Chapter 150
Muyoung, who had been caught off guard, was struck directly in the ribs.
“Huff.”
From the strong impact, Muyoung lost his balance and collapsed, ultimately letting go of Seokjae from his arms.
Crash.
With a single kick, both men were mercilessly sprawled on the floor. Kyungho and Junwoo, who were dumbfounded by the sudden brutal violence, hurriedly ran to Muyoung, who had been swept far away across the ground.
“Muyoung hyung!”
“Hyung! Are you okay?!”
“Huu…”
Muyoung couldn’t even answer properly due to the intense pain he felt in his ribs. He could only curl up his body while covering the struck area with his hands. Every time he breathed, his side throbbed as if being stabbed with an awl, making his body tremble finely.
‘Hyung, where is hyung?’
But that was only momentary. Even in a situation so painful that he became drenched in cold sweat in an instant, Muyoung noticed his empty arms and rolled his eyes looking for Seokjae.
“…”
When he frowned due to his blurry focus, he could see Seokjae collapsed not far away. And even the red pool of blood staining the area beneath him.
“…Seokjae hyung?”
“…”
He called out to him with a trembling voice, but no sound came back. Not even a small groan. He had been conscious just moments ago. Had he lost consciousness from the shock of rolling on the ground? Or if not that, then…
“No, no. It can’t be…”
As a terrible thought occurred to him, Seokjae’s face suddenly seemed to have no life in it at all, like his own when he had been dead in the past.
“Hyung, are you okay?”
“Muyoung hyung!”
With his heart racing, Muyoung immediately took off the bag he was carrying and spilled its contents on the ground. As if he couldn’t hear the voices of the two people checking on his condition, he desperately rummaged through the numerous items with urgent movements, not caring if his fingertips got scraped on the concrete floor.
‘St-stop the bleeding… I need to stop the bleeding.’
That was the only thing that came to his mind that had gone completely blank.
Meanwhile, the armed men approached Seokjae. Even seeing the blood that had soaked the floor, they showed no signs of feeling any hesitation. They just gauged the amount once.
One man beside the blonde man crouched down and rolled up Seokjae’s shirt to check the wound.
“He’s been hit in the right abdomen. The bullet appears to have stopped in the abdominal cavity without penetrating through. External bleeding isn’t severe, but it seems bleeding is progressing within the abdominal cavity.”
“Shit…”
Seokjae frowned as his briefly interrupted consciousness returned due to the touch examining the area around the wound.
“Ugh, don’t touch me. You perverted, huff, bastards… Where is… Kang Muyoung.”
Though his face was fierce enough to suggest he’d strike at any moment, he seemed to lack the strength to move and only twitched his limbs slightly. One of the armed men standing behind saw him and whistled softly.
“He hasn’t completely lost consciousness. For a civilian, he’s pretty tough.”
“Not the worst case scenario.”
The blonde man, who had gained some composure as the situation was smoother than expected, crouched down in front of Seokjae.
“Bring the photo. Is this the right guy?”
“It seems to match. Both the name they called him and his eye and hair color match. Also, this kind of face isn’t common.”
“True. That’s right.”
When the blonde man grabbed Seokjae’s cheek with one hand and turned it this way and that while asking, the team member beside him took out a portable device and showed him a photo.
“Then we’re taking him back. Carry him.”
“What should we do about the survivors who came with him?”
When the man said this while getting up, the team member who had been showing the photo asked. To this, the blonde man frowned as if asking something unnecessary.
“Was there any other money we received?”
“Understood.”
The team member who nodded waved his hand roughly in the air. Then two of the armed men who had been standing farthest away ran over and grabbed Seokjae’s arms to pull him up.
That’s when it happened.
Bzzt-
“You, you guys! L-let go of him right now! Where are you trying to take hyung!”
Muyoung threatened them while holding an electric shock device in his hand.
Actually, when Muyoung had been looking for bandages and raised his head, he saw five men standing beside Seokjae and had immediately tried to rush at them. Seeing them seemingly checking Seokjae’s injury, he had hoped they might be trying to help and stopped right there.
Even though they were the ones who had kicked him, if they were helping Seokjae, he could endure that a million times over.
However, from whistling at an injured person to roughly touching his face while looking at some machine like a phone and having conversations – these were actions far too removed from having a patient right in front of them. It was behavior without any respect for a person, as if handling fine merchandise.
‘What are they trying to do by taking hyung away? D-don’t tell me they’re going to do experiments or something?’
Right, if they had intended to rescue him, they wouldn’t have shot a gun from the beginning. If not that, they should have at least brought things to treat him.
But look, what they brought were only guns and that strange machine.
‘They came to get someone who was shot but don’t even have a first aid kit or anything similar in sight.’
Eventually, Muyoung concluded they were dangerous, and moved to stop them before it was too late. While desperately picking up the electric shock device he had discovered at his feet – something he had forgotten when he had even put it there.
“Get away from hyung right now!”
His eyes reddened from the pain of being kicked and his hands trembling from his throbbing ribs. It was far from an intimidating appearance.
