Chapter 214.2

Chapter 214.2

Bringing up a child who did not even exist to stir her anxiety felt like a deliberate ploy. She recognized the trick, yet her heart still dropped.

She blinked slowly, feigning calm, and scanned the compartment: Yoo Dawit’s bandaged ear, his sore-looking thigh, the radio in his hand, the worn seat with stuffing poking out, the lights blinking now and then, the emergency phone to call the engineer, the red button, a solid-looking fire extinguisher.

Her cold eyes swept the area quickly.

I am not a tool. She had had enough of living like that as a child.

Her home to return to was the one place she had ever felt safe, the one person’s arms she wanted.

“If there’s only one disaster, I don’t care.”

Seoryeong jumped up, grabbed the metal bar on the ceiling, and kicked hard at him. She ignored the shackled ankle and widened her stance, looping her legs around Yoo Dawit’s and wrapping her thighs like a boa constrictor around his neck.

She shoved the seat back as far as it would go and swung the hard metal cuffs at his nose like a baseball bat. His twitching thigh she pinned down with her knee, and she smashed his bandaged ear with the radio she had snatched from him.

It all happened in seconds. From somewhere distant came the constant rattle of gunfire, echoing like hallucinations.

“Do you have any idea how I lived as a kid?” She told him.

Yoo Dawit grunted, trying to tear her off like a spider clinging to him. But fresh blood was already seeping through the white bandages. With emotionless eyes, Seoryeong twisted herface in the opposite direction.

“You don’t, that’s why you dared to come alone.”

A sickening crack rang out as bone gave way, but she didn’t have enough strength to kill him instantly. Gasping, Yoo Dawit flailed, striking her head and cheek again and again, but it was useless. Seoryeong staggered yet refused to loosen the pressure of her thighs.

When he finally managed to wrench himself free, screaming in agony, he tried to throw her against the opposite seat. Seoryeong caught the ceiling bar again, twisted her waist, and this time snapped his neck clean. His body hit the aisle floor and twitched like an insect.

My husband, and my future child, will be unhappy because of you? She bit the inside of her mouth hard enough to taste blood.

The train burst out of the dark tunnel, racing between canyon walls that rose like horns toward the sky. Far below the tracks, dark blue water rippled in the abyss.

“Ugh… detach the tail… don’t stop…”

The eerie voice crawled up her spine. Yoo Dawit was still clutching his radio, rasping out a final order. She kicked it away, but he was already dead.

A chill ran through her gut. Quickly, Seoryeong searched his body and pulled out an SDS card. She removed the electronic shackle binding her ankles and slammed her fist on the red emergency stop button. Even so, her heartbeat pounded faster, nausea churning in her throat.

— Control systems are unresponsive! We believe an external breach compromised the firewall! Whoever did this completely destroyed our security protocols! Kim… we don’t know who Kim Sook-hyang is!

The English was too fast for her to follow, but the name “Kim Sook-hyang” stuck out clearly.

‘That’s Channa’s phishing account…’

Before she could think further, the train jolted violently, sparks exploding again from the tracks. The screech of grinding steel made her wince.

— We’re running it manually, but collisions keep happening! What do we do? At this rate the train’s going to stop!

The instant she heard the word stop, the door on the far side slid open soundlessly, as if inviting her to escape.

Seoryeong didn’t hesitate. She ran for it. Just then, two men armed with rifles burst through the car, knocking aside agents and firing alternately as they advanced, closing the distance car by car.

“—!”

Even from afar, that face hit her like a blow. The men charged through the train corridor as if it were their own home, racing each other to get ahead.

Was she imagining it, or did their eyes truly meet? Lee Wooshin’s gaze wavered for a split second, then he raised his gun and shot through two, three agents’ heads in one sweep before charging straight toward her.

It wasn’t an illusion. His burning eyes locked onto her face like coordinates, refusing to let go.

Overwhelmed by a surge of emotion rising to her scalp, Seoryeong opened her mouth to call his name, but her body lurched violently and slammed against the wall.

“Ugh!”

The brakes had failed. The train tilted off balance, its weight pitching sideways. On the curved tracks, the tail cars began to derail one after another, plummeting fast into the canyon below.

Seoryeong froze, watching the two men framed against the collapsing backdrop.

“No!”