Chương 135: S.05 Time to Fly 11(02)

Scene 01_05. She had fully arrayed even the formation of the green 장기(Jang-gi_Korean chess) pieces. Her fair hand had settled the positions of both camps. After briefly kneading her slightly chilled hand, she drew her phone from her pocket and checked the time. As if it were time to head out, she let out a small sigh and rose carefully from her seat. Having lifted the body she'd been sitting in at ease, she set her rumpled clothes back in order.

The sun, sinking low past the ridge, came crowding in through the not-so-wide window. Scene 02_01. She watched the sun sinking low for a while. On a signless afternoon, Yeon-su — who had trailed the path after the one who'd gone inside — had parked a fair distance off and briefly took her eyes from the house she'd been watching. Even with her eyes off it, there was no way Yeon-su would lose it. She had cut the engine and left the window open.

Beyond the narrowly cracked driver's-side window, the 검은 모래(Geomeun-morae_Black Sand) Yeon-su had spread drifted in tiny grains around the upscale detached house. Watching the house with a bored air, Yeon-su leaned both arms against the steering wheel and let out a short yawn. She was certain that once she wrapped this job up cleanly, everything would fall back into place. The certainty had settled into anticipation.

She had no idea why she'd been told to lay her makeup on heavy, but taking it as a celebration of getting Yeon-hui back, Yeon-su only recalled the chattering voices of So-hui and Si-yeon, and simply hoped the rest of her task would end without a hitch. The phone she'd set before the driver's-side speedometer threw off a short flash of light. Leaning listlessly on the wheel, she flipped open the phone that had lit up and checked it. -Sis went up ahead. Keep a careful watch a little longer.

She'll get there in about two hours. - It was a text message So-hui had sent. After Yeon-su deftly fired off a reply with one hand, she gripped a spare phone she'd set aside, just in case. Because she'd left the engine off, the inside of the car was fairly chilly. Through the open window came the not-yet-sharp cold wind of early spring. Yeon-su, who hadn't taken off her thick 두루마기(Durumagi_Traditional outer coat), slipped the phone into the inner pocket of the outer coat. Scene 02_02.

So-hui was looking at Yeon-su's reply without a word. -You be careful too, Sis. Please. - Large sheets of hanji lay spread across So-hui's living room. The day's coming events were written out along a great many branching roads. In the middle of the hanji blanketing the entire living-room floor, So-hui sat still, weighing the content of Yeon-su's reply. She and Ji-young had recorded every one of the countless branching roads without omission.

On the hanji packed dense with Chinese characters, Sanskrit, and Tibetan, So-hui was checking what the next move would tie into, and how. Within it, someone's severed life was recorded — Ji-young's death, So-hui's death, or even Yeon-su's death. These were countless roads So-hui had vowed to block without fail. Among them, even the length of Yeon-su's reply text stood recorded on its own. She gauged whether the just-arrived text, differing in content from the other possible texts, would meet a different road.

It was the first step of the one who shapes — a stray child who had resolved, in the end, to lose her way. The countless branching roads the stray child had spread out lay recorded with an eerie density. So-hui vowed she would not miss even the slightest thing. At the very least — for the sake of Ji-young and Yeon-hui, who had sacrificed to make this road so stable, and for the sake of her mother, I-sim — So-hui vowed never again to commit even the smallest mistake.

If she slipped even slightly, someone might end up dead. Her mother, Ji-young — these too were roads she had shouldered to the very end herself. And, So-hui: The one who left — she'll surely come to kill. It was a murmur that slipped out like a mutter to herself. So-hui: All while I hope to hold it off to the very end. So-hui, bent at the waist, compared Yeon-su's text with Jeong-in's text that had just arrived, looking for any small side-road. -We too will set out as planned. Please, take care. Seer.

- -Do not worry. I'll move in time as well. - The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Gripping the phone in her hand, So-hui sent a reply and then erased one of the forks. She gauged the blocked road that had branched off into a side-path by the type of reply that had come in and the words they'd exchanged, then boldly wiped it out. The sunlight beyond the window began, bit by bit, to hide its shape.

While So-hui was tracing one road that stretched out into limbs, she caught sight of something and hurriedly placed a call. Scene 02_03. Watching the building that still held not a single sign of movement, Yeon-su — just about to check the time — answered listlessly the moment her phone, drawn out, buzzed. Yeon-su: Hey, where are y — So-hui: Above!! At So-hui's frantic voice cutting off her listless question, Yeon-su, still seated in the driver's seat, shoved her body down in a rush.

The top of Yeon-su's car burst and tore with a sharp shriek of metal as a blade shaped from black sand drove through. Barely grazing past her shoulder, the blade passed, and Yeon-su thrust out a hand, braced it against the car's ceiling, and blew out the black sand as though bursting it. The lid of Yeon-su's car tore off in every direction like a scrap of tissue, shredded to ribbons. The sound of fluttering fabric settled behind Yeon-su's car.

Yeon-su cut the call, let out a sigh, and stepped slowly out of the driver's seat. Outside, Yu-seok stood scattering black sand in every direction. Yeon-su glanced back and checked the surface parking lot. The car she'd been watching had vanished without a trace. Yeon-su: Ha. This SSibal bastard, seriously. Yu-seok clutched the hem of his coat as if drawing it closed and gathered up the wind that had gusted hard enough to send it flapping. Wearing a light sneer, he shot Yeon-su a sidelong glance.

