Chapter 62
Chapter 62. Actually, That's Me (2)
[Happy Loan Office]
Na In-pil carefully pushed open the iron door and stepped inside, bowing ninety degrees at the waist.
"Boss, it's Na In-pil. I hope you've been well!"
"You? What brings you here? Did you come to pay back the money?"
The loan shark had been eating jajangmyeon and sweet-and-sour pork at the sofa and table in front of his desk when he acknowledged the greeting.
Na In-pil scratched his head and spoke quietly.
"Um, Boss. Just for a moment—"
"Say it from there."
"J-just a moment is all I need. Please, just a second."
Na In-pil moved to the boss's side and whispered.
"Boss, something's come up, you see."
"What kind of thing?"
"That three hundred million you lent me. About that—"
"You skip out on it, you're dead. That money."
"Ah! No, nothing like that. What do you take me for. Goodness, absolutely not. The thing is—"
Na In-pil conveyed that he had done a broadcast and made a bet with five hundred million on the line, and that he'd lost and now had to pay back five hundred million.
"What? Five hundred million? This little punk wants to borrow another two hundred million with no shame whatsoever?"
"No! No! Absolutely nothing like that."
When the loan shark erupted in anger, Na In-pil waved his hands frantically.
He hurriedly pressed close to the man's ear and whispered his plan.
"That five hundred million — just words thrown out there. You don't have to give it."
"Then?"
"That man who followed me here. Yes, that middle-aged guy standing at the door staring blankly. He had this on him, you see."
Na In-pil pulled out the gold necklace that had come from the Murim Tower and held it up.
The loan shark recognized the necklace and his eyes lit up.
"That'd be worth quite a bit?"
"Yes! Boss. If you just help me out, I'll give you that necklace for free. This thing is worth fifty million won. It came out of the Tower, I tell you."
"I could just take it from you in place of your interest, Na In-pil — what's with the conditions?"
"Aigoo! Boss. Since I'm giving it to you either way, isn't good things good, all around? You don't even need to knock off my interest — just persuade that man over there and get me one signed settlement."
Na In-pil lowered his voice even further and murmured to the loan shark.
The loan shark glanced sideways at the man who had followed in, then looked at Na In-pil once, and smirked.
"This little punk gets a bit of fame and starts playing tricks?"
"Good for me, good for the Boss. Isn't it good for everyone?"
The loan shark rolled his eyes around, then popped a piece of sweet-and-sour pork into his mouth and made a sour face.
"Ah, damn…… Still hurts. Acts up every time I eat. Son of a—. Mister, have you had dinner?"
Na In-pil recognized those words as approval and quickly guided things along.
"My, my. Plenty of sweet-and-sour pork left. Hey, mister over there, come sit down."
"……"
"Aw, come on now, have a seat."
Na In-pil stood up, took the man's hand, and seated him beside the loan shark.
The loan shark crooked a finger at one of his subordinates.
He said something to the subordinate who approached, and the subordinate sat down at a computer and began typing.
The loan shark spoke.
"Friend. You look a good ten years older than In-pil here — why be so greedy?"
"……"
"Is five hundred million somebody's kid's name? Kim O-eok? Park O-eok? Can you just throw it around like that?"
The loan shark smirked and stared intently at the man.
* * *
I said nothing.
At that, the loan shark laughed as if it were beneath him, and a subordinate brought over the printed paper.
The loan shark set the paper and a pen down on the table with a thwack.
"Read it."
Na In-pil read aloud.
"I, so-and-so, have received the five hundred million won promised from Na In-pil, and the gold necklace is transferred to Na In-pil. This agreement is to remain confidential, and if violated, five hundred million won shall be compensated. Such-and-such month, such-and-such day. So-and-so."
"……"
"Perfect. Boss."
Na In-pil smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
The loan shark slid the paper and pen over toward me, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it.
"What are you doing? Press your fingerprint."
"……"
"What, feel wronged?"
"……"
"Everyone who comes here feels wronged. Hey, this gentleman says he feels wronged. Lighten the mood for him."
"Yes! Brother."
The thug subordinate cracked his neck loudly, then sat down on the sofa beside where I was seated.
The burly subordinate draped his arm around my shoulder.
The irezumi tattoos carved into both of the subordinate thug's arms caught my eye.
Na In-pil watched the scene and swallowed nervously.
"Friend, you didn't hear what my brother said? Let's end this nicely."
"……"
"Write your name while I'm still asking nicely."
Slide. He held out the ink pad to me.
Even as I stayed still, the subordinate bit off the sweet-and-sour pork he'd been chewing and brought the half-piece to my lips.
"Just sign? Or eat this and then sign?"
"……"
"Not going to work. Can't say the parents who said don't waste food were wrong. Damn."
