Chapter 82.2: Catching the Tail (1)

The restaurant’s interior had a large hall made of ondol, and with that in the center one side had the kitchen and the other side had a room.

“Welcome.” The owner glanced at the restaurant's dining area upon seeing Kang Chan enter alone.

“Kang Chan!” Oh Gwang-Taek opened the door of one of the rooms inside the restaurant and called Kang Chan.

“Are you going to order?” The owner had followed Kang Chan to the door, then slightly tilted her head forward.

“Another person will be eating with us, but please give us one grilled duck.”

“Alright.”

Oh Gwang-Taek closed the door after ordering.

“How did you find them?” Kang Chan asked.

“Sit. Talk after catching your breath. Here.” Oh Gwang-Taek handed him a cigarette. “The fucker I recognized in the video is Cha Yang-Woon. He used to hang around with another bastard. They’re really close, and they even quit being gangsters at the same time when Cha Yang-Woon went to China. We recently heard that Cha Yang-Woon’s friend told people to tell him if they want to go to China, so we caught him, and he told us about this place. That house was also bought under his name,” Oh Gwang-Taek explained, then deeply exhaled cigarette smoke.

“What are you going to do if that fucker tells Cha Yang-Woon about us?”

“I have men with him right now in the van below the restaurant. We heard the fucker was also involved in the fight in Yongin.”

Kang Chan was relieved, which he hadn’t felt in a long time. Should they take care of the sons of bitches in the house first?

“What about the other gangsters in the video?” Kang Chan asked.

“I watched the video with a few guys, but we didn’t recognize anyone else in it, so they’re likely from China.”

“How much further up do we have to go from here?”

“I was told that the house is right above the restaurant. We can’t see it since the road is curved, but the fucker said that we’ll be able to hear it immediately if someone yells.”

Kang Chan smiled as if he was satisfied, and Oh Gwang-Taek shrugged smugly.

“Welcome.” Soon, they heard the owner greeting someone from outside the room.

“We’re here!” Oh Gwang-Taek said after opening the door, and Seok Kang-Ho came inside with a small bag.

Kang Chan told Seok Kang-Ho exactly what Oh Gwang-Taek had said.

“What are we still doing here? Let’s go there now,” Seok Kang-Ho said afterward and patted his small bag.

“Let’s wait for now and eat what we ordered. We’ll pounce on them when it gets darker and they’ve all gone home,” Kang Chan replied.

“I saw a van and a car below the restaurant, and unless they’re idiots, wouldn’t they realize that there are gangsters here the moment they see the kid standing in the parking lot?”

Kang Chan didn’t see the van or the car when he came here through the single path.

“Didn’t you come here from the other side? The car was parked beside a weird real estate building. I easily recognized it with a glance.” Seok Kang-Ho asked.

Kang Chan did see the real estate building. Either way, if the car was close enough for Seok Kang-Ho to recognize it, then it was likely possible for their enemies to do so as well.

“I was told that there are CCTVs?” Oh Gwang-Taek asked Kang Chan.

“There are security cameras?”

“I heard there’s two of them.”

While Kang Chan was wondering what they should do, the grilled duck was served.

“Enjoy the meal,” the server commented.

The thick pumpkin was burnt on the outside and had been split open with a knife. Inside, the cooked duck was steaming. The duck wasn’t important right now, though. What should they do?

‘The days are longer too since it’s summer.’

They couldn’t blow their chance now that they had unexpectedly seized it.

The gangsters at the house saw Kang Chan and Seok Kang-Ho’s faces in Yongin, and they already knew Oh Gwang-Taek. Still, it didn’t feel right to send a sloppy gangster there instead because he’d likely just ruin things.

“Yes, yes. Three grilled ducks for the house above? Yes. We’ll bring it up right away.”

The moment they heard the owner say that, their gazes alternated among them.

“We can go up to the house with the grilled ducks they ordered. That should work. We still have time, so we should eat our order first,” Kang Chan suggested.

Kang Chan used chopsticks to take off and eat a piece of breast meat from the grilled duck. A major reason why he had suggested that they eat before going up was that he had skipped lunch and was hungry.

“It'll be uncomfortable no matter how I address you anyway, so let me just refer to you as Kang-Ho hyung-nim,” Oh Gwang-Taek said.

“Do what you want.”

“Please eat this.” Oh Gwang-Taek handed over one leg of the duck to Seok Kang-Ho. He then held the other leg and dug in.

After about twenty minutes had passed, Oh Gwang-Taek left the room first and then said, “Ma’am! About the ducks that the house above told you to bring…”

“Yes?”

“We’re about to go there, so just let us know when it’s finished.”

“I’ll be thankful if you do that, but what about the payment?”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“Alright.”

The conversation ended without a hitch. Kang Chan and Seok Kang-Ho washed their hands to get rid of the oil, then went out to the yard of the restaurant. They stood on the opposite side of the car so they wouldn't be seen from the road just in case.

