Woonghee stealthily opened the door leading to the yard. The creaking sound cut through the silence. With his back pressed flat against the wall, he carefully stepped forward. Tula followed closely behind him. Woonghee ahead put his hand in his back pants pocket. Then he pulled out a blade and aimed it at Director Hwang like a throwing star.
“Move, cleverly.”
“Ugh, ungh!”
A sharp silver flash burst from the tip of the flying blade. Director Hwang was terrified and screamed “Unghunghungh!” He flailed desperately like that and barely dodged the blade. Thwack! The blade stuck into the dirt ground.
“Grrgh!”
Director Hwang sent a look asking if he was crazy. Then he let out a scream truly like wringing a chicken’s neck. A high-pitched sound echoed through the empty yard. As if that scream became a trigger, bang! A gunshot rang out. A bullet lodged in the gate. The old house interior, which had only been filled with tension, was wrapped in chaos in an instant.
‘Crazy…!’
It was real. A real gun that could blow off heads.
He’d only held one in the military, and after discharge, he’d only had occasion to touch fake guns on filming sets. Only then did he realize the extent of the ripples from the stone he’d thrown. Friction with enemies holding guns was unavoidable. Now a blade was truly right under his throat.
“Ungh, ungh, ungh!”
The terrified Director Hwang wriggled trying to escape, but with his feet bound, it didn’t look easy. Wasn’t there something he could use as a shield? Woonghee rolled his eyes around rapidly.
‘…Oh, that’s it!’
He saw a tray with dried peppers spread out on one side of the yard. He immediately flew over with short strides like a flying squirrel. Then he hastily grabbed it and covered his body like a shield. Then he ran toward Director Hwang as if leaping, grabbed the thick bastard’s arm and dragged him.
Bang, bang!
Even in that moment, with a crash, the window frame flew off and dusty glass shards scattered in all directions. An exotic language shouting noisily was heard as a bonus. Thud, thud! Bullets grazed the tray Woonghee was holding too. He felt a tremendous impact, but Woonghee gritted his teeth.
“Huk, huff…!”
He dragged that large body toward the old wall and pressed his body close.
“This, this son of a bitch….”
Director Hwang’s two eyes, thoroughly terrified, were pooled with sticky tears. Woonghee muttered quietly, “Shut up, unless you want to die.” Since he’d used Director Hwang to draw aggro, this bastard’s usefulness ended here.
“How many voices do you think there are?”
Woonghee asked in a lowered voice. Tula, the only one who understood their language, held up three fingers. Damn, there were more than expected. On top of that, the enemies even had guns.
[Two outside the door, looks like one keeping watch.]
Woonghee gestured backward with his head. Since they’d rescued Director Hwang, it was a tactical retreat. This yard was too wide to face them. They had to aim for the back of their heads as much as possible.
“…Move this.”
Woonghee and Tula grabbed Director Hwang’s limbs and moved him while quietly backing away. Soon after, creak, the completely riddled gate opened. Creak, creak. The sound of stepping on the old floorboards grew gradually closer.
The two carefully entered the bedroom and closed the door. They shoved Director Hwang under the bed, and Woonghee hid inside the wardrobe. Tula, who was good with his body, hung from the ceiling like Spider-Man.
“……”
Thump thump, his heart beat. As he was sticking only his eyes between the wardrobe door gaps like that, soon the enemy’s form was revealed. It was a guy wearing yellow clothes. Fortunately, he seemed to be alone right now.
The man looked around various spots in the room. He checked behind the door too, and tap tap, kicked the TV with his foot. Then with a cigarette in his mouth, he opened the shelf under the TV. He took out a lighter from inside and lit his cigarette.
And the next moment, the guy headed for the bed. He was about to lower his head to look under the bed. It was a hair-trigger moment. Director Hwang hiding right under there was about to be discovered any second.
‘Hiiiik….’
Right then. Woonghee burst out of the wardrobe and flew nimbly behind the guy’s back. When he tightly choked his neck, the opponent made gagging sounds.
“Guhk, guheuk…!”
He was slightly shorter than Woonghee, but his body was sturdy. Woonghee strangled the resisting guy’s neck even tighter. The guy thwack thwack, hit Woonghee’s forearm.
‘Tula…!’
Tula nimbly jumped down from the ceiling and snatched the gun from the guy. Then he shoved a blanket deep into the throat of his gagging mouth.
“Shut up.”
Woonghee aimed the tip of the machete at the guy’s mouth.
“Or you die.”
Then with the blade, tap tap, he touched the guy’s lips.
