drinking, smoking, or dancing and the music was simply yelling all around, a strange atmosphere was still felt there. What exactly made the driver feel this? He had no idea. Actually, he didn’t bother too much about this, aware that he already had enough problems on his shoulders. He simply blamed the paranoia for all this and quickened his pace toward SinJu’s office because he was already sure that his boss asked the bodyguard to put him buy that box of expensive whisky.
When he headed toward the room door, which also served as an office for Min SinJu, the driver felt his ears buzzing so hard, which made him think that he’d go deaf eventually. That’s why he told himself to go out of there as soon as he was left free, and he decided so because he cared more about his ears than about his job. Yet, glancing around while he headed toward SinJu’s office, the man slowed down, feeling so amazed because he finally saw that all the bodyguards were among the clients and wearing earplugs. „And this isn’t because of the music because these snakes aren’t someone bothered by loud music.”
Saying this, the driver stopped and carefully looked around, convinced that something strange happened that night there. What exactly? He wasn’t sure. He could have found out if he had stood around. Yet, suddenly raising his glance, he winced when he saw the same bodyguard who asked him to buy whisky in front of his eyes. Then, suddenly, the bodyguard grabbed the box from the driver’s hands and growled at him, „Get out of here and do your job!”
Hearing the command, the driver slowly bowed, although the bodyguard was younger than him and intended to go. Yet, he had been forced to stop when another bodyguard approached them and told the one who ordered the driver to go, „Leave him to take the box with the boss! You must follow me now!”
Not very happy because of this new command, the first bodyguard returned the box of whisky to the driver and made him a sign to head toward SinJu’s office. After that, he quickened his pace behind his colleague, who told him about a fight in one of the VIP booths, which they had to stop. Thus, having free time to continue what he had to do, the driver turned his back to the VIP booths and headed toward his boss’s booth.
Once in front of the door, the man stopped. What made him decide that? A feeling that told him to run away from there. Yet, once his brain was even more stubborn than his heart, the man continued in the same place, trying to finish his job. And, as he used to listen to his brain more than to his heart, he finally knocked on the door.
One minute after knocking on the door, one of the bodyguards opened it. Too late in the driver’s opinion because when he usually did the same thing that door was opened right away when they’d been late to do that at that time. This meant one of two things: the music was too loud or everybody was into something else than being attentive to what happened around them. What exactly could have made everybody so focused on something else? The driver had no idea. Yet, he had convinced himself that something stank there when one of SinJu’s personal bodyguards half-opened the door and took the box from his hands, closing that door right away.
Although the bodyguard closed the door soon after opening it, it had still been enough for the driver to see what the hell looked like. Why? On the floor, at SinJu’s feet, he saw an unconscious man, with deep wounds all over his body. Particularly, the wound on the man’s head made the driver attentive, and the fact that SinJu was next to him, squeezing a bloody golf club in his hand.
Even if he faced terror with his eyes, the driver said nothing about this. He only turned his back to the door and rushed to get out of the club. Once in the street, he started to shake. He even felt nauseous at one point, puking next to one of the trash cans afterward, a place that wasn’t that clean because many other clients had done the same before that. Unlike them, who emptied their stomachs because of the alcohol, the poor driver did that because of terror because he wasn’t facing hell every day.
Eventually, when he felt a little better, he carefully looked around to see if someone saw him there. Seeing nobody around him calmed the driver down, making him deeply breathe in and out while trying to calm down his crazy heart. After that, staggering to his feet, he headed toward the car that was parked not that far from him. Arriving next to the car, he opened the door and entered it right away, looking in front only because he felt that his nightmare wasn’t over that night.
Thinking of all this, the driver had been right because, after a few hours of waiting, two of the bodyguards brought Min SinJu to the car. SinJu was so drunk that morning that he wasn’t able to stay on his feet alone, something that the driver hadn’t ever seen before. Even so, he didn’t ask anything about this. He only got out of the car, opened the back door, and calmly waited until the bodyguards put SinJu in the back seat. After that, he closed the door and nodded when the bodyguards told him to take SinJu back home. Then, the driver entered the car, intending to leave SinJu in his apartment and rush home too.
