He Runs Crime, I Run Justice

My childhood dream with Zachary was to become police officers.

But later on.

He became the head of New York's largest criminal organization.

And I became his most formidable lieutenant.

The day we were both arrested and imprisoned.

He rubbed his nose and said:

We're even now. In our next life, let's be brothers again.

But I lowered my eyes, calmly had the guard open my door, and said to him through the iron bars:

"Sorry, but this is my badge number."

My identityI'm an undercover cop.

The day Zachary was sentenced, it drizzled.

I sat at the courthouse entrance smoking, but the rain kept extinguishing my cigarette. I couldn't get it lit.

When they were led out, the organization's former second-in-command spat at me.

"Pah! Liam, you ungrateful bastard."

My hand holding the cigarette trembled as I looked at Zachary.

He still showed no expression.

Back then, I thought that would be the last time I'd ever see him.

That this demon who'd taken countless lives would die by firing squad.

And I would finally, completely end my years of undercover work.

The next day.

The precinct informed me.

Zachary had escaped from prison.

When I heard the news, I was writing my debriefing report.

A uniformed colleague burst in and tackled me to the ground.

"Zachary escaped!!"

"The armed forces they had don't match the intel you provided!!"

"Did you hold something back?!"

His fists rained down on me without reason.

He grabbed me by the collar, and I tilted my head to the side.

Colleagues rushed in to pull us apart.

The man coughed violently and threw a photo at me.

In the photo.

Inside the only transport vehicle left at the scene.

Zachary had used my colleagues' blood...

To write my name over and over again.

"The ones who took Zachary are foreign forces we haven't identified yet."

"The officers transporting Zachary have been confirmed. Thirty-one people. Not one survived."

My lighter wouldn't ignite.

My partner gestured with his chin toward the man who'd just burst in and attacked me.

"Young's girlfriend... was among them."

So his girlfriend had just been killed.

No wonder he resented me so much.

"I didn't withhold information."

"I never knew he had foreign backing."

I shoved the lighter into my pocket.

Suddenly let out a dejected laugh.

No matter how I explained it, it sounded hollow.

"It's okay, I believe you."

My partner patted my shoulder.

"If you wanted to side with Zachary, this whole area would've been reduced to rubble by now."

"..."

I didn't know how to respond.

So I stared at the white mist dispersing in the air.

But my mind inexplicably wandered back.

The night before Zachary was arrested, he'd rubbed my shoulder.

"Liam, got a light?"

The man had a sharp nose bridge, and when he looked down, his lashes were long.

He leaned close to me, taking a spark from the cigarette in my mouth.

I asked him if he didn't have his own lighter.

He laughed and said he wanted everything of mine.

After graduating from the police academy, I went undercover to get close to Zachary.

When we were young, Zachary and I had stayed at the same orphanage.

In our youth, we'd been close friends.

Because of this, I had perfect, ideal conditions for approaching Zachary.

But the moment we met, he had his men beat me up.

I remember that day he wore a pair of dirty Adidas sneakers, stepping on my shoulder with his shoe.

My finger bone was broken on the first goit hurt worse than any injury I'd gotten at the police academy.

He grabbed my hair and asked me:

"Didn't I tell you to get lost? Why did you come back?"

I gritted my teeth to keep from crying out, but I looked up, meeting his eyes directly.

I said,

"Don't send me away."

"I can't survive out there, Zachary."

Zachary took me in.

But for several nights in a row, he just had me drink with his gang of thugs.

"Come on, drink up."

"You're Liam, right? I heard you're the boss's brother?"

A sleazy young man draped his arm over my shoulder.

My clean white shirt seemed too out of place in that world.

So he laughed mockingly.

"Fuck, why so shy?"

"We're all bros here."

"Look, your brother"

Through my swaying vision, I followed his pointing finger to where Zachary sat.

I saw a strikingly beautiful young man climbing onto the lap of a man who was tilting his head back, chugging alcohol.

Nearby, his subordinates chatted and laughed, completely used to it.

...This was the first time I learned about Zachary's sexual orientation.

I began to feel relieved for my childhood self.

