Chapter 228.1: The Start of a Legend (1)
Oh Gwang-Taek sat underneath the window in the door that was separating the prison cell from the hallway. He was wearing winter clothes for prisoners under trial. Its sky-blue top had an ID tag that stated prisoner number 1768 and prison cell number B3U7, which meant that he was assigned to the seventh cell on the second floor of the third building.
As there was a toilet in the cell, the ‘seat of honor’ in a detention house and a prison was naturally against the door, right under the window. With Oh Gwang-Taek occupying the seat of honor, the people sitting across from him were all holding their breaths and trying to read his mood.
“Hyung-nim,” someone called from the hallway.
Oh Gwang-Taek raised his head in response, finding a huge gangster in his early thirties in front of him.
“Have you eaten yet, hyung-nim?” Unable to greet him directly, the gangster bowed at him in a direction slightly away from him.
Unlike Oh Gwang-Taek, who did nothing more than just look up a little and give the man a short glance, the two young gangsters inside the room with him quickly stood up and greeted the man with respect.
“I’ll get going now, hyung-nim. I have a visitor to meet,” the gangster bid farewell. He turned in the same off-angled direction as before, bowed, and headed toward the stairs.
The so-called ‘active gangsters’ were all on the upper floors of the third building. They always paid their respects to Oh Gwang-Taek before going their way to exercise, meet a visitor, or even go to the infirmary.
Hence, those in the same room as Oh Gwang-Taek couldn’t loosen up even for a moment. They felt as if they would be called during exercise hours and get beaten to death if a passing gangster saw them relaxing around him.
They could certainly defy the gangsters or simply yell to save their necks. However, few people could even hope to be safe after being involved in a matter that Oh Gwang-Taek, the very person who owned Gangnam, was involved in. If they were violent criminals whose lives revolved around their connections to gangsters all over the country, then their chances of survival would be even slimmer.
The detention house classified the room that Oh Gwang-Taek was in as the ‘violence room.’ After all, it was where they gathered the strong and spiteful—the people who were most definitely aware of who he was. Nevertheless, they thought of Oh Gwang-Taek as someone far scarier than the Grim Reaper.
The two gangsters whom Oh Gwang-Taek shared the room with served as his lookouts. More often than not, the atmosphere wasn’t so bad. They just regularly swept the dust and dirt on the floor toward the door to help Oh Gwang-Taek get a good result during his trial, which in turn would help him get out of prison quicker. For as long as they didn’t suddenly mix rice into their soup or water and eat it on the morning of the trial[1], then there wasn’t much they could do that could negatively affect or outright ruin his chances.
Although it could be seen as being overly critical, they also made sure not to step on the threshold of the door whenever they were entering or exiting the room[2]. In fact, no one dared step on it. Even the prison guards who came over to their cell and conducted thorough inspections did their best to avoid stepping on it while walking inside and heading back out.
Naturally, staying in the same room as Oh Gwang-Taek also came with a lot of benefits. For one, the kitchen sent them beef bulgogi and red pork bulgogi every morning and evening in secret. They were also often served jjampong broth, whole chicken soup, tangsuyuk, and even boiled pork belly.
Moreover, people were so afraid of him losing his appetite that they would even send strawberries, jokbal, and bossam to the room during holidays. To top it all off, the other prisoners also sent over other delicacies like stew, jajangmyeon, bibimmyun, and parboiled squid created out of otoogi[3] products.
With the food nearly good enough to make the prisoners say that it was better than the ones served outside prison, the cheeks of the gangsters Oh Gwang-Taek shared the room with naturally became chubbier.
Nevertheless, Oh Gwang-Taek just stayed in his cell without saying anything, making those with him feel quite uncomfortable. He didn’t frown at all. However, his eyes hadn’t stopped blazing ferociously since last night.
The prison officer who came inside the room to do his morning routine brought over coffee and tried to console him, but his gaze didn’t relax even a bit.
“Hyung-nim,” someone called.
Oh Gwang-Taek raised his sharp gaze to the source of the voice. As expected of the two young gangsters, they stood up and greeted the towering gangster standing in front of their cell.
“Do-Seok hyung-nim has been sent to a hospital,” the gangster quietly said.
Whoosh!
Oh Gwang-Taek swiftly jumped to his feet and grabbed onto the iron bars. “What did you just say?”
“A hospital has agreed to admit Do-Seok hyung-nim. I made sure that he’s already been transferred before coming over,” the gangster quickly added when he noticed that Oh Gwang-Taek’s eyes were turning red. “From what I heard, Kang Chan hyung-nim exerted his influence. The prisoners working at the clinic told me that they heard his name being mentioned.”
“That son of a bitch!”
“Please rest easy now, hyung-nim.”
“How’s Do-Seok doing?”
“As he was going out, I was told that he was so apologetic that he asked about what he should do to make it up to you.”
“Fuck! What a fucking idiot! If he was just going to feel sorry, then he shouldn’t have gotten fucking wounded!”
The gangster outside the room only bowed perhaps because he didn’t have anything to say in response. On his left arm, he was wearing an armband that said ‘prison boss.’
“Anything else I can do for you, hyung-nim?”
“No. You worked hard.”
“Thank you. Please get some rest, hyung-nim.”
