Chapter 87
Chapter 87
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 87
Chapter Title: Courage of the Weak
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“Damn it! Find them quick! They couldn't have gone far!”
Helen urgently prodding her subordinates, the U.S. soldiers, with a desperate voice.
Song Na-rae and Detective Seo In-hyeok, who had barely escaped while dodging their eyes, moved their feet as cautiously as possible through the thicket.
The two finally succeeded in putting some distance between them.
Though it was too soon to relax completely, they caught their breath with a sense of relief at having secured a moment to do so. Detective Seo In-hyeok carefully asked,
“Doctor. What do we do now? All the evidence from the last bit is gone. Do you have any backups or something...”
“No, nothing like that... but it's okay. Even that content alone wouldn't have been decisive enough anyway.”
“What?... No, then why the hell are we even doing this?”
“That's...”
Detective Seo In-hyeok expressing bewilderment at the fact that the evidence they'd worked so hard for wasn't much help.
It was just as Song Na-rae was about to say something in response.
“Footprints here.”
“They're close by!”
“!”
The voices of Helen and the U.S. soldiers starting up again.
The two clamped their mouths shut, stifling even their breathing to avoid making a sound, cutting their conversation short.
Even so, the U.S. soldiers were drawing steadily closer.
In response, Detective Seo In-hyeok slowly raised the pistol he'd snatched earlier.
At that moment.
-Viiiing!
“Hold up.”
Helen issuing a halt order due to a sudden incoming call.
She then answered the phone with an irritated expression.
-“What? I'm busy right now, call back later...! What? Th-that... what do you...”
Helen's face suddenly overcome with shock.
Right after, she hurriedly turned back with the U.S. soldiers and headed somewhere.
Thanks to that, the two escaped a razor-thin crisis and let out sighs of relief.
“Whew... What the hell happened? Why'd they suddenly stop the search?”
“...No way...”
Detective Seo In-hyeok voicing his doubts.
But in contrast, complex emotions began surfacing on Song Na-rae's face.
Emotions far from relief.
Something ominous and unsettling...
*
“Shit... How long do I have to put up with this...”
A white man sitting with a face full of dissatisfaction.
He wasn't particularly injured, but to minimize public attention at this moment, he was staying in the VIP ward at the top of the hospital.
Bruce Trumple, son of the current U.S. President.
With a face brimming with irritation, he dumped the white powder next to him into his mouth.
A slight euphoria followed immediately.
The irritation deep in his heart lingered, but feeling the stuffy mood ease a bit, he slowly tended to the pistol he'd brought along with familiar hands.
Not just the drugs he'd taken earlier, but the firearm in his hand now.
Bringing such things into a hospital was obviously prohibited, and until recently, the hospital director had refused, citing Helen's orders to stay put quietly.
In that situation, after Bruce's repeated requests, the director had finally turned a blind eye starting yesterday.
Probably because Helen had gone down to the provinces for business, loosening security, but even so, Bruce was far from satisfied with the current state.
'If this were America, I could've picked a few homeless guys to hunt, but this damn tiny country has such strict gun laws for no reason...'
Feeling regret over not being able to play his real desired game of 'hunting,' he snorted another hit of drugs and fiddled with the live rounds.
At that moment.
-Viiiing!
“What...? Why's this bitch calling all of a sudden...”
Bruce frowning as his slightly relaxed mood soured again.
The caller wasn't a friend or girlfriend, but that problematic hospital director bitch.
Her face was decent enough, but she was a rat-like woman who only listened to Helen, not him...
He felt an impulse to just hang up on her call, but following Helen's past request to always take the director's calls, he held the phone to his ear for now.
Especially since she'd specially allowed the gun and drugs this time.
“What is it? What's the big deal?”
-“...Mr. Trumple. Come to the director's office right now.”
The director's voice carried a strange gravity.
Her perfect English was comprehensible even to Bruce, who knew no Korean, but regardless, he replied in a voice thick with annoyance.
“Why should I? If you've got something to say, crawl over here yourself, you...”
-“It's urgent. If you want to prevent this whole thing from falling apart completely, come right now.”
“...What? Hey... th-that... what...? Ha... fuck...”
The director speaking with an ominous tone.
Bruce didn't feel any particular danger from it.
Anyone else might worry, but he was the son of the U.S. President.
No one in the world could touch him, so he had nothing to fear.
But even so, feeling an inexplicable unease, Bruce started moving his feet anyway.
He considered calling Helen on the way, but knowing full well she'd just nag if he did, he shelved that thought.
It was just an elevator ride away anyway—not far at all.
Arriving alone, there stood that woman before Bruce.
Hospital Director Chae Mi-ri, cooperating with them.
Like all the countless people he'd seen so far, just another pathetic bug cowering before his father's authority.
However...
“Wh-what... did you say?”
Bewilderment settled on Bruce's face at her words.
“Patient Kim Kyung-soo... has woken up.”
“! That... that guy?”
The man he'd shot in a drunken, drug-fueled rage.
Heard he was a fairly well-known actor in Korea, but to Bruce, he was nothing more than dog shit he'd unluckily stepped in.
A pesky bastard still keeping him from going out freely.
But regardless, he knew full well how dangerous it was for Kim Kyung-soo to wake up.
