Chapter 115: Taking The Hit

“Cha Eun-gyeol!”

Han-geon’s voice, sharp as a scream, called out his name.

From behind, Eun-gyeol sprang forward like a released spring, grabbing the fallen man by the collar and hauling him up.

Seeing him lift the large-built man effortlessly with one hand, Han-geon sucked in a breath.

Eun-gyeol raised his fist, his eyes stripped of reason.

Thud, thud.

The sound of bones breaking and crushing rang out in succession from the man’s face.

Han-geon, who had stood frozen and stared blankly at the scene, snapped back to his senses a moment later.

“Stop, stop hitting him, Cha Eun-gyeol!

At this rate, you’ll really kill him!”

The merciless beating, which showed no sign of ending, finally stopped only after Han-geon desperately shouted his name.

Eun-gyeol shoved the man aside without care and ran straight toward Han-geon.

“Choi Han-geon!

You… are you okay?”

The Eun-gyeol he faced after a month looked even more haggard than before.

His face was pale to the point of being ashen.

The eyes that held Han-geon shook uncontrollably.

Unable to tear his gaze away from those dried, cracked lips crusted with blood, Han-geon barely managed to part his own.

“I… I’m fine.

But you—how did you get here… and what is all this…?”

Eun-gyeol bit down on his trembling lip.

His fingers reached out carefully and touched Han-geon’s face.

The touch was so vivid and delicate that it almost felt unreal, like a dream.

Meeting each other’s violently wavering gazes, neither of them could say a word for a while.

Sharing that moment that felt as though time itself had stopped, Han-geon felt his chest slowly collapse.

The emotions he had forcibly suppressed for over a month surged explosively the instant he faced the living, breathing Eun-gyeol before his eyes.

But that moment was brief.

After helping Han-geon to his feet while holding his hand, Eun-gyeol immediately turned away.

Eyes flickering with rage fixed on the man who had been flung aside and was writhing weakly in the distance.

“f*ck, that f*cking piece of shit…

You do this to someone who’s pregnant?”

“Cha Eun-gyeol, what are you doing!”

Han-geon shouted in alarm.

“I’m going to kill that bastard.”

“No!

That’s enough.

We need to call the police.”

At Han-geon’s firm voice, the fury burning in Eun-gyeol faltered for a moment.

Taking advantage of the opening, Han-geon stepped in front of him.

Eun-gyeol, who had been glaring at the man with his fist clenched tight, turned his gaze back to Han-geon.

“This isn’t something you should get your hands on anymore.

So stop.”

His chest was still heaving sharply up and down.

Even while staring at the man with an unfiltered, murderous glare, Eun-gyeol obediently listened to Han-geon’s words.

Wearing a complicated expression, he was just about to say something when—

From deeper within the dark alley, a black silhouette on a bicycle suddenly approached.

Sensing something suspicious, Han-geon’s eyes automatically sharpened.

The bicycle had no safety lights whatsoever for riding at night, and the speed at which it was coming toward them was far too fast.

Instinctively sensing danger, Han-geon shouted.

“Cha Eun-gyeol, behind you!”

The moment Eun-gyeol turned around, a man wearing a dark cap pulled low over his face yanked out something like a water bottle from his chest.

Then, without hesitation, he splashed the liquid inside straight at the two of them.

In that instant, Han-geon grabbed Eun-gyeol’s body with all his strength and yanked him backward.

Dragged by that explosive force, Eun-gyeol lost his balance and stumbled before crashing to the ground.

The mysterious liquid scattered across the pavement, missing them by a hair’s breadth.

Gasping for breath, Han-geon glared at the man’s retreating back as he pedaled away at high speed as if nothing had happened.

Just as Han-geon turned to ask Eun-gyeol if he was okay, Eun-gyeol’s eyes widened instead.

“Choi Han-geon!”

Suddenly, a crushing grip seized Han-geon’s neck from behind.

At the same time, a cold, gleaming blade pressed against his throat.

“f*ck, you think I’d come alone this time and get beaten by you again?”

The man let out a deranged, snickering laugh.

Eun-gyeol tried to rush forward with eyes devoid of reason, but the man immediately tightened his grip on Han-geon’s neck.

As the sharp blade began to bite shallowly into the skin, Eun-gyeol froze in place as if turned to stone.

Han-geon stopped struggling, gasping for air.

His head spun tautly, to the point of dizziness.

Wait for an opening, smash his nose with the back of my head, then break free.

For now, that seemed like the most viable option.

But as if reading Han-geon’s intent, the man growled low into his ear.

“Don’t try anything funny, you bastard.

The moment you do, I’ll slice open your belly first.”

It wasn’t a simple threat.

The long sashimi knife that made his chest go cold just by looking at it moved this time not toward his neck, but closer to his abdomen.

Han-geon completely stopped all resistance.

The fear he felt now was incomparable to when the blade had been at his throat.

It was the worst possible threat, leaving him unable to do anything.

No matter what method he used to subdue the man, it felt like the knife would reach his belly faster.

