Chapter 5
Alcohol makes people bolder.
At Park Young-sung’s inexplicably confident words, jeers and cheers burst out from around him.
Despite the loud noise and all the attention focused on her, Beom Yi-seo showed almost no change in expression.
What would that woman say?
From seeing her a few times, she seemed to smile quite easily. Would she just laugh awkwardly and brush it off?
The boring drinking party had suddenly become interesting, so Tae-heon also focused on what Yi-seo would say next. And then, Yi-seo’s lips quietly opened.
“I’ll refuse. I have no intention of giving either of them to you, senior.”
“……”
For a moment, the large bar became completely silent, without even a sound of breathing.
Beom Yi-seo spoke so firmly that it seemed to freeze the heated atmosphere. Then, with an unconcerned expression, she said she was leaving and stood up with the classmate sitting beside her before leaving the bar.
“Ah! If I were him, I’d be so embarrassed I’d die!”
As soon as Beom Yi-seo disappeared, the classmates beside Park Young-sung burst out laughing, holding their stomachs.
“You said you had a 100% chance of success! You said you were different from us! You said every woman would fall for a guy who’s 180 centimeters tall!”
They were busy making fun of Park Young-sung from both sides.
“Ah, fuck……”
Completely humiliated in front of his classmates, juniors, and even students from other departments, Park Young-sung suddenly stood up with a bright red face.
He grabbed his phone and the jacket he had taken off, then hurried toward the exit as if he were running away.
“Hey, a man shouldn’t cry over something like that, right?”
Tae-heon was also about to laugh it off along with the classmates who continued teasing him.
If only he had not heard the words Park Young-sung muttered as he passed by Tae-heon.
“She humiliates me just because she’s pretty? Fuck, people really need to be beaten sometimes to become humble.”
“……!”
Before he even realized it, Tae-heon felt his body suddenly rise from his seat.
[Why don’t they listen when you talk to them? As expected, people need to be beaten. That way, they understand what you’re saying right away.]
At those words that gave him a strange sense of déjà vu, Tae-heon tightly clenched his slightly trembling hand.
Then he quickly followed Park Young-sung out of the bar.
Fortunately, Beom Yi-seo was nowhere to be seen, while Park Young-sung continued muttering to himself.
“What does that orphan girl think she’s so great for? Ah, fuck, how embarrassing. I’ll teach her a proper lesson today.”
He started moving without hesitation, as if he already knew his destination.
“She needs to learn how scary men can be. Then that damn pride of hers will finally break. Fuck, if she’d just come when I treated her nicely, she wouldn’t have had to go through this. She brought this on herself.”
Judging from the way he walked without hesitation while grinning, it seemed he already knew Beom Yi-seo’s home address.
That bastard is completely insane.
The little alcohol Tae-heon had drunk was completely gone because of Park Young-sung.
Please patrol the villas near the back gate of Hanguk University. It seems a drunk man is following a female student.
Tae-heon sent a report message to 112.
Just in case, he also sent a message to his personal lawyer, asking him to come to this area.
Then he moved his heavy feet, as if he were wearing sandbags, and followed Park Young-sung.
Something serious could happen before the police arrived.
How long had they been walking?
After passing through the busy streets around the university and entering a quiet alley filled with houses, they saw Beom Yi-seo just coming out of a convenience store at the end of the alley.
“Fuck, our Beom Yi-seo was there?”
Park Young-sung stopped walking with a sinister smile.
Then he began looking around.
What is he doing?
Feeling puzzled, Tae-heon followed his gaze.
And soon, he understood why Park Young-sung had stopped.
A CCTV camera in front of the convenience store, at the entrance of the alley.
Considering that he even knew where the CCTV cameras were, this clearly did not seem to be his first time here.
That meant this was not something he had done impulsively in a fit of anger.
What a creepy bastard.
Tae-heon was watching him from a short distance away and reached for his phone to report the exact location to 112.
Then, suddenly, he felt as if his neck were being tightly strangled.
“Ugh!”
His body staggered violently.
Normally, it had only felt uncomfortable, but now it felt as if someone was deliberately squeezing his neck with all their strength.
He desperately scratched at his empty neck with his hands, gasping as his breathing became blocked.
And then.
Suddenly, Park Young-sung began running.
