***
2:17 PM.
Seo Seung-hyun ended his 34-minute call with the Manila workshop manager.
4:00 PM sharp.
Moon Hee-kyung, the chief prosecutor of the Criminal Investigation Team 4 at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, called him again.
4:12 PM.
Jang Young-hee arrived at Haneda Airport.
5:44 PM.
The negotiation with President Izawa of Itsuko Trading was settled.
The terms were to repay one hundred fifty million pounds’ worth of oil securities for ten kilograms of cocaine, split into one hundred million in US dollars and fifty million in Japanese yen, by the end of the year.
5:58 PM. (More precisely, at the moment when the second hand of the clock was right between 11 and 12.)
Kwon Shin-woo, the executive director of Seoran Defense, disgustingly called him with the words, “I’m sorry for calling just before leaving work.”
And then, at 8:59 PM.
Seo Seung-hyun stood in front of the entrance to a members-only club in Cheongdam-dong.
The club was outdated.
The lighting was dim, and the walls, adorned with tacky wainscoting, were made of solemn wood, while the floor was covered with a thick carpet that made no sound of footsteps.
It was silent all around.
The spacious hallway was empty, and occasionally, faint sounds of speech barely audible even to someone with the hearing of extraordinary species echoed faintly.
Anyway, it was not Seo Seung-hyun’s preferred style. He preferred to drink single malt, brandy, or cocktails shaken by a skilled bartender in a lounge bar that was wider, more modern, and open. Ideally, it would be on the top floor of a skyscraper with a view of the city skyline. Otherwise, a lounge decorated with an artificial garden or live floral centerpieces that match the season would also be nice.
A staff member, dressed in a suit, politely guided Seo Seung-hyun.
After turning a few corners in the hallway, a thick, heavy door appeared. Seo Seung-hyun stopped in front of the door, slightly turned his body with a grin, and extended his hand toward the staff member.
“Thank you for guiding me.”
The staff member skillfully grasped his hand.
Cash exchanged hands between them.
The staff member, who quickly recognized the amount just by the texture and weight of the crisp yellow bill, bent over with a smile instead of a business-like expression.
“Please call me anytime if you need anything.”
“Of course.”
The staff member reached for the door handle.
Seo Seung-hyun lightly adjusted his tie. The dim light slid down his straight forehead, nose, and the elegant jawline below in turn. The sparkle of the diamond tie pin outshone the tacky lighting of this members-only club.
The door opened.
Seo Seung-hyun stepped in without hesitation.
The room was spacious.
Instead of tacky wainscoting, the room was decorated with gleaming black marble, and even chandeliers were hanging.
This too was not to Seo Seung-hyun’s taste.
He looked around the room with a light smile.
The dark room without a single window was filled with eight people: four bodyguards, two hostesses in velvet dresses, one secretary, and the last one was the person Seo Seung-hyun was there to meet.
Seo Seung-hyun walked confidently towards the middle-aged man sitting in the center of the room and flopped down across from him.
“I don’t really like these kinds of meetings.”
Seo Seung-hyun began with a smile.
“But I was personally curious about your face.”
A faint smile was the response to his forthright words.
The clinking sound of ice being put into a glass echoed.
Seo Seung-hyun’s long eyes scanned the man opposite him.
An unremarkable, featureless face. In his fifties. A smile that gave nothing away. Shiny eyes. Well, Seo Seung-hyun had seen many like him before. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t even need to deal with these janitors who clung to power and money, subsisting on scraps.
But this time. This time, it was necessary to see this trash’s face in person.
Seo Seung-hyun’s lips tilted slightly, flashing a smile.
“You’ve been quite a burden since Shanghai, haven’t you? And this time in Bogota as well. Isn’t that right, sir?”
A faint crack finally appeared on the man’s face.
He slowly reached out to pick up a glass filled with liquor and ice. The red hue of the scotch whiskey, with its predictable label, flickered inside the crystal glass.
“Well, I’m not sure what you’re getting at…”
It was a predictable response.
Seo Seung-hyun grinned.
After all, he didn’t come here to have a heart-to-heart conversation.
“Well, we didn’t arrange this meeting to exchange business cards with a laugh, so let’s get straight to the point. How much?”
Teacher deliberately trailed off in response to the direct question.
