Page 8

I step into the office, the door snicking closed behind me. The room smells like expensive leather and cigarettes, tinged with the faint sweet scent of soju. The walls are dark lacquered wood with a massive traditional folding screen stretched out as decoration.

But instead of birds or lotus flowers, it depicts a fierce white tiger mid-pounce, painted in broad and violent strokes of ink. The image has aged with time but the look in the tiger’s eye is still as wild and vicious as ever.

The same mythological creature the Baekho is named after.

A large TV screen is mounted to the nearest wall, playing a pornographic film. The woman on the screen moans as she’s taken from behind and her fake tits hardly bounce.

Pornography is banned in South Korea, but Kim Jae-hyun specializes in illegality. Indulging in American porn is one of his favorite pastimes.

He’s sprawled across an oversized leather chair, his legs spread wide, his eyes fixed on the screen. In one hand heclutches a glass of soju while the other is being massaged by one of the three women in skintight dresses in the room.

The other two massage his shoulders and feet. All three dote on him, uttering soft cooing words he ignores. Truly being waited on like the emperor his title designates.

I watch him for a moment, reminded how Jae-hyun may be the Baekho-je, but he is a slave to his vices. His greatest flaw has always been his overindulgence.

After a moment goes by, I address him in a cool tone. “You asked to see me.”

Jae-hyun glances at me as if only just realizing I’ve entered, a lazy smirk tugging at his lips. He holds up his glass of clear liquid.

“Drink with me.”

Before I can answer, the woman in a short, bright red dress rushes to pour the drink. Her hands tremble as she offers it to me.

I take it but don’t thank her. My attention is focused solely on the emperor of the Baekho Pa. “I didn’t come for drinks. It’s been a busy night. There’s more to do.”

Jae-hyun waves a dismissive hand, still watching the screen. The woman is now on her knees sucking the man’s cock ’til her eyes water. “You need to learn to enjoy the spoils of life sometimes. Work means nothing if there’s no pleasure, Jin-tae.”

I don’t answer him.

But it’s yet another reminder of how different we are. He indulges in every vice life has to offer. I’m more disciplined, dedicated to a never-ending pursuit of domination and success.

But I’m not the Baekho-je. I’m just a Ho-gwi, otherwise known as a captain, doing his bidding.

Jae-hyun swallows more soju and surveys me with narrowed eyes. “I trust your new mark came out great. Yoon Do-shik does impressive work.”

“He always does.”

He guzzles more soju, then snaps at the woman in the strapless blue dress massaging his hand. “You’re still fussing with my hand? Do you know what you’re doing?” He snatches his hand back, raising it up like he’s about to strike, only to laugh when she flinches.

No one else in the room joins that laughter.

I remain silent and composed where I stand. The three women seem more terrified than ever, kneading their fingers into his tense muscles.

“I was speaking with Seung-min earlier,” he goes on, the laughter in his tone dying. “He mentioned a detail I did not know about the shakedown in the alley. He said there was a girl. Who was she?”

“No one important. Just a stupid girl who stumbled into the alley.”

“But,” says Jae-hyun, narrowing his eyes, “you let her go. Why?”

“She was harmless.”

“Except you thought to mark her. You know what she saw and what that means.”

My jaw hardens, tension on the rise inside me.

I know exactly where the Baekho-je is headed with this discussion, yet I couldn’t bring myself to kill her.

She didn’t matter. She was so useless, so irrelevant, it would be a waste of energy.