At night, in a dark alley of a seedy neighborhood, ten men dressed in suits, appearing to be between the ages of 40 and 45, were standing in a circle around a younger man, soaked in his own blood.
The identity of this man is Wood Gi, our protagonist, who is currently suffering the consequences of the actions he took during his life.
"You have no place to run, pathetic young sir," spoke a man with a face full of scars. "It would have been better if you had died with your parents in that accident."
"Or maybe you should have died from alcohol poisoning or from some STD contracted from one of the bitches you slept with in your glory days," mocked another short man.
Woon Gi was the heir to a conglomerate in South Korea, born with a golden spoon in every sense. However, despite his privileged position, from a very young age, he did not take full advantage of all the potential and resources he had. Although he was intelligent, he skipped classes, which caused his grades to be average. He dedicated himself to drinking, pleasure, games, entertainment, and gambling, tarnishing his image and that of his parents at the same time.
Due to Won Gi's debts, his parents lost much of their fortune. Despite all this, they continued trying to correct their son and teach him to be a good man, with the intention that in the future he could inherit their companies.
The attitude of Woon Gi's parents towards him was not well received by their partners, who feared that, under his leadership, everything they had built would quickly come crashing down. Convinced that they had to act, they conceived a desperate plan: to cause a car accident that would end the lives of all three.
However, fate was not on their side, and their plan failed. Woon Gi survived. Grieving the loss of his parents, he vowed to become a better person and decided to invest his fortune in his own education. Meanwhile, he entrusted the management of the family businesses to Chung-Hee, a "close friend" of the family and one of the conspirators behind the tragic event. Unaware of the hidden truth, Woon Gi believed he could trust him.
This was his first mistake. With the company under his command, Chung-Hee made sure to gradually transfer the employees from Woon Gi's companies to a new company that he and his parents' former partners had created, slowly leaving Woon Gi in ruins.
By the time Woon Gi graduated from university at 28, he was bankrupt. He knew they had taken advantage of his parents' death to take everything from them, but in his heart, he felt he had no right to claim anything, so he didn't. He thought it was enough that he had used his parents' money for his education all those years, so he let the matter pass and decided to make a name for himself.
The means by which he hoped to make a name for himself was his business administration degree. He did very well in university, so he thought he could be a great manager for some company and then start his own, but when he went out to look for work, he encountered the cold reality of the workforce.
Without anyone to back him up, it was difficult to get a job, and it was even more complicated if you didn't have work experience or a notable resume.
So Woon Gi had to start with jobs for which his degree was worth nothing. He went through many jobs, from loader at a fishing terminal, waiter, cleaner, and his last job was at McDonald's.
At 31, Woon Gi was an ordinary McDonald's worker. One day, like any other while he was at the cash register taking orders from customers, an older man entered the McDonald's ready to eat at the establishment. He approached the register to place his order and was paralyzed when he saw Woon Gi, and moments later, he burst into tears.
The older man was the one who had crashed into the car in which he and his parents were traveling, killing them in the process. At first glance, Woon Gi did not recognize him, but upon hearing him cry, he remembered the trial that took place after the accident and how he cried just like now, recognizing him quickly.
He remembered how, between tears and regret, the man told him that he was drunk and that it was not his intention to kill his parents. He assured that everything was a mistake and begged for forgiveness and understanding.
Remembering his past, a flood of emotions overwhelmed Woon Gi. However, acting professionally, he contained his feelings and asked the man what his order was, sketching a fake smile on his face.
The man, still crying, understood that Woon Gi did not want to make a scene. Therefore, he calmed down and told him that he had something important to communicate. He mentioned that he would wait for him to finish his shift and that he would meet him at the exit.
That's what happened. The man waited patiently for Woon Gi to finish his shift. When he finally came out, he approached him and asked that they go to a private place. The topic he wanted to discuss was of a delicate nature.
Woon Gi accepted the man's request and led him to his home. Upon arrival, the man confessed something that would change his destiny. He revealed that months before the car accident, his wife had become seriously ill. Burdened by hospital bills, he was in a desperate situation.
It was then that a chubby man, dressed in a gray suit and red glasses, approached him with an unusual offer. In exchange for a single action, the man in the suit committed to paying all the medical bills for his wife, granting him an additional $500,000, and providing quality education for his children. The task: to crash the vehicle in which Woon Gi and his family were traveling with the intention of killing all the occupants.
The man in the suit, sweetening the proposal even further, assured him that he need not fear going to jail. In addition to the rewards, they would provide the best lawyers and take measures to minimize his sentence as much as possible.
The older man told him that he hesitated at first, but after thinking about the critical state in which his wife was, he realized that if he wanted to save her, he had to accept that man's proposal.
After hearing the man's story, Woon Gi broke down, feeling an anger as intense as the world itself. Gone was the understanding he felt for that man, gone was the empathy he felt for the man because he himself had been an alcoholic who had driven drunk before, he had no more pity for that person, the only feeling that remained in his being was RAGE.
It was at that moment that Woon Gi committed his second and last great mistake.
Woon Gi tortured the man to get more information and then killed him. The information obtained from the deceased and the memories that surfaced in his mind wove a network of connections, revealing a conspiracy looming over him and his parents. In a cruel twist of fate, he discovered that almost all of his parents' "friends" from the old company were involved in this plot.
In his anger, he did not measure the consequences of his actions and stealthily killed 2 of his parents' former partners. Naturally, the deaths of the 2 partners were not ignored and although the police could not know who it was due to the subtlety with which the crime was committed, the company's high command did have a suspect in mind.
After murdering two people with his own hands, Woon Gi managed to regain calm and lucidity. However, it was too late; they were chasing him. So here we are in the present, with Woon Gi cornered, tortured, and humiliated in a sinister alley of a disreputable neighborhood.
'Damn it, this really is going to be my end,' Woon Gi thought as he coughed up blood. His limbs had been impaled with rusted iron bars, his nails ripped out, and his skin burned. Woon Gi's throat was damaged due to the torture inflicted by the men who sought to find out if he had any accomplices.
'At least those idiots will forever be left wondering if I had any accomplices,' Woon Gi thought as he coughed up blood. 'Enjoy your paranoia, fools.'
One of the men in suits suggested: "Hey boss, let's burn the whole place down and leave. The guy is going to die."
The boss, visibly angry, replied: "Don't give me orders, damn fool!" Then, with a firm voice, he shouted: "Let's get out of here."
"Understood," they all shouted in unison and then ran to their vehicles, but not before dousing the place with gasoline and setting it on fire.
With his body being burned by blazing flames, and his limbs broken and his throat worn out, the only thing Woon Gi could do was think: 'I wish I could go back in time. If I went back in time, I would leave all my excesses behind and dedicate myself only to my studies and develop my potential'.
.
.
.
.
'Thinking about it better and knowing myself, I think a more realistic perspective would be to achieve a balance between pleasure and development.'
'Yes, that would be great.'
'It would be great to have a second chance', Woon Gi thought before being taken by the cold embrace of death.
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A/N:"I'm new at this; if you have any advice, I'd love to hear it.