The one who used to crawl into Zachary's bed and rub his stomach.

I told Zachary I'd graduated middle school but dropped out of high school.

He laughed with a cigarette in his mouth, calling me stupid.

"Back then I fought tooth and nail to get you out."

"And you ended up like this?"

"..."

But those few days, I was also quite troubled.

On the surface, Zachary ran a tea business, and the work he arranged for me was keeping track of daily tea sales.

But anyone could figure out he wasn't actually selling tea.

That day, I rushed out and blocked him as he was about to get in his car.

"You can't have me selling tea leaves for the rest of my life."

He laughed. I always felt I must seem pretty cute to him.

"So what do you want to sell?"

The man tilted his head, asking me with considerable patience.

But I froze.

If I actually said something at that moment, he'd probably put a gun to my head on the spot.

"Scared now?"

He smiled, studying my expression.

From that moment, I began to understandhe wasn't the Zachary I used to know anymore.

He had more tricks up his sleeve than books I'd read, had long since walked a completely different path from me.

I steeled myself and got in his car.

"I want to sell what you're selling."

"Zachary, I want to do something big."

"Why should you get to do it, but not me?"

Then Zachary brought me to...

A canned meat processing plant.

...

"You're messing with me."

I twitched my mouth, coming to this conclusion.

"This factory is yours now, Liam. You've studied, so you know how to run it."

"This will be enough for your whole life..."

"I don't want it."

Only now did I realize.

He was planning to shake me off.

"Why can they follow you, but I can't?"

"Don't you trust me? Do you think because I joined later, I'm suspicious?"

"Fine, Zachary, then watch closelycompared to your men, who's more willing to risk their life for you?"

As I spoke, I started to put my hand into the running tea mixing machine beside us.

Actually, in that second, my heart was racing.

I'd even figured out how to report a work injury if my hand really got ground up.

But the man lunged forward and pinned me to the ground.

That was the first time I saw him angry.

"Fucking hell, Liam, whose body do you think you're playing with?"

"Can you stop messing around?"

"How could I possibly let you join me? You know what I do..."

"Could get you killed?"

He asked me, almost frantically.

But in my heart, I answered him clearly.

Of course I know what you're doing.

I came here to get you killed.

But what I said aloud was:

"Zachary, let me help you."

"I'm already a mess anyway, this is all my life will ever be."

"You might as well take care of me. I'll be your problem for life."

Zachary definitely didn't know I was the documentary type.

When it came to throwing tantrums, he couldn't really win against me.

As if forced into a corner, he slowly started letting me get involved in his operations.

Saturday night, they were going to raid that nightclub in the south district.

This was my first assignment

Take a few guys, kick down the nightclub's door, and smash everything in sight.

Before I left, Zachary squeezed my wrist.

"Such thin arms and legs."

"Can you even fight?"

...

I really wanted to tell him my police academy scores were good enough to take down a dozen of him.

But in the end, I just grinned at him.

"Zachary."

"Just watch."

After nightfall, the city surged with an uneasy scent of blood.

I led the group and kicked down the opposing headquarters' door first.

This gradually evolved into an all-out gang war.

It was my first time seeing people hacking at each other with machetescompletely different from the minor scuffles at the police academy.

I nearly got hit several times.

Dodging frantically on instinct in the crowd.

Suddenly I heard someone shout my name.

I looked instinctively.

Someone shoved me hard, and I tumbled out onto the street.

"And you wanted me to 'just watch.'"

"Watch you get yourself killed?"

Just now, if Zachary hadn't pushed me aside, that machete would've come down the next second and severed my carotid artery.

The person who'd prevented me from becoming a human blood fountain.

Now groaned with some discomfort.

...

Fresh red blood darkened his already dark clothes.

He shouldn't have been here, but he'd forcibly taken that blow for me.

I stood there thinking.

Don't you dare die.

I want to send you to prison, not to hell.

"Why are you standing there? Run!"

"Fuck, Liam, I really fell for your bullshit."

"You should've just stayed home where it's safe."

"..."

The man pushed me away irritably.

Just like when we were littlewhen others bullied me, he'd yell at me the same way.

