Bang, bang—!

The rifle’s butt slammed into her shoulder with every shot, jarring pain through her bones. Even with careful sight alignment, the bullets kept missing their mark.

Seoryeong exhaled sharply and pulled her elbow back again. The plywood targets rolled back and forth across the metal tracks on the ground, shifting directions and speeds unpredictably.

Special Security Team – Phase 2 Tactical Shooting Drill (TACTICAL SHOOTING).

You couldn’t afford to leak even a breath. Seoryeong furrowed her brows, forcing her unstable breathing into submission as she realigned her aim. Soon the tremors calmed, and her eyes began tracking the erratic movement of the targets.

But how did I even get married...? How did I date Hyeon?

She had once sat down to quiet dinners and built a domestic life. She had a whole history of that. So why was one kiss throwing her so badly...?

Didn’t I practically graduate in that department?

Bang—!

One carefully fired round punched clean through a target.

“Haa...”

Relieved, she loosened her stance and lowered the rifle—just in time to be struck by a sharp shout from across the range.

“Han Seoryeong! Get your head in the game!”

A paint round hit her square in the back and burst. Her tactical tee, which clung lightly to her frame, became soaked with crimson dye.

At the same time, a fragmentation round from another direction skimmed past her hair.

Lee Wooshin was glaring at her with a terrifying expression.

“The drill’s not over. Why are you standing down?”

“...Sorry.”

“No need to apologize to me. Apologize to yourself—you just got killed by a paintball.”

“......”

“Get your damn head straight.”

As if he can say that...

This was the same man who, just hours ago, had shoved his tongue down her throat like a madman. Seoryeong scowled inwardly as she glared back at him.

It seemed she was the only one struggling to focus on work. So he thinks putting the team leader nameplate back on resets everything?

Grinding her teeth, she re-took her stance.

What tripped her up the most was having to hit moving targets with the AK rifle. That, and the constant paintballs and smoke grenades flying from every direction.

The other shooters responded smoothly each time, but she was still far too lacking.

Every time she misloaded or got hit by paint, icy glares flew toward her.

“Someone like Recruit Han Seoryeong, who handles guns carelessly, is the type to cause firearm accidents.”

“Oh, is that why you gave me the pistol?”

His cold instructor mask cracked for a moment. Wooshin raked his fingers through his hair as if the whole drill space was stifling. A red mark appeared on his previously clear forehead.

Seoryeong looked briefly at the mark she’d left, then quickly turned her head.

Staring at it reminded her of that blunt tongue stirring her mouth. Of how it had pushed in and made her cheek bulge like a candy had been forced inside.

Even after behaving so recklessly, he had melted down with heat—No. Stop thinking about it.

Her nape flushed hot.

Wooshin, seeming to notice her avoidance, lowered his eyes slightly. He looked like he was about to say something, but then just shut his mouth.

Whatever he was about to say, he swallowed it—his brow wrinkling like he’d eaten something overly sweet. His gaze retained a faint trace of a smile, but his mouth had gone stiff and cold.

“If the weapon’s not in good condition, it might discharge even without pulling the trigger. You almost got a hole in your foot just now. I about lost my damn heart—so watch yourself.”

“......!”

It was nothing like the Wooshin who used to smile with only the corners of his mouth raised.

The team members’ dumbfounded stares had been stabbing into her cheek for a while now.

They’d glance at her swollen lips in shock, then cough awkwardly and scatter.

She rubbed her forehead in embarrassment.

This is going to wreck the team dynamic...

Right now, the Special Security Team was undergoing continuous weeks of SHIP ARMED GUARD and CQB (Close Quarters Battle) training. It was a packed schedule designed to sync down to the second before their Africa deployment.

And yet...

The team leader and the newbie look like this...

Sigh...

Whether he knew what she was thinking or not, Lee Wooshin stepped closer to her back. When she tried to turn, a curt instruction landed in her ear: “Eyes front.”

He wrapped himself around her shooting posture and corrected her grip. His solid chest pressed against her shoulder blades, and his heavy jaw grazed the back of her head.

“......!”

He bent low to match her height, supporting her wrists and forearms with firm precision.

His calm breathing and short hair tickled against her cheek.

Too close...

Then, in a dry voice that burrowed into her ear:

“Is the rifle giving you trouble?”

