Woonghee gasped for breath and reached for his back pocket. He grabbed the phone his fingertips touched and turned on the flashlight, pointing it at the night sea.
…It wasn’t an illusion. A really huge ship was truly approaching this way.
“Hey, hey, isn’t that a ship? It’s a ship!”
Am I dreaming right now? Woonghee rubbed his eyes roughly with his fists. But even looking again, the ship definitely existed. Moreover, it was getting closer and increasing its size. Imagine, a ship as large as an island rushing in fiercely as if invading.
Who is it?
…Could it be the police? Real ones, not those half-assed Japanese bastards on the island!
“Here, here…!”
Woonghee let out a cheer. With trembling hands, he pointed at the ship floating far away.
“There! Look at that ship! It came to rescue us!”
He waved his hands in the air frantically like madness. The flashlight of the phone in his hand blinked. Then Tula quickly turned the handle and changed direction.
[Uh, uhhh…!]
When he sharply changed direction, the boat bobbed on the waves. It bounced up noisily, being slammed by the current. The ship gradually got closer. If he blinked once and opened his eyes, it had grown to a terrifying size.
The glamorous exterior, more than enough for parties to be held all night, became increasingly clear. Right, it was a cruise ship. In an instant, the distance between the boat and cruise ship narrowed.
…And he could see someone standing on the deck.
“…Huh?”
Woonghee slowly lowered his arms.
It was an extremely tall, lanky man. The moonlight floating loftily in the sky was shattering down onto his entire body. In this vast, boundless sea, he was dressed sleekly in a black suit with every strand of hair slicked back, revealing his forehead. Even though the fabric fluttered in the rough sea wind, there wasn’t a single dishevelment. Like a plaster statue frozen just like that.
Just who are you?
…Why are you instilling such fear in me?
It was when Woonghee had such doubts. With a whoosh sound from behind the silhouette’s body, fireworks bloomed. In an instant, his vision brightened brilliantly.
“Ungh…!”
Woonghee quickly covered his eyes with his forearm. For a moment, it seemed like he’d looked into that face. Could it really… be him? Woonghee slowly raised his gaze upward. His vision that had gone white gradually corrected itself.
Fuck, why are ominous premonitions never wrong?
“…Run away.”
His spinal cord reacted before his brain. All the capillaries in his body were jumping and resisting fiercely.
“Run away, Tula…!”
At the scream-like cry, Tula hurriedly turned the handle. Crash crash, water walls like waves surged up and the direction changed. Like a small beast nimbly dodging here and there to avoid a predator’s attack.
“Fuck…!”
But the opponent was far too massive and merciless. Like a heavy monster. It blocked all directions the boat could escape and chased terrifyingly. It seemed about to cover the boat and crush it any moment.
“More, step on it more, more!”
Thud, thoom! Each time they crossed a wave, they fell with their bare bodies in mid-air as if in a traffic accident. They rolled around on the hard boat. So as not to be flung outside, Woonghee had to hold on tightly and endure.
“Fuck. Grab me, you sons of bitches!”
“Tula, step on it harder!”
Kuuuuung, the boat roared and increased speed. When it approached from far away, the cruise ship’s size didn’t feel very real, but approaching like this, it was truly too massive and threatening. Like an asteroid charging at them.
The closer the cruise ship got, the higher the water walls rose. The boat shook precariously in the frighteningly undulating waves. It was a hair-trigger moment. Like this, they were only buying time.
Once, twice, three times….
At the moment when he thought they’d really be crushed at this rate, Woonghee had to make the choice to abandon everything.
“Jump off…!”
He screamed until his throat burst. Splash, the three simultaneously threw their bodies into the seawater. Soon, KWAAANG! A tremendous roar exploded. Water spray shot up high into the sky. Woonghee, who’d fallen into the sea, flailed. He flailed his limbs as if resisting toward the current rushing to cover him.
‘Fuck, I have to run away. After I came all the way here…!’
But in this vast, boundless sea, all Woonghee had to lean on was at most the overturned boat. He barely hooked one arm onto the boat floating around.
“Huff, huff….”
Woonghee barely broke through the seawater and came out. Then he gasped for breath intensely. Seawater dripped in droplets from his thoroughly soaked white face. The cruise ship had rammed deeply into the boat. The boat’s engine was pitifully smashed.
