Chapter 20

Chapter 20

“Ah, you’re Park Dohoon’s guest? No wonder you’re so pretty. Follow me.”

“……”

Haewon’s face hardened as she followed the waiter. She hadn’t known Yeonwoo, so she’d tried Dohoon’s name just in case. She couldn’t believe it had worked.

The waiter led Haewon straight down the corridor and toward the innermost iron door. The sign on the large door, ‘No Entry for Unauthorized Personnel,’ felt needlessly threatening. The waiter entered a passcode into the keypad on the wall. The door clanged open.

Inside, two rooms faced each other across a long corridor. The waiter led Haewon to the first room, which was closer.

“Here you go. Have fun, pretty noona.”

The waiter grinned slyly and swung the door wide open. She took a breath and stepped inside.

The room was larger than she expected, but the lighting was excessively dim. Several men sat on a long sofa along the wall. Kwon Yeonwoo, however, was nowhere to be seen.

“Hmm…”

Nothing was going according to plan. Haewon sighed softly and turned to leave. The moment she pivoted to exit, the door slammed shut behind her with a loud bang!

“What was that?”

She calmly reached out and twisted the doorknob repeatedly. But the door only rattled and clanked; it wouldn’t turn, as if firmly locked.

Had the waiter trapped her here? Why?

Just then, a low voice came from behind her.

“Come here. Let me see your face.”

“Ha…”

The thought of being trapped made Haewon’s temper flare. To be stuck in this labyrinthine club, all to find Kwon Yeonwoo, was absurd.

She turned around, her expression stony, to see a man sitting arrogantly on the sofa. He looked to be in his early thirties at most, with arms densely covered in tattoos and a buzz cut that gave him a rather menacing appearance.

Of course, it didn’t make much of an impact on Haewon. A thug of his caliber wasn’t even a threat to her.

Haewon pointed at the door and asked flatly, “This door won’t open. How do I open it?”

“You’re pretty, aren’t you?”

But the man completely ignored her question.

“How do I open the door?”

When she asked again, her voice cold, the man chuckled.

“I’ll tell you if you come here. Come closer. Let me get a better look.”

“……”

Haewon gripped her clutch tightly and carefully scanned the people sitting around the man. She was assessing whether she could handle them all if they rushed her at once. They were all large, but it didn’t seem difficult. She was just calculating whether she might need to smash a liquor bottle over someone’s head if things escalated.

Suddenly, a click sounded from somewhere, and what looked like a cabinet opened like a door. Haewon’s gaze snapped to it.

There was a secret room in there?

As she peered intently inside, a familiar face emerged. It was Yoo Jisoo.

“Jisoo…ssi?”

Haewon approached Jisoo, a hint of surprise in her voice. Jisoo raised an eyebrow and burst into laughter.

“Why are you here?”

“I couldn’t find Yeonwoo-ssi. The others aren’t in the room either.”

“Ah.”

Jisoo nodded, as if understanding, then pulled out a thin cigarette and put it to her lips. She subtly gestured with her eyes behind her.

“Dohoon’s in there, and Junseo’s probably on the dance floor. As for Seol-ah and Yeonwoo oppa? Well, I don’t really know.”

Haewon peered into the space beyond the cabinet, spotting Dohoon looking out of his mind and empty syringes scattered around him. She frowned.

“Do you usually scatter like this when you come to the club?”

“Sometimes, sometimes not. Pfft. By the way, unnie, did Seol-ah steal Yeonwoo oppa from you?”

“……”

“You haven’t been together long, how could this happen already? Oppa was mean.”

Jisoo cackled with amusement, then kicked the disguised door, which resembled a cabinet, shut.

“Since you’re here, why don’t you stay and have some fun? There’s plenty to do here.”

Jisoo’s dark eyes sparkled mischievously.

At this point, Haewon was starting to feel certain. Their disappearance wasn’t a coincidence.

“No. If Yeonwoo-ssi isn’t here, I should leave. Do you happen to know how to open that door?”

“Hmm…”

Just as Jisoo shrugged and hesitated, Haewon’s wrist was suddenly grabbed hard by someone. It was the man from earlier.

“I told you I’d tell you, didn’t I?”

Pulled to sit on the sofa against her will, Haewon glared at the man who had seized her wrist. The man, who had been throwing glances at Haewon since she arrived, leaned his face closer and said, “You’re curious where Kwon Yeonwoo is, aren’t you? I can tell you that too.”

“I don’t think I need to hear it from you.”

Haewon retorted coldly, clenching her fist and abruptly twisting her wrist with force.

“Ah!”

The moment the grip on his large, thick hand loosened, she yanked her wrist free, grabbed a liquor bottle from the table, and smashed it over the man’s head. Thwack. A loud crash echoed, and glass shards flew everywhere.

“Aaagh!”

“You fucking lunatic!”

The other men, who had been watching, rose from their seats and lunged at Haewon. Instinctively, Haewon kicked away the approaching men and brandished the broken bottle threateningly.

