Paradise || Jeong Gu Won ✓

sɪx

𝙹𝚎𝚘𝚗𝚐  𝙶𝚞  𝚆𝚘𝚗,  𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚂𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛

She went against Do Hee's wishes. It was already late, and Ji Hu assumed that Do Hee went to bed early after the day she had. Ji Hu was patiently waiting for the taxi service to arrive; she ordered one from Seoul, the personal taxi service that the Mirae Group used whenever they were drunk off their asses if they drove or didn't have a limo at their fingertips.

Sure, it would have saved Ji Hu money just by calling up Do Hee or even Seong Min, but Ji Hu wanted to be alone tonight.

She sat on the sidewalk next to the beach, finishing off the fourth bottle of soju. Ji Hu placed the bottle down next to her phone. She lifted her phone up to see the time – it was ten minutes past midnight. Ji Hu didn't mind the silence. It was peaceful to sit by the water, listening to the crashing waves and the cool air. Ji Hu looked up at the sky, seeing the full moon high in the sky.

"The full moon." Ji Hu commented to herself. She recalled her mother told her she was born on the full moon. It was always something Ji Hu kept in mind whenever she saw the full moon, it was the one piece of her mother she refused to let go of. After almost twenty years since Ji Hu last saw her mother, she let go of a lot of things that she associated with her mother. The full moon wasn't one of those things.

"Excuse me." Ji Hu turned her head. "Did you call for a designated driver?"

Ji Hu's brain was a little fuzzy after four bottles of soju. She nodded, "Yes." Ji Hu slowly pushed herself up from the sidewalk. She was slightly off balance from the amount of alcohol she had consumed over the past three hours of just sitting by herself.

"I see."

Ji Hu collected her belongings, including the soju bottles to find a place to recycle them in.

Ji Hu's head rested against the cool window; eyes closed. She didn't know if she fell asleep or if the car ride was just taking longer for some reason. Ji Hu did feel like the tipsy side of her was finally easing up. As Ji Hu pulled her head away from the window, she heard the familiar click of the doors locking. Ji Hu wasn't sure if she was just dreaming that or not.

Ji Hu pulled her phone from her bag, checking the app to make sure she paid correctly. However, what Ji Hu saw sent her blood to run cold. In a snap, any feelings of drunkenness were gone – Ji Hu was currently in a stranger's car, someone not from the taxt service she hired. Ji Hu locked her phone, trying not to bring too much attention to herself.

Her eyes flicked to the driver, seeing the open wounds on the back of his neck.

Ji Hu had to remain calm and collected. She couldn't show her fear to this man – it wasn't the first time that Ji Hu got herself into this position. Ji Hu had to alert Seong Min and Seok Hoon – they were her emergency contacts.

As Ji Hu went to press onto the power button of her phone to alert Seong Min and Seok Hoon, the car drove by a car just sitting by the side of the road. The headlines shined inside the car, and Ji Hu's eyes widened. Ji Hu sat straighter in the back of the car, trying to calm her heart rate and prevent her body from shaking.

The person who was in the car they just drove by was the driver that Ji Hu was supposed to have. But there was a rope around his neck. He had clearly been strangled to death, preventing him from collecting Ji Hu tonight.

Ji Hu's thumb trembled against the power button as she looked towards the rearview mirror. She had to see this man's face, or his eyes at least. She had to see something that would be used to locate him later. "Who sent you?" Ji Hu questioned.