Chapter 164
Chapter 164
Breath trapped, consciousness about to fade—
Bang!
A loud sound snapped my eyes wide open.
Choi Na-kyung still straddled me, her hand sealed over my mouth and nose, her face filling my vision. I couldn't get a clear read on the situation, but I heard that sound unmistakably.
A heavy, solid impact. Something hard striking something else, hard.
Loud enough to make even Choi Na-kyung flinch right in front of me.
"What—"
Choi Na-kyung turned toward the source—toward me, toward the driver's-side window—
Bang!
Again, something slammed against the glass window.
A crack, a sickening splitting noise.
"Ah...!"
Choi Na-kyung shrieked and lurched upright, as if she'd glimpsed something outside the window. But—
Bang!
Too late.
No clean shatter, no bright tinkling of glass. Just the sound of something giving way, the sound of something breaking, the sound of fragments raining down in a rush.
Still, that was enough. The window was broken.
Two sharp taps against the car door, then another patter of falling debris. And then—clunk. The car door opened.
The air, stagnant moments before, went cold in an instant. A chill settled over everything.
"Mmmmph!"
I cried out with everything I had. If you could call that a cry. Anyway, I did.
"How in the world...?!"
"Chairwoman."
A voice.
Not Choi Na-kyung's voice. Someone else's.
And addressing Choi Na-kyung as 'Chairwoman.'
Someone she knew? I prayed that was it. A stranger smashing a car window to get inside; that would terrify me even more than Choi Na-kyung.
Choi Na-kyung's hand jerked away from my face.
"What do you think you're doing?!"
"Do you understand what you are doing right now, Chairwoman?"
Choi Na-kyung's shriek was explosive, but the other person didn't care in the slightest.
"H... help me...."
Mouth and nose had been sealed tight only seconds before. I gasped for air and barely got the words out. My voice came out buried under my own breathing. Head blank, vision hazy.
No.
I couldn't lose consciousness yet. I had no idea who this person was. A stranger, maybe. Someone worse. Who knew, maybe someone had spotted the parked car, seen Choi Na-kyung alone, and decided on a robbery.
I blinked frantically, fighting to get my eyes to focus. But Choi Na-kyung's back blocked my view.
Still, through all the chaos, the person seemed to have heard my voice.
"Yes, young lady."
Even now, that voice was calm. Moments after swinging something heavy into the window. More than once.
"I've come to help."
And at that unchanging voice, I felt the tension leave my body.
Even though, up until now, I had thought I 'couldn't completely trust' this person.
"...Miss... Hye-in...?"
"Yes. Yang Hye-in."
A brief silence. Then:
"As the young lady's personal maid, I am here to resolve this situation."
She spoke, probably to Choi Na-kyung.
Strangely, it sounded like she was speaking to me, too.
*
What Yang Hye-in saw was Choi Na-kyung, hand clamped firmly over Sara's mouth.
Choi Na-kyung was the one doing something monstrous, yet her eyes, meeting Yang Hye-in's, flickered unsteadily.
Like a person afraid.
Yang Hye-in was not dressed in her usual maid uniform.
Pants for ease of movement, a heavy coat unsuited to the weather—protection in case things got physical. Sweat had been running down her back ever since she'd stepped outside into the un-air-conditioned air.
She had no intention of hurting anyone here.
Choi Na-kyung had done wrong; that was true. But meting out punishment was Sara's right. Yang Hye-in was simply there to follow her lead and assist, silent and steady.
So for now, she silently tapped at the glass clinging to the window frame with the hammer in her hand. Knocked the broken shards fully loose, swept the handle across the edges to clear anything that might cut a hand, then twisted her body and reached her left arm inside the car.
"Y-you...!"
Choi Na-kyung's voice was close to a scream.
"What are you doing here?!"
"I am here to protect my employer."
Yang Hye-in's tone was flat.
It had been frightening, when she first started tailing the car.
She didn't know what Choi Na-kyung might do.
She'd heard, vaguely, that Choi Na-kyung was being cornered within the company. She hadn't expected her to rupture like this.
When a person explodes this way, there's no predicting what comes next. 'Sara' had been the same. Whatever Yang Hye-in had expected, she'd always gone far beyond it.
