Haewon Trading Office

The loan shark boss, with his face in tatters, eagerly explained to Shin Haesu.

“…Of course, we don’t have the child with us….”

They also had a side business selling burner phones, and there was a group that would come by occasionally to buy them in bulk.

That group had once tried to establish a drug trade with Haewon Trading, so they seemed like the kind of people who did all sorts of things. When contacted, they said they would take the child, so they were sold.

“Where are they?”

“I don’t know?”

When Haesu reached out again, the boss flinched and urgently responded.

“I-I really don’t know! Even when we made deals, we only met under a bridge in a car, and all contact was done through burner phones…”

“Tell me everything you know about them—their appearances, their clothing, every detail.”

The boss revealed everything to Haesu. As he was taken away to the police station, he repeatedly lamented that he should never have accepted the child.

But ironically, though this was a headache, the fact that he was this foolish meant the child was still alive. If he hadn’t taken the child, that couple would have killed her.

Using the information he provided, they investigated further and discovered that the criminal organization operated in a decentralized network.

To track down the roots of such a network, one had to observe them for a long time without making arrests. In other words—

“…Time for a long-term stakeout. Where’s the new recruit they were supposed to send? Hey, Team 2! Help us out!”

At Team 1’s leader’s grumbling, Team 2’s leader waved him off.

“We’re busy too, with that celebrity drug case.”

“Damn it…”

And so, with occasional help from Teams 2 and 3, they endured a long stakeout. Finally, they started connecting the dots in the decentralized network.

A month into the stakeout, just as Arin’s parents were losing their minds with worry, Oh Kang-seok’s urgent voice rang through the radio.

- Found it. The ant nest.

It hadn’t even been a full month, yet Arin could no longer clearly recall the warm smiles of her mom and dad.

The joyful days of playing in the playground with friends felt like an unreachable dream.

Today, like always, Arin finished her work of packaging white powder and returned to a place filthier than any prison she had ever seen on TV.

Not a single ray of light entered, and rats and bugs crawled across the floor. Yet, among the hellish moments of the day, the walk back to this place was the only time she felt even a sliver of happiness.

But that feeling never lasted long.

“Hic…”

As soon as she arrived, she curled up in the cold corner of the room, thinking about her fading memories of her parents, dreading the hell that awaited her the next day.

Then, unexpectedly, something changed in her routine of suffering.

“What should we do? That girl’s room is the only one left.”

“Just throw her in there. Why the hell should she get special treatment? Damn it, the cops are all over looking for her.”

Arin, who had been crammed into a tiny space with other kids, was suddenly moved to another location. This new place was much bigger and even had a bathroom.

But one wall was still covered in iron bars, the floor was cold, and cockroaches and rats crawled over her body as she slept.

There, for the first time, she saw someone who seemed like an adult—a young woman. She had a frightening expression and a scowl that made her difficult to approach.

Arin spent the entire day in a room filled with the strong scent of white powder, wearing only a mask as she worked.

Only after 16 hours of labor was she allowed to return to her room. Meals consisted of what looked like garbage—one meal a day.

Arin was exhausted. She wished she wouldn’t wake up the next day. She sat in the corner of the room, buried her face in her knees, and sobbed.

“I miss my mom…”

Shhhh.

Then, she heard the sound of clothes dragging against the floor. She lifted her head.

The scary young woman was being dragged by two men.

Thud—

The men tossed her into the room like a piece of trash. Her entire body was covered in blood.

One of the men pulled something small and metallic from his pocket and tossed it at Arin.

“Put it on her.”

Arin lowered her gaze and stared blankly at the medicine. The label read, [New Skin Miracle], but the rest was scratched off.

She hesitated for a long time. She was scared, but she was even more afraid of what would happen if she refused. So, she dipped her fingers into the ointment and reached out.

And the moment her hand touched the young woman’s skin—

Smack!

“Kyaaah!”

Clatter.

Reacting instinctively, the young woman shot up and slapped Arin across the face.

It was the hardest slap Arin had ever received. Her cheek burned as if it were bleeding.

