Somewhere in District 12.

A man with Irezumi tattoos covering even his face shook a ziplock bag filled with white powder and said,

“I’m telling you, the goods are legit.”

In response, the man with hawk-like eyes who had been smoking heavily across from him wore a doubtful expression.

“What’s your name again, pal?”

“Ha... what good is a name in this line of work?”

“It’s just that your face is new to me.”

“If you’re not satisfied, don’t buy. It’s no loss to me.”

As the man with the Irezumi tattoos began to put away the ziplock bag, the hawk-eyes man stubbed out his cigarette and looked behind him.

Two men were standing there—both his colleagues.

“What do you guys think?”

“Could go south if we deal with someone we’ve never seen before.”

“Shit, since when did we care about things going south when dealing with powder? If we were worried about that, we shouldn’t have gotten into this business at all. If the higher-ups find out, they’ll beat us with tools on the spot.”

That was the truth. The hawk-eyes man and his colleagues were secretly trafficking drugs without following directives from their superiors.

They had been given firm instructions to stay away from drugs, and if this was discovered, even if they didn’t get beaten with tools, they’d be banished from the scene forever.

But a man sometimes has to take risks.

Especially since this deal was a big one.

‘Just selling that stash at full price would mean a huge payout.’

The drugs the Irezumi man brought totaled 5 kilograms.

Even though drug enforcement had loosened lately, 5 kilograms could easily bring in 3 billion won.

“Then let’s do this one big job and get out. How’s that sound?”

The colleague who had voiced objections reluctantly nodded at the hawk-eyes man’s words.

Then the hawk-eyes man approached the Irezumi man.

“How much per kilogram?”

“400 million.”

“You sure there’s nothing shady about it?”

“Ha... how many times do I have to say it? These were lifted from customs seizures. You know government workers—just pretend to work and that’s it. Five kilograms of seized evidence going missing? It’s nothing.”

“Let’s do 300 million.”

“You think I’m some kind of pushover?”

“No one else in this district can handle this much product. You knew that when you came, didn’t you?”

The man hesitated as if thinking, then nodded.

“Fine. But if something happens to you guys, I’m not involved with this stuff.”

“Obviously. Don’t worry.”

The hawk-eyes man pulled money out of a bag. All U.S. dollars.

“You don’t need to count it?”

“In deals like this, trust is everything. I’m sure it’s right.”

Grinning faintly, the hawk-eyes man handed over a mobile phone.

“What’s this?”

“Burner phone. If you’ve got more to sell, call the saved number.”

“Doubt we’ll meet again, but I’ll take it.”

“Then shall we wrap things up here?”

As the man shrugged, the hawk-eyes man and his colleagues joked around as they disappeared down the alley.

Some time passed.

The man stared at a wall and muttered,

“Got the footage?”

A head popped out from what seemed like an empty wall.

“Crystal clear.”

“Give it here.”

The head emerging from the wall handed over a camera.

“You heading out right away?”

“Can’t keep the Chairman waiting, can I?”

“That’s true... But how about a drink before you go? Once you’re in, you’ll be doing two years.”

“It’s not my first time behind bars. And with the special voluntary surrender period, I’ll probably be out in a year.”

“You bastard.”

“I’m off. Tell the Chairman I’m sorry I couldn’t say goodbye in person.”

“Alright. Get some good rest in there.”

Waving his hand, the man headed somewhere. Moments later, he arrived—quite unexpectedly—at a police station.

“I’m here to turn myself in for drug trafficking.”

Just as District 12 didn’t only include old Itaewon, District 13 didn’t only include old Hannam-dong either.

The present District 13 encompassed everything from Sageun-dong to Wangsimni 2-dong.

The Dokjeon faction had converted a former telecommunications building in the old Haengdang 1-dong into their hideout.

An SUV entered the premises of that building. The gate lifted instantly at its approach.

That was because the person riding in the back seat was none other than Jang Moon-seok, the boss of the Dokjeon faction.

Jang Moon-seok got out of the car and walked up to the office. Many people had already gathered in his office.

“Just got word from Chief Inspector Kim.”

At his words, a man with a notably thick beard asked,

“Are we going in immediately?”

Jang Moon-seok nodded.

“There might be blood spilled, so don’t just stand—sit down and rest while you can.”

Jang Moon-seok also took a seat. Then he pulled a cigar out of his desk drawer. Just as he lit it, a text arrived.

[Chief Inspector Kim][2:13 PM] Our mobile unit's on the move. Probably... 3 PM would be a good time to begin.

[Me][2:14 PM] Yes, I’ll treat you somewhere nice later.

Jang Moon-seok put the phone in his back pocket and clenched his teeth.

In this world, unless you're ready for war, there’s an unspoken rule:

You don’t invade someone else’s district.

But Hwang Tae-su from District 12 had broken that rule.

‘That piece of shit who used to just run loan collections dares…’

Jang Moon-seok was livid. Just a few months ago, Hwang Tae-su had been a complete nobody to him.

Just some punk who made money from private lending.

Nothing more, nothing less. But in just a few months, he had bulked up and now had his eyes set on District 13.

If he had brought guys and started a shootout, that’d be one thing. But this bastard was trying to frame them subtly.

A few days ago.

Police suddenly barged into his home, where his wife, child, and even his mother were, and served an arrest warrant as they took him into custody.

