“Just support me. I want to catch the Deputy Director myself.”

After finishing training and returning home, she sat Lee Wooshin down seriously and made the declaration.

She pulled out a long sheet of paper she had stuffed in her bag. It was already worn at the edges, covered in scribbles and multicolored highlighter marks. It was both the draft of a plan she'd been secretly devising, and a floor plan of the venue she’d run through in her head hundreds of times.

As usual, Wooshin, who had gotten home first, served up tasteless combat rations in a frying pan. And so, the two of them sat face to face, spreading out the hotel map and the pale yellow rice side by side. Turning her head away from the rice that looked like it would crunch in her mouth like raw grains, she spoke.

“The Post-Quantum Cryptography Symposium will be held in the Grand Hotel’s 5th floor hall. Before that, Channa raided one of the subcontractors and got the hotel layout for me. This is the route I’ve mapped out...”

Suddenly, a spoon entered her field of vision. It was scooping up a large portion of combat rations she hadn’t even touched. When she frowned and looked up, Wooshin tapped her lips with the spoon, urging her.

“Mealtime.”

“......”

“As you can see, I’m supporting you.”

For her plan to proceed as intended, there needed to be preliminary operations inside the event venue. And she was planning to leave the entire process to Lee Wooshin.

Seoryeong hesitated briefly, then reluctantly opened her mouth. As if he'd been waiting for it, the spoon slipped in, scraping against the inside of her teeth on the way out.

“This is all so we can eat and survive, so you should at least eat your meals.”

“Instructor, I’m being serious right now.”

She retorted while chewing reluctantly. What had initially tasted like straw didn’t seem so bad anymore—maybe her tongue had gotten used to it, because her face no longer twisted up the way it used to.

“So it seems.”

Wooshin rested his chin on his hand in boredom and began to look over the map. Unlike at the office, he wasn’t wearing a tight-fitting training suit or a tailored suit today.

Loose sweatpants and an oversized plain T-shirt that looked at least triple XL. The comfortable outfit enveloped his large upper body, clearly a look meant only for wearing inside the house.

And with his wet hair falling neatly just beneath his brows, his impression seemed different again. That too, in its own way, was a talent.

Though it looked like he was only skimming the layout, his eyes didn’t stray from the highlighter lines she had drawn. At the same time, with one hand, he scooped up another spoonful of rice and pushed it toward her.

“Ugh...”

For some reason, she felt like she couldn’t interrupt him in this moment, and quietly opened her mouth again.

His experience, strategic intelligence, physical ability, and combat technique—these things were practically sacred texts she had no hope of acquiring on her own.

Chewing the dry rice mechanically, Seoryeong quietly watched him. Just then, he tapped the paper lightly—flick, flick—with his finger and spoke without much energy.

“Our dear Recruit Han Seoryeong sure knows how to work me to the bone.”

“You promised.”

Wooshin leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

“You want my thoughts?”

“Advice would be even better. Like if I missed anything...”

“First of all, I’m suspicious.”

“......!”

The immediate negative feedback caused her expression to stiffen. But among all the simulations she’d run through in her head, this version had seemed the cleanest... Was there a better method?

“How the hell did you fall for and get knocked up by that Kim Hyeon loser?”

“......Excuse me?”

“After I sucked on your lips like that, the best thing you’ve got to say is something like this? No matter how married you are, haven’t you gone completely numb?”

He flicked the paper hard enough to tear a hole in it.

“Is this really all you want to do with me—some damn kidnapping?”

“......!”

“The night we kissed, is this what we should’ve been talking about? Whether to shove someone into a trunk or a burlap sack?”

“Considering you're the one force-feeding me combat rations, I’d say you’re not any better, Instructor...”

“......”

“......”

Their eyes met in silence. Both of them fell quiet at the same time. Wooshin lowered his head and peered at the tiny handwriting on the paper, displeased. His eyes narrowed.

“What is this...? We’re talking about attempted murder via kidnapping, extortion, and torture? What the hell is this—where’d you get propofol from?”

His face turned sharply cold as he looked at her. Seoryeong just rolled her eyes around.

The illegal injection room Gitaemin had warned her not to even show interest in. She had gone inside and asked them to give her a shot of propofol.

When the technician came in with the vial and syringe, did she brush his thigh once? Twice? No, three times?