But the young woman acted as if nothing had happened. Without a word, she took the ointment and applied it to her wounds.

“Kh… Khhh…”

When she tried to apply it to a deep wound on her back, she struggled to reach it.

Arin, her lips pouting, glared at her from the corner and refused to help.

“Hah… Haaah…”

The young woman suddenly stopped applying the ointment. She curled up, panting in pain.

Arin’s cheek still stung, but she slowly crawled over and asked,

“Are you going to hit me again?”

The young woman silently handed her the ointment.

Arin took it and applied it to her back—roughly.

“Ugh.”

“What kind of job do you have to get hurt like this every day?”

The young woman didn’t respond. Instead, she lay on her stomach and tried to sleep.

Arin was annoyed at being ignored but, upon seeing the scars on her back, she forgot her anger.

Her back was covered in deep, permanent scars. It was impossible to imagine what kind of life she had lived to end up like this.

Arin carefully pulled the blanket up over her.

When her hand brushed against the young woman’s skin, she flinched but didn’t move away.

One day—

Cough, cough, hack!

It was an unbearably hard day. Her coughs were getting worse. But if she collapsed or cried, the scary men would take her away, and she would never be seen again. She couldn’t afford to collapse.

Grinding her teeth, she endured until work was over. Then she cried in her room.

“Mom… Mom…”

The young woman arrived late, covered in blood and panting heavily. She sat there for a moment before approaching Arin.

“Want me to tear your mouth open?”

Arin had expected words of comfort, so the cold threat felt even more terrifying.

She barely swallowed her sobs.

After a long silence, the young woman suddenly spoke for the first time.

“I don’t have a mom. No dad either.”

“…Hic…”

Suddenly, Arin felt even sadder for her. She was always beaten bloody, and she had no parents.

Wiping her tears, Arin scooted closer.

“What’s your name? I’m Arin.”

“…Name? It’s ‘Hey.’”

“Hey?”

“Hey, you. Bitch. Whore. Stupid slut.”

“Okay, stop.”

She meant she had no name. Or if she did, she had forgotten it after so long in this place.

“Then I’ll give you a name.”

“…You will?”

At Arin's words, for the first time, a spark of life briefly returned to those dry eyes.

"Yeah, your name is..."

Arin moved closer to her and carefully whispered as if handing over something precious.

Cough, cough!

The next day.

The pain was unbearable. I can’t be taken away. I have to survive and see Mom and Dad. Somehow, through sheer willpower, I endured until the end of the workday.

As soon as Arin entered the room, she collapsed.

Thud.

Step, step.

The woman returned to the room. She saw Arin lying at the doorway and covered her with a blanket. But something felt off—her posture was strange, her breathing was shallow, and her body was unnaturally cold.

When she lifted her up, she noticed dried blood from a nosebleed and that Arin's eyes had rolled back.

What should she do in a situation like this? The woman knew nothing. The only thing she could do was hold Arin tightly and share her body heat.

"Arin, Arin!"

At that moment, a manager passing by spotted Arin.

"Oh, that one was barely hanging on... Looks like she's done. Hey, hey, take her and process her."

"Huh? She's too young, though?"

"Like this bastard hasn’t done it before. Just take out the eyeballs and be done with it!"

"Ah, yes, sir."

At the manager’s order, two men entered the room to take Arin away. The woman desperately clung to Arin’s body.

"Good, no! Good, no!"

The woman never learned the words "No" or "I don’t want to." No, they had been forcibly erased. Saying "No" or "I don’t want to" meant being beaten to death that day.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

She was struck on the back with an iron bar and kicked repeatedly before she was finally thrown aside.

The men grabbed Arin by her legs like a piece of luggage and dragged her away.

Arin’s arms and head scraped along the floor. Her arms bled from the rough stone surface, but the woman couldn’t grab hold of her.

Disobeying them was not an option. Disobeying meant endless beatings. Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely not.

Just then—

A slight twitch.

Arin’s finger moved faintly as she was dragged away. It was a signal to the woman.

