Click. Tsssss.

The outdoor car park of the Jeongseon casino.

Yang Susan struck a lighter and put the flame to a cigarette.

The last one in the packet.

"Son of a bitch……. A million won, and that's the shakedown?"

He was given one million-won chip as the share for the losers.

The loser of a game can say nothing.

A share that has to lean on the winner's generosity.

"Hooo……."

He drew the smoke deep into his lungs.

With the nicotine in him his blank head seems to clear.

And the heart that had felt ready to burst with rage seems to settle too.

Yang Susan digested the anger down, eyes closed.

His stomach turned sour and burned with the rawness of his nerves.

He has blown the whole of the company's money, which is like blood to it.

It was money that had to cover the bills coming due before long.

The stake had been pulled out of what sat in the company account and thrown down.

An enormous sum has broken the last hope and vanished.

"Fuck. The opening luck was good……."

The last hand hovers in front of his eyes.

A rare ranking that could not possibly lose.

"Where do I get money? Every won those mug bastards have is mine."

Even beaten, Yang Susan has not given up.

He turned his head over on where to find money.

Given a stake, it is money he can take back.

"Chief Yang~~~!"

Just then a thick, loose voice called him from behind.

"……!!"

Yang Susan's body set solid by instinct.

That man's voice, which he had been forgetting!

Yang Susan's body gave a faint tremor.

"Chief Yang Susan~~~!"

The friendly form of address came again.

Yang Susan turned his shaking body and faced him.

"……!!"

A man in the middle of his forties had come up close in front of him.

Evenings in Jeongseon are still chilly.

And the man stood there in a skin-tight short-sleeved top, a handbag tucked under one arm, looking at Yang Susan.

A black dragon wound round and round a knotted forearm, writhing…