Substitute-Chapter 122

“Kim Jiwon, are you insane? Where do you think you’re going in that condition?”

Kim Yunho shouted, practically jumping.

Shh. Park Geonwoo tried to hush him, but Kim Yunho wouldn’t listen.

“We barely dragged a dead guy back to life and what? You’re going to climb a mountain?”

“...I know.”

“You ‘know’ and you say that? You must have a concussion. Hyung, right? Doesn’t he look concussed to you?”

Kim Yunho finally started doubting Jiwon’s health.

It was understandable. Like he said, Jiwon had died. The blood Son Geonwoo beat out of him had filled his mouth, and his slack tongue rolled deep into his throat and blocked his airway.

Luckily, Park Geonwoo and Kim Yunho showed up in time and performed CPR on Jiwon. That’s how they brought the dead back.

For someone whose heart had stopped, Jiwon looked far too fine. He’d split and swollen where he’d been hit, but there was no problem walking, talking, or even laughing.

That didn’t mean there would be no aftereffects at all, but for now he was okay. He could move well enough. He was hungry and short on energy, but not so much that he couldn’t climb over a mountain.

Honestly, whether he collapsed on the way or died from the fallout of a concussion—that was a later problem.

For now, Jiwon decided to think only of escaping.

“Hyung, make this bastard stop.”

Kim Yunho asked Park Geonwoo for help.

But Park Geonwoo just kept his mouth clamped shut.

“What’s wrong with you two? Are you concussed too, hyung?”

“Enough, you little shit. How are we supposed to hold someone who says he’s leaving. Just let him go.”

At last, Park Geonwoo lost patience and took Jiwon’s side.

“No, I mean—hyung, why now of all times? Does it make sense to climb a mountain in this weather? And looking like that? Hey, Kim Jiwon. Can you even see ahead? Huh?”

Clicking his tongue, Kim Yunho looked at Jiwon, who could barely keep only his left eye open because the torn right eyelid had swollen up.

“I just can’t understand this. You were fine all this time and now you say you’re going out—why now? Hyung, does Jiwon make sense to you? Really?”

Unable to calm down, Kim Yunho pressed Park Geonwoo, who stayed silent.

“And if you’re going to leave, you could do it the easy way. What, would it kill you to tell Manager Kim you’re done with this crap and ask to be let out? For fuck’s sake, what dumbass says he’s going to climb a mountain in this weather!”

Jiwon couldn’t say he didn’t understand how Yunho felt. Even putting himself in Yunho’s shoes, attempting an escape in the mountains in this downpour, in this condition, was reckless and insane.

But he didn’t strain to persuade him. He didn’t have it in him anyway.

Coming in here in the first place had been a preposterous move.

“God, you never shut up. Fine, keep yelling like that. You don’t want the hundred million, huh?”

At Park Geonwoo’s rebuke, Kim Yunho finally quieted down.

He was already desperate to get that hundred million, so he stuck his lower lip out a mile and belatedly pulled himself in.

“Let’s move over there first.”

The three of them slipped a little deeper in to hide, avoiding any seekers who might be right on top of them.

“Are you really going to be okay?”

Only then did Park Geonwoo ask Jiwon, worried.

“If you can help it, go when the rain stops?”

If it stops, that is.

Jiwon shook his head, looking at the rain falling so hard it made it hard to see.

“No. Now is better.”

He cinched his combat boot laces tight.

Both of them glanced at Jiwon’s boots. Jiwon, for his part, felt bad being the only one wearing shoes, but he forced himself to look away. He had a long way to go.

“We need to go before it gets any later.”

He steeled himself again.

It was too risky to just sit here and wait on nothing but Gwak Chan’s word.

Son Geonwoo had been captured for now, but somewhere out there a teammate of Son’s was hiding. And he had no certainty Nam Kyuwon or Choi Minjae were on his side, and in fact Park Geonwoo and Kim Yunho were also potential threats. It wasn’t that he distrusted the two who had saved his life; the situation simply left him no choice but to doubt.

Fortunately, the weather was on Jiwon’s side. In this rain, he felt he could slip into the mountain without anyone noticing. If there was a closed gate out there, then he’d have no choice but to wait for the power cut like Gwak Chan said, but that was a problem for later.

First, get out of here. As far as he could possibly go.

Jiwon met eyes with Park Geonwoo. Park gave a small nod and a “Be careful,” by way of farewell.

“Lunatic.”

Kim Yunho grimaced hard and sighed. He never did meet Jiwon’s eyes in the end.

He was about to go when a promise the three of them had made came back to Jiwon. A promise he’d believed would never come true.

“Geonwoo hyung. Yunho.”

Both looked at him almost at the same time.

“Let’s meet in Ibiza.”

Jiwon said it brightly, packing it with foolish hope.

“Shit. You remembered that.”

Park Geonwoo looked surprised, then said, “Yeah. Let’s do that. For sure.”

Even the sulking Kim Yunho finally cracked a smile at the mention of Ibiza.

“Kim Jiwon, just try not showing up. I’ll kill you myself.”

He laid down a threat.

“Don’t you look down on me just because you got rich.”

Jiwon threw out something pointless and gave him a jab.

“Idiot. I’m going to be a star, not rich. It won’t be long before you see me on TV.”

Kim Yunho declared it, face lit up.

Watching him, Park Geonwoo twirled a finger at his temple.

Jiwon looked at the two of them and laughed. He barely held back the tears that kept wanting to come.

Maybe because he had a promise he badly wanted to keep, as absurd as it was, he felt a surge of energy. Thanks to that, he could turn away with a lighter heart.

