“What the hell is that man?!”

Inside the NIS comms room, one of the agents yanked out his earpiece with a scowl. Na Wonchang, seated at a terminal, quietly looked away, while Deputy Director Joo Seolheon pulled off the headset that had been clamped against the back of her head.

No one here had anticipated Lee Wooshin’s sudden intrusion. The sheer ferocity of his presence left the deputy director’s hands—until then steadily feeding lines—paralyzed.

As their roles fractured, the seamless synchronization that had created the fabricated ‘Kim Hyeon’ began to glitch. In the end, they were forced to drop the word ‘owl’ outright as a warning.

“What even was that situation? The op brief said the target had emotional deprivation issues and that we should gently coax and manipulate her! And then there’s suddenly some other man beside her—!”

“Well, we got the account, so wrap it up. Good work.”

“Wait, Deputy Director, is this going to negatively impact ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) my evaluation...?”

“Kang, good work.”

With her usual blunt dismissal, the deputy ended the exchange. The male agent ran his hand through his hair and stood up. Once he left the comms room, silence fell like a shroud.

Joo Seolheon, hair twisted into waves and pinned with a pencil, let out a dry laugh. She massaged her neck and glanced at the digital wall clock.

“Wonchang, you know when a beast shows its claws?”

“...Ma’am?”

“When it’s hungry. Only when it’s hungry.”

She picked up the coat she’d lazily draped over the back of her chair. It was time to tighten the leash on someone’s slackening heart.

Na Wonchang stayed frozen in the tense atmosphere until she walked out.

Sure, he’d contacted Lee Wooshin behind their backs and let something slip—but he hadn’t expected Wooshin to actually whip the wheel around and drive straight to the Owl’s nest.

He still remembered ‘Kim Hyeon’ returning home from their fake newlywed apartment, then going back to the so-called medical equipment office to draft reports and rinse off. The face he wore was always blank, mechanical.

It was he, watching from afar, who’d grown attached to the Owl. Never Wooshin.

But now—has the team lead lost it?

Yes, they got the bank account. But the method? That was the problem.

“...Team lead, what the hell were you thinking pulling a stunt like that...”

Na Wonchang looked sick.

Joo Seolheon’s secondary office was in a rundown neighborhood draped with a banner announcing upcoming demolition.

She walked past a mattress dumped by the curb, broken appliances, trash, cigarette butts—all littered along the narrow street—then entered a shabby building without even an elevator.

No sign, no nameplate.

She climbed the shadowy stairwell and slipped through a dented steel door.

As she groped the wall and flipped the switch, the light revealed Lee Wooshin sprawled across a leather couch with the cover torn open. He had a pint of ice cream resting on his flat stomach and was chewing on a pink plastic spoon between his teeth.

She didn’t even blink before shutting the door. Cold air blew in behind her.

“Well, look who’s finally showing his real face again.”

He shrugged as she took a seat on the battered couch. The springs let out a groan.

“You’re refusing to share the Owl operation, huh.”

He came right out with it. Joo Seolheon laughed softly and crossed her legs.

“Is that a big deal? You should be focused on exposing the corruption line inside Blast Corp. The NIS director’s probably involved, but we don’t have hard evidence yet. With that, you and I can both get what we want.”

“......”

“And when you’re hungry, eat real food. Not garbage.”

“You know the Owl’s now under my command, right?”

Joo Seolheon didn’t flinch, but for the first time, she massaged her temple like she had a headache.

“Why’d you end the training phase so early, huh? You could’ve recruited at least one more into your team. We sent one of ours in to monitor the Owl, and they flunked out at the end.”

“......!”

“He wasn’t exactly incompetent, either. But apparently, the almighty Lee Wooshin collapsing cut the training short. Color me impressed.”

Wooshin’s mouth curled into a deep smile.

“Who was it?”

“Your ‘instructor gig’ was half-assed at best. You probably wouldn’t even recognize the name.”

The disposable spoon clicked faintly between his teeth. He didn’t take his eyes off her, silently waiting for the rest.

