Jangmi’s savior cursed under his breath, his hand still gripping her wrist so tight she thought it would leave a mark. “! What did I get myself into?” he asked rhetorically.

Jangmi answered, anyway. “Gangsters?”

“You’d better have a decent explanation when we get out of this mess.” A muffled gunshot sound was heard and luckily it missed, hitting a telephone pole near them instead. “Damn! They’re shooting at us!” And he forced her to run faster, following his pace.

He led them into an alley – a different alley from where she’d witnessed the murder. It wasn’t as dark as the one she’d been before. She didn’t need to squint her eyes to see a man leaning against the wall. Moreover when that particular man was wearing a bulletproof vest.

“Baekhyun! What took you so—?” The man was walking towards them and came to a halt after catching sight of Jangmi. “Who is—?” He tensed when he saw the gangsters following behind them. The distance between the group and them was fortunately still quite far. “What the—?”

Her savior, who was apparently called Baekhyun, let go of her wrist. “No questions, Jongin. I need to take her to Chanyeol.” Another gunshot was heard, this time it hit the brick wall next to him. “Probably not.” He met her eyes, looking serious as if he was about to give her a mission to save the world. “You, listen to me. I need you to go to the end of this alley and find a red sport car. Tell the guy inside to take you away from here. Do you understand?”

Jangmi, who was still confused with what’s going on, nodded as a yes. Since Baekhyun had saved her earlier, she was convinced that she could believe in him. He didn’t seem like a bad guy. Somehow she could see the sincerity in his eyes, despite the stoic expression on his face, showing her that he genuinely wanted her to be safe. So, she took a deep breath and started sprinting.

“Jongin, help me block these guys to buy them time.” Jangmi heard Baekhyun tell his friend with the bulletproof vest while she was running as fast as she could towards the other end of the alley, heading to the big street on the other side. Before taking a right turn to go out from the alley, she looked back and saw them fight – Baekhyun was kicking someone in the face and Jongin was throwing someone over his shoulder like a professional judo athlete. It definitely wasn’t a sight that you saw every day. It’s a horrifying blood bath.

Can they win against that many gangsters? Jangmi worriedly thought. Even skilled martial artists would stand no chance with that many men holding guns. She hoped that they also brought weapons. Baekhyun could disarm a guy that easily and Jongin is wearing a bulletproof vest. There’s a possibility that they might be cops. They’ll be just fine!

The red sport car stood out in the crowded street, parked by the Burger King. Jangmi dashed towards the right side of the car and desperately knocked on the window glass. The window rolled down, revealing a man wearing a shocking pink sweater and a sky blue cap, munching his burger leisurely behind the wheel.

“Yes?” he asked, widening his already big eyes.

Jangmi thought that it would take too long to explain everything, so the moment he opened the window, she slipped her hand in and opened the door from the inside. In a blink, she was already sitting in his car, wearing the seatbelt. The man next to her eyeing her like she was a crazy woman. Of course, getting on a stranger’s car and acting as if it were her own was crazy.

“Excuse me, Miss. I think you’ve got the wrong car,” he said as polite as he could although he couldn’t hide the anger and confusion on his face.

Jangmi managed to let out a name in waving, uneven breaths. “Baekhyun.”

There’s a change in his expression. His eyes became so big that she was worried they would pop out of their sockets. “You know him?”

Not answering his question, her eyes wandered to the alley she’d just come out from and a few of gangsters swarmed out of it, running down the street, searching every corner for her. It made her worried more about the two nice guys she’d left behind, but she had no time for that. She had to survive first.

“Go!” she urged the man whose name should be Chanyeol according to Baekhyun’s conversation with Jongin earlier.

Despite giving her a look that seemed to say Are you crazy?, Chanyeol set down his burger, buckled up, and drove off anyway. He must have sensed the emergency in her voice and knew better than to ignore her.

Right after he pulled out of the driveway, some of the gangsters noticed the car she was in and rode their own car, tailing them. She almost cursed out loud. Why the hell this guy’s car is bright red? That was the only possible reason why they got sighted so easily.

“Are we being followed?” he asked, glancing at the rear-view mirror. “There’s a black sedan that’s going way too fast behind us. Tell me I’m wrong.”

“No, you’re not,” she said matter-of-factly, her eyes still on the black car. “Can you go faster?”

“You’re lucky. Speed is my specialty.” And he hit the accelerator, speeding like crazy, forcing her to watch the road in front of her instead out of nervousness. Fortunately, it was half an hour past midnight so the street was almost empty. If the police saw them, Chanyeol would surely get a speeding ticket with a costly consequence.

Like there’s no better timing, someone chose to call Chanyeol now. The stereo in his car that’s connected to his phone blared, showing the name of the caller – Junmyeon. Whoever Junmyeon was, he must be a very important person that Chanyeol answered the call after only three seconds. It’s a good thing that he set his car stereo to handle hands-free phone calls, so he could still concentrate on driving while on the phone.

“How’s the surveillance?” Junmyeon asked.

Surveillance? Does that mean they’re really cops? Jangmi wondered. She looked back once again to find that the black car was still following them.

“Forget about that, Junmyeon. We’ve got bigger problem,” Chanyeol answered in a rush, drifting the car t