PAX 7

The moment I blocked a titanium kick that cut through the air with my hunched torso, I realized there was no chance of winning like this. Fuck, that hurts like hell.

There was no way a human who treated a pigeon—which I was promised wouldn’t be touched—this roughly possessed reason or self-control. Whatever about him being Ahn Juik’s son, I had to fight back properly if I wanted to live.

After my thigh was struck again by the titanium leg, I slammed my fist into Ahn Yutan’s face. Something that might have been spit or blood sprayed into the air. My fist landed in his stomach, and as I hunched over, I quickly dodged a knee that suddenly loomed in front of me. I swatted away the fists flying one after another, and when he tried to headbutt me, I grabbed his face and pushed him back. Ahn Yutan opened his mouth wide, and just before he could bite my hand, I pulled it away, grabbed his throat, and slammed his face. Ahn Yutan collapsed sideways, putting his full body weight onto the hand I had wrapped around his throat. As soon as I stumbled and my knees buckled, Ahn Yutan wrapped both legs around my waist and pulled me down hard.

I fell onto him as if being held in Ahn Yutan’s arms, and I rammed my forehead into his face. There was a loud crack, and stars flashed before my eyes. Dirt and dust rose up, clouding my vision. Ahn Yutan kept clinging to me persistently. We tumbled on the ground, tangled together, throwing punches blindly. My fists hit rattling bones, and I grazed something wet and slippery. Fuck, it was a dogfight.

I barely managed to lift my upper body and struck Ahn Yutan’s bright red face, left and right. Perhaps my headbutt had given him a double nosebleed; the lower part of Ahn Yutan’s face was completely covered in blood. The thought, is it okay to do this to the son of Director Ahn Juik? flashed through my mind again, and the moment I hesitated, I was kicked in the temple and thrown to the side. It felt as if my brain had been knocked right out of my skull, and my eyeballs were bouncing like pinballs in the empty space.

“Throw it.”

I heard Ahn Yutan’s voice. As I lifted my head, a strange scene entered my blurred, flickering vision: a small bird flying quickly toward us from the shadows.

That bird settled into Ahn Yutan’s grasp as if it were being sucked in. He caught… the bird? The bird in flight? I couldn’t properly grasp the situation, but the moment I heard that familiar click, my head spun dizzily in an instant. As Ahn Yutan aimed the loaded gun at me, my hands instinctively flew up into the air in front of my face.

“Ah, fuck…!”

Along with a loud bang, I felt a part of my body being shoved backward hard. And then, blackout.

🎈🤍

Buuuuuuu.

What is that sound?

Buuuuuuuu.

A sound like something being scraped for a long time kept coming irregularly.

As I opened my eyes, I realized that sound was coming from my own mouth. I was exhaling, and that strange sound was being emitted along with it.

“Buuu, cough….”

The moment a cough erupted, my entire left arm hurt as if it were being torn off, so I couldn’t even cough properly. Then, every corner of my body, from head to toe, began to scream in agony. My vision spun around, and my head felt like it was being shattered into pieces.

I lay awkwardly, hacking, and took a deep breath while looking at the sky revealed through the dark leaves. I checked the state of my vision by closing and opening my eyes for a long time. Fortunately, it was slowly returning to normal.

I couldn’t tell if it was evening or dawn, but the surroundings were bluish-dark and quiet. Based on what I could barely see, I guessed it might be the road surface near that intersection where I had parked my bike earlier.

“Argh, fuuuuuck….”

I did my best to turn my body to the right to get up, but I flinched. I wasn’t wearing anything at all.

Ahn Yutan’s shitty face popped into my mind, and all the things that happened right before I lost consciousness came back one by one. Hearing that shitty voice babbling with his shitty mouth. Getting into a shitty fistfight. And getting hit by a fucking shitty gun.

Using a gun. Fuck, a gun? A gun on someone who is defenseless?

I groaned and sat up. I checked that what I have was still attached and that there was no pain in my ass area, then finished checking the rest of my body. A piece of cloth was tightly wrapped around the upper part of my left arm. Even in the gloom, I could see that the cloth was soaked with blood.

