Chapter 45
Chapter 45
Han was shown to a room and given the basic things to use in cleaning himself. He sat down on the bench there and wiped his neck with the towel while thinking about the current situation.
This was new. He had never landed in the middle of an entire crowd of people before. What in the world was this place? The people here did not look like carnivores or zombies, they looked like normal people who just enjoyed fights more than they should.
Was this even the apocalypse?
The room opened and Han turned around to see Rin Woo entering. She didn’t look injured anymore and Han wondered how she was able to heal so fast. Rin walked up to him and Han stood up to talk to her.
Slap!
Only for her to slap him in the face in anger. Han furrowed his brow and glared at her. What was this woman doing?
“How dare you come back after five years and think you can just walk into this place like nothing happened! Do you think we are a joke to you!?”
Han took a step back as she started approaching him. She looked like she was about to cry in anger and Han didn’t even know what he did wrong!
“Leave, Han!! Just like you left us before!!”
“Rin! What are you talking about!?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know!! Is it not the wisteria you came back for!? Then take it and go away!”
Wisteria? Where did Han hear this before? Han suddenly remembered that it was the drug Tao Long’s brother was addicted to in the past. What did it have to do with any of this?
Rin Woo walked forward and grabbed Han by the collar. Han pushed her hand away and grabbed her by the shoulder.
“Listen to me! I don’t know what I did but I am sorry!”
“Don’t you dare!!”
Rin Woo pushed him away and stepped back. She glared at him as she began moving towards the door.
“I may not be able to beat you but I won’t ever forgive you. You don’t belong here. Han”
Once she said this she left and Han sighed as he fell back on the bench. What was that woman talking about this time? What did he do that made her hate him this much?
A new voice spoke through the door and Han turned to it in shock.
“Hello, Han-Oppa,’
“Rina,”
Rina walked down the dark hallway with Han following behind her. She hadn’t said a single word to him and he decided to just follow her silently all this time. She was very confused inside. Her brother disappeared five years ago. He did not tell anyone where he went or what happened to him, he just took off and never showed up again.
Why would he suddenly show up in the cage? Was he doing it for the same reason all the other fighters were doing it? For the Wisteria?
Han looked around as they passed door after door of fighters sitting and tending to their wounds. The strange thing was that they all had a strange white substance beside them that they snuffed into their noses like coke. In the next moment, their bodies tense before they sigh and relax.
Was this the Wisteria everyone had been talking about? If so, then why were the fighters taking so much of it? Wouldn’t it affect their ability to fight? Han shook his head and focused again on where they were going.
“Are you going to say anything to me? I thought you wanted to talk about something”
Rina turned back to glance at Han and Han felt his heart squeeze in pain at the look she gave him. It was a cold, distant look that he never thought he would see on his sister. At least not directed at him. What sort of thing did he do for her to look at him like this? Was it because he disappeared five years ago?
“I’m not the one that wants to talk to you alone, Han. She also wants to see you.”
“Who?”
The two of them reached a door and Rina told him who it was as she opened it up.
“Kim – Noona”
Miss Kim?
Han walked into the room to see Rin Woo standing to one side with her hand folded across her chest. She was ignoring him and looking towards a television showing the next match in the cage. On a bench in the middle of the room sat Kim Park.
She also had a short bob cut just like Rin Woo. Her hands were wrapped in tape and she wore a singlet that showed off her toned arms. Han immediately realized that she was also a fighter in the cage. There was a white substance open in a bag beside her and it worried him a lot.
“Han, I didn’t think you would come”
Miss Kim’s voice was calm and she looked towards Han with an unreadable expression. Han couldn’t tell if she was mad at him or not. He sighed as he moved deeper into the room and took a seat on a bench opposite her. He saw Rin Woo tighten her hand angrily but he didn’t pay her any mind. He was never one for waiting to be told what to do and his legs were tired.
“Why did you call me here? Do you just want to threaten me like Rin?”
Miss Kim gave him another look before looking away. She played with the bandages on her hand for a while before turning back to him.
“Why are you here, Han? Why did you come back?”
Han shrugged. He could see the anger flash across her eyes for a moment before she sighed. She was not going to fight him because she knew she would not win. Han could see Rin Woo getting even angrier at the side and he turned towards her with a small glare. She was always more trigger-happy than most people and he wasn’t in the mood at the time.
Miss Kim lowered her hand towards the white substance at her side and Han caught her hand. Rin moved but Miss Kim rose her hand to stop her.
“Wait,” Han said, “What is this thing? Why do you all take it so much?”
Miss Kim shook her hand away from his own with a confused expression on her face. Why would he be asking her something like this when it was the reason he left in the first place!
“If you don’t know what this is then you did not come back at all in these five years, did you?”
Han shook his head. He thought Miss Kim would stop talking then, but she continued.
“This is Wisteria. It’s the only thing still keeping us alive even now. If you come back at all then we would have surely not needed to take it, but you didn’t come back and so here we are,”
Han narrowed his eyes. Still, keeping them alive? What did she mean?
“How is it still keeping you alive? Is it… Because of the virus?”
Miss Kim was silent for a long time now and Han knew she wouldn’t say anything again. He saw Rin Woo looking away from him so he turned to the one person in the room who he thought would talk. Rina sat against the wall on the far side of the room, staring at him with a distant look in her eyes. Once he turned to her she sighed.
“Before we answer, tell us where you’ve been. The last thing anyone heard from you was that you were going to meet someone in City A. We tried everything Han. We called and we searched, but you just…disappeared. Don’t I deserve to know where my brother disappeared to for five years?”
Damn. Han couldn’t believe this was how things turned out this time. What was he doing in City A for so long? He doesn’t even remember planning to go to City A at all! If he would be going there then it was something he still hasn’t done by the time he got transported here.
But by the look of things, these three won’t say a single word to him unless he told them why he left. Could he bluff his way through this too!? No, he couldn’t! He didn’t have time to come up with some bullshit excuse they would be satisfied with!
“I don’t know okay! I don’t know why I left for city A!! All I know is that I woke up here two days ago and got thrown inside a cage to fight!!”
Han was on his feet and his hands were clenched at his side. He stared Miss Kim in the eyes and could see she was surprised by his outburst. Maybe this would be enough for them to believe him. He didn’t have time to start explaining things slowly.
“If you don’t know then you can get out.”
Rin Woo said this while walking up to him and getting right in his face. He glared down at the woman and saw a flicker of fear in her eyes before she glared back. She was the one who gave him the most trouble since he came here, not even Miss Kim or Rina seemed to be as antagonistic as her. After what he went through with her before he thought she would be the first to listen to him.
“I’m not going anywhere till you tell me what I want to know,”
Han growled while taking a step closer to Rin Woo and she took a step back while scowling. Han stopped moving immediately. Was she… afraid of him?
“Wait. Han. I-I’ll tell you what happened”
Miss Kim stood up before things could get physical and finally started to explain.