Murder

EP14

"Hello?"

"Jae-seung, it's me."

"I was going to call you anyway" 

"Do me a favor, I'm really going to hand over the drugs, and we're going to do some work."

"What is it?"

"Three times a week, let's have some pigs' feet. And I have a mission."

"Huh?"

"I'll pay for all your food, and if you want coffee, I'll increase the price."

"I'll supply you without raising the price. How about that?"

"Why not?"

About a month later, I got a call from him. 

"I figured it out."

"When are you going?"

"In two weeks."

"You're going to Phuket in two weeks?"

"How did you know about Phuket?" "Yeah, I'm going on Friday, it's four days and five nights."

Now it's time to get started. The sequence where I have to start the real revenge. I call Jihoon. 

"Jihoon, where are you?"

"What?"

"I got a job."

"You should take that overseas trip you told me about."

The plan was this. This time, I had to give different orders. 

With Jung Jae-seung, my interests are quite intertwined, so I'll do as I'm told, but with Kim Ji-hoon, I'm a little nervous because he's not yet addicted and we don't have a deep bond. 

"Ji-hoon, can you kill a person?"

"What?"

"Go abroad and kill one person."

"What?"

"I'll take care of you." 

Inside the shabby, lustful motel. 

I served him his first coffee. A flavored caffe latte laced with propofol. 

I tell him, looking groggy. 

"I'll give you three grand in cash, and the pills when you want them. So you can keep going like you are now."

He gets angry.

"Are you on drugs?"

"Call me if you want to do it, 

but if you say no, I'm gonna file a complaint against you and your mother's caretaker and whatever else you confessed to the other day."

"Call me in three days."

"And you're going to kill me because of some grudge?"

He asks, surprised at my strength, and I answer. 

"It's just that everyone has a story."

Then it was the other mercenary's turn

"Kim Jae-seung, can I see you for a minute?"

"Too good, Jung-min, buy me a cup of coffee."

This guy is addicted to drugs. In slang, a cup of coffee means a cup with drugs in it, and he was addicted to a class of drugs called crystal meth, and the best blackmail is supply.

I summoned him to a quiet motel in Seoul. It was a weird place with glass windows everywhere, and I felt a little uneasy. 

"Jae-seung, can you do me a favor?"

Mirrors and faces everywhere. 

"Did you call me here to ask for a favor? I'll do anything for a cup of tea."

"Forget where you are, I'm only a boss."

"What?"

"Let's take a trip abroad." 

"What does that mean?"

"I'm going to kill a man, and I need you to video it." 

"If you do this for me, I'll give you drugs for no money."

"You're spending 300 dollars a month on drugs." 

"Really? Then why do you want to use me?"

"Because we've built a bond, and I'm comfortable being a dick."

"I'm asking because I can give you what you want."

"Of course you can't say no."

"Why do you think that?"

"You're on drugs, your money is running out, your affair is running out, your wife is getting less and less responsive in bed, isn't that the answer?"

"You know what, don't say that."

"You're still agreeing to kill people."

Kim Jae-seung's expression is grotesque, as if he's been stretched to the bone. The incongruity and tension in his facial muscles. A facial expression that is difficult to make like his condition and mind. It was a classic case of severe drug addiction. It would be dangerous to try to kill him in person, and I wouldn't even give him a gun.

"You're just filming, your punishment is minimal if you get caught." 

"No, you won't get caught, so there's no punishment." 

"I'll introduce you to a coworker to work with this Friday after you finish at the furniture store."

"I'll give you more details then, but make sure you come out clean and have a three-day supply of pills."

"Sure. I'm not committing any crimes, am I?"

"Of course not. I can't find a body, and I don't give a shit about the foreign exchange crisis. A foreigner goes missing in a tourist area."

"Okay."

"You have a passport, right?"

"Yes."

"Don't get yourself in trouble with the cops for the next couple months.

"If we get caught sucking dope, we're all fucked. Suck quietly, savor quietly."

"Okay."

And so we have our pre-meeting. It was in a small motel in Seoul, room 503, and it wasn't unmanned, but the owner looked at us strangely as three guys walked upstairs. 

It didn't really matter. Today's briefing is important, and Kim is red-faced and unable to keep still. 

"Well, say hello to everyone."

"Hello, I'm Kim Jae-seung."

"I'm Kim Jihoon."

"I'm not here for a blind date, so I'll be straightforward."

"You're mercenaries who will be hired for an operation in Phuket, Thailand."

"Target is a man and a woman in their 60s. They shouldn't be much of a hand-to-hand combatant."

"I already have a version with a revolver pistol silencer, so that's all we need."

"They're all military, so they should know." 

That's when Kim Ji-hoon asked.

"Then how do we get away with murder and not get caught by the police?"

"First of all, they're not traveling with a guide, and they're staying in the same hotel for three nights and four days."

"That means they won't notice the murder until after check-out time, which you can do at your leisure."

"They have no connections and no one looking for them, so the investigation is likely to start late, and the beach where you're going to commit the murder is lucky to have no CCTV. 

So the key to this operation is how quickly we can dispose of the body and get back home in one piece."

"The shorter you stay, the less likely you'll have an alibi, and the harder it will be to establish a relationship between the two of you."

"Then, how do we bury the body?"

Kim Jae-seung makes a dumbfounded face. He gestures like he's watching a fiction movie.

"I think we should seal the body first, then dig a pit and bury it, each in a different place."

"He's not that big, so if we kill him, fold him up, seal him, close him in a carrier, spray him with deodorant, and cover him, he won't be easy to find."

"And even if we do find it, it's almost impossible to identify who it is or who did it. It's a case that no one cares about."

"Let me ask you something."

"Jae-seung, when you're done, tell me."

"Sorry, I'll keep talking. I won't stop."

"Okay, I'll tell you what you want to know."

"The two people you want to kill are my father who killed my mother when I was a child."

"The woman is a remarried woman."

"Is that enough, Jae-seung?

"I'll take care of everything I promised you if you keep things in order.

"So you and Ji-hoon will leave and enter the country at different times?"

"That's right, we'll stay somewhere else, preferably in a hotel, and then call and meet up."

"This is a cannon phone, use it there and throw it in the ocean."

EP15

The revenge of my dreams has begun. I've been preparing for years, and now the time has come to keep the candle of my life burning brightest. 

I think I read in a book of poetry 

 To the God of Love 

 -an unnamed poet 

When you beat me 

I resented my scars 

And when you found me 

I cried like an ocean 

When you loved me

I became even more miserable.