After a nanosecond or two I found myself sitting on the truck’s passenger seat holding onto the slightly wiggling stirring wheel.  Come on!  I was lifting the unresponsive driver’s leg off of the accelerator with all the strength I had in me. Unfortunately, I was gifted with speed but not with extraordinary strength. The seatbelt kept the driver, whose built can be mistaken for a sumo wrestler’s, from leaning onto the wheel, but his thick urine-drenched legs covered all my view of the pedals underneath. I cannot locate the handbrakes. Turning the wheel will only cause the truck to skid sideways and hit our van with an impact little or no less than the initial scenario. Turning off the ignition will not give our van enough time to escape the collision as this particular manager takes his sweet time driving along this two-lane highway.

Damn it! I said no one dies tonight.  4 seconds. The girls’ innocent faces flashed in my memory.

Fear overcame my being when I noticed our van’s right tail light was blinking. I looked up and saw an approaching exit sign 500 meters away.  That’s our exit.

Whether I’m able to slow this truck down or not, the van will be hit. Everything was happening so fast the manager’s senses were not picking up the danger signals. He must be that heavy-eyed at this hour to still not notice the truck behind him.

 .  I knew I did not have any other choice.

If this is the last thing I needed to do.  “Mianhaeyo.” I whispered to the still unconscious driver. I pulled the wheel forcefully to the right as I pushed down the driver’s legs onto the brakes as hard as I could, causing the oversized vehicle’s tail to start drifting sideward.  Just my luck, the truck’s back side is lighter and empty allowing the momentum to carry it to the air.

Then I quickly closed my eyes.

Another nanosecond after, I found myself back in my seat in the van.  .  I was panicking, the only details I could remember of the van are the details of when I was seated at the back. And so, I could only teleport to that same spot. I was again beside the exhausted Eunbis with my seatbelt fastened and all.

3 seconds. I had to move and reach for the wheel. In another nanosecond, I was behind the manager-oppa’s seat with one hand outstretched steadying the wheel and the other engaging the overdrive button hidden at the backside of the rearview mirror.  Let’s see what you got.  I did all that as I pushed the driver’s leg down to the more sensitive acceleration paddle. The van went to a full speed 10 times faster than it originally could. I held tighter onto the wheel counting the next and final seconds.

Two. One. You are not gonna die tonight.  The members’ faces crowded my thoughts again as I heard the first crash behind us. I checked the truck’s distance from the side mirrors approximating the speed of its bounce before pushing another concealed button. The second button caused the overspeed to disengage and put the van to a supposedly immediate halt using unimaginable torque that can destroy not only an ordinary vehicle’s mechanism but the metal fixtures holding it together. The tires painfully screeched against the asphalted highway pushing us a few more meters farther.

I closed my eyes as I listened to the truck’s metal panel graze the van’s roof ever so slightly as it flew over us before slumping horizontally on the empty road ahead just to continue to a chaotic rolling frenzy.

BANG! The second crash was louder. The succeeding became fainter and fainter.

The van’s sudden stop and the truck’s deafening crash jolted every soul in the van.  I could hear my heartbeats as I started noticing how much I was panting. My chest heaved incessantly. Sweat dripping from my forehead and my back.

It’s over.  I was looking ahead as the truck’s distance grew farther from us. In spite my obvious success, I felt defeated knowing someone died due to my intervention.

Tomorrow for sure, I will be withdrawn from this mission and abandon the group.  But I saved them. It was the center of my job. To keep them safe is all that I needed to do and I succeeded.  I curled and sank behind the driver seat holding my head to make it appear that I rolled towards the front end after the sudden break.

The startled screams of the other 7 passengers, including the stylist seated in front, were of indecipherable panic. Only manager and I were mum. Manager-oppa could not make sense of what happened before his eyes.

I could hear everyone’s rapid heavy breathing.

“IS EVERYONE THERE??” Manager shouted in terror as he snapped out of shock, instead of asking if everyone was okay. He was still holding the steering wheel with his trembling hands as he tried to look behind him. It was impossible for him to count if all the passengers are present because of the countless airbags that deployed creating a cloud-like cushion on every corner. Only the middle aisle was spared.

A brief moment later, screams and muffled cries were heard from the girls. I stayed still feeling the endorphins quickly draining from my body.

“DON’T PANIC!” Sowon exclaimed trying to show her disposition as a leader. She started calling out the members rapidly that the names sounded coming out of one by one but at the same time altogether.

Yerin and Yuna have obviously started crying.

“Eon… nie, I’m... here.” Only the Yewon could be heard responding coherently to Sowon with a terrified voice.

Nothing clear could be heard from the passengers at the rear end. Sowon called out again, not realizing she has shouted out the wrong names. She did not have the energy to unbuckle from her seat and reach the members. She started crying.

Several seconds more, the chaos began to die down.  I felt the movement as our driver finally managed to slowly drive the van to the side of the road. Everyone was dazed and in tears trying to understand the accident that transpired. One by one, I could hear the sound of unfastening seatbelts. And a voice emerged from the back end…

“Eon…… nie…..” It was Sinb’s voice cracking with mixed fear and apprehension. Her teary eyes fixed at my flaccid but panting body at the front end as she held the ripped seatbelt hanging beside her. Eunha’s face was pale and unreadable.

Oh man... I did not release my seatbelt before I ran to the wheel.  In my speedy escape, the belt inevitably ripped. It did not come to my knowledge until now that I got hurt. Realizing this, I suddenly felt the burning pang on my skin were the belt lashed across my chest. It felt excruciating.

Suddenly, I felt a hand gently reach for my shoulder. Gathering the remaining energy I had, I turned my head and met Yerin’s worried gaze.  My tired eyes grew wide upon seeing her pale smooth face. Blood was dripping from her left forehead.

“Joon- eon..nie…” Her eyes fluttered to a close, her body slowly collapsing toward my direction.

“YERIN-AH!” I tried to break her fall.