Chapter 96 – Escape (5)

I left the motel early and walked around to get breakfast.

For some reason, I was so hungry that I felt like I was going to pass out if I didn’t eat something.

Perhaps because it was a restaurant in a downtown area, there were many couples who had a hot night and people with blank faces who had probably stayed up all night drinking.

I was hungry, so I just sipped water and watched the news on TV, then food came out.

No matter how hungry I was, I couldn’t shove the hot soup in, so I exercised desperate patience and slowly let it cool down, scooping out the ingredients and eating it.

[Recently, crimes through SNS are on the rise.]

I glanced at the news playing on TV and stuffed ripe radish into my mouth.

[Influencer, a new word combining influence and er, is used to mean a person who influences others.]

… It must have cooled down now, right?

I took a spoonful of the soup and slurped it down, but it felt too hot to eat.

I poured some into an empty rice bowl and blew on it to cool off the heat.

[Miss K, who passed away this time, was a so-called ‘influencer’ with 50,000 followers.]

I spooned in a spoonful of the cooled food.

… Is it because you’re hungry? It’s delicious.

I put a piece of radish in my mouth, chewed it, and glanced at the news.

It was said that a crime was committed through information posted on social media.

… The world is scary.

Jiyeon Lee said she wasn’t worried because she didn’t use SNS.

It didn’t seem like Baek Ga-eun would be the target of a crime, and Hyeon Ha-yeon wasn’t worried about some reason, but it still seemed necessary to warn her.

… Personal information is important.

While staring at the news blankly, I remembered what happened yesterday and put down my spoon.

… How did Jiyeon Lee chase me?

In that large parking lot, she accurately found my car and parked it. She stopped by Hyeon Hayeon’s house and parked in her room, and even she did that exactly and blocked my car.

… Did you really have GPS on your car?

There were many circumstances that made it difficult to dismiss it as an absurd imagination.

… Still, you don’t know I’m here.

No matter how small the land mass of Korea is, I managed to escape without leaving a trace, and it seemed unlikely that I would be caught.

I shook my head and picked up the spoon again and shoveled rice into my mouth.

The soup cooled down enough, and she started eating in earnest.

First, I called the CEO and asked for a vacation…

… Contact Jiyeon Lee.

Although she ignores the contact all day and even turns off her cell phone, she contacts Lee Ji-yeon…

… Crazy bastard.

Even when I thought about it, it was like digging my own grave.

However, this was the first time she left without saying anything to Jiyeon Lee.

… In fact, she has never done anything wrong like this…

No matter how much they say they ran away, wouldn’t they need at least some form of contact?

“… Ha…”

A deep sigh came out of my frustrated heart.

After scratching her head, she quickly ate the remaining rice and left the restaurant.

First, I had to use a public phone to call CEO Choi, but there were more public phone booths than I thought, so I was able to find one quickly.

I made a call using a collect call that remained in my vague memory, and at first he didn’t answer, but when I called a second time, he answered.

“… President, this is Kim Cho-in.”

[… What are you doing again?]

CEO Choi’s tired voice could be heard over the phone.

“… “I’m here for a while for some reason.”

[… I already got a call from Jiyeon Lee.]

… Ugh.

Jiyeon Lee seemed to have already calculated that I would contact CEO Choi.

Since I was not speaking, CEO Choi sighed deeply and said.

[What did you do to make Lee Ji-yeon so angry? Be honest… Did you cheat?]

“… Oh, no…”

I said no because I couldn’t say it straight away, but CEO Choi stayed quiet.

I wanted to make an excuse, but I didn’t want to look lame, so I didn’t say anything.

[… Hmm, so, why did I leave my cell phone behind and call from a public phone?]

I calmed my voice and told CEO Choi that I would just take a few days off from work.

No sound was heard as if CEO Choi was thinking.

He was holding his breath, wondering if it had been cut off, when CEO Choi shouted in a hurry.

[Oh, no! Tomorrow, no…, Come up today!]

I was so shocked when the CEO told me to come up early no matter what, I started begging hurriedly.

“… CEO, if I go up there, I’ll die. I might actually run a business, so please just take a look!”

[… No, that…, Oh, no!! If you really don’t want to come up like that, get permission from Jiyeon Lee!]

… I was a little embarrassed when the CEO suddenly told me to get permission from Jiyeon Lee.

[I don’t know, so call Lee Ji-yeon right away, explain the situation, and find Gwang-myeong…]

After telling Jiyeon Lee to contact me, I heard the CEO whispering softly.

[… ASAP…, … I’ll hang up.]

I tried to reply to what CEO Choi said, but the call had already been hung up.

… It was ruined.

I had no idea that CEO Choi would take such a strong stance.

CEO Choi was the one who listened to most requests, but I felt a strange sense of betrayal.

As I sat in the public phone booth for a while, people passing by looked at me strangely.

… What should I do? Why not call me first? … You might not be as angry as you think…, No, I chewed up the entire phone, wouldn’t you be angry?

“Ugh…”

… No matter how much I thought, I couldn’t find an answer.

Anyway, I had to make a phone call, so in the end, I gently picked up the receiver.

I took a deep breath, calmed my pounding heart, and slowly dialed the phone number.

I wasn’t this nervous even when I called from the military…

As soon as I made the collect call, Jiyeon Lee answered the phone.

… But she said nothing.

She left an awkward greeting because she had to let her know that I had called her.

“I, it’s me…, Jiyeon…”

After a while, Jiyeon Lee’s low voice was heard as she immediately accepted her reception.

[… Where is it?]

… Tsk…

Jiyeon Lee’s single word left her speechless, and she couldn’t say anything she had thought of in advance.

She had to answer anything, so she answered in a somewhat concise manner.

