“XINLU! DON’T!”

Jeong Taeui’s face turned pale, and he hurriedly shouted, but Xinlu pretended not to hear him and didn’t even turn around. As the front window rolled down, the sound of a gun being loaded echoed in the air.

“XINLU!”

Jeong Taeui yelled again, anxiously reaching out his hand. But Xinlu had already aimed at Ilay and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

*Bang!*

—The gun fired, momentarily drowning out the deafening roar of the motorcycle engine. At the same moment, the large figure beside the car disappeared in the gunshot’s aftermath, only to reappear suddenly along with the sharp sound of the motorcycle hitting the ground. Ilay’s tall frame fell along with the bike.

“ILAYYY!”

The motorcycle crashed down with a loud bang, and Ilay quickly rolled away from it. Their car swiftly drove off on the dirt road right by the entrance.

Jeong Taeui urgently turned to look out the rear window. Ilay’s figure grew smaller and smaller in the distance. As his figure faded away, Jeong Taeui could faintly see him getting up. Soon, the car turned a corner, and Ilay completely disappeared from his sight.

Jeong Taeui couldn’t tell if he was injured, but it seemed he wouldn’t die. He brought his hand to his heart, which felt cold and heavy. As soon as his breathing steadied, a sharp pain struck his heart.

Alright. Come to think of it, wasn’t he the monster who would survive even being bombed? There was no way he could die so easily.

“Why does this belief feel like the belief that Jaeui-hyung won’t be in danger…….”

Jeong Taeui muttered to himself, mingling with a sigh, and patted his aching heart. So, Ilay wouldn’t die.

Suddenly, all the strength in his body seemed to drain away.

If this were like one of those horror or sci-fi movies with monsters or aliens, surely Ilay would suddenly appear and cling to the window in the blink of an eye as soon as he turned around……

Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and let out a long sigh.

Jeong Jaeui was sitting next to him in an unconscious state. He seemed to be in a deep sleep.

“He escaped.”

Jeong Taeui heard Xinlu’s soft voice, which neither sounded too disappointed nor particularly happy. It was just a calm voice stating an obvious fact.

“Xinlu…… were you really trying to kill him?”

“I didn’t necessarily want to kill him, but it wouldn’t matter if he died. Saying this might sound like I’m boasting, but I thought I could hit him because I’m a good shot. He was right there and would have been caught by me. Anyway, I do take some pride in that.”

But there were a few blind spots……” – Xinlu sighed and added. Jeong Taeui looked at Xinlu as he put the gun away. He tilted his head slightly. Somehow, what Xinlu had just said made him uncomfortable. It was like……—.

“Xinlu. You……”

“Oh. That’s right, you didn’t know this, did you, Taei-hyung?”

Xinlu turned to look at him as if remembering something. His almond-shaped eyes gazed at Jeong Taeui, and he smiled. There was a vague sense of something not quite right in his dark eyes.

“My right eye can’t see anymore. I got a minor injury from being hit by Rick the other day.”

Xinlu added, “It’s not comfortable, but daily life is still manageable.” He smiled, as if telling an amusing story.

Dimly, Jeong Taeui noticed that the right eye seemed to be covered with a nearly invisible transparent layer over the dark eye. And only then did Jeong Taeui realize the nature of the vague sense of incongruity.

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

“………….”

His eyelids felt unusually heavy. He tried to think about why he couldn’t open his eyes, but even his head couldn’t move.

Have I been losing sleep recently?

He couldn’t remember clearly, but it seemed he had been losing sleep because he couldn’t recall the feeling of being refreshed after a good night’s sleep. He didn’t even know if he had gotten enough sleep.

Now, his eyelids felt heavy, but it wasn’t that kind of feeling. It wasn’t that he couldn’t open his eyes because he was sleepy; it felt more like something was pressing down on them. Jeong Taeui laboriously lifted one hand and felt his eyelids—of course, there was no stone there.

Jeong Taeui searched for his memory. His mind couldn’t function normally. So, he tried to recall the last thing he remembered before closing his eyes.

He didn’t think he had fallen asleep while looking at the night sky in the small courtyard of that villa. Nor did he think he had dozed off while reading in his brother’s room or even while eating mangoes on a hammock in the small homestay in Seringe…… …… These seemed like very distant memories. After a long period with blurry memories of events along a long corridor until the appearance of a large door, he could only think of one thing—drugs.

“When Jaeui-hyung wakes up, I’ll say goodbye to him and leave. After that, I don’t know. Even if you catch or imprison him afterward, I’ll say a proper goodbye and then leave.”

