Seeing his van in the deserted parking lot, Ming You pressed the button on the key fob. In response, the headlights blinked, and the doors unlocked with a quiet click. He didn't approach immediately, instead remaining standing in the shadows, observing the motionless vehicle.
"It's too simple that he just gave the van away..."
A minute passed, then another. The silence was absolute, with only a cold wind pushing a tin can across the asphalt.
Finally, Ming You made up his mind. He walked briskly towards the driver's door, yanked the handle sharply, and immediately jumped back, assuming a defensive stance. Several seconds of tense anticipation... But nothing happened. No explosion, no movement inside. Only the creak of the ill-fitting door in the wind.
Without letting his guard down, he circled around the back of the van and flung open the double doors. Inside the cargo compartment, illuminated by a dim dome light, there was nothing—just dust and a few crumpled newspapers in the corner. That wasn't enough. Ming You took out his phone, turned on the flashlight, and meticulously, centimeter by centimeter, began examining the interior panels, the seams of the upholstery, every corner of the empty metal box. The result was zero.
Then he moved on to the external inspection. He squatted down, felt the wheel arches, checked the door gaps, peered into the cracks under the windows. His hands slid over the cold metal but found nothing unusual. The hood opened with a dull thud. Ming You leaned over the engine compartment, moving aside wires and hoses, shining the flashlight into the darkest corners. And again—nothing foreign.
Next was the cabin. He climbed inside, crawled between the seats, illuminated the space under the dashboard and the seats. His search was rewarded only with the discovery of a worn folder containing the technical passport and insurance documents.
"Why leave the van's documents when you're giving it to your enemy? What are you plotting, Tae 'Sagi'..."
The last option was the undercarriage. Ming You got down on his knees and then fully lay down on the cold asphalt, craning his neck to look under the van. The flashlight beam picked out pipes, levers, and dirt-encrusted casings from the darkness. And then his gaze caught on something strange: several unnaturally regular, flat protrusions pressed against the metal near the longitudinal beams. They didn't look like standard structural elements.
Ming You didn't know much about car mechanics. He took out his phone, found technical diagrams and photos of the undercarriage for his model online. Comparing the images with what he saw, he became convinced within a couple of minutes—these parts were extra.
Reaching the nearest protrusion by hand was impossible. Ming You looked around, his gaze falling on a crooked fence at the edge of the parking lot and the adjacent flower bed. He walked over, pulled an old, half-rotted plank from a crate out of the damp soil with some effort, and returned to the van.
Using the board as a tool, he gave a strong, short strike, knocking the suspicious element out of its mounting place. A dull plastic thud echoed back. Carefully, with the same tool, he rolled the detached part towards himself. It was a flat, dark plastic box the size of a palm, to which bright blue LEDs immediately began blinking like little eyes. On the casing, printed in a careless white font, was a single word: "BOOM!"
Without a second's hesitation, Ming You hurled the box away from himself onto the asphalt and pressed himself flat against the ground, squeezing his eyes shut and covering his head with his hands.
...
Meanwhile, on the street basketball court, the tension hadn't fully dissipated yet. Taek Jung, still flushed from shock, couldn't hold back. He turned to Tae Sagi, who had once again leaned casually against the fence, watching towards the sidewalk.
"So it's true!?" burst out from Taek Jung. "Did you really plant something?"
Tae Sagi slowly shifted his gaze to him, raising one elegant eyebrow.
"Why are you reacting so dramatically, I didn't even get a chance to answer," he said with a light reproach. Then he smiled even wider. "There are no bombs in the van, but there is a little gift from me. And if Ming You notices it..." he paused for dramatic effect, "it means he hasn't disappointed me."
One of the thugs, a skinny guy in a leather jacket, asked timidly:
"What kind of gift?"
"A setup?" snorted Taek Jung.
"Heh-heh," laughed Tae Sagi, and his laughter rang with genuine amusement. "Nothing serious. Just... a little test of attentiveness."
...
