Chapter 1036: Stuck Between A Gun And A Wet Place
As they departed toward the national park's entrance that encapsulated the Seongsan
Ilchulbong, Rì-Chu patted Liu Yan's shoulder, giving him an understanding look, but kept his mouth shut.
He wouldn't be caught dead trying to help him out of that bog he walked into. Ri-Chū liked Liu Yan's friendship but wasn't prepared to lose all his other friends over it.
As they walked back, conversations started speculations about what kind of group the Zhong Kui was and what they should expect when they started meddling in their business.
Alex, David, and Kary abstained from commenting on this, as they knew who they were going up against. They would rather keep the speculating to a minimum, but they could hardly tell the others to stop talking about it.
After all, they'd so graciously offered their help with something they knew nothing about for the sake of helping a friend they knew not. It would be rude to keep them from talking about it.
Liu-Yan ended up at the back of the line, Aapo at his side, as they were excluded from the conversation.
Aapo projected a face of indifference, even though, deep inside, he felt hurt to be suddenly excluded from the chatting. Then again, he could only blame himself for always being so quiet.
As for Liu-Yan, his face was scrunched as he brooded over the situation.
'Fuck. I was just getting them to trust me, and I fuck up twice in a row. This is why I hate guilds. Too many hoops to jump through,' he mused.
He knew he was the distrustful type, and bringing that into an environment with many people around only bred more distrust. When you evidently don't trust others, it's hard for them to trust you in return.
Only fools trust people who don't trust them.
It was why he had always kept to himself and preferred to play solo in every game he ever touched.
And yet again, his distrust had bled him of an option of making allies.
From the front of the pack, Alex could all but hear the young man's thoughts. His face was like an open book from which he could read the internal turmoil in Liu Yan's head.
But he wasn't about to change his tune just because the man felt remorseful. He'd made his bed; now he had to lie in it.
Kary wasn't of the same thought, though.
"Should we give him another chance to choose to help us?" she whispered to Alex.
"No. He made his distrust of us clear. I'm not going to shun him for it, but I don't want to bring him on a task that requires us to all trust each other's backs. He's a liability."
Kary frowned at his words.
"How so?" she asked.
In broken English, a man's voice reached their ears.
"Ah, hello, foreigners. This is the Jeju Police. We ask that you stay where you are and wait for our men to come and apprehend you. Please do not resist, as we are authorized to use lethal force if necessary."
David looked at the police barricade with a scoff.
"As if they had the firepower to take us out. Hah! What a bunch of clowns."
Alex slapped the back of his head with a disapproving look.
"It doesn't matter that they don't. We are not going to fight cops."
Jin-Sil looked at Alex with a frown.
"Why are they even here? It's not like we are criminals," she said, confused.
"They are following orders from leaders who are scared of us. Pay them no mind," Alex told
her, trying to look comforting.
"But why are they even here?" Jonathan reiterated her question.
Alex sighed loudly. This was a nightmare.
"Because they think we are the reason for monsters appearing," David said, his tactlessness
striking again.
"David!" Alex growled.
"What?!" he answered with exasperation.
Everyone looked confusedly at David.
"We don't have time to explain right now. I'll explain once we are back on the plane," Alex
said, backing away from the mountain's edge.
"And how are we supposed to make it there? There are cops on all the paths down," David
asked, looking at him with a frown.
"We fly over them."