The team froze. Haru Lin stopped looking around. Jung Ho frowned. Lu Shen even forgot his shame, staring at Ming You with a silent question. Only Hong Ren didn't change his absent expression.
Ming You slowly turned his empty, lifeless gaze to Tae Sagi. He let the pause hang for a second longer than was natural.
"A van?" he uttered, and his voice held a slight, genuine, almost childlike bewilderment. "What are you talking about?"
Tae Sagi narrowed his eyes, and his smile widened, but sharp, cold sparks danced in the corners of his eyes.
"Oh, come on!" he exclaimed, slapping his forehead. "You're not going to deny it, are you? I saw you at least three times. Once on the embankment, you were tailing someone like a proper private detective. The second time — at night at a crosswalk, looking so thoughtful, staring at a red light. And the third..." he made a theatrical pause, savoring the moment, "just yesterday, early morning. Driving along... so focused. With an empty cargo bay, by the way. After a very, very long night, I presume. You have a funny route, Ming You. Not a school bus, not the subway... but your own little truck. Road romance, is that it?"
Every word hit the mark. The team shifted their gazes from Tae Sagi to Ming You and back. Jung Ho coughed uncertainly:
"Ming... you really have a van? You never said..."
"What van, Jung Ho?" interrupted Haru Lin, but his voice no longer held sarcasm, but alarm. "He doesn't even have a driver's license. We're all sixteen or seventeen."
"Exactly," Ming You countered evenly, without a trace of embarrassment. He even tilted his head slightly, as if trying to understand a strange joke. "I don't have a driver's license, Tae Sagi. And, accordingly, I don't have a car. No van, no sedan. Maybe you imagined it? Or mistook someone else for me? There are plenty of guys my age on the streets."
His tone was so calm, so convincingly clueless, that for a second even Tae Sagi thought he might have been mistaken. But only for a second. Then he laughed — a short, dry chuckle, like the crackling of dry wood.
"Oh, 'imagined it'!" he repeated, shaking his head. "I, dear boy, never confuse faces in my life. Especially such... expressive ones. And the empty cargo bay of that van wasn't 'sort of' empty. It was perfectly empty. Washed, aired out... As if someone very diligent had worked there with a mop and bleach. A familiar feeling, huh? After a deep clean."
Something dangerous began to hang in the air. Lu Shen felt goosebumps run down his spine. Hong Ren finally looked up from the floor and stared intently at Ming You.
Ming You didn't flinch. He took a step forward, reducing the distance between them to half a meter. Now they stood almost nose to nose. Ming You was shorter, but his absolute, chilling stillness made him seem monolithic.
"Tae Sagi," he said quietly but clearly, so that each word fell like a drop of ice. "You talk a lot. About vans, about cleaning, about night drives. These are very interesting fantasies. Perhaps you're stressed after recent events? Or," he narrowed his eyes almost imperceptibly, "are you just trying to confuse me about something? Pin something on me that isn't true? Maybe you didn't like that scene with the girl, and you're looking for a reason to make my life difficult?"
He turned to his team, spreading his hands in a sincere, almost offended gesture they had never seen from him.
"Guys, you know me. Where would I get a van? With what? With money from basketball bets? We spent it all right away. And even if I suddenly bought some junk heap," he looked at Tae Sagi again, and for the first time a cold, controlled spark of challenge flashed in his eyes, "do you really think I'd buy a van, and not some cool Lexus? And would I drive it under the nose of someone as observant as Tae Sagi? As if on purpose, so he'd notice me? Am I suicidal? Or an idiot? And, if I had a van, wouldn't I bring my team in it? Isn't that what transport and friends are for?"
The logic was ironclad. It hit the very weakness of Tae Sagi's argument — his own paranoid conviction that everything around him was part of a game. Ming You wasn't denying the obvious — he was denying the very sense of such an action on his part. And it sounded incredibly convincing.
Jung Ho breathed a sigh of relief. Haru Lin smirked mockingly again, but now towards Tae Sagi:
"Well, he's right. Ming You is capable of a lot, but not outright stupidity. That would be too... simple."
Tae Sagi stood motionless. His wide smile froze on his face like a mask. But behind it, deep in those mocking eyes, something stirred. Not anger. Not irritation. Deep, icy surprise mixed with a new, burning interest. He looked at Ming You, who had not just deflected his attack, but masterfully turned it against him, casting doubt not on the facts, but on the sanity of the one presenting them.
