The crime scene reeked of rain, copper, and cigarette smoke.
Detective Kang Jae-Min stepped under the flickering alleyway light, his polished shoes splashing through a puddle stained pink from runoff and blood. He pulled out a handkerchief, covering his nose as the lingering stench of death clung to the air.
"Five bodies," his junior officer, Lee Seon-Woo, reported grimly. "All ours — well, hers."
He didn't have to explain who her was. In Busan and Seoul alike, the name Ji-Yeon didn't need to be spoken aloud. It hung in the air like a curse.
Kang crouched beside one of the bodies, a man slumped against the wall, eyes wide open in frozen shock.
Single clean stab wound through the heart.
Not a mark elsewhere.
Professional. Precise. Personal.
"These weren't random street hits," Kang murmured, studying the angles. "No overkill. No message left behind. No claiming it. And no witnesses?"
"None willing to talk," Seon-Woo confirmed. "CCTV was cut in the area between midnight and 3 a.m. Somebody planned this."
Kang ran a hand through his hair, the drizzle soaking into his jacket.
This wasn't some turf war escalation.
This was surgical.
Whoever did this had a target, a message — but not for the police.
For Ji-Yeon.
And it wasn't the first time.
His mind ticked through the past few months.
Vanished lieutenants. Quiet executions. Anonymous corpses dumped in docks and warehouses.
None of them tied to any rival gangs officially.
Always the same patterns.
And always one step ahead.
"You think it's an inside job?" Seon-Woo asked.
"No," Kang muttered. "This isn't one of theirs. Too clean. Too controlled. Whoever's doing this isn't in it for the power. He's not here to take over. He's here to erase them."
A cold knot formed in his gut.
It wasn't gang violence.
It was vengeance.
"Send word to Seoul HQ," Kang ordered. "I want connections on every incident like this in the last six months. Dead enforcers. Disappeared capos. Any unclaimed bodies."
Seon-Woo frowned. "You think this is part of something bigger?"
"I know it is."
As Seon-Woo jogged off, Kang stood alone in the rain-slicked alley, his gut twisting.
Someone was hunting them.
And whoever it was —
they were good.
Too good.
And when the storm finally broke, it wasn't just the gangs that would bleed.