The dog was sniffing the ground, trying to locate Orea's scent. It caught a whiff deep in the forest but the trail was going cold. Myung followed the mutt with a torch. He had been looking for hours for Orea, venturing deep into the forest.
It was past midnight and the way ahead was nothing but pitch black. Gigantic branches from the trees hovered above him, casting dark shadows as he plunged deeper into the woods. Leaves crunched underneath his feet, echoing all around him while the cries of insects rang in his ears louder than usual. Myung was not afraid of the dark but he felt as if the forest was watching him closely.
He had the intuition that he was being stalked by the forest at all steps. The invisible forces were following him, increasing his anxiety. They were luring him into their midst, eager to find a new prey. His mind was starting to become paranoid with fear and for a moment, Myung thought he heard whispers in his ears.
"What the hell?" he muttered. His whole body was filled with goosebumps and he could not shake off the feeling that the forest was alive.
To diffuse his fear, Myung began to count under his breath.
"One...two...three…"
He kept on counting to maintain his sanity. It was not uncommon for people to suffer from hallucinations in the forest at night but this was the first time Myung was facing any such thing. He kept a firm grip on the dog's leash and continued to count.
Suddenly, the dog barked loudly.
"What is it boy?" Myung coaxed. "Did you find something?"
The dog barked in response and sprinted off while Myung followed him. It led him to a small clearing where a cabin came into view. But Myung pulled back the dog's leash and they hid behind a tree.
He spotted a few army men guarding the area. There were around two men outside, talking to themselves. The men seemed to be wincing in pain as if someone had beaten them up badly.
"Aish!" one of them groaned. "That bitch beat the crap outta us!"
"She's strong for such a small girl," his co-guard commented. "Almost a pro. Yang didn't tell us anything about it!"
ραпdα nᴏνɐ| сom Yang...Myung immediately knew whom they were referring to.
"Lieutenant General Yang," he said under his breath. The mention of that man made his blood boil. Myung knew very well that Yang was in cahoots with Jonghyun and his father was either blind not to see the coalition or ignored it.
For years, Myung had wondered why his father had adopted Jonghyun. It was not like Prime Minister Lee was fond of Jonghyun. On the contrary, Myung knew that the two loathed each other and were only forced to work together. Prime Minister Lee gave Jonghyun the highest amount of protection and paid attention to the latter's advice even if he was not fond of the man. Myung suspected that someone even higher than the Prime Minister was pulling the strings to control them.
But who was it?
There's no time to dwell on that, he thought. He glanced at the cabin. Luckily, there seemed to be only two guards outside but he was not sure how many men were inside.
"The Lieutenant General had underestimated this girl," the guard was saying. "I've never seen such moves and they were mastered by an eighteen year old! She would have beaten us up more if the Captain hadn't tased her."
"We only brought five men," the other guard was saying. "Thinking that the target would be easy to catch. Man, I've never been so wrong in my life!"
Myung frowned. Orea beat up these men all by her own?
It struck him as quite odd. He knew that she was an expert in technology but she never seemed like the athletic or fighter type to him.On the contrary, she was too skinny and small to take down so many expert army men on her own.
Jonghyun's words echoed in his ears.
"She's not who you think she is…" Jonghyun had said.
Just who the hell are you, Heo Orea? He wondered.
"Where are the other guys now?" the second guard asked.
"Jung went back to the base to get a first aid kit and more men to watch over this girl," the first guard replied. "The other two are guarding the girl. She's still knocked out but god knows what she'll do when she wakes up! I'm not going anywhere near that tiny monster."
Myung thought hard. So there were four people guarding Orea at the moment.
I need to get rid of these guards…
He stooped down to gather some sticks and broken branches. Myung was good at taking down at most two opponents. More than that would be a problem but he had to think of something to rescue Orea. He scavenged until he found a large stone.
"This would do," he smirked.
….
The guards were yawning loudly but the sides of their jaws hurt so much that they scowled, annoyed by the pain.
"Ugh, it still hurts!" the first guard complained.
"Put more warm cloth on it," the second one suggested. The first guard nodded and went back inside to treat his injury.
The second guard was looking around menacingly, ready to kill anyone who would dare to tread on their territory. Suddenly, he heard the sound of a branch breaking.
In a flash, he took out his gun and pointed it at the direction where the sound came from. He did not shoot, not wanting to give away their location to anyone who might just be passing by. Quietly, he stepped towards the spot in the forest.
"Who's there?" he demanded. "Come out now otherwise I'll shoot you!"
He brandished the gun from left to right and then to right again but there was no one in sight.
"Must be a fluke," he muttered and put his gun away. The guard was about to turn around when an arm came out of nowhere and grabbed neck. He tried to shout but Myung used his free hand to hit the guard's head with the stone, knocking him out.
"I'll take that," he said and took the guard's gun. The dog was silently watching as Myung hid the body behind one of the bushes, out of sight. He then turned to the dog.
"Go back to the camp," he instructed the animal. "And give this to the counselors."
He took out a note from his pocket and pushed it into the dog's leash. The dog was highly trained so it understood Myung's instructions and ran off. Myung then stood up and faced the cabin.
"I won't let you hurt her," Myung swore. "You fucking asshole, Lee Jonghyun!"
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