“… Now, wait a minute, where are you? .”

[Where is it?]

As if my answer wasn’t enough, he asked me back in an even colder tone.

She spoke cautiously because she felt like the conversation would not be possible like this.

“… Ah, I’m in the lower region…”

[Where.]

As Lee Ji-yeon’s words became shorter and shorter, she flinched and desperately resisted.

“… Well, I came a little far away…”

After enduring her questioning three times, Jiyeon Lee no longer asked where she was.

… She didn’t really need to ask anymore.

[… Did you think I wouldn’t be able to find it if I was in Busan?]

I was so startled by Jiyeon Lee’s sharp words that I pressed her body against the wall of her booth without realizing it.

What, what…, How did know? Oh, really… ?

As I couldn’t say anything and just looked at the people passing in front of her booth, Jiyeon Lee’s cold voice pierced her ears through the receiver.

[… Don’t be foolish, come up right now.]

Jiyeon Lee’s tone of voice in persuading me was cold, but strangely, she didn’t seem angry to the core.

I looked at Lee Ji-yeon’s expression over the phone and carefully spoke to her.

“… Jiyeon, I…, Just three days…, No, just two days! … Give me some time to gather my thoughts, and I’ll explain everything…”

… Even if I die, I can’t speak.

Jiyeon Lee remained silent despite my desperate requests.

While she was trying to figure out how to persuade her, she struck out first.

[… Choose well, Kim Cho-in. You are responsible.]

This time, she was furious because she heard an emotionless voice that gave me goosebumps.

The phone suddenly hung up, and I hung up the receiver in fascination.

… Uh, what should I do?

Jiyeon Lee knew where I was.

… Did they really attach someone to it? What nonsense…

However, seeing as she gave me a choice, it seemed like she had her own thoughts.

Her head was confused.

She looked around suspiciously to see if anyone passing by her booth might be looking at me, but of course there was no one.

I wanted him to get angry, but I hung up the phone after telling him to take responsibility for my choices.

It was a more terrifying treatment than blaming an angry Lee Ji-yeon for her fault.

Her head began to pound and hurt.

Looking back on the phone call with Jiyeon Lee, Jiyeon Lee didn’t seem to know what I had done.

… If she had, she wouldn’t have let me go like this.

However, it wasn’t like she didn’t know anything, and instead, her actions of trying to comfort me made me feel like she was putting me to the test.

The more I thought about it, the more my head became white.

… Fuck you, Kim Cho-in, you idiot…, Why did you touch the child…, Fuck…

Suddenly, the thought occurred to me that I should also contact Hyeon Ha-yeon.

We need to contact Baek Ga-eun as well as Hyeon Ha-yeon.

Soon she had to contact Director Kang, who was about to start filming, and she also had to contact Director Choi.

… I was in a situation where I couldn’t run away at will.

… Responsibility, responsibility…

I constantly reflected on my responsibilities and reminded myself once again what responsibilities I had to bear.

Since she touched Hyeon Ha-yeon, she had to take responsibility for it, and she had to take responsibility as Baek Ga-eun’s manager.

Is that all? There were too many responsibilities tied to my body to check them one by one.

… Should I go back?

I began to think that it would be better to ask her to die due to the responsibility weighing on her shoulders.

… No, you can’t die though…

My mind was confused with thoughts changing all the time.

I sat down in a public phone booth and thought about it for a while, but eventually I threw away my worries and left.

… Let’s just hold on for today, just for today.

One day.

Time to let go of all my responsibilities and relax.

Let’s go back to the first car tomorrow and apologize to Ji-yeon Lee by hitting her head…

I made up my mind and called CEO Choi and told him I would return tomorrow.

I hung up the phone after thanking CEO Choi, who said he understood and said he would see me tomorrow.

There was no need to turn off my cell phone, so I turned it on.

My battery almost died due to the barrage of calls as if there was a disaster, but I was able to quickly charge my phone by going to a nearby café.

After deciding what to do, I felt much more at ease and left a message to Hyeon Ha-yeon and Baek Ga-eun that I would return tomorrow.

I felt so sorry for Hyeon Hayeon that I called her, and she was comforted by the fact that I had explained it well to her family and people at work.

Baek Ga-eun received a call saying it was okay and telling her to get some rest and that they would find her a hotel.

She tried to refuse, saying it was okay, but she said she had already made a reservation and handed over her reservation information.

… The guilt weighing on me became even stronger at the fact that I had done something bad to Baek Ga-eun.

After wandering around in a daze, I eventually headed to the hotel that Baek Ga-eun had booked.

I was so distracted that I needed some time to think again.

Yesterday, I slept in a motel, but today, the idea of ​​staying in a luxury hotel seemed so unrealistic that it was absurd.

As I passed the time in a daze, it was dinner time and I thought about eating dinner, but I had no appetite.

I felt like I wouldn’t be able to sleep like this, so I headed to the hotel bar.

I’d rather drink a lot and sleep…

Anyway, even if you’re drunk and there’s no one with you, it’s the same building.

Thinking that this might be okay, I took a seat at a corner of the bar table.

I looked around the inside of the bar while sipping the water the bartender brought me, and the atmosphere reminded me of the bar I used to go to with Jiyeon Lee.

The worries I had tried so hard to forget weighed on my shoulders again, and I desperately tried to forget them as I chewed the almond.

As I ordered a glass of gin and tonic and sipped it, the number of people started to increase.

I glanced at the time and saw that it was time for the crowd to slowly increase.

I lost my mind again and sipped my drink in a daze when someone came up to the seat next to me and started talking.

“… Is it okay if I sit here?”

When I heard a sweet voice, I turned around and saw a somewhat familiar woman standing there looking at me.

… Who is it?

It was a tall woman with her hair neatly cut short.