Romantic Gangster

#07

Hyun-joon cursed in disbelief as he watched Ji-woo nod. He wondered how such a small person could be so fearless. No one had ever treated him like this before, making the situation unfamiliar and truly baffling.

“Hey, aren’t you scared of me?”

“Nope.”

“Don’t you know the rumors about me? If you keep acting like this, you’ll get seriously beaten up.”

“I know your rumors. But they’re not really true, are they?”

“What’s not true? Hey, it’s all true. I’ll fact-check for you, go ahead and ask.”

As they passed the station area, the street noticeably quieted. Walking along the path lit by streetlights and occasional neon signs from shops, Ji-woo pondered about Hyun-joon’s rumors.

“Is it true that famous entertainment agencies all wanted you to become a celebrity?”

“Yeah. I’ve got tons of DM offers too, want to see?”

“They make offers like that these days?”

“Yeah. Being handsome is exhausting. They won’t leave you alone. You’re scrawny and your face is…”

Hyun-joon lowered his gaze to criticize Ji-woo’s face but ended up carefully taking in his eyes, nose, and lips. He hadn’t had a chance to appreciate Ji-woo’s face before due to annoyance, but now he realized it was quite… no, very… actually, extremely good-looking. He finally understood why those alpha guys at the pool hall had been so interested earlier.

“…Anyway, you probably don’t know. Okay, next.”

“Hmm… Oh! Did you really beat up four gangsters?”

“Yeah. I was making a delivery when suddenly this guy jumped in front of my bike. I almost died and yelled at him, turns out he was a gangster. We fought one-on-one, he got beaten, then he called three more guys, so I fought all four.”

While it could easily be dismissed as a lie, somehow Hyun-joon’s nonchalant tone made it sound truthful. Ji-woo felt a bit sorry for Hyun-joon, imagining him in that situation.

“You must have been really shocked and scared…”

Caught off guard by this unexpected response, Hyun-joon’s gaze fell on Ji-woo’s face as he walked forward. Usually, people focused on the fact that he fought “four gangsters,” either praising him or calling it reckless.

Not once had anyone focused on how he might have felt in that moment. So hearing “You must have been really shocked and scared” was quite impactful. It made Hyun-joon reflect on how he actually felt back then.

“You didn’t get hurt badly, did you?”

“…Well, not much. Just a bit of a cut inside my mouth.”

“That’s good. I’m glad you weren’t hurt badly.”

“…What, are you worried about me now?”

The small face nodded up and down. Flustered again by this straightforward affirmation, Hyun-joon moistened his dry lips unnecessarily.

“Oh, so is it true that you got cast as a gangster too?”

“Gangster cas… Shit, that sounds weird. Well, yeah. Something like that.”

“So you decided to be a gangster instead of a celebrity?”

“Hey, when you say it like that, it sounds really strange. I never liked the idea of being a celebrity anyway. I don’t want my face to be famous, and I don’t want to pretend to be nice all the time.”

“Then do you prefer being a gangster?”

“Hey, just shut up. Damn, who would prefer being a gangster?”

Ji-woo chuckled softly as Hyun-joon shook his head. They entered a familiar alley, soon passing the small convenience store where Hyun-joon had bought cigarettes. Walking a bit further, Ji-woo stopped in front of his house and looked up at Hyun-joon, who had stopped beside him with a slanted posture.

“Thanks for walking me home. See you at school tomorrow.”

“You’re trying to slip that in subtly, but no thanks.”

“Are you going to keep living with people misunderstanding you as a delinquent with no future?”

“…Ah, shit.”

He could have just agreed, but somehow it hurt his pride. A delinquent with no future, really?

“Whatever, don’t worry about it. I’m going to be a gangster anyway, so it doesn’t matter if I’m a middle school or high school graduate. I’m leaving.”

“If you’re really not coming because it doesn’t matter, I have nothing more to say… But if it’s because you don’t have friends in class, I’ll make sure it’s not awkward at all, so please come.”

Hyun-joon, who had turned and taken a couple of steps, stopped. Ji-woo, looking at his large but not threatening back, continued speaking.

