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"Are you sure they're not following us?"
"Just keep driving, damn it. We were supposed to be there half-hour ago!" Park Jimin shouted at his partner as he pointed his semi-automatic Beretta M9 firmly, checking if anyone else was still tailgating their car in the streets of Sacheon-si. Before he could settle back inside the vehicle, Kim Taehyung made a sharp turn to the right of the intersection, almost causing him to lose his precious revolver in the middle of enemy territory. "Kim, just what the fuck--"
"Yah! Shut the fuck up already. Do you want to come out of here alive?" The brunette gritted my teeth, already irritated by his co-pilot's short temperament. He pressed the accelerator and sped up through the highway. Noticing that they were finally outside of the enemy radius, Jimin finally sat back down and closed the car window.
"Fuckin' Choi with his fuckin' 'extremely important' morning call." The dirty-blond hitman leaned back on the passenger's seat and sighed from the distress.
His colleague remained warily, looking back from the rear-view mirror every few seconds. "Why would he call us at three in the morning, though?"
"I don't fuckin' know. He demanded to head over to Haeundae-gu and bring ya along. What've you heard lately?"
"Not much, Joon hyung mentioned that Master Hwang was visiting the different divisions for the last couple of weeks. There was not much going on... Unless..."
"Unless?"
"Do you think he is back?" Taehyung questioned.
"Hm... If Hakyeon is back in Haeundae-gu, then most likely." He replied in almost a murmur. Jimin recalled his boss' direct command, the seriousness in his tone as he briefly requested their immediate presence.
"Do you think we're in trouble?"
"I hope not." He replied as he stared out the night sky. He doubted it was them who were in trouble, but there was always that small 'what if' haunting him in the back of his mind.
---
About forty-five minutes later, the two hitmen reached the main mansion in the southern Busan area, where they were greeted by two soldiers guarding the entrance. They did not hesitate in opening the gate for them as the two guards were previously instructed to let them in upon their arrival.
As they walked inside the building's lobby, an authoritative voice seemingly coming from above them resonated across the hall.
"Park, Kim, you're late."
And at the top of the main flight of stairs, there he was: Choi Hakyeon.
Choi was known as Head Advisor of the Twelfth Hwang-geum Baekho Pa boss. Considered by many in the family as Hwang Jae-sung's right-hand man, and the only man who could go against any decision the powerful Twelfth boss makes that he believed were not ideal. For the Twelfth, it was said he was like a son. For Kim Taehyung and Park Jimin, he was considered their boss and mentor. Usually a very kind and humble man, around his early forties, with great amount of intelligence gained both from books and street experience. Often Taehyung would accentuate that they were "the men they are today because of him."
"We had some random Reds following from East of Gyeongsangnam-do. Woulda have killed them all but we were outnumbered." Jimin spoke up, trying to ease out the tension.
"The fuck were you two doing there?" Choi raised an eyebrow, not a hint of excitement in his eyes at all. He definitely was not in the best mood. Taehyung knew it right away, but his buddy took a while to caught on.
"Wouldn't the correct statement be: the fuck were they doing in our territory?" Jimin gave him a confused look, not liking the fact he was getting lectured instead of being supported.
"PPalgansan-Yong Pa's boss asked for permission to step into the eastern premises for a meeting with our boss, they were heading back to their territory around 8:00 AM." Hakyeon mentioned in a composed manner.
"Wha-- and how the fuck should we know?!" Jimin's short temper was rising by the second. Taehyung slightly punched him on the bicep as signal for him to calm down before all hell broke loose.
"We sent a notification to every member to be aware of the circumstances." The Head Advisor glared at the two young men. That's when Jimin then remembered he left his phone in his room before heading to Sacheon for some extracurricular activity. He then glimpsed at Taehyung, who should have also received the notification, but was probably too drunk to even make sense where they were at the time.
That made Taehyung speak up. "Sir, we apologize. W-We didn't have signal where we were at."
Choi Hakyeon was not stupid. He knew exactly what they were doing in Gyeonsangnam-do and for Kim Taehyung to apologize, he knew they haven't checked their phones at all, and that it was not the enemy clan who sparked fire in the encounter. The Reds knew really well not to mess on Hwang Baek's main territory.
