Chasing in the dark

CHAPTER 16

He saw me, right? His face changed when he saw me, I am sure about it. He turns the corner and I set out after him.

I finally catch up with him and see him enter his front gate. As I walk closer to their gate, I decide to leave it alone for now. If he wants to talk, he knows where I am. My phone goes off and it's a message from one of my boys... argh, I will deal with it later and make my way to my apartment.

As I am sitting at the piano I slowly run my fingers over the keys. Why did he look at me like that? Did I do something wrong? Maybe I should apologize...

I get up from the stool. I am walking towards the front door, when a rash pounding on the door stops me in my tracks. I open the door and it's Jun-won. He has tears in his eyes. He is trying to say something but nothing is coming out.

I bend down and try to calm him down. "It's okay. It's okay. What happened?" He wipes at his eyes "my brother..." Is all he gets out. He pulls at my arm "you have to come... you have to help him..."

I stand up and run towards the back of my apartment. I get into the car that I parked at the back alley of my apartment and put Jun-won into the backseat as I rush over to his house. I stop the car in front of their house and tell the little guy to stay inside the car.

"Hey, I need you to stay here okay..." "but... my brother is hurt..." He tries to protest, I take his face in my hands and pat his head. "I'll make sure your brother is safe okay. Now stay here. Can you do that?" He shakes his head yes, and I go inside the house.

There are broken glass and plates everywhere. The house reeks of alcohol.

I assess the situation. Dae-Seong is laying on the floor. His mom is sitting in the corner of the kitchen with her hands covering her face and his dad is crouching over him, busy hitting him with drunk and flimsy punches.

Dae-Seong is passed out and covered in blood. I rush in and pull his dad away from him.

His dad looks out of it as I push him against the wall. He looks at me and realizes who I am. He tries to push me away but he is to wasted to succeed. The old man keeps cursing at me and yelling to his wife "you bitch! You called a gangster to come and save you?"

I take the old man by the shoulders and push down hard on his pressure point so he can pass out.

I walk him to the couch and lay him down. I walk to the woman still sitting on the floor. I give her my hand. She hesitates for a second and takes it.

"Dae-Seong... is he... is he okay?" She runs toward him "Dae-Seong... wake up. Please!" I walk towards him and check him out. He is out like a light.

I tell the woman to go clean herself off as I take care of her son. I take his face into my hands and wipe across his forehead. I cannot remember my dad, but what I can remember, he was a bad guy but he was never abusive. Not towards me or my mom.

I lift Dae-Seong up into my arms and carry him outside... "Where are you taking him? Where are you taking my son?" I turn around and give her the keys to my house "you'll be safe there." With that, I carry him out and put him in the front seat of the car. I get in on the other side and start the ignition.

I glance at Jun-won who is shivering in the backseat at the sight of his older brother, covered in blood.

We've been driving for a while now. I look in the mirror and see Jun-won looking straight at me. His eyes are red and puffy. He keeps looking at his brother and then looks back at me. "Is he... dead?" I smile at him and wink "Nah he is just sleeping. We're almost there, then you can sleep too, okay."