“……Damn it.”
It seemed Beom Yi-seo had entered an alley without CCTV cameras.
Even though Tae-heon’s face was gradually turning pale from the lack of blood flow, he hurried to move his body.
But his legs would not move, as if they had been nailed to the ground.
“Why the hell…… ugh.”
His legs were unbearably heavy, and his neck continued to be strangled.
I need to get there quickly.
Just as Tae-heon tried desperately to move—
“Ahh!”
A scream came from the alley on the other side.
“……!”
With the urgent situation right in front of him, Tae-heon’s consciousness was gradually fading.
His vision became blurry, and his entire body was covered in sweat, but he could not give up when he was so close.
He used every bit of strength he had and forced himself forward.
Just a little.
Just one more step.
Dragging a body that no longer felt like his own, he finally entered the alley on the other side.
He saw Park Young-sung’s back.
He was pressing Beom Yi-seo against the wall, covering her mouth with one hand while roughly trying to tear off her clothes with the other.
“This……”
Unable to even make a sound, Tae-heon raised his arm and struck Park Young-sung’s head with all his strength.
With a loud thud, Park Young-sung staggered and fell toward the ground.
Tae-heon, having used up the last of his strength, also collapsed face-first onto the ground.
“Over there! Are you okay?”
As soon as Tae-heon fell, two patrolling police officers approached with the sound of sirens.
They looked at Yi-seo, who was fixing her disheveled clothes, and the two men lying on the ground, trying to determine who the attacker was.
Yi-seo tightly clenched her trembling hand and pointed at Park Young-sung.
The police immediately nodded and put handcuffs on Park Young-sung. Then they helped Tae-heon, whose entire body was burning hot, and looked surprised.
“He has a very high fever. Even if we take him to the station, it doesn’t look like he can give a statement right now.”
“Are you okay, student? Can you come with us?”
Just as the police were considering whether to call an ambulance and turned their attention toward Yi-seo—
“I’ll take care of him.”
Three well-dressed men in suits approached the police.
“Yes? Who are you?”
The man at the front handed the police officer his business card.
“Ah…… Seojin Law Firm……”
Seojin Law Firm was the largest and most famous major law firm in South Korea.
It was the place most frequently visited by executives of major corporations and politicians.
The police officer realized that the man standing in front of him was a famous lawyer who often appeared on television, and he instinctively lowered his head.
“I’ll accompany him to the station. The evidence is clear, so there’s no obligation for the victim and witness to accompany us, right?”
“Yes, yes…… Of course.”
At the man’s gesture, the two well-built men standing behind him supported Tae-heon’s body and put him into the car.
Then they politely helped Yi-seo put on her clothes and suggested that she get into the back seat as well.
Yi-seo did not think she could make it home on foot, so she got into the back seat with Tae-heon.
Seeing him groaning in pain, Yi-seo bit her lip tightly.
Today was the full moon.
The day when yin energy was at its peak.
Moreover, the back alley where they had been standing usually received very little sunlight, making it extremely gloomy.
On top of that, it had rained that morning, leaving everything damp and wet. The musty smell rising from the moisture caused even more yin energy to gather.
In other words, for Gyeon Tae-heon, who already had an evil spirit clinging to him, this was the worst day and the worst place.
“What should I do……”
Yi-seo could not forget the sight of Gyeon Tae-heon approaching her.
The huge evil spirit had grown larger and larger until it seemed to be nearly two meters tall. It had climbed onto his neck and was pressing down on it with its feet with all its strength.
Behind the evil spirit hanging from his legs, ten ghosts had been lined up, clinging to both of his legs.
It must have been painful enough to kill him just by standing still, yet he had dragged all of them along while moving to help her.
Just imagining it made her throat tighten and her eyes grow hot.
“……I ignored you.”
Yi-seo looked at Gyeon Tae-heon, whose entire body was soaked in sweat, hesitated for a moment, then hurriedly moved her hands.
She took out all the talismans she had and tightly held his unconscious hand with her hand holding the talismans.
At that moment, the numerous low-level ghosts clinging to him scattered with a faint rustling sound, as if they were horrified.
The pain on Gyeon Tae-heon’s face eased slightly.
“……”
But, cruelly enough, the ones clinging to both of his legs did not move at all.