“We also had various costs to acquire it…”
He’s spouting nonsense quite well.
Seo Seung-hyun listened with one ear and let it go out the other as he picked up the whiskey glass in front of him and drained it in one go. The liquor flowed down his esophagus, and the alcohol heated his stomach. Alcohol affects both ordinary and extraordinary people impartially. Seo Seung-hyun felt the tingling sensation as the alcohol circulated through his blood vessels while he waited for the end of the garbage spewing out of the trash’s mouth for a specific price to drop.
“…250. That’s the least we need to receive.”
The omitted unit of measurement was needless to say.
Seo Seung-hyun chuckled.
He recalled his call with Kwon Shin-woo from Seoran Defense three hours ago. A brief call lasting less than ten minutes. A significant phrase. “We found the original leaker.” And what was it? “Looks like they sold it for twenty billion.” The item had passed from one greedy human to another, now returned to Seo Seung-hyun, inflated twelvefold in size. The amount had blown up to nearly a hundred billion yuan, far more than the ten billion yuan that Xi Xiping had brought.
Seo Seung-hyun lightly tapped the empty shot glass with his fingertip, changing the direction of his thoughts.
‘The original leaker…’
A smile sharpened at the corner of his mouth.
‘Well. If they found him, it must be someone from Gyeongup Trading.’
Seo Seung-hyun then turned his head back to Teacher. The cunning eyes, lightly wrinkled, were cloudily settled under the dim light. But Seo Seung-hyun read anxiety and unease in them, which grew larger as the silence extended, eventually becoming clearly visible even under the poor decorative lighting.
There was no need to drag out the time any further.
After all, there was another appointment.
Seo Seung-hyun nodded with a smile.
“Alright.”
That brisk answer, on the contrary, surprised the other side.
Teacher’s eyebrows twitched. His thin lips quivered once and then firmly closed.
“Then…”
“There’s a condition.”
Teacher’s eyes narrowed.
“What condition?”
“It’s almost impossible to move that amount of money in cash domestically. You know, the current situation. Seoran got raided, and I’m not exactly in a safe situation myself.”
“Yes. I’ve heard.”
“I have oil securities worth one hundred and fifty million pounds. I plan to split them into US dollars and Japanese yen, which will be roughly 220 at the current exchange rate. Ah. Of course, they’re clean, so no need to worry.”
After that, Seo Seung-hyun slightly curled the corner of his eyes, artificially creating a very friendly and trustworthy smile.
“And the rest, I’ll give in drugs.”
“Drugs mean cocaine?”
Seo Seung-hyun nodded.
“I happen to have about seventeen million dollars’ worth in Manila.”
Teacher momentarily turned his head to whisper something in the secretary’s ear, very softly, mindful of the extraordinary Seo Seung-hyun. ‘…Check it out.’ ‘Then,…I’ll check.’ It was a sentence composed of a few word combinations without much significance. Seo Seung-hyun didn’t feel the need to eavesdrop and turned his gaze in the opposite direction, emptying the second shot glass. The hostess refilled the glass with her hands as skillful as they were beautiful.
The silence was not long.
Teacher lifted his head again.
“When can you prepare the oil securities?”
“Depending on your intentions, it can be right now.”
“Then…”
“Of course.”
Seo Seung-hyun interrupted Teacher’s words.
A subtle smile flowed through his thin eye corners.
“The same goes for the drugs. It’s possible tonight.”
“We prefer cash…”
Teacher trailed off. Seo Seung-hyun shrugged.
“Everyone likes cash. But arranging that amount of cash on short notice isn’t easy, as you know.”
Seo Seung-hyun’s voice slowly deepened. His eyes narrowed, and a metallic sheen flickered in his pupils. The bodyguards standing behind the sofa tensed up, and the atmosphere sharpened. At the same time, Seo Seung-hyun closed his eyes and grinned.
“I took quite a loss in Bogota. It’s not easy to cover the losses.”
“That’s…”
“Moreover.”
Seo Seung-hyun interrupted his words once again. His eyes, gleaming in a dark grey, stared directly at Teacher.
“Moreover, Teacher. Isn’t there a time limit for items? There are hardly a few people in the world who can present that amount of cash in front of you tonight. And those few… they are all people I know. They probably won’t be much interested in this item.”
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