“Samgeum! Welcome back!”


  Black noodle sauce on their lips, strange slogans, stiff gang greetings, smiley face badge dangling from their left chest, Mu Ssang saw a microcosm of the jumbled Korean society from these goons’ appearance.

  ‘What’s a Samgeum?’


  Korea did become an arena of all sorts of slogans ever since the New Community Movement, but he’d never heard of this Samgeum before.

  “Samgeum! Is the boss here?”


  “Yea, he’s here.”


  A goon in his late teens responded nervously. Bam- Nupchi struck the back of his head.

  “You little, you answer with ‘yes’ and finish your response with ‘sir’. Did we not teach you that?”


  “You did, sir. I will correct it, sir.”


  The goon screamed, screeched out at the top of his lungs.

  “Stupid little son of a bitch, do it right next time. Alright!”


  “I will sir.”


  Nupshi glared at the goon next to him who was frozen in fear while still holding his chopsticks. The goon’s face stiffened.

  “C’mon you little fucker, relax. Is that smiley face badge on you just for show? Smile, fucker, smile!”


  “Samgeum! Smiling, sir!”


  “Louder!”


  Nupchi smacked the goon’s head again.

  Bam-

  “Samgeum! Smiling, sir!”


  ‘Should I just ship these idiots over to Novatopia’s workhouses?’


  Mu Ssang began to contemplate quite seriously. Nupchi’s scrunched-up face, the goons who were about to cry, and the smiling face badges on all of their chests, it was a sad excuse for a comedy.

  “Nupchi, we don’t have time to play around with these sad little things.”


  “Yes, I’m sorry. This way.”


  Surprised, Nupchi bowed his head. The two goons’ eyes widened to the size of a cow’s. For there to exist such a person who even Nupchi hyungnim couldn’t go up against!

  “What the hell is Samgeum anyway?” (Samgeum: Three Geums)

  “It’s our gang’s slogan. It’s short for ‘Jigeum(Now) Hyungeum(Cash) Ipgeum(Pay up)’.”


  “Jigeum Hyungeum Ipgeum (Pay up in cash right now)? Hahahaha!”


  ‘Fuck, I told them we should change the slogan!’


  Nupchi tried to ignore Mu Ssang’s hearty laughter. Samgeum was a new slogan that the Boss who founded Samshik Capital made himself. He had a hard time-saving face when he had to say the slogan out loud. Mortifying.

  “That’s good. Samshik’s bound to succeed. Let’s go!”


  ‘Succeed my ass, since when did gangs go out to collect interest when we’ve got two perfectly good fists? That dumbass boss of ours is making me look bad. Fuck, I should just take him out!’


  Nupchi, despite his internal monologuing, knocked on the door as carefully and lightly as he could. There was no answer.

  “Move!”


  Mu Ssang grabbed the door handle and rushed in. Nupchi followed, giving up on what was about to happen next. A man in his 40’s looked up while on the phone.

  “What is this?”


  The angular face wore a look of annoyance. Mu Ssang scanned the office in a single glance: the large room, furniture, where the windows were placed and their size, and the man’s appearance. A sniper’s eye was a piece of natural scanning equipment.

  He was a quite bulky man in his 40’s. He had an angular face, big sharp eyes, a glistening forehead, and thick eyebrows placed far apart from each other. It was the face of someone with an unwavering spirit and a knack for making money.

  The walls were covered with precise military-grade maps in a 5,000:1 ratio. There wasn’t a single trophy or art piece that you’d expect at a gang boss’ office. Nupchi bowed at a 90-degree angle.

  “Boss, I’m back, sir.”


  Without answering, his triangular eyes looked Mu Ssang up and down. He may have given up some of his criminal past but he was once known nationwide as the one who went toe to toe with that Sashimi. This gutsy bastard that just came out of nowhere didn’t look easy to deal with.

  “Who is this?”


  He needed an explanation from Nupchi. These past few years working as a CEO of a legitimate company held him back from swearing at him…just barely. Nupchi tried his hardest to tell him using his eyes but failed.

  “You little shit, what’s wrong with your eyes? Speak, damn it. Speak!”


  Samshik burst out. Nupchi quickly drew closer to his ear and whispered.

  “What!”


  Samshik bolted up from his chair as if it had electrified him.

  The nightmare!

  Why would the Three Abstentions nightmare be here in his office? The nightmare disappeared after wiping out the Sashimi gang. Bewildered, he took a better look at the visitor in front of him from his head down to his feet.

