Chapter 10

Not only Sang-pil, who had come along in the capacity of her coach, but Boss Kim too had already turned pale at the sight of Kwon Ki-joo entering with all those men in black.

They were not openly hostile to each other, but the man Boss Kim was aligned with was Choi Woo-jin, the person Kwon Ki-joo hated most in the world.

Also, Roxana Club was one of the few remaining prime business sites in this neighborhood that Kwon Ki-joo had not yet swallowed up.

That was why even the bouncers from the club upstairs had all come down and were wandering around.

The moment he stepped into Roxana, everyone inside the building fell silent and tense, but Kwon Ki-joo himself seemed to be the only one unaware of it.

“Did you really come to watch my match?”

Lee-jin asked Kwon Ki-joo, who had been quietly watching Sang-pil as he hovered nearby and kept trying to divert attention.

As if he were some major sponsor, he was sitting there radiating a presence too imposing to ignore, taking up most of the cramped waiting room.

“Then why do you think I came here?”

“Well, maybe just…… to cheer me on a little before the match?”

At Lee-jin’s words, Kwon Ki-joo let out a calm little laugh. He did not look at all like someone standing in the middle of enemy territory, surrounded by people who clearly found him uncomfortable.

“Um, shouldn’t you not be here?”

“Why?”

“Well, with Boss Kim here……. the two of you aren’t exactly on terms where being friendly comes easily.”

“Are you worrying about me right now?”

Looking at Lee-jin, Kwon Ki-joo asked with an exaggerated expression. Deciding there was no need to answer a face that so clearly looked like it was teasing her, Lee-jin began moving her hands again, which had frozen in surprise at his appearance, and resumed wrapping her hand wraps.

“Is that to prevent injury?”

“Yes. Not just for the knuckles, but you absolutely have to do it to protect your fingers and wrists too.”

“Come to think of it, what weight class are you?”

“There’s no such thing here.”

“Then don’t tell me a flyweight could end up fighting a middleweight or a heavyweight?”

“It’s rare to get put against a heavyweight, but well, sometimes.”

At Lee-jin’s casual answer, Kwon Ki-joo clicked his tongue as if dumbfounded.

She was already used to people screaming like fanatics while watching someone get beaten one-sidedly. It was even worse with the male fighters in combat sports, and it was common enough for them to be carried out of the octagon covered in blood or with broken bones.

“Anyway, the match is starting soon, so please go now, Boss.”

Lee-jin was up first today. In this gambling pit where there was no such thing as a decision win, according to Sang-pil’s coaching, she had to get knocked out in the third round.

She still hated getting hit, and it was still awful, but this was how she had always lived, so there was no need to feel newly miserable about it. Of course, having to show Kwon Ki-joo herself getting beaten like a dog was a little uncomfortable.

“Should I cheer you on to get hit well?”

Kwon Ki-joo asked as he lazily rose from his seat. Beneath the shadow created by the huge man, Lee-jin smiled and nodded. Since the person she idolized was willing to cheer for her in some way, she could hardly stop him.

But Kwon Ki-joo frowned as if he did not like the sight of that.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Why are you smiling? Do you like getting hit?”

“As if. I’m not that kind of pervert. Still, well, people say if you can’t avoid it, you should enjoy it.”

“What kind of nonsense is there to enjoy about that?”

Once again knitting his brow as if baffled, Kwon Ki-joo looked down at Lee-jin while standing there.

She had been about to say something like what he had said when he appeared in front of the Vigilante Group building, that she would not just let herself get beaten too easily, when Kwon Ki-joo finally opened his heavy lips.

“If this were an official match in a square ring instead of at Roxana, could you win?”

“My opponent? Probably. I may not look it, but I’m pretty good. I’m confident too.”

“Then do as you want.”

“……What?”

“Double. I’ll place double the amount of the betting money on the other side, so win properly today. If I let them lose that much, Boss Kim probably won’t have any complaints.”

At Kwon Ki-joo’s sudden words, Lee-jin’s mind stopped for a moment.

