# Chapter 129
Lee Hwan walked without stopping. Even in that pitch-black mountain, he hurried his steps, trying desperately to listen to the sounds around him.
Because he needed to meet Taesung safely. Because he needed to confirm that he was okay and escape together somewhere.
However, the meeting place he finally reached after coming down the mountain was utterly quiet and deserted. There was no one even resembling him anywhere.
He crossed several alleys, caught a WiFi signal, and hurriedly searched for posts first. Still, nothing had been uploaded since Lee Hwan’s post.
The comments he checked just in case were all about pet training. No sign of any code left by Taesung.
‘Stay calm. He’s just running late. If he hasn’t made it down to the residential area yet, he wouldn’t be able to write a post.’
Standing around too long on a street with few people would attract attention. Lee Hwan was about to return to the meeting place when he stopped abruptly and looked around.
Our Pori… Was it a cat, not a dog?
Posted by: Hwa-aan
How did you get up on the dining table and spill all the drinks..?
Normally you whine about not being able to climb onto the sofa… What’s going on?
Now I have to go back to the cafe to buy melon soda again this evening ㅠㅠ
It’s really annoying because it’s four blocks away from home…….
Finally, he entered a nearby cafe. It was a cafe four blocks away from the meeting place, with distinctive melon-colored ‘OPEN’ lights.
Since internet would be available at the meeting place, he would be able to search, read, and find his way here anytime. Consoling himself with that thought, Lee Hwan stood at the counter.
“Iced Ame… no, one iced double chocolate, the largest size please.”
He pretended to be a regular customer reading the menu, when suddenly he felt nauseous. His mood was already not great, and with his stomach completely empty, his condition was plummeting.
He turned his head slightly to check the closing time and was relieved to see that he could loiter around for another two hours.
“And one chicken panini… two tiramisu, and three strawberry cakes.”
He had planned to order just one simple pastry, but as soon as he saw the display case, words flowed freely from his mouth. Lee Hwan opened the small bag strapped to his side, handed over a 50,000 won bill, and slouched back to his seat.
He had deliberately ordered a lot of cake. This way, there would probably be two or three slices left when Taesung arrived. Then he could quickly feed them to the exhausted Taesung, and with renewed energy, they could dash off somewhere together.
Lee Hwan sat blankly, continuously searching for the same keywords on his phone while endlessly waiting for Taesung. Meanwhile, the panini, hastily warmed in a mini oven, and the cakes, which took up three plates, were placed one by one on the table.
Lee Hwan cut the panini into large pieces and ate enthusiastically, but slowed down the moment the cake plates caught his eye. He deliberately nibbled to kill time.
The slices of cake that he would normally have finished cleanly and quickly in a few bites were cut into small pieces and melted slowly in his mouth.
‘I can’t even tell what flavor this is.’
But his body was honest. As the sweet stuff went in, his strained back felt more comfortable and his vision gradually cleared. Despite his still-poor mood.
Time passed endlessly. The cake he had been cutting into tiny pieces gradually disappeared, and now only one square piece of tiramisu and two slices of cake remained in front of Lee Hwan.
Lee Hwan refreshed the site page repeatedly. His gaze had been directed outside for a while now. Still, only his post appeared in the recent search results, and the street outside was nearly empty compared to the beach area.
Lee Hwan put down his fork and took a slow, deep breath. His anxiously trembling heart finally found some calm.
Taesung hadn’t been able to have a proper meal with him because he’d been grumbling in the living room. He needed to quickly feed him something sweet and get going.
The goal was to wait until surveillance decreased, then return to the safe house without being followed. After things happened, chaos erupted, and everything somewhat subsided, they would stay holed up there.
Just the two of them. Until Taesung’s memories returned. Or until they found the last clue for that to happen.
Yes, thinking about it that way, it might be better not to find the pieces of causality until they were locked away in a safe place. He couldn’t suddenly faint on the street and die. The worry that had been constantly lodged in his heart, making him uncomfortable, seemed to diminish a bit.
Lee Hwan refreshed the site repeatedly. Still no new posts had appeared. But just as he was sighing in disappointment, he noticed that two comments had been added to the post.
[table] Maybe it’s not getting enough exercise? Take it for a walk in the mountains nearby. Toward where the park is.
[drink] If you go up from there, you’ll find a more challenging route.
At first, he thought they were just responses to the post, but the usernames were ‘table’ and ‘drink’.
Lee Hwan opened his eyes wide, carefully examined the comments, and immediately opened his map app to search for parks around the mountain.
When he searched centered around the meeting place or the neighborhood Taesung had been to, one location came up as if it had been waiting.
‘Is he telling me to come here?’
He felt anxious about why Taesung wasn’t coming to the pre-arranged meeting place but was calling him to a completely different location, wondering if perhaps he wasn’t even able to move, but it was still better than waiting indefinitely.
└ [mongmongyi-hyung] I guess so… I just hope the little one waits patiently
Lee Hwan hurriedly left a comment, abandoned the untouched cakes on the table, and rushed out of the cafe.
Then he retraced his steps, treading on rustling fallen leaves as he delved deep into the mountains again.
