Chapter 92
Chapter 92
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 92
Chapter Title: The Blindfolded Girl
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Meanwhile, Choi Su-jin trembled uncontrollably as she listened to the voices of the men around her.
How had things ended up like this?
She was just an ordinary student.
She went to school greeting her doting father, hung out with friends, and came home to open her books.
An utterly mundane routine.
And every time she went to school, there was always “that girl.”
Song A-ram.
The kid targeted and bullied by the gang of delinquents.
That girl’s expression was always dark. The delinquents laughed it off as if it didn’t matter and bullied her even more.
At first, Choi Su-jin thought she should step in.
But she couldn’t.
She didn’t have the courage to stop them.
So, even though a corner of her heart felt uneasy, all she could do was watch.
Then one day, the bullies suddenly stopped harassing Song A-ram.
It was like someone had cut a running tape with scissors.
It should have been good news for her, but the other students’ gazes toward Song A-ram didn’t change.
She was already marked by the bullies once.
They were probably afraid of getting caught up in trouble if they got close to her.
“Hey... want to eat lunch together?”
Watching Song A-ram like that, Choi Su-jin approached her first.
Maybe it was guilt.
Guilt for knowing she was being bullied by the delinquents but doing nothing out of fear.
Song A-ram hesitated at first in response to Choi Su-jin’s approach.
“...Sure.”
In the few minutes it took to hold hands and walk to the cafeteria,
the two became close in that short time.
They got along so well that Choi Su-jin wondered why she hadn’t thought to befriend her sooner.
Choi Su-jin became a great source of strength for Song A-ram, who had no friends.
And Choi Su-jin cherished Song A-ram in return.
But from some point on,
the bullying originally aimed at Song A-ram turned toward Choi Su-jin.
They told her to pass on a message to Song A-ram to drop the lawsuit against Park Hyun-jin.
But Choi Su-jin couldn’t do it.
She couldn’t let her friend, who had already been through hell once, go back into it because of her.
The more she refused, the worse the bullies’ harassment got.
And Choi Su-jin kept her mouth shut even more.
For her friend.
She was just spending another ordinary day like that.
Enduring the bullies’ torment, chatting with Song A-ram.
On her way home when it was time to part,
she felt the world go dark before her eyes.
When she opened them again, her hands and feet were bound, and she was sitting in this place.
“Where the hell am I?”
Trembling, Choi Su-jin began to grasp her situation bit by bit.
The wind whistling through, the click of a lighter flicking on and off.
Acrid cigarette smoke.
That was all the information Choi Su-jin could pick up.
The blindfold kept her from seeing anything, and the duct tape gag over her mouth turned her cries into muffled nonsense no matter how hard she tried.
Still, she could clearly sense that several people were in front of her.
The acrid smoke and the low voices of their conversation were proof.
“Whew. President Park Man-seok isn’t just your average guy.”
“I know he’s on good terms with Big Brother. But we’re not running a charity that does business on friendship. Isn’t this going too far?”
Then, a man with a gruff voice voiced his complaint,
and Choi Su-jin flinched as she heard the tension rise.
“Mom, Dad... please save me.”
Not being able to see was a massive terror.
In the pitch-black darkness, as the men traded sharp words like they were about to fight, Choi Su-jin thought their anger might turn on her.
“So just get that through your thick skull and keep a good eye on her. Complain one more time, and I’ll mess you up first.”
At the end of the tense atmosphere that felt like a fight could break out any second, one man’s words reached her ears.
Park Man-seok, connections, surveillance.
From just those three words, Choi Su-jin vaguely guessed who these people were.
Whenever Park Hyun-jin threatened her, he’d brag about his father’s connections.
Park Hyun-jin had definitely done something.
“Crazy! Even so, how could he start something like this?”
She knew the rumors about Park Hyun-jin weren’t good.
Things like him being a gangster’s son or being forced to transfer.
But she’d thought they were just rumors made up about a bully.
Now, looking at her situation, those rumors might actually be true.
“What’s going to happen to me?”
Her mind went blank.
If they were the type to kidnap her, they might even kill her—the fear swirled in her head.
“Mmph! Mmmph!”
She screamed as best she could.
It was a scream no one could make out.
But the men just reacted as if she was being noisy.
She couldn’t see any hope.
She started thinking she might die here.
“There’s still so much I haven’t done.”
That thought brought all the things she wanted to do flooding into her mind.
If she could, she wanted to go to school happily.
She wanted to graduate high school with A-ram and go on a trip together.
She wanted to have fun sharing hobbies.
If she could just...
As she replayed those thoughts she’d convinced herself she’d never get to do,
a man’s voice that made her whole body tingle just from hearing it reached Choi Su-jin’s ears.
