Jeong Taeui glanced at the door, knowing that the moment those men stepped inside, it would be a disaster.

They might come to deliver breakfast, but the problem was, exactly when would they arrive? In any case, it seemed unlikely that they would come this early in the morning.

He quickly decided to abandon this thought. As the man had said yesterday: “If you leave, you die; if you stay, you live.” In times like these, he only thought about that. And there were times when it was better to do nothing. Ultimately, he had no choice but to face other invisible anxieties.

“Lord Jaeui, Lord Jaeui, please share your luck with me….”

Jeong Taeui muttered to himself as he wedged two fan blades between the tightly fitted wooden boards. He had prayed similar things many times, but they never reached his brother’s ears, and he had no clue where his brother was. But thinking about his brother’s luck always brought some comfort.

But as usual, Jaeui’s luck didn’t seem to rub off on him, no matter how much he invoked his brother’s name.

Pushing the fan blades through the wooden boards was no easy task. The sound of knocking on the boards created creaking noises. It took a lot of time just to wedge the blades into the gaps between the boards and squeeze them together. Meanwhile, the others who had been sleeping were waking up one by one.

*Creak.*

The fan blade finally wedged into the middle of the board, creating a thread-thin crack between the stacked boards.

Jeong Taeui rubbed his scarred fingers and clicked his tongue. His hands were full of cuts, and touching anything caused sharp pain. He put his fingers in his mouth and sighed. The fan core, set aside, was wedged between the boards. He gently pushed it like moving a lever.

*Thud*

The sound of wood falling echoed, revealing a narrow gap between the long, stacked boards. He repeated the action once or twice, each time swaying with the vibrations. Cracks appeared along the grain of the wood. Before long, the board became loose at the top and bottom, and the middle section fell out. The gap between the boards was just wide enough to fit two fingers.

With a bit more force, the board would fall out, making the rest of the process much simpler. It would be easier than trying to remove the tightly secured wooden boards entirely.

Jeong Taeui grabbed the fan blades that had fallen between the evenly spaced boards. Even when stacked, these sturdy fan blades had bent significantly.

This was going to be a bit more difficult.

Jeong Taeui threw the bent fan blades aside and stacked the remaining two blades together again. He inserted them into the gap below the board and repeated the same actions. This time, it was much easier than the first.

Finally, one of the boards broke. The other boards warped enough to create a gap wide enough for everyone to see outside.

“…..”

Jeong Taeui swallowed hard.

Even though he had envisioned it, this was indeed a forest.

He was on the second floor of a mountain resort house. Surrounding it was a large birch forest. Beyond the forest lay a series of mountains. Even though the gaps between the boards didn’t provide a clear view of the entire mountain range, the mountains seemed quite steep.

“What is it? Can you see anything? Where is this place…..”

With the board open, they could see the scene outside. The man sitting a bit away from Jeong Taeui looked at him and got up to come closer. The others took turns asking where they were. The man looked outside for a while, scratching his head, unable to discern the geography of the place from such a small hole. He frowned and whispered.

“This place is deep in the mountains.”

Without getting the expected answer, the others came closer one by one to look outside. The man stepped back. But none of them could recognize the place.

Even Jeong Taeui couldn’t; if it wasn’t a place he visited regularly, he wouldn’t recognize it even if it was a forest behind his own house.

At that moment, Jeong Taeui heard noises outside the room, signaling that someone was approaching. He quickly pushed away the person standing in front of the window, but the black man peering outside only turned around and gave Jeong Taeui a puzzled look, not moving. Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue and whispered.

“Someone’s coming……”

However, before Jeong Taeui could finish his sentence, the footsteps had already reached the door, and before the black man could sit down, the door swung open.

The black man, startled, looked around. Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue and touched the man’s head.

The person who had just entered, carrying a bag of black bread and water, widened his eyes at the scene. He seemed to grasp the situation after looking at the cracked board.

“You bastards….”

He threw the items in his hands and shouted. Hearing the noise, three or four others ran in. His companions looked at him with puzzled expressions, but seeing the scene in the room and the cracked board, their faces turned cold.

“What are you,…. Was it you?”

He held the fan blade in his trembling hand, glaring at Jeong Taeui, who was staring back at him. Come to think of it, this was the man Jeong Taeui had hit with the crutch yesterday.

“You just needed to sit still and wait, but why did you do this? Do you think you can escape just because we didn’t teach you a lesson?”

Jeong Taeui took a direct punch to the face from the man.

The punch was so strong that his back slammed into the wooden board behind him, and the sudden pain contorted his face.

Even though he had lived in environments filled with men, he always found it exhausting to be on the receiving end of blows.