“Give me the kukri,” Kang Chan said.

Seok Kang-Ho took out two kukris from the small bag and handed one to Kang Chan.

Swoosh.

When Kang Chan grabbed the handle and unsheathed the kukri, its terrifyingly sharpened blade was revealed. He was satisfied.

“I’ll go up with the duck and open the door. Come up to the house then,” Kang Chan ordered Seok Kang-Ho.

“How would I know you’ve opened the door while I’m down here?”

“We’re on a mountain. You’re going to hear everything no matter what sound they make.”

“Let’s go there together.”

“Hey! It’s just three ducks. Those fuckers would catch on to us immediately if we go up together. I can pass through alone somehow since I’m also wearing a casual outfit.”

Seok Kang-Ho looked at Kang Chan’s clothes, then twisted his lips. Kang Chan definitely looked like a different person from when he wore a suit.

“Give me a cigarette,” Kang Chan said.

“If need be, break a window.”

As Kang Chan was smoking with Seok Kang-Ho, Oh Gwang-Taek came out of the restaurant with a paper bag that had a plastic string hanging on it.

“Captain,” Seok Kang-Ho called.

“What?”

“If I don’t hear anything for more than five minutes, then I’m just going to go up.”

“Okay.”

Kang Chan hid the kukri on his waist behind his back, then took the three paper bags from Oh Gwang-Taek.

“I’m going. Right! How much does this cost?” Kang Chan asked Oh Gwang-Taek.

“It’s 150,000 won. Hey! What’s the signal? Wait for a bit before going. I still have to call my men.”

“We’ve already planned everything out, so just follow Seok Kang-Ho. Put them in a call and tell them to go up the house once you hear me fighting.”

“Okay.”

“I’m going!”

Kang Chan inhaled, then followed the road up the house.

Past the restaurant, the path turned into a dirt track. Kang Chan thought people should’ve put concrete on it and turned it into an actual road. The ground was bare, so it had a long sunken line on either side of the narrow track. They were the distance of car wheels apart.

Step. Step.

Kang Chan walked while blinking to release the tension in his eyes. Having the kukri on his back felt great.

‘I see it now.’

Just like what Oh Gwang-Taek told him, the house came into view when Kang Chan went up a bit the mountain path. It was as if it was hiding on the left side. Rather than a villa, it was a common and old two-story western-style house.

Inside the barred gate was a parking lot that doubled as a garden, and to its right was the front door. The house also had a veranda on the second floor and marble stairs that led to the second floor from outside the house.

The time had come. Here, Kang Chan would find the people that ordered Kang Dae Kyung and Lanok’s death.

The gate came up to Kang Chan’s chest. He pressed the bell that was attached to it. The windows were frosted, so he couldn’t see inside the living room from where he was at all.

“Who is it?”

“I brought the grilled duck,” Kang Chan answered.

After a short silence had passed…

Beep! Rattle!

The door opened. Kang Chan got nervous for a moment because he thought that the sons of bitches were suspicious of him. He went across the yard without hesitation.

Kang Chan pulled the front door to open it, but it was locked from the inside.

“Wait!” Someone shouted. Kang Chan could hear the sound of the padlock turning.

Creak.

The front door opened. A mean-looking man held the door open with his foot, then held out his hand.

“How much is it?” he asked Kang Chan.

“It’s 150,000 won.”

Kang Chan handed over the three paper bags to the guy.

.

“Ah, you fucker. You should’ve given them to me after I’ve taken out the money.”

Kang Chan glanced inside the house as the man grumbled.

“Here!” The guy held out the money, and Kang Chan stared at his face.

“What are you doing, fucker?! Take the money already!”

A guy that had been sitting on the living room sofa leaned his upper body to the side. He then looked in Kang Chan’s direction. The moment when their eyes met, Kang Chan’s heart sank coldly. The look in his eyes showed that he was a professional at the level of the people that went to the hotel to try and kill Lanok. Plus, there weren’t just one or two of them here.

“Why is this fucker still isn’t taking the money?”

As the person that received the ducks was swearing, the guy on the sofa quickly got up. He recognized Kang Chan. No, they recognized each other.

“Move!”

The man yelled while running to the front door.

Whoosh! Slice!

Kang Chan pulled out the kukri and slit the neck of the person in front of him.

“Cough! Cough!”

Crash!

As his first opponent grasped onto his neck and bumped against the shoe shelf, Kang Chan ran and took a step into the entrance. The guy that had been on the sofa took a step forward from inside the doorway.

Pow. Pow-pow-pow-pow. Slice! Pow-pow.

Even though Kang Chan had sliced the guy’s right elbow with the kukri, he still couldn’t overpower him even a bit.

Bam! Stab!

Kang Chan and his enemy’s elbows crashed against each other twice in front of their faces.

At that moment, other people moved quickly into the living room.

1. ondol is a heating system in Korea. Its underfloor heating uses direct heat transfer from wood smoke to heat the underside of the floor