The man went cold in an instant, folding his hands in front of him as if awaiting orders. But though his posture was respectful, his head tilted crookedly to one side.

Was that really any kind of proper attitude toward a superior? That calm, obedient-looking face waiting for a reply was utterly revolting. Ju Seolheon furrowed her brow and retraced the situation in her mind.

“You’re saying... you’ll live together? In that newlywed home, again, with Owl and you—”

Then, a volcanic shout burst out of her.

“Are you out of your fucking mind? You think you can fall back into old habits in front of someone who’s got full eyesight again?! What the hell kind of nerve does it take to go back there, to even think about going back in! If this gets exposed, you’ll end up in prison!”

Ju Seolheon clutched her head like it was spinning.

“There’s nothing to expose. This time, I’m going in to erase ‘Kim Hyeon,’” Wooshin replied coolly.

“......!”

“Owl needs to part with Kim Hyeon for real. That way, the NIS, and I, can return to our rightful places. Whenever she keeps crawling back to memories of her husband, my skull feels like it’s cracking from the migraines. So if I can just get rid of that obsession—”

Lee Wooshin propped his knee up on the sofa armrest and sat. When his gaze aligned with hers, he muttered under his breath.

“Even if the Deputy Director tries to project a second or third Kim Hyeon onto some other guy, Owl’ll shoot ‘em all to hell anyway.”

“......!”

“Try sending in some other sons of bitches without warning again. This time they won’t even make it past the front door.”

His cold eyes rounded slightly as he rose to his feet. Straightening his clothes, Lee Wooshin grumbled under his breath.

“A guy like me, dragging his body around for illegal surveillance, isn’t even worth keeping around, huh? How could you even think of cutting me out of Owl’s business?”

Ju Seolheon finally put her hand to her forehead. That bastard was threatening her without even bothering to call it a threat. Her expression aged five years in a second as she laid down a firm warning.

“No matter what, you can’t use that. Ever.”

She cast a wary glance down at Wooshin’s groin.

“Even during the Bird Box operation, there was no makeup down there. Don’t you dare whip it out and risk getting caught.”

“......”

For once, the man who had been smug and unbothered all along gave a flicker of reaction — his brow twitched.

“Did you not fucking hear me? If you screw this up, it’s prison time!”

“......”

“Owl is already considered a threat. That’s been acknowledged. And your penetration mission has been carried out well. But people like us, even after retirement, are shackled to silence and secrecy. Got that? If one thing gets exposed, then it all comes out. You and I both rot in jail for leaking state secrets! That’s why words like confession don’t exist in our damn vocabulary!”

“......”

“Even the strongest dam crumbles from an ant tunnel. Don’t let a single detail slip. You need to be even more careful than before. If there’s even the slightest chance Owl might catch on, don’t try, don’t touch, don’t even think about it. Just—! Don’t do anything fucking insane!”

“That’s why I got a tattoo.”

“And what the fuck good is that if it looks exactly the same?!”

“Well, I figured... if she’s gonna be bad, I’ll be bad too.”

“When I tell you not to do something, just don’t fucking do it!”

Despite her voice practically breaking from stress, Lee Wooshin only smiled, that unreadable expression never fading.

That cocky bastard... Ju Seolheon instinctively knew it was time to tighten the leash on him again.

Men like him, born runners, never came back once they took off. Especially someone like Lee Wooshin, who’d started that lifestyle at fourteen to escape the bitter cold of Russia. If he left the NIS now and made a clean break, she had no way to find him again.

To keep a man like that useful — to keep him bound — she needed a shackle.

“And that document you wanted to see...”

The Deputy Director rubbed her chin and glanced at him. As expected, Wooshin’s face stiffened immediately. Even his fingers, which had been tapping idly, went still.

“You know, the ‘child’ you supposedly carried around back in Russia. Eighteen years ago.”

“She’s dead.”

“And yet, you’ve never let go. You still wonder, don’t you?”

“......”

“What really happened in that mansion.”

Lee Wooshin ran a hand down his face and turned his head. The man's lips, once curled with a damp, sinister delight, were now cold and hard. For the first time, the rogue who always played rough avoided her gaze.

Ju Seolheon felt a strange reassurance — the leash on her most prized agent was pulling tight again.