  Samshik’s eyes began twitching. He’d survived this dog-eat-dog world, not with physical strength but by being a good observer. From Mu Ssang’s perfectly balanced form, rugged arms, and deep lake-like eyes Samshik gathered that he was a real master- hiding his power like a dragon hides behind clouds. It was only natural for Samshik to grovel.

  “I’m Jin Samshik responsible for managing Samshik Services.”


  “I’m the one you call a nightmare. Pleasure.”


  His low baritone voice hit Samshik’s eardrums one syllable at a time. Samshik felt a chill run down his spine. He looked into Mu Ssang’s eyes without meaning to. His glare bore into his skull.

  ‘Ah!’


  Samshik drew in a breath of panic. His body, which went through many battles in the past, smelled danger. He noticed a cross-shaped scar on Mu Ssang’s cheek. A mark of a bloody past. His experienced senses were alerting him of immense danger. One wrong move and he was out.

  “Apologies for having you made you come out all this way. I’ll serve you as a hyungnim from here on out.”


  Samshik offered his allegiance on the spot. This is why your name value mattered. Mu Ssang became a hyungnim from a stranger in a matter of moments.

  “A survivor, I see!”


  Mu Ssang nodded. He had good eyes on him. The ones who survive are the strong ones. Age was nothing but a number in the criminal world. The strong made the rules. You’d be lucky to have someone who respects your age.

  “Nupchi, go get drinks for this hyungnim here.”


  “Yes, sir!”


  Nupchi, who was standing there awkwardly, briskly walked out to carry out the order. Samshik peered over at Mu Ssang who, denying the sofa, was sitting on a metal chair. He looked defenseless at first but Samshik noticed that he placed his left foot at a 45-degree angle. This was someone who fighting was his second nature.

  “Sorry for barging in like this. I wanted to ask about this woman you’re looking for.”


  Mu Ssang cut to the chase. There was no reason to be friendly with a gang leader.

  “Huh?”


  Samshik was caught off guard. He thought Mu Ssang was just here to make money from them. Samshik gritted his teeth.

  ‘That motherfucker!’


  He wanted to rip Nupchi’s tongue out. The customer is king. There was no use for an organization that would leak their clients’ information. The moment they are forced to ‘retire’ is the moment they’d go hungry. This was why there was no end to espionage in these organizations. Samshik clenched his stomach to work up the courage.

  “I’m deeply sorry. We were asked to keep the client’s information secret, you see~”


  Samshik trailed off. The nightmare was scary indeed but so was losing everything. He decided to hold out for now.

  “I understand. But if you’re looking for someone named Kim Malsoon, that becomes personal.”


  ‘Fuck, this is terrifying.’


  Samshik gulped. Somehow, his silent eyes were more intimidating than the bloodthirsty ones.

  “Did you know already?”


  “Your client must me Park Inbo, correct? I don’t have a lot of patience.”


  Mu Ssang gently placed his index and middle finger on the coffee table in front of him. The fingers slowly burrowed into the hardwood like a drill.

  “Fu-!”


  Samshik accidentally spat out an air of disbelief. He could not believe what he was seeing. Last he checked the coffee table was made of 3-inch Lauan wood, not styrofoam. What the nightmare was showing him was the most threatening protest he’d ever seen.

  The only way for a softer object to penetrate a hard object is through speed. If he’d pierced the table immediately he would’ve been surprised but not this freaked out.

  The fingers continued to go through the table as he watched. Pop- Until they eventually went all the way through. Samshik shuddered at the noise. He had this strange feeling that he was next in line for this inefficient hole punching process.

  Client confidentiality was important, sure, but his opponent was no ordinary human. He was the nightmare. He needed to be alive to even worry about going hungry or whatever. Samshik promptly opened his mouth to give him an answer.

  “It’s been five years since we accepted CEO Park’s request. More specifically, our entire organization is employed by him. We focused solely on finding Ms. Kim Malsoon for the past 5 years. We tried everything from police reports, private detectives, to placing goons all over the country.

  “Did you find anything?”


  Samshik’s gaze darted between the hole in the table and Mu Ssang’s fingers. He had goosebumps. Were he to tell him that they didn’t find anything and he was sure he’d get to feel what those holes would feel like on his body.

