Fl 79

Awakened by the thunder, Kim Ha-yoon sat on the bed for a long while before taking a shower and coming outside. He listlessly gazed down the empty hallway. Ire, who said he would be back in an hour, hadn’t been heard from in two days, and only other guys occasionally passed by.

At the end of the hallway, only the remains of candles burned overnight were left. They hadn’t even solved the electricity problem, so they lit candles at night to dispel the darkness. Even then, they only lit enough to distinguish what was in front of them, fearing they would be discovered.

Ha-yoon leaned against the wall. This was where Ire’s birth mother, who gave birth to him twenty years ago, had been imprisoned. She used to sit in this chair and always look outside. The infected had no will, but she was different. So, she must have struggled to protect the baby in her womb.

Then, feeling hungry, he took a piece of bread someone had left in the feeding slot. He took a bite, but it tasted awful. The bread he ate in area c wasn’t this bad. Or did they deliberately give him something like this?

Eventually, he gave up eating, threw the bread on the table, and stared blankly outside again.

My situation is just like a lab rat trapped in a cage.

“You never treated us like people from the beginning! You just saw us as tools to satisfy your desires! Was it fun? Did you enjoy watching me like this? How did it feel to see me being fooled like an idiot?”

That day, Ire’s words as he strangled him at the Intelligence Bureau echoed in his ears. Could it be on purpose? Is he making me feel it too? The thought that his situation was no different from the infected he had locked up and experimented on brought only a bitter smile.

What to do? I’m a human who hasn’t learned to reflect. But if you want, I’ll pretend. I don’t know if you’ll be fooled, though.

Then his thoughts turned to his mother, who was lying in the hospital in the lab. She had spent decades there. As time went by, his father wanted the devices removed and sent to him, but Kim Ha-yoon opposed it. Whether it was affection or obsession for his mother, it had long been erased from his memory. He couldn’t even remember what he initially felt when he stood up to his father.

He quietly closed his eyes when he heard footsteps outside. He opened only his eyes and looked straight ahead, and a man, probably on guard duty, checked inside and passed by. Kim Ha-yoon went to the entrance made of iron bars and called out to him.

“Hey.”

The man walked away without even acknowledging him. It seemed he had been ordered not to talk to him under any circumstances. He must have been told not to be swayed by strange words. But he wasn’t making things up. It was true that after Ire disappeared, the main executives of the Goblin Corps surrendered and sold out their comrades in exchange.

They talked as if they had a great mission, but when their lives were threatened, their attitude changed. The long escape must have taken its toll. So, while searching for Ire, he had similar fantasies. He imagined Ire getting tired of running away and returning to him. But contrary to his expectations, Ire appeared, having grown up splendidly.

In the meantime, Gangsan passed by this time. Every time he walked, the jungle machete hanging from his waist swayed. He tapped on the glass to call Gangsan, who was trying to avoid his gaze. When he tried to run away after glancing at him, he brought up a story that would pique his interest.

“Aren’t you curious about Matteo’s news?”

As expected, Gangsan stopped. He widened his eyes and turned back.

“I heard he’s sick…”

“You don’t know the details, do you?”

Gangsan hesitated and glanced behind him, worried that someone might see him. Still, he was curious and couldn’t leave easily. And when he came close, Ha-yoon reached out through the iron bars, grabbed Gangsan by the scruff of his neck, and instantly snatched the jungle machete from his waist. The knife was at Gangsan’s throat in the blink of an eye as he tried to scream.

“Shh. If you make a sound, I’ll slice you up right away.”

Rumble, crash!

“Wow, the sky is crazy.”

Gilsu and Baek Seol, who were looking out the window, couldn’t take their eyes off it. Heavy rain poured down, obscuring their vision, and lightning struck the ground non-stop. The humid weather made it feel like they were underwater. The rest of the people were also sprawled out here and there due to the continuous rain for several days.

“Where did the boss go?”

“Where else? To that place.”

The place Baek Seol mentioned was the Gold City development site. He heard that the greedy district a guys were building a new city on better land. It was a long-term project and cost a lot of money. So, the people of district b were complaining that the taxes they collected had increased. They were already struggling to make a living, but they kept taking away from them.

Trucks carrying sand and materials went in and out of the site every day to level the ground. The problem was that Ire had also been going back and forth to that place for a month. On days like this when it was pouring rain, it was easier to avoid the surveillance of reconnaissance planes, so he tended to stay longer.

When they asked what he was doing there, he only gave vague answers that he would tell them when it became clear. Baek Seol, who had been thinking quietly, looked at Gilsu and opened his mouth.

“Is that story true?”

“Huh?”

“That the Commander and Vice Commander betrayed us.”

Gilsu jumped at Baek Seol’s words.

“That guy lied! Don’t you know the Commander and Vice Commander? They’ve risked their lives for our organization for over 20 years. Does it make sense that their beliefs would change overnight? Don’t be swayed by meaningless words. Their tricks are always obvious. They’re trying to manipulate us by causing confusion and instilling fear.”

