Chapter 163
Chapter 163
"Go faster!"
So-hee, sitting right behind the driver's seat, shouted the command.
"I've got it floored! This tin can barely crawls uphill as it is!"
The one actually struggling wasn't the driver but the car, though it was true someone was having a hard time. The car carrying the four of them was a compact, and the car they had to follow looked expensive at a glance. Add a winding mountain road to the equation, and catching up in a compact car was flat-out impossible.
"Haah..."
"Hey, easy—sit down gently! The gear back there is worth more than this car combined!"
When So-hee flopped back into her seat as if all the strength had drained out of her, the woman at the wheel jumped in alarm.
"...What exactly do you have back there?"
"Cameras and lenses, obviously. I might not look it, but I am a journalist."
"Earlier you said photography was your main thing and writing articles was just the excuse."
"That's just how making a living works, kid."
The woman who'd identified herself as a journalist let out a deep sigh and kept driving.
"Anyway, there's no need to worry that much. We're tracking the location the whole time, right? Thanks to that... maid, or whatever she is."
They'd heard that Yang Hye-in had tailed Chairwoman Choi Na-kyung the moment she left, and So-hee could track Yang Hye-in's location. Thanks to that, even if this car was a little slow, it wouldn't lose the chairwoman's car completely.
Yu Ha-neul, So-hee, and Su-a all sagged into their seats at those words, a little relieved.
"Still, that maid's something else. Tailing the car of a former employer."
"Her current employer's in that car," So-hee pointed out.
"Right. And thanks to that, here I am tailing it, too. I'm grateful, really."
The words 'I'm grateful, really' sounded sarcastic at first, but her face, bright despite the situation, made it plainly clear she meant it.
"...You seem to be in a good mood?"
Su-a, sitting in the passenger seat, fixed the journalist with a sharp glare.
"Of course I'm in a good... not. I'm furious, actually. Kidnapping a kid like that!"
The last part was delivered in an unmistakably acted tone.
"...."
Through all of this, Yu Ha-neul said nothing. She just kept looking out the window, her leg trembling slightly with anxiety.
"...."
Silence settled over the car for a moment.
"Ahem."
The self-proclaimed journalist at the wheel cleared her throat, a little uncomfortable, but the mood that had sunk wasn't going to lift easily.
"...Look... don't worry too much. There's another car tailing them right up close, and the fact they tied her up to take her along probably means they aren't planning on doing anything rough right away."
"...."
The air only grew heavier.
"...Ugh, I should just shut up."
She shook her head and faced forward.
A road winding its way up a steep mountain slope, built to make the climb just a little easier.
All they could see on the way up were trees.
"Wow, they're going far."
"Where is this?"
They hadn't been driving for a matter of minutes. It had already been an hour and a half since they left the school. Yang Hye-in had said she'd focus entirely on not losing them, in case Sara got hurt inside the car, and as a result this car was now trailing far behind the two vehicles, following at a relaxed distance.
"We just crossed the border between Gyeonggi-do and Gangwon-do."
"Gangwon-do..."
"Are they trying to smuggle her out? If that's the plan, Incheon would've made more sense."
The woman at the wheel tilted her head, but no one could answer her.
Choi Na-kyung was simply that inscrutable.
Her face was widely known, and she'd shown it often enough to promote products. She looked young for her age, and on top of that she was beautiful, naturally good at drawing public attention.
But beyond that, she seemed to keep her hands largely off management. The few times she had gotten involved, reading through old articles, the results hadn't been particularly good.
"...."
And on top of all that, somehow Yu Ha-neul's father was also being pressured by that woman.
She was not a good person. At least, the Choi Na-kyung they'd seen was not. She had isolated her own daughter from the world and made her follow no one but herself.
If it weren't for Sara, 'Sara' would have kept deteriorating like that, cut off from these three, somewhere far away.
...No, she wouldn't have been at school to begin with. She'd already be dead.
Yu Ha-neul hated that woman.
'Sara', the 'Sara' Yu Ha-neul had gotten to know, was never a bad kid. Stubborn, maybe, and her way of thinking could be a little twisted, but she knew how to return love when she received it. She wanted to do fun things. She wanted to eat good food.
