Project 13 | English

Chapter 10 - 서명호

Number 10 - 07.11.2019

I have to be honest, I've done a lot of things wrong in this life.

The highlight of my life was definitely when I was nineteen, shortly before my death.

In that life, born without parents, growing up in an orphanage and sometimes living on the streets, I took many different paths.

At first I wanted to get back at my parents and live a good life as a high school teacher, turned out my interested in that field dissapeared rapidly after beefing with one of my teachers.

After that I just wanted to work in a supermarket or a pharmacy.

For a while, I even thought about prostitution.

Luckily, I ended up discovering a racetrack on an evening when I actually wanted to get drunk.

I was slightly drunk at the time, so I sneaked onto the track like a madwoman and ran towards the speeding car.

He was the only reason I didn't lose my life that day.

Seo Myungho, actually Xu Minghao.

A very dangerous person.

I still remember him getting out of the car in a rage after missing me by a hair's breadth.

He shouted at me, pushed me and hated me for the fact that his racing car now had to go to the workshop because of me.

The hatred lasted for years.

When I decided to race illegally two months after the incident, I met him again.

He was a legend in illegal street racing. The best of the best.

He was all the more furious when a newbie came along and came pretty close to him in terms of his skills.

A years-long rivalry began between us.

He still hated me because of the incident and I hated him because he was simply better than me.

Xu Minghao was like a boulder that I couldn't even push over with all my strength.

So I challenged him to a race every two months.

He won most of the time, of course.

On November 6, 2019, a third one came between us.

His name was Jungwoo, the best racer in his area.

Previously, only two racers could compete against each other, but Jungwoo showed us a way in which all three of us could race against each other.

The next evening, all the people I knew who usually came to the street races gathered.

It was the biggest event of the year.

The race started like any other, but my car was going slower than I wanted it to.

It wasn't long before the boys were almost nowhere to be seen.

At the time, I was still so sure that Minghao had something to do with it.

I was sure that he was sabotaging my race car so that I couldn't overtake him.

At some point, we reached the point where we had to ride around a dangerous mountain.

The height of this hill made me feel insecure, so I slowed down.

The boys were thinking the same thing, because I caught up with them after a short while.

I was watching their driving closely when I noticed that Jungwoo was approaching Minghao's car. Minghao's car was on the downhill side.

My heart skipped a beat when I realized what was happening.

Suddenly Jungwoo accelerated and pushed Minghao's car off the bridge.

He had difficulty getting his car back onto the straight road and a short time later he also fell off the mountain.

Slowly but surely, I arrived at the point where Minghao's car had crashed.

I got out and walked towards the edge of the road.

Just at that moment, there was an explosion at the foot of the mountain and a fire broke out.

Xu Minghao died instantly. There was no hope of rescue.

Maybe I should never have started racing illegally.

Maybe I shouldn't have made that bet.

Maybe I shouldn't have stopped in the middle of the road.

Or maybe I should have gotten out of the way when I saw a car speeding uncontrollably towards me on November 7, 2019, taking me to Minghao.