The door to the Skyfall Lounge shut behind the Gapyeong Tigers, and it felt like the entire building exhaled at once. The murmurs of gamblers slowly resumed, chips clicked, dice rolled, and the dull thud of fists from the fight club below seeped back into the air like normal life trying to resume.
But in the back office, silence suffocated the room.
Sang-ho dropped heavily into a chair, rubbing the bridge of his nose before letting out a quiet, frustrated scoff. Soo-jin leaned against the door, arms crossed, his expression unreadable. And Tae-min stood near the desk, calm, composed, long hair tied with the metal hairpin, not a single strand out of place.
Eventually, Sang-ho broke the silence.
"You agreed to forty percent, kid." His voice was low, not angry, not disappointed, just baffled. "Forty. Percent. Are you out of your mind?"
Tae-min didn't flinch. "It was the best option we had."
Sang-ho laughed, not mockingly, not sarcastically. More like he couldn't believe what his life had turned into. "I know we're cornered, but damn, you're supposed to be the smart one. I expected you to negotiate down to thirty at least."
Tae-min exhaled slowly. "If I pushed him, he would've wanted more, or our heads instead." He glanced at both of them. "We don't have manpower, we don't have local backing, we don't have alliances. We have money, sure, but money is just paper without muscle."
Soo-jin nodded reluctantly. "He's right. If we fight now, we lose everything. We're not strong enough yet."
Sang-ho leaned back, looking at the ceiling, cigarette dangling between his fingers. "I know that. Hell, I'm the one who dragged all of us into this world. I'm not complaining about you making a smart decision. I'm just..." He let the sentence die, grinning bitterly. "I'm frustrated that we're cornered again. Same story, new city."
That struck something in Tae-min. He stepped forward.
"But we won't stay cornered."
Both men looked at him.
For the past couple of months, Tae-min had drifted through life like a ghost, silent, defeated, carried by momentum rather than purpose. But now, his voice had a quiet edge to it. A spark. A sign that the strategist who once navigated the underworld of Nampo with unsettling clarity… was waking up.
Sang-ho's eyebrow lifted. Even Soo-jin straightened up.
"What's going on in that head of yours?" Sang-ho asked, smirking. "Because whenever you get that look, something wild is coming."
A faint smile crept onto Tae-min's face. "We'll figure it out. There's always a way. First, we stabilize. Then we find cracks in the Tigers' territory. And from those cracks..."
"You want to turn them on themselves," Soo-jin finished quietly. His tone wasn't shocked, just impressed.
"Maybe," Tae-min said. "It's too soon to say. But the Gapyeong Tigers aren't as unified as they look. I can tell already."
Sang-ho let out a low whistle. "Alright, strategist. Surprise me."
The tension in the room eased, not because their situation had improved, but because they finally had direction again. Something they desperately needed.
Tae-min didn't say it aloud, but deep down, he knew this wasn't just survival anymore.
This was the start of a long game.
A dangerous one.
Meanwhile... Inside a Black Land Rover Rolling Through Haneul
Gang Du-ho sat in the backseat, arms crossed, full tracksuit swishing softly with each bump in the road. His fifteen men were packed across the SUVs, some laughing, some bragging about the scene they caused at the Skyfall Lounge.
But Du-ho wasn't laughing.
His right-hand man, Kim Ryeon-woo, better known on the streets as the Smiling Jackal, was lounging beside him, chewing gum like a bored teenager. Ryeon-woo looked harmless at a glance, short hair dyed a faded blond, a boyish grin that never quite left his face.
But everyone in Haneul knew the truth: the smile appeared right before he carved someone up.
He was, in many ways, scarier than Du-ho himself.
Ryeon-woo turned his head, studying Du-ho. "You're quiet," he said in a sing-song tone. "Real quiet. Last time you were this quiet was when that Namgye crew tried to take your warehouse, remember? And then we..."
Du-ho cut him off with a raised hand. "Not now."
Ryeon-woo blinked, then leaned back. "Alright, big boss. But you're thinking. I can see the gears turning. That's never a good sign for other people."
Du-ho finally spoke. "That kid."
Ryeon-woo tilted his head. "The pretty one with the tied hair?"
"Yeah. That one."
"What about him?"
Du-ho tapped the side of his thigh, thinking. "Most people fold when they see our whole crew walk into their building. They cry, beg, or get angry and stupid. But he…" Du-ho smirked slowly. "He didn't flinch. He didn't panic. He didn't try to negotiate. He just calculated."
Ryeon-woo raised an eyebrow. "You're telling me you're scared of him?"
Du-ho laughed, a loud, booming sound that filled the SUV. "Scared? Hell no. I just like figuring out the smart ones before they become a problem."
The SUV fell quiet for a moment.
Ryeon-woo's smile widened. "He reminds you of someone, doesn't he?"
Du-ho didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
Because Ryeon-woo already knew: Tae-min reminded him of himself, before he ripped power out of his predecessor's cold, charred fingers.
Suddenly, Du-ho slapped Ryeon-woo on the shoulder, dropping all seriousness. "Enough of that. On to the club! I feel like getting laid tonight!"
Ryeon-woo burst out laughing, clapping his hands. "There he is! That's the Du-ho I know!"
The SUV roared down the chaotic streets of Haneul as the Tigers hyped themselves up for a night of drugs, women, and violent fun.
But in the back of Du-ho's mind, one thought lingered.
"That kid… is going to be an interesting variable."
Back at Skyfall Lounge
Soo-jin left the office first to resume security. Sang-ho went to check on the fight club downstairs.
Only Tae-min stayed behind.
He sat at the desk, staring at the ledger, but he wasn't seeing numbers. He was thinking about Gang Du-ho, the way the man moved, talked, laughed, evaluated them.
Du-ho wasn't an idiot.
Far from it.
He was chaos with intelligence backing it, sort of like Sang-ho...
A dangerous combination.
Tae-min's fingers drummed on the desk as his mind churned.
How do you defeat a man who doesn't fear anything, not even consequences?
He didn't have an answer yet.
But he knew one thing:
Skyfall Lounge would not fall to the Gapyeong Tigers.
Not now.
Not ever.
He tied his hair tighter, stood up, and stepped out of the office.
The game had begun.
And this time, Tae-min wasn't going to be a passive player.