Boom, boom, boom, boom—!

Under the dim lighting, fierce music hammered through his whole body.

"Representative."

Just then the secretary who'd come up to Seong-ho drew close. The music in the club was so loud that you couldn't be heard unless you spoke right up against someone's ear.

"Here's your pass."

The secretary shouted it at the top of his voice and held out a card about the size of a name card. "If you show the pass to the guard standing over there, you'll be able to get into the VIP room."

"And Seon-myeong?"

"I confirmed he went inside with his friends an hour ago."

Seong-ho nodded and clapped the secretary on the shoulder. "Good work. Take it easy until I come out. Don't drink too much."

He pressed a card into the secretary's hand and walked toward where the guards stood watch.

"Stop right there."

Guards with big builds and cropped hair blocked the approaching Seong-ho. "Pass?"

A rough-looking guard looked Seong-ho up and down and demanded the pass.

Seong-ho held out the pass he'd just received from the secretary. Taking it, the guard shone a flashlight over it, examined it front and back, then opened the passage he'd been blocking. "Please go on in."

Once the pass check was done, the overbearing manner vanished as if it had been a lie—he bowed his head and showed deference.

Seong-ho tucked the returned pass away again and went in through the door the guard had opened.

Boom, boom, boom…!

Once inside, the music no longer shook his body the way it had in the club lounge; now it only tapped faintly at his ears.

Just then, as Seong-ho walked down the passage, a man in a neat suit approached. "Good evening, Representative. It's an honor to host you."

He spoke as though he already knew who Seong-ho was and how he'd gotten in. "I'll show you to a room."

"No."

The club staffer, half-turned, stopped at Seong-ho's word.

Seong-ho looked over the rooms lining the passage. "Since you know who I am, I imagine you know who my nephew…