AGENT 30

5:58 PM. With two minutes left until clock-out, everyone, led by the Section Chief, began packing their things. The greatest advantage of being a civil servant is leaving exactly on time. Of course, the research institute has a lot of work in the summer, so overtime is frequent. But these days, as the weather grew colder and complaints about odors rarely occurred, it was the season of leaving on time.

Yongnae followed the others in turning off his computer, then stood up while rummaging through his belongings.

“Good work, everyone.”

He had a lot to do at home today. Washing Gami was a task the whole family took turns doing, and this time, it was Yongnae’s turn.

He liked having a busy schedule when he got home. Because his return to daily life was very slow due to thoughts of the man, he needed events that would keep him from having idle thoughts.

Yes. Returning to daily life. Yongnae had to return to the world he used to live in. He had to escape from the man’s world, where the man existed, even a day sooner.

Only two weeks ago, he had been so crazy about the man that he couldn’t have made such a judgment, but now he was in a somewhat sane state.

Thinking objectively, Yongnae believed that his falling for the man was partly due to the environment.

If he hadn’t been involved in dangerous business with such a beautiful man, wouldn’t he have been less crazy than this? He thought. He didn’t know much, but isn’t there something called the suspension bridge effect in love? That rather than meeting someone on a safe bridge, when you meet someone on a dangerous suspension bridge and push through those difficulties together, your attraction increases.

He felt the same way. He would have fallen for the man’s face anyway, but encountering the man in an unprepared, dangerous situation from the start seemed to have doubled that effect. If he had met the man just walking down the street normally, he didn’t think he would have been this obsessed with him. Since events that stimulated his brain continued to unfold after that, it felt like his feelings for the man were further maximized.

The biggest evidence supporting that was that these days, as his calm daily life continued just like before he met the man, he was gradually becoming okay. If he didn’t purposely try to recall the man, he didn’t come to mind, and if he busily focused on something, he could find himself forgetting before he knew it.

If he could hold out for just a few more months like this, he might even forget the man’s face and return to the same life as before.

That was better. It was better when he didn’t know the man’s face. Because now, even if he tried to pretend to be okay, every time the man appeared in his dreams, he cried and wailed like a madman, clinging to him.

‘Don’t abandon me…’

‘Please…’

As Yongnae entered the parking lot, which everyone else had already left, with slow steps, he recalled yesterday’s dream.

Crying and wailing. The dream he had yesterday was like that. In his usual dreams, he only did a lot of lewd things with the man, but yesterday, he was a mess, grabbing the man’s pant leg and begging him not to abandon him. It wasn’t like anyone saw his dream, but it was truly pathetic.

Vroooom—!

If he were to meet the man again, doing something like grabbing his pant leg and clinging to him would be… huh?

Screeeech—!

Suddenly, a black van approached rapidly in front of Yongnae, who was about to get into his car.

Rattle—

“Grab him!”

Then, men in black suits pulled Yongnae into the car in an instant.

In movies or dramas, people who get snatched into cars are immediately silenced by a handkerchief soaked in chloroform and faint.

“…”

“What?”

Perhaps those who grabbed Yongnae intended to do the same, as they immediately covered his mouth with a handkerchief the moment he entered the van.

“…”

“Why, why isn’t he fainting?”

However, instead of falling over with a plop as expected, Yongnae was staring at them with wide-open eyes. The man who appeared to be the leader managing them asked Yongnae in confusion.

Yongnae let out a small sigh, politely pushed away the hand of the person covering his mouth from behind, and began to explain why he hadn’t fainted immediately despite the use of chloroform.

“…Chloroform evaporates quickly in the air. So if some time has passed since the chemical was applied, its effect drops, and instead of fainting, a headache will occur. Seeing as I don’t even have a headache right now, it seems the chemical has almost entirely evaporated.”

Wow, I see— The ones who kidnapped Yongnae were fascinated, saying they had learned a fact they didn’t know.

“Who prepared the handkerchief?”

“It was me, Hyung-nim.”

“When did you soak it?”

“I brought it out after soaking it when we left Seoul.”

From Seoul? That meant the chemical had been applied at least three hours ago; in that case, the chloroform had already gone beyond evaporating to the point where there would be no trace of it. Are these people kidnapping for the first time? This is information someone who kidnaps should basically know.

Susu knew such information properly, so he had made Detective Park faint immediately and played the part of a detective to him. Seeing this now, even that point was compared and felt cooler.

In contrast, he felt a bit of patheticness toward these clumsy people.

“…But, what were you planning to do by making me faint?”

However, he couldn’t let his guard down. He couldn’t guess who they were, but they didn’t look like the man’s organization. If it had been the man’s organization, they wouldn’t have tried to take him by making him faint.

But since their attempt to make him faint had turned into a failure, they might use force next. So he first showed a nuance that suggested, “I am willing to listen to you, so you should just speak nicely.”

“Ah, well… it’s a bit much to say in the car…”

“Hyung-nim, shouldn’t we make him faint first?”

The one who seemed to be the Hyung-nim looked like he didn’t want to speak because it wouldn’t look impressive to say it in the car, and one of the subordinates was showing his fist and asking if they should make him faint.

“No. Fainting is a bit… you can just use words and I can understand well enough.”

Terrified at that, Yongnae firmly waved his hand and persuaded them again to use words. Then the Hyung-nim seemed to ponder for a moment, and as if deciding that a rational conversation was possible without using force, he gestured for the subordinate, who was raising his fist to strike Yongnae, to step back.

“Mr. Civil Servant.”

This person also used the title “Teacher” for him, just like Lee Suji.

“Yes.”

“Two months ago, you helped Yiwon at the Yantree Hotel, right?”

…Yiwon? Who is Yiwon? If it’s the Yantree Hotel, it seems to be the same hotel where he first met the man two months ago. Who is Yiwon? Detective Moon’s name didn’t seem to be like that. Is it Detective Park’s name?

“Two months ago, I went to the Yantree Hotel for police cooperation once, but I don’t know who Mr. Yiwon is.”

“Mr. … Yiwon?”

“Yes. I don’t know such a person.”

“Huh? This kid seems to know nothing at all?”

At Yongnae’s answer, the Hyung-nim cast his gaze toward his subordinates with an absurd face. Who is Yiwon that he’s acting like that?

“Isn’t he pretending not to know? Even though he helped Yiwon and caught the killer?”

Helping Yiwon to catch the killer? Yongnae frowned slightly as if wondering what that meant. The people he went around with were Lee Suji and Weizhen. He couldn’t know the names of the subordinate employees below them, but the Yiwon they were talking about didn’t seem like the name of one of the subordinates.

“You, do you really not know Yiwon?”

Why does he keep asking when I say I don’t know? Is it truly one of those subordinates? Maybe the red-haired one? Or the youngest?

“What does he look like? By any chance, is his hair color red?”

“…He really doesn’t know.”

They could have just told him who it was. Seeing them only acting flustered, Yongnae felt more frustrated instead. Who on earth is this person called Yiwon…

“The organization you went around with, Teacher.”

“Yes.”

“The name of that organization is Yiwon.”

“…Pardon?”

“The Hong Kong cartel, Yiwon. Haven’t you heard of it?”