AGENT 48

“…So that is why he looked at me like that.”

The way he had looked at me with wavering eyes for a fleeting moment had not been an illusion. I had not misseen it. There was a specific reason tied to his name. Everyone around him had been calling him Susu, so he must have been surprised that I used his real name for the first time in a long while. What could the reason be? I wanted to know everything about Seo Soo, from A to Z.

“How did Susu look at you? Like he wanted to kill you?”

“…”

“Seeing as he didn’t kill you, he was being generous to a regular civilian again.”

“…”

“Consider yourself lucky. From now on, make sure to call him Susu without exception.”

Fuck. A crude curse almost burst from Yongnae’s mouth. All that talk about being generous to civilians and whatnot. Even if he were to be held in contempt by Seo Soo, he wanted to be special; he didn’t want to be treated with the consideration given to a civilian who seemed to have no relevance at all.

“I refuse.”

“Teacher. I am giving you this advice very seriously. If Susu hears that name when he is pissed off? Then, a 9mm bullet is going straight into your forehead.”

He could react to that extent just because of a name?

“…I understand.”

If an ordinary gangster—no, the very fact of being a gangster was far from ordinary, but anyway—if a normal gangster was said to have such a story, I would have thought it was being dramatic.

But Seo Soo was different. Hearing that even a face like that had such a story made me so curious, and he seemed like the protagonist of a tragic tale. Like Hong Gildong, who could not call his father ‘Father’, he could not call his name by its name. Even for a movie protagonist, this was an excessive setup. But because it was Seo Soo. Because it was that face, I could accept everything.

“Anyway, is Se… Susu coming to the restaurant too?”

“No. Susu has work, so he isn’t coming.”

“…Is he busy?”

“Susu is busy every day.”

I suppose so. He is the right hand of Yiwon, after all. But the fact that he is granting my request despite being this busy made me want to smile with joy again.

“But Teacher. How on earth did you get entangled with the Black Horse Gang?”

“I was kidnapped by the Black Horse Gang in front of my research institute.”

“Hah— those crazy bastards. What did they think they would achieve by kidnapping a public official and bringing him all the way to Hong Kong?”

I was the one who asked to be brought to Hong Kong.

“And stowing away on a ship, of all things…”

The stowaway trip was also because of me.

“Anyway. Since they’re all dead now, there won’t be any troublesome business.”

…The fact that they are all dead is also because of me. Of course, I wasn’t the one who killed them, but I couldn’t say I was entirely without responsibility. It was I who failed to suspect the curly-haired man and notice the strange signs. And it was I who could have saved at least one person but failed to do so.

“…Did they say the warehouse was completely burned down?”

“Yeah. That bastard Geonhwa apparently stood in front of the warehouse until it was all gone.”

So even if they had escaped through the front door, they wouldn’t have survived. They really have all… died.

“…What happened to the bodies?”

“Who knows. We’ll have to contact the police side.”

I was happy to meet Seo Soo and to be able to stay by his side. However, the sense of guilt toward the Black Horse Gang weighed heavily on Yongnae. He wanted to at least send their bodies back to the arms of their brothers and families in Korea.

“If by any chance a body is discovered, please tell me. I hope I can at least recover the remains.”

“Why?”

“They were people who did bad things, but they weren’t only bad.”

“…Sure, well.”

That was the maximum I could do to wash away my guilt toward them.

∞ ∞ ∞

“Researcher, it has been a while.”

As soon as I entered the restaurant with the crab dish and whatnot that Lee Suji had praised so much, it was crowded and bustling with people. Among them, Weizhen, who was sitting at the end table, recognized Yongnae, stood up, and offered a handshake. He seemed glad to see Yongnae again. And the same was true for Yongnae. Yongnae grasped Weizhen’s hand in return.

“I heard you’ve had many things happen during your short time in Hong Kong.”

At Weizhen’s words, Yongnae immediately glared at Lee Suji. Lee Suji shrugged his shoulders, immediately put on latex gloves, and took the seasoned crab from the table onto his own plate.

