"Wow...!"

When it came to grabbing and climbing the pillar, there was no one who could match Han Seoryeong. Even seeing it with their own eyes, the others found the result hard to comprehend.

Lee Wooshin thought once again about the possibility of drug use but soon erased the thought from his mind. If she really had relied on drugs to participate in training, she wouldn’t have clung to him with eyes burning with such desperate greed.

From the results of closely observing Buyeong, he had come to the conclusion that she generally only spoke facts. But that didn’t mean she was a sincere person.

She had simply become someone who had no will to appeal to anyone with lies, nor any need to seek benefits by doing so — a dry, indifferent person.

Except for matters concerning her husband Kim Hyeon, there were hardly any moments when desire visibly surfaced in her eyes. Lee Wooshin found this Buyeong not just unfamiliar, but eerily alien.

The gaze he remembered had always held a ticklish smile, or ripples of excitement, or the overflowing waves of blind affection.

And yet, now she spoke of rape.

She said she might someday kill someone.

Those were not words an ordinary person could easily let slip. As time passed, it became increasingly clear that the Buyeong he had carried close all that time was nothing more than an illusion.

Her venom, her skill, her planning, her obsession, her character — all of it was unfamiliar. Although he was the one who had deceived her, somehow he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was the one who had been deceived, and the thought kept burning his mind.

The suspicion that the woman he had once loved, once touched and tasted, might not be the same as the one standing before him, refused to go away.

He had the gnawing feeling that he had missed something critical. If he could, he wanted to investigate Buyeong all over again from the beginning. The sharp intuition gnawed at him so violently that his skull ached. But——

‘Principle of Operational Segregation’

That single rule tightly shackled Black Agent Lee Wooshin’s feet.

Do not ask about other people's missions, and do not tell about yours.

It was one of the harshest commandments all agents of the National Intelligence Service had to uphold.

Black agents were only supposed to carry out the orders handed down from above, without knowing the "big picture."

The principle had been created to prevent exposure of large-scale operations if an agent were captured — by isolating each individual task and ensuring agents knew only what they had to know.

Focus only on your own portion; know nothing beyond it. That was why agents moved ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ alone and obeyed only the missions assigned to them.

Even if Buyeong’s background was inaccurate, that fact had its own separate meaning. Therefore, he was forbidden to question it further.

"――."

Lee Wooshin forcibly pressed down the emotions that were rising inside him and steadied his breathing.

Moreover, the "Bird Box" operation wasn’t about focusing on Buyeong herself; it was about sustaining the marriage with her itself. From initial approach to final evacuation orders, the mission had technically been a success.

Therefore, he shouldn’t think about it anymore.

There was no need to keep watching the changed Buyeong, nor any reason to complicate things unnecessarily.

There was nothing there to pursue.

"......."

In order to clear his mind, he closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again to look at the training yard. His expression, before he knew it, had been wiped completely clean.

Silently watching Han Seoryeong clinging to the pillar, he was interrupted when Jin Hoje asked from beside him.

"Team Leader, does Han Seoryeong look pretty to you too?"

"......What?"

"I mean, I was wondering if it was just me."

Lee Wooshin felt the anger he had barely pressed down surge back up like a tide. When he furrowed his brows and turned to Jin Hoje, he found that the other man’s gaze was already knotted with both attraction and curiosity.

"That woman... during that jog the other time, she stared at me so hotly."

"......."

"Until now, no woman had ever looked at me that way — like she wanted to do something to me — and it made my heart act weird."

He awkwardly pressed down on his chest over his training uniform as if feeling ticklish. Lee Wooshin lifted the corner of his mouth into a faint smile with his pale, well-defined face, but the pulse throbbing visibly at his temple betrayed his irritation.

"I think she’s fallen for me first. Since then, I kept feeling her eyes on me — whenever I looked, Han Seoryeong was staring holes through me. And if I count how many times our eyes met——"

Jin Hoje began folding his fingers one by one, lost in thought. One, two, three, four— his fingers kept folding, and Lee Wooshin, expressionless, watched only those moving hands.

Finally, when all six fingers had folded, Jin Hoje straightened his shoulders with a tense face.

"Team Leader, what should I do? I might actually get a girlfriend."

"Agent Jin Hoje."