It hurt like hell. And Jeong Taeui had never gotten used to the pain.

He thought to himself: ‘I need to beat this bastard.’

Jeong Taeui rubbed his face and glared at the man, but seeing the three burly men standing behind him, the thought quickly faded. If he didn’t handle it well, he might get beaten up again. But more importantly, the man could kill a hostage to make an example.

He had anticipated this might happen, but it was still unfortunate. Jeong Taeui wondered if it would have been better to sit quietly, but it seemed that wasn’t the case. It was just bad luck.

Maybe he had fought with some of these men, but the one who punched Jeong Taeui did so as if he had been thrashed by him before. He landed a few punches on Jeong Taeui’s face and delivered three or four painful blows to his stomach.

Jeong Taeui looked pitiful.

He let out small groans to alleviate some of the pain and silently swore. Seriously, if it weren’t for the presence of others here, he would have bitten his lip or let himself drool.

Or, if this weren’t a life-threatening or kidnapping situation, he would have tried to run to the hospital no matter how hard they chased him.

Jeong Taeui sighed and endured the attacks on his body. He wondered if he had become weaker or stronger after being with that crazy person.

But… It really hurt.

Clearly, this man wasn’t an amateur but a trained fighter. Even though he looked different from Jeong Taeui, his demeanor and the atmosphere around him were like those hardened in the rot of the military. They say that police officers and soldiers can recognize people like him from a hundred meters away, and now he understood what that meant.

Moreover, in countries where joining the military could be done through registration, it was even easier to distinguish between someone who merely ‘joined’ the military and a real ‘soldier.’ Perhaps this man had left the military and joined the rebels or revolutionary forces. But his essence was still that of someone from the slums, making his punches even sharper.

For some reason, ever since he ran away from Ilay, his luck had been running out, giving way to misfortune. Jeong Taeui gritted his teeth and cursed with all the colorful words he had accumulated.

The man finally stopped hitting him, seeing Jeong Taeui lying on the floor, unable to move. He delivered one last strong kick before turning to threaten the others.

“Don’t do anything stupid and behave! No matter what you hear, it won’t matter to us. And I can kill all of you here!”

The man finished his display of power and walked out. His companions surveyed the room before following him out.

Finally, the man glanced back at Jeong Taeui as he left the room and said.

“But we’re not like other bad guys. So if this ends peacefully, we won’t touch you. And even if you manage to escape, it’s easy to get lost on these steep slopes. This place is filled with wolves at night. So be good and don’t plan anything.”

Jeong Taeui lay there, looking at the man with deep eyes. The man clicked his tongue again and left the room. As soon as the door closed, Jeong Taeui pushed himself up to sit. He had been beaten severely, but he wasn’t seriously injured or had any broken bones. The man was indeed a professional. He could beat Jeong Taeui brutally without causing any severe injuries.

But that was just a superficial assessment; on the outside, Taeui looked very hurt.

“Hey, are you okay?”

The man beside him asked sympathetically. Jeong Taeui grimaced and clicked his tongue. Without a mirror, he couldn’t see himself, but he must have looked terrible. He swallowed the metallic taste of blood in his mouth and wiped his lips with the back of his hand. His hand came away with traces of blood, indicating that his lip was torn. However, there were no other visible injuries anywhere else.

Jeong Taeui gently wiped his face, but no tears came out. Despite this, he still felt pain so intense that he wanted to scream whenever he touched it, and in just a few hours or even a few dozen minutes, his entire face would be bruised.

Jeong Taeui didn’t want his face to swell up like that.

“Are you okay?”

When Jeong Taeui didn’t respond, another man continued to ask. His expression wasn’t any better seeing a fellow captive being beaten like that right before his eyes. Witnessing such a thing couldn’t make anyone happy; after all, it wasn’t completely unrelated to them.

“No… not at all. Aww, it hurts so much…”

Jeong Taeui groaned and looked out the window, where the wooden boards still left gaps. Staring at the endless forest before him, he thought he couldn’t escape from here. Or, as the man had said before leaving the room, he might die in that forest if he tried to escape.

Taeui took a deep breath and stood up. Then he walked to the window, grabbed the wooden boards tightly with both hands, and twisted with all his might.

A loud noise rang out.

Each time Taeui tried to spread his arms apart, the wooden board cracked and emitted breaking sounds.

The others widened their eyes and approached Jeong Taeui one by one to stop him, but he kept shaking his head.

“You’ve already been beaten so badly, you should realize how dangerous it is. Besides, it will be very hard to escape even if you open the window, right? I think they just blocked our view… Come on, what are you trying to do?”

Jeong Taeui, already beaten, used all his strength to push the wooden boards in desperation.

