Dopamine Addiction - Chapter 39

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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39.
Fat raindrops obscured his vision. As Liam brushed them lightly from his eyes, the man came at him.
The man’s fist grazed past Liam’s face. Liam stepped back and lunged forward again, throwing a punch of his own.
The man raised his arm to block the strike easily. Then he drove his knee upward.
Liam ducked low and crossed both arms in an X. The man’s knee met Liam’s forearms instead of his stomach.
“…….”
A sharp tingle ran through his limbs. An ordinary person would have been unable to move for some time.
The man pressed his advantage, swinging his fist. Liam sidestepped slightly and grabbed his wrist, then pulled it toward himself.
The man’s balance shattered. Without hesitation, Liam drove his knee upward into the man’s abdomen.
“Ugh.”
The man groaned and doubled over. In that instant, a gunshot cracked through the air. A bullet whistled past Liam and embedded itself in a tree.
It seemed the CIA agents approaching from the opposite direction had fired a warning shot. Were these Hunter and Anthony that Noel had mentioned?
Liam crouched low, using the fallen man as a shield. Just then, an engine roared. A vehicle barreled toward him and screeched to an abrupt halt.
The passenger door flew open.
“Get in!”
Liam lowered himself and moved toward the car.
Bang. Bang.
Bullets rained down. Liam quickly ducked behind the door. The gunfire punched into the metal.
The moment Liam climbed into the passenger seat, the man who had fallen stirred and grabbed his leg.
Liam kicked him off his shoulder. The man tumbled backward into the muddy water again with a splash.
Liam slammed the car door shut roughly. “Hit it!” he shouted.
“Hold on tight!”
The engine roared and the vehicle shot forward in a burst of acceleration. Bang, bang. The CIA agents fired from the front.
“Duck down!”
At Liam’s command, Hee-joo crouched low and pressed the accelerator harder. At the last moment, the CIA agents dove to the side.
“Whew. Thank goodness…….”
Hee-joo’s expression froze as relief gave way to alarm. In the rearview mirror, she’d spotted two vehicles pursuing them.
Liam spoke casually.
“Looks like the Mafia side. Seems they came prepared this time.”
Before he’d even finished speaking, bullets from behind tore into the car’s body. Bang, bang. It seemed as though more bullets than raindrops were falling.
The rear windshield shattered with a sharp crack. Liam pressed Hee-joo’s head down.
“Keep driving straight.”
Liam drew a pistol from his waist, twisted his upper body, and sighted through the shattered rear window at the pursuing vehicle. Then he carefully pulled the trigger.
Bang.
The front windshield of the trailing car exploded. It swerved violently left and right before plowing into a street tree.
In the meantime, Hee-joo pressed the accelerator even harder. Another vehicle closed the gap, speeding up.
Liam leaned his upper body out the passenger window. Raindrops lashed his cheeks like whips.
Bullets hissed toward him.
“Be careful!”
Hee-joo wrenched the steering wheel left and right to keep him from being hit. Each time, Liam’s upper body lurched.
Yet his gun barrel remained steady. As the gap narrowed further.
Bang—a bright muzzle flash erupted, and a bullet flew. At the same instant, Liam quickly pulled himself back inside the car.
The pursuing vehicle’s tire blew out. With a grinding metal shriek, its speed dropped dramatically.
Liam tossed the now-empty Makarov out the window without hesitation.
Hee-joo checked the side mirror. The pursuers were nowhere in sight.
“Ah…….”
At last, a sigh of relief escaped her lips.
A long, straight highway stretched out ahead of them. As Hee-joo drove, she occasionally wiped the spray of rain from her face with her hand.
Hee-joo opened her mouth with forced lightness.
“I think I might actually have a talent for driving. Maybe I should quit the civil service and become a race car driver instead.”
Rather than answering, Liam let out a soft laugh. The rain-soaked air settled heavily around them.
After driving in silence for a while, she spoke quietly. A sincere thanks crossed to the seat beside her.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. I told you, didn’t I? You just give the orders. Leave the rest to me.”
“Should we head to Utah State now?”
“There’s somewhere we need to stop first.”
“Where?”
“Let’s head toward Union Square for now.”
At those words, Hee-joo’s brow furrowed slightly.
“Union Square? That’s the busiest district, isn’t it? With all the department stores and upscale hotels?”
