Where Pan Mang River Flows

19: Loan sharks

Taekyung sprinted after Do Hwan and tried to overtake him. On the street, Do Hwan called for a taxi and jumped in, closely followed by Taekyung.

"What about Jae Hee?" shouted Taekyung. The taxi driver was startled and began to regret driving around near a school. Do Hwan gave an unknown address to him and only then turned to Taekyung. He showed the picture on his mobile phone. Taekyung didn't know what he saw, "How... Why..."

"Doesn't matter, we have to get her out of there," Do Hwan replied without looking at him.

"Did you do this to her?" accused Taekyung to him, "Is this because of you?"

Do Hwan looked out the window, "Yes..."

"Can't you just once not ruin others' lives?" he said mischievously and Do Hwan remained silent.

After a silent five minutes during which the two looked nervously at everything but each other, they arrived at their destination, a large, old building with no one around. Do Hwan began to search his pockets for money. Taekyung saw what was going on and paid the driver himself. The two jumped out of the car as fast as they could and walked towards the building.

"Go find her, they should have brought her to the back of the building somewhere," Do Hwan said pointing to the right side of the building, "I'll go the other way."

Taekyung didn't know if he could be trusted, but he still did what was asked of him out of desperation. He sprinted as fast as he could into the abandoned building and let his eyes scan the surroundings. He wanted to call Jae Hee, but decided that the bad guys would find him before he did. After walking for a few minutes, he regretted not doing his best during PE class. He slowed down his step. "Putain," he cursed in frustration, "Where are you, Jae Hee?"

He wanted to shoot a trolley to give his frustrations a direction, but at that moment he heard a noise and quickly but inefficiently went to hide behind the trolley that was much smaller and even slimmer than him. He saw no one and decided to walk on. He found himself in a large open space with the occasional appliance, containers or pile of boxes that were clearly too old to be used. The concrete floor was dirtier than the streets, and regularly there was litter or random empty cans. Taekyung carefully made his way through all the rubbish and went to the doors at the end of the hall. Although the floor plan of the building was simple, Taekyung had a hard time concentrating on his orientation. 'I must find Jae Hee,' was the only thought in his head. He opened as many doors as he could - sometimes the same door twice - and after what seemed like a long time he arrived at the right place. Full of adrenaline, he opened a grey old door and found himself in a small room where his eyes fell on two people among all the rubbish. He had found Jae Hee together with another man. A big guy of immigrant origin who wore a huge beard. Both looked up at the intruder in surprise and with large bags under their eyes. Jae Hee's hands mimicked pistols and the man pointed at his own head with both his hands.

"Taekyung!" shouted Jae Hee as she jumped up from her seat. The other man looked surprised at the situation. This had clearly not been part of their plan.

Taekyung was getting ready to fight the kidnapper, although he knew very well that he couldn't fight, but Jae Hee grabbed his hand and walked out of the room without looking back at her new friend. The man remained motionless in his chair.

"How did you get here? Did you fight people? Are you all right? What time is it? Wow, it's already light outside. I've been sitting here all night. Omg", Jae Hee couldn't keep her mouth shut as they half-hid trying to escape. Taekyung began to worry that someone would hear them, but said nothing.

"There were no guards?" asked Jae Hee as she stopped in surprise. Taekyung could see from her face that she was disappointed in her captors and disappointed in herself for not trying to escape sooner. Taekyung had no idea where Do Hwan was and didn't know if he wanted to bring him up to Jae Hee. Part of him didn't want to tell Do Hwan that Jae Hee had been found and they could go home. He wanted him to suffer a little more from his own mistakes. So he said nothing to Jae Hee and sent nothing to Do Hwan either. Along the same road he had come, the two also left. Outside the building, they walked as far away as possible while Taekyung called a taxi.