Ch.156Kiss of Fire 7

Father turns into grains of sand and scatters.

The scattered sand grains soon become a sandstorm that swallows Nahyun whole.

The Vice President covered her face with both arms in the howling gale.

And when she barely managed to open her eyes through the gap between her arms…

She saw blue road signs flying through the air—signs she hadn’t been able to reach or read before.

One of the signs read:

“Songdo 43KM”

“Incheon…!”

In that moment.

Nahyun instinctively realized that Park Shin-ae had taken Siho to Incheon.

She needed to tell Team Leader Han about this.

But how, in the middle of this storm?

Suddenly, the Vice President thought she needed to wake up from this insufferable dream.

And she concluded that to do so, she had to surrender herself to the storm.

Finally, she weakly gave her barely standing body over to the storm.

And then…

She opened her eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.

“Vice President…!”

“Vice President!!”

Noisy sounds pounded at her ears.

Nahyun barely lifted her eyelids at the sound.

And…

She faced numerous Ilshim executives filling the hospital room.

From the Four Snakes… to the children called Black Snake and Jisu.

Everyone had waited for Nahyun in the hospital room.

“Are you conscious?”

Red Snake.

She asked while gripping the Vice President’s hand.

Her fingers intertwined gently.

Nahyun smiled faintly, pleased that they had worried about her so much.

“Of course… I’m Choi Nahyun of Ilshim.”

She was surprised by how hoarse her voice had become.

White Snake, standing beside her, spoke with a concerned voice.

“You were shot through the lung, so speaking will be difficult for a while.”

“It’s fine, I’ll recover from this quickly.”

Nahyun shook her head and raised herself up.

She barely managed to sit up against the headboard.

“You shouldn’t get up yet. Your body has weakened considerably after lying down for two weeks.”

“T-two weeks?!”

Her half-lidded eyes flashed open at White Snake’s words.

The time she spent in the wasteland felt like just a moment, yet she had been unconscious for so long?

The Vice President looked at him with an expression of incomprehension.

White Snake explained what had happened to her body with a regretful face.

“Your wound was extremely deep. It wouldn’t have been strange if you had died immediately…”

“Why do you have to say it like that? Is the Vice President an ordinary human? Who’s dying?”

Red Snake scolded White Snake with reddened eyes.

It was the first time seeing Team Leader Han on the verge of tears…

Nahyun found this to be a novel experience.

“I apologize. But it’s true. If it weren’t for this, you would have been in danger.”

White Snake took something from the table and showed it to her.

When Nahyun saw it.

She couldn’t say another word.

It was the bottle that had saved her in the vision.

The very bottle her father had handed to her.

“Isn’t this Siho’s shaker?”

Red Snake immediately recognized the liquor bottle.

Siho.

Hearing that name, Nahyun immediately repeated it.

“That’s right, Siho gave this to me before she left…!”

She hurriedly took the shaker from White Snake’s hand.

It still contained sloshing alcohol.

It had felt as smooth as sweet water back then.

Now that the lid was off, it smelled of strong alcohol.

“That liquor had a buff that stopped bleeding and maintained consciousness. I don’t understand how it works, but…”

“Of course you don’t. It’s my daughter-in-law’s unique ability.”

Nahyun slowly shook the bottle to hear the liquid slosh.

Was this alcohol what allowed me to meet my father again?

The Vice President pressed her lips together and set down the shaker.

Then, to find her benefactor, she told everyone:

“I’ve found out where Siho is.”

Of course, it’s uncertain since it was a scene from a dream.

But the road sign she saw after drinking Siho’s cocktail.

It was clearly a message she was leaving for everyone.

“—.”

“Um, Red Snake. Aren’t we going too fast?”

Jisu spoke while holding onto the ceiling handle.

But Red Snake, gripping the steering wheel, couldn’t hear a word she said.

Moreover, Anna’s motorcycle ahead of them.

Both of them were constantly increasing their speed.

Red Snake stepped on the pedal like mad to catch up with the motorcycle.

“Aren’t you worried about Siho? It’s been two whole weeks!”

“Of course I’m worried. But Red Snake, you look really dangerous right now.”

Jisu asked Red Snake with a serious expression.

Looking just like Siho, even showing the same concern for others.

“Who knows what might have happened to her by now. What if she loses her memory again like before?”

Red Snake muttered while staring straight ahead.

At this, Jisu pressed her lips together and fell silent.

She was certainly worried about Siho too.

Especially…

The day they parted at the traditional village.

When she ran away after being exposed as Dohyun.

Jisu couldn’t hold him back then.

And she hadn’t fully considered.

The feminine appearance he had shown all along.

The confusion and pain he must have felt when encountering Jisu in his changed body.

Jisu was also very confused.

The boyish face and the appearance of a cute girl.

Who could easily understand such a dramatic change?

While she was wracking her brain.

Red Snake glanced toward Jisu.

And asked her with a serious look.

“Aren’t you worried about her?”

“Of course I am! I’m so worried…”

At the pointed question, Jisu lowered her head.

She only resented herself for still not fully accepting that Siho was Dohyun.

Then Red Snake asked her a profound question.

“How do you really feel about the person called Dohyun?”

It was the first time.

The first time Red Snake had called Siho “Dohyun.”

“What…?”

Perhaps because of that.

Jisu raised her head and stared at Red Snake.

“He’s the Dohyun you liked, isn’t he? Has your heart changed just because his appearance is a little different?”

