The overpass was dead but it still tried to move
Wind shoved through the gaps where concrete used to be whole pushing dust in long sheets making the wrecked cars creak like they were complaining the city below was a dark grid of rooftops and broken signs and the sunset made everything look warm enough to forgive it
Jung Min walked like he owned the silence not proud not careless just certain
Azari kept a step behind him eyes scanning hands half ready to grab his sleeve and yank him down if the world decided to snap
"You feel that" she said
Jung Min didn't answer right away because he did the air wasn't loud but it wasn't empty either it was thin like the space was paying attention
Then it happened
A sound that came late
A crack that didn't match the timing of the impact
His jacket snapped open at the shoulder as if someone had flicked it with a blade
Jung Min shifted sideways and the second hit punched sparks off the rebar behind him
Azari dropped flat instantly no hesitation her breath stopped like she trained for it
Jung Min looked forward not down not back forward
A sniper never lives behind you
A sniper lives in your future where you are about to step
He crouched behind a crushed sedan not because it was cover because it was a question
The overpass gave him long lines and bad options every piece of cover was a coffin if the shooter was good enough
Azari whispered from the asphalt "where"
Jung Min listened not for the shot for the delay
The wind carried sound weird up here it twisted it stretched it
But the impact that was honest
"High left" he said
Another round hit the car not the hood not the door the place his head would have been if he leaned to look
That was the message
I know how you look
Jung Min breathed out slow let his shoulders drop forced his body to stop doing the standard things a man does when he tries to survive
Because whoever was out there wasn't shooting at him
He was shooting at Jung Min the idea
The predictable version
Azari lifted her head an inch and Jung Min tapped the ground twice a command to stay down
He moved
Not like a soldier
Not like a saint
Not like a gunman who wanted to look clean
He moved wrong
He stepped out from cover then stepped back in
He started to sprint then stopped
He ran three steps to the right then cut left like he forgot his own plan
He let his foot scrape on purpose let the gravel betray him then changed direction before the sound finished traveling
The next shot came and missed
Not by much but by enough
Jung Min felt it in his chest not relief confirmation
This shooter was reading intention not position
Jung Min slid behind a line of wrecks used the gaps under bumpers used the rebar shadows used the wind
He wasn't closing distance by speed
He was closing distance by confusion
Azari crawled after him staying low her movements clean and quiet she had the instincts of someone who grew up learning to not be noticed
"Jung Min" she said
He didn't look back
"I know" he said
She heard it too
The change
The shots were coming faster now
The sniper was getting annoyed
That was the only good sign
Jung Min reached the broken edge of the overpass where the guardrail had peeled away he glanced down to the street too far too open too many angles
He stayed on the overpass
He wanted the shooter to keep the same rules
Keep the same sightline
Keep thinking this was a range problem
A shot slammed into the concrete near Azari and she flinched hard then went still again
Jung Min touched her shoulder once not comfort instruction
"Stay"
He rose just enough to see through the torn frame of a billboard
And there he was
Far ahead up on a collapsed ramp that gave him height and a clean line
A man kneeling behind a slab of concrete like it was built for him
Long rifle steady posture no drama
The kind of calm you only get from experience or emptiness
Even from this distance Jung Min could feel the intent
Not hate
Not fear
Analysis
The man lowered the rifle like he had already decided something and began to move
So he was not married to the scope
He was not a statue
He was coming down to finish it closer
Jung Min smiled once without joy
"Okay" he muttered "you want a conversation"
They met in the middle ground where the wrecks made a narrow corridor
Wind screamed through busted doors
Sunlight flashed off shattered glass
The space between them was full of dust and timing
The man stepped out from behind a flipped van and raised a handgun like it was part of his arm
Jung Min's pistol was already up
No words at first
That mattered
They fired
Not wild
Not loud
Measured
Two shots from the other man tight grouping where Jung Min's chest would be if he stood square
Jung Min angled his body fired once to force a flinch fired again to push the man behind cover
The bullets weren't the point yet
The point was to see how the other reacted
The man moved with discipline not panic
He swapped hands on the grip cleanly while sliding behind the van's engine block
He didn't waste shots
He didn't chase noise
Jung Min watched the hands and the feet
He didn't look at the face
A face could lie
Hands and feet never did
Azari stayed back behind a wreck hugging the concrete eyes wide but focused
She didn't scream
She didn't freeze
She watched like she was learning what kind of world this new volume was about to be
Jung Min changed rhythm again
He popped out on the wrong side of cover fired low to break the man's stance
Then he rushed
The distance collapsed fast
Ten meters turned into five
The other man didn't retreat
He stepped in too
They hit each other hard shoulder to chest and the pistols became useless immediately
The man drove an elbow into Jung Min's ribs compact and sharp
Jung Min answered with a forearm across the collarbone to disrupt balance
They grappled for wrist control both trying to take the other's gun without wasting effort
The man was stronger
Jung Min was calmer
The man shoved Jung Min into the side of a bus wreck metal groaned
Jung Min used the push to pivot slipped a hand under the man's arm and turned his shoulder line
A clean move not fancy just efficient
They broke apart for half a second
Enough to see each other
The man had a scar at the edge of his eyebrow not dramatic old
Eyes flat and clear
Someone who didn't hallucinate meaning into things
He spoke finally voice low wind stealing half the words
"You're the only one who isn't acting like the world changed"
Jung Min kept his gun half raised but didn't fire
The man continued like he couldn't stop himself now
"Everyone else looks up like they expect a hymn to cut their throat"
"I don't"
"I need to know why you don't"
Jung Min breathed once and felt the station chamber in his memory the word becoming the monitor asking is this correct
He thought of silence as something you choose not something you earn
He answered the man straight
"Because I stopped listening to it"
The man's eyes narrowed not in anger
In recognition
That tiny pause was the opening
Jung Min moved first not to kill to escape the pin this conversation was becoming
He knocked the man's handgun off line stepped inside the man's reach and shoved him back into cover
Both of them snapped their guns up again
Two men standing ten meters apart
Sunset behind them
Wind between them
Silence wrapping the whole scene like a curtain
Neither shot
The man lowered his weapon a fraction
"What's your name" he asked
Jung Min didn't give it
Instead he said "If you missed the bells"
"Then you missed the lesson"
The man watched him like he wanted to disagree but couldn't find the words
Azari's voice came from behind the wreck careful
"Jung Min"
He glanced back once to make sure she was still down and breathing and real
Then he looked at the man again
The man lifted his chin slightly
"Han Dae Rin" he said like he was offering a card not a threat
Jung Min nodded once not friendly not hostile
"Stay off my line" Jung Min said
Han Dae Rin gave a thin almost-smile that didn't reach his eyes
"Youre the line" he said
Jung Min backed away without turning his back
Azari rose and followed him still low
The overpass wind swallowed their footsteps as they moved into the wrecked corridor and let the sunset hide them
Behind them the man did not shoot
He stood alone with a rifle a pistol and a question that would not stop pulsing
And somewhere deep under Yunhwa
something else listened too