‘From the entrance point, head 2 o’clock direction for about 300 meters, then turn 45 degrees and go about 600 meters more…’
Still-living grass clung tenaciously to his feet, and thorny bush branches pricked his arms painfully. Thanks to his better endurance than most, he barely got cuts or scratches, but pain was still pain.
However, Lee Hwan paid no attention and just doggedly followed the route he had memorized. As if all his five senses were focused solely in that direction.
‘If I go around a bit here…’
He found it. A small park vaguely connected to the edge of the mountain came into Lee Hwan’s view. He stopped his hurried steps and thoroughly scanned the direction of the park and the mountain.
‘So I’m supposed to go up there.’
A rugged rocky path stood out, seemingly not a place where people regularly passed through, despite the presence of a proper mountain trail. Lee Hwan immediately moved in that direction, remembering the content of the comments.
If he didn’t want to meet people at the very top, Taesung was probably positioned somewhere on the middle slope.
With that thought, he walked for a while, scanning the surroundings, when suddenly his ears caught a rustling sound. It sounded like leaves and grass being pressed down by something heavy.
‘It’s a person.’
As he quickly turned his head, he glimpsed someone’s figure in the distance through the trees. Despite the dark mountain, he could recognize the silhouette quite clearly. Lee Hwan approached closer, tensing up and releasing his ability.
“Who… Kang Taesung?”
It was pure intuition. Even though he had only seen the top of a head, he guessed it was Taesung. Plus, the head bobbed once at the sound of the name.
Lee Hwan forgot his hesitation and ran quickly. After passing five or six trees, he could see at a glance the figure of someone sitting and leaning against a thick tree.
‘!’
It was indeed Taesung. With his hair and clothes completely disheveled, he sat there looking drained of energy. Taesung half-opened his eyes to confirm Lee Hwan’s presence, then supported his head against the tree again and closed his eyes completely.
Lee Hwan slightly parted his lips and took a deep breath. Something that looked like blood was smeared and spread on various parts of his clothes. Moreover, as he lowered his gaze, he noticed the blood-soaked left side.
“…Kang Taesung?”
Lee Hwan called Taesung’s name again in surprise. What kind of wound is this? How did you get hurt? Are you seriously injured? There were so many questions, but he was so shocked that he could only call out his name.
Seemingly understanding his name, Taesung opened his eyes narrowly again and looked up at him. Lee Hwan immediately knelt down and grabbed his clothes.
Damp blood wet his hands.
‘……’
For a moment, Lee Hwan felt his mind going blank. The pounding sound of his heart reached his ears, and his breathing became slightly labored.
‘Damn it.’
He had been fine for a while, but that reaction was coming back again. And to see Taesung losing strength with blood all over his stomach, just like before the regression. He felt his hands automatically weakening.
Meanwhile, Taesung’s eyes closed again. Lee Hwan’s heart jolted, and he inhaled sharply with a choking sound.
He couldn’t lose his mind too. He didn’t know how badly Taesung was injured, but he needed to be at least capable of handling the aftermath. With that thought, Lee Hwan bit the inside of his cheek hard.
‘Kuk.’
Along with the stinging pain, a metallic taste filled his mouth. Sticky blood slid down his throat. It was quite a chilling sensation.
But thanks to that, he came to his senses a bit. His frozen arms started to move. Lee Hwan, with tears welling up, continued rolling up the clothes in his hand.
“Huu, huu… Is this a laceration?”
When he turned on his phone screen and shined the weak light, the state of the wound became visible. The blood-soaked left side was sharply cut. It seemed that someone from the pursuit team had used a knife-like weapon.
Well, even if they had chosen a remote location, there would have been many difficulties using guns on the city beach. The weapons of the pursuers seemed to have undergone their own changes after staying in this area for a few days.
Searching through his bag, he found a small bottle of clean water. Lee Hwan gently poured water around the wound to wash away the clotted blood. The pain must have been severe, as Taesung, who had been leaning without movement, furrowed his brow.
“How on earth did you get hurt like this…”
A surge of distress welled up and fear began to set in, but he couldn’t show his wavering state to someone who was already injured. Lee Hwan swallowed the sticky blood that still filled his mouth and tried hard to steady his increasingly labored breathing.
“Fortunately, nothing seems to be lodged inside.”
The wound, thankfully, was not so deep that it would damage internal organs. If that was the case, the reason he was sprawled out like this wasn’t because of this injury.
“Did they inject you with that drug again, from before?”
Taesung now didn’t even open his eyes. He just tensed his brow and twitched once. He seemed to be in worse condition than on the first day he joined at the safe house.
Well, even after being drugged, Taesung had evaded everyone and escaped, so they might have used a stronger mixture. They might have used an amount normally given to large monsters.
‘Those bastards.’
Lee Hwan applied a patch with disinfecting and hemostatic functions to the bleeding wound that had been trickling blood all this time, and heaved a deep sigh. His heart was still racing uncontrollably. Honestly, his legs were so shaky that it was a bit difficult to stand up.
But he couldn’t leave Taesung here. Just thinking about that gave him some strength in his weakened body.
Lee Hwan supported Taesung, who had now almost lost consciousness, and rose from his spot. With Taesung practically draped over him, leaning against his body, he walked the rugged mountain path in search of a safer place.
