CHAPTER 102 

[Crossing the George Washington Bridge, entering Manhattan. Estimated arrival in 10 minutes.]

“Rose, if you’re done eating, should we go meet your uncle?”

Minhee and Rose held hands as they walked off the tennis court, exchanging questions.

Randall’s Island, located northeast of Manhattan, was like a private playground for New Yorkers. It had sports facilities like soccer fields, baseball diamonds, equestrian centers, hockey rinks, and tennis courts, but no residential areas.

After school, Manhattan kids would flock to this secluded island in droves, then leave all at once. With classes over and pickup time passed, there were hardly any cars on the roads around the tennis courts, and hardly any pedestrians either, giving it a rather desolate feel. But Minhee, eager to meet Taejun as soon as possible, walked towards the entrance where the cars came in.

“Your uncle will be here in a few minutes.”

Standing by the roadside, craning her neck to look for Taejun, Minhee saw a huge van speeding towards them and quickly pushed Rose behind her back.

‘I can’t believe they’re driving that fast in a 25 mph zone!’

The car whizzed past them, then came to a screeching halt about 300 meters away, the tires’ friction creating a chilling sound. Then it started reversing at a similarly rapid pace. 

The sound of the engine revving was unsettling.

‘Something’s wrong.’

The car had no license plate. A creeping chill ran up Minhee’s spine, and cold sweat beaded on her palms.

“Rose, hold my hand tight. The car is dangerous, so let’s go back to the parking lot. We have to run, okay?”

Without waiting for Rose’s response, Minhee grabbed the girl’s hand and took off running. The reversing car suddenly swerved and began to chase them in the direction they were running.

The unfamiliar terror made Minhee’s heart feel like it would burst out of her mouth. But she kept her lips sealed, afraid of frightening Rose, as they ran towards the tennis court parking lot entrance.

Rose, sensing Minhee’s strange demeanor, followed silently without complaint.

But the car caught up to them in the blink of an eye. It blocked their path, and the driver sharply turned the wheel to stop.

Minhee stumbled backward, tucking Rose behind her.

The van’s rear door slid open.

[You called a taxi, right? To Park Avenue address XXX.]

The heavily bearded driver wearing a cap and dark sunglasses knew Taejun’s penthouse address.

[No! We didn’t call for one!]

Minhee’s voice came out ragged. The driver nudged the person in the passenger seat.

[Hey! Are you sure it’s them? Check the face. Can’t take the wrong kid.]

[Ugh, sh*t. Has the nanny changed? The kid’s hiding, can’t see the face!]

The tinted windows were too dark to see the passenger’s face. Minhee continued backing up, shielding Rose behind her. Her whole body was trembling.

‘Who are these people? How did they know we’d be here? Are they trying to kidnap Rose? What should we do? Even if we run away, they’ll catch up to us quickly. Should we scream? Maybe someone will hear us and come running? If they take us away from here, what will happen?’

She couldn’t think of any way out of this situation.

As her vision went white and the events around her felt like slow motion, like she was watching a movie scene from afar, Minhee felt paralyzed, like someone in sleep paralysis. A ringing sound filled her ears.

“Miss Minnie? Can we go home by taxi? Where’s Santon?”

Rose asked Minhee in an innocent voice, poking her head out from behind her. Minhee whipped her head around. At the sound of her voice, all her senses returned at once. 

[Ah, I remembered. That’s not the nanny, that’s the tutor! What are you waiting for, hurry and grab the kid!!]

Minhee thought she recognized the voice. The gruff Brooklyn accent sounded vaguely familiar.

[…Chloe?!]

Minhee mumbled in disbelief. At that moment, she saw a gun held in a hand resting on the back of a seat behind the opened door. The scruffy-looking man who had been hiding in the van’s trunk, wearing a hat and sunglasses, slid into the back seat with the gun in hand.

In that fleeting moment, a silent scream erupted in Minhee’s mind.

‘I don’t want to die yet!! I shouldn’t have left Taejun’s house, I should have stayed with him for another day! What will happen to my poor dad all alone? Mom, please help me!!’

Just then, Minhee’s mobile phone vibrated in her jacket pocket.

‘Taejun!’

Minhee pounced on Rose, shielding her on the ground. The startled Rose let out an earsplitting scream. Minhee frantically fumbled for her phone and answered the call, screaming at the top of her lungs.

“Taejun, hurry and come! Save us!!”

[Shut the f*ck up! Be quiet!!]

The burly man who had just gotten out of the car yelled.