Ming You opened one eye. The box lay three meters away, blinking its blue lights serenely. No smoke, no sparks. Slowly, feeling the adrenaline recede, leaving behind irritation and fatigue, he got up, brushed himself off, and approached the device, examining it closely.
No hints of explosives, just a neat plastic casing and blinking diodes. He flipped it over. On the back was a sticker with the logo of some electronics company and a serial number.
"So it's not a bomb..." Ming You said dryly.
...
A silence hung in the air, thick and bewildered. Taek Jung scratched the back of his head, his massive forehead wrinkled with the effort of thought.
"Not a bomb and not a setup... then what?"
"Merely..." began Tae Sagi, but cut himself off, savoring the moment.
...
Ming You kicked the box with his foot. It flipped over, continuing to blink insistently. He picked it up, felt a thin line along the perimeter, and pried open the lid with his fingernail. Inside, soldered to a small circuit board, were a battery, the blinking module itself, and another, larger chip with an antenna. He pulled out the board, examined the markings. A GPS tracker.
"A tracking device..." he mentally noted, and a crooked, joyless smile appeared on his lips. "Clever, very clever, Tae 'Sagi'. To give and simultaneously show that you're being watched. So that he knows he's playing on someone else's field. Or... so that I know what you want me to know?"
He crushed the circuit board under his sneaker, meticulously collected all the fragments, and scattered them into different trash bins in the parking lot. He threw the casing into the bushes, and the blue lights finally went out.
...
"So it's nothing scary," Tae Sagi was saying meanwhile, looking somewhere at the starry sky above the rusty roofs. "I'm sure he'll find it. He's a smart boy, not like some." His gaze slid over Taek Jung, but without malice, rather with a hint of condescending curiosity.
Taek Jung swallowed. Fear of his informal leader battled within him with a burning desire to understand.
"Sagi-nim, it's, of course, none of my business, but..."
"Yes, you're right, it's none of your business," Tae Sagi readily agreed, but then waved his hand. "But fine, ask away, since you're so worried."
"Why plant a tracking device with the goal of Ming You finding it?" Taek Jung forced out.
Tae Sagi turned his whole body towards him, and his eyes gleamed in the dark like a predator's.
"An interesting question. Just wanted to check how cautious he is. How paranoid. After all, you're also sure the van isn't for school or the basketball team, right? Or haven't you figured it out yet?"
Taek Jung blinked in confusion.
"Huh? Then what is it for?"
"I don't have an answer to that question yet," Tae Sagi admitted, and a touch of pensiveness entered his voice for the first time that evening. "Only guesses. Very interesting guesses."
"Forgive my impudence, but may I know your guesses?" Taek Jung risked.
The most mischievous, most insane smile of the entire evening bloomed on Tae Sagi's face. He put a finger to his lips, as if sharing a terrible secret.
"For now, my only guess is..." he paused, savoring the collective attention, "...is that he's going to visit cemeteries, dig up corpses, and fuck them in the van."
"..."
Everyone present froze. The silence became tomb-like. Someone on the bench choked on their own saliva.
Tae Sagi looked at their wide-eyed stares and burst out laughing, a pure, ringing laugh.
"Haha! Just kidding! Maybe not cemetery corpses. Maybe fresh ones..."
"..."
A sigh, full not so much of horror as of complete cognitive dissonance, swept through the small group. They looked at Tae Sagi, not knowing whether to laugh, cry, or slowly crawl away.
Tae Sagi wiped a non-existent tear from the corner of his eye.
"Ah, you guys are so boring," he sighed sarcastically, and all his playfulness instantly evaporated, replaced by businesslike coldness. "Well, thank you for the information about this Ming You. I won't distract you from your important matters, so I ask you not to distract me from mine. I need to go visit someone. So... bye-bye!"
Without adding another word, he turned and walked towards the court exit with a leisurely, loose gait, dissolving into the night as suddenly as he had appeared. The white shirt with the spider-web pattern flashed one last time and was gone.
On the bench, everyone, as if on command, stood up and made a respectful, deep bow in the direction where he had just been. Even Taek Jung. Then they slowly straightened up, exchanging silent, utterly bewildered glances.