Chapter 29 - The Cruise (8)
MASS RELEASE THIS FRIDAY!
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*Four Days Earlier*
Sunye sighed loudly as she stared at the vile man across her. He was happily slurping on ramen and held out his bowl.
"Auntie, get me more!" he demanded of the elderly waitress. They were at a restaurant which was owned by one of SD\'s acquaintances, the same waitress who was catering to them.
"Aren\'t you full?" Sunye scoffed as the waitress took the empty bowl of ramen from SD.
"I\'m never full," he said. "I can eat and eat and never get full."
Ugh! Sunye rolled her eyes. She took out the photo from her purse and shoved it in front of him.
"I know you sent this to Jonghyun," she stated. "This is a picture of Dr. Byungsoo with the Finance Minister! It can cause a scandal if leaked."
"I know right?" SD smirked. "Won\'t it be fun?"
The waitress put another bowl of ramen in front of him and without any ado, he began to devour it. Sunye debated with herself. She wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery but asking SD for help was something she desperately wanted to avoid. The man was going to make her do more favors and his favors never ended well for her.
"You want to know the truth behind this picture and whether the minister has anything to do with Byungsoo\'s death," SD guessed as he chowed on the ramen.
"Yes."
"I\'ll get you the tapes of Lim Byungsoo and Shin Hyun," SD said. "But…"
"You want payment?" Sunye asked. "How much? Name the amount. I\'ll write you a check."
"Oh Sunye, you know I\'ll never take money from you!" SD said, feeling indignant. "Our relationship is deeper than monetary transactions!"
"I am not doing you anymore favor!" Sunye said sharply.
"Not a favor," he revealed. "I want you to help me out in a tricky situation."
He leaned forward. "You see," he began. "I\'m into some deep shit with some mafia lords. And they\'ve agreed to let me go if I manage to beat them in a game of poker."
Sunye stared at him, feeling incredulous. "What?" she asked. "Poker?"
SD smirked at her. "Play poker with me," he said. "And help me beat those men. I\'ll give you the tapes. Oh and this won\'t be counted as the second favor you owe me. This is an independent case and hence, the payment in terms of the poker game is also separate."
Sunye wanted to tear her hair out and slap SD on the face. Poker? With mafia men? What the hell was wrong with this man?
But she did not have any time left. The cruise was in four days and it was her only chance to corner the minister directly.
"Fine," she agreed. "I\'ll do it. Now get me those tapes!"
SD grinned at her and put a large chunk of the ramen into his mouth.
"Yesh ma\'am!" he spluttered with his mouth full.
….
The audience held their breath in anticipation, their eyes locked on the screen. For a few seconds, nothing happened.
Suddenly, the moans of two men began to echo through the hall and the screen was lit up with an explicit video. Dr. Lim was on his knees, groaning in pleasure while Hyun was smashing into him from behind. Both of them were naked and sweaty, enrolled into an intimate session.
"What the hell is this?" some of the audience were murmuring while all color was sapped from Hyun\'s face. He was horrified at the video being played in front of his guests. Jonghyun was also watching the video, suspicious of how Sunye had obtained it. He glanced at her but she was not looking at him.
The two men on screen kept on grunting, their video being played like a porno movie.
"Did you...manage to get the...funding?" Hyun groaned as he kept on hammering into Byungsoo\'s butt.
"Ahh!" Byungsoo moaned. "I...I did...I manipulated those...patients...into giving me the...money!"
Hyun grabbed Byungsoo\'s hair and pulled him. A mixture of pain and pleasure coursed through Byungsoo as his body was being assaulted by the minister.
"They\'ve...handed over their money...to me…" Byungsoo went on. "With that, you can...buy the drugs from abroad...and sell them at higher prices in this market…"
Hyun smirked and kept on ramming into his partner. He was plotting this for months. Using government funding was impossible since the Prime Minister was auditing the tax funds. This left Hyun with no other option but to gather money through private means. He could not buy the drugs at such exorbitant prices without getting sponsors but no one would be stupid enough to dab into illegal work. So he had his partner, Byungsoo, acquire the money from wealthy patients.
"What if they find...out...ahh!" Hyun moaned.
"They\'ll be dead in a few days.." Byungsoo revealed. "I have tampered with their medication. They won\'t live for long, my darling."
"Good…" Hyun said and kept on pushing his rod into Byungsoo until the latter was a moaning mess. Finally, Hyun released his juices, satisfied with the outcome.
