Red Dot - 137

Chapter 137

“I honestly speak. I still not think of you as ‘my person.’ I think of you as equal to people whose names I not know, who came with Daewook.”

The words were harsh, but Yuseul could somewhat understand.

To Junseong, she was merely a person he met yesterday, so there was no bond worth mentioning. If she had greatly helped Junseong’s plan or shown her usefulness, it might have been different, but now she was just an ordinary survivor.

Who would move an entire team just because such a person’s sibling was captured by a murderer? Only abnormally kind protagonists, like those commonly seen in movies or dramas, would do that.

Moreover, the person holding the hostage was a terrifying murderer who had cut off Dujae’s arm.

She heard that Junseong had been tormented by the murderer named Ki-hyuk for a long time. Naturally, he would want to escape and avoid being caught, so why would he risk danger to save the sibling of someone he barely knew?

It was not right to angrily criticize Junseong for not giving her a chance to save the hostages.

Yuseul’s fierce emotions heavily settled down. Tears finally streamed down her eyes.

“I also… I know… I not been with everyone for a long time… so there’s no reason for them to go save with me… Who not know it’s dangerous… If I want to save my sibling, they’ll say go alone… I know everything……”

She wiped the flowing tears with the back of her hand, but Yuseul’s crumbling face still looked precarious.

“But I not know where or how to go. I not even know if my sibling is alive…… If I at least had certainty that my sibling is alive, I would go alone……”

She was scared.

Wandering alone to find her sibling in a world full of zombies was frightening, but what came after finding her sibling was even scarier.

What if her sibling was already dead?

To Ki-hyuk, Yuseul’s sibling was an insignificant subordinate, a traitor who leaked important information without permission.

Would a horrific murderer, who had no hesitation in killing people, really keep an useless subordinate alive?

The more she thought of Ki-hyuk, the more the fact that her sibling might already be killed by him tormented Yuseul.

Along with the desire to find her sibling, the fear of finding her coexisted. She was terrified that a situation where she had to accept her sibling’s death would come.

The thought of going alone toward such a situation was horrifyingly scary. If she faced her sibling’s death alone, she not know if she could avoid breaking down and vow revenge.

Every kind of fear came when she thought of her sibling, captured by a human scarier than zombies. Her hollow eyes, sleepless from worrying about her sibling the previous night, were proof of that.

If she were with others……

If she not alone, she felt she could somehow fight this fear.

‘I must be too selfish.’

Yuseul drooped her shoulders, her teary eyes trembling.

Junseong looked at the disheartened Yuseul and slowly softened his resolute gaze.

“I tell you one thing.”

Yuseul rubbed her reddened eyes and looked at Junseong.

“Ki-hyuk never kills hostages until his purpose is achieved. Surprisingly, he gives them three meals a day without starving and not even hits them if they obey well.”

Junseong, as if recalling a past moment, traced a dreamlike memory and met Yuseul’s trembling eyes.

“Why do you think he deliberately kept a photo with your sibling?”

“That’s… to show you the people behind my sibling, right? You said you knew someone among them.”

Yuseul recalled that Junseong’s acquaintance, perhaps Taeju, was in the photo. To show him, he deliberately left the photo with her sibling, which she secured and delivered to Junseong. Wasn’t the photo left for that purpose?

Junseong initially thought so, but now he thought differently.

Ki-hyuk might seem like a reckless murderer, but he was smarter than expected.

“Think carefully. Your sibling was probably caught and beaten by Ki-hyuk on the first day, but I guess he visited Inhan Hospital around the fifth day.”

“Why does that matter?”

Yuseul, puzzled by the sudden deduction, couldn’t answer right away, and Junseong continued.

“If he took the photo to show he was holding my acquaintance, he would have left it clearly visible on the fifth day when he came to the hospital.”

It made sense when she heard it.

He took a photo of the traitor and left it where the traitor’s sister would find it. The photo she obtained reached Junseong on the seventh day, revealing that his acquaintance’s whereabouts were with Ki-hyuk.

Yuseul not know about Junseong’s dreams, but she heard he knew Dujae well and roughly predicted his movements. She also heard that a listening device was installed in a man named Namsub’s phone, likely gathering significant information from Dujae’s group’s conversations.

Then, he might have guessed that the ‘traitor’s sister’ with Dujae would meet Junseong.

“Ki-hyuk wants me to come find him myself.”

It was easy to be certain.

The traces Ki-hyuk left at Inhan Hospital, the murder scene of familiar shelter people, the phone with fake Chaeyi, the threatening letter, the solution taken from the bl00d research lab, the face revealed on CCTV, and even showing a bomb’s existence as a joke and destroying Inhan Hospital.

With the photo of Yuseul’s sibling and hostages added to all those acts, his intentions were clear.

“Probably, Ki-hyuk’s group is not only eavesdropping but also spying. They likely saw me moving with you as a companion.”

Bitterly, just as Junseong knew Ki-hyuk’s nature well, so did he.

“If you become my companion, I naturally have to think not only of Taeju but also of ‘my ally’s sibling.’ You would want to save your sibling, and I couldn’t ignore the sibling of someone who became my companion as a complete stranger. Well, Taeju is also insurance to make sure I can’t ignore it.”

“I not fully understand… but you mean Ki-hyuk deliberately used me to set up a plan to make you go to him?”

“Ki-hyuk surely thought of many possibilities. You being involved was just one of his many schemes to lure me.”

Even if Junseong coldly rejected Yuseul and ignored her sibling or Taeju, Ki-hyuk probably wouldn’t care much.

He was a cunning person who spread many nets, thinking it was fine if even one caught something.

Junseong, who knew Ki-hyuk’s nature well, sighed in annoyance.

“If it’s you, would I recklessly kill hostages when I not know which of those nets I’ll get caught in? Instead, it’s better to fully use those hostages to set more traps.”

Then he smiled faintly.

“So, I have a favor to ask you.”

“What favor?”

Yuseul, who had wiped away all her tears while listening, asked. Junseong tilted his head and whispered very softly in her ear.

Yuseul’s eyes grew bigger as she listened, and her expression soon turned resolute.

“Alright. I do as you say.”

Hearing Yuseul’s answer, Junseong finally raised his head.

“Thank you, sister. Then for now, move within the bus team as I say.”

Yuseul, who hid all traces of her earlier anxiety or fear, showed a somewhat improved expression.

Yuseul said, ‘Your team be careful too,’ and turned around. She started walking down the corridor but paused at her toes.

“My sibling, really alive, right?”

“I guarantee it.”

Junseong’s words had no hesitation.

Yuseul exhaled deeply and turned to Junseong with a spirited face.

“I trust only you.”

Leaving those words, Yuseul never looked back and disappeared to the end of the corridor.

“What favor did you ask?”

Hanseo, who had quietly listened until then, asked.

“A task perfect and necessary for her.”

“Hmm.”

Hanseo mulled over Junseong’s words and looked at his face. The pleasant smile on his lips had already vanished.

“Not worry. I not plan to risk my people’s safety to save hostages. But……”

“But?”

Junseong turned to face Hanseo. In his seemingly indifferent eyes, a rare special emotion lingered.

“Separate from the hostages, I think I must meet that guy someday.”

Hanseo’s eyes gleamed as he watched Junseong.

“This time, I really kill him.”

One corner of Junseong’s mouth slightly rose.