Kidnapping, Like Angry Waves Crashing Against a Cliff #2
Yu Yeoleum was seriously beautiful. You could even call her face handsome. For a girl like her to like me and show me favor… Honestly, as a man, it made me happy and my self-esteem shot through the roof. But with a heart that felt like it was being ripped apart, I had to reject her feelings.
With those words, Yu Yeoleum held out her phone to me. I thought she was going to ask for my number, but instead a video started playing.
So I’d become a celebrity. I couldn’t help but feel a little smug.
Tap tap. Yu Yeoleum began lightly warming up her body, stepping like a boxer getting ready for a match.
“Huh?”
The moment I snapped back to my senses, a bandaged fist was already right in front of my nose. Whoosh— The wind blowing from her punch felt surprisingly refreshing. Yu Yeoleum pulled her fist back and spoke.
When the hell had she thrown that punch? I was confident in my speed, but I hadn’t even seen her move. She really was something else.
It felt like the sky was collapsing. My callsign was Freak? Why not something cool like Bread Pitt? I could understand the celebrity Cha Geum-woo, but Freak?! Why?! It was a silent scream. At the same time, rage began boiling up inside me. Right now, I felt like I could leap all the way up to the 40th floor.
Actually, that was my plan. To jump straight up to the 40th floor where the headquarters was. Was that even possible?
Whoosh—
I poured every ounce of strength into my legs and launched myself into the air. Swoooosh— I rose about ten meters. It was more than double my previous jump height, but it still wasn’t enough by my standards. However—
Whoosh—
While still airborne, I twisted my body, used a nearby utility pole as a foothold, and leaped again. In other words, a double jump. Thanks to that, my body shot up roughly twenty meters into the air.
Even Yu Yeoleum—the once-in-a-generation genius of Awakener history—looked impressed by my double jump. As countless emotions surged up from the pit of my stomach, I could only laugh.
Right now, I was completely, utterly, grinning-like-an-idiot Ha Namjin. I’d just gotten the final piece for kidnapping Seo Gaeul. If I wasn’t happy about that, I might as well be mentally impotent!
When I burst out laughing like a madman, Yu Yeoleum looked slightly flustered at first, but she soon seemed to realize something and regained her calm demeanor.
Backlash? Come to think of it, I’d heard that other people had to pay a corresponding price—some kind of backlash—every time they used their concepts. Laughing wasn’t exactly my backlash, though. Up until recently, I’d never felt any backlash when using my abilities.
Swish— With an indifferent attitude, Yu Yeoleum—who had just helped me—disappeared with light, nimble movements like a boxer jogging to control his weight before a match. All that remained was a strong scent of strawberries.
The headquarters of the Seonam Group had a lot of security personnel. They were mostly concentrated on the first floor, and most of them stayed indoors. In other words, the building’s structure forced you to face the guards if you wanted to get inside. But no one was monitoring the exterior walls.
There was no need to. No one would have imagined that someone would climb the outer wall of a global corporation’s headquarters.
“Hoo—”
I took a deep breath. The height to the 40th-floor headquarters was roughly 150 meters. The important thing was that there was another building standing right next to the Seonam Group headquarters, like a pair of twin towers. The gap between the two buildings was about ten meters. It was the headquarters of the Je-wang Group. It was fascinating how the height and design were identical to the Seonam Group building.
From what I’d heard, ‘Je-wang’ and ‘Seonam’ had originally been the same company, but they split into separate groups for various reasons. Even so, the buildings still stood side by side in perfect harmony.
“If I jump with full power, I can reach about ten meters high…”
To reach the top floor, how many times would I have to leap back and forth between those buildings? Could I even do it? If I failed midway, I’d fall straight down from whatever height I’d reached and become a flat, pancake version of Ha Namjin. In other words, I was betting my life on this challenge.
Time to get serious.
Click. The time displayed on my smartwatch was a little past midnight—one in the morning.
Tap—
I crouched down as far as I could, then sprang up like a spring, launching myself into the air. The feeling of my body floating toward the sky was incredibly liberating. But before I could even savor that freedom, I kicked off again, leaping toward the opposite building.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Swoooosh— The more I repeated the leaps between the buildings, the higher my body rose.
Swish, swish, swish—
Triple jump. Quadruple. Quintuple—
My thighs felt like they were about to burst, but stopping meant death, so I squeezed out every last bit of strength I had. After tasting my limits again and again, I finally had the target headquarters right in front of me.
But a problem occurred.
Crash!
The window on the top floor of the Je-wang Group building that I tried to land on couldn’t withstand my weight and shattered. I immediately lost my balance and was in danger of falling straight to the ground.
Fuck! If I stayed like this, I’d become a human pancake! Was this the end? No way!
In a ‘screw it’ state of mind, I flailed desperately. Then something amazing happened.
Whoosh—!
My leg pushed off the empty air as if there were an invisible foothold, launching me upward again. It was a mid-air leap—or you could call it the overly exaggerated ‘stepping on air’ from those ridiculous Chinese movies! So my Leap concept could even do that? Whatever, it didn’t matter!
