AGENT 5

Yongnae, who arrived at the hotel parking lot, got out of the car. The detective, who introduced himself as Detective Moon, handed over the carrier containing the equipment and repeated once more what he had explained in the car on the way over.

“Once you enter the lobby, go right around the large tree to find the elevators.”

“Yes. But are you really not going up with me?”

“Detective Park keeps saying that if shabby-looking misters keep coming and going, the hotel side will get suspicious, so I am not going in.”

Since it was Yongnae’s first time at a place like this, he felt like his awkwardness would be obvious, yet he had to go up alone. The sigh that was already coming out leaked even more deeply.

“How did you say I should press the elevator button?”

“You have to tap it on the terminal below the elevator buttons before pressing.”

“Yes. That’s right. Ah, why isn’t this bastard Detective Park picking up the phone? Is he still tearing off the vent?”

At Detective Moon’s words that the hotel side wouldn’t be suspicious as long as he followed his instructions, Yongnae was running simulations in his head over and over again.

“I will be back.”

“Yes. Once you go, Detective Park has found the vent in the bathroom and opened it, so you can collect samples from further inside there. When you’re done, you can come back down first with the samples. I will be waiting in the car.”

“Yes. I understand.”

Go right around the large tree in the lobby for the elevator. Once inside, tap the card and press the 12th-floor button.

“Um, Researcher.”

“Yes.”

“When you go to the room, do not open the door with the card key and enter. If Detective Park does not respond from inside even after you press the bell once… then just come back down.”

Why? When Yongnae gave a suspicious look, Detective Moon said it was just in case, since Detective Park wasn’t answering the phone. Just in case… that was the scariest thing to say.

Leaving the uneasy feeling behind, Yongnae entered the hotel lobby.

Is this what a hotel is like? The interior of the hotel, which was more glittering than the grand buildings near the research institute, welcomed Yongnae. For a moment, he almost forgot the fact that he had come here on a major mission.

“Welcome—.”

The staff members standing here and there smiled brightly and welcomed him kindly as Yongnae entered, but Yongnae could not smile back.

No matter how much he thought about it, he felt he looked like someone who was at this hotel for the very first time.

The dark green checkered shirt he bought as a college student and had been wearing for five years, along with similarly old jeans. Although he was trying his best to maintain a blank face and act calm, that might have been only his own thought. To others, he could look suspicious no matter who was watching.

Ding—

The elevator arrived.

He hadn’t expected to suddenly work while on a field trip to a developed site. Especially work that could be dangerous. Yongnae’s stiff face did not easily relax due to his nervous heart, but still, he figured there was another detective inside, so what could possibly happen?

Right. If something were to happen, the air testing positive might be what happened.

[12th floor.]

Perhaps the elevator speed of a hotel that looks high-class from the start was also different; it felt like only a few seconds had passed before he quickly arrived at the 12th floor.

Dragging the heavy carrier, Yongnae passed rooms 1201 and 1202 and arrived in front of 1203. And before pressing the bell, he turned his head for a moment to stare at 1204 and 1202. Which of the two was manufacturing drugs?

“………”

Yongnae held his breath quietly and tried to listen for sounds, but the hallway was frighteningly quiet. Could it be this quiet while drugs were being manufactured? Perhaps the information was wrong.

He would know once he tested it. Yongnae pressed the bell of 1203.

At Yongnae’s house, when the doorbell is pressed, it rings loudly inside the house and that sound leaks out to the hallway, but here, no sound at all was leaking out.

Did the bell not get pressed?

Click.

Detective Moon told him to just come down if there was no reaction after pressing once, but Yongnae pressed the bell once more, thinking he might have pressed it wrong. Could it be that the bell was broken? He doubted whether it was correct for the sound not to leak out like this or if the bell was broken.

“………”

Let’s go back for now. Let’s tell Detective Moon whether the bell is broken or whatever and come back up. If he delayed any longer, he might run into the drug criminals in the hallway.

It was just as Yongnae gripped the carrier handle and turned his body to head back to the elevator.

Click—

The door to room 1203 opened.

And upon seeing the man who opened the door,

“Ah…”

An exclamation escaped from Yongnae’s mouth of its own accord before he could stop it.

A person who was flashy from head to toe. No, should I say radiant?

The feeling of having all his senses overwhelmed in an instant. That was the thought Yongnae felt upon seeing the man for the first time. He had never seen a celebrity, but he felt that if he were to see one in person, he would probably get a feeling like this; it was as if an aura different from others was emanating from the man.

The man, who was presumed to be Detective Park since he came out from inside, was dressed neatly, perhaps because he had to go undercover at a hotel, unlike Detective Moon who was wearing a worn-out jumper. With half-up hair revealing his forehead, a white shirt, and ivory dress pants, he was so eye-catching that one wouldn’t think he was someone conducting an undercover investigation.

Did he aim for that point? If so, it could be called a complete success.

The Detective Park before his eyes was so tall he had to look up and had such a good physique that it was impossible to feel he was a detective.

He briefly doubted whether they were filming a crime thriller movie right now. But among all that, the most movie-like thing was, by far, the man’s beauty.

He had seen such an episode in Greek mythology as a child. The story of Prince Paris of Troy and King Menelaus of Sparta starting a massive war over Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, came to mind.

At that time, Yongnae was only in the first grade of elementary school, but even while reading that book, he thought it made no sense. How beautiful could one person be for two countries to fight so recklessly?

However, Yongnae thought he could completely understand that story now. Because the man was so incredibly beautiful that it went beyond being handsome and was even wondrous. If Helen had the man’s face, he immediately accepted that a war definitely would have broken out.

The dazed Yongnae just stared blankly at the man like someone for whom time had flowed and then stopped.

The man was so handsome that Yongnae, who was called the only handsome man in the research institute, couldn’t even compare; it was to the extent that he could be called the miracle of the peninsula. Especially his eyes. The eyes, where long eyelashes rested along the double eyelid line, were glowing amber, and those eyes were beautiful enough to enchant a person just by looking into them for a little while.

However, the thick eyebrows that seemed to show stubbornness and the gaze that was somehow chilly made it seem like the man’s personality wouldn’t be as pretty as his face.

“………”

As if to prove that, the man leaned his head against the doorframe and crossed his arms while scanning Yongnae from head to toe. Even though it wouldn’t be enough to tell him to come inside quickly since he brought him here so suddenly, he was taking an arrogant posture. If it were the usual Yongnae, he would have thought it was very rude.

“…Excuse me.”

“………”

“…I have come to collect air, samples.”

However, Yongnae, who had absolutely no immunity to beauty for 27 years, had his thought circuits break down completely; his usual sharp self was nowhere to be found, and he naturally lost his nerve in front of the man.

“Ahhh—.”

The man trailed off the end of his words as if he realized something at Yongnae’s answer, and damn it, even his voice was good. The man’s low voice had a pleasant resonance.

“………”

“Come in.”

The man, who had been standing still for a long time looking down at Yongnae even after he said he came to collect air, blinked slowly and then turned his body slightly to move aside, telling him to come in.