Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: A Firefighter is Always a Firefighter (3)
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The woman opened her mouth and spoke again.
Even underwater, her voice came through crystal clear.
[Die! Die! Now it's your turn to die!]
The woman's voice, brimming with malice, rang out as distinctly as if she were above the surface.
* * *
It was pure malice, filled with murderous intent.
Captain Lee Ja-seong's eyes widened in terror at the woman's venomous voice.
She pressed his hands to his own face and leaned in, mouth agape.
Her bloodshot eyes drew closer and closer.
Captain Lee Ja-seong strained his arms, trying to pull free.
The harder he pushed, the tighter her grip became.
Now she was close enough to touch his face.
Clack.
A sound came from her open mouth.
It was the pop of her jaw unhinging as she gaped wide.
Yellowed teeth gleamed between her stretched lips.
She bared her gums and lunged forward to bite.
Captain Lee Ja-seong jerked his head back to dodge her yellow teeth.
She opened wider and thrust her head forward again.
He pushed against her head with all his might.
Crack!
Her head snapped back, and her teeth clashed together.
Her strike at Captain Lee Ja-seong missed.
Once more, her teeth snapped right at his nose tip.
Again, he twisted his face away, foiling her attempt to bite his nose.
Fury burned in her eyes.
He braced with all his strength, but her head advanced once more.
'You filthy bitch. Eat this.'
With his hands still trapped, Captain Lee Ja-seong whipped his head forward, slamming his forehead into her nose.
Thwack!
Darkness exploded before his eyes, then light returned.
The woman reeled from the impact, her grip loosening.
Seizing the chance, Captain Lee Ja-seong planted both feet on her chest and kicked hard, using the recoil to propel himself toward the surface.
The woman sank to the reservoir bottom from the force of his kick.
He held his breath and thrashed his limbs, swimming toward the sunset-reddened surface.
The sinking woman stretched her black hair upward, refusing to let Captain Lee Ja-seong escape.
Her ink-black locks elongated, wrapping around his leg.
Splash!
Six hands reached down from above the surface and hauled Captain Lee Ja-seong up.
It was a powerful pull.
Someone on a hastily launched lifeboat had reached down to drag him from his flailing in the water.
"Are you okay?"
A young woman who had pulled him aboard peered down at Captain Lee Ja-seong.
He also spotted an old woman standing on the rubber boat, glaring fiercely at the water.
"This is the guy we saw earlier today. I told him to watch out for the water, and here he is, already dunked. What a life."
It was the old woman he had met that day in the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency parking lot.
Eun Na-rae and the Mia-ri Virgin Bodhisattva had come to cover the water ghost story and ended up saving him.
There was no one else around.
"Reporter Eun! Scissors! Quick, scissors!"
The old woman urgently called for scissors.
Na-rae responded.
"Where am I supposed to get scissors? Ugh... damn it!"
Captain Lee Ja-seong couldn't make sense of their words.
Pffft.
The black hair coiled around his left ankle yanked him back underwater with force.
"No time! Damn it, hold on!"
The old woman gripped Captain Lee Ja-seong's body, straining to keep him from being dragged under.
Na-rae rushed in too, trying to pry the hair loose.
He resisted with all his strength, but his leg lifted, pulling him back into the depths.
The startled Na-rae reached out and grabbed Captain Lee Ja-seong's shoulder to hold him steady.
Only then did Captain Lee Ja-seong understand why she had called for scissors. He reached for the woman's hair wrapped around his ankle.
"Hands off!"
Na-rae shouted.
Her teeth sank into the wire-strong hair, shaking her head furiously to tear through it.
Blood trickled from her mouth, and white smoke rose from her head.
Within her body, the ghoul Emel's energy stirred in response to Na-rae's will.
Grind.
The hair pulling Captain Lee Ja-seong snapped and tore under Na-rae's teeth.
The severed strands spurted blood like a leech's bisected body and sank into the water.
"What the hell is that?"
Na-rae pointed at the cut hair still wrapped around Captain Lee Ja-seong's ankle.
The remaining locks writhed on the rubber boat like living things, spewing blood despite being severed.
"Beats me! It has to be the water ghost's hair from down there. No idea why it's bleeding, though. Water ghosts are new to me too."
The old woman grabbed a fistful of the hair in answer to Na-rae's question.
It turned to bloody water in her hand and dripped away.
Na-rae bit through the last of the hair around his ankle and tossed it into the water before asking the old woman.
"A water ghost standing in the water? I didn't see that far. Anyway, is this guy okay?"
The old woman looked down at Captain Lee Ja-seong.
"He looks half-witted, but he won't die."
"Good, that's a relief. But was it really a water ghost? Or maybe just a person? Shouldn't we go save that one too?"
"You see this and still say that?"
The old woman pointed at the blood pooling on the boat floor in response to Na-rae's question.
It was from the woman's hair melting away.
Captain Lee Ja-seong, not joining their conversation, pushed himself up and spoke.
"I'm a firefighter. Forget the water ghost. There's still a kid down there, so I'll go back in before it's too late."
"Again? You're going back in? I told you you'd die down there, and you still haven't learned. A firefighter's got just one life. What, you think your badge makes you invincible? Tsk tsk."
The old woman clicked her tongue and shook her head.
