Chapter 84: Accident
While I was frozen in shock, another thunderous sound echoed. As if by magic, the wooden door shattered, and Kang Dohyuk entered with several men behind him.
“Kang Chahyuk.”
Dohyuk’s voice was ice-cold as he spat out Chahyuk’s name. Chahyuk, who had been paralyzed with goosebumps, quickly grabbed Yeon and positioned him in front.
“Stop! Or I’ll slit this guy’s throat.”
Kang Chahyuk pulled a jack knife from his pocket and pressed it against Yeon’s neck. But the hand holding the knife was trembling slightly.
Unlike Kang Sunhyuk, Kang Chahyuk had never properly used a knife before. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he was the most sheltered among the Kang brothers. So he wasn’t accustomed to holding a knife to someone’s neck. He knew how to hire hitmen but lacked the courage to kill someone himself.
“If you do that, your head will fly off too, you know.”
Dohyuk ignored his words and stepped closer.
“Aaaaargh! I said don’t come closer!”
Chahyuk wildly slashed the knife through the air. In the process, the blade grazed Yeon’s arm.
“Ugh.”
Yeon swallowed a groan and grabbed the cut with his opposite hand. In an instant, his white palm was stained with blood flowing from his arm. Seeing this, Dohyuk stopped walking, but his eyes turned even darker and more threatening. The bodyguards also hesitated to move forward, fearing Yeon might get hurt.
“Kang Chahyuk-ssi! Please calm down, I beg you.”
Yeon called out to Chahyuk. When their eyes met, Chahyuk’s gaze wavered. Yeon slowly nodded, hoping Chahyuk would remember his promise to protect him from Dohyuk if he surrendered. Chahyuk’s face contorted as if he might cry.
“Kang Chahyuk, let go of him.”
Dohyuk’s voice was frigid as he pointed out that Chahyuk was gripping Yeon’s arm. Chahyuk frowned at Dohyuk’s tone and shook his head.
“No, I can’t trust what you say. More precisely, I can’t trust that bastard.”
Chahyuk seemed to steel himself as he glared at Dohyuk with determination in his eyes.
“If you come closer, I’ll really kill this shaman. Don’t any of you move an inch.”
He pressed the jack knife firmly against Yeon’s neck after waving it wildly in the air. Seeing the blade threatening to cut Yeon’s skin, Dohyuk raised both hands to indicate he understood. Even so, he and his bodyguards were blocking the entrance to the room. Dohyuk planned to attack Chahyuk at the moment he tried to leave the room with Yeon in front, so there was no need to rush.
This pointless standoff was just a waste of time. Chahyuk had taken Yeon hostage but appeared anxious as he darted his eyes around, clearly without a solid plan.
“Tell me what you want.”
“If I do, will you actually give it to me?”
“…”
“First, get rid of all those guys.”
Chahyuk gestured with his eyes toward the men standing behind Dohyuk. Dohyuk turned to look at them and nodded, and one by one they left the room. Everyone else had gone out, leaving only Kang Dohyuk. Only then did Chahyuk seem to relax a bit as he took a deep breath.
“Prepare for me to leave the country.”
At Chahyuk’s demand, Dohyuk swallowed a derisive laugh. The police were already searching for Chahyuk. He wondered why he should help smuggle such a person out of the country.
“I don’t have the ability to move the police.”
When Dohyuk indirectly refused, Chahyuk became furious.
“Don’t be ridiculous! You can make it happen somehow!”
He wasn’t wrong. Air travel would be difficult, but there were ways to smuggle someone out. Dohyuk simply had no desire to go that far for Chahyuk.
“I’ll look into it, but first let him go.”
Dohyuk’s plan was to get Yeon away from Chahyuk first, then either deal with Chahyuk himself or hand him over to the police.
“Don’t be absurd. Contact me when everything’s perfectly arranged. I’ll return him then. As long as you don’t do anything stupid, hyung, I’ll take good care of him, so don’t worry.”
Chahyuk backed away slowly, still holding the jack knife to Yeon’s neck. Dohyuk, who had been planning to take Chahyuk down the moment he approached to leave the room, frowned. When Dohyuk tried to take a step forward, Chahyuk pressed the knife even harder against Yeon’s neck.
“Don’t move. I’ll really stab him.”
The blade’s tip cut the skin, drawing blood. Dohyuk felt his mind growing colder as his anger rose.
“Go ahead. Stab him, if you can.”
At this cold response, Chahyuk’s eyes widened. Dohyuk lunged at him without missing the moment of hesitation, but by a hair’s breadth, just before Dohyuk’s hand could reach him, Chahyuk jumped out the window, still holding onto Yeon.
For a moment, Dohyuk thought his heart had stopped from shock. Looking out the window immediately, he saw it was only the second floor, and there was a pile of garbage below that seemed to have cushioned their fall. Chahyuk got up and forcibly dragged Yeon along, then looked up. When his eyes met Dohyuk’s, he glared for a moment before turning away.
