Sang Baek stepped out and stood in front of Jungseok, sweeping his gaze across the three of them.
"Let him tie his shoelace first, kids. I'll keep you company in the meantime."
Vin Jin looked at him. "Does everyone in Jinrang Gang enjoy fighting losing battles?"
"It's different," Sang Baek said, the corner of his mouth moving slightly. "He goes straight through. I don't."
Daniel didn't say anything. He took a step forward.
Sang Baek didn't waste words either. He moved.
But he didn't charge. He drifted sideways. Daniel turned to track him, and Vin Jin moved to cut off the other side. Sang Baek's eyes flicked between their positions, then he suddenly dropped low and dragged his hand across the ground.
A fistful of grit flew straight into Vin Jin's face.
Vin Jin's eyes snapped shut on instinct. In that same instant Sang Baek was already through, brushing past him, and drove his elbow hard into the back of his neck.
Vin Jin stumbled forward two steps.
Daniel cut in from the side. Sang Baek turned, sidestepped Daniel's punch, caught his wrist on the way past and pressed it down, pulling his weight low, then brought his knee up into Daniel's stomach.
Daniel grunted and gave up a step.
'Fast.' Daniel's brow tightened. 'And he never stops moving. He won't let you find a rhythm.'
Sang Baek moved again, this time straight at Vin Jin. Vin Jin reached to grab him. Sang Baek ducked under his guard and drove his shoulder into Vin Jin's chest. Vin Jin stumbled sideways two steps.
Daniel came from behind, locking both arms around Sang Baek to pin him. Sang Baek didn't fight it. He just threw his weight backward, dropping onto Daniel, and headbutted him in the face on the way down.
Daniel let go.
Sang Baek rolled to his feet and shook out his shoulders.
'These kids,' he thought. 'Any one of them alone would be trouble. But all three together... I can't keep this up forever.'
He didn't let it show. His face stayed loose and easy.
Vasco didn't bother circling. He came straight in, dropping a low kick into Sang Baek's shin. Sang Baek jumped sideways but caught part of it, and his leg went slightly numb. Vasco followed up, driving a knee toward his stomach.
Sang Baek turned, took it on the outer thigh instead of the gut, and shoved Vasco's arm aside, stepping back to reset the distance.
Vin Jin and Daniel were already closing from both sides.
All three pressed in at once. Sang Baek kept his feet moving, stretching their formation loose and uneven. He faked toward Vin Jin, Vin Jin bit on it, and Sang Baek immediately turned and punched Daniel in the shoulder, then jumped clear.
Daniel's shoulder dipped back.
'His power isn't small,' Daniel thought. 'And every hit he throws is meant to actually hurt you.'
The standoff dragged on. The three of them couldn't pin Sang Baek down, but Sang Baek wasn't managing to do much damage either.
Then Vasco circled behind Sang Baek and kicked at his flank. Sang Baek stepped forward to avoid it and grabbed an empty soju bottle off a nearby table on his way, swinging it back into Vasco's raised forearm.
The bottle shattered. A cut opened across Vasco's arm and he stepped back half a pace.
A stir ran through the crowd.
"WHOOO!!?"
"AS EXPECTED OF SANG BAEK!!!"
"SEE THAT, YOU BRATS?!!!"
"THIS IS BUSAN'S POWER!!"
"THIS AIN'T NO PLACE FOR LITTLE PUNKS LIKE YOU TO BE MESSING AROUND!"
Sang Baek kept the broken half in his hand and looked at the three of them, mouth pulling slightly. "What, upset I'm not playing fair?"
Vin Jin touched the back of his neck. "That's why I don't like team fighting."
Vasco took a stance and cracked his neck. "I'm going first. Don't you dare butt in."
Daniel stepped up beside him. "Same. Stay out of it."
Someone in the crowd shouted, "Hold on, Sang Baek-ssi!"
Someone else shouted back, "Come on, Seoul kids!"
Sang Baek's eyes drifted briefly to a row of soju bottles lined up at the edge of the floor. Something moved in his expression.
Then he suddenly stopped moving altogether and just stood still.
Vin Jin's brow furrowed. 'What is he doing?'
Daniel felt it too. 'He stopped...'
All three rushed him at the same time.
In that instant, Sang Baek spat.
Glass fragments.
Nobody had seen when he'd bitten off the neck of a bottle, chewed it down to fine shards, and held it in his mouth waiting for this exact moment. The fragments sprayed across all three of their faces and eyes.
Vin Jin and Vasco had no time to react. Both of them flinched away, eyes forced shut.
Daniel was faster. He threw his arm up in front of his face and blocked most of it, but a few pieces caught his forehead, drawing thin lines of blood.
Sang Baek was already moving.
He went straight for Vin Jin, whose eyes still hadn't recovered. A punch to the temple. Vin Jin dropped sideways. Sang Baek grabbed his collar and threw him into Vasco, and both of them went down together.
Then he turned to Daniel.
Daniel's forehead was bleeding. His eyes were steady.
The two of them looked at each other for a second. Sang Baek moved first.
Three feints, rapid and clean. The fourth was real — a punch driving straight at Daniel's stomach. Daniel stepped back. Sang Baek followed, swinging his elbow in a wide horizontal arc.
Daniel ducked under it, redirected the elbow wide, and drove a hand blade strike into the side of Sang Baek's neck.
Sang Baek's footing broke. He lurched sideways two steps.
He touched his neck, turned back to look at Daniel, and for the first time his expression shifted slightly.
'That hand...' he thought. 'Jichang Kwak?'
Vin Jin and Vasco were back on their feet.
All three surrounded him again.
Sang Baek drew a slow breath and reset his stance.
'Not done yet.'
That was when the crowd at the edge of the floor stirred.
Someone walked in through the people.
His gait was off. He was clearly carrying injuries. But he kept walking, one step at a time.
Zack Lee.
Sang Baek looked at him once. A beat of silence.
'Jaegwang and Hashik... are done too.'
Zack walked up beside the three of them and looked at Sang Baek, still catching his breath. "Did I miss it?"
"Almost over," Vin Jin said. "Why are you running around when you're injured?"
"Shut up," Zack said, glaring at him. "I can still fight."
Sang Baek looked at the four of them and said nothing.
He understood how the situation had changed. Four against one. And he wasn't without his own damage — his leg was still slightly numb, and the strike to his neck hadn't fully settled.
But he didn't step back.
He moved forward one step. 'Come on then.'
Daniel raised a hand, stopping the others.
He took a step forward instead. "Sang Baek-ssi," he said, his tone level. "We didn't come to Busan to fight Jinrang Gang."
Sang Baek didn't move.
"We came to propose an alliance," Daniel continued. "And to warn you about something. There's a threat moving in. It won't just affect Jinrang Gang — all of Busan is going to feel it."
Sang Baek looked at him. A beat of silence, then a cold scoff. "Save the act. Jinrang Gang isn't finished. As long as 'He' is still standing, Jinrang Gang hasn't lost."
"I'm not acting." Daniel's brow furrowed. "I didn't want things to get this far either. We came here to talk, but every time we tried to explain ourselves, the situation got out of hand before we could—"
A low, heavy sound cut through the air.
The rumble of tires grinding across pavement, rolling in from outside.
A ship's horn, deep and long, drifting in from the direction of the harbor.
And then the thudding churn of rotor blades, growing louder overhead.
The crowd stirred. Spectators looked around at all sides, not sure what was happening.
Baki raised his head too.
He didn't say anything. He just listened to the sounds closing in from every direction at once, and his eyes slowly went still and focused.
'What's happening?'