“Excuse me.”

Someone gently tugged at her tightly clenched fist. A man with a husky voice, speaking with polite hesitation, placed a pre-warmed, empty mug into her hand.

“You looked cold.”

He guided her fingertips over the shape of the cup so she wouldn’t be startled. His voice sounded like a mountain bandit’s, but his hands were the opposite—soft.

In that moment, maybe Seoryeong accepted something, if only a little. That she’d have to live in this kind of world from now on.

A world where you memorize people by their voices, not their faces; where you feel someone’s kindness not in their smile, but in their warmth. A completely different world.

But maybe it wouldn’t be that awful, she thought.

That day, the sudden shower ended quickly.

***

“Haa—!”

Her eyes flew open at the pain, sharp like an ice pick stabbing into her skull. Cold water had been dumped on her face, running down her jawline in thick drops.

Where... am I? She blinked, dazed. Water streamed into her lashes, wetting her eyes.

As her blanked-out mind started to return, pieces of memory floated back in. Ah... she’d been standing in the training yard, and her legs gave out.

She shook her head and looked around. A small, rank room with only one dim lightbulb overhead.

Seoryeong stared up at the flickering bulb, which looked like it might go out any moment. Each time the weak light blinked in and out, the grimy room around her flashed into view.

Stained tiles. Cement walls. A cracked bathtub filled to the brim with water. A crooked wooden table cluttered with long instruments. And then—

“Took you long enough to wake up. Thought my dick was gonna fall off from waiting.”

“...!”

A man leaned idly against one hip, bored expression on his face.

As her foggy mind cleared, her bound arms began to ache.

Her wrists were tied above her head, and she hung suspended like a fish. There was nothing under her feet—just being tied like this was exhausting.

Her wrists, bearing all her body weight, had long gone numb. The skin abraded by the rope was itchy and stung.

Only now did she begin to fully grasp the situation she was in. Even so, she thought at least it was a relief ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ she wasn’t strung up upside down.

“...Did you drug us?”

She asked the thing she was most curious about first. But Lee Wooshin said nothing, just scooped water from the tub. He didn’t answer—but sometimes silence spoke louder than words.

Ah... Was it the bottled water after the run?

He hoisted the bucket, filled to the brim, and approached her.

So I have to spend two full days in this state with that man...

It was definitely torture. And it was going to be hell.

Then, with a dull voice, Lee Wooshin muttered:

“59.9343°N, 30.3351°E.”

“...!”

“I already know what was written on the slip.”

Seoryeong looked at him in disbelief. Then what was the point of this training? Was it over before it even started?

“There’s something else I really want to hear. So no need for that stupid look.”

Under the orange bulb, his face looked especially unfamiliar and alien.

Sure, he sometimes used informal speech to talk down to the agents, but this felt different.

Right now, he wasn’t a team leader or an instructor. He looked more natural. Maybe closer to his real self.

“I told you I’d teach you properly—what it is you’re missing.”

He yanked the pulley rope hard. Her arms jerked upward even more, practically glued to her ears, and her whole body lifted off the ground. Now she hung like a carcass at a butcher’s shop, strung from the ceiling.

“Ever think about what happens when you’re taken prisoner?”

Their eyes were now at the same level. Seoryeong kicked her feet instinctively, though the floor was out of reach. Lee Wooshin picked up one of the long rods from the table. It looked like a blind person’s cane.

“If you do bad things, bad things happen to you. Why is that so hard to understand?”

Crack—! Sparks jumped from the tip of the rod.

“Most of Blast Corp’s clients are corrupt leaders from weak countries. The kind of bastards who commit international crimes. The Special Security Team’s job is to wipe their filthy asses.”

“...”

“We side with dictators, then with rebels, then with government agencies, then drug lords.”

“...”

“If the client wants, we kill innocent people. We train criminals in bomb-making. And you still want to join this?”

He spoke of his own unit with brutal clarity. She’d sensed it in Thailand, but still—it surprised her how strict his internal standards were.

She’d thought he was someone who just crushed good and evil underfoot and laughed on top. Had he always worked with thoughts like this?

“Catching one mouse by accident and now you're strutting around like a hero.”

That look in his eyes—clearly directed at her—was full of contempt.

The smile he always wore out of habit was gone now. His bare face was colder and more lifeless than she expected.

Seoryeong stared into that bare face without blinking. So the thing rustling sweetly under the wrapper wasn’t candy—it was a sewer-slick infection.

For the first time, a thin layer of interest toward Lee Wooshin began to form. Her indifferent gaze sharpened a little.

“If you get caught doing that kind of shit—”

Crack! Sparks jumped again from the smooth surface of the rod.

“—these electric prods get jammed into your mouth, your ear, your genitals—”

“...!”

“No one’s gonna save you.”

“...”

“No one’s coming here to rescue you, either.”

Lee Wooshin cupped her chin in one hand like soothing a bratty child.

“Got it? That’s what you’re trying to sign up for.”

“Guh...!”

His rough palm clamped down, threatening to crush her jaw joint.

“If something’s clearly broken, it’s cheaper, easier, and more efficient to throw it out than to pick it up again. That’s why Blast Corp doesn’t guarantee employee safety to the end.”

Crackle... crackle... The horrible sound kept echoing unpredictably.

“In South Africa, they throw female prisoners, completely naked, into all-male cells. They rip their mouths open with metal pliers, shove spikes under their nails. You know what happens when you soak someone in sewage for a few days? The entire body starts to rot.”

Maybe it was the oppressive dampness in the room, but Seoryeong found her lips hard to move.

“This kind of training never leaves the base. But on the other side of the planet, this shit still happens all the time. And if you do dirty work under me in Blast Corp—what do you think will happen?”

He hurled the electric rod at the wall.

“Your body breaks, Seoryeong.”

His thick chest rose and fell as he muttered under his breath.

“A brat who flinches at taking her pants off in the water has no clue what she’s walking into. That’s why I told you I’d teach you myself—what it is you’re ignoring.”

And with those words, Lee Wooshin grabbed her breast.

The brutal grip made her body tense up, but only for a moment. Seoryeong twisted her waist instantly, glaring at him with disgust.

“Let go...!”

“This is the kind of situation your so-called toughness won’t solve.”

His large hand cupped the underside of her breast, crushing it like it might burst.

“I know you’re trying your best just to get through training. But this isn’t a problem that ends once you finish the course. If a female agent gets caught abroad—”

“I said... let go.”

She forced the words out through clenched teeth, her eyes blazing.

“There’s a damn high chance she goes through bullshit exactly like this.”

His voice stayed icy as he delivered the warning—and this time, his hand slipped right into her clothes.

The heat of his palm against her bare skin was unbearable.

Seoryeong writhed as if seizing, but he pinned her waist and shoved up her bra, finding a tender spot and crushing it all at once.

“Torture done to female prisoners is especially savage.”

“Ugh... you fucking bastard...!”

“There we go—now your brain’s finally starting to work. So who the fuck are you planning to offer up your flesh for, huh?”

“Let go...!”

“You gonna keep thinking that your goddamn venom is enough for situations like this? Not fighting. Not resisting. Just enduring it. That’s your big idea? Fuck that mental toughness bullshit.”

Their eyes, both twisted and full of fire, slammed into each other head-on.