The open sea, with nothing but the faint sound of an engine.

After standing watch on deck for over half a day, your skin inevitably burned under the ocean sun. Even if you washed off in the cramped shower room, by the next day, your skin would once again be covered in sweat and salt. Seoryeong placed a damp towel over her stinging forehead.

The voyage across the Atlantic to Equatorial Guinea on a small cargo ship was grueling—brutal, even.

Inside the old ship disguised as a fertilizer carrier were over sixteen million dollars in cash, luxury watches, and extravagant goods, all wrapped in plastic and hidden in the cabin’s basement.

Beta Team consisted of a thirty-year veteran team leader who had retired as a Navy major, and six agents he’d kept under his command for years. Added to them were a Korean-Chinese interpreter from Manchuria and Seoryeong, a new recruit from the Special Security Team, forming a temporary task force.

Equatorial Guinea—recognized by North Korea with the International Kim Jong-il Prize—was a worst-case long-term dictatorship. From the first day aboard, Seoryeong clung to the railing and vomited all day. Eventually, she had nothing left to throw up but thick, transparent sour fluid, and self-loathing overtook her. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

What the hell am I even doing in a country that has nothing to do with me...? At times like that, her mind would drift to the wheelchair wheels that had spun in place.

Maybe it was worse because she hadn’t been separated from Lee Wooshin since joining Blast Company.

Even though she’d boarded this ship specifically to provoke the NIS, she still felt completely isolated. The absence of the man who had harshly scolded her yet still made sure she ate and had a blanket felt even more profound.

“A brat who hesitates to take off her pants in the water doesn’t know shit. You only see what’s in front of you, can’t even guess what comes next. That’s why I said I’d teach you myself—what it is you’re overlooking.”

Her first night in the cabin. Remembering that warning she’d heard so many times it had engraved itself in her ears, Seoryeong deliberately didn’t lock her bedroom door.

Looking back, Lee Wooshin had been ruthlessly strict with her during training. He’d threatened her, coaxed her, and eventually hurled biting criticism, all in an effort to jam the realities female agents faced in the field into her brain.

Just then, boots with wet soles dragged noisily across the floor, approaching. The lurching of the ship made her nauseous all over again.

“This is the kind of situation even your precious resolve can’t solve.”

The dirty footsteps stopped in front of her room. The doorknob turned.

“I know you’re trying hard just getting this far. But this is the real world. You can’t just get through this by finishing training. If a female agent gets caught overseas—”

Creak— The door opened, and the moment a man sloshed in and wrapped his arms around the sleeping Seoryeong—

She drove her knee straight into the intruder’s groin.

“Ugh...! Fffuck...!”

Like lightning, her fists slammed into his eyes, nose bridge, jaw, throat, solar plexus, and finally—stomped hard between his legs.

Each time she crushed one of the pressure points Lee Wooshin had emphasized again and again, she strangely felt like he was there with her. A strange high set her skin aflame. His protection, hidden within his brutal lessons, was bitter and sweet all at once.

In a blink, the man was a wreck. Seoryeong dragged his unconscious body into the center of the cabin and dumped him there.

The team leader, whose deeply wrinkled forehead betrayed years of discipline, said nothing even as he looked from his knocked-out subordinate to Seoryeong’s expressionless face.

After that, no one bothered to speak to her again. Whether they were impressed by her example or were simply avoiding her, Seoryeong wasn’t sure—but it was definitely easier this way.

“Hey. Clean your damn plate.”

The problem, though, was meals. The agents would hog the best ingredients first, then toss her the scraps like dog food. It wasn’t just once or twice. The interpreter, who usually just watched quietly, would occasionally swap his food with hers—but Seoryeong declined.

She’d always been someone who worked the backroom kitchen jobs. Even with garbage ingredients, she could recreate something edible. This didn’t even count as harassment, in her opinion. But the interpreter—whose features were intimidating—would sometimes harden his expression.

Once she adjusted to the violent seasickness, a storm rolled in.

Fierce winds and towering waves like wild beasts battered the ship without mercy.

Baggage on the deck slipped and scattered, agents pulling ropes were slammed into the railing, and empty fuel tanks clanged loudly as they rolled into the sea. The agents shouted at the top of their lungs, trying to outdo the deafening thunder and rain that numbed their eardrums.

