Eon Jin knew for certain that even if another three centuries passed, she would never forget how Tae Pyung looked at her that night.
His usually kind eyes were void of warmth; in its place was suspicion and disdain. He was staring at her through a veil of scorn and contempt, his glare accusing her with words he could not form with his mouth. It was as if he was starting to see right through her, past all the pretense and betrayal. And she could not do anything but blame the magic of the deity for malfunctioning for the second time in a row.
Tae Pyung, on the other hand, wanted to come face to face with Eon Jin, yet incredulity kept him from moving towards her. However, because he earnestly needed to hear whatever justification she had to offer — no matter how irrational or outrageous it may be — he forced himself to do so even if he literally had to drag his feet forward.
Just as he was about to completely close the distance between them, a familiar, speeding car faded into view, coming to a full stop only when it reached the spot where Tae Pyung was standing.
“Come on, Tae Pyung!” Kyung Won hollered at him. “The paramedics are on the way. Let’s just get that scumbag, for crying out loud.”
Although Tae Pyung heard everything Kyung Won said loud and clear, he didn’t make a move to approach the vehicle as his eyes were still fixed on the woman in front of him.
“What the hell are you still doing there!? Let’s go!” Kyung Won yelled from inside the vehicle, successfully bringing him to his senses at last.
Tae Pyung took a few steps backwards, then turned to dash towards Kyung Won’s car, leaving Eon Jin as thunderstruck as she was the moment he shouted her name.
✽✽✽
“You need to snap out of it,” Hyo Jin told Eon Jin in a somber voice as she drove them to the shortcut going to the boulevard as planned, hitting a speed of a hundred and twenty.
Just a few moments ago, she saw for herself how the sudden appearance of the man distracted Eon Jin, which prompted her to take the keys and be the one behind the wheel instead of the mistress.
“He saw us,” Eon Jin told the grim reaper.
“I know,” Hyo Jin replied. “But let’s worry about that later.”
Eon Jin squeezed her eyes shut, breathing deeply through her nose as she desperately tried to get her act together.
“Do we have some of your people on standby at the site?” she asked Hyo Jin while still struggling to bring her perspective back on track.
“Yes,” Hyo Jin confirmed. “We have more than enough to cover the accident.”
Frantic, Eon Jin bent forward to bury her face in her shaking hands as she recalled the impending tragedy she saw in her premonition earlier that evening.
“We’ll get this done and over with,” Hyo Jin assured her. “I’ll even summon Kang Myeong Suk myself.”
Eon Jin lifted her face upwards, allowing her hands to slowly slide down her face and come to rest at the sides of her neck.
“To be honest, summoning Kang Myeong Suk later tonight may no longer be necessary,” she told Hyo Jin.
“What do you mean?”
“The course changed when Kim Tae Pyung arrived,” Eon Jin sighed with a pained expression on her face. “I have a strong feeling that the deviation he caused will have a vast impact on Kang Myeong Suk’s fate.”
“But not being able to summon a spirit timely, especially those which have already been corrupted, will most likely turn it into...”
“...a vengeful one, yes,” Eon Jin murmured, finishing Hyo Jin’s sentence.
“Isn’t this similar to the hit-and-run case? That first assignment you failed?” Hyo Jin asked a few moments later.
Eon Jin shook her head and said, “That was different. The change in the girl’s fate did not cause an adverse effect to her or anyone since her soul was not perverted to begin with.”
“Can you do something about it? The last thing I want to do is to get the god of Death involved. You know how” — Hyo Jin swallowed nervously, then muttered — “capricious that deity can be.”
“You know that I can never, ever intervene even if I wanted to,” Eon Jin reminded her.
Hyo Jin pressed her lips on a tight line as she thought it over, her knuckles turning white as she tightened her grip on the steering wheel.
“What are we supposed to do, then?” she asked Eon Jin.
“Nothing,” Eon Jin replied with a distant look in her eyes. “We will just have to wait for things to unfold and hope for the best outcome.”
Somewhere in the city, Tae Pyung was desperately wanting the same thing as they chased after Kang Myeong Suk on the freeway.
“That bastard sure knows how to drive,” Kyung Won swore under his breath as he revved up the engine, running way past the speed limit while he swerved from one lane to another.
The other patrol cars, including those of the rest of Tae Pyung’s team of inspectors, were weaving through traffic to be able to somehow close the gap and get a better vantage point to shoot, aiming at one of the tires to slow Kang Myeong Suk down at the very least. However, when one of the police teams was able to catch up to his speed, running side by side with the getaway car, Kang Myeong Suk rolled his windows down and aggressively fired at them.
“He has a gun!” Tae Pyung heard someone say over the police radio. “Kang Myeong Suk is armed! We’ve got one inspector down!”
Even from where they were, the exchange of gunshots were heard clearly, making Kyung Won hiss in anger as he deftly steered to the left to overtake yet another car. Shortly after, the getaway vehicle they were pursuing was already within their line of sight.
But just as Kyung Won stepped hard on the accelerator to eradicate the distance between them and the culprit, Kang Myeong Suk made a sudden turn at the nearest exit, taking the route leading to the city’s grand suspension bridge where Eon Jin and Hyo Jin were waiting.
The two women stood right in the middle of the long structure that stretched across the width of the river beneath it, while a number of grim reapers lined up by the side of the bridge — all on standby in case the accident occurred in accordance to what was originally planned.
As expected, Kang Myeong Suk’s car traversed the boulevard at top speed. He roughly navigated through the traffic, bumping into the sides of several vehicles left and right as he entered the bridge, then ultimately lost control and crashed into the rear of the car before him. What followed was a disastrous chain of events Eon Jin was already aware of.
The car in front of Kang Myeong Suk rammed into another sedan, which made the driver accidentally steer extremely to the left, going against the traffic and instantly colliding head-on with the approaching SUV. As a result, the driver of the car behind the said SUV panicked and took a hard right, his feet hitting the break with full force and sending the vehicle to spin out of control, then finally crashing into one of the bridge’s pillars.
The approaching cars on both the north and southbound lanes were not spared, as their current speed made it difficult for them to safely halt. Instead, they slammed into one another in rapid succession.
“Make sure you summon everyone in the list,” Hyo Jin reminded the grim reapers in a voice that meant all-business as she looked at the pile-up in front of them. “Do not leave anyone behind.”
From where she stood, Eon Jin estimated that at least ten cars were involved in the accident, while the number of fatalities was around fifteen to twenty.
She allowed her eyes to wander from one vehicle to another, looking for any signs of Kang Myeong Suk. Yet, what caught her attention was the figure of the man she recognized to be Tae Pyung, who was diligently checking the wreckage for any survivors. Somehow, she felt relieved to know that he was not one of the many souls Hyo Jin would be calling out that night.
Out of nowhere, a gun shot was heard, making people scramble out of their cars and away from the site of the accident.
Photo by Aditya Vyas on Unsplash
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