Chapter 138
Doshiyu’s hand touched Ivy’s shoulder. Two identical bombs were visible.
In that moment, a short phrase flashed in my mind like lightning and quickly disappeared.
She must not die.
By the time I regained my senses, I was already moving.
I raised my gun and aimed it at the target. There was no time to confirm with my eyes. I just moved my body, following the senses I had.
I pulled the trigger.
Bang!
With the gunshot, the world before me was painted black.
In the darkness of the warehouse, the broken glass from the light bulbs scattered across the floor, reflecting the moonlight, glimmering. Then, the lights went out again.
“…Crazy bastard.”
I exhaled the breath that had built up in my chest as if I had been running. My hand holding the gun trembled.
If I had missed the lightbulb, Yugeom, who was waiting on the rooftop of the building across from this warehouse, would have pulled the trigger.
Damn, all the other conditions were perfect.
No need to lure him into position, the brightness was just enough to ensure the bullet wouldn’t miss.
Yugeom would not have failed.
And the moment Yugeom’s bullet ended Doshiyu’s life, as he had said, everything would have ended.
Ivy too. And me.
“Ha… Puhaha, haha! Puhahahaha!”
Doshiyu burst into crazy laughter. I could only freeze at the sound.
“So, where did the prince go?”
I couldn’t move as if I had fallen into a trap.
If Doshiyu’s words weren’t a lie, then the bomb attached to Ivy’s chest would explode the moment Doshiyu died.
“Trying to kill me?”
Doshiyu said with a chuckle. The answer to that question was clear.
I can’t kill him.
As soon as my thoughts reached that point, I couldn’t breathe.
The low-hanging light that had been the only thing illuminating this place flickered as if it were about to go out, and then brightened again, back and forth.
In the brief instant, my eyes, which had gotten used to the bright light, slowly adjusted to the darkness again.
The broken lightbulb couldn’t be fixed. This place would never be bright again.
Yugeom couldn’t see me.
“Ivy? Get up now.”
Through the dim light, I saw Doshiyu’s figure. He untied the rope that had bound Ivy to the pillar and shook her awake.
“Time to wake up from the dream.”
His voice was soft, almost kind.
Ivy. Ivy. Wake up.
After calling her name a few more times, Ivy groaned and opened her eyes. Seeing her dusty clothes and tangled blonde hair, I clenched my teeth.
“Peekaboo.”
Doshiyu tilted his head and grinned.
“Yeah, big brother.”
Ivy’s eyes slowly widened. Her large eyes, unable to blink, were now filled with a deep, icy blue terror.
Ivy didn’t scream. She didn’t struggle to run away.
The fear that was beyond what she could handle was suffocating her.
Ivy gasped for air, her face twisted in pain.
I couldn’t hold back anymore and shouted.
“Ivy! That bastard’s words…”
“Shh.”
But my shout was cut off by his short reply.
I turned my gaze from Ivy to Doshiyu.
When our eyes met, Doshiyu put a finger to his lips, smiling.
“Quiet, Yeonbyeol.”
Doshiyu lightly tapped his lips with his finger and smiled, squinting his eyes.
“What if I get so stressed out that I want to die?”
His words, as if a joke, struck me silent.
I felt the rising anger, but my mouth just moved without a sound, and only heavy breaths escaped.
Doshiyu, with a satisfied smile, turned his head back toward Ivy, like he was looking at a well-behaved child. The deep helplessness overcame me, stronger than the anger.
“I killed your father. You knew, right?”
The words Doshiyu spoke, as he made eye contact with Ivy, were so casually thrown out that it sounded like he was just talking about a game he played yesterday.
The gap between his casual tone and the truth was so chilling, it made me terrified.
“I was worried about something, so I hired a teacher to look after you, but what if you ran away?”
Doshiyu moved his hand from Ivy’s shoulder and gently cupped her pale cheek.
“Thanks to you, I found everything out.”
Ivy just trembled, unable to push his hand away. Her uneven breathing sounded almost like crying.
“If you were going to pretend it wasn’t true, you should’ve stayed quiet, huh?”
Ivy, who seemed like she was about to choke, tried to turn her head.
But as soon as her gaze left me, Doshiyu grabbed Ivy’s chin.
With a powerful twist, her terrified eyes met his again.
“Don’t you hate me?”
“…”
“Do you want to kill me?”
In the dark, the glaring red gleam of his eyes pierced Ivy’s soul.
“Then do whatever you want.”
Doshiyu whispered in a sweet voice, making it impossible to refuse.
“You need to get revenge, Ivy.”
Ivy stopped breathing.
Doshiyu removed his hand from Ivy’s cheek and smiled a cruel curve on his lips. Then he pulled a gun from his pants pocket.
The black gun was passed from his bloodstained hand to Ivy’s small one.
“If you don’t kill me…”
Doshiyu guided Ivy’s hand, placing the barrel of the gun against his chest.
The trigger was caught in Ivy’s finger.
