Chapter 31: Bodyguard (2)
Kang Ra-Eun had tried to meet Reporter Ahn Su-Jin through one of Chief Jung’s connections, but Ra-Eun had ended up here after she had heard that Su-Jin had been out for new coverage for several days.
Su-Jin bowed to express her gratitude after staring at Ra-Eun blankly.
“Y-You saved my life. Thank you. I didn’t think he’d pull a knife on me...”
Ra-Eun corrected Su-Jin as she was speaking.
“This isn’t a real knife.”
Ra-Eun pushed the collapsed Park Jun-Heo aside with her foot to reveal the object that had been under him.
“This is...” Su-Jin muttered.
Ra-Eun picked up the object in Su-Jin’s stead, and flicked the edge of the knife with her finger. It made a non-metallic sound.
“It’s just a plastic knife,” Ra-Eun answered.
“A-Aha...”
Park Jun-Heo had threatened Su-Jin by making her think that it was a real knife. However, it did not change the fact that she had been in danger. Su-Jin did not dare imagine what could have happened to her if Ra-Eun had not come to save her, or if the knife was real.
‘I had heard that she covered only the most dangerous stories.’
Su-Jin was that kind of woman in Ra-Eun’s memories, and she had just confirmed it with her own eyes. One would never even think of tailing a murder suspect by themselves without nerves of steel.
Ra-Eun handed Su-Jin something.
“What... is this?” Su-Jin asked.
“I recorded the conversation that you had with this man just now. Use that as evidence.”
The voice recorder contained Park Jun-Heo’s testimony of admitting to conspiring in the car accident. Su-Jin was now able to finalize the case that she had been working hard for several days to cover.
“I called a taxi for you, so please take that and go straight home,” Ra-Eun said.
“Wh-What about you, Miss Kang?” Su-Jin asked.
“I should go home too. Don’t recklessly wander around at night, or stuff like this might happen again.”
Ahn Su-Jin had to take charge of the crucial task of exposing all of Kim Han-Gyo’s injustices in fifteen years in Ra-Eun’s stead. Ra-Eun could not stand to see her getting into danger. Of course, if things went exactly according to the future that she knew, Su-Jin would be fine until then, but...
‘You never know.’
Ra-Eun had to prepare for any ‘if’s, and she knew exactly the right people for the job. She took out her phone and called someone.
***
Ra-Eun fixed her horn-rimmed glasses again after arriving in front of a certain four-story commercial building. Now that people recognized her so much, glasses and a mask were necessary to conceal her identity.
‘If only being a celebrity brought nothing but good things, like back in the fitness center.’
She would not have had to put on such a troublesome disguise if she had not debuted in the entertainment industry. She held in her sigh and slowly climbed up the steps. Ra-Eun kicked the office door with no signboard with all her might.
Bang bang bang!
Even a high school girl’s kick was hard to ignore if it had their entire weight behind it. The office door soon opened after the aggressive knock.
“Who the hell... Gasp!”
The tough-looking men swallowed their breaths as soon as they saw Ra-Eun. All of their faces looked familiar to her, especially the man with a scar on his face. He grinded his teeth in anger as he stared at Ra-Eun.
“You bitch...!”
“Hi. Been a while, hasn’t it?”
They were the loan sharks who had chased after Park Seol-Hun. The office that Ra-Eun had come to was their place of business.
Around six large men surrounded Ra-Eun, but she was not intimidated in the slightest. Rather...
“Where’s your boss?” she asked.
“B-Boss?”
Ra-Eun told them to bring the man in sunglasses whom she had met before.
“Crazy bitch!”
The scarred man gave way to his rage and threw a punch at Ra-Eun. She slightly turned to the side to dodge the punch that she had stared at until the last second, and extended her hand to grab the man’s wrist. She then dug her fingers into his wrist joint.
“Arrgghhh!!!”
The scarred man cried like a newborn baby like last time.
“How does it feel to get subdued by me again?” Ra-Eun asked.
The man could not answer her question. Not because he did not want to, but because he was not able to because of the inexplicable level of pain that he was under.
Before the man’s subordinates were about to charge at Ra-Eun, she warned them, “Should I break his wrist this time?”
Ra-Eun had threatened to break the scarred man’s wrist like she had done so with his ankle last time. Because of her threat, the subordinates had no choice but to back down.
Meanwhile, their leader had finally shown himself in front of Ra-Eun after the commotion.
“You’re rampaging in someone else’s office as soon as you arrive? Is that what they teach students these days?”
“No, they teach us to educate uncivilized bastards on proper manners,” Ra-Eun replied.
The man in sunglasses frowned at how Ra-Eun did not lose a single argument.
“You must have something to talk about,” the man in sunglasses guessed.
“Of course.”
“Come to my office.”
Ra-Eun let go of the scarred man’s wrist. In tears, he stared daggers at Ra-Eun, but she had already entered the office with the man in sunglasses.
