episode_0155

Na-Hyeon dragged her bleeding body towards her cell phone.

A long red bloodstain remains on the floor where she walked.

I turn on my phone with trembling fingers.

And then I made a phone call.

To the person you trust the most.

“Uh… Team Leader Han.”

“Vice President…? Are you okay? Your voice sounds strange.”

The voice of the enemy I longed for.

She was riding in a car and the surrounding noise was loud.

It’s probably coming this way.

“Well, I’m not dead yet.”

Na-Hyeon was out of breath.

And he confessed to his failed mission.

“Team Leader Han. I couldn’t protect my daughter-in-law… .”

“What happened to Siho?!”

Her voice was urgent.

From that urgency, I can feel the affection for Siho.

I couldn’t protect the love of such a subordinate.

Na-Hyeon blamed herself for being a failure as a boss.

“I’m sorry… .”

「… .」

There was silence for a moment.

After that, the enemy asked Na-Hyeon again in a calm voice.

“Is the vice president okay?”

However, Na-Hyeon was unable to answer the enemy’s questions.

Because her head was already filled with the three words ‘failure’.

loser.

A name that always hovered by her side and was tied around her neck like a chain.

Those three words stung more than the knife that had stabbed his side.

Na-Hyeon closed her eyes, grieving over the pain.

“I’m sorry…”

The cell phone she was barely holding onto rolled limply on the floor.

“Vice President…! Say something!”

“Vice President…!”

My tired eyelids start to flutter slightly.

I thought I was going to die because I was losing so much blood in my side.

The body I had trained so far would not let me go easily.

Thanks to you, I opened my eyes.

But, at that moment.

The pouring sunlight made me frown.

“Morning… ?”

It was definitely dawn when I collapsed.

But what a bright sunny day it is.

Even… .

It wasn’t even a penthouse.

He grabbed his puffy head and got up.

When I looked around, what I saw was a wasteland.

A vast plain stretching to the horizon.

Is there a place like this in Korea?

I barely managed to get up, staggering.

“Ugh… .”

Pouring pain.

I just remembered that I was stabbed in the side by Park Shin-ae’s angels a little while ago.

I barely lower my head to look down at my body.

Black blood was still seething at his side.

It is so fatal that it seems as if a curse has been written to prevent it from healing.

To be thrown into the wasteland in this situation.

It’s dizzying just thinking about it.

Where on earth is this place?

I looked at the distant horizon.

Then suddenly, an asphalt road comes into view.

Since it was the only man-made structure here, I walked leisurely towards it.

Is it because it was exposed to a lot of sunlight?

The road was so hot that the mist was almost shining.

I put my feet up there calmly.

It wasn’t hot because I was wearing shoes.

But the pain in my side surging and the blood flowing out.

I’m starting to feel dizzy.

There isn’t a single car passing by.

I just stumble forward, hoping to meet someone I’ll run into someday.

“Sigh… .”

If you keep walking, you will reach the reincarnation gate leading to the next life.

I thought that a life gate that would take me back to reality would appear.

It’s like some movie I saw in the corner of the room.

But the road seemed to have no end, as if it was teasing me.

While I was walking and walking like that… .

I suddenly heard a noise and quickly turned my head.

And at that moment, both my eyes widened.

“That’s… .”

A young girl wearing only a sleeveless top is running on the road.

And that too, on this hot road, barefoot.

Thanks to that, I realized that this was a dream.

Because that girl is someone who shouldn’t exist right now.

He had green eyes like me.

Because even their faces look exactly alike.

Me when I was young.

To be exact, when I was 16 years old.

“Hoo… Haa… .”

She passed me by like she was running a marathon.

As if I were invisible.

“Over there… .”

I called my childhood self in an urgent voice.

But she just ran forward without looking at me.

One step at a time.

Every time I listen to it, I see the soles of my feet falling.

The skin on the soles of his feet was scorched and peeled, turning black.

Even from the places that haven’t healed yet, red blood drips.

But she didn’t stop.

“Yeah, I remembered… .”

It finally occurred to me where this was.

It was a time when I was undergoing physical training to become vice president.

This is the Mojave Desert that was deployed at that time.

