Her blocked vision finally cleared. A square steel desk, a cheap light fixed above it, a palm-sized window with bars.

Kim Hyun was kneeling on one knee beside her feet. It was the exact situation she’d once longed for—yet now that she was face-to-face with him, it felt strange.

The spot she had bitten had somehow been patched flawlessly—his face looked smooth, perfect. A shell that could have sex with a woman he didn’t love if it was ordered by the state. Thinking of him as something bloodless and synthetic made her skin crawl.

“If I tell you... will you understand, Hyun?”

His eyebrow twitched slightly. An unbelievably detailed, real-looking face.

Kim Hyun is close to you.

Then why was it, at that moment, that Kiya’s words floated up?

“You really won’t try to find me?”

“Would [N O V E L I G H T] the NIS be troubled if I moved on and started a new life?”

“......”

“Oh... maybe it’d make surveillance harder?”

A ridiculous thought brushed past her—that maybe Kim Hyun had been circling around her all along. Even after seeing that scene with all the Chinese soldiers’ joints dislocated, he hadn’t looked the least bit surprised.

That’s when a strange sense of possessiveness began to coil inside her.

She didn’t want anyone to know about Lee Wooshin.

She didn’t want the NIS, or Kim Hyun, to dissect and judge someone who was precious to her again.

But of course, they already had. It felt like being soaked in muddy water.

“I think it’s time for me to get out of here.”

She nodded at the documents on the table and shook her cuffed wrist.

“You’re not going to... look for Kim Hyun?”

“......”

“You?”

The question, as if it were the most ridiculous thing in the world, made her want to laugh. He still had the expression of someone looking at a misaligned puzzle. The way he referred to himself as if he were a stranger gave her another sharp jolt of discomfort.

But looking down at him from a higher eye level triggered something odd—her nerves went haywire, a strange itch crawled up her spine. So, pretending to shift her position, she firmly stomped on the top of his foot. It was pure instinct—she couldn’t explain it.

“――”

Her sharp gaze locked onto his face—his eyebrows, the space between them, his pupils. Her eyes clung to the glossy ones, as if trying to catch the slightest flicker in his otherwise impassive face.

She didn’t even know why she was doing this. But Kim Hyun, with that same expressionless face, only uncuffed her and placed a pen in her hand.

Seoryeong eased her sharpened gaze and forced herself to calm down. But the moment something sharp touched her fingers, her body lunged forward again.

“――!”

The tip of the pen sliced through the air, aimed at his throat—only for her nape to be seized first.

“Kh...!”

The hand that once held her so gently slammed her head straight into the table.

Ugh...! She swallowed the groan and clenched her teeth. At this point, it was far too late to be hurt or disappointed by someone like Kim Hyun.

“Where’d you learn that move? Gotta admit, you’ve got skills, babe.”

“Ugh...!”

He yanked her up and rubbed her reddened forehead as if to soothe her. Poison and cure in the same hand—it couldn’t be more absurd.

His reflexes were sharp. Just reading her expression, he had instantly predicted her move. Still as meticulous as ever—maybe even more so than before.

In the end, she settled down, quietly flipping through the documents and starting to sign. One by one, she reviewed the pages, scrawling her signature awkwardly at the bottom of each. After all, they had lived as husband and wife for years. How ironic that this dingy interrogation room would be their final moment.

With only the last signature space remaining, her pen suddenly froze. When she didn’t move, Kim Hyun tapped the table like he was knocking. Seoryeong lifted her head, staring blankly at him.

“That day. At our front door.”

His clean-cut face showed no trace of emotion.

“The day you left for work and didn’t come back. Sometimes I feel like I’m still stuck there.”

“......”

“I want to leave now. I’ve finally got the heart for it. Finally got the reason. But my feet won’t move. Maybe I could’ve started sooner. It wasn’t easy realizing how I really felt.”

“......”

“Did you know? I still live in our newlywed apartment.”

She smiled weakly.

“Every night I worry like a patient—what if someone precious disappears again without a word? I get scared, like I’ll get hurt all over again. Physically, I’ve become so much stronger, but now I’m a coward in strange ways.”

“......”