  “Ms. Kim Malsoon is wandering from place to place. We thought we’d find her easily but we were always a step behind. She moved to new addresses at least three times just from what we know. We first got word that she was at the Moonlight Restaurant in Choongmu. When we found the place, she was already gone. The owner of the restaurant told us that she wasn’t mentally stable but she was a kind and hardworking woman.”


  “Why’d she leave?”


  “Her husband made advances on her.”


  “God damn it!”


  Crack- The metal chair screamed. The metal pipe armrests crumpled like paper. Beauty was something all women strived for but was a curse to his mother.

  He was correct to assume she was mentally unstable. The world was full of animals that would take advantage of mentally unstable women. Mina’s biological mother was killed in that same manner.

  ‘Is this her son?’


  Samshik flinched. Kim Malsoon was 46, the nightmare in front of him was approximately in his mid-twenties. Samshik’s heart fell. This put him in an absurd predicament.

  Samshik didn’t ask how Mu Ssang was related to Kim Malsoon. He wasn’t so foolish as to try and confirm his suspicions. His job, now, was to report to the nightmare until he was satisfied.

  “Her husband, we roughed him up a bit. It didn’t seem like the lady was assaulted.”


  Samshik carefully added. He started referring to Kim Malsoon as the lady. The world was so big and yet so small. For the nightmare to be Kim Malsoon’s son!

  “Continue!”


  A noise like a beast’s in pain that’d been chained up deep underground and tortured escaped Mu Ssang’s lips. Samshik trembled. He jumped up and grabbed an old notepad.

  “She left the Moonlight Restaurant in the summer of ’79. So she had already left three years prior when we found the place.”


  “Did you find out in what way she was mentally unstable?”


  His voice became hoarse. He didn’t want to ask but he had to know to manage the situation.

  “She was fine in cooking, knew how to add and subtract, and didn’t have any problems in her daily life. But she couldn’t remember anything about herself. Her name, age, where she was from…. And she suffered from chronic migraines. She used to say ‘Ssang my baby’ ‘where are you’ during her episodes but couldn’t remember a thing when she came to. The owner seemed sorry to have lost a hardworking employee.”


  “Ugh!”


  A suffering groan interrupted Samshik short. Mu Ssang’s eyes began to sting and his nose clogged up. A memory of his mother carrying his lunch box on her head surrounded disappeared behind the pink flower petals blowing in the wind.

  ‘Mother, so that’s what it was. You were wandering around that whole time with no memory.’


  A defense mechanism of the brain where it deletes certain memories to preserve itself: dissociative amnesia. Tears welled up in his eyes. He felt faint and as if something was sitting on his chest.

  He remembered his father who was affectionate with his wife whether Mu Ssang was there or not, his mother who would brush him off playfully, the cherry blossoms blowing in the wind, his mother who would say she didn’t mind the smell as she would embrace his sweaty father. His mother loved her husband more than her own life. Even her son came second.

  Doctors say that the human brain suppresses traumatic events that it can’t handle in the subconscious. How harrowing must those memories have been for her to erase them!

  His mother’s condition was worse than the one he experienced at the Bangtae Mountain. Those women from the village, Lee Gangchul, his uncle, and Jangpilnyeo crossed his mind. His repressed bloodthirst began leaking out.

  Samshik’s face turned blue. His skin was tingling and felt as if someone placed a boulder atop his chest. It became hard to breathe like he was surrounded by water.

  Huff huff-

  Samshik struggled and gasped out desperately for air. Mu Ssang snapped out of his fury and contained his bloodthirst.

  “Ahem! Continue.”


  “Fooo-!”


  Samshik finally was able to draw a breath. His knees were trembling. He just experienced materialized bloodthirst like you’d read about in those Wuxia novels. The prowess he supposedly showcased when he annihilated the Sashimi Gang was not all that he was capable of.

  “The clues led to the Jukdo Market in Pohang. She stayed at the fish market for two years. She had to leave because she was being harassed there too. The last we heard of her, she was at a Songdo sashimi restaurant in Busan Guanganri Beach. We barely lost her track last winter. We brought some of those people that were harassing her for a ‘talk’. She’s been wandering around because these bastards wouldn’t leave her alone. We would’ve found her already if it weren’t for these fuckers.”


  “So?”


  Mu Ssang’s voice dropped a pitch lower. His mother was wandering around, avoiding these animals. The subconscious that was affecting her brain was the love she had for his father and memories that became too difficult for her to handle. The mere fact that his mother was still living in chaos and endless fear depressed. and darkened his mood, emotional state……