CHAPTER 3: A KICK, A CARESS, AND A SLAP

  Entering the police station, Yoon Suk saw the usual bustle: people who were shouting at each other, delinquents that were trying to get the policemen's mercy, and there were also those, who were staying silent, in a corner of the police station, lurking for an opportunity to escape.

  Namely because of that bustle, did Chan Choli stop right before entering, struggling with the young detective to leave that place. But Yoon Suk just kicked his knees, making Chan Choli shake on his feet, and then he yelped in the prisoner's ear: „Come on, man, enter once! I don't have all day long to waste with you."

  „Then... just stop pushing me, you…," Chan Choli mumbled at Yoon Suk, feeling the harsh pain of a hand strongly turned at his back, which followed after that kick on his knees.

  „Or what?" Yoon Suk said, not at all bothered by the offender's comment. „If you don't listen, then you should be punished and this is why I am here, to kick your ass, if necessary," and a slap in Chan Choli's head was heard.

  After this, Yoon Suk grabbed Chan Choli's arm again, and, hardly squeezing the arm at the delinquent's back, he pushed him forward.

***

  „Ian SolHi, just stay where you are!" Kan's yell was heard all over the police station a few moments later after Yoon Suk and Chan Choli had entered the same room and then they moved toward the cells. „I told you not to move from that place, SolHi or you'll see what kind of devil I am," Kan shouted again and he showed up behind her at the moment SolHi stopped in the middle of the room, slowly turning on her heels toward the door, being at all bothered by her boss'yell and this was well seen in the way she was sweetly yawning while watching Kan.

  „Yes, boss, as you say. Yeh, Yeah," SolHi mumbled and another yawn was drawn on her face.

  Seeing her finally stopped and „ready to listen to him," Kan approached her and pierced her glance with his devil's eyes.

  „What now?" SolHi said and she took a comfortable position because she knew what was coming after such questions.

  „What now?" Kan yelled again, while his eyes were about to exit the orbit. „Ya, Ian SolHi, have you completely lost your shame?"

  „Shame? I never had such an instrument. Why? Is this something absolutely indispensable for a detective?" SolHi answered while sitting down on a chair.

  Her answer made Kan simply yelp like a mad bear while he was pretending to punch her, several times. But, understanding that his „play" wasn't helpful at all, Kan suddenly grabbed a file from one of the desks and intended to hit her with it while SolHi was continuously yawning, a sign that Kan's theater wasn't something new. And she was right: half away from hitting her head with the file, Kan stopped, squeezing the file in his hands, and, barely heard, he murmured something „very pleasant."

  „Aah, somebody speaks again bad about me behind my back," SolHi said in mockery while cleaning her right ear with the pink. But when she spotted that Kan understood the „hint" and that he was about to rage, she just grinned. „Yes, boss, I'm listening," she murmured.

  Deeply breathing in, Kan closed his eyes and murmured, so, to be heard only by her: „Right now, move and change the „uniform" you have on you, or I swear I'll crack your head. I'm still amazed about your behavior. How the Hell could you walk on the street, wearing only such… „clothes"?"

  „And… what's wrong with my clothes?" SolHi asked while piercing his boss with her innocent eyes.

  „What's wrong???" Kan yelled as a jackal. „Nothing. It's just a simple idea I had in my mind: I and half of the Korean guys that saw you presenting this fashion show in broad daylight, in the middle of the street. Otherwise, everything is just fine, girl. Absolutely fine!" Kan said in mockery, but, deep inside, he was yelling with all his strength.

  He had known this girl for about 7 years already, but she still keeps surprising him every time she does something new, and not always this „something new" means something good too.

  „If everything is clear and normal, then I have nothing more to do here. So, boss, the only thing I have right now in my mind is a hot shower and to relax. Have a nice day, sombe!" and she just stood up and walked away without paying attention to the whistles and the piercing glances of the guys present there. She was already used to such „attention" and she didn't care about it since she understood that nobody was by her side. At that moment, when she understood that she must fight alone in that world of beasts, she decided to do whatever her heart will demand her to do, even if what she wanted won't always match what others think that it is right.

  Staring behind her while she was heading toward the showers, Kan started his usual show, pretending to have a heart attack first, then a stroke, and, finally, he left himself falling on a chair, blaming SolHi for being the cause of all his problems and that she never gives a penny on him. But, to be honest, nobody actually gave a penny for his show, even if it was funny, let's be honest.

  „Oh, Gosh, my head! Oh, boy! Anybody, give me some pills! I'm dying. Or I'll kill someone," Kan shouted at the others, but none of them ran to accomplish his will. „Yeah, Oh Yoon Suk, bring my pills!" Kan ordered detective Oh, who saw himself forced to listen again to a new portion of laments. So, Yoon Suk just took a bottle of water that was on his desk and threw it toward Kan.

