Chapter 136
Doshiyu burst into laughter, as if he had heard an amusing joke.
In the dark warehouse, illuminated only by a dim light bulb, every sharpened sensation reacted sensitively to his laughter.
“Do you like him?”
Doshiyu, still chuckling, asked me, his voice full of amusement.
And just as suddenly, his laughter ceased. The silence filled the space, pressing heavily on me.
Without laughing anymore, Doshiyu dropped the hand that had been covering his mouth and straightened his previously hunched back. My gaze instinctively rose upwards.
“No, that can’t be.”
A low sneer slipped through the twisted smile on his lips.
“Why would you put such childish words anywhere?”
Unconsciously, I glanced at the window on the right wall.
The square window, open without any screen, seemed just big enough for a child to slip through.
That small window was my only escape in this warehouse.
“It took you quite a while…,” Doshiyu murmured, as if in a shiver.
A smile, layered with exhilaration, excitement, and satisfaction, spread across his shadowed face. It sent a chill down my spine.
“…Do you think the boss will let you off if he finds out you’re doing this?”
I let out a short laugh and spoke.
“You didn’t touch me all this time because you didn’t want the boss to hate you.”
The puzzle pieces easily fit together when I thought about the change in the relationship between me and Baek Hawon, and Doshiyu, who had been watching us closely from the side.
“Back in the Utopia forest, you probably thought it would be fine to just kill me.”
Doshiyu’s face showed no visible change. I stared into his flawless expression and continued.
“But, wait? The boss seems to care about me more than I expected? His attitude toward me, after I almost died, doesn’t feel like the boss I know, does it?”
“….”
“Did you mess with the wrong person and get on his bad side?”
I briefly stopped speaking, then pulled away from my dry lips.
“You were just hanging around me pretending to be a friend because you were scared of the boss. It was the easiest excuse for staying close to him, wasn’t it?”
By the end, my voice had unintentionally grown heated, and I spat the words through clenched teeth.
“You’re mistaken about something.”
A sneer, bordering on mockery, tugged at the corner of Doshiyu’s lips.
“It’s not that kind of desperate love you’re talking about.”
Between the low whispers, a hot breath stirred.
“And it’s already too late.”
It was as if he could see right through the desire to escape that had consumed me. He casually spoke.
“The boss isn’t coming back.”
His crimson eyes twisted into a smile that was too obvious.
“Jukyeonghoe didn’t betray Baekcheon on its own.”
Jukyeonghoe’s betrayal.
Perhaps that was the beginning of the story leading to Yugyeom’s death in the future that I had seen.
Had it not been for that betrayal, and if Baek Ha-won hadn’t left his position, such a tragedy wouldn’t have occurred.
If it had been a betrayal from just one of the smaller organizations under Baekcheon, the boss wouldn’t have taken action personally.
Above Jukyeonghoe was one of the five great families.
They had even tried to destroy the other families following Baekcheon, allying with Yuhwa. That’s why the boss moved directly.
Moreover, betrayal was the most sensitive trauma for Baek Ha-won, especially betrayal from a family.
“Go somewhere no one knows, and never come back.”
Now, I fully understood Baek Hawon’s behavior, unable to control the emotions that overflowed.
The situation now reminded him of the rebellion of the family that had killed his mother.
“Go before I ruin you.”
Baek Hawon’s words to me sometimes make me feel as though, like his late mother, I am going to die right before his eyes, as if I am afraid to die.
It seemed like he still blamed himself for his mother’s death.
I don’t know whether Doshiyu was involved in the tragic ending of Yugyeom’s death that I saw in the future.
“They must think they can buy time with a few convincing words,” Doshiyu said, brushing his red hair aside.
But now, Doshiyu was admitting that he was involved in their betrayal.
It seemed that he was no longer trying to hide anything.
The situation was worse than I had expected.
More than anything, I couldn’t shake the thought that everything was flowing the same way as before.
“The organization members the boss left behind in the amusement park will listen to me more than the boss’s foolish younger sister.”
Doshiyu said, flicking his red hair back.
I was speechless. There was no room for rebuttal.
Doshiyu was the head of the family, the upper echelons of Baekcheon.
With Baek Hawon absent, no one in this place outranked Doshiyu.
Compared to him, my position in Baekcheon was ambiguous and merely a facade.
