LOGINSticky July humidity clung to Hyeon-sin's back the moment she stepped out of Gye-yeong's penthouse.
Was it just her imagination, or was it the glint of a beast's eyes flashing in the dark? She could feel gazes scanning her from all directions. It was a trail so blatantly overt it was baffling.
Hyeon-sin turned her steps and headed toward the Gangnam Library. She killed time by aimlessly flipping through pages among the quiet bookshelves. Only after the sun had set did she reach
Kim Gang-mu felt a bizarre sense of disparity as he looked at the part-timer before him.Every time he threw the name 'Lee Shin' into the system for a background check, the data was blocked without even a peep. There were no records, no traces—it was nothingness itself.She seemed like a ghost that didn't exist in this world, or a taboo that someone was desperately trying to conceal.An absurd obsession to protect Han Gyoo-ryeon, and President Baek, who was now unconscious. The situation was tangling up like a knotted ball of yarn.Gang-mu roughly tore off the cloth that covered the kid's eyes. As Hyeon-sin furrowed her brow at the light invading her vision, Gang-mu forced her to sit upright and began the interrogation.“You're a spy planted by President Baek, aren't you?”The suspicion that this kid would become a poison to Ga Gye-yeong and Han Gyoo-ryeon grew. To Gang-mu, this strange fellow now looked like a tumor that n
Sticky July humidity clung to Hyeon-sin's back the moment she stepped out of Gye-yeong's penthouse.Was it just her imagination, or was it the glint of a beast's eyes flashing in the dark? She could feel gazes scanning her from all directions. It was a trail so blatantly overt it was baffling.Hyeon-sin turned her steps and headed toward the Gangnam Library. She killed time by aimlessly flipping through pages among the quiet bookshelves. Only after the sun had set did she reach the vicinity of Han Gyoo-ryeon's company, but Seoul's summer offered no mercy even at night. Hyeon-sin let out a shallow breath in the heat, which felt like a test of her endurance limits.Just how many teams are attached to me? No matter how dense I am, this is practically a wall surrounding me on all sides.Before returning to her lodging, she stopped by a convenience store to buy pain relievers, ice cream, bread, and bottled water.Sitting on a bus stop bench, she peeled
The atmosphere emitted by Ga Gye-yeong was chilling, as if midwinter frost had settled over it.“Thanks to you, I rested well.”Hyeon-sin bowed her head and offered her greetings first, as someone who had received a favor.“You were having a pretty severe nightmare. Is it like that every day?”“It seems I've... caused trouble again. I'm sorry.”“That 'I'm sorry' of yours sounds like nothing more than a casual, everyday formality now.”Hyeon-sin caught her breath slightly at Gye-yeong's razor-sharp sarcasm. Come to think of it, both LF and Gye-yeong were always angry with her.“Perhaps it is. I always seem to... pick exactly the things that require an apology. What time is it now?”“2:00 PM.”“I woke up too late.”Only then did Ga Gye-yeong stare blankly at Hyeon-sin. How could the air become this awkward over a single night?
Hyeon-sin sank back into her dreams.No, it was a fragment of a memory. Cruelly, it was Italy.A strange, foreign land she had shared with LF, Hermann, young Sion, and Muhyul. Before she could even anticipate what kind of pain would poke at her heart again, the scenery shifted back to the ruins of that day—the day she least wanted to remember.Explosions erupted throughout an abandoned building in Rome. Due to someone’s mistake triggering a detonator, the friendly forces were suffering catastrophic damage.Urgent Italian scattered like screams amidst the thick dust. Inside the building, which was practically a minefield, small bombs continued to detonate in a chain reaction.“Evacuate immediately! Only take the wounded. Leave the dead behind!”The cold command fell from the government official coordinating with Hyeon-sin. It was a brutal moment of choice where lives had to be weighed. Yet, as always, Hyeon-sin stubbor
“...Ugh.”Entering the guest room just in case, Gye-yeong stopped in his tracks.As expected, a painful struggle had already begun for the kid, and facing that wretched groan, Gye-yeong could not bring himself to turn back.“...It's my limit.”The sleep-talk mixed with a feebly muttered scream reached Gye-yeong's ears, scratching his heart sharply. Leaning against the door with folded arms, Gye-yeong watched her while pretending to be calm. However, the more her sobbing intensified, the more his composure crumbled like a sandcastle.“It hurts... I don't want... anyone to die.”Between her clothes parted by her staggering movements, the white bandages wrapped tightly around her caught his eye briefly. With a face distorted in pain, she finally spat out words that were truly hard to bear.“Just... kill me. End it... without pain.”Thinking that something terrible would
Before anyone knew it, Kim Gang-mu stepped into the room and stared blankly at the two people on the bed.“I heard the gist of it from Gyoo-ryeon. Thanks, part-timer. I heard your life was even in danger... while protecting that fellow Gyoo-ryeon.”The density of the air wafting over was unusual. Gye-yeong's face was flushed red, losing his usual coolness, and taut veins even stood out on his temples, perhaps due to extreme agitation.“...I'm fine.”And beneath him, the appearance of the greenhorn weeping while trembling her fragile body was pitiful.‘This is much more serious than I thought.’As if trying to ventilate the strangely twisted atmosphere inside the room, Gang-mu intentionally spoke in a lighter tone than usual.“Well, the atmosphere... Gye-yeong-ah, what's the situation?”“...I scolded him a bit,” Gye-yeong replied shortly in a suppressed voice. Gang-mu l