  Grabbing the bottle with one hand, Kan looked furiously at Yoon Suk. „Do I look like one who is thirsty?" Kan asked.

  „No, but you definitely look like one who is begging for attention," and Yoon Suk's answer has brought with it a lot of mockeries among the detectives, who couldn't stop laughing. „And, sombe," Yoon Suk added, „those pills, you are so insistently asking for, would have definitely been necessary because, as I said before: instead of that jacket was a towel first and if she had gone in the street with such a „look" you would have been a dead guy for sure! You should thank God because He loves you, and not yell! It's so pathetic".

  Reproachfully nodding, Yoon Suk left the room. Behind him, detective Kan left himself fall again on the chair, and, gawkily, he stared at the ceiling:

  „The Angels of Death are after me, for sure! I can hear them from here and their call isn't something pleasant for sure, and… Ian SolHi, you will pay me this!" Kan shouted again and he left the room, accompanied by others'laughter.

***

THREE HOURS BEFORE.

  It was such a deafening noise in the police station, made by a group of drunks that has been brought there by the policemen, after a fight in Central Park. But none of them wanted to enter the cell and the poor detectives were struggling with them to make them enter, but it was such a pathetic view.

  Yoon Suk slapped his forehead while looking at what was happening, and, nodding, he approached the phone that was RINGING like a desperate man, but nobody was answering it.

  „Yes, detective Oh Yoon Suk is listening to you," Yoon Suk said while preparing his ear for another boring conversation. But, instead of this, his eyes suddenly blinked in amazement and he shouted: „What? Did you say Chan Choli?" But soon after, he understood that shouting has been a damn bad idea because it brought SolHi into the room, half-naked, wrapped only in a towel, for she heard the conversation while she was still in the shower.

  „Somebody said, Chan Choli?" she asked Yoon Suk whose eyes were practically out of their orbits while he was looking at her appetizing half-naked body like the fox is looking at a nice sweet rabbit.

  „Sombe…," he just managed to mumble. „I think you should…," Yoon Suk started to stutter, but SolHi wasn't ready to listen to him and, after taking the receiver by force from his hand, she continued the conversation with the one with whom Yoon Suk was talking to. Then, while listening to her interlocutor, she noted something on a sheet of paper and, after finishing making the notes, she threw the receiver toward Yoon Suk, leaving him to continue the conversation, and she ran toward the door with the idea of finding Chan Choli. But she met the detectives Gi and Mo right next to the door, who were returning from a mission, and Gi grabbed SolHi's arm, stopping her.

  „Are you going somewhere, miss Ian?" Gi told her while forcing a smile, but SolHi hadn't understood the hint right from the beginning.

  „Ya! To grab that rat! Chan Choli showed up and he will definitely stink today! Give me that!" SolHi said, showing Gi's jacket, and, after having it, she put the coat on her, threw the towel toward Gi, and ran out of the police station, in such a hurry, that everybody around thought that a big fire was announced somewhere and she was going there to help.

***

PRESENT. AFTER THE INCIDENT ON THE RIVER.

  The sound of the water flowing in the shower was the only noise disturbing the silence in the empty bathroom. But, very soon, something else made that silence be felt as if watching a thriller movie: the door opened, the shoes of a man entering the room have been seen after that door opened, and the „intruder" slowly stepped into the bathroom.

  However, it made SolHi stop the shower when she heard the noise, and, for a few instants, she listened to it with her breath practically stopped. Then she loudly sighed through her nostrils while squeezing the soap in her fist. „Puff, those guys are hyenas and not men. I locked that door, idiots, but it seems to me that you need to feel once again a nice kick in your ass or between your legs. Otherwise, you will never learn," and, after having such a hot speech, SolHi grabbed a towel, wrapped her body in it, and then she took another towel, but smaller in size, which she wet and, after wrapping the soap in the wet towel, she slowly opened the door of the shower cabin.

  Slowly closing the shower cabin door behind her, SolHi spotted a man, in front of the mirror, turning on the faucet to wash his hands. SolHi grinned, seeing him so calmly doing his job: „at all bothered to enter a shower with a naked woman here," SolHi thought, and she looked at the man's jacket that was left on the washstand: „somebody important, huh?! That piece of garment looks very expensive, but he still likes cheap tricks. What?! Is it too expensive to pay to see a naked body??? Is it because of this you sneaked inside? Anyway, it doesn't matter anymore: each intruder must be punished at the crime scene," and, taking a step aside, not to be seen in the mirror, SolHi started to slowly step toward him, intending to hit him with the wet towel.

  But the intruder wasn't stupid at all: feeling that something was wrong there and that he wasn't alone, he preferred not to reveal the fact that he was aware of that. So, spying on the „other intruder," the man continued to wash his hands.

  However, spotting the flying towel approaching him from behind, after being thrown by SolHi, made him jump aside and the towel hit the mirror, broking it into pieces, but without hurting the man. To defend himself, he grabbed the towel, that after hitting the mirror fell on the washstand, and, attacking SolHi, he dropped the soap that rolled on the floor.