“If you don’t kill me… I’ll kill you.”
His whisper, directed not at me but at Ivy, pierced my heart like a bullet.
My consciousness began to fade. It felt as though something that had been desperately holding on in my head had been cut off.
I threw the gun I was holding with all my might.
The gun, freed from my hand, hit Doshiyu’s face and fell to the floor with a metallic sound.
“…You bastard.”
I spat out through a voice shaking with rising fury.
“If you want something, say it to me. Don’t do this to someone who doesn’t know anything.”
Doshiyu gently rubbed his forehead where the gun had struck.
Blood, as red as his hair, stained his hand as he wiped away the blood.
I was relieved that Doshiyu’s hand had left the gun Ivy was holding.
“You don’t really want to die, do you? You’re not going to kill me and that girl and die here, right?”
Doshiyu, wiping the blood off his forehead with his hand, stood up and looked at me.
His gaze seemed soaked in the blood, staring at me.
Doshiyu bent down and picked up the gun that had fallen to the floor.
“Earlier, I really thought you were a different person. Where did the student who couldn’t even hit a 10-point target go?”
I tried to ignore Doshiyu’s taunts. He was provoking me. Now was not the time to be angered by something like this.
“But…”
At that moment, Doshiyu extended his words and gazed at my gun. His eyes rounded as he examined the black barrel.
“You should’ve known what was attached to the gun you’re holding.”
A sense of foreboding hit me as I focused on the spot where Doshiyu’s fingers had touched.
Doshiyu picked something off my gun. The moment I realized what it was, my heart dropped.
What was stuck beneath the frame of the gun, in a corner where fingers couldn’t reach, was smaller than a fingernail.
Only after Doshiyu showed it to me did I understand.
A red light flickered.
I had seen something like that before, in Baekcheon, when I happened to see Jiwon handling it without any particular purpose.
A listening device.
Suddenly, memories from the night before we went to the amusement park rushed to my mind.
I had thrown away the hairpin Doshiyu had given me, but there was something I had forgotten from that encounter with him.
I was sure I had closed the door when I left, but when I returned, it was strangely open.
Doshiyu twirled the gun with his finger, laughing.
“You’ll find out soon enough. Whether I can go so far as to kill you and that kid right here.”
It was hard to stay calm. If the listening device had been listening to everything I said until now, he would know everything.
I couldn’t be sure about anything.
Was Doshiyu someone who would go so far as to kill us both, even willing to self-destruct?
“Whether this is fake or not.”
Would the bomb really explode simultaneously? Or maybe, would only one of them go off?
It could be fake. Everything could be a lie.
“Do you want to check?”
But I couldn’t be sure of anything.
Since my life wasn’t the only one at stake, I couldn’t afford to take a gamble.
“Why don’t you check it out yourself?”
“Do you think such an opportunity will come again?”
There must be a way. This couldn’t be the end. It couldn’t end here.
I thought desperately.
Surely there had to be another way to escape safely.
Any path I tried was caught by the bombs. I couldn’t just believe Doshiyu’s words blindly, but I couldn’t ignore them either.
Before, I had believed that anyone, being human, would have a natural fear of death, even if they pretended not to.
But that belief shattered when I faced Kang Taejoon in the Russian roulette game at the casino.
I had to avoid directly touching the bomb, but I couldn’t let Doshiyu die either.
It would be great if I could knock him out before he had time to activate the self-destruct.
Then, even if Doshiyu’s subordinates were outside, maybe I could use Doshiyu’s life as a hostage and escape with Ivy.
But with even hitting one light bulb being a miracle, how could I possibly kill Doshiyu or even knock him out?
After seeing the lights flicker, it was only a matter of time before Yugeom would rush here.
Since I couldn’t explain the situation to him in advance, if he suddenly barged in, it could make things even more dangerous.
Every part of this situation was against me. But I couldn’t give up.
“…What do you want?”
The child, who had once reached out first, the desire for my life, was what kept me from collapsing here.
“There must be a reason you’re doing this.”
A trembling voice leaked out from my clenched teeth. I didn’t want my weakness to show, but I couldn’t help it.
Doshiyu still listened to me with a smile on his face.
“Let the kid go and just say what you want!”
I shouted loudly.
Anger. Hatred. Disgust.
The betrayal.
Emotions burst out, making me feel like the ground beneath me was shaking.
“What I want?”
Doshiyu sneered.
“Anyway, you won’t be able to give it to me.”
“……”
“I’m the only one who can.”
The blood dripping from his split forehead ran down and touched his twisted lips.
Doshiyu continued muttering to himself.
“No one can do it. Only I can… the boss…”
Bang!
In that instant, a bullet cut through the air. The air froze stiffly.
Blood drops fell in the spot where the bullet had passed.
The snake’s head on Doshiyu’s jacket, covering his shoulder, turned red. Blood gushed from the spot where the bullet grazed his shoulder.
“…Ivy.”
The gun was still in Ivy’s hand.
