Hide and Seek (3)
“There’s no fixed base. When the boss calls, they gather wherever they’re needed.”
Jeon Su-bin, stripped of all fight, answered Harbang’s questions in a rush.
“How many New Dark executives came over to Jeju Island?”
“Like I said, eight came in from the province. Three of them are dead now, so that leaves five, including me.”
I listened to the two of them and sank into thought.
Harbang had threatened Jeon Su-bin with everything he had.
As for me… I had hesitated to torture her.
Why had that happened?
Maybe it was because Harbang’s fury had been stoked by the deaths of his younger siblings.
But the problem was with me.
I’d brought Jeon Su-bin here as a hostage, but I couldn’t bring myself to treat her cruelly. Instead, I kept dragging things out with pointless words.
…Have I gone soft?
Her story was pitiful, sure.
But once you start sympathizing with people’s circumstances, every villain’s crimes become justifiable.
The New Dark bastards had killed innocent people.
I should have thrown away half-baked pity a long time ago.
But I hadn’t been able to.
Was it because I wasn’t wearing the Purple Devil mask?
During the Cheonyang-ji incident, Simon had said something similar.
“You put the mask on, and your personality changes. You even know how to say something kind for once.”
But it had actually been the other way around.
Because I wore a mask and hid my face, a side of me that had never belonged to my usual self came out instead.
A colder side.
A crueler one.
Maybe coming to Jeju Island as a hunter rather than as Purple Devil was what kept me from being ruthless.
Get a grip.
If I screwed this up, not only I but my teammates could end up in danger too.
I need to harden my resolve.
Just because I wasn’t wearing the purple suit didn’t mean my essence had changed.
Whether I was Choi Yongki, Purple Devil, or the Typhon hunter, one thing never changed.
I was still a hero.
“Where is Quarter now?”
Harbang’s final question dropped like a stone.
Jeon Su-bin shook her head.
“I don’t know that either.”
“Don’t play games with me…!”
“I’m serious. Believe me!”
Jeon Su-bin cried out desperately.
Even if she had surrendered, even if she lied, there was no way to prove it.
“Shut up! I’ll kill your whole family right now…!!”
The dagger in Harbang’s hand shook violently.
He was shouting, but…
He’s forcing it.
Harbang was a villain, but he wasn’t wicked by nature.
Even with his own younger siblings dead, he probably despised himself for threatening innocent families as hostages.
I didn’t know what kind of beliefs Harbang held.
But standing firm and not wavering in those beliefs was no easy thing.
I stepped over and tapped him on the back.
“That’s enough. That should do it.”
Harbang let his shoulders sag and stepped back.
Jeon Su-bin, bound to the chair, let out a breath of relief.
I crouched down and met her eyes.
“From here on out, I’m going to use you to catch Quarter.”
“What? No, you can’t—”
I drove White Revenge into her thigh.
“Aaagh!!”
Jeon Su-bin screamed and threw her head back.
“Y-you…!”
She glared at me, her eyes burning with rage.
I yanked White Revenge free from her thigh.
Blood dripped from the blade’s tip, drop by drop.
If I brought it down on her skull like this, she’d die instantly.
I tightened my grip on White Revenge, and Jeon Su-bin looked up at me with terror in her eyes.
“…Choi Yongki.”
Harbang, who had been watching in silence, spoke in a trembling voice.
With a sharp hiss, a flash sliced through the air.
Jeon Su-bin squeezed her eyes shut.
Swish.
The rope binding her was cut clean through.
“That’s the end of me indulging you. There won’t be a next time.”
Once I’d made up my mind, I could act without hesitation.
Jeon Su-bin, pale and sweating, nodded without a word.
She reached into her pocket and held something out to me.
It was the phone I’d confiscated from her.
“Call Quarter.”
The New Dark executives didn’t know Quarter’s phone number.
Instead, they had their own method of contacting him.
Jeon Su-bin took the phone with shaking hands.
She sent a message through the private messenger app the villains favored.
- Boss. Give me a call. It’s urgent.
While we waited, I explained the plan.