  Trying to avoid being hit with the wet towel, SolHi didn't notice the soap and stepped on it: her foot slipped and she was about to fall on her back.

  DooSan, who was the „intruder," stretched his hand to grab her. But while trying to make her keep her balance, he lost his due to the wet floor and both fell one on top of the other.

  Outraged, SolHi looked at the „enemy." But, seeing that she was lying on DooSan and recognizing in him the worst enemy she had ever had, SolHi hissed through her teeth: „You!" and she right away tried to stand up.

  Not ready to lose in front of her and wanting to teach her a good lesson of manner, DooSan stretched his hand to grab her hand and to make her stay in the same position she fell on him. But, accidentally, instead of her hand, DooSan grabbed the towel, unwrapping it, and, in a blink of an eye, he saw the splendor of SolHi's naked body: DooSan froze for a few seconds, quickly blinking from his eyelashes. But, understanding that it could be a killing bomb continuing to stare at her, DooSan looked elsewhere and he did well because SolHi, who finally understood what happened, stared at him like a hungry lion.

  „You definitely want to die today, moron," SolHi shouted while dressing herself with Doosan's jacket.

  DooSan, however, stood up in a jump and, looking otherwise, tried to calm her down. „I saw nothing. I swear!"

  „Yeah, right, and I'm the monkey of the year," SolHi growled and she suddenly punched him. But her fist barely managed to touch Doosan's cheek. However, SolHi insistently continued her attack, and, finally, DooSan has been forced to use his strength, and, hugging her with both arms, he forced her to look into his eyes.

  „I told you to calm down because I saw nothing, but you are as stubborn as a donkey, from what I see," DooSan told her.

  SolHi said nothing for a few moments, but when their eyes met the other's glance, they understood that the hatred they felt for the other was still there and it would never vanish.

***

7 YEARS AGO.

  The ticking of the breathing machine was rhythmically heard in the Intensive Care Room because even if her condition was normal, SolHi continued unconscious or asleep.

  The door suddenly opened and DooSan entered the room. His eyes were the eyes of a maniac ready for everything at that moment while he was staring at the patient who was still breathing, and his blood started to flow even more rapidly than before and it elicited in him an estate of suffocating anxiety.

  In that state of mind, when he wasn't thinking normally at all, DooSan approached the bed and looked at SolHi, who didn't react. „You don't deserve to breathe," DooSan mumbled and his hand grabbed the machine's wires, pulling them out of the outlet. Then he took the pillow from under her head and, after hesitating for a few moments, he put it on her face intending to kill her.

  When the pillow touched SolHi's face, she finally reacted: shaking like hell, she unwillingly stretched her hands in front, trying to protect herself even if she was too weak to do that at that moment, especially because DooSan's hatred couldn't be calmed down so easily, and, fighting with him to push him away from her, SolHi managed to scratch his hands, his face, and his neck, but she couldn't manage to escape from his hands and, suddenly, as if she had been programmed doing that, like a robot, SolHi stopped breathing.

  DooSan awoke from his madness only when he felt her arms slippering on his and then hitting the hospital bed.

  This made him stare at her and shudder as if he was in front of the devil. But he finally reacted, seeing her powerless hand falling over the edge of the bed: in a blink of an eye, DooSan approached her, and, shaking her, he tried to make her react. But his efforts were in vain: SolHi wasn't reacting and this made DooSan even more anxious than he has been before that. Because of this, he started to shout: „Ya, open your eyes, bitch! You can't die. Not until paying for everything you did on Earth. Only because you must pay here for YuSan's death you can go to hell," and, in a moment of despair, seeing that she wasn't reacting at anything he did before, DooSan approached his lips off hers and, mouth to mouth breathing, he managed to make her react eventually.

  Feeling the air entering her chest, SolHi coughed, touching her chest, because she felt a harsh pain in it. But when she finally saw DooSan, she started to agitate again: she stretched her hand toward the aid button, but DooSan was faster than her, and, grabbing it first, he damaged it.

  „Who are you?" SolHi whispered through shedding tears.

  „Your death, Ian SolHi and you will definitely never escape from me!"

  Their eyes were again looking with hatred at the other and if they had had a weapon at that moment, probably, they would have killed each other then.

***

PRESENT.

  „Why are you here?" SolHi whispered, still hugged by his strong arms. But even if the scene she was living at that moment could have been described as a romantic one, she knew that this was only the hug of the Devil, the one who was hunting her.

  „I came after you, sweet-bitter Monster," DooSan answered while his burning eyes were trying to defeat that beast he was holding to his chest, who was stubborn and who wasn't submissive at all.

  And SolHi just smiled, listening to his words, and a deep bite had been felt on DooSan's wrist when SolHi's teeth deeply entered his flesh.