# Chapter 119
Ding. The familiar bell sound rang, and the recognizable beige interior filled his vision. Unlike the weekend, the smell of coffee was a bit stronger than the sweet dessert aroma that filled the space.
Lee Hwan noticed blood marks on the back of his hand that he hadn’t managed to wipe off and quickly rubbed them with his other arm as he approached the counter.
Being exactly lunchtime, the café was packed with office workers from nearby. Behind the surprisingly quick-handed employees, he could see the owner sitting at a small table, typing something intently.
‘…But it’s a weekday.’
Come to think of it, had the owner been at the café on weekdays before?
At some point, he had forgotten that he always met him whenever he dropped by, but in reality, the café owner was like a surprise NPC who suddenly appeared on weekends.
After receiving his business card and exchanging words, he suddenly seemed to be there every time Lee Hwan visited.
As Lee Hwan furrowed one eyebrow and stared at him, the café owner turned his head as if sensing the gaze, spotted Lee Hwan, and brightened.
In the chaotic background, he gradually approached and placed his hand on Lee Hwan’s shoulder.
“Lee Hwan-ssi? What brings you here at this hour?”
Lee Hwan flinched at the unexpected contact. At the same time, the owner startled and removed his hand. Only then did Lee Hwan realize that his expression was not normal.
Glancing to the side, he saw his face reflected in a mirror hung for interior decoration. The stiffly set corners of his mouth, his slightly tensed and rigid eyebrows, and his anxious eyes with a sensitive gleam.
Somehow, he looked like someone who had committed a crime and was on the run. Lee Hwan hurriedly managed his expression and forced the corners of his mouth up.
“Ah, that… I came to say goodbye.”
“Pardon?”
“I’m… leaving quite suddenly.”
As he fidgeted with his hair while answering, the owner’s eyes widened a bit. It was clearly a face surprised by an unexpected farewell.
His reaction seemed so natural that Lee Hwan felt somewhat relieved inwardly.
Yes, if this were acting, he would have to be quite the actor. His previous unease was probably just his imagination.
Perhaps someone could make such guesses by piecing together the bits of information he had let slip. Of course, it seemed like he had been quite thorough in keeping things quiet anyway.
‘Still, I probably won’t be able to see him for long…’
Whether it was real or fake, Lee Hwan ultimately had to erase his tracks and leave. Only Taesung and Jade could accompany him on this journey.
“So I just wanted to say goodbye one last time. To you, owner-nim.”
When Lee Hwan forced a smile, the café owner’s face momentarily froze. His face turned red, then pale, as he grabbed Lee Hwan’s arm and asked hurriedly.
“What? Where… where are you going, all of a sudden? I mean, a business trip?”
“Um, haha. Yeah, well. Business trip. Something like that… It’s a bit sudden, but I’m going to Cheorwon. Somewhere close to the mountains.”
As he scratched the back of his head while saying this, the café owner nodded with a dazed expression. Seeing his easy acceptance, Lee Hwan felt his conscience stinging repeatedly as he mentioned an implausible destination.
Had he always been this soft-hearted? He bit his lip slightly.
In the past, he had surely dealt with all the strange people he met during his social life with a smiling face. He skillfully accepted the goodwill of those with dark intentions, just up to that goodwill, and knew how to avoid them. Even after Awakening, hadn’t he lived ignoring his relatives as if they didn’t exist?
So in any situation, if even a gram of doubt remained, he should throw it away and run.
‘I can cleanly cut off people whose intentions are obvious, but this kind of thing…’
Lee Hwan pressed his thumb firmly with his index fingernail and gradually erased the smile he had worn. He thought he had experienced all sorts of things living alone, but in reality, he wasn’t this immune to the human goodwill he felt.
There was a reason why, before the regression, Taesung had constantly guarded his side and cut off approaching people with a cold tone and face. If it hadn’t been for him, Lee Hwan might have been scammed once despite his self-proclaimed well-functioning brain, and would have had to reflect on his entire life.
“I should go. I’m late for my train.”
Finally, Lee Hwan stiffened his face again and quickly turned around. The café owner hurriedly extended his arm but was blocked by people passing by the counter and couldn’t catch him.
Lee Hwan slipped out of the café in that gap, glanced back briefly, then hastened his steps again. His mood had become quite depressed, making even the clear weather seem gloomy.
‘The train is… too fast. And it makes too many stops.’
Now it was truly the beginning of his escape in earnest.
While searching for various means of transportation on his phone, Lee Hwan slipped back into the station and examined the route map. The subway during weekday afternoons was cool and deserted, incomparable to rush hour.
Lee Hwan sat in a comfortable seat, caught his breath for a moment, and closed his eyes. As crisis approached, his mind became increasingly calm. It was like facing extinction.
Thinking that such a personality, as well as his skills, must have helped him survive for so long, Lee Hwan tried to calm his throbbing head.
Even with danger gathering like dark clouds, the situation was better than the first day of his regression. At that time, he had truly felt lost about where to begin and what to do, but now a clear goal had approached within reach.
And Jade had said that Taesung would be at the safe house.
Strangely, he felt his strength rising again. Clutching his bag tightly, Lee Hwan quietly repeated to himself what he needed to do.