When Han-geon stopped resisting, the man let out an unpleasant giggle.

“Shame you didn’t get splashed with hydrochloric acid.

I really wanted to see with my own eyes how you or this guy’s face would melt into a mess.

No matter how fucked up Cha Eun-gyeol’s face got, you’d still take responsibility and live with him to the end, right?”

“You crazy bastard, drop that!”

Eun-gyeol, pale as a sheet, screamed while frozen in place.

The man holding the chilling blade smiled in satisfaction as he looked at Eun-gyeol.

“f*ck, first, put that down and let’s talk.

I’ll listen to everything you say… just let that kid go first.”

“You expect me to believe that?

After you beat me like this?”

The man sneered and spoke ominously.

“Yeah, f*ck, I’m crazy.

You ran into the wrong person.

But you’re the one who made me like this.

I loved you, that’s all, so why did you make me this way?

Why?!

I gave you everything I had, but you never once looked back at me!”

The man screamed at the top of his lungs, his face twisted in madness.

Then suddenly, he switched attitudes and broke into a wide grin.

Seeing his demeanor flip back and forth like the front and back of a sheet of paper sent chills down the spine.

The man mocked Eun-gyeol, who stood frozen and unable to approach.

“You think I don’t know you’re scared of knives?

Here, look at this.

You can still come closer after seeing this?”

“Cha Eun-gyeol, don’t look!

Turn your head away!”

Han-geon shook his head wildly and screamed at Eun-gyeol.

Eun-gyeol stood rigid, staring at the flashing blade.

Even normally, he couldn’t properly look at knives, or even long umbrellas or forks.

His fear was that severe.

Seeing Eun-gyeol completely frozen while staring at the sharply honed blade, the man laughed nastily.

“My life’s already at rock bottom, so there’s nothing left to be afraid of.

Let’s finish this here.

First, I’ll kill your kid and this f*cking omega bastard.”

The moment the man raised the long knife toward Han-geon’s abdomen, the sound of sirens began to draw closer from afar.

Not missing the instant the man flinched, Han-geon snapped his head back with all his strength and smashed it into the man’s nose.

The man’s body staggered violently for a moment, but with terrifying persistence, he didn’t let go of the hand gripping Han-geon’s neck.

The knife aimed at his belly remained unmoved.

Even with his face a mess from the blood pouring from his nose, the man spat curses and raised the knife high.

Han-geon’s eyes went rigid.

A chilling terror tightened around his throat.

A panic more intense than ever before came crashing down on him.

At the same time, he heard a voice desperately calling his name.

That sound, pounding violently against his ears, was drawing impossibly close.

“Choi Han-geon!”

And then, the world stopped.

Like slow motion, every scene passed by sluggishly.

Han-geon’s wide-open eyes captured everything that happened in that split second.

The man’s hand gripping the knife handle tightly as it was raised high.

The blade flying straight toward his abdomen.

And even as he clearly saw the threatening, flashing blade, the person who wrapped him in an embrace and hurled their body forward—

“Cha Eun-gyeol!”

Han-geon screamed his name at the top of his lungs.

The place where the long blade was buried was not his own belly, but Eun-gyeol’s side.

Eun-gyeol, who had taken the knife while holding Han-geon, bit down hard on his lip with his eyes wide open.

At the same time, his knees buckled, collapsing heavily toward the ground.

“…No.

Ah, no.

No, Cha Eun-gyeol…”

Even seeing it with his own eyes, Han-geon couldn’t believe it.

His lips trembled like a dying butterfly as he spoke.

Denying reality over and over again, he dropped to his knees beside him.

He reached out with hands shaking so badly they didn’t feel like his own and touched Eun-gyeol’s face.

Eun-gyeol’s distorted gaze hooked painfully into Han-geon’s.

Even as his lips trembled violently, Eun-gyeol barely managed to force out a voice.

Clenching his teeth, he asked Han-geon in a fading voice.

“…Choi Han-geon.

You… are you okay?”

Cough.

A dry cough burst out.

The knife lodged in his side jolted along with it.

Seeing the blood begin to pour relentlessly from where it pierced the skin, Han-geon screamed and wailed.

Tears fell like rain, covering his face.

“No!

No, ah… no, no… Eun-gyeol, Cha Eun-gyeol…”

His trembling hands couldn’t even reach the wound.

The sight of the long knife embedded in that unsteadily heaving torso was overwhelmingly unreal.

Han-geon couldn’t even breathe properly, panting desperately.

He couldn’t believe the scene before his eyes.

Clutching Eun-gyeol’s face, who, even with eyes growing dim, looked only at him, Han-geon let out a gut-wrenching sob.

Despair burst forth from everywhere in waves.

From his own face, and from Eun-gyeol’s side as well.

“F-f*ck.

Then… why did you take the hit for me instead of this piece of shit…!”

The man, startled, turned deathly pale as if shocked that the threats he had spat out had actually become reality.

Staggering backward as he tried to flee, he missed his footing and fell onto his back.

At that moment, the scene was engulfed by the thunder of countless boots and the blaring wail of sirens.