Chapter 160
Chapter 160
A steady, soft sound reached her ears.
It was a lot like the noise she heard every morning on the way to school, back when she first arrived in this world.
......The sound of a car.
She had been tracing back through Sara's recent memories, but she had never expected she'd reach this far this soon.
"......."
Ah, no. That wasn't it.
It didn't feel right.
The sensation reaching her now felt different from the leaden dullness of dreams. Sharper, far sharper, everything touching her skin was vividly distinct. The feel of reality.
"......Nngh......."
She tried to open her mouth, but no proper sound came out.
She couldn't even manage to open her eyes. As if waking from a long, deep sleep, her body refused to obey.
"Sara?"
Someone seated in front of her spoke.
The moment she heard that voice, she froze.
She hadn't heard it many times before, but she knew whose voice it was.
A voice she could never forget. Every time she met this person, the situation was so uniquely bizarre it became impossible to forget.
......This was Choi Na-kyung's voice.
Why?
No, how?
How in the world had Sara ended up in the same car as Choi Na-kyung?
Her body still wouldn't move properly enough to check, but by forcing strength into her eyes, she managed to pry them open.
Tears had welled up, making her vision endlessly blurred. And the overwhelmingly bright light pouring past the car window made it utterly impossible to open her eyes all the way.
She tried to move her hand to rub her eyes—
"Ah......?"
And realized that her hand wouldn't move.
It wasn't because she hadn't yet seized control of the body.
There was a far more concrete reason than that.
......Her arms were restrained by something.
Both arms were gathered behind her back and tied there. They were bound so tightly she couldn't identify what was holding them by feel alone.
She thrashed her legs, but they were bound just the same.
"Mmph......!"
It wasn't just her limbs that were tied.
Had the woman thought she might scream? A gag was fixed in her mouth.
No, it wasn't just a gag. The inside of her mouth was packed full with what felt like cloth, so even when she tried to make a sound, it failed to properly escape.
"Awake?"
That voice made her skin crawl.
It trembled a little, as if tense, maybe slightly flustered, but the tone itself was one of soothing a child who had just woken up.
"You woke up sooner than I expected. There's still a fair way to go...... but there's nothing to worry about."
Where in the world did she mean by "go"?
And what was she telling her not to worry about?
"......It's much earlier than my plan, but this will do. At last, it's just the two of us."
She had absolutely no idea what that meant.
......Was Choi Na-kyung truly saying she wanted Sara right now?
The inside of her head was chaos.
"Mmph!"
Her consciousness gradually returned, her mind fully waking, and she could move her body. Her arms and legs were still bound, but she turned her head, roughly scrubbing her face against the car seat. The tears that had pooled in her eyes drained away, and her vision cleared.
Outside the car window, there was only an endless stretch of trees.
How many hours had she been asleep?
No, where was Sara?
Sara had been the one moving her body up until now. Because of that, she hadn't been forming proper memories and had no way of knowing what situation had led to this.
......Sara?
She asked the question inwardly.
Usually, at times like this, Sara would give her a proper answer. At least since she'd regained consciousness, Sara had never once unilaterally ignored her words.
But there was no reply.
......Sara?
She asked again, but no reply came.
Just like when she had first arrived in this world.
A chill ran down her spine.
She still couldn't fully comprehend the situation, but that sensation alone was enough to shock her somewhat dazed mind into complete wakefulness.
"Mmph! Mm-mmph!"
She shouted at Choi Na-kyung.
What have you done, what are you planning to do, where are you taking us.
But all her words merely scattered into sounds that never became speech.
"Don't worry so much. Just wait quietly, and I'll take care of everything for you......."
Take care of what?
In this situation, what could she possibly do for Sara that warranted this......
Choi Na-kyung's words, spoken almost like a murmur, radiated a chilling aura from her demeanor alone.
......Sara!
She yelled the name in her heart once more.
And still, there was no answer.
This time, it wasn't just a chill. A sense of dread began to fill her chest.
All this time, Sara had been with her. And now, she was gone.
Gone.
How?
She was still confused—
But one thing was certain.
Choi Na-kyung, the woman sitting in the driver's seat right now.
That woman was connected to the current situation.
