The city didn't wake up gently.
Haneul greeted the morning with raised voices, smashed storefronts, and Tigers yelling at other Tigers in the middle of the street. The night's chaos spread through the gang like a virus, fast, invisible, and impossible to trace.
By noon, everyone in the underworld knew one thing:
The Gapyeong Tigers were no longer a single animal...
they were a pack of wounded beasts snapping at each other.
And the trio watched it unfold at a careful distance.
1. The Signs Of A Split
Their hideout today was the rooftop of an abandoned motel overlooking the river. Broken billboards cast long shadows over the cityscape.
Tae-min sat on a rusted air-conditioning unit, flipping through a new notebook filled with fresh intel.
Soo-jin stood near the edge, hands in his pockets, watching two Tigers down below screaming at each other next to a parked motorcycle.
Sang-ho climbed the ladder last, carrying cold drinks from a vending machine he'd kicked open.
He tossed a can at Soo-jin.
"It's worse out there than we thought," he said, settling down beside Tae-min. "Du-ho's faction is blaming Chan-il's men. Chan-il's men are blaming Ryeon-woo's guys. And the Namgye boys? They're treating this like a buffet."
Soo-jin cracked open the drink without looking away from the street.
"And we haven't even pushed Phase Three yet."
Sang-ho grinned.
"Exactly. We didn't even touch the big dominoes."
But Tae-min didn't smile.
He flipped the notebook around. Several names were circled in red.
Chan-il.
Ryeon-woo.
Du-ho.
Behind each, Tae-min had scribbled numbers and short notes, territories they controlled, men they trusted, men who hated them, anything that could turn tension into eruption.
"We won't need to," he said calmly. "The big dominoes are going to topple themselves."
Han Joon turned to him.
"What do you mean?"
Tae-min closed the notebook slowly.
"We just need to make one of them think the other struck first. That's how gang wars start, not with actual attacks, but with fear of one."
Sang-ho raised an eyebrow.
"So we forge something?"
"No," Tae-min said. "We do something that could be anyone. Something messy enough to spark suspicion, but not enough to give anyone proof."
Soo-jin cracked a knuckle, voice low.
"Something that forces their paranoia to choose a target."
2. The Risk They Shouldn't Take
That afternoon, they crossed Haneul separately again, regrouping near a narrow alley behind a karaoke bar that the Tigers used as a meeting point.
Tae-min checked his watch.
Du-ho's men used this alley between 6 and 7 PM.
Chan-il's men used it after 8.
The perfect overlap.
Sang-ho pulled a duffel bag from behind a trash bin and unzipped it. Inside was a collection of Tiger gear, bandanas, gloves, shirts, stolen weeks earlier.
Han Joon lifted a jacket with the Gapyeong Tiger emblem stitched on the sleeve.
"Are we actually doing this?" he asked.
Tae-min nodded.
"This is the risk. If we want the Tigers to implode, we have to make them believe they've already started fighting each other."
The plan was simple:
Wear clothes stolen from Du-ho's men.
Ambush a small lookout crew loyal to Chan-il.
Don't kill anyone, just hurt them enough to leave an impression.
Leave equipment used by Du-ho's men at the scene.
Let the Tigers fill in the blanks.
It was dangerous.
Bold.
Reckless, even.
Exactly what Phase Three required.
3. The Alley Turns Red
The trio positioned themselves in the shadows just as two of Chan-il's men stepped into the alley, smoking lazily and joking about the chaos in Namgye.
Soo-jin moved first.
He stepped out of the shadows like a ghost, swinging a length of metal pipe toward the first man. It connected with a dull crack against the guy's ribs, sending him crashing into the wall with a cry.
The other man reached for his knife...
Sang-ho grabbed his wrist, twisting hard until the blade clattered to the pavement. He drove a knee into the man's stomach and shoved him down.
Tae-min stayed back, observing, directing. Making sure the fight was loud enough for rumors but quick enough to avoid real injuries.
Soo-jin crouched over the first man and spoke through his mask, low, threatening, and intentionally recognizable.
A voice that sounded like Du-ho's men.
Rough.
Street-tinted.
"You tell Chan-il to mind his own business," he growled. "His boys step in our territory again, and we'll bury them."
Then he smashed the pipe on the ground beside the man's head, loud, but harmless.
Before the two Tigers could recover, the trio disappeared into the maze-like alleys.
Minutes later, they tossed the stolen Du-ho jackets into a storm drain and walked into a crowded street like nothing had happened.
4. Fire Spreads Faster Than Bullets
By nightfall, every Tiger in the city was talking.
"Du-ho's men jumped Chan-il's crew."
"No, Chan-il's guys started it!"
"Someone's lying."
"Someone's trying to take the throne."
Arguments turned into shoving.
Shoving turned into swinging.
Swinging turned into gunshots.
One of Du-ho's lieutenants was pistol-whipped outside a billiards hall.
Chan-il's men stormed a gambling den looking for answers.
Ryeon-woo's faction demanded to know who was doing what.
The trio watched it unfold from a distance.
They were in their apartment, lights off, blinds drawn, listening to police radios and gang chatter through cheap scanners Soo-jin had scavenged years before.
Static.
Voices.
Chaos.
Sang-ho paced across the room, excitement bubbling under his skin.
"We did it. They're actually fighting each other."
Soo-jin sat on the couch, wiping sweat from his jaw, adrenaline still lingering.
"It's only gonna get worse."
Tae-min stood near the window, watching the flicker of blue lights from distant patrol cars.
He didn't speak for a long moment.
Then...
"This is the point of no return."
Sang-ho stopped pacing.
Soo-jin looked up.
"From now on," Tae-min continued softly, "every move we make has to be perfect. Because the Tigers aren't just unstable anymore…"
He turned away from the window, face cold, determined.
"…they're desperate."
And desperate men were far more dangerous than powerful ones.