Without any special goodbyes, Jiwon simply turned his back. With Park Geonwoo and Kim Yunho behind him, he strode forward. Using the dense forest and the sound of rain as his shield, he started moving deeper in.

When he looked back, there was only darkness.

Without regret, he set out again. He pushed himself to take even one more step while he still had a shred of strength. He walked as hard as he could.

But having to see the world with only one eye made him slow on the rough mountain path.

It was already dark, and the driving rain made it impossible to distinguish even a foot ahead. Whether what he faced was a branch, a snake, or a tiger or a lion—he could only tell when it was right in his face; the forest was oppressively dark and dangerous. The only comfort was that the danger he faced applied fairly to everyone.

If it’s hard for me, it’s hard for them.

Repeating that to himself, Jiwon just kept moving forward.

Honestly, he didn’t even know if he’d gone forward or just circled the same spot.

How long did he walk?

The stamina that had been bearable when he left Park Geonwoo and Kim Yunho was completely spent. It was the result of forcing a journey that would have been hard on a clear day through foul weather.

Jiwon wasn’t one to complain about hardship, but this time it was so grueling he wanted to give everything up.

He could barely see ahead, and every time rain hit the torn and burst wounds it stung and throbbed like hell. He hadn’t eaten, obviously, so his stomach churned, and every time he got dizzy he worried he really might have a concussion.

In any normal situation, he’d be lying in an ER by now.

He started to wipe the rain endlessly beating into his face and gave up.

The wetsuit kept his body temperature from plummeting, at least, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t cold.

If he could run, it might have been bearable, but he was moving like a tortoise, and the rain was still coming down with terrifying force.

Soon he started to shiver, and at some point his whole body rattled. His teeth knocked so hard they clicked.

He barely staved off the hunger and thirst with rainwater and even found himself thinking, Why do I have to go this far?

Should I go back?

Maybe, like Kim Yunho said, he could just talk to Manager Kim.

Tell him he wanted out, that he was sick of the sex and the money, and to let him go.

Manager Kim doesn’t know I’m a cop. There’s no way he knows I’m Yoon Jiwon.

Before he knew it, he was resenting Gwak Chan.

If not for Gwak Chan—if he hadn’t said those things—Jiwon would have just enjoyed the game and then slept soundly in his room like a hotel. He’d have heated up, tangling with Number 3. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Go back even now. It’s not too late. Go where Park Geonwoo and Kim Yunho are waiting and just enjoy the game.

When one side said that, the other side countered.

If you want the whip, then go back. It’s a whip now—who knows if it’ll be a knife later.

You think Gwak Chan told you to run for nothing? You know he’s ex-police, right?

He deliberately invoked death to scare him.

He picked out the word knife and mocked the other side.

Nice overreaction. Did you come here to die? You came to have sex.

Jiwon nodded hard at that.

As long as his identity didn’t get exposed, there was no way it could be dangerous.

He recalled Detective Kim Gyeongseok’s words about the fates of the undercover cops, then shook his head.

Ever since meeting Choi Minjae, Jiwon had been doubting everything Detective Kim had told him. He could no longer trust a man he’d known for almost two years.

He couldn’t even be sure the operation the detective had described truly existed; if anything, that inner voice telling him to go back where Park Geonwoo and Kim Yunho were shook him harder.

Listen. If you’d paid big money to buy a Crew, would you bother sticking a knife in them? You’d enjoy them more. You’d screw and get screwed to your heart’s content and use them to the max. Right?

Jiwon nodded again.

Besides, this wasn’t some failed state; it was a rule-of-law country with strong public authority.

Not just one person—there was no way twenty-nine youths in their twenties would get hurt, die, and disappear in a place like this, right?

He didn’t even have the energy to lift his feet now; he simply closed his eyes and plopped down where he was without a plan.

The rain never let up and pooled on the ground, but he didn’t care.

The heavy downpour met the forest and raised a racket.

He was truly exhausted. Cold and hungry. The places he’d been hit ached and throbbed, and more than anything, he was sleepy enough to die.

With his eyes closed, drowsiness crept in.

You’re sleepy now? Great job, Yoon Jiwon.

No matter how he harried himself, it was no use.

He didn’t want to lift a finger.

I’m sleeping. If I get found, I’ll just go back, whatever.

He bulldozed ahead without worrying about what came next.

I’ll just say I’m Park Geonwoo.

A thought so absurd it was practically a joke.

He was nodding off where he sat when it happened.

Even with his eyes closed, he suddenly felt like it was bright as midday.

As if a blindingly bright pin spot was trained on him.

Startled, Jiwon’s eyes flew open.

At that instant, a siren wailed.

With an eardrum-splitting blare, the surroundings lit up all at once.

The source of the light was the building behind Jiwon.

Four huge lighting rigs on the rooftop were raking the area with ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ chaotic beams.

Something had happened—Jiwon sensed it.

A sharp metallic sound came from the speakers, and soon a human voice.

The person on the mic was Manager Kim.

[This is Kim Woojin! Current time, 21:50. Our Management Office hereby announces that we have captured four infiltrating agents who sought to surveil and furthermore dismantle this project. In any case, those who have harmed the project will receive extremely severe punishment, and those who abetted them will receive punishment of the same level. We will now call out the four rats. They may be people you know, so listen closely to the four names.]

Manager Kim promptly recited four names. Then he gave their ages and affiliations.

Jiwon froze the moment he heard one of the names called.

[Sergeant Yoon Jiwon, thirty, Public Security Intelligence Division, XX Metropolitan Police Agency.]

None other than himself.