#100
“The mountain! Park Sunwoo dragged him up that mountain! We don’t know where they went! It’s the truth! Please, let Ji Taeuk oppa go quickly!”
The woman threw away her gun and desperately cried out while shaking Choi Hanseo’s leg.
Having heard the answer he wanted, Hanseo threw Ji Ji Taeuk against the wall.
Boom-!
Ji Taeuk crashed violently into the wall before falling to the floor.
“Oppa!”
The woman crawled towards Ji Taeuk who had collapsed on the floor. Hanseo, as if forgetting their existence, swiftly leaped out the window in the direction the woman had indicated.
“Oppa, are you okay? Oppa!”
The woman carefully helped Ji Taeuk up. Having hit the wall, Ji Taeuk coughed painfully and suddenly vomited blood, possibly from a broken bone. His right arm hung limply, suggesting his shoulder blade might have been crushed.
“Eunji, let’s go. We need to escape while we have the chance,” Ji Taeuk whispered as he placed his hand on his body to heal himself. The woman nodded and supported Ji Taeuk as they stood up.
Whoosh-. Whoosh-.
The sound of wind being cut filled the air. Park Sunwoo was climbing the treacherous mountain path at lightning speed with Lee Eunseok slung over his shoulder like a sack. Eunseok felt bile rising in his throat due to the pressure on his abdomen from Sunwoo’s shoulder. His body, having refused food intake for over ten days, was certainly much weaker than before.
“After the plan changed, those guys were just bait anyway. A distraction. What I need isn’t that bunch of losers, but you alone. While they act as shields, we’re going on a nice trip together. And we’ll be together forever.”
Despite Eunseok not having uttered a single word since being kidnapped, Sunwoo didn’t stop rambling to him. He kept talking, regardless of whether he got a response or not.
Eunseok remained silent this time as well. But his mind was working complexly.
In the early dawn, Sunwoo had quietly climbed out the window with Eunseok over his shoulder and started scaling the mountain. As expected of an S-rank, even after running until the sun was high in the sky, he showed no signs of fatigue.
From the moment Sunwoo left with only Eunseok, it was clear that he had abandoned the rest of the ability users. And Eunseok knew that Sunwoo was heading east based on the sun’s direction.
Seeing how Sunwoo moved without rest, he clearly had a specific destination in mind. Eunseok deduced that Sunwoo had likely already made contact with a foreign country to negotiate asylum. Korea was never a good place to hide. And Sunwoo wasn’t the type to quietly hide in a mountain village. In the end, moving to a foreign country where he could use his abilities freely and live comfortably would be the best option.
The question was which country had sided with Sunwoo. Eunseok narrowed down the possibilities based on the direction they were heading.
If it were China, they would have gone west. Whether by boat or plane, they would need to go west. But Sunwoo was heading east. That narrowed it down to Russia or Japan. Of course, Japan could be excluded as it nominally claimed to be an ally.
Thud-.
Sunwoo leapt high and landed lightly. This time, his feet touched asphalt instead of mountain terrain.
“Over here!”
Someone’s shout was heard. Sunwoo started walking slowly in that direction. From Eunseok’s inverted view, he could see a black van parked on the side of a highway surrounded by mountains.
“Why are you so late?”
A man in shabby clothes asked grumblingly.
“Stop with the useless talk and just drive the car.”
Sunwoo snapped back as if annoyed to even respond, and approached the van. The shabby man opened the back door of the van. Sunwoo climbed into the car with Eunseok still over his shoulder.
The man sat in the driver’s seat, and the car started moving. After being hung upside down all night and then seated in the car, Eunseok’s head and vision were spinning. He felt nauseous but forcefully swallowed back the rising bile.
“Hyung. Have some water.”
Sunwoo opened a water bottle and held it to Eunseok’s mouth. His voice was pretending to be kind.
He’s the type who likes to drug food and water. That’s why Eunseok had stubbornly refused the food he offered, but he couldn’t avoid drinking small amounts of water for survival. Besides, it didn’t seem likely he would drug it in this situation.
As Eunseok obediently opened his mouth and drank the water, a pleased smile spread across Sunwoo’s face.