*
"Senior, where are you right now!?"
So-hee shouted into her phone, loud and clear even as she ran.
"Where—Ah, you're giving chase right now?"
"She's following them?"
When Yu Ha-neul asked, So-hee nodded and ended the call.
"Yeah. The senior knows what car Choi Na-kyung drives. She said just in case, she's been keeping watch outside the school lately."
"What......?"
Seeing Yu Ha-neul's mouth fall open, So-hee averted her eyes slightly as she spoke.
"......I only just found out myself......."
She looked deeply embarrassed, so Yu Ha-neul decided not to press further.
"But how exactly are we supposed to follow those people?"
At Yu Ha-neul's question, So-hee waved her smartphone.
"We track them with this. At least we can find out where the senior is. We've got an app that lets us track each other's locations among the staff."
"......."
And yet even with that, they hadn't known where Yang Hye-in was?
"......I-I've only been working here for a little while, you know......."
So-hee said it like an excuse.
"But what in the world are we going to use to follow them!—"
"There's a car."
Su-a spoke up quickly.
"......."
At that, Yu Ha-neul found nothing more to say.
Because out of the three of them, Yu Ha-neul was the only one who hadn't been of any help.
The other two, whether aware of what Yu Ha-neul was feeling or not, simply kept running.
*
Just as Su-a had said, a car was waiting in front of the school gate.
"......Three of you?"
When they yanked the door open, the person already in the car asked in surprise.
It was a woman with short-cropped hair. The car she'd brought was a compact, just barely big enough for four.
The problem was the back seat, which was crammed with bags of all sorts; it genuinely raised the question of whether three more people could fit inside.
"Yes!"
But Su-a answered instantly and climbed into the passenger seat.
"Excuse us!"
So-hee shoved the bags in the back roughly aside, securing space.
"Hey, hey! Careful! Those are all expensive......!"
But by the time the woman shouted that, So-hee and Yu Ha-neul were already piled into the back seat.
"Oh, for the love of—fine, okay, we're going, we're going!"
The woman started to protest, but when she saw Su-a staring fixedly at her, she flinched and hit the accelerator.
"Ah, I was gonna go even without the stare-down! Honestly, waiting for you guys already made me late! Another car already took off after them first, y'know!"
"That's an acquaintance of ours. And anyway, you said these aren't even photos worth a story, right? Do you even have a competitor?"
Su-a shot back sharply, nothing like her usual self.
Seeing that, Yu Ha-neul found herself oddly thinking that Su-a's new hairstyle suited that sharp attitude well.
"......But wait, what's all this about? Photos?"
"......That's......."
At Yu Ha-neul's question, Su-a hesitated a moment before explaining.
According to Su-a, this person was the one who had taken pictures of Yu Ha-neul and Sara on their date and sent them to an online news outlet.
Not just that photo—she'd snapped countless others, but most outlets refused to take them, so she hadn't been able to use them. Su-a had been buying those photos and putting them to good use. That was the explanation.
And at the same time, she'd tasked her with watching the school gate.
"......."
When the story ended, So-hee and Yu Ha-neul were staring at Su-a with their mouths slightly open. Su-a's face went red.
"And right now, I'm chasing a scoop. No media outlet would dare ignore this photo. A major outlet might even pick it up! An adoptive mother kidnapping her own adopted daughter!"
"......She really lives for the story, doesn't she."
"Well, photography is my main gig; this is just a personal goal, really."
As the woman replied, she pressed the accelerator hard. The engine roared with a vroom, even to Yu Ha-neul, who knew almost nothing about cars, it sounded a little dangerous.
But Yu Ha-neul didn't say anything about it.
Sara was in danger right now. All they could do was drive fast no matter what.
So-hee and Su-a must have agreed; neither of them said a word.
Ah, but there was one thing they couldn't let slide.
"But kidnapping? You could tell that at a glance?"
"Oh, that? I got a shot through the camera. The young lady you're looking for was lying tied up in the back. Well, she was in the back seat, so it was only visible for a second between the driver and passenger seats."
"......."
So-hee, Su-a, and Yu Ha-neul all looked at each other once more.
On both their faces, there was nothing but worry.
Yu Ha-neul's own face was probably the same.