4 Days Later,
Washing his face, Gyun stared into the mirror as the cold water hit his face; he felt the stitches on the top of his head. His body felt strangely painless despite the casts on his arm and leg.
According to the doctor, he had fractured two ribs, reinjured his previously fractured sternum, a hairline fracture in the femur of his right leg, and an open fracture of his forearm. He'd lost more than 2 liters of blood, which was what caused him to pass out; he'd suffered two stab wounds, one to his back and one to his thigh and multiple shallow puncture wounds from.
Not even counting the multiple scratches and bruises, he'd gotten surgery for both his forearm where the shrapnel from the shotgun shot back in the night club had taken a chunk out of his forearm. As well as the massive concussion he'd gotten from hitting his head on a car at speeds faster than 40 kilometers an hour.
In total he had gotten one emergency life-saving surgery along with two more surgeries to deal with the nerve damage in both his back and leg from the stab wounds along with 96 stitches across his body; the doctors had given him a series of medications and prescriptions when he requested to leave. He'd paid them in cash after the person he'd texted before passing out had picked up his money and laundered it for him while taking a cut for themselves.
Gyun now had 1.8 million US dollars sitting in a foreign bank account under a false name after paying his hospital bills from both past jobs and the OneNight job. Still, he was hesitant to head home as he had no way to hide the myriad of injuries covering his body.
He changed into a fresh pair of clothes he'd bought a few days prior and had delivered to his hospital room. Grabbing his crutches, he hobbled to the small cabinet at the end of his hospital bed, grabbing the medications he had been prescribed.
The doctors had recommended 8-10 weeks of recovery; Gyun couldn't afford to wait that long with the help of painkillers, he could technically walk with the cast on his leg though it would be quite painful.
Setting the crutches on the side of the bed he poured out the pills before downing them in one go, taking a deep breath he put them back into his pocket. He opened his phone, his eyes reflected the phone screen. His hospital room's lights were off, and the only thing illuminating the room was the phone screen and the small window on the hospital room's door to the hospital's hallway.
It felt better and more comfortable for Gyun to be in the dark, his eyes had always been sensitive to light, so he had always preferred the darkness, perhaps it was a side effect of his unique eye color. That's why he had joined the Dreamwalkers when in Murim, who had specialized in night-time raids and assassinations.
As he opened the contacts on his phone, he scrolled down through his contacts a myriad of names reflected in his eyes before he stopped and pressed on one contact.
Holding up the phone to his ear he sat and put on his jacket as the phone rang, eventually a voice came over as the person answered in English. It was a young male voice over the phone, "I distributed the money 60-40 if you are calling to complain about my rates I don't do refunds...even for you"
Gyun glanced at the door, before answering in heavily accented English "I'm not calling to complain about how much you took, I'm calling you to pay off a person's debts and deposit money in their account...discreetly of course."
"Whose?" The voice had genuine confusion in its voice
"A woman, Hye-jin Sung, 47 years old South Korean former professional cyclist"
"Hmmm, I see, and if I may ask, what does the woman mean to you?"
Glancing at the door, Gyun answered "What does it matter to you 'Rothschild'?"
"Well nothing I guess but I'm just curious since I'm going to have to get a bit creative with the accounting."
"I was just a person who looked up to her and she would help me get out of a dark place early in my life and even now yo-" Gyun had to pause to regain control of his emotions as his voice shook a bit, taking a breath before continuing "well all you need to know is that I'm paying back a debt I still owe."
Rothschild hesitated for a moment over the other end of the phone "Well I guess it's not my problem; how much do you want to be allocated to their account?"
"All of it"
"What?!"
"Yeah, as much as you can give her." A crack of a smile appeared on Gyun's face as he walked out of the hospital room and down the hall, grimacing with each step.
Calming himself, Rothschild spoke "You sure?...this is all the money you have?"
