Weakness
Weakness
While Youngdo had pointed out that the bullet used in the murder was the link, Haejong was not convinced. The killer had bashed his grandfather's head first and then shot him in the chest. The forensic report said that his grandfather died due to the head injury and the bullet pierced his body after he was dead.
But why would the killer shoot Lin Cheng after killing him? It was almost as if the killer had left the clue on purpose. The Jang family never resorted to this sort of barbaric means. Haejong knew their method too well. They would simply shoot their victims in one clean shot to the head. That was their MO.
He shut the files and leaned against his chair, thinking hard. There was something wrong…
DING! DING!
Someone was ringing the doorbell. Heajon glanced at the clock. It was almost 1 AM. Who would visit him at this time?
He took out the gun from his drawer. After spending years as the heir to a mafia family, he had learnt to keep himself armed at all times. Carefully descending the stairs, he stood in front of the door and peered through the peephole. To his surprise, it was Mina.
"Mina?" he frowned. Putting the gun away, he opened the door.
"What are you-" he began to ask.
SLAP!
She hit him with all her might, completely stunning him. He stood there, frozen to his spot while she was fuming. Behind her, two other people had popped up.
"Mina!" Minho and Gayoon yelled and rushed towards her but Mina's eyes were full of anger and hatred.
"You…" she said. "You did this! You sent Kanji to jail!"
Haejong did not reply but let her hurl accusations at him. There was a cold fury burning within him but it was not towards her. He could never be angry at her. It was completely impossible.
"Why did you do this?" she demanded. "All of us could have talked him out of that kind of life and yet you…"
He looked directly at her, hiding the inexplicable pain he was feeling in his heart. Did he possess a heart or did it only beat whenever she was around? He did not know.
"Lin Haejong."
Gayoon stepped in between them to reason with the mafia lord. She could not arrest him for his crimes yet because there was no evidence but Mina was enraged at that moment. The more she would point fingers at Haejong, the worse the situation would become.
"Your rival, Jang Kanji, was arrested from a brothel," Gayoon said in a calm tone. "He was charged with the murder of his men and the brothel's owner, Madam Yeonjoo. The anonymous tip might have been your right hand man, Oh Youngdo because he was seen hanging around that place. Do you know anything about this?"
"My right hand man was a good citizen and reported a crime," Haejong calmly stated. "I don't think that is a bad thing."
Mina was about to hit him again but stopped herself. Minho was also glaring at the man who stood there with a calm expression, unaffected.
"Was it worth it?" Minho asked. "This rivalry? Both you and Kanji sure are idiots. You two had the chance to mend your family name and yet, you chose the cycle of violence. Lin Haejong, are you really happy doing this?"
"It's no use asking them anything!" Mina spat. "They're both cowards who are tangled in their own web of lies and deceit."
She glared at Haejong. "The reason I hit you today, is because of your cowardice, Lin Haejong. You and Kanji, both are now getting on my nerves! Enemies my foot! If you guys hate each other this much, then just take out your guns and shoot yourselves! Why resort to such cheap tricks?"
"Kanji saved me tonight," she went on. "If he hadn't shot those men, they would have killed me in there! It was an act of self-defense."
"Well, my man was a witness to his crimes," Haejong said in a steely tone. "Jang Kanji should have thought about it before killing a member of our gang. Madam Yeonjoo was the girlfriend of one of my men. So naturally, we will retaliate like the good citizens we are."
He masked the pain he felt with scathing words. For Mina, he was the bad guy, an evil person with no remorse. If that was how she felt, then so be it. He would become whatever she wanted him to be.
Mina was disgusted at him. "You know, for a moment there, I thought you were a good person," she whispered. "But I guess I was wrong."
She turned around and stormed off. Gayoon and Minho gave Haejong a hard stare.
"Stay away from my sister," Minho warned. "I'm not an ordinary man in this country. You can't threaten me but I can turn your and your men's life into hell."
The scalding anger was brewin out of him. Haejong had hurt his sister and his friend, something Minho could never forgive nor forget. Gayoon grasped his arm and turned him away but not before throwing a dirty gaze at him herself.
Haejong waited until they were gone. He slowly took out his phone and dialed a number.
A shrill voice came from the other end. "Hello boss!" Yosef squeaked.
"Yosef," Haejong said. "Jang Kanji-"
"I did as you ordered us, boss!" Yosef yelped. "Tampered with the sleeping pills Jang Kanji used on Madam Yeonjoo whenever they were together. I dug around and found out that Kanji was using these pills to make her unconscious every time they were about to be intimate. When she woke up, he pretended that they slept together. He was careful in telling the lie to her but Yeonjoo was a dimwit. So as per your orders, my men swapped the medicines with poison pills while he was on his way to see her. He mixed it in her drink and she gulped it down."
Haejong was shocked to hear this. "When did I order this?" he barked.
Yosef was confused. "Boss, Oh Youngdo told me that you ordered this," he revealed. "He was the one who said that you wanted to frame Jang Kanji for murder! So we carried out the orders!"
Haejong's lips quivered in anger, his heart burning with fury as the pieces began to fall in place. Oh Youngdo…
"From now on, don't carry out any orders from him," Haejong instructed. "Don't let him know that I said this. If he orders you to do anything, report to me. No matter how trivial it is! Otherwise, I'll have your head."
The warning in Haejong's voice sent a chill down Yosef's spine. "Got it boss!" he said. "I'll report back to you directly."
Haejong hung up the phone. If Youngdo was pulling strings behind his back, what else did he do?
I must find out, he decided.
Outside, Gayoon and Minho were trying to calm down Mina.
"This is all my fault!" Mina exclaimed. "If I hadn't followed him, he wouldn't have killed all those men…"
She was crying hard. All she wanted was for Kanji to give up being a killer and turn a new leaf. The thought of him being in jail all by himself was unbearable to her and she did not know what to do.
Gayoon hugged her.
"We'll try our best to lessen his sentence," she said. "I'm sorry but if he really did it, then he must face jail time. But I'll try my very best to have it reduced."
Mina did not reply but kept on crying. She knew that there was no way they could free Kanji from something this serious. What's going to happen to us? She wondered.
"If you cry, Kanji will also suffer," Minho said to console her.
Will he? Mina questioned herself. Will he be affected by my tears at all?
She no longer knew what was the truth. Even after being rejected so cruelly, her damn heart was in love with him. If only there was a way to rip it out and throw it somewhere, she would have done it.
Unbeknownst to them, a lone figure was watching them from afar. Youngdo smirked as he recognized the girl from the brothel. He had witnessed her slapping Haejong and to his surprise, Haejong did not react to her. Anyone else would have been shot dead.
"Looks like I found his weakness," Youngdo smirked. "Time to find out everything about this woman."