Stealing something — and a weapon at that — was a fairly serious crime, but since they were in a hurry right now, he’d count it as borrowing for a bit. It would belong to the Special Abilities Agency anyway, and since he was fundamentally a Special Abilities Agency operative himself, it wasn’t all that different from filing a weapon request and having one issued to him.
Besides, anyone who hid firearms this carelessly deserved to have one stolen at least once. Writing up an incident report would be a good learning experience for them.
Having completed a brief internal apology and an extended internal justification, Hae-il lifted the gun with practiced ease and checked it over. From the shape of the ejection port, it was a firearm designed for ability users who channel wavelengths through their weapons.
He pushed it into his trouser pocket for now and glanced back. Moon Woo-shin had already changed clothes in the meantime and was setting fire to the discarded garments.
……Fire?
Hae-il’s mouth fell open and he shot to his feet. Another wave of dizziness rushed over him, but the sight in front of him made him completely forget about it.
“Let’s go.”
Moon Woo-shin, on the other hand, grabbed Hae-il and pulled him along as if there was nothing the matter at all.
This man has really made a natural reflex out of every possible crime.
“Did you really have to go as far as arson?”
“It’s the easiest way to erase evidence.”
Moon Woo-shin pulled a cap low over his head and took back the bag that had been slung over Hae-il’s shoulder.
He strode ahead toward the entrance, checked outside, then turned only his head to give Hae-il a look. Then, without a moment’s hesitation, he stepped out through the tent flap. Hae-il followed.
Outside, the sun hung directly overhead as if it were midday. After days without a proper look at it, the sight of sunlight was more welcome than he could have anticipated.
As he walked and looked around, he could see that aside from a few tents and a wide barricade encircling the perimeter, the area was completely barren — not a single blade of grass. The unnaturally empty expanse made it clear that this was the very spot where they had been pulled into the Gate.
Special Gates sometimes dropped you somewhere entirely unexpected upon escape, so it was fortunate to have returned to a location he at least recognized.
The two of them moved without making a sound, quietly slipping around the side of the tents to avoid the others. Nothing happened as they walked at a brisk pace toward the outer perimeter.
It was only a few seconds later, just as they were nearing the barricade, that a commotion erupted behind them.
“What is that? Hey—!”
“Fire! Fire!”
Somehow, at just the right moment, the flames burst with a bang and shot up spectacularly over the top of the tent.
As more people from the other tents came rushing out and swarmed toward the fire, Hae-il and Woo-shin suppressed every trace of their presence and moved swiftly in the opposite direction.
The moment they reached the barrier — a little higher than waist height — Moon Woo-shin cleared it with ease. He landed on the other side and immediately turned around, extending a hand.
Before he could do anything, Hae-il planted his left arm and vaulted over the barricade in one clean motion.
As he landed beside him, Moon Woo-shin stared.
“…….”
“What?”
Hae-il played dumb, and Moon Woo-shin quietly scanned him up and down before turning around again and walking on.
Just ahead, a few cars were parked. Their own vehicle had obviously been pulled into the Gate along with them and would have dissolved without leaving a single part behind. He had assumed they would naturally walk around the cars and past them — but Moon Woo-shin walked straight into the middle of them.
“We’re stealing a car too?”
“You want to walk?”
Absolutely unapologetic about it.
Hae-il thought he was going to pick the lock or something — but Moon Woo-shin produced a car key from his pocket. As if it had always been his.
“Was that in the tent too?”
“This one was in someone’s pocket.”
When exactly did he find time to pickpocket someone as well.
Moon Woo-shin pressed the button, and a sedan parked in one corner answered with a chirp.
Hae-il, having reached a state of resigned acceptance, trudged after him. He wondered if he could later file that car as a business expense.
Either way, things had already come this far and there was nothing to be done about it. That was that, and this was this — the task at hand had to be done properly while the opportunity was there.
The moment he settled into the passenger seat, Hae-il retrieved the dashcam first. Then he immediately opened the glove box. If this was a government vehicle, there might be a GPS tracker installed for emergencies.
He felt around in the corner, pulled out a small tracking device, and wrapped it along with the dashcam in water. Once safely submerged, he tossed both out the window.
He wiped his face down roughly with the wet wipes from the car, struggled one-handed to fasten his seatbelt, and at last there was nothing left to do but let the car take him. Hae-il rested his head limply against the seat.
“Ha…….”
His heart stuttered anxiously just from using that small amount of ability.
In the meantime, Moon Woo-shin had tossed the bag down at Hae-il’s feet and reached out to press his hand against Hae-il’s forehead.
He wasn’t running a fever or anything close to it, but it felt vaguely like that. Guiding flickered out from the palm that covered his entire forehead. That faint, small wavelength was too slight, and too sweet.
“Don’t fall asleep yet.”
“I’m not sleeping.”
Suppressing the urge to press his face into that palm with everything he had, Hae-il answered curtly.
The hand that had made brief contact moved away quickly.
Moon Woo-shin returned to his position, started the engine, and hit the accelerator without delay.
“Ow.”
The car lurched forward and his body was thrown with it. He’d tried to steady himself and put pressure on his shoulder, and Hae-il let out a small groan.
Right — this man always drove like this.
He had nearly let his guard down for a moment. Hae-il gripped his seatbelt tight.
***
As it turned out, Moon Woo-shin’s driving style did end up being useful.
“We’ve got a tail.”
Staying tense and alert had paid off — Hae-il noticed the tail quickly. A black car had been following them quietly at a fixed distance for a while now.
They’d even removed the tracker, and yet the Special Abilities Agency had moved remarkably fast — barely three hours since they’d escaped.
The fact that there were no police openly following them with sirens blaring made it obvious they hadn’t been flagged as simple car thieves — they’d been marked as suspicious enough to warrant closer investigation.
Moon Woo-shin checked the side mirror and rearview mirror in quick alternation, then accelerated.
“Hold onto something.”
What exactly is there left to hold onto here.
Of all things to injure, it had to be his right shoulder, which made grabbing the door handle awkward. The moment Hae-il latched onto his seat with his left hand instead, the car swung into a sharp turn.
With a screech of tires, the car executed a U-turn and threaded neatly through the gaps between moving vehicles on the road. Not even a few meters later, it cut sharply right again.
In the short span of time spent frantically switching directions, traffic signals were clearly not factored into the calculations.
A chorus of horns blared from every direction.
“Isn’t this more conspicuous?”
“We shake them off properly, then switch vehicles.”
Hae-il struggled to keep his balance as he checked behind them. They were moving so fast that the surrounding cars changed in a constant blur. It was almost astonishing that at this speed, not a single vehicle had even been grazed.
The car tore ahead and cut through a relentless series of turns before gradually finding its way onto a quieter road. Whether Moon Woo-shin had a destination in mind or was simply going wherever his hands took him, the driving was too erratic to tell.
After a long stretch of driving, the moment Hae-il was certain no one was following them anymore, he straightened up in his seat and snuck a sideways look at Moon Woo-shin. The face fixed straight ahead on the road, hands on the wheel, was utterly impassive.
“Do you get tailed often?”
“Sometimes.”
“So that’s why you drive like this.”
Moon Woo-shin let out a small, dry laugh and jerked the wheel sharply to the left. Caught off guard by the sudden hard curve, Hae-il grabbed at his seat in a hurry.
