The night was frosty. In the dark sky, stars shone far away, perfectly clear. It was late. Streets, boulevards, dead ends, narrow paths, everything was empty under the pale streetlights.
Only a garland of red trucks and white cars with blue revolving lights was speeding through the city.
The hotel was burning.
Nineteen stories filled with guests as Christmas and new Year holidays were close, right in the heart of Seoul.
Hundreds of people to evacuate, at three o'clock in the morning.
A nightmare.
On the fifteenth floor, the corridor was filled with thick smoke.
It was very hot, suffocating.
People rushed to the fire escape, staggering and shouting with fright, rolled up in their sheets or hardly dressed, wet towels on their faces or around their heads.
The young man who held the half-opened door and encouraged the traffic of the stream of people, had a handkerchief in his hand, but constantly forgot to put it back on his mouth, while he supported, pushed and pulled the fugitives.
He had short brown messy hair and catlike eyes, as highlighted by eyeliner. His business shoes were loosened and he wore light cotton black pajama pants. His white pullover was dirtied with dust and sweat.
- "Go, go, go… don't push… help is down there… come on, madam… get up, sir – hold on, help this person…"
He never stopped talking, calling up, coughing from time to time, his cornea reddened by the bitter smoke.
The corridor was soon empty and according to the silence which had established in the ceiling, the upper floor was already evacuated. From the cold and spotless stairwell came up the noise of sirens and voices below.
- "Go, go, go…"
The last customers of the floor walked past him, stumbling, terrified, nose protected by tempered T-shirts. He glanced behind him, getting ready to follow them, then decided otherwise.
And if someone was stuck somewhere?
His hand on the emergency exit handle, he stopped and listened.
His ears were filled with the evacuation running steps, with the crackling of flames on the other floors, with the deaf humming of the smoke.
He shook his chin, pinched his lips with a raised eyebrow as he thought it through. Then he decided and let go of the handle to return at the end of the corridor.
The fire was very close by, gone down in waterfall through the elevator shafts. The heat was unbearable.
He pushed the door of the first bedroom, winking, his handkerchief on the face.
- "Anyone in here? Hello!"
He quickly checked the rooms, brushing away the sweat that kept streaming in the eyes.
No one was there.
He got back to the corridor, coughing and spitting, checked the second bedroom, then the following one.
Did not go to the next one - It was his - and staggered in the fifth. He stopped a moment, rested against the wall. His legs were shaking. His lungs hurt and his mouth was filled with a dry and rough taste.
- "Hello! Anyone! Please!"
He was just a few rooms away from the emergency exit when he smelt it.
The smell of blood, perfectly distinct in the fog of smoking and burning around him.
Then he heard the voices.
A man who tried to clear his throat, and a child crying.
He gave a shoulder blow to the flap, followed the corridor of the room entrance, looking for them.
There was an a gust of ardent wind charged with sparks when he opened the bathroom door.
- "Anyone here? D'you need help?"
The man who lifted his eyes was kneeling on the flooded tiled floor and had the skower knob in his hand. His short hair dripped and his white shirt was transparent, water stuck on his broad shoulders and hollowing in his back. He held in his arms a three or four years old sobbing little girl with golden curls, barefoot, wrapped in his suit jacket.
There were glass bits everywhere.
And a pool of blood, coming from under the body of a European man laying under the sink, with glassy opened eyes.
The young man registered the scene in a few seconds, then bent towards the stranger who looked at him with almond eyes lined with dark lashes.
- "We need to get out of here", he said without asking questions.
The other one grabbed his him arm and squeezed it.
- "Take the kid and run off."
His voice was hoarse.
The young man looked at him thoroughly. Then he freed his arm.
- "Min Tae-yeon" he introduced himself briefly, while he helped up the man. "I'll carry her, but we get away together."
The man swayed on his feet, then smiled, showing wolf teeth as he gave him the child. He quickly wiped the tumified corner of his mouth.
One of his hands was pressed on his side, soaked with scarlet and dark liquid.
- "Yeo Ji-Hoon", he said casually, as if they were not in the middle of a burning building. "This guy's dead, no need to worry about him."
Tae-yeon allowed himself a brief smile, then grabbed the belt of the man who was leaning on his shoulders as they went to the door.
- "You a doctor?"
- "Nope, a detective. Thanks for coming."
- "Thank me when we're safe and sound down there."
The fire breath whirled at them in the corridor, thick and crackling, stifling, acid.
Tae-yeon hesitated for a moment, disorientated, then found his mark on the wall on the opposite side.