“Fuck—what are you doing?! Wake those sleeping fuckers—!”

Emergency power flickered on in the control room. The ship pitched wildly.

“Han Seoryeong! If you don’t wanna be called a fucking freeloader, get out there and body-block!”

One of the agents shouted in irritation.

Without even time to grab a raincoat, Seoryeong rushed to catch a rolling tank and got pinned underneath. Even so, she struggled to stretch the netting and tie down the cargo that was about to plunge into the sea. She spent every last bit of strength doing it.

The rough waves washed over the ship all night. The agents’ lips turned blue, and their drenched hair and combat uniforms drained their body heat.

Seoryeong’s jaw clattered as she endured the raindrops slapping her face. But her mind was washed clean—void of thought.

Once she’d untangled all the ropes and chains knotted in chaos, her knees gave out. Someone tapped her shoulder a few times, but she didn’t even have the strength to lift her head.

“――.”

Seoryeong collapsed onto the deck. Her palm was soaked with blood, probably from a sharp cut she got while wrestling the rolling drums. But not even that registered as something to care about.

She simply gasped for breath, staring up at the sky that had cleared without a single cloud. The seabird flying overhead looked so white and free—just like Lee Wooshin.

Two weeks passed like that.

***

Bang, bang, bang—!

She flinched awake, pulled on her boots, and ran out of the cabin. Climbing to the deck through the narrow corridor, she tightened her loose laces and picked up her rifle. The sharp wind slapping her cheeks cleared away the last remnants of sleep.

“Again?”

Checking her magazine, she asked. One of the agents—who now at least spoke to her a little—spat on the floor.

“Yeah, those fucking pests again.”

Once they’d gotten used to the weather, they had to start dealing with a different threat: emaciated pirates circling the cargo ship like sharks.

Agents crouched behind railings, exchanging gunfire with pirates who scrambled up the hull multiple times a day. It was exactly for this kind of threat that Blast Company had been hired, so there was no hesitation in loading their guns.

Bang, bang—!

Seoryeong closed one eye and braced for the recoil. The flashes from the muzzle were the only light illuminating the pitch-black ocean.

At first, her head spun like her inner ear had been flipped inside out. But now she could watch the seagulls and chew on stale bread like it was nothing.

“Han Seoryeong, you’re fucking ruthless... If you were a guy, you’d have just blasted it right—”

“Shut up and you just aim properly, old man...!”

After all that chaos, her tone had turned rough—like a real sailor now.

Come to think of it, what day was it?

Watching the retreating pirates through the night-vision goggles, Seoryeong thought. By now, Lee Wooshin had probably figured everything out.

“It wasn’t days... It’s been weeks, actually...”

He’d more than had enough time to look up what mission she’d been dispatched for. But just imagining that man grinding his teeth and waiting quietly somehow made her laugh.

A streak of light was breaking over the horizon. Seoryeong guarded her sector through the night and looked out over the dazzling sunrise.

“...Ah.”

I miss you.

She removed her protective mask and goggles, and set down the rifle.

Then she stepped out onto the wide deck and breathed in the salty air, deep into her lungs.

There were no roads at sea. But even though she felt herself being drawn closer to Kim Hyun by the second—she kept drawing only one man in her heart.

It wasn’t Kim Hyun.

Not even birds in flight, not even the night sky, not even the sunrise—none brought his face to mind. Only those cold gray irises.

“I’m so fucking ruined...”

Seoryeong laughed now as she muttered.

She’d wanted to imprison Kim Hyun, torment him to death, unleash every bit of her rage on him. She’d thought that was the one thing she needed most to heal.

But that path always ended in a cliff. No future followed. Now that her compass had finally realigned, Seoryeong could read her true feelings.

She’d finally found the shape of the final period to place after her revenge.

High in the sky, a pair of seabirds spread their wings together.

“It’s okay, even if you never loved me.”

The truth was—they should’ve parted properly. Kim Hyun should’ve looked her in the eye and said goodbye instead of vanishing like that.

Whether you were fake or not. Illusion or not. We didn’t even get to begin our goodbye.

And finally, she [N O V E L I G H T] felt ready.