In the car, looking at his brother, who was dozing off without knowing when he’d wake up, Jeong Taeui muttered gloomily.

Xinlu immediately burst into laughter.

“Taei-hyung, since when did you become so impatient? You can’t…… .. Well, you must be tired, so take this and get some sleep.”

With that, Xinlu forcibly shoved a pill the size of a fingernail into his mouth while Jeong Taeui widened his eyes and struggled helplessly. He tried to spit it out, but the pill dissolved as soon as it touched his mouth. He tried to spit it out again, but Xinlu had already poured water into his mouth.

Alright. Thinking about what kind of drug this could be, it seemed like the thing that knocked him out was the pill.

“It’s not opium, right? Opium……?”

He had never heard that opium had a sleep-inducing effect, but the drug that Xinlu had forced on him didn’t seem like an ordinary drug. “Haizzz” – Jeong Taeui rubbed his heavy eyelids again. Even after clearing his mind, he still felt sleepy because he couldn’t open his eyes.

Jeong Taeui struggled to open his eyes and stood up. Then, he looked around the room that appeared before him with a blank mind and blinked.

This was a room in some hotel.

Jeong Taeui didn’t even need to think much about why he was there. Xinlu must have brought him here while he was unconscious. The question was, where was this place, and why was he alone here?

Jeong Taeui got up from his seat. His head felt heavy, but apart from that, there was nothing else. He had been forced to take a pill and was quite worried when he lost consciousness, but it seemed it was just a sleeping pill. Jeong Taeui went to the window, drew back the curtains, and opened the shutters.

Outside, the sky was pitch black, and below the window, cars were passing by. Tall and short buildings lined the street.

Jeong Taeui stared blankly, blinking at the sight of a typical cityscape. For some reason, it seemed like a long time since he had seen such a scene.

Since leaving Hong Kong, he hadn’t been to any big city. After that, he had mostly stayed in Seringe.

Jeong Taeui scratched his head and looked around; next to the bathroom, there was a minibar.

He pulled out a can of beer, returned to the window, sat down, and looked at the view below.

With his mind unable to think clearly at the moment, Jeong Taeui picked up the can of beer and quickly drank half of it. After a while, he seemed to calm down.

“At this rate, I might end up becoming an alcoholic…… but hey, beer isn’t liquor.”

Besides, thinking about it, he hadn’t touched beer since coming to Seringe—specifically since being confined in Raumaan’s villa. Was it because it had been so long that it tasted so refreshing? This was a brand he had never seen before. Soon after, Jeong Taeui placed the empty can on the windowsill and turned around.

If this was a hotel in a big city, then he didn’t need to wonder where it was, nor did he need to call the front desk to ask.

“This is……”

Jeong Taeui opened the information booklet placed on the table in the living room. He followed the printed lines on the first page and then glanced down to the last lines.

“……—Rosebank Road, Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa…….”

Jeong Taeui spoke and then fell silent.

He had just fallen asleep in Seringe, Tanzania, and upon opening his eyes, he was in Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa.

“……There’s no way the hotel information could be wrong……”

Jeong Taeui flipped through the brochure back and forth. The name of the hotel was beautifully embossed in gold on the back of the leather cover. Putting it down, Jeong Taeui stood up and looked down at his bare feet. He had seen the slippers in front of the bathroom door when he got the beer earlier, but he didn’t bother to put them on.

The person who brought him here—there was no one else but Xinlu.

Jeong Taeui scratched his head.

“He’s pretty good, that little brat…… How did he manage my passport?”

Come to think of it, not only did Jeong Taeui not have his passport, but Jeong Jaeui didn’t either. If Xinlu could manipulate his passport, he could certainly do the same with Jeong Jaeui’s.

Jeong Taeui nodded to himself in understanding. But where had everyone else gone? He looked around the room, realizing he was the only one there.

Jeong Taeui scratched his head again. He returned to the bed and sat down. Then, feeling helpless, he rolled over and over on the bed before turning on the TV. He didn’t really want to watch anything specific, so he kept changing channels until he stopped on one and lay down.

“……”

As his mind slowly began to function normally again, he started to think about the jumbled memories that had just flashed through his head.

The overlapping memories made his mind even more muddled.

Let’s start with the morning—Jeong Taeui couldn’t believe that he had taken a pill, passed out for an entire day, and then woken up in the middle of the night like this—.

Raumaan had returned to his country. He didn’t know the details, but Raumaan had mentioned that the country seemed to be under terrorist attack. It must have been a very complex situation, which is why he took all his armed guards back there. After that, fortunately, just as the guards were distracted, Ilay arrived. In a very irrational manner. It seemed that the annex had been almost completely destroyed.