- "This way", he coughed.
There was no way he could hold a handkerchief in front of his mouth, with one of his arms rolled up around the child on one side and the other one clenched to support the stranger.
They reached the staircase faster than he had expected, and dropped on the steps on the sixteenth floor after pulling the protection door.
- "Help is down below", said Tae-yeon, trying desperately to clear his lungs and his throat. "We're almost there."
The smoke had left blackish tracks on his fine aristocratic face.
The other man tried to swallow, coughed and spat. His shirt was already dry with the heat. He passed his wrist on his sweaty forehead, then bent towards the child sitting next to him.
- "You okay? Don't be afraid. These ajhussis are going to take care of you, don't worry."
Tae-yeon pulled an amused smile.
The masculine face of the man was far from being reassuring in this context, and his deep voice did not smooth the words.
The little girl's chin was trembling. She had big and round blue eyes, and angelic golden curls.
- "What's your name?" tried Tae-yeon, after consulting his watch and deciding they could get five minutes of rest before going down, in the state they were in.
- "L-lo-oo-lo-is."
Tae-yeon smiled friendly at her, held out his hand to touch her cheek gently. She didn't move, big tears running on her smoky cheeks.
- "Lois", repeated Ji-Hoon firmly. " Who was the guy with you? Your father? A kidnapper?"
Tae-yeon glared at him.
- "If you're well enough to investigate her, let's go", he cut in sharply.
He took the child in his arms, propped her up on his hip while observing the way the other man got up slowly, grimacing with pain, a hand on his wound.
- "How did this happen?"
- "Glass from of the shower", said Ji-Hoon. "And you, you're in the business, as well, aren't you? Let's go."
Tae-yeon raised an eyebrow.
- "I'm a prosecutor", he threw, passing in front of the other one.
Behind him, he heard the laughter, quickly turning into a gurgle because of the inhalations of smoke, as he scrutinized the plan of evacuation in the staircase, loking for a water spot or a telephone.
They slowly made their way down.
Tae-yeon's back hurt under the weight of Lois, unexpectedly. Probably because he had inhaled too much gaz and smoke. Ji-Hoon kept going without complaining, but his wrinkled face was streaming with sweat. In the bluish neon light, he was not much older than the prosecutor, hardly five or six years older, maybe.
The little girl said nothing, her round and upset face snuggled up against Tae-yeon's shoulder, hiccupping like a frightened mouse from time to time.
On every floor, Tae-yeon expected to find a rescue team, but there was no one.
They stopped on the eighth floor, exhausted. Ji-Hoon slid on the ground, looking grey. Tae-yeon sat down heavily next to him and put the child down. He patted her head and smiled at her, trying to look encouraging.
- "How many steps left?" asked the detective, closing his eyes.
- "A lot", answered the prosecutor.
He glanced at the wound. Blood had soaked the shirt and darkened the young man's trousers. His chest raised with difficulty and his breath was labored.
-"You gonna be okay?"
Ji-Hoon reopened his eyes.
- "Yeah, sure", he lied.
Tae-yeon gave him a sceptical eyebrow but did not push on the issue. For the nth time, he searched his pockets and sighed, remembering he had put his cellphone on the nightshelf before going to bed.
- "This guy… who was it? Why were you in the bedroom?"
- "I was in the room next door", explained Ji-Hoon with a tired voice. " I heard something weird, like a fight, then a shout. The hotel's not really soundproofed."
Tae-yeon agreed.
From his bedroom, he had been able to follow all the broadcast program of his left neighbor.
- "I went to knock at the door, it was opened… I came in just as the fire alarm rang. I just had the time to open the bathroom door then the criminal got out, throwing me in the shower cubicle on his way. When I woke up, the kid was there."
The detective stopped talking. He looked exhausted.
Tae-yeon rested his head against the wall, massaging his tired neck.
- "The job follows us everywhere, as they say", he mumbled with irony.
The other young man had a small sarcastic laughter.
- "I'd say we're looking for it, actually."
Tae-yeon smiled again, half jokingly, half saddened. He turned to the blond little girl.
- "No good for those of us who want to settle and have children."
There was a silence, then Ji-Hoon spoke, hoarsly.
- "You married?"
- "No, I'm not. But I have a friend who believes in true love and who'd like to be…"
He laughed for himself.
- "He'd make a good father, I think."
For a few minutes, he savored the moment of grace, the immaterial bubble which wrapped them with supernatural peace.
- "What about you?"
- "I'm not."
The detective's voice was dark and he looked straight in front of him. Then his almond eyes returned to the prosecutor, softened.