Ra-Eun took a seat. There was a nameplate on the desk with the name ‘Ma Yeong-Jun’ written on it.
“Is this your name, mister?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
It was a very manly name. Ma Yeong-Jun took off his sunglasses and fixed his gaze onto Ra-Eun.
“How did you find this place?” he asked.
“I asked the guy who you tried to take his organs out from last time about the loan sharks he borrowed money from, and he told me about this place.”
“That son of a bitch...”
Yeong-Jun sighed and went straight to the point.
“Why are you here this time? Do you have more money that you want to pay back?”
“No. Why would I pay back money that I had never even borrowed in the first place?” Ra-Eun answered.
She was not wrong. If she was not here to pay...
“I’m guessing you’re not here to borrow either?” Yeong-Jun asked.
They were in the money-lending business. Most people came here to borrow money, so Yeong-Jun had naturally asked her about that. However, that was also wrong.
“I want to hire you guys,” Ra-Eun expressed.
“Hire?”
“You said you do anything that involves using your fists, didn’t you?”
“...”
Yeong-Jun did not answer. Silence was also a form of agreement.
Ra-Eun pulled out stacks of ten thousand won bills one by one. It totaled to a considerable amount.
“What is this?” Yeong-Jun asked.
“Bodyguarding fees,” Ra-Eun answered.
“Bodyguarding?”
“I want you guys to protect someone in my stead. This is only an advance. I’ll pay you the rest annually.”
Yeong-Jun’s eyebrows twitched by the mention of ‘annually’.
“How long do you expect us to do that for?”
“Not long.”
Ra-Eun’s next statement completely contradicted her previous statement.
“Fifteen years.”
Tsk.
Yeong-Jun clicked his tongue. He did not understand what part of fifteen years was not long.
“Are we supposed to protect the president or a congressman or something?” he asked.
“No, you just need to protect this one reporter that I know. She always jumps into danger, so I’m always worried about her.”
Ra-Eun could not afford to stick to Su-Jin to act as her bodyguard twenty-four seven. But if it was Yeong-Jun’s group, they would be able to guard her at a distance that she would not notice. People working in the underworld were usually good at things like this.
“I’m sure you wouldn’t refuse a job that pays you handsomely for fifteen years, would you?”
It certainly was a tempting offer like Ra-Eun had said, but...
“I don’t understand why you’re trying to hire us to do something this absurd,” Yeong-Jun expressed.
He was very curious about her true intentions. He had never told Ra-Eun, but he knew exactly who she was. She was the rookie actress who was all the rage as of late. He could not comprehend why such a person would pay them to protect a complete stranger for fifteen years straight.
Ra-Eun’s answer was very simple.
“That doesn’t concern you.”
Meaning, don’t ask.
“I’d rather not accept a job without knowing the reason for it.”
“You don’t want to do it?”
Yeong-Jun once again stayed silent, but Ra-Eun was as calm as she could be.
“Forget it, then. I’m sure there are tons of others willing to take your place,” Ra-Eun remarked.
She simply had to ask another organization. She was sure that there were plenty of others who would pounce at the chance of a lifetime to get regular earnings for fifteen years straight, just from protecting a single reporter.
“Wait,” Yeong-Jun raised his voice at Ra-Eun as she was about to get up. “I accept.”
He did not know Ra-Eun’s intentions, but it was far too sweet of a job to relinquish to someone else.
Yeong-Jun asked Ra-Eun before signing the contract, “But why are you entrusting this job to us of all people?”
Ra-Eun answered as she twirled the pen, “Because I’ve taken a liking to you misters.”
Only Ra-Eun knew whether her statement was true or not.
***
Su-Jin could still not forget that moment when Ra-Eun had rescued her. Although she felt relieved that the hidden, disgusting truth of the vice-chairman of a massive enterprise was exposed...
‘How did she appear at such perfect timing?’
She had even prepared a voice recorder. Ra-Eun’s actions were far too thorough for a mere high school girl.
“Chief,” Su-Jin called out to her senior reporter sitting right next to her, while frowning.
“What?” Chief Choi answered dryly.
Su-Jin asked him about a certain individual.
“You know Miss Kang Ra-Eun, right?”
“Kang Ra-Eun? Of course I do, she’s a hot topic in the drama world these days.”
There was no way that Chief Choi, someone who specialized in celebrity news, wouldn’t know of the rising rookie actress.
“Do you know what she does?” Su-Jin asked.
“What do you mean? She’s an actress.”
“No, I’m not asking about that. I was wondering if there was anything else that was special about her.”
“If we’re excluding the fact that she’s an actress...” Chief Choi pondered.
There was only one other thing that he could think of.
“A popular high school girl... I guess?”
There was nothing more accurate than this statement, but that was not the answer that Su-Jin had wanted.
“Sigh, forget it.”
She regretted that she ever asked.
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