Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Cornered
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Sometimes, the body reacts before the mind.
Like Yohan’s did now.
Slam!
Before he could even turn his gaze forward, Yohan slammed the accelerator as if having a seizure, and his car shot out like a madman down the road.
The G-force snatched at his body, forcing Yohan to look ahead, but that didn't change the fact that a black SUV was following him.
The SUV in the rearview mirror.
Its high beams illuminating the car's interior.
“Fuck, fuck! Why the hell! Why! How!”
He had no idea how that car had found him, what had happened to his men, or why it was here at this hour.
What was clear, however, was that even though Yohan sped up, the SUV didn't fall behind in the slightest.
Vroooom!
With a harsh engine roar, the SUV began to close the distance.
Cold sweat slicked his palms on the steering wheel, and his heart began to pound. Just then, Yohan glanced at the laptop sitting preciously on the passenger seat.
A flicker of hope rose, calming his trembling chest.
This laptop must not be taken from him.
Yohan brought a fist to his chest as if in prayer. But he wasn't praying.
He was checking to make sure the pistol was still tucked inside his clothes.
‘Good. Son of a bitch, if it comes down to it, I’ll shoot him dead.’
Yohan gritted his teeth and wrenched the wheel.
Screeeech!
The car swerved so hard to the left that its right wheels lifted off the ground.
Crash!
Entering a narrow road with no signs, Yohan's car smashed through a wooden barrier and turned onto a side path.
‘You think you know this area better than I do?’
Yohan’s eyes gleamed.
This coastal road, closed due to redevelopment and safety concerns, didn't even show up on GPS.
There were no streetlights, and the roads were as complex as a spiderweb; Yohan was confident he could completely lose the black SUV.
However,
“A shallow trick.”
Leila, sitting in the SUV, said calmly as she turned the wheel.
Groooan!
With its heavy weight, the wheels didn't even lift as it stably entered the side path.
“Just in case, you should probably fasten your seatbelt.”
Leila checked her own seatbelt and stepped on the accelerator.
The gap that had briefly widened due to the sudden change of course began to shrink again, and a thick darkness, so deep the road was invisible, welcomed them.
Still, it wasn't a problem.
Click.
Leila placed her phone on the dashboard.
The phone screen displayed a real-time map sent from headquarters.
Now, who was at a disadvantage?
With a knowing look, Leila reached for a switch next to the steering wheel.
Flick, flick.
She turned off all the lights, including the high beams, and the SUV was completely swallowed by the darkness.
“Son of a bitch!”
Seeing the SUV turn off its headlights in the rearview mirror, Yohan screamed as if having a fit.
The SUV was already black.
With all its lights off, it melted into the darkness, vanishing from sight. He was being chased by an invisible ghost.
The only sources of light were the moon in the sky and Yohan's car.
The moonlight wasn't bright enough to illuminate the road, so it was as good as nothing, and the lights of Yohan's car only served to announce, *Here I am!* to the SUV.
He couldn't gauge its distance or position by sound, either.
Vroooom!
His own screaming engine drowned out the sound of the SUV.
Slow down, you say?
What if the SUV rammed him from behind?
That SUV wasn't a police car.
It wouldn't blare at him to pull over, block his path, or employ any gentlemanly tactics like chasing him until he gave up.
Vroooom!
The more he imagined the vicious ways they might stop him, the more frantically he drove. He was in such a panic that the thought of slowing down to take a side road never even crossed his mind.
He drove like that for about five minutes.
‘Did… did I lose them?’
On the road where the smell of the sea grew stronger and the steep cliff to his right loomed menacingly, Yohan wondered if he had finally shaken the SUV.
But the impact that followed immediately shattered that hope.
Thud!
The impact came not from behind, but from the side.
The SUV slammed into the side of his car, just behind the driver's seat, and Yohan let out a scream so raw it felt like his lips were tearing.
“Aaargh! Crazy! You motherfuckers! The laptop! The laptop, fuck!”
He wanted to scream, *The laptop is with me, what the hell are you doing?!* but his mind had gone so blank that the words wouldn't come out right.
Thud!
The SUV rammed the same spot again, and the chassis of Yohan’s car buckled, its rear end fishtailing wildly.
“Uwaaaah!”
Yohan frantically turned the wheel.
Screeeech!
As sparks flew into the darkness from the side of the car scraping against the guardrail, Leila turned her head slightly to meet Kanghyeok's gaze.
“Are you ready?”
Kanghyeok racked the slide of his pistol in response.
“Already am.”
Leila gave a heavy nod.
The laptop was now so close it was almost within reach—not just in terms of physical distance, but in how the situation was unfolding.
Vroooom!
No matter how hard Yohan stomped on the accelerator to escape, there was no way this SUV would lose a cheap sedan like that.
“You son of a bitch!”
Yohan rolled down his window and stuck out just his pistol.
Bang! Bang!
One shot missed, but the other hit its mark right where Leila was.
Seeing the small crack on the bulletproof window, Leila turned the wheel slightly, one corner of her mouth lifting into a smirk.
Bump!
It was just a light tap, like a greeting, but Yohan’s sedan shook as if it were screaming.
With things as they were, how could they fail to retrieve the laptop?
Leila glanced over at Kanghyeok.
Once they recovered the laptop, this job would be over.