"You're useless. Get out of the way, I'll beat those guys up."

Unfortunately.

Adult gang fights aren't children's games.

When the police sirens sounded, that's what I thought.

This location was quite remote.

The police arrived unusually fast.

Clearly someone had tipped them off.

Both gangs' members instantly became rats fleeing in panic.

Even so, quite a few were caught.

Zachary and I both got away, but his people suffered heavy casualtiesnot just his own injury, but his manpower and influence.

Obviously, this police operation was very successful.

In the car, I bandaged the wound on his abdomen.

He reached out his fingers, restlessly tousling my short hair.

"Liam, without me you'd be dead today."

I lowered my eyes. He really was toughhe didn't even grunt when the iodine seeped into his wound.

"I can fight pretty well."

"Next time I won't panic like that."

I tied him an ugly bow and answered.

He tilted his head, his deep eyes fixed on me, then suddenly smiled.

"Liam."

"There's something I never told you."

"I only told you about our retreat route."

"But..."

"The police blocked us right on our escape route, perfectly positioned."

The man reached up and lifted my chin.

His rough fingertip sent an odd sensation through me.

"What do you think..."

"Will I let there be a next time?"

"Little traitor?"

"..."

I met his eyes directly.

Shook off his hand.

"Don't fucking touch me."

"You suspect me? Zachary, you've got some nerve calling me a traitor."

"Don't I look enough like your dog already?"

I don't know why, but my anger flared up instantly.

For a moment, even I believed how loyal I was to him.

The person across from me stared at me without blinking, saying nothing.

But I knew clearly what that bulge in his pocket was.

Maybe the next second, if he got pissed off.

He could just pull it out, press it to my forehead, and send me to meet my maker.

In the end, after holding it in for a long while,

All he said to me was one sentence.

"Get out of the car."

Huh?

I didn't react, because the car was still going 80 mph.

He suddenly opened the car door and threw me out.

I came to my senses mid-tumble, and before I could count how many bones I'd broken, I staggered to my feet.

The car had already driven far away. I didn't even get to eat its exhaust.

On the roadside in the middle of nowhere, I kicked a tree trunk.

"Fuck."

I was truly fucking innocent.

Because from beginning to end, I never reported Zachary's retreat route to headquarters.

I understood Zachary too damn well.

This guy would definitely set traps for me.

So much for brotherly lovepeople like him faced betrayal from those closest to them most easily.

So he was suspicious and cautious.

But there was one thing I couldn't figure out.

If I didn't leak it, then where did headquarters get their information from?

Was Zachary bluffing me?

No, it didn't seem like it.

The way he threw me out of the car without mercy.

At least proved he had enough evidence to identify me as the culprit.

Ten days later, Zachary found me again.

At a fried chicken shop.

I'd been staying here these past few days. The owner charged me 20 bucks a night to crash.

My arm was roughly in a makeshift sling, one leg was limping, and I leaned against the wall watching a bunch of old men play cards.

He wore a Burberry trench coat I could never afford in this lifetime.

Hands in his pockets.

Looking down at me.

Smiling:

"How'd you think to hide here?"

"Know how long I've been looking for you?"

I realized I really was like a dog.

He was the bonewhen he turned around, I'd come wagging after him.

I'd practically lost all face.

I really wanted to kick him flying, but I was afraid my other leg would go lame too, so I could only roll my eyes at him.

"How would I dare."

"What brings Master Zachary to find me?"

"What, planning to deal with this 'traitor'? Chop off all four limbs?"

I kindly provided him with suggestions for disposing of me, but he just kept smiling.

Reached out and smoothed my hair.

"Really hold grudges."

"We figured it out. It really wasn't Liam who leaked it."

"Our conversation that day was overheard by the police's actual mole."

"I misjudged you, Liam. But you know, in my line of work, what I fear most is people close to me stabbing me in the back."

He looked down and squeezed my shoulder. I could hear the sincerity in his words.

"Forgive me, okay?"

But my heart sank heavily.

Yes, my suspicion was cleared.

Then.

That police undercover who got caughtwho exactly was it...?