“Recruit Han Seoryeong, over here!”

As she was guided into the private room, it was Jin Hoje who spotted her first and raised his hand.

One, two, three... Seoryeong silently bowed as she glanced around at the people who would become her senior partners. They were members of the Special Security Team she’d seen before—at the training camp, and even on the Thailand mission.

One of them was Kim Taemin, the firearms instructor, and the other was Instructor Yoo Dawit, who had once blown up a mudflat using miniature explosives. Without meaning to, Seoryeong narrowed her eyes and stared at Yoo as he adjusted his glasses.

More than once, she’d flinched in terror while crawling through the tidal flats, only for drones to blow the wet ground sky-high with a boom, boom! The exploding mud would rain down like a fountain, landing all over the recruits—and once it got in your mouth, no amount of brushing could get rid of the foul taste.

The memory of those hell-week moments returned with perfect clarity the instant she saw his face. She hesitated at the threshold—until a low voice dropped from over her head.

“What are you doing? Not coming in?”

“......!”

Seoryeong spun around. The man was wearing a dark brown turtleneck and a well-fitted coat that fell cleanly to his knees.

Unlike the skin-tight black training uniform made of stretch fabric, Wooshin in civilian clothes gave off a very different air—like someone who’d never held a gun, only a pen.

And yet, his broad shoulders and solid build couldn’t be hidden, radiating an action-star kind of presence. Seoryeong stared at him, head to toe.

Maybe it was because she was so used to seeing him drenched in seawater, dripping in sweat, or glaring down at her with clenched teeth. Meeting him like this, in clean clothes, felt oddly awkward.

Wooshin met her impolite stare for a while, then finally lifted the edge of his brow.

“Did you rest well, Recruit Han Seoryeong?”

“...I kept busy.”

“Oh—busy, huh.”

He echoed her words with a mocking tilt to his head, a smirk teasing the corners of his lips.

“I gave you time to rest. You weren’t out seeing someone, were you?”

“Excuse me?”

“Well, for someone who claims to have been ‘busy,’ your wounds seem to be healing quite nicely.”

“.......”

“You were really thorough with the ointment, weren’t you?”

He suddenly leaned in, eyes scanning the bridge of her nose and cheek. His gaze paused somewhere near her nape, sharp and focused—but the thick knit collar of her sweater spared her from the full intrusion.

Then, looking bored again, he pushed her forward and positioned her in front of the team. His large hands gripped her shoulders firmly.

“As you all know, this is Recruit Han Seoryeong, who passed the final test by tying up my damn wrist. She’ll be working overseas with us from now on. Help her out, and you”—he gave her a squeeze—“learn everything you can from your seniors. In age and experience, you’re at the very bottom.”

The team members, standing straight, gave her a round of strong applause.

***

“Drink first, talk later—!”

As the meat sizzled golden brown and alcohol began to flow, the group gradually let their guard down.

Wooshin had long since taken off his coat and rolled his sleeves up to the elbow, silently grilling meat for the others.

“Drink at your own pace. You’re responsible for yourself.”

He neither encouraged nor discouraged his subordinates from drinking. Eventually, the drinking party settled into a rhythm that excluded the team leader entirely.

Seoryeong accepted every glass offered by her seniors. At some point, the alcohol began to taste like plain water, and she smacked her lips in confusion.

Am I drunk already? she wondered. But her stomach wasn’t turning, and her head wasn’t spinning.

Strange. Still, she kept sipping and quietly eavesdropping on the conversations of the increasingly tipsy operatives.

With long talk comes true feelings, and with alcohol comes raw instinct.

To Seoryeong, this gathering was nothing more than a chance to analyze her teammates.

“Anyone who’s never gone AWOL, drink up.”

“......”

“......”

The room fell into a hush.

Kim Taemin, formerly of the 707th Special Mission Group under the Army’s Special Warfare Command, had once dominated national shooting competitions at a sports high school. But after being severely hazed by senior athletes, he fled into the military hoping to catch a break—only to face even more brutal abuse within the unit.

He’d considered desertion out of fear that he might actually shoot someone. He was jailed for it and never returned to the athletic world.

“I joined this unit because I was sick of seeing those abusive bastards post saluting selfies on social media, acting like selfless patriots. One day, someone’s gonna get their skull blown open. I fucking swear.”

He had a clean-cut face and long, lean limbs, but each word oozed pure rage. Including Seoryeong, three people drank.

“Anyone who hasn’t threatened a priest to blow up a church, take a shot.”

Yoo Dawit had been a model seminary student before converting to the military. It wasn’t until he encountered explosives that the stagnant waiting-for-God part of his brain snapped to life.

People had called him a modern Judas, spat on his decision, but his conviction never wavered.

