AGENT 15

Whether Glasses had read the expression on Yongnae’s face, which looked as if his head might explode from complicated thoughts, he suggested a plan that might alleviate at least a bit of the hesitating Yongnae’s worries.

“Hmm… How about you leave out the part about the murderer, Researcher, and just say you were kidnapped by us for reasons unknown?”

“…Pardon?”

“In fact, this is a kidnapping. Anyway, whether we catch that guy a week from now or not, we will release you after paying the promised amount.”

“…”

“How does that sound?”

Only the bald man with the snakeskin tattoo and Yongnae were left in this model-home-like house. Glasses had left with the other organization members, saying they would see each other tomorrow, but the bald man seemed to have been left behind to monitor him.

“…”

“…”

Looking at the bald man’s snakeskin tattoo made him feel uncomfortable because it was scary and creepy. He would have felt more at ease with Glasses, who spoke Korean well. But did Glasses speak Korean well? Or was he Korean? Based on his way of speaking and the flow of conversation, he did seem Korean.

Yongnae awkwardly stood up from the sofa while watching the bald man’s reaction, then walked toward the nearest room to check which room he would be staying in.

“That’s my room.”

Just then, from behind, the bald man stopped Yongnae in Korean, saying that place was his room.

“Ah…”

What, he can speak Korean? Yongnae turned back to the bald man, his eyes widening slightly in surprise.

“That one is your room. That way is the bathroom.”

The bald man pointed with his finger toward the opposite door and the door in between. He pronounced things as clearly as someone who had lived in Korea for at least ten years; Yongnae wondered if he spoke Korean that well because he had spent a long time with Glasses. Yongnae nodded awkwardly again and went to the place indicated as his room, opening the door and stepping inside.

As he turned on the switch right next to the door, the interior of the room was revealed, decorated in white tones just like the living room. Though calling it an interior was a stretch, as there was only a bed, a table, and a single chair.

Nevertheless, it looked atmospheric and very clean. It was an atmosphere in total contrast to his room in the Jeonju house, which had green wallpaper, wooden furniture, and the cloud-patterned blanket he had been using for ten years. Was the bald man’s preference white?

Rattle—

Yongnae had the habit of never lying on a bed without washing up, so he pulled out the chair tucked inside the table and sat down. Since it wasn’t actually his bed, he could have just lied down, but habits ingrained in the body were unavoidable.

“Sigh…”

Yongnae let out a long sigh and slumped forward onto the table. Was this really right? No matter how much he thought about it, this was absolutely outside his common sense.

For him, it was about helping to catch a bad murderer, but for these people, it wasn’t so much about catching the murderer as it was about finding the hidden route of the middleman that the murderer might have. And if they found that route, they would also recover the 300 kg of raw materials, and after that, they would produce even more drugs.

Looking at the result, this wasn’t a pursuit purely for the sake of justice. He couldn’t say he had participated in a bad deed, but he couldn’t say he hadn’t either. It was something that significantly clashed with Yongnae’s moral ideology, and the scale was far too large to be dismissed as a mere deviation. It was something outside the lines of what Yongnae could handle.

However, the opportunity to receive 300 million, or even 50 million, just for sniffing for a few days was rare. It was said that if you hear something evil, act like a deaf person, but could this proposal of choosing the lesser evil to eliminate the worst evil be called purely evil?

Even a sage like Confucius might have wavered a little if he had received this proposal.

Vibrate—

[Mother: Have you arrived?]

He tried to comfort himself with that, but in truth, there was another reason bigger than money for accepting this proposal. His head was desperately shouting that it was because of the money, but he was aware to some extent that another reason had made him stay here.

It was because of that expectation that he might be able to see the man again during the period he helped the organization find the murderer—that was why he had stayed here.

Of course, since he wasn’t gay, it wasn’t some nonsense reason like falling in love with the man at first sight.

Then?

Then… yes. He just wanted to ask. Why he had risked taking him to collect the air from Room 1204—he just wanted to ask that.

Vibrate—

[Choi Dawon: Why is there no reply? You’re coming to work on Monday, right?]

Yes. There really was no other reason.

He couldn’t sleep a wink last night. It was because calls from his family kept coming, but he couldn’t answer them, nor could he reply. He wanted to answer the phone immediately to reassure his parents, who would be worried, but he thought that might cause problems later when he returned to his normal daily life using the excuse of having been kidnapped, so he ultimately did not pick up.

He had never been a son who caused his parents grief. Not that his older brothers had driven nails into their parents’ hearts, but he had planned his own life and followed through, relieving his parents of some of their worries regarding the three brothers; to think he was causing them such great worry now. He was filled with nothing but apologies.

Eventually, by the time it turned blue outside, the phone battery died and it turned off; only then could Yongnae, who had been unable to sleep while staring at the constantly ringing screen, close his eyes to fall asleep.

However, he had to snap his eyes open again immediately.

“They will track the last location before the phone turned off, so we have to move our quarters.”

His parents would definitely report him missing since he couldn’t be reached, and judging by the experience he had gained from years of watching crime shows, the police would grasp his movements starting from the location where the phone turned off once they began the investigation.

It would show that he stayed here for at least seven hours, so the police might search this entire building. If so, there was a high probability of being discovered by the police before catching the murderer.

That was why Yongnae burst out of his room and insisted they had to move their quarters as soon as he felt the sign of the bald man waking up outside. However, the bald man, who was heading toward the kitchen, glanced up and down at Yongnae once, then replied as if it were no big deal while moving toward the refrigerator again.

“I turned the location off yesterday.”

“…Pardon?”

“On the first floor.”

“…Ah.”

This organization was much more meticulous, systematic, and conscientious than he thought. The fact that they hadn’t turned the phone off but only turned off the location before giving it back was because they intended to simply send Yongnae home even if he didn’t accept the proposal to help find the murderer. As if the option to harm him never existed in the first place.

Even so, they were an organization doing bad things, so it was strange how they were being suspiciously considerate of him. Had the man instructed them to do so?

“By any chance… is that person from then also… coming with us?”

As soon as he thought that, the blood vessels in his body felt like they were reacting with a loud thump, thump again. Just as he was thinking of the man all day, was the man also concerned about him?

Flushed, Yongnae approached the back of the bald man and carefully asked about the man’s whereabouts, which he had been curious about since yesterday.