INSIDE MONSTER. THE FUGITIVE.

CHAPTER 50: ALLIES ONLY WHEN WE NEED THAT

About an hour after what happened with Joon Won, SolHi finally got to where she had to meet Ha Rin. Better said, she got to a new location, which her ally had sent her while she was on her way there. Besides that, Ha Rin wrote in that message, „We are the hamsters on the wheel this time."

Reading the message, SolHi frowned. „Hamsters on the wheel?" She wondered. „What the hell is this supposed to mean?" Questions that had no answers in her head. That's why she called Ha Rin while still driving, but this one didn't answer the phone, which concerned SolHi. Particularly, she felt preoccupied when she remembered what Moon Joon Won told the one he spoke to by phone, scolding that one for losing the prey.

„It seems that it's been Ha Rin who escaped them," she told herself eventually, stepping out of the car and quickening her pace while sneaking toward the small park that was surrounded by darkness.

That place was unfamiliar to her. Even though she'd been living in Seoul for years, SolHi still hadn't gotten to know the city very well. „Something I should have done right from the beginning: to know each corner of this city. Particularly, I should have done that when I started working as a detective. If I had done that, I wouldn't have feared even my shadow now. Yet..."

...it was too late for regrets and questions like „what she should have done if..." That's why SolHi only deeply breathed in eventually and continued advancing. Yet, she couldn't find Ha Rin, although she was sure that she got to the right place.

To find Ha Rin, she needed about ten minutes. Until this happened, she experienced the same thing as Moon Joon Won when she scared a cat that suddenly jumped from the darkness of a bush. This also scared SolHi a lot, making her take the gun in her hand, thinking that she was attacked. Realizing that her enemy was no one else than a furry devil with four paws and a tail, SolHi smiled, scolding herself this way for being so mean feet. After that, she continued advancing, swearing in her head again when she felt movement on one of the wooden benches next to which she passed by.

This time, not a cat scared her to death but a drunk homeless man, who didn't get to his hideout but fell asleep on that bench in the park, covered with newspapers by God knows what good Samaritan. „Or... wasn't he that drunk and covered himself?" SolHi wondered, reproachfully shaking her head and scolding herself for chickening.

Eventually, she got to a place that seemed darker than the others. „A place I have the feeling that's the center of this park." Yet, once she had no idea about how that place was planned, all she could do was trust her gut and continue advancing.

A moan that was heard from her left made her wince again and grab her gun. A second moan made her hold her breath and squeeze the fingers around her gun while her index finger stuck on the trigger, ready to pull it in case she'd been forced to defend herself. She'd have definitely done that if she had had to do it. Yet the thought that „It might be Ha Rin" made her hesitate. And, once she didn't have another way to check this, she took her phone out of her pocket, turned the lantern on, and headed toward the place from where she heard the moans.

Seeing Ha Rin crouching next to the thick trunk of an old tree made SolHi's heart stop in her chest for a few moments. Then, a third moan heard from Ha Rin made that heart madly beat in her chest and her ears buzzed. The reason? She got scared so much seeing Ha Rin like that. Particularly, it scared her to hear her painful moans, a hint that „She's hurt!" SolHi whispered. After that, hiding the gun behind her back, she quickened her pace toward Ha Rin, asking her, „What's wrong with you?"

Ha Rin didn't answer her question, something that amazed SolHi so much. Yet, she didn't insist on finding out what was wrong with the other woman. All SolHi did was squat next to Ha Rin and, with slow moves, she turned the wounded woman toward her, illuminating her from top to toe with the phone. Yet, SolHi did so that the light of her phone was not to be seen from far away and gave them away that they were there. Even so, she clearly saw Ha Rin's hands pressing on a deep wound she had on the right side of her belly and the blood that squirted through Ha Rin's fingers, making her often gnash her teeth.