Turning the engine on, he managed to wake SinJu. This one, barely realizing where he was, sat in the back seat and yelled at the driver to open the window. After that, sticking his head through that window, he demanded everybody to stay where they were and wait because their job wasn’t done that night.
What did SinJu mean when he ordered them that? They found out very soon when a blue minivan, with strange pictures and inscriptions on it, appeared in the backyard of the club two minutes only after SinJu gave that order. After the driver stopped the minivan, Hamster and Jackal got out of the vehicle, closely followed by a stranger, whom none of SinJu’s employees had ever seen before. Particularly, the driver hadn’t ever seen that man, he was pretty sure of that.
Not only did the fact that he didn’t know the stranger, a man about thirty, make the driver attentive but also the fact that that man was acting strangely. He was looking around all the time, on the sly, and this was clearly seen although he wore a black cap on his head that covered his eyes too. The stranger also wore a black mask and clothes of the same color, and black leather gloves, which he put on while heading toward the club. All this told the driver that the stranger seemed to be a kind of fighting dog that was always thirsty for blood.
Why exactly did the driver think that about the stranger? Because of his glance full of hatred, which he used to look at him right before entering the club. A glance that convinced the driver to look only in front, waiting breathlessly for SinJu’s order to take him home and escape that nightmare. Yet, he couldn’t go because SinJu kept yelling at them, demanding them not to move because their job wasn’t finished, something that the employees knew very well because SinJu took care to train all of them very well.
Even if he looked only in front, the driver still had unwillingly witnessed the crime that night. Particularly, he witnessed the fact that SinJu’s employees got rid of evidence. He saw, about five minutes after the three men entered the club, how Hamster and Jackal took the body, which he saw in SinJu’s office in a pool of blood, out of the club. The driver couldn’t see the victim’s face because he was wrapped in cellophane and thick ropes were wrapped all around his body, something that seemed strange to him. Particularly, he found it strange that the stranger grabbed the victim by the hair and squeezed it hard, making that poor man moan eventually. Thus, everybody found out that Min SinJu’s victim was still alive. For how long though? None of them would have ever found out.
At least this was what the driver thought that night: that he wouldn’t ever find out what happened to that poor man eventually. Yet, he found out this a few hours later only, about ten o’clock in the morning, when SinJu sent him a message to stop by his house because he needed him urgently. Entering the apartment, the driver found SinJu sitting on the couch and enjoying his coffee while Jackal informed him about the „latest news.” It’s how the driver found out about what happened in the former sawmill, where the poor man, whom the three jackals took out of SinJu’s club that morning, gave his last breath.
Finding out about this, the poor driver shuddered inside. Yet, he didn’t show that he was afraid because he feared that he might be his boss’s next victim. Even so, nervousness kept squirming inside him, just as it bothered him the fact that he saw the stranger that morning. The reason? The stranger approached the car eventually and hissed through his teeth while telling SinJu, „For how long will I clean your mess, dog? I’m tired, you know?! So, if you ever call me here for such „things,” I swear that the next body I’ll take out of that club will be yours.” Then, looking with hatred around, he told the others, „The same goes for you: I’m not your cleaning company to be called here all the time to do your job. If you ever do that again, I swear I will kill you all.”
When he remembered the stranger’s words, the driver frowned. „What did he mean when he said that he’s not our cleaning company?” He wondered while heading toward his car, closely followed by SinJu. „Did the boss kill before that? Did he say that because of this?”
He didn’t have time to find an answer to his question because he suddenly heard SinJu yelling at him, „Can we go now? Today?” Looking behind him, the driver saw his boss already in the car, in the back seat, and staring at him through the open window. SinJu was pissed off at that moment because the driver was late to turn the engine on and also because his plans were failing one after another.
What plans? He hadn’t ever asked about this. He only said in a low voice after putting the safety belt on. „Where to go?”
„To hell!” SinJu growled, making his employee shudder again. SinJu smiled instead because „Only going to hell, one can see what the devil looks like.” After that, satisfied because he considered that his joke was good, SinJu leaned against the back of the seat and, closing his eyes, started whistling a melody.