Ha. A delayed sigh escaped. Dohyuk hadn’t expected him to jump out the window. It seemed Chahyuk had deliberately chosen a room on a lower floor. Though not as skilled in physical combat as Sunhyuk, he was definitely better at scheming.
“They escaped behind the motel. They probably have a car parked nearby, find it immediately!”
After calling the bodyguards stationed at the front of the motel and instructing them to search the back, Dohyuk rushed downstairs.
***
Unlike highways, many national roads had four lanes. A white sedan raced along the quiet weekday road, ignoring traffic signals.
Three black cars followed behind Chahyuk’s car. It was Dohyuk and his men. Chahyuk had initially felt relieved after escaping from the motel in his car, but when Dohyuk’s vehicles caught up, he panicked.
“Fuck… how the hell did they find out!”
He kept cursing, but that changed nothing. To avoid a car threatening him by driving close to his side, he pressed down hard on the accelerator and turned the steering wheel sharply. With the sudden lurch forward, Yeon, sitting in the passenger seat, instinctively grabbed the handle above the door tightly.
Trying to avoid the car coming alongside him, Chahyuk crossed the center line, causing an oncoming car to blare its horn loudly. He managed to return to his lane in that hair-raising moment, but the rapidly passing scenery outside the window made him nauseous.
“Kang Chahyuk-ssi! Stop, please!”
Yeon shouted. He felt they would all die if there was an accident at this rate.
“Fuck! Shut up!”
Chahyuk was out of his mind. Thinking he would die if caught, he was desperately trying to escape. As a result, his driving became increasingly reckless. He nearly collided with another car ahead of them.
Vrrroooom. The black cars pursued at a terrifying speed, threatening Chahyuk’s car from the sides and behind. Chahyuk gritted his teeth and pressed the accelerator even harder. 140, 160… As the numbers on the dashboard kept rising, Yeon’s face grew increasingly pale.
How long would this dangerous chase continue? At this rate, innocent people might get caught up in the Kang family brothers’ fight. While Chahyuk was at fault, Dohyuk also showed no sign of giving up. The black car closing in as if about to ram them gave Yeon goosebumps, as it conveyed Dohyuk’s determination to catch them no matter what.
Dohyuk, who was driving right beside Chahyuk’s car, felt this would never end. His cold eyes focused on the road ahead. He pressed the accelerator hard, causing the speedometer to soar.
Once it exceeded 200 km/h, Dohyuk’s car overtook Chahyuk’s. After gaining nearly 50 meters of distance, he turned the steering wheel 90 degrees while braking. With a screeching sound, the car stopped, blocking the middle of the road.
He was determined to force a stop if they wouldn’t stop voluntarily. Even considering that the car might be destroyed and those inside might be injured, Dohyuk’s decision remained unchanged.
He turned his head to glare at Chahyuk’s white sedan racing toward his parked car. Even as the distance between the two cars diminished at a frightening speed, Dohyuk’s expression remained unchanged until his eyes suddenly widened for a moment.
Just before colliding with Dohyuk’s car, there was an ear-splitting screech of tires grinding against the concrete. CRASH! Chahyuk’s car hit the guardrail on the side of the road and fell over the edge. The cars following behind Dohyuk also had to brake suddenly to stop, and one of them crossed the center line and crashed into the opposite wall.
Dohyuk hurriedly got out of his car and checked below the guardrail where Chahyuk’s car had fallen. He could see Chahyuk’s car wrecked about 20 meters below. Gulp. He swallowed hard, feeling for the first time in his life what it meant to see everything go black before one’s eyes.
His body moved before his thoughts. As Dohyuk tried to climb over the guardrail to descend the nearly cliff-like mountain path, his bodyguards rushed after him in alarm.
“Managing Director! It’s dangerous!”
One of the bodyguards grabbed Dohyuk, but without a moment’s hesitation, he shook off the hand.
“You can’t! It might explode!”
Several bodyguards tried to stop Dohyuk.
“Move!”
Despite Dohyuk’s roar, the bodyguards clung to him desperately.
That’s when it happened. BOOM! KABOOM! A series of explosions rang out. Everyone, including Dohyuk, turned their gaze toward Chahyuk’s car.
A column of red flames shot up from the car. Dohyuk watched the scene without even blinking.
‘At the end of this red thread, there exists only blood as red as thread.’
Yeon’s voice echoed dully in his ears as if heard underwater.
“This can’t be…”
Whatever conclusion they had reached in a past life, Dohyuk had thought it had nothing to do with him. He didn’t care about the supposedly repeated lives. Whatever had happened in a past he couldn’t even remember, in this life—right now—he had confidently believed without a hint of hesitation that he could at least protect Yeon, that he could simply change such a fate.
The embroidered design on Yeon’s white clothes flickered before his eyes. One bird biting another bird’s neck, and the bitten bird shedding tears as it died.
Tears welled up in Yeon’s blue eyes, swelling until they flowed down his white cheeks. He saw someone reaching out to wipe those tears. But that hand was already stained with red blood.
It had always been he who killed Yeon. Only now did he realize that.