If he bet on the other fighter, then the moment Lee-jin won, Kwon Ki-joo would lose all that money. The prearranged outcome would also be overturned.

What Kwon Ki-joo was saying now, on the assumption that Lee-jin would win, was that he would personally cover all of Boss Kim’s losses, so she should show her full ability and win properly.

It seemed Lee-jin was not the only one shocked, because even Sang-pil, who had kept edging farther out of Kwon Ki-joo’s line of sight, sucked in a breath.

No, why on earth would Kwon Ki-joo.

“Boss…… why?”

“I told you. I want my stalker not to be an easy person.”

“No, but even so……. D-do you even know how much money is on the line?”

Even at Lee-jin’s dazed question, Kwon Ki-joo did not answer, and instead merely put a cigarette between his lips in complete calm. Then Manager Kang, who had been twitching beside him with a face like he had bitten into something foul, stepped forward and lit it. Until the very moment he stepped back, Manager Kang kept glaring at Lee-jin.

She had definitely heard that Kwon Ki-joo hated losing. Aside from deliberately putting up betting money at gambling tables for entertainment, he could not stand losing money either.

And yet that very man was now deliberately stepping into a game whose outcome he already knew, intending to lose on purpose.

Could the information they had on Kwon Ki-joo have somehow been tainted, or simply wrong? For a moment, Lee-jin doubted Wonjae’s abilities.

“Boss, I can’t pay you back that money.”

When Lee-jin muttered almost in a whisper, her voice as small as an ant, Kwon Ki-joo twisted the corner of his mouth as though mocking her. As if to say, ‘Do you think I’d expect something like that from the likes of you.’

Kwon Ki-joo exhaled a stream of white cigarette smoke without restraint, then spoke again to Lee-jin, who still looked uneasy.

“I don’t make investments that lose money. Which means I intend to recover it for sure in the next match.”

“No, but even so…….”

“And recovery doesn’t necessarily have to come only in money, does it?”

With a little laugh, Kwon Ki-joo looked Lee-jin’s body up and down in a suggestive way, dressed as she was in a red boxing robe.

Unable not to be conscious of Sang-pil, who was no doubt already blossoming with suspicion, Lee-jin answered with an innocent face.

“I’m not sure there’s anything inside me worth as much as that money.”

At Lee-jin’s words, Kwon Ki-joo burst out laughing, and Manager Kang’s expression grew even darker.

Lee-jin kept up a troubled expression to the very end, the kind that seemed to say, Is he really trying to take my organs?

“Anyway, today, do as you please. I’ll be watching that skill you say you have.”

“Yes…….”

“See you again, Song Lee-jin.”

After saying that, Kwon Ki-joo once again swept aside the drape and disappeared in an instant without lingering. Only the harsh smell of the cigarette he left behind floated around the place.

“Is there…… perhaps something more that you haven’t reported to me?”

Hearing the commotion rising outside yet again because Kwon Ki-joo had made another appearance, Sang-pil looked at Lee-jin and asked.

Still wearing a dazed expression, Lee-jin quickly shook her head at Sang-pil’s cold gaze.

“No.”

“Then why is Kwon Ki-joo acting like that. To throw away a huge sum of money just for the sake of some girl following him around.”

“I don’t know either. Maybe he hit his head somewhere in the meantime.”

Even so, Sang-pil did not withdraw his suspicious gaze, but Lee-jin truly had nothing to say. He was such a willful man that all she could do was guess that he was acting this way on a whim.

“Well, thanks to that, at least you’ve avoided getting beaten one-sidedly. Looks like we won’t need to find you some old men after all.”

Lee-jin made a joke after seeing Sang-pil’s expression grow more and more strange, but he did not relax his face so easily.

There was no way Sang-pil would just let this pass when even she herself could not understand it. Even his role as the kind-looking owner of Dohyang Gym was merely one of his disguises.

“For now, win today, Song Lee-jin. We’ll talk about the rest again after it’s over.”

“……Yes.”

At Sang-pil’s cold words, Lee-jin lowered her head like a guilty person for no reason and gathered up her gloves and headgear.

It was the first time that being allowed to win a match felt this frightening.