Chapter 2: Misidentification 2

He sprinted from the door to the staircase, thinking he could escape from the two men behind him. As he took the steps downstairs, he almost collided with an old man making his way up.

"W, Wait, mister. There are dangerous people upstairs!" Taesan warned him.

"Hm?" The old man, his hair washed white, wore sunglasses indoors. He looked back at him and took an entire minute to stare.

Eventually, the mister approached him and muttered, "Oh, you are the one."

"The one? What do you mean?" Taesan asked, confused.

The old man removed his sunglasses, revealing a large scar on his face that blinded his left eye. He looked him up and down before speaking again, "You can't run away anymore, Yoo Taesan."

The old man smiled creepily that Taesan's knees almost lost their strength.

But the time Taesan considered the old man as one of the dangerous people, he had been lifted from his collar.

"How could you lose the fucking rat!" yelled the familiar voice coming from upstairs. Taesan knew immediately it was the man with the tattoo on his neck.

The sound of their footsteps hastening echoed down the staircase. The first to come out was the guy with the clipboard, who had a shocked expression on his face.

"Boss!"

It didn't take long for the last person to come out and say, "Ah, nice catch, boss," with a thumbs-up gesture.

Taesan struggled to break free, but the old man's grip was too strong. He could feel his breath on his neck as he whispered, "You're coming with us, kid."

"Tsk, tsk. You gave us a hard time, Yoo Taesan," sneered the guy with the clipboard.

"Shut the fuck up, Park Jongsoo. You almost let the guy on the loose," the other retorted.

The air thickened between the two men as they glared at each other.

"Oh yeah, Lee Minhyuk?" Park Jongsoo smiled sarcastically before exploding. "If you didn't lose the guy in the first place, we wouldn't have looked for him for a year!"

Lee Minhyuk flared up at the insult. "What you doing calling my full name, huh!"

"You started it, dumb fuck!" Park Jongsoo shot back.

The two men had their hands tightly on each other's collars, their faces just inches apart. They were like dogs snarling as they continued their heated argument.

"Quiet!" shouted their owner, and they swiftly paused their dog fight. The boss old man coughed to clear his throat and called, "Mr. Yoo—"

"W, Who are you?"

Lee Minhyuk sneered, "Wow, you really—" but was interrupted by a sharp glance from the old man.

"It has been three years. I hope you understand we have a vested interest in unpaid debts," explained the boss.

"Debts? I, I don't even know you, people," Taesan replied, struggling to come loose from his hands.

"Well, I'm sure you'll recognize this guy." The boss gestured to Park Jongsoo, and he received the clipboard from him.

He smirked as he showed Taesan the photo on the clipboard. It was his id picture, far too familiar for him to deny. There was no mistake; it was the same photo he had sent when applying as a construction worker last year.

"Seems like you're looking at the mirror, aye?" the boss commented.

"When did you—"

It happened in a blink. Taesan found his face meeting the wall and felt the impact before he blacked out.

...

Taesan groaned from the pain as he regained consciousness.

His head pounding as he could hear faint voices talking in the room. As he tried to open his eyes, Taesan struggled as his eyelids seemed heavy.

"He's waking up," said one who Taesan guessed was Park Jongsoo.

Taesan tried to move, but he found himself tied to a chair.

He immediately panicked and began to struggle. He could taste the metallic taste of his blood dripping from his nose to his lips.

"Calm down, kid," said the old man as he walked toward him.

"What's going on? Why am I tied up?" Taesan demanded, wanting to find answers. But the big question burning in his head was: how did they get hold of his photo?

Minhyuk shook his head at the corner of the room and commented, "Why is it that people who have debts suddenly experience amnesia when it is time to collect payment?"

The sound of his tongue clicking echoed in the air-conditioned office.

"I tied you up because you owe me money, Yoo Taesan," the old man said bluntly.

"Are you guys loan sharks?" Taesan asked.

"Well, that didn't take you long to figure out," replied Park Jongsoo.

But Taesan never loaned any money. Even if he struggled, there would be no memory of him borrowing money from anyone. More so, from loan sharks.

He had met the kind of these men from his work at the construction site. One of his co-workers had fallen into debt and was constantly harassed by those men.

One afternoon, Taesan's co-worker didn't show up at work but was discovered the following day on the site, with a gaping hole in the side of his stomach.

"I don't remember borrowing money from you, mister. Maybe there's been some kind of mistake." Taesan tried to reason with them.

"We have your photo, your full name, and your address. You can't talk your way out of this," Lee Minhyuk scoffed.

Taesan's heart sank as he realized they had all his personal information. "But I, I've just moved into the apartment! Maybe it was the past tenant — bugh!"

The old man suddenly punched Taesan in the face as he was reasoning, causing his head to spin from the blow.

Taesan groaned in pain, his vision hazed as he struggled to keep his eyes open. But through it, he caught the old man wrapping a cloth around his hand, preparing to hit him again.

"Stop, boss." Park Joosong intervened. "The surgeon isn't here, yet. We have to wait for him before taking out this rat."

'Surgeon?'

Taesan immediately realized the terrible truth from the gaping hole in his co-worker's stomach back then. These men were planning to use his organs as payment.

"Y, You, You're making a big mistake," Taesan muttered.

But the old man only laughed in response. "You think you'll fool me? I've been tracking you for a long time."

Taesan winced as the old man's fist collided with his jaw again before hearing the sound of footsteps looming in.

"We need him alive, old man," Lee Minhyuk said, grabbing the old man's arm and pulling him away from Taesan. "Look at this stuff."

Taesan took the moment to catch his breath and looked around. He watched the three men discussing a matter from where he was tied at. They had a good five minutes to argue in a tone Taesan could barely hear anymore.

His eyes were giving in, and he could barely hear anything with the ringing in his ears.

"...Aye," the old man spoke up.