Though he wanted to punish them for their wrongdoings, he knew there were other things that needed to be done first. "We will talk about this later. The Twelfth is here, and he would like to speak with the two of you."
Well, fuck. Is the only thing that came into Jimin's mind as they both headed up the stairs to the second floor.
"Is... something wrong?" Taehyung asked in almost a whisper as they were near his office. He meant to say if they were the ones in trouble, but he made sure to not raise the tension any higher.
"He wants to speak to you personally." His words sent chills down Jimin's spine, trying to push away any bad thoughts and possibly few regrets, in case it was going to be the last day of his life.
He had never personally met the Twelfth boss. He might have seen him once a few years back in a couple of funerals. The most recent one he recalls was five years ago, at Hwang Sung-won's memorial, his only son and former heir of the family's empire. Jimin has done a few jobs for Hwang Sung-won in the past, and supported his ascent to power as the Thirteenth boss of Hwang-geum Baekho Pa. Until one November evening, he was sent in a business trip to Indonesia where instead he was shot several times in the torso, many bullets perforating both his lungs and one grazing his aorta. That evening, he died in action along with the rest of his men in service. Definitely a heavy blow for the clan, as well as emotional instability for the old man and his blood relatives.
Though Jimin saw the Twelfth as an intimidating being, he knew that he has gone through a lot in order to reach where he was currently at. For a reason he was considered the 'boss of all bosses' for the past two generations, named as the best Hwang Baek Pa leader after the founding godfather, in addition to many other organizations -- both allied and opposed -- that respected him. The two lackeys admired Master Hwang for that.
Hakyeon stopped by the door and sighed before opening the door for the two young soldiers to go inside. The first thing that immediately caught Jimin's attention was the peculiar sight of a man behind the desk leaning back on the chair as he read a book. He seemed to be around his sixties as facial wrinkles were thoroughly accentuated by his grimaces at the work he was reading. A mix of dark grey and white hairs all over his head, wearing a classic business suit, and a pair of old glasses to help him scan through the pages. Jimin was reminded of his grandfather every time he would read the Busan Daily Reporter every morning for breakfast, a very long time ago. Minus the fancy attire, of course.
"Sir, they're here." Hakyeon announced monotonously, and he looked up to the three men standing in front of him.
"Oh!" He grabbed a bookmark and placed it on the page he was at. "Thank you, my son." He smiled sympathetically to the three men in front of him, removing the reading glasses off his aged face. "Kids, welcome! Feel yourselves at home."
The duo were in a dumbfounding trance by his welcoming greet, they couldn't help but glimpse at Choi for reassurance. The advisor raised his eyebrows in amusement and signaled them to follow along. They cautiously sat on the two leather futons in front of him. The old boss couldn't help but laugh at their awkward stances. "What a bunch of funny fellas, don't worry, feel at ease." He started off looking at Taehyung first. "You are Park?"
Jimin couldn't stop his hand from raising. "T-That would be me, Master."
The Twelfth noticed his mistake and quickly apologized. "Look at me getting names wrong. Sorry boys, it has been a truly long night."
"We understand, Master. It is an honor to finally meet you." Taehyung bowed forward to pay his respects, and Jimin followed so he wouldn't be left behind.
"And a pleasure to finally meet you, I've heard from Hakyeon here about the number of outstanding services you two have provided to our family throughout the years." He smiled at the two youngsters sincerely.
"Well gentlemen, first of all I would like to apologize for calling you at this early in the morning, I was hoping to speak with you later in the day but I have to fly to Japan in a couple of hours along with so many things to do in the agenda." He exhaled deeply. "I believe you have no idea why you're here, though."
"I believe not, Master." Taehyung decided to reply this time.
"Good, I will tell you then." He paused as he readjusted himself on the chair. "As you all may know, I'm not as young and lively as I used to be back in the early days. My body can't hold as much as it used to years ago. I have been in the Hwang Baek throne for the past thirty-eight years, and loved every single part of it, both good and bad. However, my time on Earth will eventually come to an end, and I'll have to succeed my position to someone who is apt for this amount of leadership. As you already know..." He paused once more, his expression lost in thought before resuming with his explanation. "My son Sung-won was the former Hwang Baek heir before he ceased to exist that night five years ago."