The charge was kidnapping and violation of Criminal Act Article 278—special arrest and special confinement.

The authorities had pinpointed him as a prime suspect in the sudden disappearance of the Beolgompah members.

Because of this, Jang Moon-seok had to endure over twenty hours of intense interrogation, and even his family was summoned and questioned overnight.

At first, he was angry but simply thought, “So be it.”

If No Se-hoon and his goons from the Beolgompah had gone missing, anyone would have suspected Dokjeonpa was behind it.

But later, he heard something unexpected.

That this was all Hwang Tae-su’s scheme.

He hadn’t believed it at first. But the circumstantial evidence was too clear.

Hwang Tae-su had been pushing for a bus transportation business in District 12. Lee Ho-jin had opposed it, and coincidentally, No Se-hoon from the Beolgompah had met with Lee Ho-jin several times.

No Se-hoon was lobbying to block Hwang Tae-su’s transportation business.

Somehow, Hwang Tae-su found out about this and erased the Beolgompah.

And this cunning bastard pinned the whole thing on him, someone completely unrelated.

He even dragged his innocent wife and mother in and out of the police station.

“Son of a bitch.”

He had no intention of letting this slide. And all the pieces of his plan were falling perfectly into place.

By now, the police should have raided Hwang Tae-su’s hideout.

His clueless goons would either scatter or panic, and at that moment—

He intended to take Hwang Tae-su down. And then claim District 12 on top of District 13.

“Chairman, we just got word that Hwang Tae-su rushed out of the theater.”

“Must’ve gotten a call from one of his goons.”

“Seems so. What should we do?”

“Tell our guys to keep tailing him and report his movements… Young-ho.”

“Yes!”

“You’re all ready, right?”

“Of course.”

“Move out immediately.”

Jang Moon-seok led Young-ho and several other members underground.

There was an old Starex van down there—oddly, it had no license plates.

Jang Moon-seok and the others boarded the Starex and put on black masks.

In truth, Jang Moon-seok hadn’t been on the front lines for a while. Normally, he would’ve sent underlings to handle something like this.

But that wouldn’t ease his fury. Only pulling the trigger on Hwang Tae-su’s skull himself would cleanse him of this filth.

“Drive.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Wasn’t the movie fun?”

“It was. Visually stunning too… though it’s a shame we didn’t get to see the ending.”

“Can’t be helped. President Hwang had urgent business, after all.”

Crack!

Listening to Park Yeon and Doo-shik chatting in the back, Hwang Tae-su’s forehead veins twitched.

He’d told them to just stay and finish the movie. They refused.

And now they were blaming him?

“As if I’m not already on edge, and now they’re rubbing salt in the wound.”

Glancing at the rearview mirror, Hwang Tae-su forced himself to steady his breath. He was driving—he couldn’t afford to lose his temper. Just endure it… endure it…

Still, the two wouldn’t shut up.

“Why do they keep following us?”

“You noticed?”

“Of course.”

“Your monster instincts are sharp, huh.”

“They’re blatantly reeking suspicion. How could I not notice? But why are they following us from the theater?”

At Doo-shik’s mutter, Park Yeon let out a low sigh.

“It’s probably because of me.”

“Did you do something to that male?”

“Something… yeah, I guess you could call it a crime. A crime of being too handsome.”

“How is being handsome a crime?”

“Haa… I don’t even know where to start with a muscle-brained orc like you, but we humans have very diverse romantic emotions.”

“Diverse romantic emotions?”

“Like, men loving men and women loving women.”

“Males loving males and females loving females? Is that even possible?”

“I’ve never seen it myself, but I’ve heard about it. And that man following us probably feels that way. He must’ve caught some feelings for me.”

The feeling of wanting to kill you.

Thinking that, Hwang Tae-su let out a snort. Because that’s exactly what he was feeling now.

“But what does ‘following’ even mean?”

Some sort of slang they made up between themselves?

Or were they just still caught up in the spy movie they just watched?

Thinking it over, Hwang Tae-su shrugged.

“Weirdos, all of them.”

Just then, a call came in.

As soon as he answered, Go Hyung-geon’s urgent voice rang out.

– President! Don’t come here. Head to the safe house instead!

“Why?”

– I think those bastards have secured evidence against us.

“What kind of evidence? We don’t even deal in drugs.”

– Ha… It looks like the guys managing the arcade at the three-way intersection messed up.

“Damn it! I told them to cover their tracks, didn’t I?!”

– I’m sorry! But for now, you need to stay in the safe house. Once it calms down—

Go Hyung-geon’s voice was cut off. A few gunshots rang out, followed by curses.

Beep, beep, beep—!

The call was disconnected. Hwang Tae-su lowered his head, stunned. For a long while, he sat like that.

Then, as if making up his mind, he turned his head.

“Mr. Park, Mr. Doo-shik.”

“……”

“I’m sorry, but this is as far as I can take you.”

“Did something happen?”

“A small issue with the company.”

“That issue with the company—does it have something to do with that?”

Suddenly, Park Yeon pointed ahead.

Hwang Tae-su looked puzzled and turned his head. And then gasped for breath.

Inside the van with its doors wide open were armed men aiming automatic rifles at them.

And then—

Rat-a-ta-ta-tat!

Flames burst from the muzzles.