Chapter 15: Anger and Worry
Park Yu-rin had a place she visited occasionally.
Right now, with little time left, she was heading there in a state of anxiety after eating dinner with Lee Seon-ah.
The Hwaryong Guild, which her mother Park Yura belonged to, was a guild with nationwide influence, operating branch offices in various locations across the country in the form of outposts.
She was training at the training ground of the guild branch in her region.
There was no set method to become an Awakened, but it was a well-known rumor that awakening could be achieved through strong desire.
Some Awakened people awakened in dangerous situations, while others awakened through the desire to have superior skills through intense training.
It had been something she had been doing since she was a little over twelve years old, but now it was urgent.
She had to avoid military service and become a Duty Hunter for substitute service as much as possible to see Lee Seon-ah more often.
In the current situation where gates were appearing worldwide, no matter how much money or power one had, it was difficult to avoid service.
Her intention was to apply for a Duty Hunter, which would allow her service to end as soon as possible.
For that, she first needed to become an Awakened.
Park Yu-rin, who had been moving her body for hours until her clothes were soaked with sweat, stopped what she was doing.
How many hours had passed?
Today's practice had been a bust as well.
She couldn't even find the clue to awakening.
She felt impatient and urgent, but it wasn't something that would be resolved as easily as she thought.
If it were that easy, the entire world would be full of Awakened people.
She started packing her things to organize her thoughts and leave.
A message had come on her smartphone.
It was from the place where she had entrusted the job, saying that the work processing would soon be finished.
Choi Yoon-soo, the younger brother of Choi Min-ji.
Choi Yoon-soo, the twin younger brother of Choi Min-ji, began to deviate after Choi Min-ji's parents showered more affection on her because she always showed good grades and a proper appearance.
The profile she had received from the gossip site contained information about some incidents involving bad friends Choi Yoon-soo had made in high school and the fact that he was now not attending university but gathering with thugs every night on the streets.
It was behavior so embarrassing compared to Lee Seon-ah that it was embarrassing to compare.
'Even if a man can't control himself, it's too much.'
Following the content of the profile, she secretly planned a secret operation and entrusted it to people who would handle the 'secret operation'.
The plan was to secretly give Choi Yoon-soo a highly addictive drug as a man and take humiliating photos that he wouldn't be able to show as a man, then use them for blackmail.
The first time Choi Yoon-soo took the drug was a week ago.
The message that came now said that the amount of the first drug administered was a little too much, but as a result, he was starting to depend on the drug even faster.
This was a plan she had made to use Choi Min-ji's twin brother's photos for blackmail if she crossed the line.
She had already received several photos, so it was enough now.
It was time to go home.
The training ground she had been training at until just now was located in the inner part of the city.
Most large guilds followed the principle of immediate response when a gate was created in the city, so each local government provided land and buildings for multiple branches of the large guilds in each city.
She was also heading home drenched in fatigue with no income today.
When she passed by the movie theater, she was walking towards the cafe as if they were 'the two' she had often seen.
She had no choice but to doubt her eyes.
It was Lee Seon-ah, her lover, and Choi Min-ji, the woman she was currently competing with...
"Grit."
Her forehead tightened and her teeth grated.
She had trusted Lee Seon-ah too much.
Perhaps it was because she had neglected her too much.
No matter the reason, Lee Seon-ah, her lover, should not have done such things.
She was moving for Lee Seon-ah's sake, looking at her only, for 'our future'.
Lee Seon-ah was now looking at another woman.
A feeling of immense betrayal began to burn her stomach.
But she thought that she couldn't find what she couldn't do from another woman, and she was curious about what Lee Seon-ah was trying to do, so she decided to watch from behind.
She had been too negligent about what she couldn't do and what Lee Seon-ah was trying to do, so she thought she would endure it for a very short time.
The two bought coffee at the cafe and went out.
Lee Seon-ah suddenly grabbed Choi Min-ji's arm and raised her index finger in a gesture saying to go somewhere.
The two continued to move while exchanging words with each other.
In this bustling area, other people's words mixed in and it was hard to hear properly.
A dark and damp feeling wrapped around her heart.
Feeling a gloomy atmosphere, she continued to chase them.
The place they arrived at was an alley in an office district with little foot traffic even in the city.
Since there were few people, the sounds of their conversation gradually became clearer.
Now it was so clear that if she just listened with her ears, she could hear it.
"I can't hold back anymore. I'm going to end it with Yu-rin. Min-ji, I've wanted you since a long time ago. I like you."
"..."
Choi Min-ji didn't answer, listening to Lee Seon-ah's words.
Hearing Lee Seon-ah's shocking words, her heart was crumbling.
She wanted to rush in immediately, grab the Min-ji in front of Lee Seon-ah, and take Lee Seon-ah with her.
After that?
She would act as her heart wished.
At that moment, footsteps began to be heard from nearby.
Scavengers were securing one person and looking for the next target.
The first target was to break into the house, suppress with strength, knock out with drugs, and keep her alive in a state where she could be sold to the Chinese black market at any time.
They had rented a warehouse at the port to keep her.
It was the turn to process the next target.
The identity of the second target was a student at Hanil University, and since she usually stayed in the dorm, it was difficult to break into the Hanil University dorm affiliated with the guild and kidnap her.
Because of that, she had been waiting for a long time for the target to go to a remote place outside.
And finally, today, the target had moved outside, and she was waiting for her to move to a place where there were no other people.
If there was a slight problem now, the target was with another person.
If she killed or knocked out, there was a high possibility that the investigation would come in, so she decided to use her partner to kidnap the two at the same time.
After sending a signal with her partner, she quickly moved, suppressed the two men and women, and covered their mouths with a handkerchief soaked in medicine.
It seemed that her partner also had a similar career to hers, and it was no lie that she handled it quickly.
Each carrying one person, they started moving to the prepared car.
One person watching from behind didn't notice that they were being followed...
Lee Seon-ah woke up in a dark room with walls blocking all sides.
The last thing she remembered was the woman in black suit covering Min-ji's mouth with a handkerchief, and then she herself was wrapped in a similar way, her eyelids darkening.
She had received coffee from the cafe and taken Min-ji with her to confess her love.
Then this happened.
She had been kidnapped.
She stopped thinking for a moment and looked around for Min-ji who had been kidnapped with her, turning her head left and right.
It was dark, but she saw long hair sprawled on the floor.
It was Min-ji.
She herself had also been kidnapped and sprawled, so it wasn't difficult to assume they had been stuffed in the same place.
What would happen now?
The anxiety like the darkness filling her body dug into her whole body.
Park Yu-rin couldn't believe what had happened just now.
Lee Seon-ah's betrayal and betrayal of her, and the kidnapping of Lee Seon-ah and Min-ji, which she had thought was just a short affair.
It had happened in less than 5 minutes.
When she heard a sound from behind, she didn't want to show her frowning face, so she had stepped back a little, and the kidnapping had happened in the blink of an eye.
She calmed her angry heart and called her mother on her smartphone.
She said she would send someone from the Hwaryong Guild branch in this region.
She used the lover location confirmation app she had stored on her smartphone with Lee Seon-ah and the one she had laid down before to keep telling the direction they were moving and hailed a taxi to head in that direction.
Her mind was filled with worry for Lee Seon-ah and extreme violence due to betrayal.
But all of it was a problem to be solved after she saved Lee Seon-ah.
She still couldn't abandon Lee Seon-ah.
It seemed that her heart would be satisfied if she heard directly what she had wanted to do for Lee Seon-ah until now.