“How nice it would be if you always listened so well.”
Sunwoo murmured as he wiped the moisture from the corner of Eunseok’s mouth with his thumb.
Eunseok could feel the water, which had entered his stomach after a long time, spreading throughout his body. He looked at the scenery passing by outside the car window for a moment before closing his eyes and leaning back in the seat.
Seeing how Sunwoo had snuck out like this, it was clear that their pursuers had approached close to their hideout. They might have even been discovered already. If so, they would be raiding the hideout by now. And Choi Hanseo would surely be among them.
If Hanseo had come, he probably quickly noticed that Sunwoo and Eunseok were gone.
If they had stayed there just one more night, or even half a day, he could have seen Hanseo’s face by now. Thinking this, ripples disturbed the calm he had been trying so hard to maintain in his heart.
After driving for a while, the car’s speed slowed. Opening his eyes, Eunseok saw the car entering a large warehouse.
The car door opened.
“The cargo has arrived safely!”
Sunwoo said playfully, patting Eunseok’s shoulder. A man who looked unmistakably like a gangster jerked his head to one side.
“Alley-oop.”
Sunwoo lifted Eunseok in his arms and got out of the car. In one corner of the old warehouse, which seemed to have been used as a vehicle repair shop, there was a large, clean wooden box. It was a box for freight transport. Eunseok immediately realized that this box was prepared to put him in. And he knew that once he was in that box, he would have no more chances to escape and would be flown to wherever Sunwoo wanted.
Damn it.
The composure he had been trying so hard to maintain cracked. Eunseok looked for an opportunity, but Sunwoo gave him no opening. Neither the driver nor the man with the fierce face approached Eunseok. They had clearly been instructed beforehand.
“Hyung, you just need to take a good nap in there and wake up. We have a private jet waiting, so when you open your eyes, you’ll be in a new world. Isn’t that great?”
Sunwoo rambled on as if already excited.
“Park Sunwoo.”
Eunseok opened his mouth, which had been tightly shut for over ten days. His horribly hoarse and cracked voice forced its way out of his throat.
“Oh. You’re finally calling me by name?”
Sunwoo raised his eyebrows and sneered slightly.
“Just leave me here and go alone. You don’t need to take me with you. There are plenty of countries that would welcome you with open arms.”
He didn’t think his persuasion would work at all. He just wanted to delay being put into that box, even if only for a moment.
“Do you know how much I gave up to be with you, hyung? I even abandoned my plans to destroy the damn Ability Management Bureau and the country. That’s too hurtful.”
Sunwoo said with a slight grin, showing his teeth. Then, before Eunseok could do anything, he shoved him into the wooden shipping crate. The man finally approached and handed Sunwoo a syringe.
“We can’t have you making a fuss when we put you on the plane, you know.”
Sunwoo said as he brought the syringe towards Eunseok’s arm. Eunseok didn’t miss the opening as Sunwoo tried to inject him.
Crunch-!
As Eunseok sank his teeth into Sunwoo’s wrist that had entered the box, a gruesome sound of flesh being chewed echoed. Blood from the pierced flesh and muscle layer stimulated his tongue.
“Ha. You really are a man’s man.”
Despite half of his wrist being nearly torn off, Sunwoo disregarded it and jabbed the syringe into Eunseok’s arm. The drug quickly flowed into his body. It must have been a fast-acting drug, as the strength in Eunseok’s jaw, which had been biting Sunwoo’s wrist, suddenly drained away.
“Well, I guess a final act of rebellion is to be expected. Let’s just pretend this didn’t happen.”
Sunwoo said, waving his bloodied wrist in the air. His image started to blur and overlap two or three times. Eunseok’s entire body went limp, and he collapsed inside the box.
“Close it. We need to leave soon to catch the plane.”
At Sunwoo’s commanding words, the man placed the lid on the box. Eunseok’s vision quickly darkened.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of nails being hammered into the lid to seal it faintly echoed in his ears.
“…Fuck, Choi Hanseo… why aren’t you coming…”
Eunseok muttered quietly, desperately clinging to his fading consciousness.
