Chapter 258

"You... you fucking bastard, fuck..."

In the shock of being hit in the face, Park Seok-jae missed the jackknife and staggered back. Perhaps he was hit right, his nose broke, the nosebleed poured down, and his cheeks swelled red.

"Hyu, Hyung-nim!"

"Kkeuak!"

Four people who followed Park Seok-jae as a driver rushed towards Han Yi-gyeol, but were all blocked by Kim Woo-jin. Han Yi-gyeol, who saw Kim Woo-jin facing four people with quick and concise movements, slowly opened his hand.

The sharp blade cut his palm deeply and blood gushed out nonstop. Han Yi-gyeol, who was watching the blood mixing with the rain falling from the sky, grabbed the jackknife with the other hand.

"You are ignoring me too much, Seok-jae hyung-nim. I'm by his side, do you think that number will work?"

Han Yi-gyeol, who smiled bitterly, looked back at Kwon Se-hyun and asked.

"What should we do."

"What?"

"He is a traitor. Will you kill him?"

Kwon Se-hyun's eyelids trembled for a moment at the calm words. When he couldn't answer, only the sound of rain filled the surroundings.

All four drivers were from Gyeongseong and Sacheonghwa, and Kim Woo-jin subdued them. People looked at Go Dong-ju, who had torn and bruised face, and Han Yi-gyeol with complicated expressions. Finally, seeing Park Seok-jae looking for a place to escape with a nervous look, Kwon Se-hyun responded as if squeezing it out.

"...no. Take him (제압해)."

At those words, Han Yi-gyeol looked at Kwon Se-hyun for a moment. Kwon Se-hyun slowly nodded at that expression as if asking, 'Do you not regret it?'.

"Kuuk..."

Recognizing that there was no hope, Park Seok-jae turned around without hesitation and started running in the opposite direction. Han Yi-gyeol, who didn't dare to catch him even while watching it, raised his energy a little so as not to be noticed by the store employees and created a light wind.

Chwaaak, as the wind grabbed his ankles and tied them up, Park Seok-jae, who lost his balance, slipped onto the muddy ground and fell horribly. Han Yi-gyeol walked leisurely and stepped on his back, hitting his forehead on the ground. And,

"Uh, kuaaak! Argh!"

The jackknife cut through the air and pierced the centre of Park Seok-jae's right hand. Park Seok-jae wriggled and let out a scream mixed with pain as the jackknife pierced his hand and was strongly penetrated into the ground. Red blood spread into the muddy water.

Suddenly, the rain poured so hard that he couldn't see anything. In the silent construction site, only the sound of rain resounded strongly.

"Ha..."

Han Yi-gyeol, who laughed with emptiness, swept his wet bangs away with his clean hand. The white hand that passed his forehead trembled.

"Han Yi-gyeol."

When no one dared approach, Kwon Se-hyun cautiously walked first. Han Yi-gyeol turned his gaze to Kwon Se-hyun, who was walking closer through the rain, and opened his mouth with a smile on his face.

"Boss. I suppressed him as ordered."

"...yeah."

"The traitor has been caught and Gyeongseong has been sorted out."

"You're right."

"You sure will do that as you said in the car earlier, right?"

When this job went well, try something else. Go on a trip or have a hobby like normal people do. Isn't it such a waste of time?

"You said you'd think about it."

Kwon Se-hyun blinked at the soft, gentle voice that was full of affection.

"Make sure you do it right, please. For now, that is enough for me."

The cold autumn rain pouring over his head, Han Yi-gyeol in front of him, what he said. Everything felt like a distant dream, somewhere.

"Boss, life is so boring that just thinking about what to do in the future will make it quite fun."

"......"

"Let's put the past behind."

Ah, Kwon Se-hyun instinctively realized at the same time that something that had grown in his chest exploded.

Yeah. It was. So, as far as he had seen in Abyss, this result was different.

At that moment of certainty, Kwoon Se-hyun's mood rose to high in the sky and then fell to the depths of the bottom repeatedly. Feelings of joy or despair came rushing in like a tsunami and swept over his body.

Kwon Se-hyun, who took a deep breath with a strong sense of confusion, barely opened his mouth with a suppressed voice.

"I will."

It was the only consolation that Kwon Se-hyun could give Han Yi-gyeol in a situation where he didn't understand anything.

"I'll think about it..."

* * *

Min Ah-rin looked at my hand with her brow furrowed and sighed in relief.

"I can't scold someone who has declared that he will be hurt."

"When did I make such a declaration..."

"You said you might get hurt."

"I think I said I was going to be as careful as possible... no. I'm sorry."

As I apologized awkwardly, Min Ah-rin straightened her eyebrows.

"Still, the basic treatment is good. I was a little worried because there was rainwater and got into the wound."

"Yes. It has been disinfected and has a waterproof band attached."

In the car on the way home, Go Dong-ju gave the treatment. He nagged me a lot about how I fearlessly grabbed the jackknife with my bare hands, and then, what would he do if my fingers flew away.

When the band was removed, the blade cut was revealed. The blood stopped to some extent and no longer flowed, but the cut was so deep that the blood leaked out little by little and I felt a tingling pain just by moving it.

