Chapter 101
Chapter 101
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 101
Chapter Title: Don't Trust Anyone (1)
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*Thud, thud, thud!*
Yohan ran along the edge of the vacant lot.
"Hah, hah."
His breath froze white in the crisp air, and the pistol and magazine tucked in his jacket rattled.
Training alone while Kanghyeok was away.
But Yohan trained as if someone were watching.
He knew.
He knew the value of the training he was receiving.
He knew he could never take one-on-one instruction from someone like Kanghyeok for granted.
*Thud, thud, thud!*
Yohan pumped his arms and legs harder, picking up his pace.
He looked as if he were running from someone, yet also as if he were running toward something.
In fact, he was.
The impatience to grow stronger faster hovered around him like a shadow.
The desperation to avenge his mother flickered before his eyes.
The more he trained with Kanghyeok, the more he realized his own incompetence, so he couldn't afford to waste a single moment.
It was then.
Yohan stopped running, catching his breath as he looked at the two thugs glaring down at him from the top of the lot's stairs.
They were the ones who had been watching him intermittently since the day after Kanghyeok left.
*More thugs.*
The gangs had vanished thanks to Kanghyeok, but thugs and punks like these were still around.
To them, Yohan was prey carrying something valuable.
Having recently faced others who tried to take Kanghyeok's pistol, Yohan watched them with wary eyes as they started down the stairs.
Their swaggering walk and upturned eyes, pupils fixed on him, made it clear they were approaching with ill intent.
*Thump, thump, thump.*
His heart pounded, a lifetime of fearing men like them surging back.
"Sssss."
Yohan drew a long breath through his teeth and placed a hand on his chest.
Pressing against the pistol tucked inside his jacket, he felt his heart begin to calm.
The sweat and blood he had shed.
The tears he cried every morning upon waking from nightmares.
As these thoughts flashed through his mind, his racing heart steadied.
And a single resolve filled his mind.
*I can't be a coward anymore.*
"Hey! Kid, get over here."
One of the approaching thugs beckoned with his finger as if calling an animal. Yohan gritted his teeth and walked toward them.
"You're the one, right?"
When Yohan nodded, a nasty smirk spread across their faces.
"I won't waste words. Hand over everything you have."
"You don't want to die, do you?"
The other one moved his hand toward his back, as if to draw a pistol tucked in his waistband.
*Crack!*
But Yohan's fist swung out and landed squarely on his jaw, sending him crumbling to the ground.
"Ughhh."
His brain rattled, he couldn't get up, just kept collapsing. Seeing this, his partner stared at Yohan in bewilderment.
"You... you little bastard!"
The thug glared at Yohan and kicked him hard in the stomach.
*Thud!*
Yohan braced his core and legs to withstand the blow, then grabbed the man's ankle.
"You... you bastard! Let go!"
*Thump! Thump!*
He felt his heart, which he thought had calmed, begin to race again.
Everything was a first.
Hitting someone, a real fight, throwing a punch at intimidating adults.
The sickening sensation left on his knuckles made his breath quicken.
But he knew all too well.
Nothing would change if he did nothing.
He couldn't protect the pistol Kanghyeok had given him, and he couldn't get stronger. So Yohan brought his elbow down on the thug's shin.
*Crunch!*
As Yohan's elbow slammed into the untrained man's shin, a piercing scream erupted.
"Aaaaargh!"
Yohan let go of the man's ankle and took a stance.
Fists raised to guard his head, one elbow jutting out like a spear.
It was the basic stance of the Keysi Fighting Method he had learned from Kanghyeok.
To bring his elbows to a usable level, Yohan had relentlessly struck trees and concrete walls.
Using the same elbow, still covered in dark red bruises beneath his clothes, he smashed it into the thug's face.
*Crack!*
The simple yet brutal attack made the man's legs buckle, and before he could fall, Yohan brought his elbow down on his collarbone.
*Snap!*
"Kuaaargh!"
The gruesome sound and sensation of bone breaking.
Not just the man who was hit, but Yohan's own hair stood on end.
"Aargh! Aaaaaargh!"
Seeing the men collapsed, clutching their broken bones and writhing on the ground, Yohan felt a chill run through him.
But there was no time for sentiment. The first man to fall pulled a pistol from his jacket.
"You son of a bi—"
*Clack!*
Yohan reflexively drew his own pistol and fired near the man's head, feeling a shiver run down his spine.
He hadn't done it consciously.
His body had reacted the moment it sensed danger.
*Clink.*
The fact that Yohan had fired first despite drawing later, with a clean motion recognizable even to someone untrained in firearms, made the thug's face turn pale.
*Clatter.*
The man dropped his pistol and hastily pulled his partner to his feet.
"Aaaaargh!"
His partner screamed as his broken bone rattled, but the man kept glancing back at Yohan as he fled.
Yohan, trembling, raised the hand holding the pistol.
Then he aimed at the sky and pulled the trigger.
*Clack!*
"Agh!"
The thug fell as if he'd been shot. Realizing he was unharmed, he grabbed his abandoned partner and started running again.
Yohan shouted at their backs.
"Get out! And don't come back!"
*Clack!*
Firing another shot as a warning not to take him lightly, Yohan panted and lowered his gun.
*Squeeze.*
Yohan gripped his shoulder, his fingers digging in, and bent over, staring at the pistol.
