A Seawall on Top of the Hill (Part 1)

 

[ Wow,  the weather is fan– tastic. ]

“It’s pitch black at night, you idiot.”

[ Damn, I know, dude. I have to make myself think like this or else it’s too sad. ]

The man in black leaned on the wall and cracked his fingers.

“What is it this time. What.”

[ I finally came outside after sitting down all day, but it’s pitch black. Fuck. I should’ve followed Sungjong out for a walk earlier. I didn’t see the sun at all today. ]

“What good is going to come out of you being outside. Shut up and be on standby.”

The man’s voice rang out into the air. Then a whiny voice sounded through the in-ear.

[ Okay, okay. Are you all set? ]

He laughed silently and looked down at his leather gloves, thoughtlessly opening and closing his hands.

“Yeah. You said you were on the first floor, right?

The man in the dark had a very muscular figure. He was slim overall but the hard muscles could be seen underneath his clothes.

[ Mmmm, I’m heading to the basement now. I’m a little late but I’m still sticking to the plan. ]

The voice coming from the in-ear sounded relaxed yet determined.

The man nodded from the emergency exit. The main building that was seen from behind the crevices of the door seemed deathly quiet. All had gone to sleep during this night, so there wasn’t anyone else in this building except for a few security officers walking around time to time.

[ You better move when it hits the 20-minute mark. That financial statement is all we need to swallow this place up, Kim Myungsoo. ]

“*static* .. Damn it, it’s doing this again. Yeah, boss.”

[ Signal me when you see Lee Howon. And never get caught. ]

“Yeah. I just met him.”

The man lowered his head down at the voice coming from below and met eyes with him. Then he moved his eyes to see his watch. 19 minutes.

“It’s the second drawer in the representative’s office at the far end. The password’s 1997.”

“Okay.”

The two seemed to be used to this as they didn’t say anything else and checked their equipment and clothes. Howon thought to himself that he should get this done and over with quickly because it’ll be a pain if they were caught. He raised his head and looked at Myungsoo. What. Myungsoo mouthed the word, and Howon mumbled as he looked back down.

“He said we will be able to swallow this place up if we just find this. We’re fishing out one that was on the list of suspects, so don’t worry too much. We’ll be able to find it.”

“… alright.”

Myungsoo gave a reply and the hands of the watch moved. Howon patted his shoulders and opened the door to the emergency exit.

They turned on a small flashlight and went in, being completely aware of their surroundings. They opened the door to the representative’s office– which they had already disabled the security for– and went towards the desk. Howon knelt to the ground with one knee.

He glanced over at Myungsoo, who was by the door and guarding the place, and looked back down to enter the password and open the drawer.

“…”

The hands that grabbed the drawer handle paused. The leather glove hit the desk twice. Myungsoo turned around and Howon shook his head. It’s gone.

Then, Myungsoo furrowed his eyebrows and came forward, quickly looking both ways as he did. When he saw the empty drawer, he knelt down like Howon and mumbled quietly.

“…what the heck. I’m certain it’s here.”

“Of course. That’s what Sungjong told us. But why isn’t it here?”

Both of them fell silent for a while. They looked back and forth from the empty drawer to each other. Howon stood up with a tired face. Myungsoo stood up as well, letting out a sigh, and put his hand on his in-ear. He was about to report this situation, but the voice from the other side came out first.

[ Hey! There’s another intruder here besides us. A door in the basement parking lot is open. What about the thing? Did you find it? ]

“No. It’s gone. It’s empty. I think those other guys knew and took it first…. Fuck. Nam Woohyun, do you see any cars moving in there?”

[ No. I don’t sense anyone but I bet one of these cars are theirs. I’m hiding inside a car, too, so I think they’re doing the same. Is anyone over at your side? Someone else other than security. ]

“No. Not even security made it up h– … Wait. I think I found it.”

Myungsoo spoke as he looked at the opposite hallway from the window. Howon had his eyes fixed on that as well.

“Should I catch him?”

[ Yeah. Get the thing from him or grab him and bring him to the basement. If he’s someone too strong for you too handle, just lure him into the basement. There’s a revolver in the car. ]

“Okay.”

As soon as Myungsoo answered, Howon moved swiftly. The two of them sprinted out of the room in a blink of an eye and crossed the bridge that led to the other side of the building. From far away, they could make out someone holding the financial statement and reading it.

They held their breaths as they quietly approached, but that person suddenly picked his head up. Howon’s eyes met with that person’s and he clicked his tongue. Howon gave up trying to approach any closer and ran towards him.

He knew that security officers were going to come any minute now if he acted like this, but he fixed his eyes on that man and threw a punch. The other man put the financial statement in the inside pocket of his jacket and dodged his punch, nervously backing away.

An emergency exit was behind that man, so Howon glanced at it for a second before he ran towards him for more. Every time the man seemed to be distracted with Howon’s attacks, Myungsoo reached out for the man’s jacket.

“Mmphh!”

