PHUW 102

Jeong Mok bent down and hugged Gom-i.

“Calm down. Let’s calm down. First we need to calm ourselves.”

He whispered as he gripped the thrashing dog’s fur. Gom-i slowly calmed down. At last, he released Jeong Mok’s arm. Fierce teeth marks stood out clearly on the suit sleeve. If it had been bare skin, there would have been blood, bruises aside.

With trembling hand he pulled his phone from his jacket pocket. No sooner had he pressed the call button than the security team he had just spoken with picked up.

“Ahn Haeri has been kidnapped. In front of Gwanrim Motors, the three-way intersection. Time, two to three minutes ago. Track immediately, legal or illegal means, I don’t care.”

Right after that one-sided notice, he called Chief Ahn and relayed the same message.

“Let’s calm down, Gom-i. Calm down and think first.”

Jeong Mok pulled the leash free from the bollard. Gom-i kept growling but for the most part followed his lead calmly.

The crosswalk signal changed again. Even as the green blinked, Jeong Mok didn’t cross but checked the situation first.

This was a stretch with no particular shops, only a retaining wall leading to a three-way intersection. The road the village bus had taken was heavy with traffic, requiring two or three signals to pass. Beyond it was a hillside villa district, not a likely route for a kidnapping vehicle. Which meant the car carrying Ahn Haeri must have gone back the way Jeong Mok had come.

“Ah.”

The gray van. Two big men could have easily lifted a disabled person in an instant. Judging from how they exploited the blind spot of the bus during the short light, slipping in and out without clumsy mistakes, they were clearly used to this.

‘Ransom? No, if they wanted ransom, they should have targeted me. It’s not that kind of old-fashioned crime.’

If they had a record of kidnapping, they wouldn’t have made a stupid mistake confusing him with Ahn Haeri. From head to toe they were completely different. It had to be that Haeri was the target from the start.

If they wanted to kidnap, they could have tried it at the park. But the security team hadn’t detected anything unusual. Rather than doubting their negligence, it was faster to check what was different about today.

Today, he had only given notice of the departure time, not the destination. He had grown complacent, thinking it was fine since he was there. On the other hand, because of that, he couldn’t rule out the possibility that information had leaked. If there hadn’t been a tail from the start, the only way anyone could know the two of them were here was one.

Gwanrim Motors.

When they left the house earlier, An Haeri had called to say he was coming to Gwanrim Motors. Phone tapping was impossible without planting a spy app. And since Jeong Mok had secured Haeri’s phone after planting one himself, it was clean. That meant either the owner of Gwanrim Motors had a spy app on his own phone, or the owner himself had done the spying.

The signal changed again. This time he went straight for Gwanrim Motors. The furious dog led by half a step.

“Who’s the owner here.”

The man who had told him not to park earlier came out again.

“Back again, I see.”

Woof! Woof!

Gom-i barked viciously.

“Ah, you scared me.”

The owner flinched back in alarm.

“You know Ahn Haeri.”

“And what if I do.”

“Besides your staff, who else knew he was coming here today?”

“Why are you asking that?”

The man’s stance was defensive. What was even more suspicious was that he didn’t ask how Jeong Mok knew Haeri. The hand gripping the leash of the savage dog tightened. He struggled to keep calm. In truth, veins bulged at his temple and neck as he fought down the impulse to smash everything in sight. The owner’s face also stiffened.

“You told someone, didn’t you.”

Two workers repairing motorcycles picked up on the strange atmosphere and stopped what they were doing. Rising from their spots, they gripped their tools and stared. Gom-i crouched low, fur bristling along his back. The black giant dog bared his sharp teeth and growled, and the workers froze. Instead, their eyes darted uneasily between their boss and Jeong Mok.

“What are you talking about.”

The owner stepped back. Jeong Mok closed in. Gom-i as well. The workers shifted their grips on their tools.

“About Haeri coming here. Who did you tell it to.”

“No one blabbed anything. But who are you to be asking for Ahn Haeri here? What are you to him?”

“Guardian and cohabitant.”

“Ha, don’t make me laugh. That parentless punk doesn’t have a guardian… huh.”

His patience had already run out. Better than wasting time arguing, it would be quicker to put the bastard down and take his phone to check the call log. Jeong Mok bent and unlatched the heavy clasp on Gom-i’s leash. Then he pointed at the startled workers.

“Gom-i. Hyung will take responsibility, so you can snap a finger or two. Just don’t swallow. Eating filth will give you an upset stomach.”