To the terrified guy, Woonghee shouted “Huh?!” and the guy nodded his head like crazy. Tula skillfully loaded the obtained gun and aimed it toward the door.
“You fuck, where did you come from…?”
When Woonghee asked, the enemy muttered something while trembling. Tula had shoved the blanket into his mouth so roughly. His jaw was almost completely open.
“Po, po, what the fuck?”
Woonghee frowned and barked quietly. And the next moment, he belatedly noticed the clothes the guy was wearing. Wait, if he wasn’t seeing wrong right now…. That yellow badge on his chest was definitely a police uniform.
‘Police?’
In an instant, the text Woongju had sent came to mind. She’d said local police had also been dispatched to find the missing people. Fuck, Woongju, look at this mess. The world is rotten as fuck like this. Even the police bastard you believed in was just a corrupt bastard like this.
“Fucking rotten, you bastard….”
Woonghee brought the blade tip close to the guy’s neck. When bright red blood spread out, the guy groaned “Ungh” and trembled his shoulders.
“Before you die, hand over the boat keys and fuck off.”
Tula seemed to relay the words, spitting something in Tagalog.
“Otherwise, you’ll all be dead.”
Then the police bastard started twisting his lips while muttering something. Tula’s face, listening to those words, became a mess like a sewer. What kind of expression was that again? It was a complexion as if he’d lost his soul after hearing unexpected words.
“What’s he saying, this son of a bitch?”
Woonghee asked, sharply furrowing his brow. Tula frowned with eyes that couldn’t understand.
[He says we’ll be caught anyway?]
The police officer gave a feeling of affirming while sneering at these words. Tula grabbed the guy’s collar as if about to rush at him.
[What does that mean.]
[Fisherman!]
The guy, suffering from a blocked windpipe, shouted as if vomiting blood. Fisherman? It wasn’t just him who was puzzled by the incomprehensible word. Tula also had an expression that didn’t understand the meaning. Was it not a word commonly used here?
[The bastard the Fisherman was looking for…!]
What the guy who shouted “is right there” stretched out his hand and pointed at was precisely Woonghee.
“So what the hell does that mean…!”
Woonghee, about to press the machete deeper into his skin, suddenly flinched and stopped his hand.
“No, wait… Fisherman?”
At the sudden sense of déjà vu, Woonghee muttered, rolling the pronunciation one by one with his tongue. Since fishing is낚시, if it’s fisherman, does it mean fisherman, a fisherman….
When his thoughts reached that far, there was a face that suddenly came to mind. It was Managing Director Gi. Come to think of it, that man. He said he excavated treasures buried in the sea. When bored, he’d launch fishing boats for no reason….
Why were such useless stories coming to mind in such an urgent moment? Well, it wasn’t just now. Hadn’t he been mulling over that bastard all day?
After crossing over to this island, memories of Managing Director Gi had covered him like a pitch-black shadow.
“Why that bastard.”
Woonghee asked quietly. Then the guy babbled something. It was Tagalog, completely incomprehensible words. Tula no longer interpreted his words to the guy.
He only obtained hints by directly making eye contact with that guy and observing changes in expression.
“……”
“……”
In the sky visible through the small window, there was only pitch-black darkness.
It was after even the lighthouse that had been flashing at some point had disappeared without a trace. Everything was dyed pitch black. Actually, Woonghee knew too. That the lighthouse on that island had been blinking continuously.
Fugitive, regret, revenge, payback, come back.
The meanings sent were uniformly clear. It was crying out quietly to the fugitive to come back. But now there was only that much darkness. Then where had the one who had been lighting that up until now currently gone?
[Looking for you.]
Soon the guy continued speaking.
Managing Director Gi, that bastard was looking for him. There was no guarantee that the Fisherman the guy was talking about was that man. How exactly would he have given instructions to these corrupt police bastards to catch him? On that island, even the damn phone didn’t work properly.
…But, but this ominous energy was exactly like what he’d felt when he’d had that man before his eyes.
Just how far have you followed?
I have to run away. I have to escape. That thought made his head boil up.
He couldn’t breathe, and his head gradually grew hotter. The brain pressure rose so much that his head seemed about to burst with a pop. It’s hot. Like a pressure cooker, something inside was rapidly expanding.
Pop. Suddenly, his ears went deaf. All sounds disappeared, then in an instant, KWAAAAANG!! The window shattered. Vibrations traveled along the wall and pushed his back. Bzzt, tinnitus devoured his eardrums.
“Unnngh!”
The cracked glass exploded and shattered, and the scenery outside the window visible beyond it was burning fiercely in flames.
A bomb, a bomb had exploded.