It seemed that the place I was shot was my left arm. I had thought I was hit in the chest or stomach. Then, by any chance, did he treat the hole made by the gun? Why go through the trouble of playing the role of someone who gives an injury and then the medicine?

I gently probed over the damp piece of cloth. I’ve fired a gun, but I’ve never been hit by one. My arm was still terribly painful, but I couldn’t tell if the bullet had gone through or if it was still inside. I might have been lucky enough for it to just graze me. Even so, I didn’t feel like taking this off right now to check the condition inside.

I habitually looked at my wrist and sighed. These bastards even took my watch.

I stood up, leaned against a tree, and looked around. Fortunately, my bike was not far away.

It would be nice if my clothes and knife were there too. Or even my shoes.

I staggered toward the bike. Tiny bits of trash and dry leaves crunched loudly as I stepped on them. My headache was severe, my arm felt like it was about to snap, and I was on high alert, terrified that I might step on a piece of glass or something sharp and rusty with my bare feet.

It was fortunate that it was an abandoned road, so there were no people. When I wake up naked, I prefer to be alone.

On the bike seat, there was my helmet, just as I had left it before moving to the Porsche, and the key was still in the ignition. My clothes, knife, shoes, and watch were gone.

“Fuck.”

Remembering late, I quickly opened the luggage box. Surprisingly, all the money and goods I had collected for the day were still there, safe and sound.

Should I consider him not that wicked? I thought about it for a moment, then looked down at my own body, stark naked. Not that wicked, my ass.

I rummaged through the luggage box to see if there was anything else. The moment I discovered a raincoat on the bottom—not some transparent, cheap plastic one, but a sturdy, long raincoat that was standard military issue—I almost swore an oath of allegiance to a god I didn’t even believe in.

After putting on the raincoat, my reason returned to a certain extent, and I was able to swear an oath of allegiance not to a god I didn’t believe in, but to the past version of myself who had put this in here.

I zipped it up tight, put on my helmet, and rode the bike. I couldn’t go back to the Pachulso like this; first, I had to go somewhere where I could at least borrow some clothes.

🎈🤍

As I rode along the national highway and saw a building lit up in yellow in the distance, my mind was unexpectedly set at ease. ‘Chorok,’ standing alone on the side of the national highway near the Nageon District. It’s a restaurant run by Kitae-hyung, a second-generation Nageon District native. I heard that about 10 years ago, he left the Nageon District, wandered around, and then came here to settle down and open a restaurant.

When I entered the yard, I looked at the clock on the bike’s dashboard; it was 8:51 PM. It was a time when the business would be closed, but the lights were on inside the restaurant building.

I kept my helmet on and went to open the door. Kitae-hyung, who was sitting at a table in the middle of the hall writing something, looked toward me and suddenly shouted.

“What is there to steal in a restaurant where only a handful of customers come all day long! Do you have a conscience or not!”

“Hyung, it’s me.”

I lifted my helmet’s shield.

Kitae-hyung let out an “Um,” scanned my raincoat, and then looked toward the window.

“Is it raining outside?”

“No.”

“Tsk, it’s about time for the rainy season, right?”

While Kitae-hyung scratched his nose and thought, I pointed to the side.

“Can I use the bathroom?”

Kitae-hyung’s house is right behind the restaurant.

Kitae-hyung nodded, then tilted his head.

“Why are you walking around barefoot?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

I closed the door and went to Kitae-hyung’s house. My feet were dirty, so I spread the raincoat out on the living room floor, stepped on it, and headed for the bathroom. Once inside the bathroom, my reflection appeared in the mirror, wearing only my helmet with the shield up, completely naked.

Annoyance toward Ahn Yutan, who had turned me into this state, welled up again.

I took off my helmet and turned on the shower, but then turned it off again and brought my face close to the mirror. There was something around my neck like a choker, and when I wondered if it was a wound, I saw letters written along my neck.

Because it was reflected in the mirror and reversed, and because the lettering itself was crooked and blurred or erased in places, it took me a while to read the whole sentence.