Woof! Woof!

Gom-i understood the low murmur perfectly and barked. The workers who had boldly raised their tools panicked and stumbled back.

Jeong Mok grabbed the bewildered owner by the collar.

“Phone.”

“Uh?”

At the same time that he stomped on the man’s foot, he drove his fist into his solar plexus.

“Keuk.”

“Shut your mouth and hand over your phone, you fucking bastard.”

As the man bent and crumpled, Jeong Mok grabbed him by the collar and yanked him back up.

“No, boss! Shit, call the cops! Call the cops!”

The terrified employees shouted to one another.

“Gom-i, bite.”

The instant Jeong Mok jerked his chin, Gom-i shot out like a cannon.

Woof! Woof!

The enraged giant dog was a predator. Against a thick, curly, double-coated guard dog, clumsy tools had the opposite effect. Thanks to the fur, the strikes barely landed and only provoked him further. One of the workers hurled a screwdriver, but it missed Gom-i completely, and only marked him as the dog’s first target.

“Aaagh! Get back! Get back!”

Sensing he would be maimed if caught, the worker ran in panic toward the corner of the shop. In the process, a motorcycle under repair toppled, crashing into another that had just been finished and was waiting to be rolled out.

Crash!

The loud noise left the shop in chaos. The panicked worker scrambled up onto a table piled with tools and hurled a toolbox down. Gom-i dodged the flying metal neatly and lunged at his ankle as if to sink his teeth in at any moment. Meanwhile the other worker, who had run to another corner, shook his head helplessly at the boss, as if his phone was somewhere else.

“Give me your phone. Fuck. Before you die.”

Jeong Mok’s eyes rolled white. The boss, shaken by the earlier blow, hurriedly fumbled through his work clothes pocket. Holding the man by the collar with one hand, Jeong Mok snatched the phone with the other. He jammed it against the man’s face to unlock it, then went straight to the call log.

“Fuck. You made a lot of calls.”

“T-they, they’re, customers.”

“Shut up before I grind your jaw into the asphalt.”

Cheap curses he hardly ever used kept spilling out. The terrified boss clamped his mouth shut.

If Haeri saw him now, he would laugh that the pervert stalker even had a foul mouth. But Haeri wasn’t here, so maybe it was fine.

Among the string of calls was a familiar number. Ahn Haeri’s. Right after ending that call where Haeri said he was coming here, the boss had immediately called somewhere else. Showing him that number, the boss’s already crumpled face turned ashen.

Jeong Mok pressed the call button. After a couple rings, someone picked up.

–Ah, boss.

“Ahn Haeri.”

–Thanks to you, we just met him. Ahn Haeri won’t be coming there today. Our talk’s going to take a while. Ah, the brat. He’s giving us hell, isn’t he? Where’d he go and bust his leg like that. Anyway, thanks to you, boss, we’ll be able to find the stolen goods. Much obliged.

Before even getting to the point, a gravelly voice spoke like he was talking to an old friend. As expected, it had been tipped off by the Gwanrim boss. Veins bulged in Jeong Mok’s hand gripping the man’s collar.

“And who am I speaking to?”

His patience, sharpened through a rough life that was calm on the surface but rotten inside, was scraped down to the dregs.

–Huh? What did you say?

“I asked who the fuck I’m speaking to right now. Ah, slip of the tongue. Where are you headed at this moment.”

It was impossible to hide all the hostility in his voice. Not from lack of patience, but from too much rage.

–What the, isn’t this the motorcycle shop boss’s number? Fuck, you bastard! Who the hell are you! You fucker, who are you!

The man on the other end realized this wasn’t the Gwanrim boss. Strange he hadn’t noticed from the beginning, given the voice was completely different. He must have been distracted. For example, by someone he had just kidnapped.

–If you dialed wrong, you dumb fuck, you should apologize instead of ranting at some random guy!

–Hey, hang up! Hang up! I said hang up, you motherfucker!

Another voice shouted beside him, then the call cut off. He called again but they didn’t answer, then the phone switched off.

The line was dead, but there were still ways to dig out more. Jeong Mok turned his gaze to the boss, who had been desperately struggling to free himself from his grip.

“That bastard just now. Who is he.”

“How would I kno—!”

Thud!

He smashed the phone’s corner into the boss’s temple. The man screamed. The employees flinched. The only one not startled by his actions was the furious dog.