“Act casual. Tell him you’ve got something to discuss and ask him to meet you.”
“Got it.”
Jeon Su-bin lowered her head as if resigned to her fate.
About a minute passed.
Harbang, nervous, kept chewing on his thumbnail.
On the floor, the blood flowing from Jeon Su-bin’s thigh had pooled into a dark stain.
“…”
It wouldn’t be life-threatening, but she’d lost a lot of blood, and her face had gone ghostly white.
To be safe, I opened the first-aid kit and took out a bandage.
I wrapped her thigh and tied it off tightly.
“Ngh!”
Jeon Su-bin winced and curled up.
“Stay still. I need to stop the bleeding.”
While I tied the bandage, Jeon Su-bin stared at me intently.
When I looked up, she lifted the corners of her mouth.
“Hmm. So that’s what you look like. You’re pretty handsome up close.”
She really had the nerve to joke around at a time like this.
Is she laid-back, or just empty-headed?
For some reason, what she’d told me about her past kept buzzing in my ears.
How she’d been kidnapped as a child and lived a miserable life in a brothel…
I shook the thought away.
“We’ve got a healer on our team who’s good at her job. If you cooperate, she’ll patch you up cleanly.”
“Oh? So you’re not a cold-blooded bastard, despite the rumors.”
Jeon Su-bin spoke with a childlike cheerfulness.
“Ah, I’m thirsty. I want a cold smoothie. Buy me one. Please?”
Harbang, standing nearby, let out a quiet sigh.
It was probably because the whole situation was so absurd.
If the other side was the enemy, you shouldn’t show mercy.
The right thing was to crush them without hesitation, but…
Looks like both of us are having a hard time with that.
I’d given up on the kind of torture and abuse that would show someone hell.
Thoughts kept piling up on each other.
If Jeon Su-bin had been born into a happy family.
If she had never been sold into that brothel and had lived an ordinary life instead.
What would she have become?
I clenched my teeth and shook my head inside.
Damn it.
I’d finally steeled my heart, and yet…
I, too, was human before I was a hero.
Was the kind of character who mechanically judges absolute evil only possible in comic books?
No.
Does absolute evil even exist in the first place?
That was when the phone rang.
Unknown Caller.
Before answering, I considered two possibilities.
I had killed three of New Dark’s villains and kidnapped one.
Did Quarter already know what had happened on the Youngal Coast?
Like Harbang suspected, maybe he was watching us from somewhere.
Or maybe, with no word from his subordinates, he’d vaguely realized something had gone wrong.
First, let’s test him.
I answered and switched on speaker mode.
Then I motioned to Jeon Su-bin to take the call.
“Hello?”
Jeon Su-bin answered with a nervous edge to her voice.
The other side said nothing.
Harbang swallowed hard.
“Su-bin.”
A thick voice rolled out of the receiver.
Finally.
This was the first real point of contact with Quarter.
We still hadn’t met face to face, but it felt as if I’d finally caught hold of his tail.
“Yeah, boss. Have you eaten? There’s a lot of good food in Jeju, you know? Right?”
Jeon Su-bin spoke with complete ease.
From the way she talked, it seemed she and Quarter were usually on familiar terms.
- No.
Quarter’s answer was curt.
I narrowed my eyes.
Still can’t read him.
I had no idea what he was thinking.
How much he knew.
“Why aren’t you eating? Even villainy’s got to be done on a full stomach.”
There was another silence.
- Jae-hyung, Tae-young, and Man-su are dead. And you, Su-bin…
The low voice continued.
- Got captured.
As expected.
Quarter had been watching us somewhere along the Youngal Coast.
Once the lie was exposed, there was no point in pretending anymore.
I took the phone from Jeon Su-bin’s hand.
“It’s me.”
- Who is this?
“Choi Yongki. A hunter who came to catch you.”
- …
I threw my declaration of war at him.
“What’ll it be? We’ve got a New Dark executive from Gyeongnam in our hands.”
The question was deliberate.
I need to figure out his personality.
If he hung up and vanished, Jeon Su-bin would lose all value as a hostage.
Keeping her would become pointless.