With my heart pounding so hard it felt like it would explode, I managed to land on the penthouse terrace. My breathing was ragged and I felt dizzy, but it was within the margin of error I’d expected.
“……”
The interior was so quiet it was hard to believe a party had been held here just hours ago. The most important thing was that the terrace windows were open. Their security was sloppy. They probably never imagined anyone would infiltrate from the 40th floor. Maybe because Seo Gaeul herself was a powerful Awakener, there were no unnecessary security personnel. Just like I’d confirmed during the party, there were no indoor security cameras either. A heavy silence filled the space.
I used the tiptoeing skills I’d honed while sneaking into Kim Jang-dong’s potato field in the past and quietly slipped inside. I reached the door to the bedroom.
Creak… squeeeak—
“……”
Wait, wasn’t the sound of the door opening way too loud?
Fortunately, Seo Gaeul was lying quietly in bed. Soft, even breathing. It sounded like she was fast asleep. As I stared at her, I completely lost myself for a moment. Was this how the prince felt when he stood before Snow White after she’d eaten the poisoned apple?
Just by reaching out my hand, I could touch the ‘malang-malang’ she’d promised me. My heart pounded wildly and my vision blurred. It felt like reality was slowly fading away.
Then, using the items I’d prepared in advance, I would begin the kidnapping—
Ding-dong—
Ding! Dong!
“…!”
Startled by the sudden loud noise, I frantically dove under Seo Gaeul’s bed. I moved like a cockroach—skitter skitter skitter!
Ding-dong—
The doorbell rang again. It seemed someone had come to visit. Was it security? Had there been some hidden CCTV in this building that I didn’t know about, one that detected intruders?
All sorts of thoughts flashed through my mind. Then I heard rustling from the bed right above my head.
Soft pat.
A pair of white feet touched the floor where I was hiding. Seo Gaeul slipped her feet into soft indoor slippers and left the room.
Prince Hyun? Prince Hyun? Why the hell was Prince Hyun visiting Seo Gaeul’s penthouse at this ungodly hour?
Creak—
It sounded like the door opened.
Seo Gaeul’s voice coming from the living room was colder than I’d expected. It was like the mask she’d worn at the party had come off. Prince Hyun couldn’t hide his irritation at her tone.
Those were some harsh words. If I’d heard them, I would’ve been so sad I’d have cried for days. But Prince Hyun wasn’t one to back down easily. He endured the venom that could freeze a thousand years of love and added more.
“……”
That Prince Hyun guy sure could run his mouth. I wanted to go out there and give him a piece of my mind, but that would only make things more complicated, so I stayed quiet.
Fortunately, Seo Gaeul seemed utterly disgusted by his nonsense and shouted.
Sudden shift in atmosphere. The tension skyrocketed. How would Prince Hyun respond?
“……”
Prince Hyun looked like he had a lot to say but couldn’t find the words. After hesitating, he abruptly turned on his heel. Creak. The sound of the door closing rang out, and Seo Gaeul returned to the bedroom and lay back down on the bed.
That was some top-tier cursing. Was this what Baek Yeoul had meant by Seo Gaeul’s ‘true nature’? I liked how fiery she was. It might actually be my type.
The important thing was that Seo Gaeul was now lying right above me. In this strange situation, I felt a little excited. My heartbeat was so loud I was worried she might hear it.
About ten minutes passed like that.
It seemed Seo Gaeul couldn’t fall back asleep. She got up from the bed and began pacing around her room for a long time. No one would ever imagine that the perfect Seo Gaeul suffered from insomnia.
One hour. No exaggeration—she paced for a full hour. Then, as if she’d made up her mind about something, she went to the bathroom, turned on the water, and started showering.
What if she kept not sleeping? If the sun came up like this, things would get really fucked. Just like Seo Gaeul herself had told me, the only chance was on the night of the full moon. Should I retreat for now and wait for the next full moon? No, that would take way too long. Once a man draws his sword, he has to show something.
Skitter skitter—
Having made up my mind, I crawled out from under the bed like a cockroach and headed for the bathroom, clutching the blanket I’d taken from her bed.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
My heartbeat had grown so loud I felt like I was going crazy. In that state, I grabbed the bathroom doorknob and opened it.
Creak—
The moment the door opened, Seo Gaeul turned to look at me. The white steam obscured most things, but her expression of pure shock was crystal clear.
It was the most raw, unfiltered expression I’d ever seen from her. Seo Gaeul immediately thrust her palm toward me and shouted with vicious ferocity.
Was she about to fire an energy beam from her palm or something? It was almost funny.
“…What?”
The moment Seo Gaeul’s stance faltered in confusion, I charged at her like a raging wave and clamped my hand over her mouth. Then I wrapped her hands and feet tightly with black tape, sealed her mouth with more tape, and rolled her entire body up in the blanket I’d taken from the bed, turning her into a perfect kimbap roll.