“Also, I’m taking a week off from my part-time job, so I’ll be going to the pool hall tomorrow to distribute flyers. It takes longer than expected, so I’ll go around 7 PM tomorrow.”

“I didn’t ask.”

“I thought you might be curious.”

“I’m not curious.”

“If you’re not coming to school, at least come to the pool hall tomorrow. Talk to me again.”

“Wow, I definitely won’t go to the pool hall for a week. Just take your suppressants properly. Don’t go around spreading your sweet scent everywhere.”

With his hands deep in his pockets, Hyun-joon turned back to speak, took a couple of steps backward, then turned again and strode out of the alley. Ji-woo watched Hyun-joon’s retreating figure silently, a small smile forming on his face.

Despite his rough speech, he seemed like a better person than expected.

* * *

Climbing the stairs to his rooftop room, Hyun-joon unzipped his track top in one go and lay down on the wide wooden platform visible as soon as he reached the top. After doing various small tasks all day, his body felt quite tired.

What did he do today? In the morning, he received a call from a private moneylender’s office and went to threaten a man who was hiding without paying his debt. He collected the money and received 5% as a service fee.

This job of tracking down and collecting money from debtors who had missed their payment dates and were on the run began after meeting Baek Ju-seung, the very gangster who had purposely jumped in front of his motorcycle.

Contrary to the common expectation that he would have become enemies with those gangsters after fighting four of them alone and winning that day, he actually became quite close with Baek Ju-seung, who had attempted to extort money through self-harm.

Even while bleeding from the beating, Baek Ju-seung approached him, patted his shoulder, and handed him a business card, saying he wanted to work together and to contact him. The bloody business card had “Friendly Loan Shark” written on it as the business name.

It was an unusual name that didn’t fit a loan shark business. Since it had nothing to do with him and he didn’t want to get involved with such people, he naturally didn’t contact them. However, not long after, Baek Ju-seung personally came to the pizza shop where he was working as a delivery man. He grinned, showing off three new dental implants he got thanks to Hyun-joon.

Thinking he might have come to pick a fight, Hyun-joon’s mood was about to sour, but Baek Ju-seung made a big offer. An offer to easily make a lot of money just by frowning a bit and saying a few curse words. Tempted by this, the first job he took was collecting money from people who had borrowed from loan sharks.

He thought he might have to beat people nearly to death and torture them like in movies or dramas, but people were more scared than he expected. Just by showing up and asking if they knew why he was there, they would tremble. If communication didn’t work and he picked up something in the place – like a baseball bat, poker, pool cue, or even just a glass – they would become even more frightened and say they would pay.

Thanks to this, within two weeks of starting the job, Hyun-joon succeeded in five collections and received a 5% fee from Baek Ju-seung, allowing him to live quite comfortably.

He didn’t even need to do part-time jobs anymore as his bank account was filling up beyond that. He had never held such a large sum as 5 million won before, but he accumulated that amount with just five jobs. And all within two weeks.

Since he never got blood on his hands or actually beat people for money, this job felt like quite a good part-time gig to Hyun-joon. It even felt like he was making money for nothing.

With money came dreams.

He thought about buying a killer motorcycle when he saved more money, and if he saved even more, he planned to move to a place with moderate summers and winters. The rooftop room was fine except it was too hot in summer and too cold in winter.

Still, after three years, he had developed know-how to live less hot and less cold, but when he first spent summer and winter in the rooftop room, he thought he would die from the heat and cold. But he endured because of one thing – it was less stuffy than any other house.

He could lie on the wooden platform anytime, see the sky, and enjoy the wide-open view of distant scenery.

He almost dozed off after lying on the platform with his eyes closed for a moment. Hyun-joon sat up, coming to his senses, and smelled his arm as a sweet scent brushed his nose. Though not strong, that annoying guy’s pheromone scent was on his clothes.

“…This is really annoying, seriously.”

Shaking his head, Hyun-joon took off the track top he was wearing and threw it to the far end of the platform. Leaning back on his arms, he recalled the face of the guy who had been following him around.

‘Come see me.’

Saying such strange things like asking him to come see him with such a nonchalant face…

‘I’ll wait for you. So come.’

He was a really weird guy, saying such embarrassing things about waiting without hesitation.