“Your brother is late again today.”
“Come on, Mom. A grown man can be a little late.”
“A grown man doesn’t have accidents?” Baek Hyun-jung’s expression turned sharp, and Kang Eun-young backed down.
“W-well, of course, accidents can happen. Right! This brother of mine is always leaving his mind somewhere else, so he doesn’t even call and hasn’t come home by this hour!”
As her mother’s expression seemed to soften a little, Kang Eun-young cautiously asked,
“Mom, should I call him?”
“Leave him alone. It’s not good for a man working outside to have his family calling him all the time.”
Kang Eun-young’s lips protruded.
‘If that’s the case, then don’t say anything!’
Normally, she would have retorted and gotten an earful, but recently, due to her depressed mood, Kang Eun-young quietly swallowed her words.
“Is that man the type to get into an accident? He’s more likely to cause one.”
“You don’t know because you’re young. The world is a dangerous place.”
“Oh, Mom.”
Kang Eun-young clicked her tongue and said,
“……You never know what might happen in the world, right?”
“Huh?”
Kang Eun-young spoke as if she couldn’t agree at all.
“Honestly, Mom, you worry too much. If you have such a capable son, you should just let him be.”
“Can I do that?”
“It’s the same with the car issue last time. I didn’t say anything, but how much money does Oppa [older brother] have in his account that you’re nagging him about driving a car like that? You were a bit harsh on that, Mom.”
“Oh, you.”
Baek Hyun-jung thumped her chest.
“Is that money Jin-ho earned? Jin-ho?”
“Well, no……”
“You too. Do you think you’d be living so well right now if you weren’t Jin-ho’s sister or the Chairman’s daughter? Really?”
Kang Eun-young pouted.
“Of course, I’m happy that my son is doing well. I’m also happy that you’re doing well. You have no idea how good I feel every time you appear on TV.”
Baek Hyun-jung said with a sigh.
“But you shouldn’t enjoy things that you’ve achieved with someone else’s help as if they were your own. I’d rather you become someone who can succeed than just succeeding. Both you and Jin-ho.”
“……I understand what you mean, Mom.”
“Why would I be anxious if you were doing well? What I’m worried about is that you’re succeeding too easily. If you fail after that, people fall into the abyss.”
“Don’t worry.”
Kang Eun-young smiled brightly and said,
“Even if I fail, I have my brother, and my brother isn’t someone who will fail.”
“Aren’t you too trusting of your brother?”
“You’re too distrustful of him, Mom.”
“Your brother might not have been where he is now if it weren’t for the Chairman.”
“I don’t think so?”
Kang Eun-young thought that Baek Hyun-jung worried too much. That’s how parents are, but… Usually, when their children succeed, parents ignore all reasons and believe that it’s simply because their child is so great. But Baek Hyun-jung was evaluating her son more coldly than anyone else.
“I think you worry too much, Mom.”
“I worry too much?”
“Yes, Mom.”
Kang Eun-young said definitively.
“I understand you worrying about me, but honestly, I don’t understand why you worry about Oppa. You say he’s living well thanks to the Chairman, but honestly, the Oppa I know would have done well even without the Chairman. He’s someone who got a free pass to college after studying for just one year of high school.”
“Still.”
“It’s not just about being good at studying. Honestly, there’s nothing he’s not good at. If Oppa debuted in the entertainment industry right now, he could earn money like it’s tissue paper. Ah, maybe not now? Since he can’t debut. Still, he’d make a fortune even if he only worked in Korea, Mom.”
“That’s because your mother gave birth to him well.”
“That’s also his ability, Mom.” Kang Eun-young declared.
“I know you’re anxious because your son is doing too well, but our brother isn’t someone who would get carried away and live recklessly. You know how thorough he is, Mom.”
“That’s true.”
It wasn’t easy for pride and worry to appear on one person’s face at the same time, but Baek Hyun-jung was doing it.
‘She’s secretly a doting parent.’
Looking at it differently, it also meant that Baek Hyun-jung’s expectations for Kang Jin-ho were that harsh.
“Don’t worry too much, Mom. Someone like Oppa doesn’t get into accidents easily.”
“The world is a scary place.”
“He’s the type to escape through the window even if there’s a car accident. Unless some crazy people throw a grenade, he’ll be fine, so don’t worry.”
“Hey! Don’t you know that words can become reality?”
“Come on, there are words that can become reality and words that can’t.” Kang Eun-young waved her hand as if to say not to worry.
Bang Jin-hoon, who had let go of the steering wheel and ducked down, cursed.
“Those crazy bastards!”
Letting go of the steering wheel at 150 km/h [approximately 93 mph] was not something a sane person would do, but that wasn’t the problem right now.
The car could flip over and kill them, but if they didn’t duck down now, they were guaranteed to die.
“Shit! Crazy! Ugh, crazy bastards!”
He had thought they might act recklessly. But shooting in South Korea! And not with a pistol, but with machine guns!
Bang Jin-hoon’s mental state was collapsing, as he had never imagined such a situation.
This wasn’t America, so how could there be shooting? Where the hell did they get those guns?
