BXBX NOVEL Chapter 181: Obsession (2)
Chapter 181: Obsession (2)
Kang Ra-Eun carefully got out of the car so that the hem of her dress wouldn’t get caught. She told Shin Yu-Bin and Ryu Ha-Yeon to have a safe trip home before entering the apartment. After seeing them off, she walked toward the entrance of the apartment complex.
“...”
Ra-Eun looked around before entering. The man that she had seen at the venue flashed across her mind. She wondered if he had been aiming for her. He could have been aiming for Seo Tae-Yeon or Jin Seo-Yeong. There were many different possibilities, but Tae-Yeon and Seo-Yeong seemed to be highly unlikely targets.
The basis of Ra-Eun’s guess was simply intuition. The intuition that she had tempered during her long career as a bodyguard was sending her danger signals.
It honestly mattered very little that someone was aiming for her. Ra-Eun had already resolved herself to be subject to such dangers from the moment that she had set foot into the entertainment industry... no, from way before that; she had been ready from the moment that she began building her plan to take revenge against Kim Han-Gyo and Kim Chi-Yeol.
‘The problem is with the source of the danger.’
Ra-Eun’s course of action would change depending on whether the man was simply a stalker, or an observer sent by Han-Gyo.
“...”
She inputted the apartment complex door password after looking around one more time, because there was a possibility that the man was watching her press the password while hiding somewhere.
Ra-Eun said to Seo Yi-Seo as soon as she returned home, “Yi-Seo. Go stay with your parents for the time being.”
“Huh? Why so out of the blue?”
Ra-Eun answered simply, “I think I have a stalker.”
***
Ra-Eun couldn’t tell Yi-Seo about Han-Gyo in detail since the chance that she would be found out was higher as more people knew about her plan for revenge. Hence, Ra-Eun had never once told even her best friend about the revenge being constructed inside her head. That was why she only told Yi-Seo to go back to her parents’ place because she had a stalker, leaving out everything regarding Han-Gyo.
Of course, Yi-Seo was against it. Ra-Eun had already expected her to argue that that was all the more reason for her to stay with Ra-Eun if that were the case, because Yi-Seo cared for her very much. That was why Ra-Eun had already thought up a counterpoint.
“Don’t worry. I decided to hire private bodyguards,” Ra-Eun stated.
“Did your agency hire them for you?”
“No. I know a good team of bodyguards, so I’m going to hire them.”
Yi-Seo thought Ra-Eun was referring to the team led by Team Leader So Ha-Jin. However, Ra-Eun was thinking of other people entirely.
***
The next day, Lim Seok-Jun, Ra-Eun’s chauffeur, got out of the car first and opened the back door for Ra-Eun.
“We’ve arrived, Chairwoman.”
“Good work. Park the car and follow me.”
“You want me to come with you?”
“Yeah.”
Ra-Eun usually went by herself to tend to her own business, and Seok-Jun would come back once she finished that business and called for him. He had never accompanied her the entire way before.
“Understood, Chairwoman,” Seok-Jun replied.
He had felt it was strange, but did not question it since it was his job to obey her in absolute. Ra-Eun headed to the empty space under the Levanche work space. Six months ago, Ra-Eun had bought an entire building for Levanche to use the 5th, 6th and 7th floors as their workplace, and put up the rest of the floors for lease.
Among those floors, only the 4th floor remained empty. Once Ra-Eun and Seok-Jun arrived on the 4th floor, men in black suits greeted Ra-Eun while bowing at ninety-degree angles.
“Greetings, Chairwoman!”
Ma Yeong-Jun was among them. It had been a while since he had gathered together with all of his men, and it had been under the orders of the beautiful young woman in front of them, Kang Ra-Eun. Kim Tae-Seon, the woman that had been a great help in the Kim Chi-Yeol case, brought Ra-Eun a chair.
“Here you go, Chairwoman.”
“Thanks.”
Ra-Eun took a seat and scanned the men with one leg over the other. They were all looking at her in anxiety since this had been the first time that all of them had been gathered in one single place. Their minds were engulfed with the idea that they might have done something wrong.
“Ahem!” Ra-Eun coughed to clear her throat.
A few men flinched from the slightest action from her, signifying their fear.
Yeong-Jun asked on behalf of everyone here, “Did my boys cause some sort of trouble?”
“No, not at all.”
Rather, it was the opposite. They had been doing exactly as Ra-Eun was ordering them to do. She had summoned them all for a different reason.
“You will all retire from being a bunch of hoodlums today,” she remarked.
One of the men mumbled quietly, “We’re not hoodlums, we’re loan sharks...”
Ra-Eun glared at the man. Yeong-Jun immediately signaled to his other men.
“Take him away,” he ordered.
“Yes, Boss.”
