Episode 3
Crazy.
I slammed my mouth shut. My hands were bound, so I couldn’t even cover it if I wanted to.
A heavy silence instantly descended upon the car.
While I scrambled for a way to fix this, the man let out a short, sharp laugh.
At that sound, the driver’s head became even busier. He was glancing at the rearview mirror so incessantly he barely seemed to be looking at the road ahead.
“I was wondering what you were staring at so intently.”
“……”
“Do I look like Cha Seo-hae to you?”
His eyes, which had been closed, drifted open. Those blue orbs turned slowly toward me.
His gaze was languid, half-lidded, and slightly unfocused. He looked exhausted—so much so that I wondered how he could even see me clearly with eyes like that.
“Well? I’m asking. Do I look like Cha Seo-hae?”
“…If not, then whatever.”
“No. That’s not how you should answer.”
Cha Seo-hae rubbed his eyes lightly and leaned his upper body toward me.
‘We just met, what is wrong with him…?’
Reflexively, I pulled back as he drew closer.
Thud. My back hit the car door.
With nowhere left to run, I was forced to stare back at him.
Up close, his face was clearer than before. His pale, transparent skin was flushed red where he had rubbed his eyes. It was an irritating sight, like a drop of red ink spilled onto a clean white canvas.
“Instead of ‘whatever,’ if I look like Cha Seo-hae, you should be begging for your life.”
“What?”
“Since it’s your first time being kidnapped, you might not know, but that’s what hostages usually say.”
“……”
They called him a madman. Was it not because he was uncontrollably powerful, but because his words and actions were this unhinged?
The corners of Cha Seo-hae’s lips curled into a smirk, as if something were genuinely amusing.
“Give it a try—”
“Piss off.”
I cut him off mid-sentence, cursing him with my eyes. If my hands were free, I would have gladly given him the finger. It was a damn shame I couldn’t.
His eyes narrowed slightly before he abruptly pulled away.
He was the one acting out; what exactly did he have to be dissatisfied about?
“Pfft! Ahem. Huff. Kh-hem.”
And what was wrong with the guy in the front?
The driver was making ambiguous noises, somewhere between a smothered laugh and a fake cough.
“Chil-deuk, let’s drive quietly.”
“Yes, sir…”
Now it was certain. A man with a face that rough using honorifics—the guy next to me was definitely higher in the hierarchy.
‘I guess he really is Cha Seo-hae….’
I had been recklessly picking a fight with a man like that.
It was mortifying, but the milk was already spilled. It would be pathetic to say, ‘Can you forget what I just said?’ now, and my pride wouldn’t let me say, ‘Please spare me.’
Even if I had been treated like garbage at the Association, I didn’t want to act servile in front of a guild.
Once I confirmed that Cha Seo-hae had settled down, I remained silent.
‘Anyway, what do I do now?’
He already knew my name and face. This was a premeditated kidnapping. Furthermore, the Baekyang Guild wasn’t the kind of place you could easily escape from.
And Baekyang wasn’t the only problem.
The Association despised unauthorized departures.
If someone vanished without a word, they would eventually realize it was either a kidnapping or a betrayal. Neither path ended well.
I remembered a sleepless night. In the early hours of that dawn, I had witnessed a Hunter who had been kidnapped being scolded by a Team Leader.
At first, I thought he was comforting the victim. But as the voices grew louder…
“I told you! Why did you give them a reason to snatch you?! I told you those bastards have no standards, so you had to be careful!”
“I-I’m sorry!”
The kidnapped Hunter was actually apologizing to the Team Leader.
I kept watching, unable to comprehend the situation. Just as I was considering whether to record it, a patrolling Hunter called out to me, forcing me to leave. By the time I returned when things had quieted down, the area was empty.
‘They couldn’t even bother to care for someone who suffered the misfortune of being kidnapped; they just blamed them. And as for betrayal… I’ve never seen anyone who “betrayed” them come back in one piece.’
The Association was sensitive enough about unauthorized departures to blame the victims.
I had my suspicions back then. I suspected that this institution, which preached welfare and safety, wasn’t what it claimed to be.
But strangely, while living inside, that sense of dissonance never lasted long.
It was because of the helplessness. The self-loathing that came from knowing that even if I realized the truth, there was nothing I could do without the Association’s protection.
The moment a Healer joins the Association, they are severed from the outside world. Starting with the inability to leave the building at will, even their sources of information are restricted.
I tried browsing online communities on my phone, but it was useless.
Every useful Healer was already tied to the Association or a major guild. Given how few of us there were, any word we spoke could easily be traced back to us, so the number of posts was remarkably low.
‘And the news only shows Healers who suffered accidents or were exploited.’
Because our numbers were small and we were scattered, Healers lacked solidarity. Moreover, with no combat skills, we lacked the power to protect ourselves.
We were the perfect prey, trapped in a dangerous position both internally and externally.
That was why Healers avoided the field whenever possible. If it was unavoidable, we were placed at the very back—a place where we could be safe, surrounded by allies on all sides.
Value is relative. Even if your healing was being exploited, you felt safe compared to the Healers you saw in the news or online.
Once you start thinking like that, you’ve already fallen for the Association’s scheme.
From then on, you move to prove your worth just to stay, becoming obsessed with a sense of belonging. The Association simply watches that transformation with satisfaction.