“Ughhhhh! This is a national highway, you crazy bastards!”
He couldn’t help but curse. It was absurd enough that they were attacking with machine guns in South Korea, but they were doing it in the middle of the road, not in some secluded, inconspicuous place. It was something no sane person would do.
If it was caught on a passing car’s dashcam, the internet would explode.
‘No, this isn’t the time to worry about that.’
Bullets were pouring down like rain, so what did tomorrow’s internet have to do with him?
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Metallic sounds like beans being roasted came from the door. Fortunately, the bullets weren’t penetrating the door properly.
“Damn it, this is an armored car! Armored car!”
He was feeling the worth of buying an expensive car.
Of course, even if he didn’t die from the bullets, the car would soon lose control and either fly into the air or roll on the ground, but for now, he had to be grateful that bullets weren’t piercing his body.
‘Can I hold out?’
Every martial artist must have wondered about this at least once. Could bullets that contained no internal energy pierce the body of a martial artist strengthened by their internal energy?
Some said they had been hit and could withstand it, while others said that no human body could ever withstand it.
But Bang Jin-hoon had no intention of ending that long debate with his own body.
‘Stupid bastards.’
What kind of debate was that anyway? If your training was deep and your energy was strong, you could deflect bullets, and if your training was shallow, you’d die from a bullet!
But he couldn’t just shoot himself to see if he could block a bullet.
That would make him crazy.
The sound of bullets pouring down above his head was driving Bang Jin-hoon half out of his mind.
Guns were familiar weapons to anyone living in modern times. But how many people living in South Korea had experienced being shot at? It was something that no one had experienced except for the generation that had experienced war and veterans.
The knowledge he had accumulated about guns through media and various writings was now turning into fear, making Bang Jin-hoon unable to move.
And like a child terrified and looking for their parents, Bang Jin-hoon instinctively turned his head to look for Kang Jin-ho.
‘Huh?’
When he turned his head, he found Kang Jin-ho looking at him. Kang Jin-ho also didn’t seem to have any intention of taking the bullets head-on, as he had curled up under the seat and turned his head to look at him.
The only difference was that Kang Jin-ho’s expression wasn’t as distorted as Bang Jin-hoon’s.
Kang Jin-ho, who had turned to look at Bang Jin-hoon with a blank face, curled up the corners of his lips.
It was as if he was mocking Bang Jin-hoon.
‘Are you getting scared and making such a fuss over a situation like this?’
Regardless of what Kang Jin-ho actually thought, Bang Jin-hoon interpreted Kang Jin-ho’s smile in that way. Feeling a surge of anger, Bang Jin-hoon gritted his teeth.
He was now the head of the Korean Martial Arts Association. How could such a person be screaming like a girl just because some bullets were flying around?
A wave of shame washed over him.
He wanted to make excuses, saying that no one could remain calm in this situation, but there was someone right in front of him with a calm face.
‘Damn it, that inhuman bastard.’
Looking at the composed Kang Jin-ho made him feel like a coward. A sense of rebellion welled up from within, and Bang Jin-hoon’s eyes turned cold.
Now was not the time to scream, but to come up with a plan.
‘Damn it, aren’t the bullets going to run out?’
It felt like the magazines should have been empty a long time ago, but the shooting showed no signs of stopping. Still, the thought that he wouldn’t die from a bullet as long as he stayed crouched down made his mind start to work.
‘The door can withstand bullets.’
He didn’t know if the car was made this way originally, or if the person who ordered the car had predicted this situation and made a special order, but what was certain now was that their firepower couldn’t penetrate the door.
‘If I tear off the door and use it as a bunker, I can jump into the next car.’
In the worst-case scenario, he would fall onto the road and crash at 150 km/h, but that seemed better than being hit by a hail of bullets.
He was confident that he wouldn’t die even if he fell on the ground at this speed, but whether his body could withstand being shot was unknown.
“Kang Jin-ho!”
“Yes.”
“It doesn’t seem like we can stay like this. Let’s tear off the door and use it as a shield, and then jump into the car next to us!”
He knew how absurd this sounded. But it was the most realistic method right now.
“Can’t we just hit the brakes?”
“Huh?”
Bang Jin-hoon’s face went blank for a moment.
Normally, hitting the brakes would cause a collision with the car behind them, so it was a method he wanted to avoid, but what couldn’t they do now?
It wasn’t about colliding with a car. They had to survive first!
“Then hold on tight……”
That was the moment.
Bang Jin-hoon, who was about to shout to hold on tight because hitting the brakes would cause a collision with the car behind them, stopped speaking and widened his eyes as if they would tear.
Darkness.
Even under the dark night sky, it was clearly visible. A round piece of metal was flying through the shattered window, cutting through the dark sky.
The car was traveling at 150 km/h, and bullets were flying. Each moment was so urgent, but ridiculously, the scene felt like it was in slow motion.
A weapon that was too famous among those who had been exposed to the media, just like guns, was now flying towards him.
A grenade.
“Aaaaaaah!”
Before he could even react, the grenade that had flown into the car exploded.
KABOOM!