Liam glanced at her as if asking what the problem was. Hee-joo looked around at the damaged car and answered.
“Going there in this vehicle is going to draw a lot of attention.”
“We’ll switch cars before we go.”
“If this is about the kimchi stew, you don’t have to go out of your way.”
“It’s not just that. Before we leave here, there’s someone I need to pay my respects to.”
“Pay respects?”
Hee-joo turned to him with a puzzled expression, but Liam said nothing more.
The car carrying them both drew stares as it entered the downtown area.
“Let’s stop at a mart or convenience store. I need to pick something up.”
Hee-joo found the whole thing increasingly baffling. With a bewildered expression, she looked around for a store.
***
The two of them ate quite ordinarily at a restaurant. It wasn’t a Korean place serving kimchi stew. It was a simple French bistro.
Beyond the glass windows, people strolled leisurely, and in the center of the plaza, they were decorating a Christmas tree.
Soft music played inside the restaurant, and the food was quite good. The events of this morning seemed like a lie against the backdrop of such ordinary scenes.
Hee-joo cut a piece of steak and brought it to her mouth. Despite having attended her biological father’s funeral this very morning, the meat went down easily.
That fact was both ironic and faintly absurd.
“Why are you smiling?”
At Liam’s question, Hee-joo’s eyes flickered upward. She must have been actually smiling without realizing it.
“It’s nothing.”
She shook her head, then found herself surprised. Liam’s table manners were impeccably perfect.
His posture was upright, his knife work elegant, and the way he chewed was refined. It could have appeared in a textbook.
Ah, now that I think about it.
She recalled the Wikipedia entry about his family. Without thinking, she spoke his name aloud.
“Liam.”
Liam wiped the corner of his mouth with his napkin and turned his gaze to her.
“Why do you…….”
Hee-joo paused, then swallowed what she was about to say. What was the point of asking?
“It’s nothing.”
“Now I’m curious. Here I was thinking you might start wondering.”
Liam chuckled softly. His eyes narrowed, and his lips curved into a gentle smile.
It was a captivating smile. Enough to steal Hee-joo’s attention.
“Want to know about me?”
“No.”
Hee-joo shook her head flatly. Liam’s eyes narrowed.
“Why? Do you want to erase the line you’ve drawn?”
At his smooth words, she bristled visibly. So Liam had a particular talent—the talent of getting under her skin.
“Can we stop talking about that line? Where is this supposed line anyway?”
“You don’t see it? Right here, the line you’ve drawn.”
Saying this, Liam drew a line across the table with his finger. Even as he did, he set down his knife with impeccable grace.
Hee-joo set down her fork and knife as well, wiped the corner of her mouth with her napkin, and smiled brightly at him.
“Wow, your eyesight must be remarkable. I don’t see anything at all.”
“The person who draws the line never sees it. Only the person cast out beyond it does.”
“Sounds like you’ve been cast out pretty often. You seem to know an awful lot about it.”
“…….”
For a moment, Liam fell silent—the response Hee-joo had expected didn’t come. She opened her eyes wide, studying him.
His expression vanished from his face.
But it was only for an instant. Liam’s face quickly returned to its usual slickness, and his lips curved into a subtle smile.
“I suppose you could say I know well.”
His demeanor was unchanged. Though she stared intently at him, Liam ate his steak as though nothing had happened.
Only after he’d swallowed all the meat in his mouth did Liam ask, his tone casual.
“So you really are curious about me.”
“…….”
“Are you ready to handle it?”
He raised his gaze slowly, meeting her eyes across the table. For a moment, the world around them seemed to fall silent. Or rather, it felt that way.
The laughter faded from his gray-blue eyes. With that alone, every cell in her body tensed.
“Can I come closer to you in earnest?”
The restaurant’s music must still be playing, and people must still be passing outside the windows, yet it felt as though they had fallen into a separate world, just the two of them.
All she could hear was Liam’s quiet breathing, all she could see were his gray-blue eyes.
She couldn’t breathe. An inexplicable tension constricted her throat. Liam didn’t look away from her, and Hee-joo didn’t dare turn her head.
“Not yet.”
Hee-joo managed to part her lips with difficulty. Her voice emerged like water wrung from a dry cloth.
After drinking some water, Hee-joo added the rest after a long pause.
“Not yet.”
Liam gave a light shrug. And with that, time, which had frozen, began to flow again.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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