“...Yes.”

“I figured you’d handle the AK-47 better than the pistol. It’s longer, heavier.”

“What does that even mean...”

“Try separating the magazine.”

Seoryeong, tense, fumbled with the gun.

He watched her silently—then suddenly, as a target darted into their blind spot, he overlapped his hands over hers.

In an instant, he loaded the magazine, pushed the bolt forward, chambered a round, and took down the approaching target.

The kick was so strong their bodies shook together from the recoil.

“You don’t shoot at anything you can’t take responsibility for.”

“......!”

He murmured it suddenly, the words slipping past °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° her stunned ears.

“You either kill for real... or take care of them to the end. It’s always one or the other.”

His steady heartbeat thumped against her back.

“That’s the rule for people like us.”

Only when his warmth pulled away from her arm and shoulder did she finally feel like she could breathe again. She exhaled sharply and turned to look at him—already giving feedback to the others.

Enough. Focus.

Seoryeong clenched her teeth, drilling herself back into the mission: the Deputy Director’s kidnapping.

It was the only thing that could snap her back into place—lash her scattered mind into order.

No matter how Wooshin acted, Kim Hyeon was hers.

The one thing she could never lose.

***

“Seriously, what happened to your lips? Did you eat something weird?”

After the two-hour session, every team member was drenched in sweat. They slung sports towels around their necks as they filed out, until Kim Taemin’s dumb question broke the uneasy silence.

“Allergic reaction?”

Even from her peripheral vision, Seoryeong saw the others glare and slap their foreheads.

“Your lips are so swollen...”

“Ah—seriously, does this guy have to blurt out every damn thing so loudly...”

Kim Taemin bent forward in genuine concern to examine the rookie’s lips. Jin Hoje, meanwhile, grabbed his buddy by the head—but even he slumped his shoulders oddly.

Then, tossing a towel over his own damp face, he muttered,

“Shit... his hands are so damn fast...”

Whenever their eyes briefly met, a gloomy gaze trailed after her. But Seoryeong feigned total ignorance.

She’d rather die than give some half-baked excuse that would only sink her deeper.

And frankly, she couldn’t think of a good lie anyway.

“I had a weapon in hand but couldn’t push him away. I guess... I’m a little nicer than I thought...”

Forget it.

She bit down on her swollen lips. You don’t call something an excuse if you can’t even convince yourself.

Honestly, she envied Yu Dawit, who simply whistled with a hair tie between his lips as if none of this mattered.

While they walked toward the showers, a group of people suddenly burst out from what looked like a seamless hallway wall. A door had opened from what appeared to be a flat surface—and a team of men with refreshed expressions emerged in a clump.

Seoryeong blinked rapidly, then stared at the silently closing sliding door.

“What’s in there?”

“...Hm.”

Kim Taemin’s voice was low, his expression evasive.

“...Senior?”

“It’s just the injection room. Nothing you need to know, Recruit Han.”

“Injection room?”

Her eyes widened.

“You mean... the place that gives out meds?”

The memory struck her. Wooshin had mentioned something about a coach inside the company who mixed up various substances. From the tone back then, it hadn’t sounded like anything strictly legal.

Her guess was confirmed by the discomfort on Taemin’s face.

“Lots of the team get physically drained, jittery, insomnia. That much is fine.

But then you’ve got the guys who start going there for sleep aids—milk injections.

Don’t get curious. No one who hangs around that place sticks around here long.”

“...Milk injections?”

“Propofol. It’s a type of anesthetic. Knocks you out like real sleep. Super addictive.”

She knew about propofol. One short injection and you were unconscious within five to ten seconds. Wake-up time? Less than ten minutes.

“Your swollen lips—just ice them. And don’t even think about going near that place.”

“Yes. I’ll stay away.”

Definitely going in there.

Seoryeong nodded politely, staring for a long time at the spot where the hidden door had vanished. The section didn’t even look like a doorway—if not for the break in the wall, she wouldn’t have guessed.

—Do you want to lose those eyes again?

That NIS executive...

The one who knew everything about her past and about Kim Hyeon, the time when she couldn’t see... Her tone had been full of threat, like she was gazing down on everything Seoryeong had ever gone through.

The day Seoryeong would face that woman directly... wasn’t far off.