She seemed to think none of that mattered to her, but take a step back and look, and you could see things 'Sara' herself couldn't grasp.
'Sara' didn't really like vegetables. She'd always pick at them, expertly plucking out only the meat and shoving the vegetables, especially the bell peppers and green onions, far to the side of her plate.
That was a completely different habit from Sara. Sara had always tried to finish everything she was given. She hardly ever left vegetables behind. Though, to be fair, Sara had her own clear likes and dislikes when it came to food too.
Sara and 'Sara' both barely paid attention to clothes. They were so indifferent to fashion that if they had nothing to wear, they'd just pull out their school uniform. They never thought about trying to learn, either. But if you had to split hairs, 'Sara' preferred skirts, and Sara preferred pants, maybe that was the difference.
The gap between their families was too wide to even compare. What they ate, what they wore, the way they lived, all completely different, but...
In the end, 'Sara' was just a kid like Yu Ha-neul, someone who felt emotions and cared about people. She was trapped in a situation you couldn't call normal, but she herself was no different from any ordinary kid.
She'd just been hiding her feelings and putting up thorns to protect herself.
And that woman, to 'Sara'...
Yu Ha-neul couldn't even dare imagine how terrified 'Sara' must be right now.
"Ah!"
All these thoughts were running through her head without pause when So-hee, sitting next to her, suddenly cried out. Yu Ha-neul flinched, her shoulders jerking.
"What is it?"
"The car stopped!"
So-hee was practically draped over the driver's seat, pointing ahead with her finger. Her work smartphone, mounted in place of the navigation system, had the map screen up.
The distance that had only been growing until just moments ago was now shrinking, little by little. That meant the car had either stopped or at least slowed down.
"Ah, hold on."
Almost at the same moment, another smartphone in So-hee's pocket rang. She dug through her uniform pocket and pulled out her personal phone.
The screen read only 'Senior.'
"Oh, Senior!"
So-hee answered the moment she saw the name.
"Yes, yes, yes! Understood!"
The call ended quickly.
"What happened?"
Yu Ha-neul asked as soon as So-hee hung up.
"She says the car stopped. It seems like they didn't even notice her following. And there's only one road, so tracking them was easy."
At those words, everyone let out a sigh of relief.
"Alright, so now we just keep this distance and we'll catch up."
The journalist said that, then pressed down harder on the accelerator.
"No way I'm letting someone else scoop this. Everyone buckle up properly. I'm going to drive a little faster."
Was that reassuring, or terrifying?
Yu Ha-neul considered it for a moment, then watched the car start jerking sharply around and decided on terrifying. She hastily checked her seatbelt.
*
"...."
Yang Hye-in narrowed her eyes as she watched the blue sedan come to a complete stop.
She'd already contacted Shin So-hee, but the others still had a long way to go to catch up. They might not even be able to get here all that quickly.
There was only one road. Technically, strictly legally speaking, it had two lanes, so if she blocked the front, Choi Na-kyung's car couldn't go anywhere. But if Choi Na-kyung had cared about the law, she wouldn't have kidnapped her own adopted daughter from school in broad daylight.
She'd let her guard down.
Choi Na-kyung, outwardly, was clearly just a woman of ordinary build. No matter how light Sara was, Yang Hye-in had never imagined she'd be able to carry her off like that.
No, more than that—she'd never imagined she would kidnap her daughter at all.
And so, when she saw Sara through the window of Choi Na-kyung's car after it had left the school, she'd had no choice but to be shocked.
Waiting in the car had been nothing short of a divine move.
"...."
Choi Na-kyung was slowing down. Yang Hye-in had been following at a distance, so there was still some space between her and Choi Na-kyung's car.
What should she do?
If she pulled up behind them, Choi Na-kyung might notice immediately and flee. But blocking them from the front didn't give her much of an edge, either. If Yang Hye-in stepped out of the car, they could speed off before she'd even have a chance to get back in.
Still, she figured blocking the front was the more useful option.
If she pulled up tight, they wouldn't be able to drive straight ahead.
With that thought, Yang Hye-in slowed the car and, at the same time, opened the storage compartment beside the driver's seat.