Honda is a supporting character in A Shop for Killers who manages to play a crucial role in the limited time he has and serves as an intersection for many characters’ storylines.
Honda is an old comrade and a dear friend of Jeong Jin-Man. He sells firearms with his security shop as a ruse.
He plans on expanding his business and offers Jin-Man a job at the shopping mall he plans on creating.
Jin-Man turns to him for a couple of things he needs help with, like giving refuge to So Min-Hye, the only living witness Bale failed to kill.
He also, without hesitation, goes to protect Jin-Man’s seven-year-old niece, Jeong Ji-An, from the assassins who are out to kill her.
Signs of friendship & loyalty
Honda is mute and uses sign language to communicate with everyone, including his younger brother, known by other characters as Brother.
It could also explain why Brother stammers, as most of his time growing up was spent indoors because he’s extremely sensitive to light.
Staying indoors all the time meant mostly communicating with his mute brother, who didn’t utilize words that much.
However, the canonical reason behind Brother’s stammer isn’t established.
He might not be tech-savvy and handwrite ledgers because he can’t use computers, but he’s really sharp.
He demonstrates his tact when protecting a little Ji-An. He is also a skilled fighter and an expert in weapons.
The shopping mall dream
It was actually Honda who dreamed of opening a shopping mall for weapons.
He also talked about an online website for his mall which his tech genius brother would create and operate.
He offered Jin-Man to work for him, but Jin-Man laughed it off at that time.
Later, he would realize Honda’s dream by creating a shopping mall beneath his new place of stay Yecheong.
He also takes his younger brother under his wing and makes him his tech support for the shopping mall.
Sacrifice
When Bale and Lee Seong-Jo make their move to kill Jin-Man’s family, Jin-Man is alerted of it only after his brother and sister-in-law are already brutally killed off.
Jin-Man takes off to the funeral where his brother and his wife are handling all the proceedings, hoping to save them.
Meanwhile, he asks Honda to come to Ji-An and protect her in his absence.
Honda beats one of the assassins but then Lee Seong-Jo manages to gang up on him with another mercenary and kills him.
Being a psychopath, he also cuts Honda’s hands off.
A seven-year-old Ji-An witnesses this horror and it gets burned into her memory, coming back to haunt her as trauma throughout the years that follow.
Honda dies protecting his comrade’s family, and in return for his sacrifice, Jin-Man takes his younger brother with him and gives him a safe house and a job.