And soon a black silhouette climbed down a ladder from the cruise ship. Clang, clang, clang. A sound like metal pipes was heard.
“……”
Soon the motorboat shook with a thud. Someone had landed on top of this. Shoes of a man like a battleship struck his vision.
“……”
It was in the midst of swallowing a lot of salt water and not being able to come to his senses. Woonghee tremblingly raised his eyes while his eyelids fluttered.
“I came to rescue you.”
It was a voice he was hearing after far too long. A voice he never wanted to hear again, yet that had chased after him like a nightmare even in his dreams. At the pheromone rushing into his nose, a sudden chill brushed his entire body. The night sea of Southeast Asia was incredibly cold.
No, Managing Director Gi. Your existence itself was like an incarnation of freezing cold. A pitch-black shadow approached Woonghee. The man was extending his hand to him.
“Grab it.”
Don’t make me laugh, fuck! Everything you say is what a demon bastard babbles. Rather than grab that hand….
Woonghee let go of the boat from his hand. Like this, he’d rather drown with his nose in the seawater and die, but it was useless. Because the man’s hand spreading out like a net grabbed his collar and pulled him up.
“Let go of this…!”
The large grip dragged him just like that. Woonghee rampaged like a wild monkey just caught from the wild. He frantically flailed his limbs, twisted his whole body and struggled roughly. He even bit down hard on the man’s hand. He even shook his jaw wildly like a son of a bitch choking prey’s windpipe.
“Fuck, are you a stalker? Are you crazy?”
But even that brief resistance didn’t last long. Suddenly, a sensation of being struck hard on the back of the head brushed past, his vision shook like lightning, and his vision went pitch black.
“Why the hell me, me.”
Are you desperate to catch me….
The situation shouldn’t have flowed this way. Thinking he’d faint any moment at this rate, Woonghee quickly bit the tip of his tongue. A stinging pain paralyzed his tongue. He struggled somehow not to let go of his consciousness. Then Managing Director Gi suddenly grabbed Woonghee’s forearm with a rough touch. He was lifted up by him and trapped as if held in his arms. Managing Director Gi’s face wasn’t even visible now.
“As always, your face is pretty but you’re fucking noisy.”
The man gestured languidly. Behind his thick shoulders, a subordinate could be seen handing him a syringe.
“What’s that again, you son of a bitch!”
“So I have to make you shut your mouth by force.”
He bit the back part of the syringe with his mouth to fix it.
“What is it, you son of a bitch! Don’t stick it, take it away, you fucking bastard!”
As if he couldn’t even hear the voice of Woonghee rampaging in a frenzy, the man swung the syringe. Then he struck down at Woonghee with the sharp needle. The injection was firmly stuck in his slender nape.
“Ungh…!”
Pain rushed in from the stuck spot. On his nape as white and slender as a swan’s feather, bluish veins rose up with cracks. He felt the sensation of the drug rushing along his nape all the way to his ears.
Slowly, very slowly, his vision went out.
***
…How long had he been passed out like that?
“Hufffff…!”
Woonghee vomited breath and quickly raised his upper body. It felt like he’d had an unbelievable, terrible dream.
Where the hell is this now? He held his head at the piercing headache that seemed about to split his skull. How long had he been passed out?
Swish swish, when he looked around, white lace wallpaper was plastered on all sides. Gorgeous chandeliers, bizarre artworks, a huge television, high-class liquors placed here and there.
It was a similar scene, as if the clock had been turned back to the cruise party. Was all of that a dream? No, the vividly rising memories were all truth.
“…Damn it.”
As Woonghee frantically groped his own body, the soft texture of clothes wrapped around his skin. Under him, he was even covered with fucking soft bedding.
“What is this….”
Was there nowhere bound? He searched his body frantically. What was the face of the man he saw last before losing consciousness…? Woonghee also groped his nape frantically. Fuck, the needle was stuck here….
Creeeeak. Then he heard the sound of a door opening. Woonghee’s two eyes whipped around. It was a man. As if he’d just showered, he too, like him, was wrapped in a gray robe covering his whole body.
With a whiskey bottle in one hand, he approached him.
“Shall we have a celebratory drink?”
