Chapter 2

After graduating from the police academy, I went undercover to get close to Zachary.

When we were young, Zachary and I had stayed at the same orphanage.

In our youth, we'd been close friends.

Because of this, I had perfect, ideal conditions for approaching Zachary.

But the moment we met, he had his men beat me up.

I remember that day he wore a pair of dirty Adidas sneakers, stepping on my shoulder with his shoe.

My finger bone was broken on the first go—it hurt worse than any injury I'd gotten at the police academy.

He grabbed my hair and asked me:

"Didn't I tell you to get lost? Why did you come back?"

I gritted my teeth to keep from crying out, but I looked up, meeting his eyes directly.

I said,

"Don't send me away."

"I can't survive out there, Zachary."

Zachary took me in.

But for several nights in a row, he just had me drink with his gang of thugs.

"Come on, drink up."

"You're Liam, right? I heard you're the boss's brother?"

A sleazy young man draped his arm over my shoulder.

My clean white shirt seemed too out of place in that world.

So he laughed mockingly.

"Fuck, why so shy?"

"We're all bros here."

"Look, your brother—"

Through my swaying vision, I followed his pointing finger to where Zachary sat.

I saw a strikingly beautiful young man climbing onto the lap of a man who was tilting his head back, chugging alcohol.

Nearby, his subordinates chatted and laughed, completely used to it.

...This was the first time I learned about Zachary's sexual orientation.

I began to feel relieved for my childhood self.

The one who used to crawl into Zachary's bed and rub his stomach.

I told Zachary I'd graduated middle school but dropped out of high school.

He laughed with a cigarette in his mouth, calling me stupid.

"Back then I fought tooth and nail to get you out."

"And you ended up like this?"

"..."

But those few days, I was also quite troubled.

On the surface, Zachary ran a tea business, and the work he arranged for me was keeping track of daily tea sales.

But anyone could figure out he wasn't actually selling tea.

That day, I rushed out and blocked him as he was about to get in his car.

"You can't have me selling tea leaves for the rest of my life."

He laughed. I always felt I must seem pretty cute to him.

"So what do you want to sell?"

The man tilted his head, asking me with considerable patience.

But I froze.

If I actually said something at that moment, he'd probably put a gun to my head on the spot.

"Scared now?"

He smiled, studying my expression.

From that moment, I began to understand—he wasn't the Zachary I used to know anymore.

He had more tricks up his sleeve than books I'd read, had long since walked a completely different path from me.

I steeled myself and got in his car.

"I want to sell what you're selling."

"Zachary, I want to do something big."

"Why should you get to do it, but not me?"

Then Zachary brought me to...

A canned meat processing plant.

...

"You're messing with me."

I twitched my mouth, coming to this conclusion.

"This factory is yours now, Liam. You've studied, so you know how to run it."

"This will be enough for your whole life..."

"I don't want it."

Only now did I realize.

He was planning to shake me off.

"Why can they follow you, but I can't?"

"Don't you trust me? Do you think because I joined later, I'm suspicious?"

"Fine, Zachary, then watch closely—compared to your men, who's more willing to risk their life for you?"

As I spoke, I started to put my hand into the running tea mixing machine beside us.

Actually, in that second, my heart was racing.

I'd even figured out how to report a work injury if my hand really got ground up.

But the man lunged forward and pinned me to the ground.

That was the first time I saw him angry.

"Fucking hell, Liam, whose body do you think you're playing with?"

"Can you stop messing around?"

"How could I possibly let you join me? You know what I do..."

"Could get you killed?"

He asked me, almost frantically.

But in my heart, I answered him clearly.

Of course I know what you're doing.

I came here to get you killed.

But what I said aloud was:

"Zachary, let me help you."

"I'm already a mess anyway, this is all my life will ever be."

"You might as well take care of me. I'll be your problem for life."