“Is there anything else that leads to hell besides the devil?”
Thwack! Thud!
Strange sounds continued beyond the blindfold.
The kind of impact noises you’d hear in an action movie when someone gets beaten.
Feeling that something serious was happening outside, tears streamed from Choi Su-jin’s eyes.
She just wanted to go to school happily.
Why did she have to go through something like this?
While Choi Su-jin was crying like that,
the prolonged beating sounds finally stopped.
Had it ended? Just as she thought that,
someone approached her.
“Are you okay?”
With a bright light and someone speaking to her.
His hair was messy, blood dripping from his head, but the man untied the ropes around Choi Su-jin’s body one by one as if it didn’t matter.
Then, in a gentle voice, he said,
“Sorry. I’m way too late, aren’t I?”
“Y-Yes... But who are you?”
“Oh, me?”
The man hesitated for a moment, then grinned and answered.
“I’m A-ram’s uncle. I came to rescue you.”
Hearing that he was on her side, not one of her kidnappers, fresh tears welled up in Choi Su-jin’s eyes.
The pent-up sadness burst out, soaking her clothes.
Watching her, Lee Jae-hyun silently stayed by her side as if to say it was okay now.
* * *
Choi Su-jin suddenly burst into tears, but Lee Jae-hyun didn’t panic much.
She was an ordinary high school girl who hadn’t even imagined something like this happening until yesterday.
For a kid like that to be kidnapped, blindfolded, and bound with tape—
how terrified must she have been?
And now that Lee Jae-hyun had shown up, it was only natural for her to relax and cry.
Sitting beside the sobbing Choi Su-jin, Lee Jae-hyun waited until her tears started to subside before picking up his phone.
The signal was too weak for an in-ear comms, so he had to use the phone.
—Hello?
Oh Seo-hyun’s voice came through.
Lee Jae-hyun glanced at Choi Su-jin and continued.
“This is Eden Village. Requesting patrol support.”
—I’m on my way now. Fire department?
“She’s shaken up, so we might need fire department support too.”
To Oh Seo-hyun’s question about needing fire services, Lee Jae-hyun nodded and replied.
He himself wasn’t badly hurt, but Choi Su-jin had just been rescued from a kidnapping.
No visible external injuries, but psychologically, who knew.
Even the toughest person could develop trauma from an experience like this.
In severe cases, it could interfere with daily life.
Lee Jae-hyun wasn’t a medical expert, so calling the fire department for a check and taking her to the hospital was definitely the right call.
—Any injuries?
“She was bound with tape, so her wrists and ankles are a bit red from the pressure, but no major external wounds otherwise.”
—Good thing the kid’s safe. What about you?
When Oh Seo-hyun asked again, Lee Jae-hyun looked down at his body and spoke.
“Me? I’m fine.”
He really was.
Just some scrapes here and there, nothing major.
His condition wasn’t bad either.
—Got it. Be there soon.
After requesting support and ending the call,
Lee Jae-hyun suddenly felt muscle pain surging through his whole body, furrowing his brow.
“What the hell.”
In an instant, an astonishingly intense muscle ache hit him.
It wasn’t quite “dying of pain” yet, but the intensity was building.
This could get dangerous at this rate.
With Choi Su-jin right beside him, Lee Jae-hyun couldn’t show the pain and just grimaced slightly.
“Mister.”
“...Yeah?”
Choi Su-jin spoke up, and Lee Jae-hyun responded a beat late.
“Your phone.”
“Huh?”
She pointed at the smartphone in Lee Jae-hyun’s hand.
Only then did he notice it vibrating.
Startled by the sudden pain, he hadn’t felt the vibration.
Seeing “Inspector Park Dae-hyung” on the screen, Lee Jae-hyun answered without hesitation.
Things were wrapped up here, but he didn’t know about the Korea Development Bank at Tanyeong Intersection.
He wanted to nab Kim Jin-cheon in one go if possible.
With that in mind, Lee Jae-hyun spoke.
“Yes, hello?”
—Hey, kid. What’re you up to?
“Sitting with the victim.”
—Uh, what... anyway. We got that bastard.
Park Dae-hyung, briefly flustered by the “sitting with the victim” line, quickly got to the point.
Lee Jae-hyun smiled at his words.
Or rather... tried to.
The muscle pain, plus now a melting-joints kind of agony, made him grimace naturally.
—You’re just sitting tight waiting, and this toad-looking fucker comes out with the ledger. Nabbed him right away, what else.
“Good work...”
Lee Jae-hyun couldn’t even finish thanking Park Dae-hyung before closing his eyes.
His body swayed, tilting toward Choi Su-jin.
“Huh? Mister? Mister?”
Hearing her panicked calls,
Lee Jae-hyun slowly lost consciousness.