* * *
As soon as I saw the hairy beasts racing across the road, I shot to my feet.
It felt a bit late, but I stomped on the fire with all my strength.
No time to grab the seat cushions.
I just grabbed the ones surrounding the bird plush and clutched them in one arm.
With my other hand, I seized Do Soohyuk’s and ran straight for the back door.
Thank god there was a back door in the warehouse.
Without it, we’d be finished.
KA-BOOM! CRASH!
The moment we stepped outside, a deafening crash and the sound of shattering glass exploded behind us.
I slammed the door shut and turned my head.
The thick smoke that had once billowed up into the sky had now thinned out.
The monsters must’ve been drawn in by the explosion and managed to extinguish the flames.
With the wreckage cooling down, their attention was probably now turning toward us.
“This is hell…”
At least now we knew—they were definitely heat-sensitive.
We needed shelter now before more of them swarmed in.
With the ones in the convenience store liable to burst out any second, once the smoke completely vanished from the sky, the road would be overtaken in no time.
Where do we go?
Maybe because I’d been near the fire for a while, but now I felt colder than before.
So cold it made my heart ache.
Just as I was shivering and nervously scanning the surroundings, Do Soohyuk, still holding my hand, suddenly started leading the way across the street.
I looked around—everything looked wrecked.
What was he thinking?
“Oh.”
A moment later, we stepped into an outdoor gear store.
Finally, I understood what he was going for.
The place had been ransacked, but some racks shoved into a corner still had clothing hanging on them.
I spotted a few usable pieces.
Too bad it was summer—no padded jackets—but thankfully, there were still some windbreakers left.
“If we layer a few of these, it might help.”
“It should at least block the wind.”
But while he handed me decent items, Do Soohyuk didn’t pick out a single thing for himself.
He was wearing the same thin coat as me, which made no sense.
In the end, I gave in to his insistence and layered four pieces on top of each other.
Only then did he stop pushing more onto me.
I couldn’t move well in them, so I stuffed the rest into my item pouch.
“Oh, this looks good.”
While checking out the ruined storage area, I found a relatively intact pair of earmuffs.
Looked like it was the only surviving clearance item.
“Do Soohyuk.”
I walked up behind him and slipped the earmuffs over his ears.
I knew he wouldn’t wear them if I just handed them over.
And his ears had been red with cold for a while now.
“This should help a little.”
They were plain black with a simple design—not bad-looking.
Maybe it’s just because he’s an actor, but it looked like a photo shoot—like you could hang his picture right there in the store window.
‘Looks good on him.’
I smiled quietly, a little proud.
Do Soohyuk blinked slowly, then lowered his gaze.
It was a completely different look from the usual intense stares like he was about to eat me alive.
“…You should wear them instead.”
That’s what he said, but he made no move to take them off.
He just stood still, tilting his head slightly.
‘What the… does that mean he likes them?’
He was always so hard to read—it was impossible to tell.
Feeling awkward, I scratched my cheek and pulled up the hood on the innermost hoodie I was wearing.
“This is good enough for me.”
Whoever put this hoodie in the gear shop had great taste.
It was fleece-lined, thick, and just my style.
I wonder if the others made it okay.
In hindsight, thank god we didn’t all board the same flight.
We nearly dragged every S-rank in Korea into this mess.
This situation was a national security issue.
If S-ranks were gone for too long, Korea would go into full alert.
“So… where do we go now?”
“There’s one place.”
I’d asked the question half to myself, lost in despair—but surprisingly, he answered.
‘There’s one place?’
My eyes widened in surprise.
“Where?”
Do Soohyuk gently fiddled with the earmuffs as he looked down at me and replied,
“The Han River yacht.”
At those words, my face went completely blank.
By Han River yacht, he probably meant the white boat I’d seen from the observatory, frozen in place on the icy river.
Why there?
My head filled with question marks, but Do Soohyuk just continued to carefully adjust the earmuffs.
“Do Soohyuk, you son of a bitch.”
As he clenched the doorframe, a crack echoed out, and pieces of the wall crumbled under his grip.
Cha Rui, face twisted like a demon, glared into the hotel room.
The housekeeper clearing the table turned pale and fled the room.
Cha Rui didn’t care.
He angrily shoved aside the cleaning cart and stepped inside.
‘You dared to run off with Seo Inho?’