[Bring the kid here quickly! Gag her mouth!]

As the bearded man in the driver’s seat commanded, Chloe, sitting in the passenger seat, screamed in a shrill voice.

[We have to take the teacher too! She recognized me!!]

[We were only supposed to take the kid! Bringing her won’t get us any money!!]

[Then kill her!]

[Ugh. This is getting out of hand. Hey, bring them both before anyone comes!]

The bearded man in the driver’s seat, who had been arguing with Chloe, urged the burly man.

[Carlos, you come out too! I can’t kidnap two people alone!]

The burly man gestured toward the driver’s seat and approached Minhee.

[Get out of the way, b*tch!]

As if to pull Minhee away from Rose, who was covering her with her body, a heavy foot stamped on her side. The terrible pain made her gasp for air, but Minhee didn’t loosen her embrace around Rose’s waist.

This time, the man grabbed her by the hair and yanked hard. Dazed by the agony, Minhee let out an even louder scream. The terrified Rose screamed even more loudly than Minhee. A cold gun barrel pressed against Minhee’s temple.

[Shut up! Before I shoot you!]

Tears streamed down Minhee’s eyes as she gave up resisting in resignation.

*

After crossing the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, Taejun finally entered the road leading to Randall’s Island, slowing down. He called Minhee to tell her he would be there in two or three minutes. As soon as the call connected, he heard Minhee’s tearing screams, followed by Rose’s screams.

Instinctively slamming the accelerator, Taejun swerved past the car in front of him and then sped off.

Taejun recognized this feeling well. It was the first pure adrenaline rush he’d felt since leaving the battlefield.

The moment he sensed a threat to survival, adrenaline pumped through every pore of his veins, his concentration peaked, and he experienced a moment of alertness where his brain’s command system and his body’s responses were synchronized, with no time lag between them. The noise around him diminished, his pupils dilated, and his vision widened.

In this hyper-alert state, like a sharpened blade, Taejun spotted Minhee crouched on the ground, shielding Rose. She was being held by the hair and kicked by a burly man with a cheap pistol.

‘A large van with no license plate. Kidnapping or abduction. Then there must be at least two of them.’

Taejun reached out with steady hands and opened the glove compartment. Inside were various car maintenance tools – spanners, screwdrivers – and a manual. 

Taejun picked out a pointed screwdriver and grasped it firmly.

What happened next seemed to occur in an instant, as if the clock hands had moved in a flash, or as slowly as a snail’s crawl over eons.

Taejun saw that the car and van were only a few meters apart and slammed on the brakes. The car’s bonnet slammed into the van’s trunk, and the van, pushed back by the collision, slammed into a large tree. 

Leaves rained down in a torrent, and the thick tree trunk cracked open to reveal a splintered cross-section, landing on the van’s passenger seat. A woman’s piercing scream rang out.

Taejun’s car shook violently on impact, and the airbag went off. Trapped between the airbag and the seat, Taejun swayed a couple of times before poking the airbag with his screwdriver to deflate it and unbuckle his seatbelt.

As he stepped out of the car, scaling over the crumpled hood, he hurled the screwdriver toward the man gripping Minhee’s hair. Taejun’s movements flowed seamlessly, as if he had already calculated the trajectory, not wasting a single motion.

As the screwdriver pierced the man’s shoulder, he yelped and dropped the pistol he was holding. He grabbed his shoulder with the hand that had been holding Minhee’s hair.

Taejun sprinted forward, accelerating as fast as he could, using the recoil from a spinning kick to deliver a kick to the vulnerable side of the man’s skull. The man flew back without making a sound, his eyes rolling back, and crumpled to the ground with an unnatural thud. He convulsed a few times before going limp.

Taejun’s eyes locked with Minhee’s, who was shielding Rose with her body and covering the girl’s eyes as she sobbed. He then saw her turn deathly pale and scream.

“Aaah! Taejun!”

The deafening gunshot made Taejun’s left arm jerk involuntarily. A searing heat spread across his biceps, but he felt no pain.

As Taejun lunged towards the fallen man, another shot rang out, tearing through the shoulder seam of his suit.

Taejun grabbed the limped burly man by the nape of his neck and pulled him to his feet, and the man’s body went flying. The bearded man staggered back, startled.

In that brief moment, Taeyoon picked up the fallen gun and shot the bearded man. The bullet pierced the man’s wrist, making him drop his gun with a scream. At the same time, a massive figure, Anton Dawson, barreled into the bearded man.