Joe sat alone in the living room while a game show played on the TV. Geon-woo and Hyeon-ju had left earlier to take Geon-woo's mom to the orphanage.
Woo-jin had woken up a little while ago and Yang-jung dragged him off to the restaurant. Only President Choi remained in the house with Joe.
As Joe focused on the screen, he saw dark shadows pass by the window in the corner of his eye. He immediately turned his head and saw the tops of several heads moving past the glass.
"Oh shit!"
Joe stood up and rushed toward President Choi's room. He burst through the door without knocking.
"President Choi! Kim Myeong-gil's thugs are outside."
President Choi looked up with a startled expression. He pulled his phone from his pocket and opened the security camera app.
The screen showed several men circling the house and trying to find a way inside. President Choi looked at Joe with a grim face.
"Let's go to the basement. There is a gun down there."
Joe nodded and grabbed the handles of the wheelchair. He pushed President Choi out of the room and toward the living room where the basement lift was.
CRASH!
The sound of shattering glass echoed through the house. The thugs were breaking through the front windows and several men climbed into the living room.
Joe saw a man lunging at them with a metal pipe. He stepped in front of the wheelchair and threw a lightning-fast jab that caught the attacker square in the nose.
CRACK!
The man's head snapped back and he slumped to the floor. Two more thugs rushed forward with baseball bats raised high.
Joe ducked under a wild swing and buried a hook into the first man's ribs. He felt the bone give way under his fist.
He did not stop to watch the man fall. Joe grabbed the second thug by the collar and slammed a heavy right cross into his jaw.
The thug flew backward and crashed into a glass coffee table. Joe grabbed the wheelchair and sprinted toward the lift door at the corner of the room.
Another group of men blocked their path with long knives glinting in the dim light. Joe pushed the wheelchair hard toward the lift and stepped forward to meet them.
He parried a knife thrust with his forearm and countered with a brutal uppercut. The attacker's feet left the ground before he hit the hardwood floor.
Joe grabbed a heavy wooden chair and swung it like a club into the next two men. The wood splintered across their chests and sent them reeling.
WOOD!
Joe reached the lift and hammered the call button. He shoved President Choi inside the small elevator car as more thugs poured into the hallway.
"I'll stay behind! Hurry up and go get the gun! Go!"
President Choi reached out a hand. "No, Joe!"
Joe slammed the door shut and the lift started its descent. He turned around to face the dozen men charging down toward him.
Several men surrounded Joe in the open living room. They spread out between the sofa and the dining table, gripping baseball bats and pipes.
Joe raised his fists and took a deep breath. He felt his lungs burn, but he kept his eyes on the circle of thugs.
The first man lunged with a heavy pipe. Joe slipped the attack and hammered a left hook into the man's ear.
THUD!
Two more men swung bats near the dining area at the same time. Joe blocked one with his shoulder and felt the wood bruise his bone.
He groaned in pain but fired back with a straight right that broke a nose. He was moving as fast as he could, but the space was wide and there were too many of them to watch at once.
A pipe caught him across the back of the head from behind. Joe stumbled toward the sofa and his vision blurred for a second.
Mr. Jung walked through the broken window frame.
"Move aside."
The thugs backed off to give him space in the center of the room. Mr. Jung stepped forward and threw a heavy leg kick that nearly took Joe's feet out from under him.
Joe countered with a flurry of punches near the TV stand, but Joon-young parried most of them, but some got in. One of the thugs saw an opening and drove a knife into Joe's side.
STAB!
Joe hissed and punched the man away, but Mr. Jung immediately followed up with a knee to Joe's chest. Joe crashed back against the dining table and felt more blades biting into his arms and shoulders.
He moved his body just enough to keep the knives away from his heart and neck. Blood began to soak through his shirt and pooled on the hardwood floor.
Meanwhile, the lift reached the bottom floor. President Choi rolled his wheelchair out and grabbed a heavy pistol from a hidden shelf.
Seven thugs rushed in with pipes raised high.
BANG!
President Choi fired a single shot that hit the lead man in the thigh. The man tumbled and crashed into a stack of storage boxes.
He kept firing until there were only two of them left.
They dove behind some metal shelves. President Choi kept the gun leveled at the entrance as more footsteps echoed from the floor above.
"Come on then!"
He reloaded the bullets one by one.
CLICK!
Four more men poured into the room from the stairwell.