Chapter 422: Punishment (2)

“It's this way, Miss Choi!” The safety officer cried out to Choi Yeon-Ha.

A woman like her trying to keep up with a male safety officer running at full tilt would never be easy. However, she didn't complain once while following him.

If Choi Yeon-Ha could reach Oh Min-Ji even one second faster, she must choose that path, even if it was physically more demanding. Even though she wasn't sure just when she became this altruistic.

'No, wait. I'm not being altruistic, is it?'

Choi Yeon-Ha grinned wryly to herself. She was still a selfish person who only cared about herself. As an example, she still didn't give two hoots about the fate of other parkgoers despite the severity of the current situation. Rather than Choi Yeon-Ha acting altruistically, it was more like the orphanage children had become her 'people'.

They hadn't known each other for long, and from other people's perspective, their relationship seemed shallow enough that if Choi Yeon-Ha chose to walk away now, they would've quickly become strangers again. However, at least in Choi Yeon-Ha's mind, the orphanage kids had already reached the same status as her family.

'I'm similar to him only in bad aspects, aren't I!'

Choi Yeon-Ha's wry smile came from realizing that her mindset was surprisingly similar to Kang Jin-Ho's.

Bang!

“Is anyone in here?” The safety officer roughly shoved the bathroom door open and shouted inside. However...

'There's no one?'

Maybe Oh Min-Ji was in another bathroom? Choi Yeon-Ha hurriedly asked the officer. “How many other bathrooms are nearby?”

“There are a couple more, Miss Choi!”

“What are we waiting for! Let's go!”

“Of course!”

Even before Choi Yeon-Ha's sentence was finished, the safety officer broke into another full-powered sprint. Choi Yeon-Ha supported her torso by bending over and holding her knees while the officer's back was turned to her. After sucking several deep breaths, Choi Yeon-Ha gritted her teeth and chased after the safety officer.

'Even though I never slacked off during my exercise...!'

Choi Yeon-Ha exercised every single day of her adult life to stay in perfect shape, yet her stamina was rapidly running out. Was this because of the physical difference between men and women? Or was it because she was too stressed right now, and that was depleting her stamina much faster? She had no way of knowing.

The safety officer in the lead ran inside a different woman's bathroom before rushing outside again. “There's no one inside!”

“In that case...” Choi Yeon-Ha was about to say they should head to a different bathroom but stopped herself and frowned a little. She quickly walked past the officer and entered the bathroom herself. That was when she noticed the cubicle at the farthest corner with its door closed.

The officer tilted his head. “No one answered me when I called, so I...”

“Shh!” Choi Yeon-Ha shushed the officer urging at her, then stood before the closed door. After sucking in a deep breath, she called out in a calm voice. “Min-Ji, It's me. Are you in here?”

There was no reply, but Choi Yeon-Ha patiently waited. And as if to reward her for her patience, a quiet little voice hesitantly leaked out from inside the cubicle. “...Unnie?”

Thank you, dear Lord!

Choi Yeon-Ha nearly collapsed on the spot just then but desperately held herself together. “Yes, it's me. Can you open this door for me, please?”

How would an elementary school girl stuck in an extremely stressful situation respond when a strange man roughly yelled out,

'Who's in here?'

'She'll never answer, obviously!'

It was too scary, after all. Logically speaking, requesting assistance would be the right thing to do. But humans were not rational creatures. And elementary school kids wouldn't be rational, to begin with. Choi Yeon-Ha wanted to praise herself for instantly figuring that out and remaining calm in this urgent situation.

Click...

The cubicle door cautiously opened after the sound of its latch being undone echoed in the empty bathroom. And when a young girl with a slightly pale complexion peeked her head out, Choi Yeon-Ha hurriedly reached out and pulled Oh Min-Ji close.

“Unnie... Unnie!” Oh Min-Ji erupted into a flood of tears.

Choi Yeon-Ha gently patted the girl on the back several times while burying her head on the young girl's shoulder.

'I can be such a dimwit sometimes.'