It would be one thing if I were a complete enemy, but in this situation, it only made things more disadvantageous for me.
“Are you planning to betray Baekcheon, or the boss?”
I clenched my trembling fingers as I spoke.
“Me? Betray?”
Doshiyu chuckled lowly, his reaction similar to when he asked me whether I liked Baek Hawon.
He seemed to be hearing nonsense.
“What have I done?”
He tilted his head, and there was even a hint of expectation for my answer.
“Even if it’s not now, they would’ve betrayed the boss eventually. It’s easiest to gather the small pests together and crush them all at once.”
As I met his indifferent eyes, I suddenly recalled a moment when I felt something similar.
‘Grabbing this neck…’
‘…’
‘Could I twist it like a chicken’s neck?’
I realized it with my whole body.
I couldn’t change it.
For Doshiyu, killing people was no different than choosing a suitable tool to fix a broken machine, using it, and discarding it.
Whether a person was guilty didn’t matter to him.
He didn’t set such standards when dealing with things like mechanical parts.
Useful things and useless things—that was the only criterion Doshiyu used to view the world.
“Everything I do is ultimately for Baekcheon.”
As I listened to Doshiyu whispering these words, I finally realized it.
“…Did you kill innocent people for Baekcheon?”
Blood poured out from the bag, slicking down the floor, and it soaked my feet.
It was just the tips of my toes that got wet, but I felt like my whole body was submerged.
“Did you even kill that kid for Baekcheon?”
I felt nauseous. Unable to endure it any longer, I lifted my gaze from the bag.
“How could you do that? How could you kill someone so innocent?”
I almost shouted.
A flood of thoughts overwhelmed me, and my mind felt faint.
In the growing haze, there was only one thing I could cling to, so I tightly gripped the cold barrel of the gun.
And I raised it, pointing it at Doshiyu.
“Ah.”
Doshiyu, who had silently stared at the gun pointed at him, exhaled a sigh.
“Are you talking about that?”
Instead of following his gaze, I took a step forward.
The muzzle pressed against Doshiyu’s left chest. If I pulled the trigger now, the bullet would pierce his heart.
Though I was holding the gun, my heart pounded loudly as if the muzzle was aimed at me.
My hand holding the gun was shaking uncontrollably.
Should I kill him?
Could I kill him?
“No, no.”
At that moment, Doshiyu shook his head. Then, the gun was easily seized by his large hand.
“Not yet. Don’t make that face.”
Doshiyu showed no fear as he gripped the gun pressed against his chest.
His expression, seemingly bored, deepened my sense of helplessness.
“I haven’t killed that little girl yet.”
At that moment, something felt off.
The sensation where the barrel met his body didn’t feel like human skin.
Without hesitation, I moved the gun and pulled away the jacket covering Doshiyu’s chest.
The moment I saw inside, my heart dropped to the floor.
Click.
At the same time, the light bulb in the ceiling flickered on. The white light illuminated the warehouse.
It revealed parts I couldn’t see in the dark.
Ivy, unconscious, bound to a pillar.
And the bomb cradled in her arms.
It took me a moment to realize that it was identical to the one attached to Doshiyu’s chest.
I took a sharp breath. My finger relaxed on the trigger.
“Are you surprised?”
Doshiyu tilted his head and laughed. His sneer, directed at me, deepened as I remained frozen in place.
“Was it worth all the effort? If one side blows, the rest have to go off at the same time, and finding something that could take everything around with it was quite tricky.”
With a relaxed stride, Doshiyu moved away from me and approached Ivy.
I thought of the window.
Where I was standing now was far too bright.
Ivy. And Doshiyu.
Everything was laid bare, unavoidable.
From the rooftop of the building across from me, everything could be clearly seen, except for the bombs cleverly hidden by clothing.
“I can finish everything before the boss gets back.”
Doshiyu knelt down in front of the still unconscious Ivy, lowering his body.
Between his laughter, I could hear the words I had spoken before standing here.
‘The moment Doshiyu lays a hand on Ivy…’
“You even brought this girl to me, and I’m grateful.”
‘Pull the trigger.’
“Your desperate love, too.”
‘Gyeom-ah.’
“When my heart stops, it’ll all be over.”
‘Kill Doshiyu.’
The moment Doshiyu’s hand touched Ivy, I moved.
Bang!
Immediately after, the sound of a gunshot rang out.
