Chapter 103

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The moment he saw the blue mist at his feet, his suspicion turned into certainty. Tae-un pulled him, who had floated about a span upward.

The gaze that had been looking at the upper part of the stairs turned to him, and the eyes that had been hidden by the deeply pulled hat appeared. The eye shape that widened round when surprised was just as he remembered.

"Han Tae-un."

The voice blankly calling his name was the same.

"You, you, what? Why are you here?"

"At first, I was going to pretend to be fooled since you seemed to want to hide it."

The hand gripping Soram's arm tightened even more.

"But you were acting strange the whole time you were on the phone."

"..."

"What's going on? Did you cause an accident at the branch?"

"That's not it...! Han Tae-un, wait a moment."

Soram tried to answer but stopped and anxiously looked towards the door. Tae-un frowned with a displeased expression and pulled his arm towards himself.

'Even after meeting like this, he's thinking of running away again.'

It felt like the wall that had been blurred over several months since their first meeting had been erected again. The emotions that had been building up one by one since the room next door had become empty without a word surged up.

"Jin Soram, you."

At that moment, the bandage wrapped around Soram's fingers caught Tae-un's eye.

"...Are you hurt?"

"Ah, this."

"You came all the way here from Busan in this condition?"

"Wait, let go for a bit, now's not the time for this..."

The next moment, Soram, who had been fidgeting and unable to take his eyes off the door, suddenly hugged Tae-un tightly.

"What are you..."

"Shh!"

He flew down the stairs while hugging Tae-un. The two, enveloped in blue mist, were buried in the shadows below the steps, and then the emergency exit door swung open.

Thud.

Soram covered Tae-un's mouth with his palm. And he quietly took out two planes from his arms. The planes swiftly went up through the gap between the railings of the upper stairs and knocked on the stairs one floor above as if someone was running up, thud, thud, thud.

"He's above!"

"Chase him, quickly!"

Several footsteps kicked the stairs and headed upward. Tae-un looked down and saw the top of Soram's head, who was pressed tightly against him, vigilantly surveying the surroundings. The distance was so close that he could see all the eyelashes trembling along with the short breaths.

Even after the footsteps had faded away, Soram's body was still stiff. Tae-un had rarely seen Soram this tense.

He raised his arm and tightly wrapped it around the rising and falling back. Soram, who had been focusing only on the soldiers' footsteps, finally turned to look at Tae-un. Soram hurriedly lowered his mask and moved his lips as if pleading, 'No.'

What the hell is going on?

While examining Soram with narrowed eyes, he additionally discovered the torn sleeve and the wound on his arm. Before he could say anything with his raised eyebrows, footsteps coming back down from above and rough voices were heard.

"He's not here! It seems he slipped away somewhere in the middle."

"Ah, damn it... He couldn't have gone far. Request reinforcements and search the station again."

"Yes!"

Bang!!! The sound of the closing door echoed through the passageway.

"..."

"..."

As the soldiers left, the surroundings became quiet in an instant. Only after a long time, the hand covering Tae-un's mouth slowly fell away. Tae-un grabbed that wrist.

"What the hell happened to you?"

"Quietly, please be quiet."

"You're bleeding...!"

"Please..."

"..."

Tae-un had no choice but to close his mouth when he met the distorted gaze. Soram slowly detached his body that had been pressed against him. And with a long sigh, he picked up the duffel bag that had fallen to the floor.

"...How did you know I was at Seoul Station?"

"From the conversations I heard in the background during the call."

"How the hell did you hear that... Does it make sense that you figured it out from that?"

"No matter how you look at it, it was the kind of content that would be said at a train station."

"It could have been Busan Station."

"You said you 'went' to Busan. If you were in Busan, you would have said you 'came.'"

"...Fuck, are you Conan?"

Instead of retorting, Soram ended the conversation in a tired tone. His exhausted voice was filled with weariness.

"You're being chased right now, aren't you?"

"...Yeah."

"Why?"

Until just a while ago, he had been saying that he ran away because the Busan Branch was trying to make him train, or that he had gone to rest after working as a hunter at the headquarters for 8 years, so why was he here in this state?

When he met his eyes as if interrogating him, Soram closed his mouth again and avoided his gaze. Even though the situation was frustrating for Tae-un, Soram had a face as if he had been tormented.

"Soram-ah."

"...I could have escaped properly if you hadn't interfered."

By now, the soldiers would be on high alert at the station, and reinforcements would soon arrive. Tae-un could also grasp from the conversation he had overheard a moment ago that the situation was not good.

Soram still seemed to have no intention of saying anything. Tae-un, who glanced at the upper part of the stairs, took off the black hat on Soram's head.