I was thrown into the desert to build up my stamina.

And then there was my father’s order to escape from there on my own.

I used to run down the road alone, without any help, to carry out those orders.

“I almost died back then.”

Successor class.

Besides crossing the desert, I have experienced many things from time to time.

Hellish training that started from the morning.

After that, I received private tutoring from various private tutors.

And every night I had to report to my father what I had accomplished that day.

Then, whenever my grades dropped or I fell behind on my jogging, I was yelled at every time.

”Yeah, it would have been nice if it ended there.“

But after the gate opened.

The advanced training and education that had been endured had reached its peak.

My father became a sword master who could swing his sword.

His activities attracted many people, and my father became the group’s president.

A corps that combines existing companies and several hunter mercenary groups.

That was the one and only thing.

It was a very good thing that the company grew.

My father’s fame shook the nation, and he soon rose to the top of the prosecutor rankings.

As such, the spotlight on me gradually grew bigger.

The daughter of the number one ranked person.

Because it was expected that he would be as strong as his father.

However, I was not as strong as my father.

Of course, he could also swing his sword like his father, and it was just as powerful.

However, it took me too much time to fly the sword.

Because I lacked the talent to bring out the vitality and anger in my heart.

I tried like crazy to overcome this.

He swung his sword tens of thousands of times, almost breaking his wrist.

However, I failed to live up to my father’s wishes.

And you always looked down on me with pitiful eyes.

Even after collapsing from overwork.

Could it be because I’ve been using the black flag too often?

My father’s life force eventually ran out.

An overwhelming force strong enough to rank first.

That power crumbled in vain before old age and worn-out vitality.

My father was old and was in and out of the hospital often.

On days when he had difficulty walking, he used a wheelchair, and on days when he had difficulty breathing, he even wore a respirator.

Yet he still seems to be disappointed in me.

He didn’t even call me when he was discussing with executives whether to step down from the chairmanship.

Instead, he ordered me not to be promoted to chairman at the meeting.

At that moment.

It felt like all the hard work I had put in so far had gone down the drain.

Not receiving my father’s approval until the end.

That feeling was like a leash to me and tormented me for a long time.

I couldn’t overcome that suffering.

Instead, I started to think of the leash as comfortable, and from then on I started to live roughly.

He went around drinking and only received reports on work.

It wasn’t because I was upset about not becoming president.

I just hated that my father didn’t recognize my efforts.

A word to me saying thank you for your hard work.

I’ve been longing for just that one word.

“… .”

I raise my head and look at the girl who has now moved away.

The child was breathing heavily.

It was so hard that I stumbled and hyperventilated.

“… .”

I watched the scene silently.

Where she had passed, a red bloodstain remained.

My father probably didn’t know.

That the soles of my feet were so worn out that I couldn’t walk properly for several days.

As I walk along, conversing like that, I begin to see a blue sign in the distance.

I don’t know what it says.

Because we still have a long way to go before we get there.

I’m getting more and more out of breath.

I eventually couldn’t chase after the girl and ended up collapsing on the road.

The sizzling asphalt.

If I fall here, I will definitely die.

But I didn’t have the strength left to even lift a finger.

He just stares blankly at the girl who is walking ahead, having collapsed.

“The little kid is jumping really well without falling down.”

Is it because I am facing death?

I can’t help but laugh, wondering if I’m crazy.

“You must succeed and satisfy my father.”

Dry lips.

Those lips soon became cold and hard.

Close your tired eyes.

I failed to live up to my father’s expectations and lived a dissolute life.

So I close my eyes miserably like this.

As a boss, I couldn’t even protect my subordinates.

He even died earlier than his father.

I am a ‘failure’ to the end.

I closed my eyes with that thought.

“Na Hyun-ah.”

Someone grabbed my body, which was burning to a crisp.

My tightly shut eyelids flutter at the sensation.

My eyes, which had lost their vitality, are moving again.

I quickly came to my senses and glanced around.

And then I saw someone’s face looking down at me.

The shadows were deep under the hot sunlight.

But I soon guessed who he was.

Green eyes just like mine.

It was my father

“Father… ?”

“Would it be useless if the number two person in Ilsim sleeps on the floor?”