“You left without a second thought, but I still... I’m still stuck at that front door. I think I was always waiting for you to ring the bell first.”

And then Lee Wooshin had stormed into that house and pulled her out. Now, even just thinking of him made her smile like a fool. She gripped the pen tighter.

She’d finally seen the face of the husband she hadn’t known. From now on, she’d be able to recall it in full clarity—no more groping in the dark. That thought alone lightened her heart.

The old inferiority complex—not even knowing my own husband’s face—was beginning to fade. Even if the affection he showed was all fake, Seoryeong had thoroughly savored it.

No matter what anyone said, Kim Hyun had been her first family.

“Then can you say it now—that we’re done?”

“......”

His eyes shook uncontrollably at her words.

“Tell me you won’t come back, so I won’t wait.”

The man swallowed hard and turned his back. He clutched her blindfold in a crumpled grip, as if he’d been unfairly cornered. But even that hand—maybe it wasn’t real. For an agent, the back of his hand was far too smooth.

“Tell me not to keep your clothes around, either.”

“......”

“And tell me I did well. Say I did a good job.”

Seoryeong raised her head, as if she were standing once again at that front door. But her expression was no longer one of vague fear.

“Hurry up. You’ve got to clock out too, right, Hyun?”

His turned back remained as firm as a fortress, but the weight of his slumped shoulders made him look like he had collapsed inward.

At last, after a long silence, he started walking. His shadow loomed close, almost hugging her back, and rustling cloth brushed over her eyes. A limp hand slowly re-tied the blindfold over her eyes.

“Don’t wait alone anymore. Just throw out my clothes.”

“......”

“You kick your blanket off in your sleep, so keep the room warm. Be careful with knives in the kitchen—I sharpened them before I left. When you cross the street, watch for cars. Don’t go out at night if no one’s coming to meet you.”

“......”

“From now on, I won’t leave you waiting alone again.”

At last, Seoryeong moved her wrist and filled in the final blank signature space.

“...You did well.”

For no reason, her chest ached. Her trembling pen completed the ugliest handwriting she’d ever produced. Black ink soaked the paper, spreading in soft curves.

“But if I stood at that front door again...—”

The suddenly cut-off voice sounded like a beast choked on a leash.

“No one would’ve made it out.”

Her vision was covered once again, and her wrists were re-bound. The sound of him climbing the steel stairs echoed through the floor as he slowly walked away. Just like that day, Kim Hyun opened the door and left.

Seoryeong had to force herself to breathe deeply just to keep the rising waves of emotion at bay.

“――”

With every thump of the stairs, she imagined him peeling off his face, unbuttoning his shirt, removing the voice modulation.

Once he reached the surface, Kim Hyun would vanish without a trace. She had no idea where she was—but she began throwing herself at the door.

But the chair didn’t break like before—only her shoulder throbbed. That’s when the hunger she’d forgotten about crept in, and her strength started to drain away.

How many minutes had passed? Thirty? No, maybe an hour? That’s when the door burst open, and the sound of dress shoes entered the room.

“You’re free to go.”

Two men, likely NIS agents, released her handcuffs and made the announcement flatly. Seoryeong immediately ripped off her blindfold and bolted like someone released from a leash.

It felt like she had wasted too much time. A dreadful fear clawed at her—maybe it had all been for nothing.

She had to chase him. Sprinting after the light outside, she burst through the building’s exit—and honk!—was thrown backward by a motorbike horn blaring.

“Ah—! Fuck, look where you’re going—!”

Even through the dizziness, a hollow laugh slipped out. Fluent Korean. Shop signs in nothing but Korean.

“Hah...”

What the hell... I was in Korea?

Had an entire day passed? Her sense of time was in tatters.

She frantically searched her pockets—but the tactical vest that held anything useful was long gone, and her phone had been left on the freighter.

She couldn’t lose him now...! From that point on, Seoryeong’s vision tunneled.

“Hey! Hey, hey! You fucking thief—!”

She tore off with the motorbike’s phone in hand, dialing one of the few numbers she still had memorized.

Her heart thundered past her throat as she panted desperately. The moment the ringing cut out, Seoryeong cried out, drunk on relief:

“Channa! I did it...! I pulled it off!”