Choi Yeon-Ha knew now wasn't the time but couldn't stop herself from crying her eyes out. She used to think she was an expert at masking her real emotions, but these days... It felt like she kept discovering new facets of herself. Choi Yeon-Ha eventually lifted her head and wiped Oh Min-Ji's tears, then tightly held the young girl's hand. “Let's get out of here. It's too dangerous to stay here.”

Just as the relief from finding the girl washed over her, a stranger's voice suddenly surprised her from behind.

“Nope, it's not that dangerous, actually...!”

Now that... was a bizarre-sounding voice. A voice that sent a creepy chill down Choi Yeon-Ha's spine the moment she heard it. Choi Yeon-Ha's head snapped back to look.

A hulking figure of a man stood there. If someone that big was walking on the street, Choi Yeon-ha would've definitely stopped and gawked without even meaning to. And that giant was gripping the safety officer's throat and holding him up in the air.

“No, wait. That's wrong now, isn't it? Should I revise that and say it's still dangerous even if you get out of here? It's so hard to tell what I'm talking about these days.”

Choi Yeon-Ha rapidly stood up and placed Oh Min-Ji behind her. She'd have done the exact same thing even if that giant hadn't choked the safety officer and lifted him off the ground. That was because she instinctively knew the truth the moment she had clapped her eyes on that giant.

This man, he... He was dangerous.

It didn't feel like she was staring at a human being. If she was to find the correct comparison... A vicious wild beast. A starving wild beast that had lost its reasoning and only moved according to its instincts. It felt like she was staring at one such creature.

...And a crazed beast to boot!

Just looking at him was enough to let Choi Yeon-Ha know this giant was not of sane mind. For instance, his eyes nervously darting around nonstop, or his giant physique constantly fidgeting and flinching...

Before her brain could interpret the information received by her eyes, Choi Yeon-Ha's body detected the danger first and tried to retreat. However, she immediately remembered Oh Min-Ji behind her and had to stop.

Choi Yeon-Ha stood tall and confronted the giant. “What do you think you are doing?”

She was glad that her voice didn't quiver just then. Without remembering what they knew about the psychological workings of the human mind, most people would still instinctively understand that showing any signs of weakness to an individual like this giant was very dangerous. Thankfully, Choi Yeon-Ha was one of those people who knew how to put her knowledge into practice.

“Hehehe...!” The giant cackled in a high-pitched voice. “No need to bluff there, little lady. Doesn't matter what your attitude is since what I'm gonna do to you won't change, anyway.”

“...That man will die like that,” said Choi Yeon-Ha, her voice getting slightly more urgent.

The safety officer gripped within the mad giant's hand was showing the whites of his eyes as foam bubbled out of his mouth. His complexion was easily the most pale thing Choi Yeon-Ha had ever seen.

“Die?” The mad giant tilted his head. “You like underestimating people, don't you? Naaah, people don't die that easily. They'll still survive even if their arms and legs get torn off. Not breathing for a few minutes won't be enough to kill a man. So, if this man was to die... Okay, let me show you. If I crack his neck like this...!”

“Kkyaaaahk!” Choi Yeon-Ha freaked out and screamed.

The mad giant had lifted up the safety officer even higher before twisting the unconscious man's neck to the side!

“Stop that, right now! You son of a b*tch!” Choi Yeon-Ha threw the first thing her hand grabbed at the mad giant, then completely forgot about her fear and rushed toward him to kick his shin.

However, the mad giant didn't seem to have felt any pain whatsoever. He just stood there and stared weirdly at Choi Yeon-Ha. “Huh. For sure, only crazies gather around Kang Jin-Ho.”

'Kang Jin-Ho?'

Choi Yeon-Ha's expression paled when the mad giant mentioned Kang Jin-Ho's name. This could only mean that this encounter was not a coincidence. Either this mad giant had been observing her from the darkness, or...

'Or, he is behind this whole crisis!'

Choi Yeon-Ha's common sense screamed that a lone individual could never cause a large-scale event like this. However, such things happened with alarming regularity near Kang Jin-Ho. When she thought about it, some people were even bold enough to collapse a bloody tunnel, so how hard could it be to bring down one measly amusement park ride?

“Why did you do this?” Choi Yeon-Ha decided to find out. While as natural-sounding as possible, too.