Before long, he arrived at a bus terminal. As soon as he arrived, Lee Hwan bought a ticket for a bus leaving soon for Sokcho and hurriedly boarded.
Shortly after, the bus doors closed, and the engine sound scratched his ears with a growl. As the bus left the terminal and passed through the city, Lee Hwan watched people on the street while taking out his phone and placing it on the empty seat beside him.
And when the bus approaching an intersection stopped at a traffic light.
“Driver, can I get off here?”
“What? That’s not allowed.”
“I’m… really in a hurry. My friend had an accident and I just got a call, so I think I need to go now.”
The driver scanned Lee Hwan’s eyes as if trying to verify the truth of his words, but soon seemed to make up his mind and opened the door before the light changed.
Lee Hwan jumped out and immediately blended in with the crowd inconspicuously. Then, while checking the CCTVs on various streets, he ran for a while before catching a taxi.
With a backpack on his back, an icebox in hand, a baseball cap pulled low over his head, and frameless glasses hiding his face, Lee Hwan sat in the back seat of the taxi and unpacked his things.
“Please take me to Suwon.”
“Where in Suwon?”
“Here.”
Before reaching the bus terminal, he had looked at the map on his phone and written down a random address in his notebook. When Lee Hwan extended the paper, the taxi smoothly started to drive.
That’s when the long journey began. From Suwon to Cheonan, from Cheonan to Cheongju, Daejeon, Daegu, Miryang…
In a world full of fast and comfortable transportation options, there was nothing more likely to spread rumors than someone deliberately taking taxis all the way from Seoul to Busan in broad daylight. By the time he finally entered Busan, periodically changing taxis and circling around endlessly, more than ten hours had passed, and it was dark.
“Kuuu…”
When he stretched, he felt a pulling sensation in his side. His strength was gradually draining. He hadn’t had a proper meal since morning.
Moreover, having engaged in quite a rough battle before leaving, fatigue was starting to wash over him. However, he couldn’t head straight to the safe house, as someone might have been tailing him even with this method.
Lee Hwan managed to enter a motel with countless people coming and going, blending in like part of another group, and got a room. Third floor. A room with windows facing the sea, making it a bit more expensive.
Pulling his cap down low, he entered the room, locked the door with the keycard, and his body felt stiff. Lee Hwan unpacked his things and opened the icebox first. The dry ice had shrunk considerably but still emanated cold.
‘The refrigerator function seems a bit outdated…’
After taking out the drug and putting it in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator, he flopped down on the bed, and the world seemed to spin. As tension slightly eased, Lee Hwan’s body suddenly melted.
“…I’m dying.”
Having fled quite diligently, they probably wouldn’t find him right away even if they were chasing. Lee Hwan took a deep, long breath and buried his face in the pillow.
His hands, which had been fine both in the gate and during the escape, were now trembling. Tension, fear, worry, anxiety. The tightly bound emotions seemed to burst like a breaking dam.
Would Kang Taesung, that guy, be safe? Where was he now, and what was he doing?
Thoughts he had deliberately pushed to the back of his mind for immediate matters came flooding back like mushrooms after rain, tormenting him. With his head buried in a pillow that smelled musty, Lee Hwan quietly swallowed his breath.
* * *
In his dream, Lee Hwan saw the day he had regressed. The day he had been battered by the attack of a mutated monster.
On the last day, Lee Hwan had gone through two battles. Monsters, having some intelligence, had mysteriously disappeared when at a disadvantage and reappeared to attack them.
In the first battle, when the monster that had recklessly charged at them fled after receiving a long laceration, Lee Hwan momentarily lost consciousness. He had excessively used his abilities and shed buckets of blood, and his forehead was boiling.
Without having a chance to take care of anyone, he had fainted, and when he woke up, he was lying with his head on Taesung’s leg under the shade of a broken building.
“You’re awake?”
“…How long have I been like this?”
“Not long. About an hour.”
Taesung’s hand brushed his forehead and covered his eyes. Unlike usual, Lee Hwan felt the cool touch of his hand and smelled his scent. Then he quietly asked.
“It’s coming back, isn’t it?”
“Probably. But I’ve set traps and mines from far away, so it’ll make noise when it comes.”
It seemed he had set up various devices around while Lee Hwan was unconscious. Only then did Lee Hwan feel a bit relieved and tightly grasped the hand resting on his face.
Taesung’s hands were always warmer than others’, but the temperature he felt now was not just lukewarm but even a bit cool.
When Lee Hwan pulled his hand down from his face, he saw clothes stained with blood around the stomach. Though it barely showed on the black clothes, it couldn’t hide the pungent smell.
When Lee Hwan reached out, Taesung blocked it like a ghost and held his hand tightly.
“Are you hurt? It looks like you’re bleeding a lot.”
“It’s stopped now. It grazed me a little earlier, but it tore longer than I thought… Fortunately, it’s not deep.”
As Lee Hwan got up, Taesung looked at him calmly. Shrugging his shoulder once, he certainly didn’t look too bad.
“…This time, you rest. I’ll look around once more and come back.”
Pressing Taesung down as he tried to get up together, Lee Hwan moved his steps, somehow feeling his gaze fixed on the back of his head.