The subordinate threw the sweet-and-sour pork onto the table, then snapped a chopstick in two and brought the broken end up to the corner of my eye.
Only then did I pick up the ballpoint pen and open my mouth.
"……It's a ballpoint pen."
"So?"
"Hard and pointy. Good memories. Plenty of pointy things today — let's do it with the chopstick."
"What are you on about? Friend. Enough useless talk, just write your name neatly."
I gripped the ballpoint pen and pulled the paper toward me.
The loan shark put the necklace Na In-pil had given him around his own neck and fiddled with it, clearly pleased.
"Hurry up and write. I want to go home."
"……"
Scratch, scratch.
I wrote my name in the blank space.
Kim Tae-yang.
"Kim Tae-yang?"
"……Why?"
At that, Na In-pil saw the name and reacted with a start.
The loan shark asked him.
"Ah, it's just…… It's the same name as someone I know."
"It is an unusual name. A friend of yours?"
"Not a friend. Just, well, some idiot. An errand boy."
"Is this gentleman some friend of yours?"
"No."
"All done then. Hey, mister, your ID."
"……"
"I need to make a copy of your ID. Can't get a seal certificate this late."
Slide.
I took out my ID and handed it over.
The loan shark took the ID and was about to pass it to his subordinate when—
"Kim Tae-yang, correct. Huh? What's this, the age and the face……"
The loan shark examined the ID closely, and soon his eyes went wide enough to pop out.
"Wha?! Wh-what?! What?!!"
Spurrrrt—
Suddenly, the loan shark began gushing blood from his nose.
With blood pouring freely, the loan shark's face went white as a sheet, and he stared at me with trembling hands holding the ID.
I smiled and looked at him as I spoke.
"Long time no see, Former Thug C."
"……!"
"It's me, all right."
"Huhhhhhh!!"
"You were alive? I thought Park Jeok-sa had killed you."
"Th-th-th-th……!"
I peeled off the Human Skin Mask from under my chin.
The moment my face was revealed, the former Thug C — now loan shark — gurgled foam and collapsed on the spot.
"Br-brother!"
The moment the subordinate snapped his eyes open in shock, grab! — my hand seized the back of the subordinate's neck.
"Mustn't waste food."
Crack!
I drove his face straight into the sweet-and-sour pork dish.
Smash!
The table cracked, and the broken chopstick punched through the subordinate's cheek and jutted out the other side.
"Hiiiiiiigh!"
I said to the shrieking Na In-pil.
"Long time no see, In-pil."
* * *
"Wh-wh-wh! Kim Tae-yang!"
"Kim Tae-yang. Not W-w-w-Kim Tae-yang."
"H-how are you?!"
"I'm a subscriber."
I crossed my legs and leaned back into the sofa.
Na In-pil, as if unable to make sense of the situation, kept darting his eyes between the collapsed Thug C, the groaning subordinate, and me.
"Why are you rolling your eyes around like that? Making me dizzy."
"T-Tae-yang."
"It's Tae-yang."
"Tae-yang. About what I said earlier……"
"The five hundred million?"
"Y-yeah. That. I'll give it to you."
"How? Getting tricked once was enough."
"No! No. Really. I've got a security deposit and savings too! It's a bit rough right now since I plowed it all into crypto. But it's about a hundred million!"
"That's four hundred million short then. Still a hundred million missing."
"No, the thing is—"
I cut off his words.
"In-pil. You spoke well earlier. That I'm not a friend, just an idiot, an errand boy."
"Th-that was……!"
"True enough. Right words. It's not like I ever had friends. I don't know many old classmates — and the few I do know, I couldn't even touch."
"……"
"So about that."
"You're going to have to introduce me to some friends."
【Kim Tae-yang is very happy. +1,000,000 Happiness】
* * *
Scritch, scritch.
I flipped the settlement over and held out the blank side to Na In-pil.
"Kang Hae-san, Bae Da-in. And every other one who needs to be written down. Names, phone numbers, addresses, what they do."
"……"
"Write."
"Yeah."
Na In-pil needed no further persuasion.
Watching him scribble away was almost heartwarming.
"I wrote them all here. Don't know the addresses. The phone numbers are old. Two of them I'm still in contact with, the rest I don't know. It's, it's true! I wrote down their NuTube IDs instead."
I took what he'd written.
One, two, three, four…… Six people, not counting Na In-pil himself and the teacher.
Hmm. Good.
"You left out two."
"Huh?"
"You and the homeroom teacher."
"Write."
"The octopus's number I don't know."
Octopus……?
That must be the homeroom teacher's nickname.
"The address?"
"Don't know. If you go to the school you'll be able to find out."
"Still at the school?"
"The Octopus became principal, and now apparently he's taken on a position as a foundation board member?"
"Board member?"
"Yeah. He took up a position and was active, and there's a rumor he's running in the superintendent of education election."
