Follow Me
Jo Dong-geun sat in the living room of his house, heaving ragged breaths. His home had been half-wrecked for ages now. No run-of-the-mill drugs could tamp down his fury anymore, so he'd been mainlining the strongest stuff all day long. His beard was a scraggly mess, his cheeks hollowed out. Dark circles ringed his eyes like a corpse's, and he muttered to himself like a lunatic.
"Fuck, me, ending up like this...... Fuck, that goddamn......"
He'd pulled out all the stops to track down Jo A-young—every trick he knew. Word had spread far and wide about Korea's top S-rank hunter desperately hunting for his lost little sister, but it barely reached the general public. Another rumor had piggybacked on it: that Jo A-young wasn't his blood kin at all.
That he'd killed his own parents and dragged her home by force. Of course, the real reason—to leech buffs off her as a hunter—hadn't leaked. People just chalked it up to another batshit stunt by hotshot hunters. Maybe he just kidnapped some girl he fancied.
But since it smacked of crime, the search for Jo A-young stayed low-key. No one wanted to piss off Jo Dong-geun in the middle of it. The first few days, nearby S-rank hunters dropped by to check on him, but when he went half-feral, rampaging like a beast, even that dried up.
Korea's strongest S-rank hunter was now rotting away in his own house. And it wasn't just a figure of speech—his body was literally wasting away. Back in the day, no amount of drugs could touch him, no matter how much he slammed. Hell, he'd have come out looking healthier, cheeks flushed like after a gourmet meal.
But now? If you didn't know better, you wouldn't peg him for an S-rank hunter.
"Fuck......"
He'd stumbled on Jo A-young by sheer luck. He didn't fully grasp why hooking up with her boosted his experience points and supercharged his growth—couldn't pin down the mechanics. But his greed didn't care about details. He'd torn Korea apart looking for her, originally planning to kidnap and lock her down. Then his lawyer talked him out of it.
If it blows up in Korea, maybe we can contain it. But cause a scene in America? Good luck cleaning that mess. Especially when the nation's power hinged almost entirely on dungeons and the hunters who cleared them. Hunter fuckups had a way of snowballing into scandals.
Handle it quietly. That was the lawyer's advice. Plus, imprisoning her for buffs had limits. Bad rumors spread fast, and soon everyone would sniff out his weakness.
Luckily, he'd dug up some overlap in their backstories. It took time and hassle, but he'd lured her back to Korea, to his side, without the kidnapping route.
"I must've lost my fucking mind, listening to that bastard......"
One of the first things he'd done after losing Jo A-young? Hunt down that lawyer who'd urged him to play it quiet—and kill him.
"Should've just locked her up......"
Then she wouldn't have vanished into thin air like this. While tracking her, he'd gotten reports of weird traces. Her last known movements: a dungeon. She hadn't raided it solo. She'd been with that punk Kang Sung-gi and Kim Eun-bi—Kim Seol-bi's little cousin.
Kim Seol-bi didn't mean much to him. Without the Park Hyun-jun mess bringing Kang A-jin knocking, he'd have dismissed her as just another S-rank, one of the nine others besides himself.
Kang A-jin......
He wasn't an idiot. Kim Seol-bi couldn't have hidden Jo A-young this cleanly. And Kim Seol-bi, Kim Eun-bi, Kang Sung-gi—they'd all vanished with her. Sure, Park Hyun-jun had hit Kim Seol-bi's place before that—but he'd greenlit it, even covered for him. That op had flopped. And the next day, poof—they were gone.
That was the smoking gun. And where the trail went ice-cold.
"Kang A-jin......"
He squeezed the booze bottle in his hand. Crack! It shattered, shards biting into his palm, but he barely registered it. He hadn't lost all his power yet—this was nothing.
Naturally, he figured Kang A-jin was behind Jo A-young's vanishing act. He couldn't say why, but it all connected. Her showing up for Kim Seol-bi. Her heavy steps dragging her to him over another hunter's beef—that was off. And her cockily dropping Jo A-young's name to bait him? Not her style.
All the clues pointed to one thing, shimmering just out of reach, refusing to solidify.
Something...... Someone......
That's when it happened. The air in the middle of the living room rippled like a mirage, and a figure slipped out like magic. Jo Dong-geun's eyes bulged at the black-clad woman.
For a split second, he thought he was hallucinating. She'd dominated his thoughts while he'd sat there like a madman, after all.
And now here she was, floating right in front of him.
"You goddamn bitch!!"
Jo Dong-geun snatched an empty bottle off the floor and hurled it at her, no holds barred. Thwack! It sailed right through her and smashed the wall. Shards and booze rained down, trickling along the plaster.
Yeah. This wasn't Kang A-jin in the flesh.
Kang A-jin gazed at him and smiled faintly.
"Looking at you, I can't even ask if you've been well."
"You......"
"Looking for your little sister, right? Or not even that, really. All just some fake sob story you cooked up yourself."
"You fucking cunt...... You wanna die!!"
"Calm down. Get too worked up, and I'll just leave?"
"Ah...... You goddamn......"
"Got time to curse? Why not drop to your knees and beg?"
"What?!"
Jo Dong-geun chucked another bottle. Same deal—it phased right through, exploding against the wall.
Boom! More booze sluiced down.
"I'm in no rush. Keep it up if you want. But you're not, are you, Mr. Jo? Your strength's draining away by the second, isn't it? Didn't anyone warn you? Withdrawal's a killer......"
"How do you......"
"On your knees, you fuck!"
Jo Dong-geun's massive frame shuddered. The guy whose pride wouldn't bend for anyone, who had to kill anyone who slighted him to feel right—crumpled slow.
Thud.
The giant knelt.
He was already hooked on Jo A-young like a drug, worse than the ones he chugged like water. Withdrawal from the best buff hit hardest.
Hard enough to break an S-rank.
"Hmph! Not so tough after all."
"What?"
First time on his knees for anyone, but Kang A-jin just snorted at the sight.
"What was all that stiff-necked bullshit for? Strip away that S-rank hunter title, and you're just gutter trash."
"Shut up and spill. Where's A-young?"
"Hehehe."
With a high-pitched laugh, Kang A-jin spun and vanished back into the air where she'd appeared.
"Follow me!"
"Huh?"
Jo Dong-geun flinched, caught off guard. He'd figured she'd just ghosted. But then—an engine roared outside.
Vroom.
He bolted out. He jumped in his car, fired it up, and tailed the black sedan ahead—Kang A-jin's ride, no doubt.
No thought of traps. Old habits died hard—he still saw himself as Korea's top dog. Drugs had pickled his brain too much to realize otherwise.
"You bitch, I'll rip you apart."
Kim Seol-bi, Kim Eun-bi, everyone tied to this—hell, even Park Hyun-jun. He'd slaughter them all.
Once he got his power back, it'd be easy. No more Mr. Nice Guy.
Iron-fisted rule. He'd swing his might so hard no one dared fuck with him again.
His grip tightened on the wheel. For the first time in ages, a smile cracked his lips.
The car ahead—Kang A-jin's—eased onto a quiet road. A few minutes of driving later, she slammed on the brakes.
What the hell? He scowled, brow furrowing. Then the air ahead rippled—just like in his living room, but way bigger. Big enough to swallow her car whole. It plunged in and winked out.
"Ah......"
Jo Dong-geun finally got it. Why he could never find Jo A-young.
"Fuck."
No wonder.
Grinning viciously, he gunned toward the fading ripple.