It would be a lie to say he didn't feel a sense of triumph.
But something remained, like dregs, weighing down his heart.
Still, for the first time, he had protected something purely with his own strength.
Focusing only on that, Yohan began to run around the lot again.
The hospital.
It was the first place Kanghyeok, Leila, and Jeff visited after returning to the States.
It wasn't a company-affiliated hospital.
And so, Jeff understood.
His rescue had not been the company's will.
"I hope you're not too disheartened."
Lying in a private hospital bed with an IV drip, Jeff offered Leila a faint smile.
It was clearly a forced smile, but his eyes didn't look sad.
"I'm fine. To be honest, I half expected it."
Leila mirrored Jeff's smile, turning up the corners of her lips and giving a short nod.
*There's no way you're fine.*
Having been from the same company, she could imagine the depth of the betrayal Jeff must have felt.
They had even forged an ID to handle his treatment and admission, lest word get out that Jeff had returned to the U.S. alive.
The relief of being rescued and the betrayal of being abandoned by the company would coexist within him.
Leila took Jeff's hand and spoke.
"Well then, I hope your treatment goes well."
"Wait a moment..."
Leila, who was about to leave, paused and met Jeff's gaze.
"What's going to happen to me now?"
Jeff spoke in the lowest tone he had used since his rescue.
It was understandable.
He had been abandoned by the company and was now hospitalized under a fake ID.
Reinstatement was a pipe dream. His life would be one of using an unfamiliar name before fading away like any ordinary old man.
This was the future Jeff foresaw for himself.
"You don't have to worry about that."
Jeff lifted his gaze from the blanket to look at Leila.
Her brow was furrowed in concern for him, but a faint smile played on her lips.
"I was originally going to tell you after you were discharged, but I spoke with Kanghyeok while you were receiving treatment."
Jeff focused on Leila's lips.
She didn't seem to be offering some clumsy consolation.
"He said that if you're okay with it, he'll try to arrange for you to work again."
Jeff smiled softly.
To him, who had lamented his forced retirement, it was a truly grateful sentiment, but the idea of working again for the company that had abandoned him wasn't entirely welcome.
"I've had enough of the company."
"It's not for the company."
The unexpected words made Jeff's eyes narrow.
"...Then?"
"It's something that requires discussion, so I can't go into detail, but he said it's a place where you can fully utilize your abilities."
Jeff looked at Leila, then gave a short nod.
He didn't know where it might be, but it was clear Leila's words weren't just empty comfort.
"May I look forward to it?"
"Absolutely."
A gentle smile spread across Jeff's lips.
It was the first genuine smile he had shown since his rescue.
"You've saved this old man in more ways than one."
"What do you mean?"
Jeff just shook his head, still smiling.
He couldn't bring himself to say it.
That they had saved not just his body, but his spirit as well.
"I understand."
Leila smiled warmly and prepared to leave.
"You can thank Kanghyeok after you're discharged."
"I'll remember that."
Once Leila left the room, Jeff leaned his head back against the pillow, looking exhausted.
The time he had been held captive wasn't that long.
But the torture, the mental fatigue, and the overwhelming sense of relief soon pulled Jeff into a deep sleep.
*Click.*
Kanghyeok opened the door.
He had left Leila at the hospital to handle Jeff's admission procedures and returned home first.
When Leila had asked if he didn't need treatment, Kanghyeok had said he would get checked at a different hospital, just in case.
But he didn't.
Instead, on his way home, he bought thread, a needle, and rubbing alcohol from a pharmacy.
*Click.*
Closing the door, Kanghyeok filled a pot with water and put it on the stove, then unwrapped the thread and needle.
He then took off only his jacket and hung it neatly to one side.
*Swish.*
Loosening his tie, he looked down at the bloodstain on his dress shirt.
The mark where the bullet had entered.
The blood on his shirt had dried to a dark brown, and somewhere in his chest, there was a bullet.
*Bubble, bubble.*
Seeing the water boil, Kanghyeok dropped the needle and thread into the pot to sterilize them, then stuffed a towel deep into his mouth.
"Hnngh!"
He then fished out the needle and thread, pushed the thread through the eye of the needle, and finished his preparations for stitching.
He picked up his kukri, which he had doused in alcohol, and unbuttoned his shirt.
The wound had already healed, not even a scar was visible.
*Hoo. Hoo.*
The pressure of having to drive a blade into his own chest, near his heart, was immense.
But he couldn't go to a hospital.
If a doctor discovered his abnormal healing ability, it would surely cause a commotion. The worst-case scenario would be the company finding out, which was why Kanghyeok had to remove the bullet at home, despite having access to top-tier medical services.
*No need to feel strange about this.*
He had stitched his own wounds many times, both as a mercenary and during past missions.
He had even dug a bullet out of his own thigh.
This time, it was just near his heart.
The shirt was getting in the way, so Kanghyeok undid the rest of the buttons.
It was right after that.
*Clink.*
The moment he took the shirt all the way off, a small metallic sound came from the floor.
*Roll, roll.*
It rolled as if asking to be seen, coming to a stop at Kanghyeok's foot.
Kanghyeok stood there, looking down at it.
He felt as if he were facing something that shouldn't exist in this world.
*A lead slug...*
A lead slug, not in its original shape but blunted and deformed at the tip—the very thing that should have been inside his chest—was lying next to his foot.