My father handed me a bottle of water.

But when I looked closely, I saw that it wasn’t a water bottle.

Stainless steel shaker.

It was the bottle of alcohol that Siho had given me.

He slowly brought the shaker to my lips.

yet….

The fragrant drink flowed slowly down my throat.

My body, which had been drying up and losing all its blood, is now filled with life again.

Thanks to this, my focus has become clearer.

Then I could see my father’s face, who was walking ahead, more clearly.

Before he knew it, wrinkles began to appear on his face.

Even his once black hair turned white and sparkled in the sunlight.

“Have you had a hard time?”

My father asked me if I had a hard time.

Surely this is a dream.

My father wasn’t the kind of person to say things like that to me.

Perhaps it’s because this situation is fictional that I find myself laughing.

So I answered his question confidently.

Because I’m going to die soon anyway.

“Yes, it was very difficult.”

I look up at my father with my eyes half closed.

Any moment now, my father will be furious with me.

but….

He looked at me without showing any anger.

Instead, he smiled compassionately.

“You must have hated me a lot.”

Do you hate your father?

That’s right.

I hated it so much.

They left me in this desert when I was young.

Because he ignored me the whole time we were living together after losing his mother.

To him, I was just a failure.

“Yeah, I really hate it.”

He laid me gently on his lap.

I’ve never received a lap pillow from my father in my life… .

“This is ridiculous.”

Laughter burst out naturally.

Perhaps because of that laughter, the pierced side also groans.

“Before I die, I got something like this from my father… .”

“Well, it’s just a dream. Anything is possible in dreams.”

We sat side by side on the scorching asphalt.

My father, who had to rely on oxygen in the hospital, didn’t show any signs of heat.

It actually looks comfortable.

My father raised the corners of his mouth with a pitiful expression.

And then he told me the story he had never told me before.

“Not just anyone can sit in the successor’s seat.”

I listened to him calmly, holding the familiar shaker bottle tightly.

“You never know when you might be assassinated, or when you might be arrested.”

“If you are unlucky, you may be betrayed by your subordinates or ambushed by the enemy group.”

He pulled up the sleeves of his shirt.

Then, several huge sword marks are clearly revealed.

“If you sit here unprepared, you won’t be able to bear the weight.”

My father looked down at me.

“That’s why I tried to raise you strong.”

For you.

It’s an excuse that parents often use.

I pursed my lips at the familiar repertoire.

But soon those lips opened again.

Because it was the first time I realized that my father was a man who knew how to change his mind.

“But, raising and nurturing are different.”

He gently wrapped the swollen new hand.

On this day, even if it was just a dream, I first realized that my father’s hands were warm.

“I didn’t know you’d have such a hard time.”

My father’s voice trembles subtly.

So much so that the trembling was transmitted to the hands that were holding each other.

“That’s why I decided not to hand over the presidency to you.”

A hoarse, scratchy sound.

Unlike when I first met him in my dream, my father’s voice was gradually getting worse.

“But when I saw you recently, I saw you again.”

He forced his aching body to get up.

And then she knelt down and smiled at me.

“The executives follow you well.”

My father gently caressed my cheek.

And then he whispered softly as if it was time to leave.

“You’ve grown up well, my daughter.”

The moment I heard those words.

My heart, which had been still, also felt cold.

It feels as if all the accumulated tension is being released.

I never imagined that I would experience that feeling for the first time at the age of thirty.

That too, at the brink of death.

“Father…”

I got up, forgetting even the painful memories.

And then he called out to his father, who was leisurely walking down the road.

“Father!”

At that shout, Chairman Choi Ho-seon suddenly stopped walking.

And then he looked back at his daughter.

“I… will work hard. Even though I’m much weaker than my father now…!”

“I will become a person who can protect my family and subordinates!”

I said confidently, with my hand on my heart.

At those words, my father, who had been bitter until then, smiled faintly.

And something you never did for me while I was alive…

You said the words I wanted to hear more than ever.

“Yes, this father believes in you.”

“It has been like that so far, and it will continue to be like that.”

With those words, my father disappeared.

It became grains of sand and dispersed into the air.