RANGER93 ㅡ chapter 02

"YOU READY, MAN?"

inseong turned to see kim rowoon reach to pat his back reassuringly with a genuine comforting smile. "we just have to scout the area and if nothing goes wrong, we're off again."

"but what if something does go wrong?" lee dawon dramatically said, joining the conversation.

"then we'll send you in to find the murderer." inseong finished.

"no we'll just send rowoon to run after them with his longass legs." dawon suggested that sounded like a good idea to inseong.

the vehicle stopped, indicating their arrival after almost 3 hours of driving from seocho-gu.

"that didn't feel like three hours at all." dawon chattered as soon as they got out of the car. "it went by so fast."

"that's because you were blabbing the whole ride." rowoon told him as a matter of fact. "i wanted to sleep but i could still hear your voice even when i was half-sleeping."

inseong turned away from his new mates to observe the location they arrived to.

"vacation house huh." he muttered, more to himself looking at the two storey white house made of wide glass windows. the house was empty as they could see, the lights were off and there's no car parked in the driveway.

the chief from troop056 gestured for them to start scouting the area for malicious activities.

inseong was spacing out as he followed behind dawon and rowoon ㅡ when he noticed a slight movement from one of the windows at the second floor. he squinted through the dark area inside to see what was going on.

when he saw nothing, he shrugged and turn away only to tug his foot with something that caused him to almost trip.

his eyebrows crashed against each other when he saw a wheel portruding from the thick hedge that surrounded the vicinity of the vacation house.

'what the hell is that?!'

inseong had a strong feeling that it wasn't something good but he had to see it at the same time.
using his big hands, he pushed some of the thick hedge away with force.

a motorbike was stuck in between the hedge. it wasn't just any motorbike. it was a custom made gold printed motorbike that shone even if it was squeezed in the hedge.
it's as if someone forcefully hid it there.

dots starting to connect, he looked back at the window, focusing on one point of the dark area inside that resembled a living room.

a swift short movement.

inseong darted off as soon as he saw the movement, dawon and rowoon had disappeared from the area since he chose to stay behind.

'don't tell me mr. hyungeuk didn't took his car.'

he reached for the doorknob and quietly pull the handle down. his eyes widen when it wasn't locked.

surprisingly unsurprising.

his movements were quiet as he made his way inside, sliding his body through the door, closing and locking it quietly.

no sound made, he stop for a while to observe and take in his surroundings.

to the left is the kitchen, a faint scent of coffee. to the right is the washroom, the door open and the toilet lid up and a pair of shoes inside the shoe rack. in front is the wooden stairs, a big empty open room only to have a big window on the wall to show off the lighthouse from the beach in front.

'he arrived.'

he listened carefully, the steps of the troops outside were buzzed and hushed ㅡ but the steps inside were even more silent.
slow and calculated.

someone's upstairs.

inseong was about to step up the stairs only to hear another set of footsteps - upstairs too.

'there are two of them?'

he continued on his plan, stepping on the stairs, gun held pointed in his hand. he made no sound, matching every step the person - or people on the second floor are taking.

as soon as he arrived at the second floor, he was on high alert, looking around. he's in the living room now, searching for his targets.

the sound of a gunshot from the right made inseong flinch but turn to see a guy, standing by the doorway of a room before dashing inside as soon as he was heard ㅡ on purpose.

he was around forty centimetres shorter than the door. it was dark but inseong saw that his face was covered with a white and red mask.

inseong sprinted inside to see the figure ready to jump off the open window, he pulled the trigger, the same time the figure took off.

a deep and low grunt simultaneous to the sound of bullet piercing through skin and bone.

inseong ran to the window to see the same figure sprint off to the back garden and seemed like it's planning to head to the beach stairs by the cliff.

with no hesitation, the rookie ranger jumped off the window to land to the ground on his toes first before running off the chase the figure.

"rowoon, dawoon, a target heading to the beach cliff for the stairs!" he said through his sprinting when he clicked on his in-ear talkie.

"copy that!" dawoon quickly responded.

there was something not right about the figure. something's odd.

nonetheless, inseong was successful in shortening the distance, but it wasn't enough for him to shoot since the target was smart enough to not run straight ahead.

the target neared the beach cliff, then facing inseong bravely after looking back a few times.

"hands up and freeze! weapons down!" inseong ordered, finger on the trigger, ready to pull. he cautiously neared the figure when it raised both its hands up, dropping the gun.

a chuckle came out from it before it smashed something on the ground that caused a small click and an explosion of thick smoke blurred inseong's vision.

he pulled the trigger. through the smoke, he still squinted his eyes to see, gun ready again.

a cold hand grabbed his left hand from behind, where he was holding the gun, it twisted his wrist outwards causing a jolt of pain to travel from his hands to his arm making him let go of the gun with  groan.

he swung his right hand quickly but hit nothing, but the slowly receeding thick smoke. he held his balled fists upwards, on high alert.

footsteps came from behind, he turned around, ready to swing - only for it to be quickly swatted away by hand that grab his forearm and twisted it outwards. a foot swung at his leg making him unbalanced and tumble backwards.

he fell onto the ground with a grunt.

a weight sat over his torso, left knee dangerously pushing harshly just by the edge of his ribcage causing him to groan in pain. the right knee onto his left wrist, making it slowly numb. it's cold left hand was squeezing something sharp on his right wrist, the right squeezing harshly around his throat.

eventhough it was dark, the waning moon that illuminated over the figure helped him hopelessly.

feminine feline golden eyes looked back at him with no emotions behind them. just pure blank and dark spite the stark color.
a mask covered half of her face.

just when inseong wanted to see the details, he started to get lightheaded and his vision slurred at the lack of oxygen. the tension on his throat thicken as he tried to gasp for air. hands desperate but could hold onto nothing.

a gunshot was heard and the weight lifted off him.

he finally breathed only to feel the darkness slowly taking over him..

"inseong!"

EDITED.

[ GLOSSARY ]

RANGER93 ㅡ consists of lee dawon, kim rowoon and kim inseong
MR. HYUNGEUK ㅡ owner of a vehicle production company