Only then had the man realized he had made a grave mistake and belatedly apologized to Ra-Eun.
“I’m sorry, hyung-nim! I mean, noo-nim!”
“Who the hell are you calling noo-nim? Looks like you still haven’t gotten your shit together. Go educate this son of a bitch.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
He had dug his own grave by calling Ra-Eun, a former man, noo-nim when he should have been begging for his life. The man, who did not know this fact, couldn’t feel more wronged. As the commotion died down, Yeong-Jun demanded that Ra-Eun explain what she had just stated.
“What do you mean by ‘retire from being a bunch of hoodlums?’”
He had thought that Ra-Eun was trying to cut ties with them at first, but that was not what she had meant. Rather, it was the complete opposite.
“You guys are no longer hoodlums. You are now bodyguards.”
The men were lost for words from her surprise declaration.
***
Ra-Eun had thought for a long time that she needed to possess a certain level of wealth, power and influence to fight against Han-Gyo. However, she had missed something. In the primitive ages where money, laws, ethics and morals did not exist, there was only one way to prove one’s strength.
‘Physical power.’
People would think that fists were useless in this day and age, but as someone who had worked alongside Han-Gyo for a very long time, Ra-Eun knew there was a gang that served Han-Gyo. In exchange for him watching their backs, they acted as his hands and feet to do his dirty work. The men that were with Chi-Yeol when they tried to cover up Ra-Eun’s... no, Park Geon-Woo’s death as a suicide, were also part of this gang.
‘I’ll need a force just as strong to fight against them.’
Hence, Ra-Eun decided to use this opportunity to raise the combat level of these former loan shark hoodlums to a satisfactory level. Meanwhile, the men were greatly confused.
“How would we do bodyguarding work...?”
“All we know how to do is to use our fists.”
Ra-Eun softly sighed. “You goddamn morons. Then are you gonna work under Mr. Park Seol-Hun and attend meetings with buyers? Or are you gonna sit in front of a computer and do office work all day? Just think about it. You guys don’t belong anywhere in this company at the moment.”
“...”
The men fell silent, unable to refute Ra-Eun’s words. Like Ra-Eun had mentioned, they were just rabble. Hence, Ra-Eun was planning on changing their occupations entirely.
“You will start working as my private bodyguards from now on. Mr. Ma will be the team leader.”
Yeong-Jun exhaled so softly that it was hard to tell if it had been a sigh or not. And then, his attitude changed.
“Yeah. It’s exactly as you say.”
Like Ra-Eun had said, they were in a very ambiguous position. Yeong-Jun and his men had been the ones to decide to follow Ra-Eun. If there was a way to keep being of use to her, they needed to take it. However, there was one problem.
“I have a question, Chairwoman,” Seok-Jun stated. “Where should we learn to be a bodyguard?”
They did not know anything about where or how to learn it. Even if they were used to physically demanding occupations, they were like babies when it came to bodyguarding. Ra-Eun had also taken that into account.
She remarked while pointing at herself, “You can just learn from me.”
“...”
“...”
“...”
The group fell silent once again.
***
Everyone here was well aware of Ra-Eun’s combat prowess. However, combat and bodyguarding were two entirely different things. In the first place...
“Have you ever worked as a bodyguard?” Yeong-Jun asked directly.
Ra-Eun lightly shrugged. “Yeah.”
“When?”
In her past life, but... there was no way Yeong-Jun would believe that. So, she decided to give an answer that somewhat made sense.
“I learned it for a drama. One of my characters was a female bodyguard, so I learned a few things from active bodyguards.”
However, Yeong-Jun did not buy it.
“From what I remember, you haven’t played any such roles.”
“...”
Ra-Eun was the one to be lost for words this time.
‘This old man not only knows every single girl group member, but even knows what roles I’ve played?’
She wondered if Yeong-Jun was into beautiful young women. Her personality aside, she was prettier than the average female idol, so Yeong-Jun probably couldn’t help but take an interest in her. Not just that, she was his boss.
Ra-Eun needed to come up with another reason to back up her claim.
“It’s a role that I’m going to play. It’s not out yet.”
“Hm, is that so?”
“Anyway,” Ra-Eun said as she gestured at Seok-Jun. “You have what I asked you to bring, right? Give it to me.”
“Yes, Chairwoman.”
Ra-Eun took out a thick bundle of paper and handed it to Yeong-Jun.
“What’s this?” Yeong-Jun asked.
On the first page, it was written:
[101 Ways to Become a Bodyguard]
Ra-Eun had written it herself.
“You want us to read a self help book...?”
Ra-Eun glared at Yeong-Jun as he complained. It seemed like it was Yeong-Jun’s turn to be taken away for an education this time.
1. Noo-nim is a formal way of saying noona.