Words from someone with social recognition could deal him a serious blow.
And in this situation, Bruce could draw only one conclusion.
“Th-then what are you doing? Hurry... hurry up and kill that bastard! You know we're done if he opens his mouth!”
Bruce speaking in a frantic voice.
But her response was...
Hospital Director Chae Mi-ri shook her head slightly trembling as she spoke.
“I can't... do that. No matter how much I'm helping you, how could I kill a patient?”
“What nonsense! Is that what's important right now? You wanna die too?”
“...I'm sorry. I've already told Major Helen, but that's something I absolutely... absolutely cannot do.”
“You... you... for real...”
“Just turn yourself in now. If it's an accidental incident due to drugs, they'll show some leniency.”
“Cut the bullshit! What did I do wrong? I'm the President's son! My blood is different from trash like that! Why should someone like me care about the death of a bug like him!”
“...I've warned you. Then...”
With those words, Hospital Director Chae Mi-ri slowly moved to leave the room.
Her body was still trembling like an aspen leaf.
A vivid sense of anxiety.
And fear.
Yet even amid these emotions, Chae Mi-ri's steps did not stop.
A clear resolve to commit to her action.
At this unexpected betrayal, dense shock, fear, and rage surged in Bruce's heart.
“This fucking... bitch... dares... dares, a lowly Eastern bitch like you!”
It was a situation that could induce panic even in a normal state.
And now he was on drugs.
His judgment momentarily clouded, Bruce...
-Bang!!!
“!...”
Shot Chae Mi-ri as she tried to leave the room.
A bullet straight through the heart.
Right after, as Chae Mi-ri slowly collapsed to the floor, a faint smile crept onto her lips.
'...Sorry... Father... But... but with this...'
With that final thought, Chae Mi-ri breathed her last.
Having dealt with the troublesome director, Bruce immediately grabbed his phone to call the bodyguards.
To dispose of her body and that problematic Kim Kyung-soo guy as well.
At that moment.
-Ring ring ring!
“!... Oh...”
The incoming call tone right after.
Usually annoying as hell, but at this moment, it was reliable Helen calling, so he hurriedly answered.
“Hello, Helen. There's a bit of a problem here right now...”
-“...You... what the hell have you done...”
“Huh?”
“What... what the fuck have you done!”
“... ? Why... what's wrong?”
Helen's voice stiff and chillingly cold.
Bruce began to feel a foreboding premonition.
And...
“...!?”
A single link Helen sent in silence.
The moment he saw it linking to a YouTube channel, all color drained from Bruce's face.
The chat window going berserk.
And on the YouTube screen was this very place...
The hospital director collapsed on the floor bleeding,
And himself standing there holding the gun.
Only then noticing the camera above him belatedly, Bruce slumped to the bloodstained floor.
Since the movie began,
His face filled for the first time with terror and despair.
On the other hand, the face of Chae Mi-ri on the floor bore a serene smile.
Since the movie began,
A smile conveying the first emotion that could be called peace...
*
Bruce's murder scene was live-streamed by numerous YouTubers.
The U.S. side tried belatedly to block it somehow, but the video had already spread not just across Korea but worldwide.
Along with that came his remarks dripping with a sense of racial superiority.
Things people had suspected but never said so brazenly while committing murder—the impact was enough to shake the world.
As an aside, Kim Kyung-soo, whom the director had mentioned to provoke him, had already passed away by that point.
It was simply a lie to elicit Bruce's reaction.
Watching the truth revealed through one person's sacrifice,
Witnessing justice prevail so arduously,
A solemn atmosphere began to pervade the preview screening hall.
“Ahh...”
She unwittingly let out a sigh tinged with pity.
Yeo Hyo-min.
Honestly, when she first heard Chae Soo-jeong was filming a movie... a crime thriller genre at that, she thought it might end up something similar to what she'd done.
Of course, that misunderstanding cleared up soon enough, but regardless, she had some expectations about the character Chae Mi-ri that Chae Soo-jeong would play.
An existence radiating intense, evil charisma, dominating the atmosphere like a villainous boss—that was Yeo Hyo-min's image of Chae Mi-ri.
However,
Unlike that expectation, Chae Mi-ri had shown only weak and middling villainy throughout.
The charisma and momentum gripping the situation actually felt stronger from Song Na-rae, played by Ha Yu-ra.
But as the work progressed,
Yeo Hyo-min had to revise her judgment.
Chae Mi-ri conflicted over the U.S. military's orders to cross the line.
Though shaken, she held to her beliefs until the end.
A small courage shown by the weak.
But all the more precious for it.
The death she met as a result still ached in her chest,
Yet even so, Yeo Hyo-min felt...
A touch of emotion toward Chae Mi-ri on screen,
Toward her final act of taking responsibility with her death to reveal the truth.
At that moment.
“Sob... sob sob...”
“...?”
The sound of someone sobbing nearby.
Considering the venue, they were suppressing it as much as possible, but the sound was still loud enough. Yeo Hyo-min turned her head.
And there...
“Sniff sniff... Director Chae Mi-ri...”
“...”
Her sharing her feelings while shedding tears.
Jeong Se-hwa.
Seeing her—who had come in ready to trash the film gleefully—now in tears,
Yeo Hyo-min felt a slight awkwardness.