“Yes, well. Various things happened.”

After Yongnae gave an evasive answer, he sat down and put on the latex gloves placed in front of him. Earlier, he had been focusing all his attention on Seo Soo, so Lee Suji’s praise of the crab dish hadn’t reached his ears, but seeing the real thing made his mouth water. Yongnae reached out to grab a crab.

“Public official Teacher— hello.”

“Ah, yes, hello.”

However, at someone greeting him from the seat behind, Yongnae stopped his movements and looked back. But seeing a face he had never seen before, Yongnae was flustered and wore a look that said, Who is this?

“Wow— Teacher, you really have no eye for people.”

At that, Lee Suji let out a hollow laugh and scolded Yongnae. Me, lacking an eye for people? Me, who is quick-witted and bright? Yongnae frowned and stared intently again at the stranger who had greeted him. Black hair and a neat suit. But no matter how much he looked, it was truly someone he was seeing for the first time.

“You really don’t know? This is Daesik!”

Daesik? If it’s Daesik, is it that red-haired one?

“Red hair?”

“Yeah! Red-haired Daesik!”

This person is the red-haired one? In Korea, Daesik’s style had seemed firm, but seeing him in Hong Kong, he looked like a completely ordinary office worker. Once he knew the man was the “red-haired one,” only then did the face feel familiar.

“Ah…”

“It’s understandable. It’s okay.”

When Yongnae let out a groan, Daesik waved his hand as if it was fine not to feel sorry, and Yongnae almost let out another groan. It was because he was very surprised at himself for a certain thought that had occurred to him in that moment.

“Yes…”

Yongnae didn’t feel sorry at all for not recognizing Daesik. Rather, it was because he had the bad, looks-oriented thought: Who told you to look like someone who can only be identified by hair color? They say a person lacking inner cultivation has cluttered speech, and he was in exactly that state right now.

Yongnae, falling into great shock, lost his appetite entirely and took off the latex gloves.

“It’s really delicious, you know? You’re not eating?”

“…I’m fine.”

Lee Suji wore a look of What’s with him? for a moment and then began to pick at the crab meat ravenously again.

“Researcher. I am sorry to bother you during your meal, but may I ask you one thing?”

He wasn’t in the middle of a meal, but at Weizhen’s request for permission to ask, Yongnae nodded as if telling him to go ahead.

“According to the Tail, Geonhwa did that after contacting the Researcher; by any chance, what kind of conversation passed between the two of you?”

This was something that neither Seo Soo nor Lee Suji had asked him. It seemed Seo Soo didn’t ask because he wasn’t curious, and Lee Suji just didn’t seem to have any thoughts at all.

Thinking about it, I had come here with the Black Horse Gang while knowing the face of Seo Soo, the right hand of Yiwon. Why would they accept me so readily without any verification, as if they knew what kind of betrayal I might commit due to a change of heart? On their side, the fact that curly hair was siphoning drugs was one thing, but they also needed to know for what reason he had tried to eliminate the Black Horse Gang and Yongnae. Looking at this, it seemed Weizhen was indeed playing the role of the brain under Seo Soo.

“Ah, I told him that I fell for Su… Susu and chased him all the way to Hong Kong. And I said the Black Horse Gang were people I hired for protection.”

“Did Geonhwa believe that?”

“He believed the part about me falling for him and chasing him. But he did not believe the part about the Black Horse Gang.”

That was understandable. Since the words about falling for him and chasing him were said from the bottom of my heart, that emotion might have been conveyed. But it seemed obvious that I had made up the lie about the Black Horse Gang being my bodyguards, and since their behavior didn’t look like bodyguards, he didn’t seem to believe it. In fact, that was exactly what the curly-haired man had said before closing the warehouse door.

“You told him you fell for Susu and chased him to Hong Kong?”

“Yes.”

“Wow— how did you come up with an idea like that in that situation?!”

“…”

As expected, Lee Suji is definitely of the Black Horse Gang type.