Meanwhile, Xinlu had entered the annex first and then taken him and his brother away…… Ilay seemed to have lost his mind.

“Seriously…… What’s going on here?”

Jeong Taeui buried his face in the bed. Nothing was going as it should; why was his luck like this? At times like these, he just wanted to share a bit of his brother’s luck—the luck that allowed him to leave whenever he wanted.

“…….”

“Taei, come here.”

That low, harsh voice echoed along with the roar of the motorcycle in his ears. And the expression on Ilay’s face at that moment……

Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue. His heart felt heavy.

“It feels so strange. He made that face again……”

Words that seemed to pierce his ears.

“Taei, come here.”

Those cold, sharp eyes looked directly at Jeong Taeui. Ilay’s gaze was fixed on him, not wavering for a moment.

That face was very angry. No, maybe—it might be due to his own state of mind—but it seemed more like a face filled with fear rather than anger.

“It doesn’t suit him at all…….”

That expression on his face didn’t match him at all. The smirk that flashed through his mind suited the usual emotionless and calm demeanor of Ilay much better. That face revealed the true nature of the man.

Although it was admittedly unlucky and eerie, that face was better than seeing a face full of unreasonable worry. He didn’t want to see such an unsuitable expression on Ilay.

“TAEI!”

The shout of his name echoed in Jeong Taeui’s ears. The moment Ilay found him in the villa.

Right after calling his name, Ilay stopped destroying the buildings and immediately rushed toward Jeong Taeui. As he approached, he tossed the mortar aside – apparently, the trigger hit something and exploded with a loud bang – and he charged at Jeong Taeui with incredible speed.

He had been smiling.

The man was clearly smiling. From the moment he saw Jeong Taeui until he started approaching him, it was as if he was genuinely happy, as if…… he was so happy that even he didn’t realize it himself.

“……That face doesn’t suit him at all……”

Jeong Taeui muttered painfully, groaning. He buried his face in the blanket and pulled it over his head, feeling his heart ache.

It was the first time he had seen that expression on Ilay’s face.

No, now that he thought about it, he had seen similar expressions before. There were times he had seen such a look on his face, to the point that each time Jeong Taeui would be surprised to see it. With Ilay’s personality, if he had a habit of smiling like that, the happy smile made Jeong Taeui think he should be wanted for fraud. However, even though he had seen that face many times and had gotten used to it, the bright smile Ilay had given him that day still felt strange.

That smile was so unfamiliar it was scary. It was so strange it made his heart ache with an unnameable fear.

“Where did that guy learn to make such a weird expression……”

Jeong Taeui mumbled, burying his head deeper into the blanket. But that smile wasn’t entirely bad. Although his expression hurt Jeong Taeui’s heart, maybe if he saw it occasionally, he could get used to it.

But suddenly, Jeong Taeui’s face hardened.

The moment Ilay saw Xinlu’s face over his shoulder, and the moment Jeong Taeui showed signs of running toward Xinlu……

“……I’ve done something really bad. Damn it.”

Jeong Taeui groaned aloud. He buried his head in the blanket for a long time without moving, but finally, he pulled the blanket away and sat up.

He needed to contact Ilay.

The expression on Ilay’s face was etched in his memory. The stunned face and the questioning eyes asking ‘why’ that looked at him as he disappeared replayed in Jeong Taeui’s mind, stabbing his heart and making it hard to breathe.

“It’s because that face doesn’t suit that monster at all……”

Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue and stood up.

When he felt the need to contact Ilay, a sense of urgency overtook him. Perhaps if Jeong Taeui said he was going to contact Ilay, Xinlu would certainly try to stop him.

So, he had to call him now while Xinlu wasn’t here. Jeong Taeui picked up the phone on the bedside table and dialed the international number he knew by heart.

‘But what would I say to him now?’

Suddenly, his fingers twitch involuntarily. He couldn’t think of anything to say to him.

‘I’m sorry……, ……?’

‘What was that expression on your face?’

Neither of those would work.

Jeong Taeui had nothing to say. Even though he was the one calling, he had no idea what to say. Should he come up with an excuse to explain why he was with Xinlu?

‘……, …..okay. That’s it.’

Jeong Taeui suddenly had a thought. His face turned pale.

Why couldn’t he think of everything so simply like an idiot?

Now that he thought about it, if he looked at it from a different perspective, it was as if he was trying to escape from Ilay and go to Xinlu. What had Ilay said would happen if he tried to escape again? Would he really kill him then?

