AGENT 59

What? It wasn’t a kidnapping?

Snap— Suji turned to look at Yongnae, his eyes growing so wide it seemed impossible for them to get any bigger.

“If it wasn’t a kidnapping, then what was it…?”

Is it true? Is it really as Weizhen said, that this guy colluded with the Black Horse Gang and came all the way to Hong Kong just to kidnap Susu?

“Sigh…”

Yongnae, who remained unfazed even by the sudden stop of the car, let out a short sigh while looking straight ahead. He then turned to Suji and spoke.

“There is only one reason, isn’t there?”

As Yongnae spoke with a deadpan expression, Suji’s face turned deathly pale, and he slowly slid his hand inside his jacket. He gripped the handle of the gun tucked in his breast pocket.

“I…”

Gulp— The sound of Suji swallowing hard echoed loudly inside the car.

“I like Seo Soo.”

When the exact same excuse Weizhen had predicted came out, Suji immediately aimed his gun at Yongnae.

“…Put your hands up.”

“What is this?”

“You think I’m going to believe that kind of crap?”

He didn’t believe the things Weizhen said—like Kim Yongnae being infatuated with Susu or whatever. How can a man fall for another man? Who does he think he’s fooling? It was obviously a play for a ransom or drugs.

Suji felt the hand holding the gun, a weapon he had held hundreds and thousands of times, tremble slightly from the immense sense of betrayal he felt toward Yongnae.

This guy is a total pro at acting and lying. Just when and where did he start planning this? Suji had trusted Yongnae. Even back in Korea, he had felt, how should I put it, a good energy from the man.

Surviving the killer together made them feel more like comrades. That was why, when Kim Yongnae appeared in Hong Kong with the Black Horse Gang, Suji was even more excited than anyone and told Susu they had to rescue Yongnae immediately.

But to betray that trust… To think Kim Yongnae actually colluded with the Black Horse Gang. That he wasn’t kidnapped. With eyes that asked how he could do such a thing, Suji grit his teeth and spoke again.

“Put your hands up…!”

Meanwhile, Yongnae was beyond flabbergasted; he was at the point of being speechless. Watching Lee Suji go through a whole range of emotions—looking betrayed like he was filming a movie one second and then scowling as if about to cry the next—Yongnae struggled to suppress the urge to ask, “What are you doing by yourself?”

However, since Suji looked quite serious and the gun pointed at him didn’t seem like a joke, Yongnae obediently raised the hand holding his cell phone above his head.

“First, let’s talk—”

“I trusted you, Teacher! But why is the life or death of those bastards so important to you!”

Talking wasn’t going to work. Realizing things had become troublesome, Yongnae quickly racked his brain. How should he calm this guy down and talk to him? He thought about the pocket tool he bought earlier, wondering if he should threaten Suji back, but the moment he pulled that out, he would surely be shot dead on the spot.

So, out of necessity, he had to use this method. Yongnae rapidly pressed the left button of the cell phone he was holding five times in a row.

From the iPhone instructions he had scrambled to study because it was his first time using one, it said that if you set someone as an emergency contact, pressing the button five times like this would send the user’s current location via text message to the designated person. It also said that if you enable the “Call Quietly” setting, the warning alerts and voice audio wouldn’t sound, and the screen flashing would be disabled. There was no better feature for secretly sending an emergency rescue signal when you couldn’t make a sound.

He could have set multiple people, but Yongnae had only set one.

Having pressed it five times quickly, Yongnae assumed the text message had been sent and spoke to soothe the agitated Lee Suji to buy time.

“I don’t know what you’ve misunderstood, but—,”

“Misunderstood? What misunderstanding!”

“What I’m saying is—,”

“What! What are you saying!”

“Oh, come on! Just listen to me first.”

Even Yongnae, who rarely raised his voice, seemed annoyed by the way Suji was badgering him, and he raised his voice as if telling him to stay still. When the startled Suji shut his mouth, Yongnae spoke calmly again.

“It’s true that the Black Horse Gang kidnapped me at first, but—”

“So it was a kidnapping? You just said it wasn’t…”

“Please don’t interrupt me.”

“U-uh, okay…”

“It was a kidnapping, but I came to Hong Kong of my own free will.”

“…Why?”

“I just told you. Because I like Seo Soo.”

“Like I said, do you think I believe…!”

At Lee Suji, who kept interrupting without believing him, Yongnae glared as if telling him to listen clearly and lowered his arms as he spoke.

“Whether Mister Lee Suji believes me or not, it doesn’t matter. I really came to Hong Kong because of Seo Soo. And to see that face one more time while alive, I abandoned all those people I could have saved and escaped the warehouse first.”

But how could there be no sense of guilt? They might have been destined not to die. If they had come to Hong Kong without him, they might have poked around at random people and gained nothing, but they still could have comfortably taken a plane back to Korea and spent their lives gritting their teeth at Yiwon’s unknown right-hand man while waiting for their hyung-nims to be released from prison.

But because of me, I put them in danger to satisfy my own greed, and I left them behind to escape alone to satisfy yet another greed. So how could their life or death not be important?

“…”

“…”

Silence flowed between the two. He had to stall for more time like this. Since he sent the SOS text, Seo Soo would surely send someone to find this place. Then, Suji would calm down and the situation would be resolved.

Buzz— Buzz—

Just then, a vibration was heard inside the car. It wasn’t his cell phone in his hand; it seemed to be Lee Suji’s.

Buzz— Buzz—

Lee Suji stared at him blankly with confused eyes before pulling the cell phone out of his inner pocket.

“…”

Then he flinched—looking at him, it seemed the call was coming from Seo Soo. The timing was perfect.

“…Hello.”

— So he says.

“…Huh?”

Perhaps because it was quiet inside the car, Seo Soo’s voice could be heard even by him. But what was he saying was so? Both Yongnae and Suji’s faces were filled with question marks.

— The agent says he likes me.

At Seo Soo’s statement, Yongnae’s heart went thump and dropped.

He had intended to show Seo Soo that he liked him someday, and he had even had the unscrupulous thought of confessing and at least rubbing lips together even if he were to die later, but having it opened publicly like this made it impossible not to be flustered.

How on earth did he find out? What, was there a bug planted in the car?

“…”

Or, could it be.

Yongnae flipped the screen of the cell phone he was holding and looked at it.

[Emergency Call 00:00:58]

Crazy— Emergency call for 58 seconds? This actually placed a call? No, the description on the official website definitely said an emergency message would be sent. So why, for what reason, did a call…

“You son of a bitch iPhone—.”

“Huh?”

At Yongnae’s curse that burst out uncontrollably, Suji looked at him with wide, startled eyes.

— Ha ha—.

Laughter could be heard from the other end of the phone.

[If you do not select cancel after ending the call, the iPhone will send a text message with the user’s current location to the emergency contacts.]