"Hah," ran through Tae Sagi's mind with near admiration. "So that's what you're like. You don't defend. You don't justify. You attack the very platform from which you're being attacked. 'It's not me who's crazy, it's you who's paranoid.' Damn..."
He understood that right now, in front of his whole team, he looked either like a paranoid stalker watching schoolkids, or a schemer trying to slander their captain out of thin air. And both options were deeply disadvantageous to him.
Tae Sagi slowly, very slowly began to laugh. This time the laughter was different — not biting, but warm, almost friendly, full of self-irony.
"Oh, damn, Ming You, you're just a genius!" he exclaimed, slapping his thigh. "You saw right through me! I confess, yes, I was a bit... tense after all these negotiations. My head's buzzing. And my eyes started playing tricks on me — began seeing you in every white van!" He turned to the team, spreading his hands. "Sorry, guys, the old man screwed up. Got paranoid over nothing. Your captain, as always, is clean before the law and before my hallucinations."
He took a step back, making way, and his gesture was now full of ostentatious, almost royal magnanimity.
"Don't pay attention to the ramblings of an old fool. Come in, make yourselves at home! Sung Wo! Greet the guests, see to them, don't be shy. I hear these guys' wallets are especially thick today from... anticipation. And drinks are on me for everyone! As an apology for my sclerosis and overactive imagination!"
It wasn't a capitulation. It was a tactical retreat with face saved. But in Tae Sagi's eyes, when they met Ming You's gaze again, something more than a game flickered for a moment. Recognition flickered. Recognition of an equal. Recognition that before him wasn't a cocky pup, but a predator capable of rewriting the rules of an encounter on the fly and emerging unscathed, forcing Tae Sagi himself to apologize publicly.
Ming You nodded, barely perceptibly. His face became stony and indifferent again. He had won this round. He had forced Tae Sagi to retreat and even pay for his retreat. But the price was clear: the interest from the most dangerous man in the area had now shifted from suspicious curiosity to cold, analytical attention. The game had become even more dangerous, but for now, the score was in his favor.
As the team, hesitantly shuffling their feet, settled at a table, Jin Xi approached the bar counter. She had already changed out of her work uniform into something more personal and revealing — a short black dress that left little to the imagination. She held two cocktails in her hands. One she placed in front of herself, the other, with an ostentatiously playful smile, she carried across the hall straight to Ming You's table.
"Well, well, if it isn't our local hero," she sang, placing a glass of pink fizz in front of him. "Heard you're the head toy boy around here now? Leading a whole team... That's pretty hot, you know. Smart guys are always in demand. Especially such... goal-oriented ones..."
She leaned over, resting her hands on the table, giving him a full view of her cleavage. Ming You didn't even bat an eye. He slowly raised his gaze from the glass to her face. His expression didn't change — the same icy, lifeless plain.
"Yeah, you're right," he said in an even, toneless voice that grated after her syrupy tone. "That is pretty hot. So, Jin Xi, get the fuck out of here."
The silence at their table became tomb-like. Haru Lin stifled a snicker. Lu Shen's eyes bulged. Jin Xi froze for a second, her sweet smile twitched but didn't vanish — professional habit kicked in.
"Ooh, you're so rude today," she made an offended face, but her eyes flashed with excitement. "I hope you really are riled up, snapping like that."
She reached out to touch his shoulder, her fingers with long crimson nail polish aimed at his hand.
Ming You didn't even pull away. He simply turned his head a few degrees towards the bar and said loudly, clearly, so everyone could hear:
"Sung Wo."
The manager, just beginning to recover from the encounter with Tae Sagi, flinched as if from an electric shock.
"Get this whore out of here. Now."
Sung Wo froze for a second, his brain frantically working, weighing Ming You's order against the possible reaction of Tae Sagi, who was watching this scene leaning against the doorframe with an expression of blissful curiosity. Sung Wo sighed heavily and headed for the table.
Jin Xi finally understood this wasn't a game. Her face darkened with anger and humiliation.
"Hey, what's the deal? I'm just having fun!" her voice rose to a shrill note.
"Have fun somewhere else," Sung Wo uttered dully, grabbing her elbow. His grip was firm, leaving no doubt. "No offense. That's the decision."