Finally, the board couldn’t withstand the force and broke into three or four pieces. His view gradually became clearer.

“Ah, much better… Well, I can see why they put these boards here.”

It wasn’t just the second floor; right below was a valley with a steep drop.

There was no ledge to grab onto and climb down to escape, and they would have no choice but to jump. The result would be broken bones if they stubbornly jumped from the second floor. Actually, if escaping was possible, jumping would be worth it, but the deep valley seemed like a giant mouth ready to swallow anything. So, don’t think it would be easy to jump down. It wouldn’t just be a broken bone or two; they would have to risk their lives for such a slim chance.

It was nearing dawn, the sun was rising, and a new day had begun. In a few hours, the summer heat would soon arrive.

“It’s probably around 7 o’clock….”

“6 or 7, right?”

Jeong Taeui mumbled as if talking to himself, and behind him came a nonchalant question in response.

Six or seven o’clock. It seemed those guys hadn’t contacted Kyle’s company yet. No matter how stupid they were, they should know that dealing with Kyle personally would be more beneficial. So, they would only call Kyle once he was home, but since he usually had dinner at home, the call would likely happen around seven or eight in the evening.

If they had contacted Kyle, twelve hours had passed. And maybe after a night, today the negotiation would yield results. They couldn’t hold the hostages for long because this wasn’t a child kidnapping. Political criminals like this rarely held their captives too long. It depended on whether their demands were met, which would determine if the hostages would be released.

In this case, the negotiation results might come today, but the hostage situation could last longer. Once their demands were met, they would release the hostages.

The second scenario is when there are disagreements, needing further negotiation. This situation wouldn’t take much time either. Both sides knew holding hostages for long wouldn’t bring any benefits, so they would soon reach a common conclusion.

The worst case is the third scenario, where negotiations fail, and the hostages’ lives are in danger. If the other side decides to abandon the hostages, they might die. Even if the other side doesn’t comply with the kidnappers’ demands but still tries their best to find the hostages, they might still die. Because once the kidnappers received any information, they might kill the hostages immediately.

Jeong Taeui wanted to smoke. Out of habit, he turned to ask the others, but seeing their pale faces and his own in just his underwear, he slowly turned back.

Jeong Taeui in just his underwear didn’t look very good, but it was better than a Jeong Taeui in dirty underwear, now darkened from dust and water.

“……”

Instead of exhaling smoke, Taeui could only sigh.

Of course, the first scenario was the best option, but given Kyle’s way of handling things, it would likely fall into the second scenario. Jeong Taeui didn’t know how the negotiations were going, but he just wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.

If he could coincidentally see ginseng hunters through the mountains, he would shout for help, but this place was a desolate mountain with no signs of people.

Jeong Taeui rested his hands on the window ledge and stared out blankly. The forest was covered with intertwining white birch branches. The tranquility of this place seemed to calm his mind.

“So what… everything will be fine.”

Jeong Taeui smiled faintly and sighed quietly.

Life wasn’t always this bad.

*************************

That thought lasted only two minutes in Jeong Taeui’s mind before it was extinguished.

Jeong Taeui suddenly felt uneasy and tilted his head. Something was different from before. He sensed an unusual discomfort creeping in. Jeong Taeui turned his head to look back, seeing the others still in the room talking or lost in thought. Nothing seemed different from before.

Jeong Taeui turned to the window again. Was there a change in the scenery outside? No. Nothing had changed from the scene he admired just a second ago.

Jeong Taeui tilted his head. Something was happening… even though everything before him appeared unchanged….

Thinking about it, he realized what a sense of absurdity truly meant.

No sounds were being made. Even the birds occasionally chirping in the silent forest had gone quiet.

Sometimes, the chirping came from the distant forest. But suddenly, those sounds seemed swallowed by something, leaving an eerie, silent forest, as if a terrifying beast had appeared.

The direction where the birds had stopped singing wasn’t the way to the road leading here. The only road cars could use was to the right, just ahead, and not visible from this position. Perhaps the kidnappers were only guarding that road. And the direction where the birds had fallen silent was a dense forest, even if cars or something else came through, the birds would stop singing, but no car could go that way.

The birds’ silence coincided almost exactly with the strange feelings around him.

*Brrrr…*

A faint sound resonated.

It sounded like a cell phone vibrating. But there was no way a cell phone would be here, nor could he hear the kidnappers’ phones outside.

Yet there was a clear, gentle vibration, growing nearer.

The sound seemed to come from far away, gradually growing louder and closer.

It came from the direction where the birds had stopped singing.

On the narrow mountain path where no car could pass, something was slowly approaching, bringing with it a rumbling noise like the growl of a beast.

*******************************

Cre: Ryeomi