A warm air was circulating in a man’s room as an annoying alarm. “PRRIIIIIII!!! PRRIIIIIII!”

A young man with disheveled hair as he slowly got up and hit “Dismiss”. Yawning, he looked around his room. The room was fairly pair. There were no posters, no instruments, and no decorations with the exception of a rug on the floor next to the bed the young man was currently on. In the opposite corner of the room was a simple desk with a computer set-up and a wooden chair that made one feel uncomfortable just looking at it.

This room doesn’t belong to our main character, rather, it belongs to a young man named: Jeffrey. For simplicity’s sake, this young man will be called Jeff.

Still a little disoriented from just waking up, Jeff went to the edge of the bed where he sat for a few seconds trying to regain his senses. The night before, Jeff had been out all night with his colleagues drinking.

Due to the obsessive amount of drinking, Jeff had a terrible headache. After a moment, when Jeff finally regained his senses, he got up and dressed himself. Looking in the mirror, Jeff saw a young man who looked 20-30 years old looking back.

The man was blonde with hazel eyes. Currently, the man had just undressed and had nothing but boxers on. Underneath the clothes one could see a fairly chiseled body that a bypasser wouldn’t expect from his fairly thin frame. Even though this man wasn’t the biggest, from his body one can see that he would still throw quite a punch.

Looking at his closet, the man picked out a black tuxedo. Men around his age seem to love partying and generally speaking act and dress how crazy drunkards do. These type of people are expected to have all sorts of dispensable clothes in case anything happens at the club. Jeff, however, was different.

One look into his closet and you would know why. As Jeff reached into the closet, one could see that inside was nothing but simple black tuxedos! Next to the neatly arranged tuxes, were just as many simple ties that go along with the tux.

Although this type of habit would seem strange for a man only in his 20-30s, in Jeff’s line of work it isn’t too uncommon. Jeff was getting dressed and just as he tied his tie, a sweet voice came from somewhere else in the house. “Honey, breakfast is ready come out and eat.”

Although this voice wasn’t the nicest, most soothing, nor the sweetest, it was still pleasant to the ears. Perhaps the simplicity of the voice was what made it sound so pleasing.

This voice originated from a simply dressed woman. There was nothing particularly amazing or cute about her but she wasn’t ugly either. Overall, one could only describe this woman in one way: average.

Jeff, however, didn’t mind. Although this woman was remarkably average, she fed him, took care of him, and even gave extra services. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) This woman was his wife and he loved her. As long as he provided for her, she would take care of him and that was his life. Simple yet fulfilling, just like his woman.

The reason why Jeff joined his line of work was for her. Growing up, he had no talent, no purpose, nor any passions. He was, however, fairly strong. Even if it meant risking his life, he would do anything for the love of his life so he joined his job as a guard.

To others, this job seemed simple, easy, and even uninteresting, however, Jeffrey wasn’t the simple guard one would imagine. He worked for a multi-millionaire company and no company becomes this big without… certain measures. Jeffrey’s job was to make sure nothing goes wrong when they take these measures and to protect the head of these business owners.

Although doing these sorts of tasks were by no means easy, Jeffrey had a purpose, his wife. That as the sole drive in everything.

“Itagachimas!” Jeffrey dug into his breakfast, plain rice with kimchi and some side dishes. While Jeff was eating, the pleasant voice let out a cheerful laugh. “No matter how many times I’ve done it, it never fails to satisfy me when I see you’re happy face wolfing down food.” As she said this, the simple woman picked a grain of rice off Jeff’s face and licked it off her thumb.

Jeff looked up from his food to meet this woman eye to eye. This woman’s name was Grace, a name as simple as her nature. To others, she may seem like a normal woman, to Jeffrey she was something else. Of course, contrary to expectations, seeing this scene made Jeff’s heart fill with bitterness. The woman of his life, Grace was dying.

This was the reason why he got into shady business to begin with, instead of working a normal job. Grace had an unusual disease that’s nearly incurable. Nearly, however, is a far way from impossible. Fortunately, Jeff found a doctor that was both willing and able to save Grace.

This doctor, however, was a quack. He demanded an unreasonable amount of money to perform his surgeries and would otherwise let patients die if he wasn’t payed. His behavior, however, was always justified by his catchphrase: “Money’s value can never amount to that of a life.” This, of course, was utter bullsh*t. If one looks closely, a burning fire of greed can be seen in his eyes.

This wasn’t the worst of it though. He would intentionally separate treatments into year-long surgeries and demand separate payments for each one.

Normally, this would be okay as Jeff’s job does compensate enough, however Jeff was never good at bargaining. The quack doctor’s prices tended to steer away patients so even though he charged a lot the doctor himself was fairly broke due to the limited amount of patients that were willing to pay for his services.

Jeff was one of his few regular patients. Seeing as how Jeff was always agreeable in prices, Jeff never realized that it could lead to his downfall. When the doctor started seeing Jeff being able to pay his prices, he decided to raise the prices, claiming “She’s in a critical stage! I need more compensation to do surgeries!”

Currently, as Jeff’s eating, he was very worried about this sudden price change. It would mean that his budget would be severely limited. Although his wife is the one managing his money, she doesn’t know where Jeff gets it from. She see’s him leave for work everyday and come back after hours and this was enough for her. After all, how can there be love without trust?

After finishing his meal, Jeff got up and prepared to leave. As he was putting his jet black shoes on, he said with a smile, “I’m going to work honey, see you soon!” This, however, was a simple facade. As soon as his back turned towards the door, his face fell and a rare sense of seriousness appeared onto his face.