- "Our sunbae also would like to get married", he said in an almost shy voice, a smile touching his lips. "But he has no luck, murders always happen when he's having the first date."
Tae-yeon sniffed, amused.
- "That reminds me…"
Ji-Hoon searched suddenly in his pocket, suppressing a groan when the move made him contort a little.
He got out his cellphone.
- "We should tell someone we're still in here…"
Tae-yeon's eyes glistened as he snatched the phone.
- "It's only now you remember you have it?"
The other one just looked up and down without any sign of contrition.
The prosecutor composed the emergency number and stuck the mobile phone against his ear.
- Ajhussi…
They turned to the child at the same time.
She was pointing a trembling finger to the door in front of them.
Tae-yeon leaped up, picked her in his arms and held out his hand to help Ji-Hoon to his feet. They tumbled down the steps without looking back.
The door had grown red, bathed in a trembling aura, like a mirage.
It exploded when they were almost on the sixth floor, throwing a maelstrom of ardent air and incandescent smoke in the staircase.
- "It's gonna be on us before we reach the evacuation floor", panted the detective. "Go first with the kid, hurry up! "
He coughed, bending over.
Blood drops splashed on the stairs. Tae-yeon stopped, came back, a hand in front of his mouth, throat blocked, lungs on fire. His eyes tickled and cried.
He crossed again the man's arm over his shoulders and supported him, his fingers hooked on the detective's belt.
The smell of the blood cleared itself a passage through the stenches of smoke and burned plastic and Tae-yeon felt his strength suddenly renewed, dizzingly. His ears tinkled and the staircase seemed a waltz of cold and bluish walls.
They managed to get to the flat roof of the third floor, exhausted and out of breath.
For a moment, the ardent flames rose in their back as the immensely dark sky, filled with ice-cold stars, appeared in front of them, then the buildings, lights of the city, uniforms of the fire brigades, ad screens started to stirr in a terrible speed.
People were running to them, exclaiming - yellow helmets, nurses.
Tae-yeon saw of an anxious face, black beard and big familiar eyes.
Ji-Hoon caught a glimpse of a bald skull and little curls, small eyes the concern had reduced to the state of cracks.
As in a slow fog, without sound, two women rushed to them, distraught …
Then everything went black.
Tae-yeon came back to consciousness feeling a big bear paw crushing his shoulder with sympathy. He squinted and turned over immediately on his side, coughing and spitting.
- "Prosecutor Min? Boss! Boss, you okay? How'd you feel?"
He winked, then frowned, sarcastic.
- "Isn't it obvious?" he articulated hoarsly.
Prosecutor Yoo Jung-In's dark hair entered his field of vision, then her mouth with the sulky pout, and finally her eyes - slopped with tears like baby eyes.
He pulled a condescending smile.
- "I'm great."
They looked more relieved by his tone than by the way he looked. He slowly became aware of what surrounded him.
He was on a stretcher, behind an ambulance. The blond little girl was in a nurse's arms some steps away, and stared at him over the blanket she was wrapped in.
Further, there was another stretcher around which a rescuer bustled. He could only see Ji-Hoon's long legs. His head was hidden by a young woman dressed in a green anorak lined with white fur.
- "How is he?" asked Tae-yeon with some difficulty, gesturing with his chin in the direction of the group.
Jung-In frowned a nostril.
- "Well, he's okay. You saved him, boss."
Soon-Bum had a small relieved laughter. He rubbed his neck.
- "He's almost as tough as you. It's a well-known detective, y'know. They call him the Monster."
Hwang's special rolling of eyes, then a not too discreet whisper.
- "Maybe that's why you both got out of here, hey? Needed to be more than human to make it…"
Tae-yeon blew his most severe eye warning at him, but his best friend just laughed, too satisfied to have him back to care about scolding. Yoo Jung-In looked at them alternately, puzzled, then gave up.
Tae-yeon hadn't noticed she had her hand on his arm and she planned to leave it there as long as possible.
- "Mr. Min's friends, back out a little please, we're leaving", announced a rescuer, approaching.
The stretcher was cleared. The same operation took place near the other vehicle, and people moved away.
The prosecutor caught a glimpse of Ji-Hoon's face and met his eyes.
For a moment, time and space were suspended.
Then they exchanged the same small half-smile, a little ironic, before nodding at each other.
Both strechers were lifted into the ambulances, then the doors were closed.
Both ambulances drove up to the end of the street, then parted at the crossroad.
The night was almost over and the stars were starting to fade, high above.