Stepping onto the elevator of the hospital, Gyun pressed the button for the ground floor before answering. "Let me tell you something Rothschild, it's not always about the money sometimes we're chasing something greater, something with a higher purpose and money is just what it takes to get that something; in my case I don't need money for that something, so money was never the goal, but for some that money is a saving grace and a destroyer and if I don't need it than why should I keep it?"
Rothschild was silent for a moment, Gyun stepped out of the elevator and walked out of the hospital as Rothschild spoke. "Regardless I can take care of it, since the money's completely been cleaned it should be done within a few days since I'll need to hide the reasons it was paid and such."
"Good." Gyun reached the Hellcat that had been parked across the street by a valet Gyun had hired the day before and got in, starting the car. "Then goodbye, Rothschild."
"Bye Van Gogh"
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Having parked the Hellcat car down the road at a parking lot he had been forced to walk all the way to the dilapidated apartment building where his family lived.
Unlocking the door and stepping in Gyun had hidden his leg splint under his pants as he walked inside, though he had no way to hide the cast on his arm.
Gyun had already thought of an excuse for why his arm had been broken and why he disappeared for three days; he would say he had been over at his friend Juwon's house, which he had almost completely forgotten about in the past week and he'd broken his arm at a Jiu Jitsu class.
Though his mother didn't buy that excuse as she slapped him nearly immediately, despite the message he sent a day ago that he was sleeping over at his friends that he'd sent after waking up from his first emergency surgery she thought he'd run away.
After an hour of consoling her and hearing a lecture a few slaps and a short beating later he was sentenced to his room along with a ban on electronics for the next month.
Sighing he sat in his bed in his own thoughts, he'd hidden the medications in the ceiling tile of his room after taking a few more painkillers. His mom hadn't noticed the splint on his leg as he had managed to suppress the pain of walking on the fractured leg to his room. Nor had she noticed the stitches on the top of his head, he felt like sinking into the bed.
The comfort of home soaked into Gyun, the smell the lighting even the atmosphere it was well and truly the only place that felt home-like to him.
Closing his eyes, he wanted to drift off to sleep, but his eyes shot open when his second phone buzzed from within the small hiding place that was the hole in the wall behind his bed. Sliding his hand through the gap between the wall and his bed frame he snaked the phone out of the small hole, before wiping the dust off of the phone and answering.
Glancing at the number that was calling as his finger hovered above the answer button, Gyun didn't recognize the number, nor was it a number stored in his phone.
He ultimately answered the phone, though in a cautious tone "Yes?"
"Ah... So you did know how to answer the phone?" The taunting cold and half-asleep voice of a woman came over the phone, it was a familiar voice that had always annoyed Gyun.
"Kumiho, I thought I said not to call me before just like I don't remember giving you this phone number."
Kumiho's lazy tone didn't change as she replied, "Well, after the amount of cleaning up I had to do for you, Van Gogh, I would hope you would answer the phone to give me an explanation ...but the fact I had to call your other phone is making me a bit annoyed."
Gyun was a bit off-put by Kumiho's wording, "The only explanation you need to know was that Hound went rogue and tried to betray a fellow operative, so I killed him."
"Hmmm....Well, I didn't like those Chinese bastards anyway, but back to you making me clean up after you"
-Fuck...now I'm back to owing this bitch something, Hound you bastard you should've just left with the one bag-
"I have another job for you Van Gogh, something more simple-"
Internally sighing Gyun sat up slowly in his bed,
"And you won't have to worry about reinjuring that deadly little body of yours as it is quite low maintenance it's just guarding some dainty little celebrity who's under our entertainment company"
The hairs on Gyun's neck rose as he answered, "Keeping tabs on me now?"
Her voice almost sounded like a cat's, as her voice seemed so relaxed yet hostile "Well isn't that to be expected for someone who's as high in management as me...so your answer?"
Glancing at his closed bedroom door Gyun made sure no one could hear him, "Do I have a choice?"
"No"