Piik, pik...

When he smelled blood, Fox, who was sticking close to my thigh, whined 'pi' and twitched the tip of his nose. I asked Min Ah-rin while stroking his head to mean not to worry.

"Then can you use your ability right away?"

Min Ah-rin, who carefully looked at the longest and deepest cut in the centre of my palm and the small torn wounds on the top and bottom, answered with a relieved expression on her face.

"Yes. I can do this."

Immediately, Min Ah-rin, placing her hand on my palm, used her ability. With the pure white light, the pain quickly subsided. A minute later, the palm was seen again and the wound had disappeared without a trace.

"I am indebted to you every time. Thank you, Min Ah-rin-ssi."

"You can be indebted to me for the rest of your life, so please don't put up with the pain and tell me."

"Haha..."

The rest of my life. It wasn't a joke, it was sincere... I didn't know how to respond, so I smiled awkwardly and then Park Geon-ho, who had just come out after washing, approached me with a towel on his head.

"It's relief enough to be this much, Healer Min Ah-rin. The distance with the man wielding the knife was so close that it wouldn't have ended in a cut if he had been a little late."

"It's not enough to catch him... I had to block it with my palm."

I meekly accepted Park Geon-ho's words. Just like how Park Seok-jae's palm was pierced with a jackknife, my palm would have been in the same situation.

It didn't matter if I could save Kwon Se-hyun's life.

"Come to think of it, Han Yi-gyeol. Is it Park Seok-jae? I think you got his jackknife."

"You're right."

I took out the jackknife that I had kept inside my pocket. When I looked closely under bright light, the blade was larger and longer than a normal jackknife.

'No wonder I died because I got stabbed in the stomach with something like this.'

There was no way he could carry two jackknifes for nothing, so it was clear that it was the same weapon that killed me in the past.

"Take it."

Kwon Se-hyun, who pulled out the jackknife I had penetrated in the process of subduing Park Seok-jae, held it out to me. I didn't really need it, but it wasn't something to refuse, so I quietly accepted it.

"You seemed to have a pretty close relationship with Park Seok-jae. Are you okay?"

Park Geon-ho asked while making eye contact with me. As soon as I realized what it meant, I smiled bitterly.

"...yes. It will be fine."

Those, who were drenched in the rain and had gone to wash, returned one after another. After confirming that all my hands were healed, Woo Seo-hyuk opened his mouth.

"I am glad that it was resolved without any major problems, but if it continues like this, it will be delayed to get out of the space."

Exactly... Now that we had sorted out the most important things related to Kwon Se-hyun, we had to find a way to slowly get out of the space.

"I know that you have visited the exit a few more times after that... did you find out anything?"

Unlike me, who went to the store every day, the rest of the people who went to work every other day would pair up with Edward to see the exit. So I asked, wondering if Edward would have said something that he had found something more, and they shook their heads.

"Unfortunately, there was no such thing. Producer Edward seemed to be very sad, too."

"I..."

As soon as Park Geon-ho finished speaking, the hotel door opened and Edward shoved his small face in. It was late at 5 o'clock in the morning, so Edward's appearance was quite surprising.

"Edward-ssi, are you awake already?"

"I'm worried because you said you're doing something important today."

Edward walked into the room and looked around us with a hesitant smile.

"I'm glad it didn't look like there were any injuries."

It was good to have Min Ah-rin treat me before Edward came. I was grateful to Edward, who was genuinely concerned even though he knew we were going to fight ordinary people, not monsters.

Edward, who was walking closer to me smiling face to face, suddenly opened his eyes wide and his shoulder shook.

"Edward-ssi?"

"Oh... wait a minute, that..."

Surprised by the sudden change of atmosphere, Edward made a hard face and pointed to something with his hand.

"Han Yi-gyeol-ssi. What you have now... what is it?"

What I have? Are you talking about jackknife?

"This is a jackknife I got by chance."

I folded it first and handed it over to Edward so he wouldn't get hurt. Edward's eyes, who received it with a complicated expression, soon lit up with a swarm of lights. Edward, who looked at the jackknife for a while, said to me.

"...do you need this?"

"I don't, but... is there any problem?"

"I'll have to take some time to analyze it further, but it's probably something to do with the exit."

"What?"

Everyone's eyes, including mine, were focused on the jackknife placed in Edward's hand. The jackknife that Park Seok-jae had related to the exit?

'Why is it?'

Park Seok-jae was just a traitor. In my mind that tangled in confusion, I suddenly remembered a request that Edward had made to me a few days ago.

"If there's a chance later, can I meet the owner of the store one more time?"

Edward wanted to meet Kwon Se-hyun again. The jackknife that would have killed Kwon Se-hyun originally.

"......"

I lowered my head, feeling the cool air as if the cold water was poured on me.

T/N :

Somehow I feel like the present!Se-hyun was mixed with yandere!Yi-gyeol. You see since this arc, we didn't see Se-hyun become a brutal person. He was just depending on his expressionless face to face everyone who were against him... :')

He was just a softy guy...