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A soondae soup restaurant near Noryangjin Fish Market.
“Wow, what an amazing smell!”
Haejun ordered a bowl of soondae soup and a bottle of soju and smiled with satisfaction.
Then, following the long-standing habit from his days at the orphanage, he said a simple prayer before the meal.
Watching him, Suho let out a faint laugh.
[...Does the Lord even listen to prayers from a scoundrel like you?]
‘Maybe you need to be hit a bit more.’
[...Enjoy your meal.]
‘But why the face? Are you still sulking?’
When Haejun asked this, Suho’s expression was a bit serious.
However, Suho’s expression was not because of Haejun.
Suho was recalling the conversation he had with a group of souls he had encountered a little while ago.
[‘According to them, I am this person’s guide. And this person is the Enforcer for the souls... I don’t know exactly what those titles mean, but... I have a rough idea.’]
While Suho was organizing his thoughts, Haejun picked up his spoon with an excited look.
He then took a spoonful of the bubbling, steaming white soondae soup.
“Wow! Yes, yes. This is the taste.”
Although it might have seemed a bit exaggerated, Haejun was genuinely impressed.
After all, it had been over eight years since he last tasted soondae soup due to his time living abroad.
So, for Haejun, this was an unparalleled delicacy.
Slurp- slurp-
Haejun wordlessly and intently kept scooping up the soup for a while.
Then, when he had eaten about a third of the soondae soup, he added the seasoning paste, turning the broth red.
[....Fortunately, your taste in food is similar to mine. I was worried you might eat it with white broth until the end.]
‘Worrying for nothing.’
[Ah, by the way, let me tell you that I can feel everything you see and feel.]
‘Huh? So you can taste the soondae soup right now too?’
[Yes. If one person eats, it becomes a meal for two, so you could say it’s cost-effective.]
Suho’s words were indeed strange, but Haejun just nodded as if it was nothing.
Talking to a ghost and sharing the experience—what more could surprise him?
Whack-!
Haejun then opened the soju bottle placed next to the soondae soup.
Then, he poured it into a glass, not a soju shot glass, but a regular glass.
Until it was full.
[By the way, I have something to tell you. Back in that alley earlier, the souls suddenly... Oh! What are you doing!? Why are you pouring soju into a beer glass?!]
‘Watch closely. This is how a mercenary drinks.’
[Wait a minute.....!]
Without giving Suho a chance to stop him, Haejun downed the glass full of soju in one gulp.
“Ah! Korean liquor is the best.”
Unlike Suho, who looked perplexed, Haejun smiled happily.
Like many mercenaries, Haejun also loved alcohol.
Because in the battlefield, the easiest way to comfort oneself was through drinking.
So he could handle a lot of alcohol.
“Huh.....?”
Before long, something unexpected and confusing happened to Haejun.
Suddenly, he felt the effects of the alcohol, and his vision became dizzy.
He had only had one drink.
“What’s happening to my body…?”
[....I told you not to drink like that.]
‘What is this….? I could usually handle ten bottles of soju without a problem!’
[...You seem to be boasting a bit, but anyway, the body that drank the soju is not your body. It’s mine.]
‘…….!’
[And I can’t handle alcohol… hiccup!]
Can’t handle alcohol?
What kind of ridiculous penalty was this?
As his vision gradually blurred, Haejun was in disbelief.
Then, it happened.
***
“You don’t seem to handle alcohol well.”
Someone suddenly approached Haejun.
‘!?’
When Haejun looked up, there was a middle-aged man in a beige jumper standing in front of him.
With his appearance, Haejun’s eyes naturally sharpened.
This middle-aged man had approached Haejun without making any sound at all.
‘Is it because of the alcohol...? How could he approach so silently… who is this guy?’
That wasn’t the only surprising thing.
Ding-! Ding-! Ding-!
Suddenly, a sacred bell sound echoed in Haejun’s ear.
A bell sound that had maximized his senses during his mercenary days.
The bell sound that had once revived him from the brink of death now reverberated faintly with the appearance of the middle-aged man.
Hearing it, both Haejun and Suho looked puzzled.
[What is this bell sound....?]
‘....It’s a bell sound I often heard in my past life.’
[In your past life?]
‘Yes. Usually, it was a sound that signaled moments of danger.....’
[But now, we’re far from any dangerous situation.]