“On my last trip to the U.S., I confirmed something. Apparently, there’s a document left behind... one that records the final day of the Solzhenitsyn estate. It’s just a rumor within the CIA, but it seems to match what we’re looking for.”

Red headlights slanted across his chiseled profile. With every flicker of light, his expression seemed to change. He looked like a cliff standing alone in the dead of winter, motionless and frostbitten. His face was as emotionless as plaster.

“What I do know for certain,” she said, “is that there was a Korean agent who went missing after infiltrating Russia. And there’s a high probability the document he left behind contains the final record of your time in the Winter Fortress.”

“......”

“It might even mention that child you’re still looking for.”

Even so, it was just a child — no name, no age, not even a face. So small, so young, so light he barely felt the weight when lifting the kid with one arm.

And now, those memories blurred more with every death he faced — whether they had been dreams, hallucinations, or something else entirely.

But beyond the crude mask, those bright, beadlike eyes still lingered in some corner of his mind... no longer alive, no longer real. And yet he was still chasing them.

Even when his emotions were scraped raw and his humanity eroded, that small creature had kept racing through his insides, clueless. He didn’t know if it was guilt or compassion that ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) still tethered him.

The child had died a wretched death in the place he once called home. And Lee Wooshin had become an NIS agent for one reason only: to uncover the secrets of that mansion.

“I’m going to see that document through to the end, Wooshin. The one that’s not blacked out with a marker. So don’t let your tail get caught.”

“......”

“You’re the one who sharpened Owl into what she is now. You trained her. And now you’ve walked straight into a minefield.”

Lee Wooshin gave her a wordless nod and turned to leave.

“Oh, and don’t bully Wonchang too much.”

“......!”

His hand froze on the doorknob.

“You knew who Owl really was and still started Bird Box. So why the sudden curiosity now? You were full of hostility in the beginning, and now what—starting to feel human curiosity?”

“......”

“Don’t come to regret it later. Means are meant to be ends. And the one playing dirty right now looks a hell of a lot like you.”

He felt no emotional tremor. As he stepped out and shut the door behind him, there wasn’t even a trace of expression on his face.

Only the stairwell, lightless and cracked, echoed hollowly. A savage wind blew through the broken window frame. Shards of glass crackled beneath his feet.

Outside the crumbling building, Lee Wooshin stood still, momentarily aimless, letting the darkness swallow him whole. Then, with a frustrated yank, he pulled at his tight turtleneck.

As if finally able to breathe, a long plume of condensation poured from his lips. Thick veins bulged against the pale skin of his neck, unnatural and angry beneath the fabric.

He glanced up at the dark sky where sleet had begun to fall. No cloud resembled Owl today.

***

“There’s only one female Deputy Director. The First Deputy Director of the NIS.”

Seoryeong couldn’t deny it anymore — she’d been suckered, clean and stupid. Sitting across from Hur Channa at a café near Blast Corp, her face was perfectly unbruised, not a single mark.

Early that morning, she’d tripped over a small, black bag dumped haphazardly in front of her door. Instantly, she’d thought of Lee Wooshin — but the tablet PC shoved under her nose snapped her back.

Focus. Focus...!

“You said NIS executive info was hard to get. How’d you find this?”

“Home address or personal data, yeah, that’s tough. But this stuff gets circulated in the press during appointments. The NIS is under the President’s direct control. When a new administration comes in, the entire executive board gets replaced, and their new education and career history gets released for PR purposes.”

Ju Seolheon, the First Deputy Director of the NIS, graduated from Korea University and served as the NSC's Director of Intelligence Operations.

They said she was excellent at organization, quick-witted, personable — she’d made meaningful achievements in overseas intelligence. All article fluff.

So it really was her... Seoryeong’s lips curled into a smirk.

“She’s the one I want.”

“Sorry—what?”

“She’s my next gamble.”

“......!”

Channa mumbled under her breath, “Of all the people, it had to be the First Deputy Director...” but none of it reached Seoryeong.

The one who blinded her. The one who sicced Kim Hyeon on her. Maybe — just maybe — this woman was the only one who could explain it all.

A hard, determined light burned in Seoryeong’s eyes.

“Now that I’ve got an accomplice, she’s the perfect match.”

Just then—bzzz, bzzz—the phone vibrated.

It was an unknown number.