His dark look and black attire made him look like he was about to attend a funeral.

Once he got to work as usual, next to the boss, he was pondering ways to make more money. Suddenly, an elderly voice rose in the room he was guarding. This voice happened to belong to Te Byong, the man Jeff worked for. “You look like you’ve got something on your mind. Tell me, what’s bothering you?”

An uncomfortable look appeared on his face as Jeff said, “Y’know boss, I’ve been having some financial issues with my wife’s medical bills. I need a way to make more money fast.”

A surprised look appeared on Te Byong’s face. “That old croony dared raise prices on you again? I’ll send men out immediately to take care of him.”

“Please don’t, he’s the only doctor I’ve met that can cure her. I need him. Also, as someone in your age range, you shouldn’t be making fun of other’s age.”

“Tsk. Fine.”

The room remained silent for a while. It was visible from Jeff’s constant change of emotions that he was having an internal struggle. Not wanting to disturb, Te Byong remained silent and let Jeff ponder. After a long while, Jeff finally firmed his resolve and said, “Boss is there a way to make money faster? I really need it.”

A crafty look appeared on the old man’s face. Jeff has served the old man for 3 years now and he knew that face meant he was about to swindle someone.

“Hmmm, how much ya need?”

“$500,000 by next week”

“Oho, isn’t that a little much to ask of me Jeff?” As soon as Jeff heard these words he started anxiously shifting in his seat. To outsiders, this may seem like a casual remark someone makes before they politely deny a proposition, however to Jeff, who’s been working with Te Byong for 3 years, it meant that he isn’t going to get his money easily.

“Ehm, I actually have the perfect job for you today. I want you to go down to the first floor and act as the front entrance security guard today.” After he said that, Te Byong proceeded to remain quiet for a while. Jeff obviously knew that he wasn’t getting his money that easily. He wisely waited quietly for Te Byong to finish his sentence.

Te Byong’s face seemed to be having difficulty choosing his words for the catch that came along with his deal. His deals ALWAYS have a catch. Te Byong remained quiet for a full 3 seconds. During this time, his gaze kept wandering and avoiding Jeff’s gaze. After the 3 seconds, Te Byong took a quick peek at Jeff’s eyes and coughed into his fists.

“This isn’t really important, however, a certain man is coming to the office today. He’ll be a tall black man who’s walking with a scrawny boy. As for his name, you’ll naturally know when you see him.”

Te Byong took a pause, although this pause wasn’t particularly long, to Jeff it felt like dust started collecting on the old man’s face before he continued on. “I want you to obstruct this man when he comes. He’ll likely come without an appointment and he’ll try to get through probably with force. Usually, I wouldn’t tempt a man like this who seems to have the temper of the devil, however, I suspect that he might be getting… soft around the edges. You’re fairly smart I don’t have to spell out what I want you to do right?”

It was exactly like Te Byong said. Jeff might not be the smartest academically, however, he’s been doing shady things for a while now and it takes a crafty fellow to avoid the police’s suspicion. Although Te Byong said this wasn’t exactly important, to Jeff this “side quest” was the hidden boss of this deal.

“Umm, if I do see this man, I’ll erm, do my best to ‘obstruct’ him.”

“Good, good, in that case, this job’s yours. Today you’re working as a security guard starting now.”

From there on, Jeff proceeded to work as a security guard. Nothing especially happened during this time, however to Jeff, this time was spent getting free money so he didn’t mind. The day was fairly quiet until later that afternoon when a certain somebody walked in.

Although time was spent doing nothing, Jeff never dropped his guard. If personally assigned by the boss for $500k, this job is no small deal. Jeff made sure to check every male duo that passed through the office and it just so happened that during this time that certain man walked in.

Jeff saw a duo that looked strangely like what Te Byung described. There were two men, the first of which was a average height scrawny man, just like Te Byong described. This young man had black hair and later, as Jeff walked up to this duo, he saw that this young man also had a set of pretty sea blue eyes. A foolish aura seemed to encompass this young man however, to someone who’s been out on the streets as long as Jeff (damn this dude got street cred) he could see that underneath this aura was a sense of determination that was stronger than most he has seen.

Jeff’s pupil’s shrank when he was that next to this young man was a tall black man, just like Te Byong described. When he got in front of the duo, the tall black man indifferently said, “This is Nem, the guy the boss wanted to see.” Jeff must have a talent of constricting eyes because when he heard the name Nem his eyes shrunk to the size of a pin. He distinctly remembered that the boss mentioned this scrawny young boy would be known as Nem.

Although he could’ve started a fight there, the boss wanted to see if this man was getting soft, so an upfront confrontation wasn’t the best approach. Instead he decided to test the waters by saying “I’m sorry but I have no record of an appointment, please come bac-”

It was at this point a colleague ran up and whispered something into Jeff’s ears. He said, “Are you crazy, don’t you know who that man is? It’s Johnson!” Johnson was a name that was infamous throughout this company regardless of occupation. He was known for his overwhelming strength.

If a man like this was getting soft, it was truly a pity for the guarding company as a whole. Jeff decided to strengthen his resolve and provoked Johnson. After making a witty remark about his current job, a sudden pain emitted from his face. After he made his remark, it seemed that Johnson ruthlessly punched Jeff… hard.

After that, Jeff could only hear a few of Johnson’s words. These words happened to be, “I. Am. Johnson.” Right before fainting, Jeff managed to mutter in his heart, “Boss, I don’t think this Johnson fellow is getting soft at all.”