He pulled out and slumped on to the bed, all naked. "The Yakuza will pick up the drugs on the way," he revealed.
"Are you going to cheat the Company?" Byungsoo gasped. He was lying on his stomach, tired from the activities of the night.
"The company is paying me only 10 percent!" Hyun spat. "The Yakuza will give me 50 percent of the drugs along with half the profit! Not only will I make money by selling the drugs in the market but also get half the share from Yakuzas! This is a bargain deal!"
"The Yakuza are dangerous though," Byungsoo pointed out. "If you don\'t keep your end of the bargain, they\'ll kill you."
"The Yakuza won\'t dare!" Hyun claimed. "I have the drugs under my custody! The Company has played with my rights for too long. I won\'t let them get their hands on the drugs!"
Just then, Hyun\'s phone rang up. He picked it up.
"Yes honey," he said on the phone. "I\'m in an important meeting. I\'ll be home in a while."
Byungsoo\'s face darkened upon seeing Hyun beginning to dress up. "Where are you going?" he demanded.
"Home," Hyun replied. "The missus called. She wants me to go home."
"Just divorce her already!" Byungsoo exclaimed. "You don\'t love her! You\'re not even straight! Why are you with her?"
"Her father funds my political career," Hyun said sternly. "And I need her money. If I divorce her, I\'ll lose his funding. I must go, babe."
He kissed Byungsoo and ran off, leaving the doctor alone in the room. Byungsoo was fuming in anger for a long time before he got off the bed and strode towards the camera which was filming them.
"This will be my leverage against you, Shin Hyun," he vowed. "One day, I\'ll force you to stay with me. Forever."
The video came to an end and everyone was staring at the minister in shock. Hyun was sweating, scared by the revelation.
"It\'s a doctored video!" he claimed. "It\'s all a lie! Someone photoshopped my face on the video to make it look like me!"
"Whatever the case may be," Sunye said. "You\'re still guilty of killing Dr. Lim."
She took out a paper from her pocket and held it up for Hyun to read. "This is your bank account details," she revealed. "My sources had this checked and we found out that you\'ve sent out over a million dollars to an unknown person abroad. We tracked the transaction. It took us two days to track it and we found out that the account belonged to someone named Kim Aesop. He\'s a contract killer and had recently visited Country K right after the money was delivered to his account. Incidentally, someone matching his description was seen hanging around the jail where Byungsoo was kept captive."
Hyun was now sweating. Jonghyun stepped forward to address the minister.
"Now that your jig is up," he said. "You will lead us to the drugs and those will be confiscated. You\'ll be arrested for the murder of Lim Byungsoo. This tape is damning evidence about your drug trade and possible murder of the doctor."
He spoke in a calm yet authoritative tone. Hyun clenched his hands together, angered that he was being schooled by a guy decade younger than him! And that prosecutor…
He glared at Sunye who lazily stared back. Seeing her smug expression was making his blood boil. She had outwitted him in his own game.
"Fine," he finally said. "I\'ll show you where the drugs are."
….
SD watched the scene from his hiding place. Everyone was so focused on the minister\'s drama that no one noticed him getting out of his hiding and casually mixing into the crowd.
"The boat is waiting for you near the back anchor," Orea muttered through the speaker. "Go to the nearest washroom and change into the coast guard uniform kept in your bag. Then slip away from the crowd and head for the boat where our client is waiting for you."
He did not need to be told twice. Quietly making his way towards the washroom, he took out the coast guard uniform and changed into it. The guests outside were huddled together and there were guards monitoring them. He walked ahead, past the guards who did not glance at him since he was wearing their uniform and assumed him to be one of them.
The Yakuza men were being rounded up but their leader was still missing. That did not faze SD since he had an inkling that Kirishima would escape anyway. He was betting on it.
Finally, he headed for the deck where he saw a boat was waiting for him. Climbing down the ship, he jumped onto the boat and motioned the boatsman to take him away.
"SD, won\'t it backfire on Sunye once they find out that the drugs are fake?" Orea asked.
"She can still arrest him for murder," SD stated. "The Yakuza will assume he stole the drugs and the Company will also think the same. His words will have no value to anyone."
Two down, he thought. More to go.
Orea was silent on the other end. "Are you alright?" she finally asked.
"No," SD smirked. "And I don\'t intend to be alright."
"What do you intend to be?"
SD took a moment to answer. "I don\'t know," he finally replied.