Muyoung also knew that he couldn’t beat five large men. But that didn’t mean he could just stand still.
“R-right! Get away!”
“Let go of Seokjae hyung! …Please!”
And perhaps feeling something from Muyoung’s appearance, Junwoo and Kyungho also each picked up a weapon and confronted them.
Seeing the young-looking civilians huddled together threatening them, the team member who had been whistling asked the blonde man.
“They’re telling us to do that. What should we do?”
“Ignore them. All mentally sound people can do is make threats.”
Certainly, those who had lived ordinary lives couldn’t easily harm people. Especially if they were good-natured people who came forward to save their companions despite knowing they were at a disadvantage.
However, there was something they had misjudged. The three had already experienced numerous situations far removed from ordinary civilians, and had built up enough courage to attack with lethal weapons if necessary. Especially when the safety of someone they loved was at stake, hesitation felt like a luxury.
Splash-!
“Ugh, what is this!”
“It’s water, isn’t it?”
When they showed no signs of letting go of Seokjae, Muyoung threw the water from his water bottle at them. When water was added to the electric shock device, it gained the destructive power to attack multiple people at once.
“I told you to let him go!”
Bzzt!
Muyoung immediately rushed at them.
“Tsk, annoying.”
But no matter how threatening a weapon someone had, a person with no talent for fighting couldn’t beat someone whose job was life-or-death combat.
Smack- The blonde man’s foot struck Muyoung’s solar plexus precisely.
“Gahk!”
Extreme pain spread throughout his upper body. Unlike earlier when he could breathe shallowly, no matter how much he wheezed trying to take in oxygen, no air came in. His throat constricted on its own, and his lungs gradually emptied.
Muyoung’s face turned pale, and soon his ears became muffled while his vision went completely white. And shortly after, his knees buckled and he fell backward.
“Muyoung hyung! Get it together!”
“Hyung, br-breathe! Hyung! You can’t die!”
“Junwoo, wait! Don’t shake his head! He might have a concussion!”
Kyungho and Junwoo, who had been about to rush at the men following him, changed direction as soon as they saw Muyoung unconscious with his head hitting the ground.
“Let’s go.”
Though their desperate appearance might have been pitiful, the blonde man turned toward the barricade with an emotionless face. At that moment, a resounding scream came from behind.
“Aaah! My, my arm…!”
“What now?”
Seokjae’s fading consciousness awakened upon hearing Muyoung’s groans and the children’s screams. And before he could fully grasp the situation, he quickly realized they had harmed Muyoung and drew out the jackknife he had hidden at his waist.
“This crazy bastard has a knife!”
“You dog, huff, fucking bastards, right now, who are you- ugh.”
He cut the wrist of one team member holding him, then stabbed another’s arm to escape their grasp before staggering backward.
And that commotion reached Muyoung, whose consciousness was still faintly remaining.
‘Thank goodness. Hyung, you came to your senses…’
As soon as he realized Seokjae had enough strength to move, relief spread through his heart. At the same time, his consciousness completely cut off.
* * *
It was pitch black before his eyes. At some point, Muyoung had been endlessly looking at empty darkness. Even when he tried to open his eyes, they wouldn’t open, and even when he tried to get up, his body wouldn’t move. He just continued floating around in the dark space as if he had fallen into the deep sea.
But he wasn’t afraid or bored. This was partly because the soft sensation touching his body was comfortable, but largely due to the warmth he occasionally felt in his hands and the voice.
‘When are you going to wake up.’
‘Does it make sense to wake up later than someone who got shot?’
‘I’m bored. If you don’t wake up right now, I’ll kiss you.’
After the last words, something soft really did lightly touch his lips before falling away.
‘Are you not waking up because I’m not a prince? Should I buy land and create a country?’
Laughter burst out at the words that followed, but his lips didn’t actually move. However, as time passed, he increasingly felt like he was rising from the deep sea toward the surface, so he could guess, ‘Ah, I’ll wake up someday.’
Maybe it was just due to fatigue accumulated in his body. After waiting with such complacent thoughts for about four days, he became able to move his fingers and toes around dawn, and that morning he was able to open his eyes.
From morning to night, Seokjae was always by his side. Naturally, when he opened his eyes, he was there too. When he lifted his stiff eyelids, Seokjae’s face appeared beyond his blurry vision, probably from having his eyes closed for so long.
“…Hyuung.”
The expression on his face when he called out with a throat as dry as if there had been a drought – it was like a believer witnessing a miracle. He was so surprised he couldn’t even breathe.
He immediately pressed the nurse call button to summon the medical staff, and after a lengthy examination, they heard the good news that ‘overall his body has weakened, but it can be resolved with proper rest.’
“Hyung, are you feeling okay?”
After sending away the doctor and nurse, finally alone together, Muyoung looked at Seokjae with joy, thinking he could now have the conversations they hadn’t been able to have. Seokjae, who had been staring intently at that bright face, pulled over a chair to sit down, hesitated for a moment, then opened his mouth.
“I sold you out.”
“What?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