“Get lost! Move!”

It was then. Click. A familiar sound came from behind her, and something cold pressed against Haewon’s back.

Haewon froze. The familiar sensation against her back was something she never would have expected to encounter in a place like this.

“…Playing so illegally like this can’t be easy.”

“Where did this bitch crawl out from?”

It was the voice of the man whose head Haewon had struck with the bottle. He bit out a curse, then jabbed the gun barrel into Haewon’s back, as if poking her.

“Are you crazy, trying to die? What kind of place do you think this is, to barge in and cause such a ruckus?”

“You might shoot by mistake. Why don’t you put it down for now?”

“That depends on what you do, bitch. Hey, grab her!”

At his command, the other men approached and held Haewon firmly by both sides. The buzz-cut man came to stand in front of Haewon, leaning back against the table. Blood streamed down his torn forehead. It was a wound Haewon had gifted him.

He wiped the blood from his face with the hand holding the pistol and laughed.

“What are you going to do now? I don’t spare anyone who hurts me, man or woman.”

“……”

Haewon bit her lip. Her hands were bound, and a gun was aimed at her. She had no weapon to wield and no one to help her.

What should she do?

She chewed on the inside of her cheek, thinking of a way out. Just then, the man took an empty glass, filled it with alcohol, then sprinkled an unknown powder from the table into the glass with his fingers.

She didn’t need to be told what it was. Haewon clamped her mouth shut and glared at the man.

“Alright, alright. Let’s have a drink before we start. Seeing blood always gets me excited.”

“……”

The man thrust the glass in front of Haewon’s face, but she kept her lips sealed. The man, who had been snorting, instantly turned cold, then poured the alcohol directly onto Haewon’s face.

The cold, acrid scent of alcohol soaked her entire face. Cough, cough. The alcohol flowed into her nose, forcing a fit of coughs. Her nose stung and burned.

“Puhahaha!”

Watching the man laugh with enjoyment, Haewon seized his moment of complacency and swung her foot with all her might toward his groin.

“Aaagh!”

With a yelp, the man bent over. Not missing her chance, she folded her knee and struck him in the face.

With a rough cry, thud, the gun dropped from his hand.

“B-Boss! Are you alright?”

The buzz-cut man screamed and writhed, loosening the grip of the man restraining Haewon.

Haewon saw her chance, twisted her arm free, and struck the man holding her with the liquor glass. In a flash, she snatched the gun from the floor and aimed it at her assailants.

“Open the door. Now.”

“Son of a bitch. Put that down! Do you know who we are, daring to act like this? Huh?”

“I don’t know who you are.”

Haewon expertly cocked the gun, then fired a shot into the sofa beside her.

Bang! The loud gunshot made everyone freeze and stare at Haewon. They seemed shocked that she had actually fired the gun.

“A-Are you crazy?”

Whether they were horrified or not, she calmly aimed the gun at the buzz-cut man.

“Just open the door. I’m with someone I can’t be separated from for a single moment.”

The buzz-cut man threw up his hands in surrender, then frantically shouted at his subordinates.

“Hey, open the door! Hurry up and open it!”

“Yes, boss!”

One of the subordinates touched the keypad on the wall and entered the passcode, and only then did the door open.

Haewon’s brows furrowed. With a system like that, many people must get trapped in here without realizing it.

“These are some nasty pieces of work.”

Still aiming the gun, she slowly backed out of the room. Only after she heard the door lock again did she let out a small sigh and lower the gun.

She was about to leave through the iron door, but the room across the corridor suddenly caught her eye.

“……”

Truthfully, at this moment, she just wanted to get out of this club, Yeonwoo or not, but she felt compelled to check it, just in case. This compulsion was almost an occupational hazard for her.

Haewon walked down the quiet corridor and stood before the opposite door. Fortunately, it wasn’t locked. She slowly turned the doorknob and opened the door, revealing a space similar to the one she had just left.

The only difference was that only one person sat on the long sofa.

“You came quickly, didn’t you? I thought you’d take longer.”

Clench. Haewon unconsciously ground her teeth.

She gripped the gun tightly and walked toward him.

“Is this amusing?”

Yeonwoo chuckled lightly at Haewon’s overtly hostile tone, then rose from his seat.

“Indeed, a gun suits our Haewon better than a knife.”

“You bastard. Was this why you brought me out?”

Haewon gritted her teeth and glared at Yeonwoo. He extended a hand to Haewon, his face unperturbed.

“Give me back the gun. It’s mine.”

“What?”

Did that mean Kwon Yeonwoo was in cahoots with those thugs?

She was about to demand what he thought he was doing, when he reached out and grabbed Haewon’s wrist, which held the gun.

“It’s dangerous.”

“Dangerous, what do you mea—”

That was when it happened. Suddenly, her vision swam, and all strength drained from her body.

Huh… Why is this happening?

The moment she registered that her body was not right, her eyes closed, and she collapsed.