Despite his relaxed breathing and harmless posture, the cold persistence in his eyes was pure Siberian frost.

She’d stepped on that landmine before—and ended up the only one with a ruptured gut. So this time, she answered.

“Dong Jiwoo. The new NIS recruit who joined this round.”

The ice cream tub on his abs wobbled faintly. With a lopsided grin, he scooped out a spoonful of now-melted cream.

He didn’t even blink. But that lazy, insolent slurp made her feel uneasy. She raised her brow.

“You remember him? He didn’t exactly have a memorable face.”

“No idea who that leech was.”

“......”

“So you’ve been getting regular reports, huh?”

“Here and there. Owl actually showed talent for military training. Took the Special Security Team seat in one shot.”

Joo Seolheon toyed with her earring as she muttered.

“Wooshin... why did you jump in today?”

That mundane chatter evaporated the moment she asked. Cold stares collided in the air between them.

Wooshin shook the spoon in his hand and stared her down.

“Why, you think I disobeyed my commanding officer and acted on my own?”

“......”

It had been nearly ten years working together—but every time he smiled like that, it rubbed her the wrong way.

Despite his skills as a field operative, Wooshin was not someone you could leash with hierarchy alone.

A vagabond. A runaway.

When she’d first found him, he was just a shell of a boy. Born of rare, icy bloodlines, he’d left Russia at fourteen and fallen into the hands of some of the most brutal South African mercenaries.

He roamed warzones instead of attending school. Held guns instead of pencils. While he missed formal education, he never skipped combat training. That was the only way to survive.

Wooshin fought as part of the Rhodesian military, Salvadoran guerrillas, Bosnian units, Guatemalan insurgents, UNITA rebels, the Contras. Then Laos militias, Azerbaijani factions, Nicaraguan cells, Congolese forces—he drifted constantly.

He was a nomad. A fugitive. His entire life was like that.

At eighteen, he enlisted in the Korean military. By the time Joo Seolheon scouted him for agent training, his eyes were those of a killer. Emotions rubbed raw, a walking longsword barely held together by human skin.

And broken things? They’re the most dangerous. Even now, she considered him a write-off.

He was addicted to danger—and didn’t even realize it.

Maybe it was because warzones were the only homes he’d ever known. Specialists said his brain was as damaged as a drug addict’s. Soaked in dirty dopamine, he needed risk to function. Couldn’t stand quiet or comfort.

His idea of ‘normal’ was eating off the ground and sleeping beside corpses. Without a battlefield, without his pack... he couldn’t cope.

He didn’t have an “off” switch.

The first time he broke that pattern was during his long-term undercover mission: a fake marriage.

Living a slow, gentle life was the one thing he couldn’t stand. So his reaction to that mission—like it was blisters on his face—made perfect sense.

“Today, I finally opened up the Owl’s head.”

And with that, a different kind of smile tugged at his lips. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

“Forget violations of the National Security Act, the Information and Communication Network Act, the Electronic Financial Transactions Act—that’s nothing. The Owl has no intention of stopping until she finds Kim Hyeon.”

“......”

“The problem is what she’ll do after that.”

He sucked on the spoon. His cheeks caved in.

“How’s that Kim Hyeon corpse coming along?”

“I saw the report.”

“She won’t give up until it makes sense in her head. I pushed her hard during camp, but nothing got through. So we need to kill him on the outside, and destroy the motive from the inside.”

He licked the white ice cream from his lips with a crooked grin.

“That’s why, starting tomorrow, I’ll be living with the bad Owl.”

“......!”

“I agreed to be her accomplice.”

“...What? You what?”

“Which is why, Deputy Director—”

Wooshin placed the softened container on the floor and stood up. As he stepped over it, the melted ice cream oozed out under his boot.

He walked a few steps toward her and leaned down. The couch groaned as he grabbed its back.

“From now on, don’t bother with anyone else. Just give your orders to me.”

“......!”

“The Owl I raised... only I get to monitor her.”

His pupils sank deep—black as an abyss.

“And with that... I formally request Han Seoryeong be designated a potential terrorist.”