- What would you like me to do?
Quarter gave me an ambiguous answer.
“What do you think? You should show up in front of me right now and hand over that pale throat of yours.”
- I can’t do that. I still have things to take care of.
The conversation went nowhere, only floating further and further off into the fog.
And yet… he didn’t hang up. He kept talking.
He’s…
I reached out and seized Jeon Su-bin’s thigh.
“Aaah!!”
Jeon Su-bin shrieked.
- …
Breathing faintly crackled over the line.
He’s shaken.
I didn’t know what kind of man Quarter was.
But he wasn’t some emotionless doll, either.
Quarter spoke again.
- I heard you were a hero hunter and had high expectations. I’m disappointed. I thought you’d pursue justice.
According to Harbang, Quarter often used the word “justice.”
“Funny. A guy who’s already killed dozens of people going on about justice.”
- That’s my justice, so I can’t help it.
I laid a hand on Jeon Su-bin’s thigh and gave her a look.
That was all.
I didn’t actually want to hurt her.
Jeon Su-bin hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
“Aaaagh! P-please, stop!! Spare me, boss!”
Her acting was so realistic that someone who didn’t know any better would’ve believed her instantly.
Good. If this keeps up…
The breathing on the other end had grown rough.
Quarter only knew that Jeon Su-bin had been kidnapped.
He can’t see what’s happening right now.
From here on out, the bluff began in earnest.
“The torture starts now. Ever heard of Venomor? Our Harbang uncle opened a gate, and there are plenty of those cute little things inside.”
In reality, neither Harbang nor I had any intention of putting Jeon Su-bin in there.
It didn’t matter.
The foundation of bluffing was momentum.
“If you don’t do what I say, I’ll throw her into that place right now.”
At last, Quarter raised both hands and surrendered.
- I’ll do as I’m told.
Got him.
I quickly drew Jeju Island’s map in my head.
“Tomorrow night at midnight. Come to Saebyul Oreum. If you try anything stupid, I’ll kill Jeon Su-bin.”
It was an invitation to surrender backed by a hostage.
Short and clear.
And at the same time, it was a dilemma.
If he wanted to save Jeon Su-bin’s life, Quarter would have to sacrifice himself.
- I’ll do that.
Then Quarter said something strange.
- Choi Yongki. Do you have any regrets about what you’re doing right now?
Regret meant realizing your mistakes and repenting for them.
Which meant regret was always late.
Just like it had been for me in my previous life.
“Who knows. Let’s see who ends up regretting this.”
The call ended.
We all let out a breath of relief.
“Ugh.”
Jeon Su-bin curled in on herself, her leg clearly bothering her.
“You did well.”
Thanks to her cooperation, we’d managed to draw Quarter out.
“And you played it well too.”
Jeon Su-bin smiled.
“Was setting the meeting for tomorrow instead of right now because of me? Were you being considerate by wanting to treat my leg first? Huh. You’re kind of gentle, aren’t you? I can’t even tell whether you’re a bad guy or a good guy.”
I ignored her teasing and sent Ha Se-na a message.
- Come up to the seventh floor. We’ve got an injured person.
Jeon Su-bin got out of the chair and sat down on the floor.
I brought her a water bottle and held it out to her.
“Drink.”
Jeon Su-bin took a gulp of water and wiped her mouth.
“Thanks. Not for the water. That’s me thanking you for something else.”
That came out of nowhere.
After forcing her to come along, threatening her, and using her to lure out the boss, now she was thanking me?
“What’s there to thank me for?”
“You didn’t kill me. You may have been all bluster, but honestly, I didn’t want to die.”
Jeon Su-bin laid bare her feelings with an unnervingly calm voice.
“Can I ask you for one favor?”
“What is it?”
She quietly caught hold of my pant leg.
“The boss too…”
Jeon Su-bin looked up at me with wet eyes.
“Please don’t kill him.”
I had come to Jeju Island as a hunter with the legal authority to make arrests.
If Quarter obediently let us slap on the handcuffs, there wouldn’t be any problem.
I left the uneasy feeling behind and turned away.
“That’s what I want too.”