Yu-seok: Yeah, this is more like the baby of the family. Nice and pathetic, exactly like you — good to see. Yeon-su: Ah, sure. Let's grant you that much. Yeon-su reset her grip on her 수화자(Suhwaja_Korean Traditional Battle boots) and, as if no more words were needed, drove her foot off and closed on Yu-seok in an instant. She'd long since cast out the consolation and the 舞 — the Dance — that had risen in her mind, and in a flash she packed her head full of bloodlust and the 武 — the Martial.

Having closed the distance in a breath, Yeon-su swung her battle boot; Yu-seok, feigning alarm, hurriedly threw his waist far back. The heel of Yeon-su's battle boot grazed the bridge of his brow. Yeon-su didn't stop — she planted a hand on the ground, scattered black sand behind her like a trail, and drove Yu-seok back. As she had felt back at the café before, Yeon-su had grown eerily beyond what Yu-seok had reckoned.

At the straight-line footwork of Yeon-su, honed as if not a single day had been skipped, Yu-seok marveled inwardly. Yeon-su's feet drove black sand into the ground on all sides, hounding Yu-seok on and on. As if he couldn't afford to burn any more time, Yu-seok thrust out his hand with all his might. To block the Martial that Yu-seok had warped from a fragment of the temple-drum dance, fist clenched, Yeon-su shaped black sand in her hand and swung the Martial she'd warped from the Dongnae crane dance.

Yu-seok's wrist burst with blood. But heedless of it, Yu-seok drove his fist straight in, seized Yeon-su by the collar, hauled her toward himself, and slammed her down onto the ground with all his force. Yeon-su's back struck the asphalt dead-on with the sound of something breaking. The moment Yeon-su let out a small, gasping scream, Yu-seok drove his own fist down hard into her face. A dull texture came through, clear and certain. It was not sand. It was Yeon-su's face.

Sparing not the slightest restraint, Yu-seok battered Yeon-su even more brutally than that time long ago when he'd beaten Yeon-hui to a pulp. The fallen Yeon-su began to drain the strength from her resisting hands. When Yu-seok, having battered her a long while, straightened up to catch his slightly ragged breath, Yeon-su's blood was splattered thick across his exposed face. Yu-seok: You pathetic wench, Fallen and lying still, Yeon-su began to grin faintly.

After a scoffing snort through her nose, Yu-seok belatedly scanned his surroundings. The black sand Yeon-su had planted in advance burst and spewed out, shaping a trigram. Yeon-su: The hell're you on about, you dead weight. The ground-sweeping finale unfurled, and in a flash all of time whirled backward. Yu-seok glanced down at his own fist. Yeon-su's blood, which should have clung to it in clots, hadn't stained it in the slightest. Wearing his anger, Yu-seok turned his dazed eyes to look behind him.

Yeon-su's car, returned whole, was pulling swiftly out of its spot. As if brimming with irritation, Yu-seok lightly furrowed his brow and scratched roughly at his own hair. Yu-seok: Ah, SSibal, I really did write you off as total small fry …. Scene 02_04. So-hui, eyes shut, was moving her pupils rapidly behind the closed lids. The phone gripped in her hand rang softly. Eyes still shut, she deftly took the call and offered a level voice. So-hui: Go to the hotel café you went to before. It'll start from there.

Sis is heading there too. Yeon-su: Wow, SSibal, that scared the hell out of me. Since when was that son of a bitch there? So-hui: He only just got there. You hurt anywhere? Yeon-su: Totally fine. Got hit like hell, but I turned time back right away. So-hui: Be careful. Yeon-su: Yeah. You be careful too, Sis. After calming Yeon-su's tense voice, So-hui hung up. Eyes still shut, moving only her hand, she deftly pared down one more road. Scene 03_01. With a blank gaze, it only faced the ceiling.

Having lost its wits, drool even trickled from the parted mouth. Pupils flung wide open, controlling nothing, it rose from its seat in a bizarre way, wrenching its joints as it went. As the people of the café watched — the movement of a presence that looked like someone drugged — and began, little by little, to take on fear, an attendant standing at the upscale café's counter approached carefully, meaning to check on the one who'd risen from the seat. That's enough. Go about your work.

A small whisper filled the whole of the café. After the whisper landed, the presence of the attendant advancing toward the one who had stood there so strangely could move no further either. Nothing at all will befall you. All of you. Every one. As if the soundless whisper had reached everyone, they all cranked their heads toward the ceiling at once with a bizarre creaking, and carried on an eerie hush.

The presence that had risen first from its seat, drool now spilling from its mouth, fumbled for the dinner knife set on the table, gripped it, and shifted its steps as if tottering. It headed for the attendant nearest by. The steps, warped to a bizarre degree, brushed lightly past the front of the attendant in an instant and passed on with indifference. Having passed the attendant, it came to a still stop at the entrance door. The closed door opened, and a hulking figure meaning to come inside faltered.

As if he took it for someone he knew, while the hulk debated whether he ought to offer a greeting, the dinner knife in its hand moved swiftly. At the blade drawn lightly across the side, blood poured out as if spraying. Had you buried me, you should have braced yourselves to be buried too.