Na-rae grabbed Captain Lee Ja-seong's shoulder as he prepared to dive back in after barely surviving.
"The kid who fell in climbed out on his own. Who's the person in the water?"
The kid had just been playing a prank, hiding to scare his friends.
At Na-rae's words, Captain Lee Ja-seong slumped down with a beaming smile.
"Hahaha, then we're good. No need to save the water ghost. Let's head back. Hahaha."
The old woman shook her head again.
"Definitely half-witted. Reporter Eun, let's go."
Everything was negative with her.
As they rowed the rubber boat back to shore, Captain Lee Ja-seong saw the young man being loaded into an ambulance.
"Lucky he's not in mortal danger, but his mind's gone. Ranting about seeing a woman standing in the water."
The village head approached Captain Lee Ja-seong, who sat limply on the bank, and spoke to him.
Captain Lee Ja-seong looked up at the village head for a moment and grinned.
"As long as he's alive, that's what matters."
"Ja-seong, you did good. That damn fool's prank caused all this mess. If it weren't for you, it would've been disaster. If my nephew had gone in alone... ugh."
The young man was the village head's nephew, apparently.
The village head shuddered, thinking how he had just blankly watched his nephew flail without realizing it was a prank.
"Really, thank you. You worked hard."
At the village head's words about his hard work, Captain Lee Ja-seong felt like he had gained the whole world.
It had been so long since he'd heard that.
"No big deal. Gwang-pal hyung, I'm a firefighter, after all."
More than anything, it was what he had longed to hear, and he was the type to humbly call his actions a matter of course whenever the chance arose.
It just hadn't come along.
"Ah..."
Captain Lee Ja-seong looked up at the darkening sky and drew in a deep breath of the refreshing wind.
He said the same to his worried older brother sitting beside him.
"Glad the kid's safe. What a relief."
"Yeah, a prank's better than the alternative."
"Hyung, I think I need to head back to Seoul."
"Now? Already?"
"Yeah, right now. My fallen comrade left his gloves behind. I have to report back. Running away like this isn't right."
His younger brother’s words made the old man nod.
"Yeah, go ahead. You're a fine firefighter. You should report back. Of course."
Returning to his Ilwon-dong apartment as night deepened, Captain Lee Ja-seong gazed at the city lights outside the window.
He had received emergency treatment, but his hands and ankle throbbed.
He would need to get the cuts from the woman's hair treated.
"Honey, did the guy who left these gloves say anything?"
He held up Fire Lieutenant Park Cheol-hoon's gloves and asked his wife.
"It's not your fault, he said. He doesn't need these gloves anymore, so he wants you to have them. Your colleagues don't blame you."
Hearing his wife's words, Captain Lee Ja-seong felt the suffocating weight in his chest since the women's sauna disaster finally lift.
The guilt and fear of surviving alone while all his comrades perished eased, if only a little.
"Tomorrow morning, I'll stop by the hospital on my way back to duty. Right? He left the gloves so I wouldn't run, didn't he?"
He murmured while staring at the gloves in his hand.
Captain Lee Ja-seong's expression was the most at peace it had been since the disaster.
The hands that had pulled him from the water had definitely numbered six.
* * *
Na-rae and the Mia-ri Virgin Bodhisattva decided to stay one more night and catch the water ghost come morning.
"Reporter Eun, biting through a water ghost's hair with your teeth? Impressive."
"Ever since I got energy from that ghoul Emel at the pasture, my strength's been growing. Weird, huh? So how do we catch the water ghost?"
"We go in the water and catch it. Water ghosts don't come out. Leaving it here is dangerous. It'll harm people."
"Right! We have to catch it. But you're amazing, Bodhisattva."
"Huh? Why amazing?"
"Going into the water to face a water ghost? That's incredible. They say water ghosts are super strong in the water. You must be a great swimmer. Amazing! The best!"
Na-rae praised her with a thumbs-up, but the old woman widened her eyes and stated firmly.
"I can't go in! I can't swim! You go in, Reporter Eun."
"Me? Face a water ghost in the water? How do I even..."
As Na-rae panicked, the old woman clacked her teeth and replied.
"Use those shark jaws of yours and bite it. You can do it, right? Bite! With those teeth!"
"Hehe, you're harsh."
Na-rae just chuckled at the absurd suggestion, then poked at the old woman's sore spot.
"By the way, Virgin Bodhisattva, aren't you in big trouble this time for fraud?"
"Fraud? What fraud? She hasn't even taken the college entrance exam yet... What are you talking about? That woman's just making a fuss. When her son aces the exam and gets into college, it'll be thanks to me. I checked everything and wrote those talismans. That kid's a top grader."
Now that she mentioned it, it was meticulously planned.
"Anyway, once their son gets into college, I'll sue her for false accusation and defamation. Suing a congresswoman's wife? The media coverage will make me huge."
Na-rae thought the old woman was scarier than any water ghost and just chuckled at her talk of suing for false accusation and defamation.
"Ah, I'll write that article for you. If you blow up, it's thanks to me. Hehe."
The old woman put on a stern face at Na-rae's offer.
"You little temptress... Fine. How are you so pretty? Pretty little hack. Cheers!"
"Ajá! Cheers!"
The two women got along surprisingly well.