Mun-jong watched Chang-jong walk off and turned to Seong-ho, standing beside him.

"You said you'd handle this? Why am I the one having to grovel? Huh?! Say something. What are you going to do now?"

Mun-jong poured his anger out at Seong-ho, not Chang-jong.

"Brother."

But even at the sight of Mun-jong like that, Seong-ho gestured calmly toward the Pyeongchang-dong house and said—

"They'll hear you all the way inside."

At that, Mun-jong hurriedly shut his mouth.

Only after Seong-ho's words did he remember that this was still Pyeongchang-dong.

That didn't mean he stopped growling at Seong-ho.

"If we go on like this until next week, there's no telling what that little bastard will do. So why aren't you moving yet?!"

Mun-jong had trusted only Seong-ho and let the time slip by.

But now that he was starting to think this had done nothing but wind Chang-jong up further, he regretted not simply soothing and coaxing him after all.

"Why aren't you saying anything? I've been waiting because I trusted only you — so what are you going to do?"

"Brother. Are you busy today?"

"What?"

Seeing Seong-ho respond to a demand for a solution by asking whether he was busy, Mun-jong even started to wonder whether the man understood the seriousness of the situation.

"Do you have any idea how this is unfolding? You—"

"If you're not busy, come with me. There's something I'd like to show you."

"Something to show me?"

"Yes. Once you see it, you'll feel a little more at ease."

"What is it?"

"You'll know when we get there."

Without saying where they were going or why, Seong-ho took Mun-jong by the arm and led him outside.

And from a distance, Jeong-eun and Yeong-su Cha stood watching this whole scene.

Seong-ho drove with Mun-jong to a street lined with motels behind the subway station.

"Why here?"

Frowning at the row of motel signs that stretched down the narrow alley, Mun-jong grimaced.

"What the hell is there here that you'd bring me to a place like this?"

Studying the motel-district signs through the window, Mun-jong turned…