‘I wonder if Kanghyeok will come back.’
For now, there was no way to know.
His expression gave nothing away.
Since leaving the club, Kanghyeok's face had become a mask.
With a blank expression, Kanghyeok stared at Yohan's car through the window, a pistol in one hand, the other resting on the button to lower the window.
‘We’ll get the laptop back soon.’
Kanghyeok knew they would get the laptop back soon, too.
Naturally, he was also thinking about reinstatement, but his line of thought was different from Leila's.
What advantages would there be for me if I were reinstated?
The immediate benefits?
The information and support I'd get from headquarters.
But he couldn't ignore the orders from headquarters and the possibility of being thrown into unwanted missions.
Vroooom!
Inside the speeding car, Kanghyeok carefully sorted through his thoughts.
He had to.
‘The world ends in twelve years.’
His life and future were on the line.
Kanghyeok carefully organized his thoughts, then, as if he had made a decision, he lowered the window.
‘If I don’t make a move.’
Just as Leila, who had been glancing at Kanghyeok in the rearview mirror, turned her gaze forward, Kanghyeok leaned the upper half of his body out the window.
He extended both hands, gripping the pistol, his gaze fixed on the rear tire of Yohan's car.
The night was too dark to see the pistol's sights.
So he had to aim relying purely on his senses.
Crack!
The moment the bullet was fired.
Pop! Screeeech!
The tire, shredded by the bullet, flew off, leaving only the wheel rim.
The rim grinding against the asphalt sent a spectacular shower of sparks, like fireworks, and Yohan’s car slowed dramatically.
“Aaaaaaah!”
Yohan screamed desperately, wrenching the steering wheel back and forth.
One of his tires had blown out mid-drive.
He had to move the wheel to somehow control the car as it swayed madly from side to side. In the process, Yohan unconsciously glanced to his left.
There was the dark sea, like a piece of the night sky laid out before him.
A sea so vast, so immense, that it could swallow Yohan's car without a trace.
Screeeech!
Reflexively, Yohan yanked the wheel hard in the opposite direction.
It was an instinctive act to avoid plunging into the sea, but the moment inertia threw his body to the side, he knew it was the wrong decision.
Graaaaaaaind!
The jagged cliff face ground against his car, tearing off the side mirror.
Crack! Pop!
Another bullet fired, blowing out the remaining rear tire. Yohan screamed his lungs out and slammed on the brakes.
Screeeech!
The wheel rim grinding down, deforming.
Sparks pouring from the rim, the speed dropping rapidly.
Leila hit the brakes.
A wide gap opened between the SUV and Yohan's car, and Leila looked back at Kanghyeok.
Sitting in the back seat, Kanghyeok nodded.
Leila nodded back and stomped the accelerator, flooring it.
VROOOOOM!
With a thunderous roar, the SUV shot forward.
CRUUUUNCH!
At the moment of impact, Yohan's car, struck behind the driver's side, was lifted into the air.
Thud!
The car, tilted 90 degrees in mid-air, slammed its roof against the cliff, then hit the ground and rolled several more times from the rebound.
“Ghk, ghuuuh.”
Inside the car, which had come to a stop with the driver's side door facing the sky, Yohan groaned.
Barely conscious thanks to his seatbelt, he reached for the laptop, which had fallen toward the passenger door.
Blood trickling down the back of his hand left a red smear on the laptop, but this was no time to worry about bloodstains.
He had to escape.
From Kanghyeok.
Because through the spiderweb of cracks on the windshield, he could see a man in a black suit getting out of the SUV up ahead.
‘Fuck, fuck.’
Click.
Unbuckling his seatbelt, Yohan, who had fallen toward the passenger side, struggled to push his body out through the shattered driver's side window.
Thump.
Clutching the laptop, Yohan fell to the ground and stared with a rigid face at the approaching Kanghyeok.
It was the first time Yohan and Kanghyeok had come face to face.
Normally, he would have muttered something about an Asian bastard and shot him in the head with his pistol.
But he couldn't.
He knew now what kind of man Kanghyeok was.
He had never seen Kanghyeok fight.
But not a single one of the many men who had fought Kanghyeok had returned alive. To Yohan, the approaching man looked more terrifying than the Grim Reaper himself.
“Fuck, fuck!”
Yohan didn't even dare to use his pistol. He just clutched the laptop protectively and turned his body.
Yohan fled as best he could on his limping leg, but the distance between him and Kanghyeok only continued to shrink.
Surely he wouldn't shoot, not with the laptop, right?
The moment Yohan had this thought,
Crack!
“Aaaargh!”
Kanghyeok put a bullet in Yohan's one good leg.
Yohan collapsed, clutching the laptop like a lifeline. He turned to face Kanghyeok and pulled out his pistol, aiming it at the laptop as if it were a hostage.
“You, you son of a bitch! You bastard! This! You want to see this get smashed….”
Crack!
Kanghyeok pulled the trigger again as he walked toward Yohan.
Thwack!
“Gyaaaaaah!”
A scream erupted from Yohan as the bullet pierced his shoulder, and the pistol fell from his hand.
“Agh, aaagh!”
Yohan's screams didn't last long.
Thump, thump.
The moment he saw Kanghyeok approaching, he abruptly stopped screaming, his entire body trembling like a leaf.
He reacted as if he had come face to face with the devil himself.