Suddenly, a sharp sigh escaped, and a hand clamped roughly over the back of Jin Hoje’s head. Caught off guard by the sudden grab, Jin Hoje bit his lip with a muffled sound. The five fingers pressing down on his skull seemed strong enough to pierce through it.

The senior officer, who usually acted so breezy and indifferent, revealing his temper like this made Jin Hoje stiffen his spine instinctively.

"Don't worry. I’ll approach gently, without causing trouble."

"Han Seoryeong already has a husband."

"......What?"

"She has a husband she’s crazy about. Even though she looks young, she’s practically a married woman."

"......."

"I checked.

She married early."

Lee Wooshin smiled like a snake as he looked at his dumbfounded subordinate.

"What, you don't believe me?"

"Uhhh......."

"If you really don’t believe me, go ahead and try trash-talking her husband in front of her."

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, but don’t try it while she’s holding a pistol. Seems like she’s a bit obsessive."

"......!"

Jin Hoje blinked blankly, then jumped in place.

"No way, no way that’s possible. That look she gave me — it was real seduction! I couldn’t possibly be lusting after someone who's taken! I still have my soldier’s pride!"

At that, Lee Wooshin lightly stroked the back of his subordinate's neck and whispered.

"Don’t kid yourself. She doesn’t look pretty only to your eyes."

At the cold gust that brushed past his ear, Jin Hoje stiffened his shoulders.

"So don’t go around spouting nonsense like she seduced you, or whatever. You’re not anything special, so don’t get ahead of yourself and fall flat."

"......Yes, sir."

"Good boy.

You listen well."

Lee Wooshin, face still cold, patted his subordinate’s head. Jin Hoje, shrinking back, turned his head again toward the training ground.

And as he looked up at the woman still hanging stubbornly atop the pillar, he unwittingly gaped.

"No, seriously, wow... She’s already pretty, and she’s got insane athletic ability, too...!"

"Shut your mouth."

Lee Wooshin suddenly flicked Jin Hoje’s chin. With a clumsy snap of his teeth, Jin Hoje looked up at him with a wounded expression.

But Lee Wooshin, his face already gone cold again, didn’t move a muscle. He simply continued to watch her with a sharp, instinctive gaze, like a predator studying prey.

Feeling the ferocity in that glance, Jin Hoje straightened up in fear and sealed his lips.

***

Returning to his officer’s quarters, Lee Wooshin locked the door and immediately searched for his in-ear device, fitting it into his ear. As the red light blinked for a few moments, a cheerful voice greeted him as if it had been waiting.

He habitually pulled back the curtain to check the movements outside the window.

“How’s the investigation I asked for?”

—Ah...! You mean about CEO Kang Taegon? I finished a preliminary check.

“Any connection points with Buyeong?”

—No obvious connection points were found. But it seems the incident during the Thailand trip left a deep impression. Since that day, he’s been opening Buyeong’s resume quite frequently.

"......."

—It looks like he even conducted a separate investigation. He really seemed to want to scout her and raise her within the company.

Han Seoryeong being scouted by Blast Corp... At the unpleasant news, Lee Wooshin pressed heavily on his crumpled brow.

He had been trying to chase Han Seoryeong away from right under his nose, but instead, Blast Corp was pulling her closer, and it made his insides churn.

—It’s kind of CEO Kang Taegon’s personal wish, or more like a habit.

“What do you mean?”

—Apparently, Blast Corp has long been making efforts to increase the number of female bodyguards. There are records of them recruiting promising individuals from various places and putting them through training. Most of them were third-rate athletes desperate for money, though.

“And?”

—...After that, their whereabouts and subsequent news become somewhat unclear.

“Keep going.”

—Whenever CEO Kang Taegon went on business trips to Saint Petersburg, he took female bodyguards with him... but when he returned to Korea, he always came back alone.

A brief silence passed between them. Lee Wooshin exhaled slowly through his teeth, his face growing visibly cold. The veins on the back of the hand he had braced against the table stood out sharply.

"That damn fool Buyeong picked one hell of a rope to cling to."

—......If she’s really caught Kang Taegon’s eye, it’s not going to be easy for you to get rid of her even if you succeed in pushing her out, Team Leader. Blast Corp will find a way to call her back, no matter what.

Lee Wooshin quietly bit down on the soft flesh between his teeth.