Silence haunted the room for a moment, until he continued. "In the past five years, I have been working on settling everything before I could announce my retirement and pass down the position to my new heir, but this young individual is yet not conscious of the power they will be holding, which is why I called you here."
"It's still very unclear to me, sir." Jimin suddenly blurted out. He felt Taehyung tensing next to him, likely for the honorific he just addressed the ultimate authority. However, the old man did not wince or reacted from the mistake.
"Well, Mr. Park, I have had a heir candidate in my mind for the longest time, but I was very hesitant in handing over all the responsibilities of a Hwang-geum Baekho leader to this particular descendant. It was not until I was able to get a hold of my late son's testament that I finally made up my mind on it. If Sung-won and I managed to agree on something, it was best to follow along even when other members would completely oppose to it." He averted his eyes to his advisor just for a few seconds and then directed back to the young hitmen. "The reason why you're both here is because I request of your service in mentoring the next Hwang Baek boss through the ways of leadership, loyalty, and of course, the organization."
The duo glanced at each other, taken aback by his entreaty. Deep down inside they were glad they were not dying that same night.
Jimin cleared his throat. "And in what division is he from?"
The old man took a few seconds to process his sentence, and then smirked rather delighted. "The Hwang-geum Baekho Pa will be going through some interesting changes throughout the transition. For starters, my successor lives in Seoul and has no idea of the organization, nor the amount of power the young one will be inheriting, so you will need to have a lot of patience when dealing with the new Thirteenth."
Jimin looked at the Twelfth completely baffled, mentally revising the clan's commandments in hopes to decipher what he has been trying to say. He wanted to tell him to get to the damn point as he grew impatient by the old man's speeches going in circles, but bit the inside of his cheek just so that he could see another day.
"We're changing history, if you want to put it that way." He chuckled like nothing has happened. Jimin was not against a change of history, but he did not wanted a repetition of what has occurred five years ago, especially if he was going to be in charge of the new boss' safety.
"With all due respect, Master Hwang..." Taehyung finally spoke up after remaining quiet for a while. "Will this heir be strong enough to handle the position as leader of the Hwang Baek?"
"Another reason why I have called you tonight. I am well aware of your strengths, as well as your weaknesses." He opened a drawer from his side of the desk and exposed a manila folder. "I believe-- no. I know that you are capable of protecting the next boss. There will be difficulties along the way, all of you will need time to adapt... But Jimin, Taehyung, I want you to be part of Hwang-geum Baekho Pa's new Thirteenth generation alongside my successor. Hakyeon and I entrust the boss' life to you."
As Taehyung grabbed the manila folder to check what was inside of it, Jimin peeked to his right and saw his superior leaning against the furniture with a glass of whiskey on his hand. Hakyeon was not looking at them, but was definitely hearing the conversation without a single word said.
"Very well! I know everything will turn out perfect, so there is no need to worry. The heir is a tough one. Am I right, Hakyeon-ssi?" Twelfth smiled at his right-hand man, whom stared at him with a rather somber expression.
"Correct, sir."
"Choi... Haneul..." Taehyung read the first page of the document out loud. "That's his name?"
"Flip to the next page, Kim." Hakyeon said as he poured himself for a second round of whiskey.
The brunette did just as told, revealing a photographic head shot of a young girl in her school uniform. The girl seemed to be on her last year of high school.
"Her name, yes." The Twelfth finally corrected him.
Taehyung froze on the spot, unable to process what was going on. Jimin on the other hand, impulsively snatched the photograph from his partner's hand and analyzed it. Then slammed it on the Master's desk. Taehyung gasped from shock. Hakyeon with the glass on one hand while crossing the other, closed his eyes in anticipation. Master Hwang didn't even flinch at his reaction.
"Are you telling us that the next leader is a... a... girl?!"
The old man stood up from his chair, and fixed the cuff of his white shirt.
"History is about to be changed, Park."
~~~