As soon as Myungsoo’s hand touched the paper, the man kicked him in the stomach. Howon frowned seeing that Myungsoo had flown to the corner of the hallway. He didn’t know who this guy was but he wasn’t an easy opponent. Howon gave up trying to grab him and attacked more, thinking about the gun that Woohyun mentioned.

Since this was the highest floor, there was nowhere else to go but down. Howon was thinking that he should give it his best to lure him down to the basement when the man turned the doorknob to the stairway. Howon smiled in satisfaction and got ready to chase him down, but the man suddenly swiveled around and ran towards Howon.

At this sudden turn of events, Howon got surprised and used his animalistic instincts to stop the man’s arms, but he lost his grip seconds later. He fixed his posture quickly and chased after the man. Howon glanced back at Myungsoo, who was now chasing the man as well, and focused on the man again.

When they were a couple of floors down, another fight began. Howon and the man were at it for a long time, and Myungsoo kept looking for chances to grab the thing from him. When they saw an in-ear piece fall from the man’s ear, the building suddenly lit up and an alarm rang loudly throughout the building.

The security officers came running from afar, and Howon cussed under his breath. Now that time was not on their side and he felt anxious, Howon used more strength to attack him. Even as they were fighting very dangerously, the man reached out to grab his in-ear on the floor.

When Myungsoo stepped on it and completely smashed it into pieces, and the man glared at him viciously.

“Beeeep– Beeep–”

The security was tailing them now. Howon anxiously reached out for the man’s jacket, but the man dodged him by a split second every time. The cheeks and neck that the flashlight shined on from time to time looked very pale.

“Come to the sky!”

A sudden voice was heard from below, and the man who had been cornered kicked Howon away and ran off. Howon cussed as he got up to chase him, but Myungsoo stopped him. Lee Howon, the security!

The security seemed to have given up on the man that had already disappeared, and they were only approaching the two. Howon slammed his hand down on the railings and looked down. The owner of the sudden voice had disappeared already, too. Shit. He turned around and ran away from that place with Myungsoo.

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“*out of breath* … Fuck! Who were those bastards?!”

Howon asked, completely out of breath, as he climbed into the car. Woohyun looked flustered as well and just shrugged.

“I don’t know. I just got a call from Lee Sungjong and he told me a helicopter came to the roof. And I think they got away riding that. The problem is, we don’t know where that helicopter is from. I guess Sungjong was blocked from finding its origin. The car that was here drove out in a hurry, too. I even shot the tires but it seemed totally fine– which might mean it’s for military-use? Just the tires.”

“What is this then… The tires are for military-use, and the type of car?”

“Well, it was a Mercedes Benz CLS.”

“Huh, they’re fucking rich?! Is it some other organization? I bet it’s from a big firm, then. Damn, I was so close!”

Howon stomped angrily and Myungsoo sighed as well. They had just lost their chance to do this the easy way. Woohyun kept silent as he tapped on the steering wheel, and then he put the key in the ignition.

“Let’s head back for now. I don’t think we’ll be able to get it back if someone that skilled took it. We should look for another way. Good work, guys.”

Ugh! Myungsoo banged his head on the window. He clenched his teeth as the car exited the parking lot. I lost him.

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“Shit. My stomach…”

Sunggyu got out of the helicopter being helped by Taemin. With the noisiness of the helicopter behind them, they went down to the basement and got in the car. The fancy carseats and lights– which you couldn’t find anywhere else in Korea– lit up the pale face.

“Boss, are you okay.”

“No. I feel like throwing up. Wow, they came at me mercilessly, you know? Ugh… I should’ve just sent you to do this. A young man like you should handle this.”

Taemin laughed and brushed it off, and he gestured to the driver with his chin to start the car. As the car moved along the smooth road, Sunggyu asked.

“It’s Kaylo? And all three of them are executives?”

“Yeah. I know I’m a bit late, hyung… sorry. I didn’t know there were other eyes on it.”

The person in the passenger seat answered. Sunggyu nodded not even looking at the person, and he unbuttoned his jacket. Taemin observed his wounds carefully.

“Whatever. I didn’t expect that, either. Anyway, Kaylo… why are they interested in this…”

He mumbled as he looked at the financial statement in his hands. We had no plans of clashing with them.

*crumple* Sunggyu gripped the paper hard.

“This isn’t a good start when we’ve just started a deal with them… *tsk*, Taemin, did you upgrade our security system? Upgrade it to the max. You know how good their hacker is, right?”

“I already did.”

“Alright. Dongwoo, you can go now and rest. Good work. Let’s swallow this business with this… and then I’ll try to poke Kaylo afterwards. Let’s wait until then.”

“Okay, hyung.”

“Lee Taemin, Push back the time of the meeting I have with Kaylo tomorrow. I should know more about them before meeting. I need some time to think, so don’t send anyone into my room.”

“Understood.”

Sigh. Sunggyu buried his body to the back of his seat. Streetlights passed by in the black night. The white lights rippled in his eyes and disappeared.

He slowly shut his eyes.

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