Money Loving CEO's Detective Lover

"Mina!" Kanji called her name in a hoarse tone but she was completely out cold and tied to a tree. He tried to walk towards her but he could not do so. There was a salt circle around him which prevented him from going out of it and his hands were tied with peach branches. The branches cut into his skin in a painful manner and he felt the skin burning.     

"Don't overexert yourself!" Haejong scolded him. "The more you'll move, the deeper they'll cut into the skin."     

"But…"     

"Just calm down and think!"     

Kanji could not calm down but Haejong was right. He must calm down. Taking a few deep breaths, he looked around.     

They were in the middle of a thick forest which was completely dark and eerily silent. They had been kept there for hours but no animals came their way. The trees were looming above them, blocking all light while an unsettling fog engulfed them. The ground was damp underneath his feet and the air stank of rotten woods and animal carcasses. The thick set of trees blocked him from seeing anything beyond a few feet. Long tresses of branches hung from the trees but Kanji tried not to let them touch him in case they were poisonous and harmed Haejong's body.     

"This looks like a very deep part of the forest past the highway," Haejong commented.      

"Why did they bring us here?" Kanji wondered.     

He could feel Haejong was thinking hard. "Don't you think it's too quiet?" Haejong finally asked.     

"It's a forest," Kanji shrugged. "I doubt people would come here."     

"No no," Haejng said. "Listen! Do you hear anything at all? Any cries of insects or animals? Birds? Can you hear at all?"     

Kanji frowned and listened hard. To his surprise, Haejong was right. There were no sounds at all. In fact, it was completely silent. Were forests supposed to be like that?      

He recalled his own experience when he went to search for the CCK with Minho. Even if it was late at night, there were some sounds like cicadas crying or owls hooting. But here, there were no sounds. None at all.     

"No living beings come this way," he realized. The fog was thickening with every minute, swirling like a white blanket around them. Mina was still unconscious and unaware of their situation.     

"The salt is stuck to the ground," Kanji gritted. He tried to blow on it to create an opening but that damn bitch Anna was well prepared. Their phones were taken away and he had no idea how deep they were inside the forest.     

Mina moaned a little and fluttered her eyes open.      

"Mina!" Kanji called out. "Are you alright?"     

She peered around in confusion. "Where are we?" she asked.     

"I don't know," Kanji whispered. Mina tried to let herself loose but the more she tried, the tighter her binds got. She glanced at him and noticed that Kanji was locked inside a salt circle only a few feet away from her.     

"Salt…" she moaned. Kanji frowned for a moment before it hit him. Salt! She would find out he was a spirit!     

To his surprise, she did not ask him anything but was trying to reach for the salt with her foot to push it a little.     

"What are you doing?" he asked slowly.     

"Trying to move some of the salt with my foot," she explained. Mina pushed her foot further but it was still a few inches far. Kanji frowned but he stepped ahead to push the salt with his foot but as soon as he touched it, an electric shock coursed through his body and he fell backwards.     

"AGH!" he yelled. Something slightly ripped on his back and he felt his shirt getting soaked.     

"Don't touch it you idiot!" Mina scolded him. "Salt will hurt you and Haejong's stitches will be ripped!"     

Kanji froze upon hearing her words. Ignoring the pain on his back, he sat up to face her, his mind full of questions.     

"You…" he began but Mina sighed.     

"You should really stop repeating your advice," she said in a sad tone. "What you told me on the beach, is something only Kanji had told me. Only an idiot would miss out on those words."     

"You...you knew it was me?" he whispered.     

Mina flashed him a sad smile, her eyes tearing up. "Jang Kanji showing up in the hospital to visit me in a green shirt and no gifts?" she slightly snorted. "That demon doesn't know you at all. Very sloppy work. Why else do you think I didn't address you as Haejong after our trip to the beach?"     

Kanji could not believe what he heard. Now that he reflected on their short time together, he realized that after their beach trip, she never addressed him as Haejong. And at the fair, she also snatched away the tea from his hands. It struck him as odd but she must have tasted peach flavor in it. The woman at the fair had figured out he was a spirit and tried to harm him but Mina saved him.     

Like she always did.     

There was a long stretch of silence between them as they braced themselves to face the reality hovering ahead of them. They did not dare to express their feelings out loud this time. What would they express? A promise of love? Or the pain of separation?     

Kanji was about to say something when they heard the crunching of leaves and several footsteps approaching them.     

"A sad love story…"     

Anna's twisted smile was taunting them as she stepped forward. Jason was with her, still under her spell. He was giving them a blank stare, unthinking and uncaring.     

"Don't worry," Anna told them. "Once we open the Gates of Hell, we'll make sure that you two are sent off together to the Afterlife. It's not a bad deal, right? If both of you are dead, then you won't be separated!"     

Kanji snarled at her. "You really think that demon is gonna let you live?" he demanded. "He cares about no one but himself! He'll kill you too-"     

"My master knows I have served him faithfully," Anan claimed in a soft tone. "And I'll keep on serving him until I get what I want. He promised me and demons are bound to keep their promise…"     

"Let's see," Mina said coolly. "We don't fear death but it seems that you do. I wonder what sort of deal you made with him and what he's gonna take from you."     

"From me or from you?" Anna snickered. Behind her, Jason still stood like a statue.     

"What do you mean?" Mina hissed.     

"Oh honey…"     

Anna stooped down and touched Mina's stray strand of hair. Mina flinched her face away but Anna grabbed her chin and looked directly into her eyes.     

"Listen here, Miss Doctor," Anna said in a threatening tone. "What we seek is beyond your comprehension. To cancel a deal with the Devil, once has to give him something even greater in value to exchange. And we have the perfect soul to exchange. So if you want to live, just behave. Got it?"     

She shook Mina away and turned around to leave. Jason was about to follow her when Kanji yelled out.     

"Dad!" he cried. "Dad, it's me! It's your Kanji! Dad, she's the one who killed me and turned me into a ghost! You're helping the wrong person! Help Minho find us!"     

When Jason did not reply, Kanji went on. "Dad, she was the one who tricked me and killed me! The 'Kanji' in your mansion isn't me! That's the demon who's her master! Talk to Minho, dad! He'll tell you the truth!"     

His father was completely under Anna's spell and did not even glance at him. Kanji felt his hopes being crushed but he still prayed that his father would at least acknowledge his words. But he was completely under Anna's mercy.     

Kanji stared at Jason's back but the man did not turn around. Instead, he kept on following Anna, not heeding to his son's pleas.     

"Dad…" Kanji whispered. Mina was also staring at Jason's back, feeling all their hope disappear. But Anna's words were also ringing in her ears.     

"Kanji…" she said slowly. "What did that hoe mean when she said that in order to cancel a deal with the Devil, they'll have to give something even greater in value to exchange?"     

He frowned a little. "After they killed me, Anyal told me to tell the Hwang's that he wanted Jina," he recalled. "And as far as I know, Anyal's dead girlfriend made some deal with the Devil and when it was complete, the Devil took her soul. So Anyal is opening the Gates of Hell to bring back his gal."     

Mina was suddenly frightened. "We'll have to tell the others!" she exclaimed. "This deal...this isn't simply to rescue his girlfriend! He's plotting something else!"     

"Then what is it?"     

"It's an exchange!" Mina realized. "He's exchanging the soul of his girlfriend for Jina!"