‘...Yes. I made sure to clean up everything properly..... There’s nothing that should attract the police.’
[For now, this middle-aged man’s demeanor doesn’t suggest he’s a detective.]
‘?’
[Judging by the logo on the beige jumper he’s wearing, it’s a uniform from a mid-sized company. But his vibe is strangely chilling.....]
‘Okay. As long as he’s not a cop, that’s fine. I’ll handle the rest.’
Interrupting Suho, Haejun rolled his eyes and surveyed the surroundings.
There was no one else in the soondae soup restaurant.
The elderly owner had said she would be out for a while.
So, it was just Haejun and the middle-aged man there.
“Who are you?”
Haejun asked in a calm voice while maintaining a poker face.
However, under the table, his hand was gripping chopsticks, ready to attack at any moment.
Just like in his mercenary days.
If necessary, he was prepared to use force to uncover the identity of this man.
However, in the next moment, Haejun’s wariness turned out to be unnecessary.
“I apologize if I startled you by showing up suddenly.”
The middle-aged man politely bowed and greeted him.
“I’m here just to... express my gratitude.”
“Gratitude...?”
“I originally intended to give you a ‘request.’”
A request.
With that single word, Haejun suddenly recalled the moment right before his death.
“As difficult as this path is, the reward will be substantial... This time, please become our mercenary.”
Facing death, Haejun had heard the souls say this.
Unlike Haejun, who vaguely understood, Suho fully grasped the situation.
[I told you earlier that I had something to convey to you. In that alley where you just beat up the bullies, a group of souls suddenly appeared.]
‘Souls...? The ones I sent back from the River of Three Crossings...?!’
[Yes. They said the first person to achieve nirvana would come to us. I believe... this man is that person.]
Upon Suho’s words, Haejun finally realized that the middle-aged man before him was excessively pale.
No, upon closer inspection, he wasn’t just pale—he was blue.
“...You’re not alive.”
Haejun said.
At those words, the middle-aged man nodded with a slightly sad smile.
“Yes, that’s right. A year ago, I died of acute leukemia...”
“........”
“But I couldn’t easily leave this world... I kept thinking about my wife and my only son...”
“..........”
“The school violence victim who was dragged away at the convenience store earlier... that boy is actually my son...”
“.........!”
At the words of the middle-aged man, Haejun suddenly recalled the bespectacled boy who was once called Shuttle1.
Before Haejun left, that boy had said something odd about how his dead father appeared in his dream last night.
He said that his father called for a savior in the dream after seeing him struggle with the bullying...
‘Then was that actually true...?’
At first, he dismissed it as nonsense, but now Haejun could no longer think of it as mere nonsense.
The boy’s words had completely pieced together the puzzle in his mind.
The middle-aged man spoke again.
“Do you have any children?”
“...No, I don’t.”
“Then you might find it harder to empathize with my feelings... To a parent, their child is like their heart outside their body. The most precious being that can’t be exchanged for anything in the world...”
“.......”
“When that one and only heart is beaten by delinquents... when they scream that they want to die every night...! It truly makes you cry tears of blood...!”
“..........”
“That’s why I wanted to ask you for a favor. To save my one and only son...! To punish those wicked kids who make my son cry under his blanket every night...! But before I could even make my request, you had already crushed them. Haha.”
“..........”
“I really like your fiery personality. Everyone was looking forward to this ‘Enforcer,’ and after seeing with my own eyes, I can say it’s true.”
‘Enforcer...? What is this all about....?’
[I will explain that to you later. If my guess is correct.....]
“Anyway, I will give you the commission fee. You have resolved my grievance..... Thank you very much for saving my son.”
Having said all he wanted to say, the middle-aged man bowed deeply to Haejun.
At that moment, both Haejun and Suho felt a lump in their throats, forgetting their doubts.
From his abrupt deep bow, they could feel the earnest love of a father.
“Here, this is the commission fee.”
The middle-aged man, having finished his bow, handed over a piece of paper.
On it was an address written in bright red blood: [32-1789, Hanam-dong, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju/Password 4789].
“What is this....?”
When the dumbfounded Haejun asked,
Ssshh....
A bright white light suddenly radiated from the middle-aged man’s body.
Next, his figure began to gradually fade away.
“That should be enough for the payment.”
Those were the last words left by the middle-aged man before he disappeared.
A more relieved smile than ever before was on his face as he ascended into the sky like smoke.