Eventually, he dropped out of seminary, joined EOD, and was deployed abroad under the 5th Airborne Special Forces Brigade.

Again, three—including Seoryeong—drank.

“Anyone who’s only done it in water, don’t drink!”

...What? Seoryeong froze.

The rest of the team members looked like they’d bitten into something sour, while Jin Hoje took a shot with no hesitation.

Ah...!

That’s when it clicked—it was about sex. Seoryeong reached for her glass in delayed realization, but before the drink could touch her lips, Wooshin—who hadn’t touched a single drop all night—suddenly grabbed her wrist.

“......!” 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

She looked at him, eyes wide. He held her gaze as he calmly lifted the glass to his lips and drank it instead.

“Wooooooh—!”

The team members let out a low, dirty cheer, clearly savoring the moment. But even in the noisy blur, the look between them didn’t waver.

His adam’s apple bobbed slowly as he swallowed. Her wrist, gripped tight in his hand, tingled with a low hum.

“.......”

“.......”

I did it with my husband in the bathtub once...

It had been embarrassing, but Kim Hyeon had been gentle, coaxing her through it.

Now that she thought about it, maybe married couples just do that kind of thing. Seoryeong accepted it without much thought.

Finally, it seemed to be her turn. Her three seniors stared at her—some waiting, some eager, some pushing.

After a beat, she opened her mouth. Getting people drunk? That she could do with her eyes closed.

“If you’ve never lived blind, take a drink.”

Three glasses tilted back at once.

“If you’ve never been conned into a sham marriage, drink again...”

Again, three heads tipped back.

“If you’ve never been suspected of attempted murder against your husband, drink.”

“......”

“If your neighbors have never vanished all at once, drink again.”

“......”

“If you’ve never tried to defect to North Korea, drink twice.”

“......”

After downing his drinks in quick succession, Kim Taemin muttered under his breath, “Goddamn...”

While the others groaned and whimpered, Seoryeong’s eyes drifted to Jin Hoje—still fresh as ever.

He really does look like Kim Hyeon...

That slightly tanned skin, thick neck, swimmer’s shoulders...

She couldn’t tear her eyes away. Her chopsticks missed, dropping a piece of meat—and someone nearby clicked their tongue.

“Food goes in your mouth, not your eyes. This is your third time.”

“Huh?”

“I told you what happens if I catch you ogling a man, didn’t I? Can’t even hold your chopsticks right—how the hell are you gonna handle fieldwork?”

“.......”

“You probably haven’t had a proper meal since reproductive training ended. So shut up and get your nose in the plate.”

Seoryeong flinched but nodded silently.

Since returning home from that extreme starvation, she’d only been able to stomach watery porridge for days. Wooshin was right—this was her first real meal.

Just then, she heard a muttered complaint.

“Damn monkey does the work, Wang Seo-bang gets the money...”

But before she could ask what that meant, Jin Hoje leaned in close, and the moment passed.

“Oh, right! Team Leader, how’s your rib?”

...Rib? What rib? Seoryeong’s eyes snapped toward him. Wooshin’s face remained blank; he clearly had no intention of explaining. She turned to Jin Hoje for clarification.

“Oh... you didn’t know. He cracked a rib in that last drop accident. When it breaks, even lifting your arm makes you sweat bullets—and just breathing while lying down hurts like hell...”

“You hurt your rib?”

She glanced toward his side.

So he’d hugged her tight, climbed the ice wall—all with a broken rib? The memory made her frown.

“It’s a hairline fracture. Don’t make a fuss.”

“No, it’s just...”

It’s just hard working under someone as inhuman as you.

She didn’t say it out loud. Wooshin tossed a pile of meat onto her plate like he was telling her to mind her business and eat.

Then, Jin Hoje—having just swallowed a huge lettuce wrap—suddenly shifted the conversation.

“Oh right, I saw this crazy video on YouTube recently. Some ex-CIA disguise director named Jonna Mendez was being interviewed. Turns out facial prosthetics, like in movies, are actually real!”

The others turned to him with curiosity.

“And I don’t just mean ‘real’—I mean it’s already beyond what we can even imagine. If the bone structure matches, they can switch gender or race, and no one notices. CIA calls it... some kind of overhead mask or something...”

“But if they’re revealing tech like that to the public, doesn’t that mean it’s already outdated?” Kim Taemin asked.

“Exactly! If it wasn’t obsolete, they wouldn’t be talking about it. Which means...”

Jin Hoje looked around at everyone before continuing.

“What would you do if you found out the face of someone close to you was fake?”

At that, Wooshin—who had ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ been grilling meat—paused. Seoryeong, too, stopped moving and looked up.