‘Even I spent all my energy trying to get along with the Team 1 members.’
I was only looking at things critically now because I had been unilaterally ousted; if I hadn’t been the victim of the incident, I might never have known.
“Hey.”
“……”
“Cha Seo-hae.”
I called his name, but the reaction came from the driver’s seat. Seeing the driver’s mouth hang open, I turned back to Cha Seo-hae.
“I’m listening.”
The blunt, indifferent reply actually startled me.
‘Is it okay to call him by his name?’
It had taken me three months just to be able to call the Team 1 members by their names. Recalling that made a corner of my heart feel hollow.
“How do you plan to use me?”
“Use you?”
“There must be a reason you kidnapped me. Are you going to kill me?”
“Ha.”
Cha Seo-hae let out a scoffing laugh.
“I told you that you wouldn’t be in any danger.”
“That was on the condition that I followed you quietly.”
“So you knew you were being loud. I thought you were oblivious.”
“……”
“Why ask? Do you want to die?”
Madman… his words were razor-sharp. His monotone delivery made it sound like he’d kill me right now if I said yes.
“I just want to know what you’re going to do with me.”
“I’m going to work you to the bone.”
“……”
I definitely got caught by the wrong person.
‘How big is a major guild’s building usually?’
Estimating it to be roughly the size of the Association, even if he just made me do the cleaning…
“By… by myself?”
“Yeah.”
That’s too much.
Seeing how serious I had become, Cha Seo-hae corrected himself.
“I’m going to do some business with the Association. I wondered if a Healer that the Chairman hid so carefully would be worth something, so I brought you along.”
“Business?”
He wouldn’t tell me what kind of deal it was.
‘By the way, I’m not the Team 1 Healer anymore.’
I debated whether to come clean.
‘No, it’s too dangerous to speak up when my safety isn’t guaranteed.’
To stay alive for even a moment longer, I decided to keep it hidden.
“The Association gave me a gift.”
“……”
“So I’m on my way to say ‘thank you’ in return.”
There was no way a “gift” from the Association to a major guild was anything good…
My instincts told me: Don’t just hide it—you must absolutely never let him find out you were kicked out of Team 1.
‘If the deal doesn’t go smoothly, I’ll be the one in danger.’
The problem was how to hide it. The Chairman had called all those reporters to announce it. The internet must be buzzing with the news right now.
“If the Association’s reaction is underwhelming, I’m thinking of recruiting you into our guild.”
“What?”
While I was narrowing my eyes in anxious contemplation, he made an unexpected offer.
“How about it? Either the talks go well and you go back to the Association, or they don’t and you come to our guild. Doesn’t seem like a losing deal for you.”
On paper, he was right. It meant I had a place to go either way.
‘Does it make sense to go to a guild just because I don’t want to go back to the Association?’
I hated the thought of returning to the Association. But I couldn’t be sure a guild was safe either. While the Association at least guaranteed welfare, guilds had no such reputation.
If even the institution that promised protection was like that, why should I trust a guild that said nothing?
‘What decision should I make here to stop being the “underdog” who just gets dragged around?’
A headache surged from overthinking.
“Master.”
The driver, who had been silent, called out to Cha Seo-hae. I lifted my head slightly to see what was happening.
“I know.”
How do you know? You were talking to me this whole time.
I had questions, but the atmosphere was too heavy to ask.
“What should I do?”
“Ignore them and keep going.”
“The opponent is Hunter Do Ju-yeon.”
Do Ju-yeon?
At the mention of that name, my body turned reflexively.
‘It really is him….’
It was definitely Do Ju-yeon. The person in the white car tailing us closely was him.
‘Since when has he been following? Is he coming to save me?’
The disappointment I felt moments ago vanished as I watched Do Ju-yeon with a racing heart.
“Do Ju-yeon?”
The way Cha Seo-hae said the name was chillingly cold. He hadn’t even said my name, yet the mere mention of that name made me shrink back.
“Ah, what a headache.”
Why him of all people?
The sense of dread wasn’t just my imagination. Cha Seo-hae clearly held Do Ju-yeon in contempt.
‘Team 1 hated Cha Seo-hae, too. It must be because they’re rivals.’
Though the current tension was far worse than any complaint Team 1 had ever made.
The driver, sensing the mood, sped up as ordered.
Vroooooom!
“Keep driving. That guy isn’t the type to break the speed limit.”
“Yes, sir.”
I bit my lip as the scenery outside blurred into an unrecognizable streak. Cha Seo-hae was right.
‘Would Do Ju-yeon, who sticks to the rules like a machine, really go as far as speeding to catch us?’
He was a man of principle. To put it nicely, he was honest; to put it bluntly, he was inflexible.
‘Though the story might change if the Chairman ordered it….’
How pathetic, that I had to rely on the Chairman to escape a kidnapping.
“Have you already decided to forgive the Association?”
His voice was oddly slanted.
‘…Forgive the Association?’
His words were suspicious. It was as if he knew something.
Since my fate was on the line, I couldn’t hide my shock. I turned to look at Cha Seo-hae with a trembling heart.
Seeing my expression, he let out a dry smile.
“You thought I wouldn’t know?”
“……”
“The fact that you’re no longer the exclusive Healer for Team 1.”