“You asking me why?” The mad giant let go of his grip.

With a loud thud, the safety officer crashed to the floor and rolled to his side. Judging from a faint tremor in his chest, it seemed he wasn't dead yet.

“You're asking the obvious. I want to torture Kang Jin-Ho.”

“But why?” Choi Yeon-Ha furrowed her brow. “What did he ever do to you? He's not the type to hurt other people, after all! So why would you go out of your way to torture someone like that?”

“Huh? Kek. Kekekeke…” The mad giant burst into a sinister cackle. It was as if he couldn't believe what he just heard. “Kang Jin-Ho isn't the type to hurt others, you say?”

The mad giant theatrically spread his arms wide open and stood back.

“Looks like love has totally blinded you. Or you're simply insane. Do you have any idea what kind of a man you've been hanging out with?”

“...”

“What do I look like to you?”

“...What?”

“Answer me, little lady. What do I look like to you?”

Choi Yeon-Ha bit her lower lip. “You look like a stinking lunatic, you son of a b*tch!”

Her words might end up agitating this crazy man, but she didn't want to tremble and cower in fear. She was also motivated by the belief of never displaying weakness to a crazy bastard like him.

“Kekeke. You're totally right. So, so right. Yes, I am crazy. A loon. Definitely not sane!” The mad giant theatrically nodded. “However, someone like me is shockingly normal compared to that bastard. Kang Jin-Ho is properly insane, you see? At least I know sane folks wouldn't even think about doing what I do. However, Kang Jin-Ho has no awareness like that.”

Choi Yeon-Ha narrowed her eyes. “...What do you mean by that?”

The mad giant slightly raised his hand before leisurely drawing a vertical line in the air.

“Let me tell you something, little lady. Humans... All humans are the same. However, that man separates people into two categories. People he acknowledges and those who are nominally humans, but he can't be bothered to treat them as humans. These two.” The mad giant cackled insidiously. “You can only run your mouth like that because you're included in the territory of people Kang Jin-Ho acknowledges. He doesn't want to see anyone he 'cares' about getting hurt, you know? On the other hand, though? Whether the people he doesn't care about live or die, it's of no concern to him. Kang Jin-Ho is an extreme-level egotist. A psychopath. Do you understand me now?”

Choi Yeon-Ha didn't say anything and just glared at the giant.

“So, here I am. Here to teach that bastard something important, you see?” The giant cackled. “I want to teach him that people he doesn't view as humans are still humans at the end of the day. Humans that can get hurt and suffer from pain, stuff like that.”

“Say what? You think doing this will teach him? What kind of twisted nonsense is this, you stinking bastard?”

“Twisted as it though may be... Haven't you heard this before? To fight a monster, one must become a monster himself. I have taken on that burden, you see? And it's your turn to do the same.”

The giant smirked like a sinister villain and began approaching Choi Yeon-Ha as if he didn't want to talk anymore.

Choi Yeon-Ha, now finally aware of what this mad giant wanted, hardened her expression and spread her arms open. “As long as I'm here, you won't lay a finger on this girl!”

“Wowsers. You sure know how to say some scary things.” The mad giant licked his lips. “But it will be fun to see if you can still say the same thing after I rip your body to pieces and throw your intestines to the floor.”

He was being serious. This insane bastard was being serious with his threat.

Choi Yeon-Ha bit her lower lip. Should she try to run? Escape to the best of her abilities?

This crazy bastard was fully capable of doing what he said without even batting an eyelid. In that case, trying to protect another person from a monster like him was something only a fool would do.

She wanted to run away from here. Run as fast as she could right now...!

That was when Choi Yeon-Ha sensed Oh Min-Ji's small hand gripping hers tightly. And a sense of dismay suddenly washed over Choi Yeon-Ha.

'Since when did I become smart enough to pretend I'm smart?'

So what if she was an idiot? If Choi Yeon-Ha earned the label of 'idiot' by doing this, she was fully prepared to be called that thousands, nay, millions of times!

“Do your worst, you piece of trash!”

The mad giant's expression distorted in pleasure as he closed in on Choi Yeon-Ha and Oh Min-Ji.