"Help me."

Swish.

The woman stood up and stepped out of the room—through the unlocked door—and strode towards them.

"Ah, damn it, not this again—"

One of the men turned around irritably, only to lock eyes with the woman.

Her eyes weren’t the same as usual.

The man recognized this look immediately. It was the same murderous glare she had only in the ring, like flipping a switch.

She should never show that look to him. If she did, it meant the elephant had broken free from its shackles.

"You... you fucking—!"

The man reached for the sashimi knife at his waist.

At that moment, the woman grabbed his thumb, twisted it, and snatched the knife, swinging it through the air.

Slash, hiss—

A thin red line appeared across his neck, and blood sprayed out like mist.

Standing motionless, the woman let the blood splatter across her face.

Behind the dying man, the other one still held onto Arin’s leg. He, too, reached for his knife.

The woman spun the first man around and yanked his head back.

Splurt—

The wound on his neck gaped open like a fish’s gills, spewing blood all over the second man.

While his vision was obscured, the woman swiftly moved beside him, stabbing twice into his side and once into his carotid artery.

Thunk, squelch—

The motion was smooth and fluid, like drawing a single stroke.

As the man collapsed, he naturally let go of Arin’s leg.

Just before Arin’s foot hit the ground, the woman caught her by the ankle and carefully cradled her against the wall.

She was about to check Arin’s pale face when—

"Hey! What’s going on here?"

It was the manager who had given the order earlier.

As he took in the scene, a group of four or five security guards rushed in behind him.

The manager, who had shrunk back in fear, regained his confidence at the sight of the men standing behind him.

"That... that bitch, how did she—? Kill her!!"

"Kill her!"

"Waaaah!!"

The burly men charged forward, each wielding crowbars, sashimi knives, hand axes, and steel pipes.

The woman clenched the bloodstained knife in her teeth, grasped another she had just taken, and charged straight at them.

Screeeeech—

The iron door creaked open, and the overwhelming stench of blood hit them in the face.

The team leader grimaced and surveyed the surroundings.

"What... the hell happened here?"

"Hmm..."

The team leader covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief and stepped forward. Oh Kang-seok muttered as he looked at the bodies strewn across the floor.

"Maybe a turf war with another gang..."

In the rather wide hallway, over a dozen bulky men lay in pools of blood.

Not a single shallow breath could be heard—they were all dead.

Thump.

"Ah, fuck! Shit!"

The team leader slipped on a severed finger, landing on his back. His uniform was waterproof, which was at least some consolation.

Meanwhile, Oh Kang-seok and Haesu were stepping over the bodies. Amid the carnage, there was one woman and one girl who didn’t belong here. Their presence made Haesu and Oh Kang-seok exchange glances.

Tap tap tap.

Without a word, they both sprinted towards them.

Wheeeze, wheeze.

Labored breathing could be heard. The blood-covered woman had a knife buried in her heart. The child she was cradling was unmistakably Arin from the photo.

"She’s not breathing. No external injuries, but..."

The breathing wasn’t Arin’s—it was the woman’s. She was on the verge of death.

On the other hand, Arin had a faint pulse. Given the factory they had raided earlier, it was clear—she was in shock from drug exposure.

"What the hell even happened here...?"

They would find out soon enough. Haesu mentally hit the reset button.

As they infiltrated the hideout, Haesu veered away from the drug manufacturing area.

"I’ll check this way!"

"What? Why?"

Ignoring the team leader’s shout, Haesu sprinted ahead. He arrived at the place where Arin had been found about five minutes earlier.

Bam—!

The scene was still hellish. But something was different. The woman who had previously had a knife in her heart was now driving a knife into another man’s heart.

Stab, twist—

"No way... she didn’t kill all these people herself. Did she only take down the ones who came near Arin?"

"Police!"

Shaking off his confusion, Haesu rushed towards them. Arin lay sprawled on the floor.

As he got closer, his heart momentarily froze.

The woman’s eyes met his—those piercing, murderous eyes. They were the same ones he had seen 13 years ago in that elevator.