Chapter 26 Jin
If you wish to finish this, you can find me where it all began.
The invitation turns over in my head so many times the words lose meaning and the panic infests my brain instead. I’ve already solved the cryptic message, but that only makes the long drive to the very outskirts of Busan more torturous.
It all began thirty years ago at my family’s hanok. The night Black Shell and his minions slaughtered my family in cold blood and I was forced to watch it happen. It was a dark night I buried for a long time, shoving the childhood trauma down as far as it would go.
Little did I know some day the man responsible would return to finish the job.
Only this time, it would be the woman I love he’s after.
As if the stakes could get any higher—now I must square off with my archnemesis, knowing my rabbit’s life hangs in the balance.
The hanok emerges from the darkness like a ghost from the past, its traditional and humble silhouette hardly visible through the sheets of rain pouring from the black sky.
Lightning splits the clouds, and for one blinding moment I see it clearly—the house where I was born, but also where the innocent boy I once was died.
The same place where my entire family did.
Despite owning the property, I’ve returned only a handful of times through the years for this reason.
Standing on the cliff’s edge behind the small home, illuminated by another flash of lightning, is none other than Black Shell.
He’s dressed in the same military-like uniform as the last time we faced off, wearing a long black coat and pants with boots. Only this time he’s unmasked.
I recognize him even at a distance, pulling up and bathing the area with the brightness from my headlights.
It’s Noh Myeong-su. The same man who worked at Monroe’s school.
His sparse hair looks thin against his scalp, the lines on his face denoting his older age.
I’ve only met him once—or at least thought I had—but the polite kindness he’d displayed at the school is no more.
Now he looks resolute and formidable as he stands in the heavy downpour and awaits my arrival. Beside him sits a wardrobe. I recognize it as the one from inside the hanok; the very same wardrobe I’d hidden in as a boy.
But it’s not just big enough to hold a child; it could easily hold adults too. It could hold Monroe.
As I park and get out the car, the wardrobe teeters on the edge of the cliff. The raging sea churns several feet below, waves violently crashing against the jagged rocks and matching the fury of tonight’s storm.
I waste no time pausing to consider my next move.
There’s no time for such luxuries when Black Shell has Monroe and her life is on the line.
I’m sprinting over on impulse alone, heading straight toward the cliff. The distance feels infinite, every second it takes me to reach them stretching into an eternity as thunder cracks overhead and the rain lashes at my face like tiny knives.
Black Shell simply watches me approach, so calm and patient it’s a marked sign he views me not as an equal but as inferior. As if I’m his pupil and he’s about to teach me a lesson.
He thinks he’s already won.
As I close in on him and the wardrobe, he remains still, without flinching or budging an inch. One of his boots rests against the wardrobe like he has all the time in the world.
I skid to a stop ten feet away, chest heaving and gaze locked on the wardrobe.
…on Monroe trapped inside.
Hold on, Tokki-ya. Just… please hold on…
“You came,” Black Shell says against a clap of thunder. His voice rivals the sound despite being cold and measured. Satisfied. “I wasn’t sure you would. Not alone, at least.”
“Let her go,” I growl. “She’s innocent in this. She has nothing to do with your vendetta. Let us solve that on our own.”
He tilts his head as if to consider the suggestion. “Why would I do that, Jin-tae? Finally, after all these years, I’m finishing what I started. Jung-hoon’s bloodline ends tonight.”
“I’m not my father.” I take a step closer and his boot presses harder against the wardrobe, making it rock on the cliff’s edge. I freeze, not daring to move. Instead I focus on our conversation. “I’m a different man than him.”
“Are you?” He laughs, the action cold and hollow, soon swallowed by the howling wind.
“You’re as ruthless as he was. As cunning.
You have just as much blood on your hands—more, probably.
You are Baekho-je, are you not? You rule over that gang with no regard to the devastation you leave in your wake.
You’re fine harming people as a means to an end just like he did. ”
“My father never—”
“You’re exactly the man your father was, Seo Jin-tae!” he booms, suddenly losing his sense of calm. His arms spread wide as he gestures to our dreary, isolated landscape. “Which means you deserve exactly what he got.”
“Then come for me,” I challenge boldly. “I’ll pay for his sins if that’s what it takes. But my wife and child have nothing to do with this—”
“Your wife?” he sneers. “You mean poor Monroe Ross, one of my star teachers, who you pushed away when she lost the baby? You’ve put her through so much lately, Jin-tae. Maybe it’s time I put her out of her misery.”