"What are you doing?"

The brown hair was pulled up along with the hat and then fell on his forehead with a rustle. Now his face had become familiar as it was.

"I'll go out and attract attention, so move when I do."

What? Soram's eyebrows curved as he asked back.

"You're in no position to refuse help right now, since you're the most vulnerable."

"What... What are you trying to do?"

Instead of answering, Tae-un put the hat he had taken on his own head.

By chance, no, Tae-un, who had no fashion sense, always picked out plain black clothes all year round. Thus, their current outfits, surrounded by black attire, looked similar at a glance. If a man in this attire suddenly appeared from the emergency exit where the culprit had disappeared, the pursuers' attention would be drawn, and an opportunity to escape would arise. However,

"You're going to use yourself as bait? What if something happens to you?"

"They'll only be confused for a moment anyway, they'll know right away that we're not the same person."

Then Tae-un took the mask that had been covering his face as well.

"Can you run away in a short time?"

"..."

Soram couldn't even say no and only bit the end of his lips.

Tae-un reached out his hand to the white chin and pressed his thumb under the lips. The lower lip that had been tormented slipped out from under the front teeth. The hand that had hesitated for a moment around the nape of the neck lightly grasped the shoulder and then let go.

He went up the stairs, opened the emergency exit door that the soldiers had barged into a moment ago, and put the mask's bands over his ears.

Before he could take a few steps, gazes were fixed on him from all directions. There were gazes looking at him because he stood out due to his tall height, but some were blatant surveillance and pursuit.

As Tae-un moved his steps towards the exit, the sound of military boots followed. When he increased his walking speed, they started running. The sound of footsteps following him gradually increased.

Thus, at the moment Tae-un was about to leave the station, his shoulders and arms were roughly grabbed.

"What is this?"

"Don't move. Stay still."

The rough hands turned his shoulders and twisted his arms behind his back. Tae-un was surrounded by numerous soldiers and restrained so tightly that he couldn't move... which he allowed.

"We caught him. He's not carrying any luggage."

"The rest of you, go back through the emergency exit and search thoroughly! He might have hidden it and come out."

So there must be something in that huge bag. While Tae-un was thinking, the soldiers led him to a corner and surrounded him.

"...Hmm...?"

The soldier who seemed to be the commander looked at Tae-un's tall head with a doubtful expression. Was he a bit shorter in the dark alley earlier...? he muttered and reached out his hand to forcibly snatch the mask.

Then, a face with a cold impression appeared from inside the mask. Tae-un looked around at the soldiers without hiding his displeasure.

"What are you doing?"

"Uh... uh...?"

And confusion spread among the soldiers. Because when they took off the mask, someone too... famous popped out.

"A hunter? Han Tae-un...? Is that right?"

"Yes."

Tae-un answered bluntly. The momentum that had been fierce as if they had arrested the certain culprit faltered.

"We... had a bit of a situation, and your appearance and clothing are similar. So we were investigating..."

...But why would someone who could easily slice a building with a sword have a reason to rob an armory? Along with the question, the voice gradually lost confidence. No matter how he thought about it, between the situation where he was holding a gun and the situation where he was swinging his bare fists, the latter had a higher fatality rate.

Recalling Tae-un's mock combat video, the soldier flinched involuntarily when the large hand covered in calluses and small scars moved. Tae-un was only lightly shaking off the arm that had been grabbed.

"What's going on?"

"That's... difficult to say."

"You have to tell me so I can understand the situation. Didn't you just detain a person without any explanation?"

"I apologize. But we can't disclose it to outsiders."

Tae-un looked down at him without a word. The commander read it as 'Are you kidding me?' but in fact, Tae-un was just looking at him with regret because his attempt to find out what Soram had done had failed.

I guess I have no choice but to ask him directly. He definitely won't tell me willingly.

Tae-un tried to gauge the time. With Soram's speed, he should have been able to leave the station and get away from the surrounding area by now.

"Then when did the incident you mentioned occur? It seems like you're tracking someone."

The commander exchanged glances with the person next to him and said,

"...Around 5 o'clock."

Tae-un took out his cell phone without a word and tapped on it. Then he turned the screen to show it to the soldier. The article displayed there had a picture of him standing in front of a rift at sunset.

"Even if you check the nearby CCTV, there will be a record of me being at this location at that time."

"..."

It was clean and indisputably perfect evidence. The soldier who had exchanged glances with the commander a moment ago lowered his voice and whispered,

"Uh, I think the physique of the culprit we were chasing earlier is completely different. The clothes are a bit different too. On the arm..."

"Ah, he was shot."

Shot?

The short word stuck in Tae-un's mind like a dart. ...He said he was shot?