“Oh…… Next time we meet, I really might die…… and it won’t be a peaceful death.”

Jeong Taeui quickly dialed the number. After all, he couldn’t be killed over the phone, so it was better to come up with an excuse now to save his skin in the future.

Jeong Taeui glanced at the door, seeing no sign of it opening. It would be a pity if Xinlu suddenly walked in and hung up the phone.

“Why can’t I even make a phone call freely anymore……”

Complaining about how dire his situation had become, Jeong Taeui listened to the signals ringing on the other end of the line.

But then, Jeong Taeui frowned and tilted his head in confusion.

He didn’t answer the phone.

No, maybe the call wasn’t going through because the beeping signals were very odd. It rang five times and then disconnected. There wasn’t even an automated message. Jeong Taeui wondered if he had dialed the wrong number or if there was a problem with the phone, so he kept redialing, but it was the same every time. The signal rang a few times and then stopped. That was it. At least if there was an automated message, he could leave a voicemail, but there was nothing.

“……., …….”

Jeong Taeui looked at the receiver with a furrowed brow before putting it down.

How strange.

However, he couldn’t figure out the cause, so after staring at the phone for a long time, he sighed heavily. His stomach felt queasy; maybe he should have another beer. Jeong Taeui went to the minibar and grabbed a can of beer.

“I can’t believe they only gave me two cans. Should I call room service and ask for more?…… But the hotel bill is going to be on me, right?”

Jeong Taeui seriously thought about two things: One, he was alone in the room, and two, he didn’t have the money to pay.

A worrisome thought flashed through his mind, and Jeong Taeui shook his head vigorously.

“But where has everyone gone……..”

Jeong Taeui took a full sip of beer, absentmindedly watching the late-night news on TV. The international news showed a video of flames erupting in the corner of a luxurious mansion, as if it had been hit by artillery. Three or four similar videos played in succession, all on the same topic. The newscaster read a brief news segment, indicating it was about terrorism.

“It looks like they used some field guns…… Who are these villains that would go around bombing such a splendid mansion?”

Jeong Taeui remarked while taking another sip of beer. Perhaps because the world is so chaotic these days, terrorism is rampant everywhere.

Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue.

Thinking back, it seemed Raumaan had to suddenly return to his country early in the morning because of terrorism.

Jeong Taeui wondered if this was related to Raumaan’s country, and then the subtitle on the screen showed Riyadh – Saudi Arabia.

……He had guessed correctly.

Only then did Jeong Taeui carefully watch the news segment. In reality, whether Raumaan was affected by terrorism or not wasn’t much of a concern to him. But he thought it might be related to someone he knew.

“……—The suspects in this case and the undisclosed purpose of their actions are……..”

The screen changed with the newscaster’s voice. Images of 6 or 7 people appeared on the screen. They must be the villains.

Jeong Taeui guessed without much thought.

At that moment.

“…….—Cough……..!!!! cough…………”

Jeong Taeui choked on his beer.

He fell onto the bed, coughing like crazy, feeling his stomach twist in pain. He was so agitated he could hardly breathe. Jeong Taeui coughed while his eyes widened from the lack of air.

How strange. What he had just seen.

Jeong Taeui coughed so much that he looked up at the news on TV with teary eyes. However, the TV had moved on to news about the British royal family.

Coughing, Jeong Taeui quickly changed the channel, his breath weak. That news would surely be replayed somewhere. He needed to confirm whether what he saw was a mistake.

Jeong Taeui flipped through channels, finally finding a news segment similar to the one before. Only the presenter’s voice and content were slightly different; otherwise, everything was the same, including the images and video.

And Jeong Taeui saw it again.

The face of the man he had just been thinking about appeared on TV.

The name displayed below the picture—Ilay Riegrow. And below that picture, among the faces considered accomplices, was another very familiar face. It was the face he saw in the mirror every day. The name is written in small letters on the caption right next to it.

“………….huh?”

A strangled groan escaped his throat.

The picture, which he didn’t know where they had gotten, was taken many years ago when he graduated from the military academy. He hadn’t changed much since then.

But he couldn’t understand why that picture was there.

Jeong Taeui stared in astonishment at the news broadcast, wondering if he had misheard. After the broadcast ended, he flipped through channels again and again, but it seemed it was too late now and the variety of news channels was limited, so there were no more reports like that.

Jeong Taeui sat dazed, staring blankly at the TV which was now airing a late-night talk show. The guests were laughing and chatting, but none of it registered with him. Among the 6 or 7 photos in the video, there were 2 very familiar faces. He couldn’t understand why those 2 faces were on the news broadcast.