Oh Gwang-Taek didn’t sit down even though the prisoners’ boss already bowed deeply and disappeared.
After some time passed, he shouted, “Hey! Is anyone out there?”
The two assistant prisoners in the waiting room appeared before Oh Gwang-Taek so quickly that it seemed as if they teleported right in front of him.
“I want to have a cup of coffee. Bring me some water.”
“Understood, hyung-nim!”
He sat back down as the two young gangsters he shared the cell with accepted the hot water in his stead. Not long after, the smell of black coffee filled the room.
“Oh Gwang-Taek, you have a visitor,” the prison officer responsible for the upper floors of building 3 called out from the other side of the bars. “It’s some guy named Kang Chan. We’re going to bring you to him now, so get ready.”
Oh Gwang-Taek’s eyes relaxed for the first time in two days. The two young gangsters quickly cleaned up the coffee.
***
Upon entering the counsel’s meeting room, Oh Gwang-Taek approached Kang Chan and sat across from him.
“Was it you who took Do-Seok to the hospital?” Oh Gwang-Taek asked.
“What? Of course not. The prison guards did.”
“Don’t joke with me!” Oh Gwang-Taek frowned. Kang Chan only smirked. “Was it you or not?”
“Oh Gwang-Taek,” Kang Chan quietly called, stopping Oh Gwang-Taek from prodding further. He sounded a little different than usual.
“We had to come to an agreement with the victims, which is why it took us quite some time to actually make it happen. I tried my best to give Do-Seok the medical attention he needed as quickly as possible, but I had to negotiate with the victims first. Otherwise, people would have created issues about you and your men receiving special treatment as soon as they found out that a criminal was sent to a hospital. In that scenario, Do-Seok would have likely been sent back to prison.”
“You fucker…” Oh Gwang-Taek trailed off.
“Chul-Bum and Do-Seok will be granted bail today as well.”
Oh Gwang-Taek gritted his teeth as his eyes became red.
Kang Chan continued, “And as for you—”
“I’m good. I’m already grateful that you sent Do-Seok to the hospital, but you’re even getting Chul-Bum bailed. I can’t ask for more. Thank you. I will remember this for the rest of my life.”
“Phew!” Oh Gwang-Taek sighed in relief and calmed himself down. As he did, he noticed Kang Chan smirking.
“Oh Gwang-Taek,” Kang Chan called again.
“Why do you keep calling me, you fucker? I already said thanks, didn’t I?”
“You’re going to be granted bail tomorrow.”
Oh Gwang-Taek blanked out.
“If you choose to keep getting yourself involved in gang-related matters, then this is where I sever our connection. However, if you’re going to stay true to your word and start leading your life in a different direction, then I’ve got something prepared for you. It will require you to head to Mongolia and fight far more desperately than you’ve ever fought here. At least until you’ve eliminated all our enemies there.”
“What about you, though? What are you planning to do?”
“I’m thinking of staying with you for a bit.”
“Got it.”
“You’re accepting it that quickly? Did you even understand a word of what I just said?” Kang Chan asked.
“What’s there to understand? I just have to go to Mongolia and fight, don’t I?”
“At least give it some more thought before you decide. This isn’t something you can just recklessly jump on.”
“Be quiet, you bastard. Do you think there’s some other fucker out there that’s better at things like this than me?”
Kang Chan smirked. Oh Gwang-Taek smiled in return, his eyes still red.
***
Perhaps it was because the year was ending, but Kang Dae-Kyung and Yoo Hye-Sook had quite busy schedules.
Tomorrow would be the last day of 2010.
They couldn’t help but feel as if they were running out of time. After all, Kang Dae-Kyung also decided to move the exhibition hall when he saw the new building.
Bang!
Yoo Hye-Sook froze up as the door was violently opened again before she could even digest her lunch. Just this morning alone, she had already dealt with two Karens.
“Who’s the chief director of this foundation?” A man barged in and spoke in the same manner as the others. It was as if they were reading the same script when they entered her office.
However, he wasn’t alone. The man came inside with two other men. One of them was covered in long scars while the other had a tattoo of a devil with glaring eyes. It covered the back of his hand.
“The chief director… Ah, you must be the person we’re looking for.”
The man sat down on the sofa with a flop and stared at Yoo Hye-Sook. The two with him stood behind him.
“I’m So Jin-Cheol from Yeongdong. I’m doing my best to pull my life together with my guys. You should help us.”
Cha Min-Jeong, who was next to Yoo Hye-Sook, stood up from her spot and approached the man on the sofa. She was wearing a black suit and a white cotton shirt.
“Hey. Why don’t we talk about this outside?” she firmly said.
So Jin-Cheol tilted his head and simply leaned to the side in a cocky manner.
1. The word 말아먹다 usually means to put rice into liquid (such as water or soup) and eat them together, but it is also an idiom for ‘throwing away all of one’s property due to gambling.’ In this context, it means that as long as they don't put rice into water or soup and eat it (which would refer to the second meaning and jinx them), nothing bad will happen and they will be released from prison ☜
2. This refers to a Korean superstition where there’s the belief that people should not set foot / step on a threshold, as that would bring misfortune ☜
3. Otoogi is an actual food processing company in South Korea ☜
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