Red Obsession

9. Apron

“Listen, the boy has given me money to keep quiet about that.”

“Where have you brought them?” Hyejeong felt tingling.

“They wanted to get off at a path leading to a mountain.”

“Where exactly.” Hyejeong took her phone out lighting a map of the town up.

“Right here.” The man pointed at a place.

“Thank you a lot.” Hyejeong bowed her head then ran back to the bar.

Dongwoo was opening another bottle of soju spilling the golden liquid into a not so clean cup of a girl with shoulder length hair, who had been definitely cutting a fish for a client some moments ago and was still wearing a red apron. 

“Can you not flirt with just anyone.” Hissed Hyejeong through clenched teeth when they were storming up a hill through freaking darkness lit up by the light of two small drones.

“Her boobs looked nice.” Was all Dongwoo had to say.

Sure. Great. There was a dozen of demons and probably the whole army behind them by now, but her boobs looked nice, was it really everything on his mind?

To not to slip deeper into a nonsense conversation Hyejeong quickened her steps. 

“Stop. Freaking stop.” Dongwoo suddenly grabbed the back of her shirt almost knocking her off his feet.

“What?”

“There.”

Brenda’s light became stronger and in its glow Hyejeong saw a thin line of golden dust on the moose right in front of them.

“What is it?” Asked Hyejeong when a screen appeared in Red Obsession’s corpus showing a short film about Powder Belt, a shaman’s shield from enemies.

“Great.” Hyejeong’s mood was worsening with each second.

The hidden danger, the missing girl, the shaman’s trap, the dark forest around them, where who knows what was hidden, “her boobs looked nice” at the top of that.

“Let’s go.” Hyejeong wanted to cross the magical barrier but Dongwoo was holding her in a firm grip.

“They’re there for sure.” Hyejeong narrowed her eyes to distinguish shapes in the pitch blackness around them.

“Yes they’re there, escaping towards the forest.” Dongwoo seemed amused when Red Obsession’s light glittered, the small drone has crossed the Powder Belt and was now chasing the two escaping teens.

“Just don’t scare them, they need to trust us.” Hyejeong felt her hands becoming sweaty. 

Red laser lights sliced the darkness when she almost jumped out of her skin. Lit up by Brenda’s light, were two people trapped in a laser cage.

“Let them free, are you insane!” Yelled Hyejeong.

Dongwoo just laughed, she was doubting his sanity sometimes.

“Red Obsession let them free!”

The small drone didn’t move.

“It’s a check-mate, you can’t cross the belt, so you have to let us go eventually.” Said the boy who was trapped in the laser cage.

Hyejeong narrowed her eyes to realize the young shaman had a face like a girl, a stunning girl to be honest compared to him Lee Yuna looked like an ugly duckling with her messed up shoulder length hair, round glasses slipping at the edge of her nose and all the oversized almost boyish clothes she was wearing, but the boy had a very low voice register, a bass definitely, that was contrasting strongly with his smooth features. The washed out blazer with holes here and there, trainers with a gluing off sole and torn jeans pointed out he had no money though. 

“Let’s make a deal, you’ll remove the belt, we will let you free and we will talk in calm circumstances.” Proposed Hyejeong.

“Keep dreaming.” Hissed the boy.

“So let’s cut them into pieces, horizontally or vertically, what do you prefer?” Asked Dongwoo in an amused way.

“You...” Hyejeong stepped towards him grabbing his leather jacket wishing she’d had more strength to shake some sense into his stupid head.

“I know I’m hot.” Dongwoo was watching her intensively licking over those insanely huge lips while Hyejeong felt hot sweat dripping down her spine, so she let go of his jacket stepping away quickly.

Something rustled, almost noiselessly, yet loud enough for her to reach for the gun.

“I’ve decided, Red Obsession, cut them into that Christmas cookie from Shrek shapes.” Dongwoo giggled, but Hyejeong raised the revolver turning towards the forest when some grey fog began to float their way.

“They’re here.” She whispered.

“What is that?” Asked Dongwoo, his cheerful tone fading.

“Red Obsession we need your shield!” Yelled Hyejeong when the small drone moved up flying their way. 

She heard Yuna and the boy running when Dongwoo cursed sprinting into the forest behind them. Red Obsession was lighting up the poisonous belt with a neon glow for him. 

“They are in the forest, are you all insane!” Yelled Hyejeong but no one listened. 

There was the fog closing the line of the trees in like some wall while she was still standing there, calculating hard what to do.

A tingling on her back made her almost jump out of her skin, but there was no one behind her. The leather bag she has been carrying seemed extra heavy so she grabbed it to see the Forbidden Roll sticking out of it. Has it given her a sing? Come on, you’re turning into a bigger freak than Dongwoo she thought opening the Roll scanning the map, her gaze tracking the line she has drawn in the morning. 

“Shaman’s Nest, that must be here.” She whispered opening the map on her phone comparing to the one from ancient Silla days.

It seemed insane to not to follow Dongwoo into the forest but the inner voice was telling her to take a different path, one Yuna and the shaman definitely wanted to take.