I rose from my seat and headed for the door.
"D-done? Tae-yang. Can I go?"
Na In-pil watched me walk toward the door and quietly rose from his seat.
"The prologue is done."
"Huh?"
Click.
I locked the office door.
"Now for the main event."
"T-Tae-yang!"
【Kim Tae-yang is very happy. +1,000,000 Happiness】
Rrrattle—
Opening the drawer by the entrance, I spotted a claw hammer inside.
I placed my hand on the drawer and spoke to Na In-pil.
"Remember? Back in the day. When we were in school. You'd pay Kang Hae-san ten thousand won each time to beat me up."
"Tae-yang. That, that wasn't—"
"You spent over a million won, didn't you? Probably not quite two hundred though…… Where'd all that money come from back then? Oh! You were doing NuTube even then. Did you earn it from that?"
"I-I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to do it like that—"
"You used to talk about it a lot back then — said your dream was to hit number one on the trending videos list, didn't you?"
Na In-pil's eyes were trembling uncontrollably.
"You even launched your channel back then. Filming girls' skirts and uploading them, that kind of thing."
"That got called out and the channel got nuked—"
"That was me."
"……!"
"I was hoping you'd get disciplined at school over it, but it all blew over without a thing happening. Damn it all."
Na In-pil's jaw dropped open.
"I'm sorry. I was thinking about how I should apologize when your dream came to mind."
"……!"
"I'll get you to number one."
"No, that's…… That's!"
"Five hundred million — take out the three hundred million in the bag, and two hundred remains."
"No! No!"
"Ten fingers. Two thousand per finger. Deal?"
Grab.
I pulled out the claw hammer and walked toward Na In-pil.
"No! No! Why, why are you doing this!"
"What, not good enough? Ah. Too high? Let's go a thousand per finger. That means I'll need the toes too. Deal?"
"Hey! What are you even saying right now!"
"Gotta compensate for the damage."
Grab!
I seized Na In-pil's hand and placed it on the table.
"I got pretty broken back then."
Eyes flashing with venom.
Seeing them, the man began to scream.
"Tae-yang! Tae-yang! No! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
"Move and it hurts more."
Crunch!
"Aghhhhhhhhhhh!"
"Stay still and it hurts even more."
The man's screams rang out in anguish.
【Kim Tae-yang is very happy. +2,000,000 Happiness】
"Aigoo. Hold still. Is ten million somebody's kid's name? A little suffering and the debt's all paid — why are you carrying on like this?"
"No no no no—!"
Crunch!
"Ahhhhhhhhhh!"
【Kim Tae-yang is very happy. +2,000,000 Happiness】
Na In-pil passed out from the pain.
Tch, damn.
Such a weakling.
Not even half done yet.
Clatter.
I tossed the blood-stained claw hammer onto the table and sank back into the sofa.
"I'll have to wait until he wakes up."
A promise is a promise after all.
I had to make Na In-pil's dream of hitting number one on trending a reality.
* * *
That night, late at night.
A video was uploaded to NuTube.
The famous NuTuber Na In-pil, beating two loan sharks furiously with a claw hammer.
True to InpilTV with its impressive five hundred thousand subscribers, despite the late hour, the view count surpassed two hundred thousand in an instant.
As the world grew rougher, the restrictions on violent videos uploaded to NuTube had also been loosening little by little, but.
A video of someone killing a person could never become a trending video.
That video was immediately deleted along with the InpilTV channel.
Na In-pil was promptly arrested by responding police, and Na In-pil kept repeating only these words, his face vacant.
"My fingers…… Revenge……"
The news reported.
[Late last night, a shocking incident occurred in which a famous NuTuber uploaded a horrific murder video. It has been revealed that after the said NuTuber was unable to repay his debt, he suffered grievous injury in place of the debt, and committed murder as revenge against the loan shark.
Countless people were shocked by the video the NuTuber uploaded. It has also been revealed that the said NuTuber has a history going back to his school days of illegally filming female students at the same school and uploading the footage, and police have stated they are investigating along the lines of a revenge crime. As such serious social phenomena continue to persist, the government authorities have announced measures to strengthen public security and—]
"I'm sorry, In-pil. Couldn't make your dream come true."
Ahh, I thought it'd hit number one.
The video got deleted so fast.
Well, where there's a will, there's a way, they say?
Don't give up, keep at it.
Upload a video about living wisely in prison — maybe that'll hit number one.
Click. Tsssss—
I picked up the chicken in one hand.
And with my other hand I raised a beer, lamenting his unfulfilled dream.
"Let's have a drink. Kim Tae-yang."
A drink for me who worked hard.
And.
……A drink for you who worked even harder.
"But hey, your dream did come true — so isn't that good enough? Kim Tae-yang?"
【Kim Tae-yang is extremely happy. +10,000,000 Happiness】