There was no need to even check Do Soohyuk’s room.
Just like Seo Inho’s, the trace of energy had already disappeared long ago.
He had suspected something was off, but he never imagined they’d start moving this early.
If Inho had been taken by force, there’s no way he wouldn’t have heard it.
Whatever the reason, one thing was certain—Inho had been sweet-talked into going willingly.
Thud!
Cha Rui kicked the bathroom door open and snatched a bathrobe hanging on the hook.
He brought it to his nose and took a deep breath.
Seo Inho’s scent still lingered clearly.
An hour. Maybe an hour and a half at most.
That’s how long ago Inho had left the room.
With his sense of smell sharper than most animals, Cha Rui could deduce that much without difficulty.
Judging by how Inho had left his hoodie behind, it was clear they’d been in a rush.
No matter how ragged the thing looked, there was no way Seo Inho would leave it willingly.
Cha Rui clenched his jaw and left the bathroom, heading toward the bedroom.
On the way, he picked up another bathrobe lying on the floor.
It was the one Inho had tossed aside at dawn yesterday.
Apparently, even after drinking so much, it hadn’t been enough—he’d rushed back to the room and clung to Do Soohyuk, demanding “just one more glass” and wrangling another bottle of wine out of him.
That was the problem with this imported Russian liquor.
Once you started drinking, you couldn’t stop until you passed out.
And the more time passed, the drunker you got.
That’s why he had ended up giving Inho his own bathrobe.
Watching him cling to that guy with just a towel around his waist—Cha Rui couldn’t stand it.
The smug smile on Do Soohyuk’s face was irritating too.
That bastard had definitely seen this coming.
“I knew something was off.”
That voice didn’t belong to Cha Rui.
It came from outside the door.
Before he knew it, Woo Jaehyun had appeared, arms crossed and wearing a displeased expression.
He leaned against the doorframe, mentally retracing the events.
“Should’ve pushed harder back then.”
It had been a mistake to let it go just because feeding Seo Inho had seemed more important at the time.
But what was the point now, when the room’s owner had already vanished?
Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Woo Jaehyun scanned the room and slowly turned his head.
His gaze landed on a housekeeper who was straightening a cleaning cart nearby.
She flinched.
Caught in the act of tidying up the cart while trying to stay unnoticed, she had made eye contact at the worst moment.
“When did this room check out?”
Jaehyun handed her a cleaning tool with his usual polite smile.
His radiant face left the housekeeper momentarily stunned.
She snapped back to reality, cheeks flushing.
“Uh… around 6 a.m…”
As soon as she answered, Woo Jaehyun’s face hardened.
He’d always thought so, but unlike Cha Rui, Do Soohyuk was unreadable.
It wasn’t likely he’d do something reckless—not unless he was an idiot.
It was also unlikely he’d taken Inho elsewhere just for fun.
Maybe… he just wanted to be alone with him.
“So that’s what those looks meant.”
He didn’t care to know what Soohyuk’s intentions were.
What pissed him off was the fact that Seo Inho had been stolen away from him.
“They’re probably already in Korea.”
Leaving at 6 a.m. meant they should’ve landed long ago.
And with Seo Inho gone, there was no reason to stick around here.
Jaehyun was about to turn around and prepare to leave—when it happened.
“What are you talking about? The plane didn’t land.”
A voice echoed from inside the room.
Hearing the hushed voice of someone on a call, Woo Jaehyun stopped in his tracks.
His expression was blank as he stared down the empty hallway.
“It vanished? What the fuck do you mean, it vanished?”
Grind.
The sound of teeth clenching cut through the silence.
If what he just heard was true, there were only two possible explanations for the plane disappearing midair: it either crashed in an unexpected accident—or got swept into a gate.
The latter was incredibly unlikely.
But if it had crashed, there’s no way they wouldn’t already know.
All S-rank private jets came equipped with mandatory tracking systems.
Which meant… that improbable, impossible event had actually occurred.
How long had it even been since they escaped the EX dungeon?
They didn’t know the gate’s grade, nothing was confirmed—of course people were going to be worried.
“Do Soohyuk…”
Even if the gate had spawned out of nowhere, it wasn’t his business.
What mattered now was that Seo Inho had been on that plane, and he had been dragged into a dungeon.
That alone was enough to hold Do Soohyuk accountable.
* * *