My jaw aches as I clench it and ball my fists, trying to keep cool, but how can I given the circumstances?
He has Monroe locked away in a wardrobe he’s placed right at the edge of the cliff.
“You took them from me,” I say against the tension swelling through me. “You took her and our son away. It’s because of you this has happened! Is that not revenge enough for you?”
“It will never be enough!” he barks, eyes going wide and wild from sheer outrage.
“I got in your rabbit’s good graces quite easily.
Then I fed her that ginger tea day by day, laced with a special poison that slowly but surely damaged that bastard growing inside her.
I knew it would be enough to break you apart—you are a weak man, Jin-tae!
You could not be there for her like a strong man would be! ”
“Yet here you are, still trying to hurt her,” I grit out. “If I’m so weak, you wouldn’t need to do all this. You wouldn’t need to torment her. You want to talk about who is deserving of what? She’s a good woman; she doesn’t deserve to suffer!”
“Neither did mine.”
Lightning flashes with another boom of thunder, illuminating the hard lines of his face. His cold, dark eyes.
“My wife was pregnant when they came for us,” he continues.
“We were happy. We were planning our future. But then your father betrayed the Hyeonmudan. He was a rat for the Baekho Pa, and they slaughtered everyone I loved. Do you know what it feels like to watch the one you love die, Jin-tae? To be there as the life drains out of them and know there’s nothing you can do? ”
My mind travels back in time to the most helpless moment of my life—the moment I was stuck in the wardrobe, peering through the crack as my eomma died. As she was slaughtered and appa was soon to follow.
The despair on his face as he watched then met the blade only seconds later is an image seared into my head, no matter how many years it’s been or how hard I’ve tried to erase such trauma.
“Yes,” I grit out. “I do.”
Black Shell laughs, the corner of his lip curling. “You would, wouldn’t you? But guess what, Jin-tae? You’re due for a reminder.”
“You’ll never succeed. I won’t let you.”
“We’ll see about that.” He kicks his boot against the side of the wooden wardrobe and makes the piece of storage furniture hover precariously over the edge. “Your rabbit is trapped inside there. One more nudge like this and she goes over.
“She drowns to death in the cold and the dark, bound and terrified, without ever having made up with you. Without ever knowing how much you do love her. Are you willing to gamble on her future by fighting me?”
“I’ve been ready. You owe me a rematch.”
His grin broadens. “Ah, there’s that cocky Silent Hunter. Will you fight with discipline this time, or will you let rage drive you like before?”
Why not both?
I’m running on pure adrenaline as I rip my shirt in half and let it fall to the rain-soaked gravel below.
I’m otherwise drenched like Black Shell is, my dark hair slick and wet against my brow.
The freezing cold droplets continue pelting down, but I barely register them as I survey Black Shell like a white tiger in the jungle.
My eyes track his every subtle move, watching him as if waiting for the right moment to pounce.
“Let’s finish this.”
Black Shell shifts his stance, legs more than shoulder width apart as he holds his hands up and then beckons me forward.
“I’m relieved you’ve finally asked, Jin-tae. I’ve been waiting for this moment for thirty years. The moment I finish destroying you.”
He attacks like a viper striking with its fangs.
It’s sudden, fast, and immediately lethal.
He closes the distance between us in less than a heartbeat, moving impressively fast and nimbly for a man of his age. It’s clear despite retiring from the criminal world long ago, he’s kept himself in tiptop shape.
He’s likely been training for this from the moment he found out Jung-hoon’s small son survived.
His first strike comes in the form of a fist rocketing toward my face. I barely get my guard up in time, throwing my forearms out to block.
Just as he’s fast for his age, he’s also noticeably strong—the impact from his blow reverberates through me and sends me sliding back on the wet rocks.
He promptly follows up, advancing with a flurry of strikes. All moves that would take down most opponents.
Left jab. Right cross. Spinning back kick.
I block the first two hits, but the back kick catches me in the ribs. Air puffs out of my lungs as I leap another step back and anticipate his next move.
I duck in time to escape his follow-up hook and counter with a strike to his solar plexus. He grunts taking it, obviously recognizing the same thing about me that I have about him.
We’re two capable men. Two expertly skilled fighters.