Red eyes.

A cold wind blew through Jisu’s chest, pierced by those eyes.

Jisu felt embarrassed, as if her heart had been exposed.

She placed her hand on her chest and clutched her white shirt.

Appearance…

Yes, Dohyun hasn’t changed at all.

He’s just become a girl now.

Moreover, he hadn’t forgotten Jisu.

He even got captured in her place and suffered the humiliation of being fox-transformed.

Perhaps Dohyun is still the same person, then and now.

“I…”

Jisu met Red Snake’s eyes.

And at that moment.

She noticed Red Snake’s eyes trembling slightly.

Seeing that tremor, Jisu realized.

Red Snake didn’t just like Dohyun for his appearance.

His thoughtfulness toward others, and his pure innocence.

She liked Dohyun himself as a person.

When she understood that deep feeling.

Jisu was finally able to sort out her own confused heart.

“I still like Dohyun no matter what he looks like.”

Jisu’s golden eyes sparkled.

At that radiance, Red Snake was finally able to relax her expression.

“Good, that’s all that matters.”

A short sigh.

Red Snake gripped the steering wheel tightly again.

And quietly told Jisu.

“Hold on tight. We’re going to go even faster.”

It might have sounded frightening.

They were already driving at nearly 180 km/h.

To say they would go even faster.

But…

“Okay!”

Jisu was no longer afraid.

Instead, she confidently exclaimed with determination.

“Songdo International City. 3KM”

A faded sign.

Seemingly unmanaged, it was on the verge of collapsing.

That’s how abandoned Songdo had become.

Red Snake’s car and Anna’s motorcycle passed the sign indifferently.

Broken houses and buildings gradually came into view.

Sea monsters had emerged from the coast and invaded residential areas.

Because of this, people who lived in Songdo had long since fled.

Now only criminals and Red Hunters wanted by the Association lived in hiding.

That’s why no one readily searched Songdo.

However, seeing the ghost city before them, the three began to believe that the Vice President’s guess might not be wrong.

This level of gloominess would certainly be good for fugitives like Park Shin-ae to hide.

But…

Contrary to Nahyun’s guess, there was no sign of life anywhere in Songdo.

A ghost city shrouded in sea fog.

High-rise buildings that once housed the wealthy now had holes and were collapsing.

Not a single one of those buildings had lights on.

Only the sound of crows echoed.

“…”

The group arrived at Central Park and quietly got out of the car.

They slowly looked around.

“Can’t see anything because of the fog.”

Red Snake bit her finger as she looked around.

It’s what she usually did when anxious since quitting smoking.

Jisu also walked around, carefully examining the surroundings.

But there were only ghost buildings and collapsed ruins.

There was no sign of Park Shin-ae’s grand New Government anywhere.

After searching for a while.

The sound of a motorcycle approached from the distance.

Jisu and Red Snake turned their heads at the loud noise.

Soon they saw Anna emerging from the fog.

Dark circles had formed under her eyes.

She was very tired from tracking Siho for several days without sleep.

“We’ll never find anything like this. We need to split up and search.”

As expected of a former Hunter Killer.

Anna, dragging her tired body, says she’ll search the dark factory district.

“Then I’ll check the buildings.”

Jisu points to a half-collapsed building.

“Alright, I’ll focus on the residential areas. Let’s meet in front of my car here in two hours.”

Red Snake, like a true female executive, told the two where to meet again.

And they.

Split up and began their full-scale search.

Jisu enters the abandoned building alone.

The revolving door at the entrance had all its glass broken long ago.

There was even a cordon telling people not to enter.

But even that cordon was old, fluttering hideously like a dead woman’s hair.

Jisu boldly pushes through the cordon and steps inside.

“Would they really establish a New Government in a place like this…?”

It doesn’t make sense no matter how she thinks about it.

But what can she do?

When the only clue about the missing Park Shin-ae is just “Songdo.”

You never know.

Perhaps somewhere in this building, a portal leading to Park Shin-ae’s secret hideout is hidden.

Of course, it sounds like magic.

Though she’s seen many supernatural abilities, she’s never seen anything as strange as a portal.

The Vice President wouldn’t have lied…

But having never seen Park Shin-ae’s ability herself, Jisu found it hard to believe.

Thinking this as she climbed the building.

Jisu stopped abruptly on the 23rd floor.

She heard a rustling sound in the building that had been deathly quiet until now.

“A bird…? Or a flying monster?”

If it’s the latter, it would be difficult to handle alone.

Moreover, if it’s large, this precarious building might collapse.

Jisu swallowed deeply and slowly turned the corner to the 24th floor.

But.

What she encountered was neither a bird nor a monster.

They were beings she never expected.

“Children…?”

Jisu’s tense eyes widened in surprise.

They were definitely children.

A pair of a boy and a girl.

They were playing on the crumbling building, wearing long white gowns.

And what was strange wasn’t just their behavior.

White long hair and white short hair.

And eyes so red they were unsettling.

It was as bizarre as looking at white rabbits.

Jisu watched them intently.

Then she accidentally kicked a can lying on the floor.

“—.”

Honestly, the sound wasn’t loud.

But even that small noise was immediately noticed by the rabbit-like children.

They turned their heads and soon met eyes with Jisu, with her golden eyes and brown hair.

“Um… hello, kids?”

The red-eyed rabbits stared at her.

But they didn’t give Jisu any answer.

They just stared intently at the hunter who had found them.