So she'd worried—worried Choi Na-kyung might drive straight off a cliff, or start something inside the car... make a scene about dying together.
But mercifully, it seemed Choi Na-kyung's love for 'Sara' was genuine.
Thanks to that, she could still see 'Sara'—unharmed, for now.
...Was she really unharmed?
She'd heard sounds as she approached the car earlier.
A shout so loud she could hear it clearly outside, maybe one window hadn't been fully closed. A voice accusing, demanding to know why she hadn't been looked at, why she wasn't being loved when she'd given so much love.
Hearing that had unsettled her.
What if, just maybe, before she was put into the car, she'd laid hands on Sara's body?
"...."
But even that; Yang Hye-in had no right to judge.
She had already committed too many sins against her.
Click.
Her left hand found the latch. The car door swung open.
"Chairwoman."
Yang Hye-in pushed her body inside.
"Step out of the car."
"...."
Afraid Choi Na-kyung might lunge forward and seize the driver's seat, Yang Hye-in crawled into the driver's side. She felt broken glass shards under her knees, but the thick fabric of her pants kept her from getting hurt.
As she moved past the driver's seat into the gap between the front seats, Choi Na-kyung shrank back into the far corner of the car.
"H-how did you even get here...."
"Chairwoman."
Choi Na-kyung held on to 'Sara' until the very end. She could have opened the rear door and fled. The fact that she didn't, the fact that she kept clinging, showed how desperately she clung to 'Sara.'
"It's over. There is nowhere left to run."
"It's not over!"
Choi Na-kyung's cry was desperate.
"It's not over yet! I'm still here, and Sara's still here!"
She wrenched Sara toward herself with all her strength.
"St... stop...."
Sara, or 'Sara', said it in an exhausted voice. Choi Na-kyung kept pulling.
The rear door opened with a clunk. Choi Na-kyung had opened it.
"...."
Yang Hye-in brushed off one hand. Then lunged forward and seized Sara's arm.
"Let... go of me!"
She could see Choi Na-kyung straining with everything she had to pull Sara away. The strength was shocking—much greater than she looked. Had she been training?
"...."
Without a word, Yang Hye-in climbed over into the back seat.
Sara's body stayed anchored in place. Choi Na-kyung had both hands hooked under Sara's armpits, hauling, but Yang Hye-in had one hand locked onto Sara's sleeve, the other gripping a fistful of her school uniform at the stomach.
"Unh...."
Sara, caught in the middle, let out a pained groan.
"I apologize. Please endure it a moment longer."
Yang Hye-in kept advancing, alternating her grip hand over hand, almost climbing over Sara's body to get closer to Choi Na-kyung.
"Why, why, why is everyone doing this to me!"
Choi Na-kyung was near panic.
"I waited so long. I waited such a long time! Why do people who show up late get to snatch away everything precious to me like this!"
Because you waited the wrong way.
...The thought crossed her mind, but it wasn't Yang Hye-in's place to say it.
Choi Na-kyung was trapped. The rear door was open, but the moment she let go, Sara would be taken from her. And if she refused to let go? Yang Hye-in would close in on her.
Choi Na-kyung knew Yang Hye-in had trained in basic self-defense. When all the bodyguards had been neutralized, she'd received training, to buy even a little time, to protect Sara just a bit longer.
And in one hand, she still held the hammer.
Even while hauling herself up using Sara's body, she hadn't dropped it. The way she set the hammer onto Sara's body and climbed, clutching it along with the fabric—that blank expression belonged in a horror film.
"...."
Choi Na-kyung gritted her teeth. She closed her eyes a moment, drew a deep breath—
And finally let go of Sara.
At the same time, she pulled her body back as far as she could.
Thwack!
She yanked herself backward and tumbled out, landing hard—that dangerous sound. But Choi Na-kyung planted her hands on the ground and scrambled up immediately.
Her plan had fallen apart.
For now, for now, she had to get away.
She'd be parting from Sara... but there would be another chance.
Choi Na-kyung kicked off both high heels, thinking.
Right. She'd waited. She'd kept waiting.
Just a little longer now.
Just a little more waiting. That was all.
At the very end...
At the very end, as long as Sara was by her side, she would forgive everything.
After scrambling out of the car, Choi Na-kyung thought only of that.