Chapter 4

“They say Kwon Ki-joo is said to be like that. That after spending time with glamorous women trailing perfume, sometimes he develops a taste for a girl like you.”

Listening to Mimi enunciate each word so clearly, Lee-jin unconsciously parted her lips. She had never once thought of throwing herself in Mimi’s place.

[Only after I gouge out that f*cking bastard Kwon Ki-joo’s eyes and rake through his guts will I be able to sleep with both legs stretched out. At this rate, I’m too furious to go on living.]

When Boss Nam showed up at the Vigilante Group office and said that, Lee-jin unconsciously looked at his leg. One of them had already been cut off by Kwon Ki-joo, so the trouser leg below it was fluttering empty, and hearing him talk about stretching out both legs was a little funny.

If Deputy Leader Go Sang-pil had not caught on to her gaze and warned her with a look, Lee-jin might have kept staring until Boss Nam noticed.

The Dohyang-dong Vigilante Group. A self-governing organization formed by local residents, the kind often found in old downtown neighborhoods where public authority does not properly reach. Established to prevent crime and maintain order in the neighborhood, it was a kind of civilian guard unit, though lately the term itself had taken on a much more negative nuance.

The Dohyang-dong Vigilante Group, with its fairly long history, did all kinds of things. Along with voluntary crime prevention, they connected people in need of work with employers, or rushed over first whenever trouble broke out in the neighborhood and acted as problem-solvers.

And.

[If you take Kwon Ki-joo’s head, I’ll pay double this.]

At times, for the sake of the stacks of cash piled high on the table, they also did secret work.

That was the work done by Wonjae, Mimi, and Lee-jin under the lead of Go Sang-pil, the Vigilante Group’s deputy leader. Work that almost no one else within the same Vigilante Group knew about, and the main source of income that kept this organization, polished only on the outside, running.

“Lee-jin, how long are you going to keep living by doing surveillance like the men do. Take this chance and step fully into this side of things. The world is wide, and people’s tastes are varied.”

Looking down at her flashy hands fresh from the nail salon, Mimi spoke again. When Lee-jin flinched and knitted her brows, Mimi smiled prettily with a face that looked as though it could charm even women.

“To be honest, I’m not that fond of working with my body either. My face stands out too much, so I can’t exactly hide the way you do, which is why I’m stuck doing this, but it’s not like I enjoy doing that with men.”

Though she suited it perfectly, as if it were a custom-made outfit, and worked hard at it, Mimi wore a bored expression. Even that was pretty enough to be irritating.

Among the three people who worked under the deputy leader doing things that never showed on the outside, their roles were clearly divided.

Wonjae had terrible athletic ability, but he was good with all kinds of equipment, so he mainly gathered information. Wiretapping, hidden cameras, developing illegal programs, and on top of that, he even made homemade bombs and guns, and was also connected to secret connections that handled similar work.

Since childhood, Lee-jin had always been physically agile, so she mainly handled surveillance and tailing. She had steadily trained under Sang-pil, who had once been a boxer, so she could handle one or two ordinary men by herself, and she knew how to use a knife too.

Of course, in front of someone like Kwon Ki-joo, all of that was as good as useless, and she had no choice but to beg for her life by acting like a pitiful fool.

And it was Mimi’s role to complete, with her own body, the information Wonjae gathered and the things Lee-jin learned by running around in person.

A naturally glamorous beauty with a voluptuous figure, Mimi could seduce anyone if she put her mind to it. Since most of those who came to the Vigilante Group with requests wanted a man dealt with, Mimi’s role was quite significant.

Lastly, Deputy Leader Go Sang-pil coordinated all of it and took charge of handling the men who still remained lying in the beds Mimi had left behind.

Lee-jin knew that he secretly moved around with gangsters under his command, but she had never once seen their faces.

“Lee-jin, I told you, didn’t I? You’re pretty at the base, so if you just dressed yourself up, men would line up after you. How long are you going to keep wearing jeans and a baseball cap while doing surveillance on crazy bastards. That sort of thing can be done by the other guys under the deputy leader.”

“Stop trying to push her into it.”

Wonjae finally cut in, unable to keep watching Mimi keep pressing Lee-jin as if she had picked a day for it. At that, Mimi’s prettily curved lips lifted in a teasing smile.

“Oh my, our dear brother is all anxious that the butterfly in his hand might fly away. But don’t you want to see it too? Lee-jin all properly dressed up. None of us have seen that before.”

“Cut it out.”

Blocking off the tiresome routine, Lee-jin cut in with a weary voice. She was in a miserable mood because she might die at any time, and Mimi acting amused irritated her.

But Mimi kept talking as though Lee-jin’s irritation did not matter at all.

“What are you hesitating for. You said Kwon Ki-joo liked you. Why don’t you become a Mata Hari while you’re at it?”

“Don’t you remember what you said, that he changes women every day? During the fifteen days I watched him, I never once saw that man with the same woman twice.”

“Even so, all those women ended up in Kwon Ki-joo’s bed anyway. Our goal is the path leading to Kwon Ki-joo’s bedroom. Well, the plan was for me to pounce once you found it out, but I guess it won’t even have to come to my hands.”

“Maybe we were thinking about it the wrong way. What kind of preferences would a man like that, one who likes women so much, even have that would make him pick and choose people? He probably thinks every woman in sight belongs to him.”

At Lee-jin’s irritated reply, Mimi smiled brightly again.

“Then become one of all those women, Song Lee-jin. Who knows? Maybe Kwon Ki-joo will fall head over heels for you and hand over everything to you.”

“Stop it, Choi Mimi.”

Wonjae stepped in again, trying to stop Mimi, who seemed to find all of this like some kind of game.

Still unable to stop her suggestive smile, Mimi looked as though she had more to say, but at about that point she stretched herself back over the sofa armrest again. It was exactly the kind of sight that brought to mind a full-bodied and arrogant beauty from ancient times.

“For now, let’s just wait and see, Lee-jin. We don’t know what that bastard Kwon Ki-joo meant by saying that. He’s probably such a busy bastard that he might not even remember what he said.”

“I really hope so.”

At Wonjae’s attempt at comfort, Lee-jin could only nod helplessly.

In truth, since they had not been caught with anything and nothing had even begun yet, there was nothing that would come out even if someone tried to shake it out of them. More than that, unlike the women Kwon Ki-joo always kept around him, she was not sensual, and her face was so plain it lacked any distinctive features at all.

The only thing weighing on her mind was the confession that she liked him, and even that, she could pass off at any time by saying her feelings had changed.

So Lee-jin desperately hoped that Kwon Ki-joo would lose interest in her and forget all about her completely.

“By the way, is Kwon Ki-joo really insanely handsome?”

While someone else’s insides were burning black with anxiety, Mimi, as if none of that mattered, lit the fire again.

Lee-jin leaned her own body back against the old leather sofa as well. Whenever she thought of Kwon Ki-joo, somehow her breathing felt tight.

“You saw the photos too.”

“What I mean is, does he look way better in person. The women in this neighborhood are going wild right now because they can’t throw themselves at Kwon Ki-joo.”

“With women changing every day like that, are there really still women left who haven’t slept with Kwon Ki-joo?”

“Oh my, listen to her. That man doesn’t even glance this way. Didn’t you know? All the women Kwon Ki-joo keeps around him are either models or aspiring celebrities. Well, that’s just the rumor, but anyway, the point is he doesn’t just take around any woman.”

“…….”

“Ah, so is he handsome or not. You saw him up close several times, didn’t you.”