Baek Seol just listened silently. Even if he tried to deny it, there were more than one or two strange things. Not to mention the Commander and Vice Commander, they couldn’t even find out the whereabouts of the remaining members. In the meantime, there was a crashing sound from upstairs.

Baek Seol, who had turned around, immediately drew the dagger from his waist. Gilsu also picked up the M16 rifle nearby. An organization member who was monitoring the upper floor was rolling around in the middle, and someone was slowly coming down behind him.

It was Kim Ha-yoon, who should have been inside the glass booth.

Looking up, Gangsan, the owner of the jungle machete, was hanging on the railing like laundry, dangling his body. Was he unconscious? As he was about to call out, worried, Kim Ha-yoon took out a cigarette and lit it. He must have stolen the cigarette in the meantime. He blew smoke into the air, frowned, and looked down at the cigarette between his fingers.

“It’s cheap, so it tastes like shit.”

“You son of a bitch!”

Gilsu pressed the button hanging around his neck, and an alarm sounded inside the building, and the organization members scattered here and there hurriedly armed themselves and rushed over. Jang-cheon, who was on the lower floor, also ran up with an ax in one hand.

Kim Ha-yoon was suddenly surrounded, but he was still relaxed and showed no signs of tension. He rubbed the cigarette he had finished smoking against a nearby makeshift wall.

“Where did your boss go?”

He did that on the first day, and now he’s looking for Ire again. No, that was the question he asked everyone he caught. He was a strange man who was more curious about where Ire had gone than when he would be released.

Gilsu lowered his voice and muttered.

“At this point, isn’t he just a fucking ex-lover?”

Then, with his gun aimed, he shouted.

“Put down the knife while I’m asking nicely! Or I’ll shoot!”

“Shoot. As much as you want.”

Gilsu’s jaw trembled at his nonchalant attitude. He pretended to shoot, but the other person didn’t even blink an eye. At that moment, Jang-cheon blocked Gilsu and adjusted his grip on the ax.

“Stop it. I’ll fix his manners.”

Gilsu cheered inwardly at the angry voice. Jang-cheon rarely got angry. That voice meant he was very angry, and there were few people who could handle him when he was angry. First of all, Jang-cheon was nearly 2 meters tall and had great strength. Gilsu watched Jang-cheon approach Kim Ha-yoon with large strides and shouted.

“Fold that bastard in half at the waist! Make him crawl around for a while!”

No matter how brave he was, the Young Master who had grown up pampered was different from them. They had to show him properly this time so he wouldn’t act up. They would make him realize that he wasn’t killed, but spared because he was such a good hostage.

While he was thinking that, Jang-cheon moved nimbly, raised his ax, and charged at the opponent. But the ax blade was right in front of him, and he was just staring at it. He cursed, “Crazy bastard,” and at the same time, he dodged the attack and struck the back of Jang-cheon’s neck with the back of his knife.

With a thud, Jang-cheon fell and quickly got up. But that was just the beginning. He blocked and dodged every attack, and later he punched Jang-cheon under the chin, and to top it off, he slammed the big guy down on the floor with an overhand throw.

When he saw him strangling his neck, he tried to step in, but Jang-cheon shouted.

“Don’t interfere! I’ll handle it!”

Jang-cheon’s face was as red as if it would explode, and he looked like he was about to suffocate, making his loud voice seem out of place. Unable to watch any longer, the remaining members attacked from behind, but he seemed to have eyes in the back of his head and quickly took down each one with the jungle machete.

Gilsu’s face turned pale when he saw that.

“What… is that monster bastard…”

“Move. I’ll take care of it.”

Just as Baek Seol, who had been watching, was about to take a step, someone grabbed her shoulder. When she turned around, Ire was standing there, having arrived sometime ago.

“Boss!”

Everyone stopped attacking, and Kim Ha-yoon flipped the jungle machete in his hand, brushing back his disheveled hair.

“You didn’t even show your face for days, but you came when I caused a ruckus? Huh?”

Ire looked at Kim Ha-yoon and held out his hand to Gilsu. Gilsu handed him the gun, and he unhesitatingly pulled back the bolt and chambered a round. Just as everyone was about to think he was just trying to scare them, Ire pulled the trigger without even looking at the scope.

Bang—! The ear-splitting sound rang out, but Kim Ha-yoon was unharmed. Ire’s shooting skills were the best, no matter what anyone said. While everyone was thinking that couldn’t be possible, blood flowed from Kim Ha-yoon’s left earlobe and down his neck. Kim Ha-yoon’s face also contorted.

“Did you really shoot…? Me?”

Ire reloaded with a nonchalant expression and shouldered the gun. The barrel shifted slightly to the left. Realizing that he was aiming for his head, Kim Ha-yoon let out a hollow laugh with a wounded expression.

“Haha. Yeah, shoot. It’s better to die by your hand than to miss you to death.”

“Shut up. Before I get rid of your mouth first.”

“If you wanted to get rid of it that much, you should have bitten it off when we kissed.”

“You son of a bitch!”

The conversation was gradually heading in a strange direction. In the suffocating tension, Gilsu thought for the first time that they might really be ex-lovers.