Stealing the syringe had been easy. Every trick she’d learned, she’d picked up from the man in front of her. When you want to kill someone, wear the face of a frail old man. When you want to steal the group fund, be the friendly neighbor. And when you want to seduce a lonely bachelor, use sex appeal.

“It wasn’t that hard to get...”

Wooshin let out a cold laugh. Then his eyes turned piercing, as though he were seeing right through her.

She swallowed dryly and kept her face blank. As the oppressive atmosphere pressed down on her, she stood her ground. At that, he tilted his chin as if to signal her to continue.

“Then summarize it for me. Let’s hear this briefing of yours.”

“......!”

Seoryeong’s face lit up. She hurriedly downed a glass of water and her eyes sparkled.

“My target is the Deputy Director, of course, but I’m not going to go for her first.”

“Why? Also, are you planning to tell your husband that we kissed?”

“......!”

The question caught in her throat. It was so out of nowhere, she almost wondered if she’d misheard him.

Seoryeong tilted her head slightly, then continued casually.

“The Cyber Operations Commander, who’s directly under the Ministry of Defense, will be attending this time too. So I was thinking...”

“I still don’t get why you insist on keeping your husband in the picture.”

So she hadn’t misheard after all... Seoryeong decided to pretend one of her ears had gone deaf.

“If I go after the Deputy Director directly, it’ll only raise her guard. So I’m planning to use something else—”

“Are you into polyandry or something?”

“I’ve written it all here. If you can just handle the preliminary work...”

“Then it’ll be Kim Hyeon who gets the short end. I'm the one who’s made a living with nothing but my body so far.”

In {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} moments like this, ignoring him was the best tactic. Just endure it. Endure it... Seoryeong bit her lower lip and chanted mentally.

She was trying to press on, determined to block out the man smiling with that slippery smirk, when—

Where was I again?

“Haah...”

All her concentration scattered. In the end, she slammed the table and stood up, unable to hold it in. She drew in a deep breath, about to lash out—but a firm voice nailed itself down in the silence before she could.

“Even if Recruit Han Seoryeong doesn’t step in, I can capture her myself.”

His face was smooth and flawless as he shamelessly redirected the conversation.

“This whole thing is too much work. It’s easier if I do it.”

“How exactly do you plan on capturing her?”

“Just set up a meeting and get her into the car. That’s it.”

“Pff...”

At this point, it wasn’t just unreliable—it was disappointing. Even now, Lee Wooshin was half-assing it with nothing but jokes.

I really am the only one putting my life on the line here... Her face grew visibly darker. Then suddenly, Wooshin exhaled a sigh and pressed his fingers to his brow.

“Fine, let’s say we catch her like you planned. But there’s something crucial missing.”

She looked up.

“An interrogation site. Somewhere tight and hidden, where no one can find it—and where you can vent as much as you want.”

“That’s already taken care of.”

“Where?”

He raised an eyebrow, but Seoryeong just gave him a meaningful smile.

The day of the operation was now right around the corner.

***

Seoul Grand Hotel, 5th Floor, Final Hall.

Post-Quantum Cryptography Symposium.

“In this day and age, computers and keyboards pose just as much of a national security threat as guns and bombs. The battlefields of today are no longer dirt-covered grounds, but places with no physical form. If we fail to adapt to such unpredictability and stay trapped in outdated frameworks, then...”

A man in a sharply pressed military uniform stood at the podium, delivering his opening remarks. Triple-star insignia gleamed from both shoulders. His hair was streaked with gray.

A security officer from Blast Corp’s Domestic Event Security Team stood nearby, stifling a yawn with all his might while keeping his posture perfectly upright.

The symposium would run for three days starting today, and the event had drawn a significant crowd—graduate students, esteemed professors, and major researchers were all in attendance. Each one of them wore a serious expression as they listened intently to the Cyber Operations Commander’s speech.

The guards posted around the venue stood in stoic silence, occasionally exchanging brief glances to report: All clear. All clear.

One man stood in the zone where the First Deputy Director of the NIS, Ju Seolheon, was visible. He was watching her intently. She still hadn’t let go of her notes, since her turn to speak was coming up next.

“......”

The man shifted his stance with a hint of annoyance. Though he’d been inspecting the equipment and checking for any malfunctions with the facilities team since dawn just in case of emergencies, his skepticism hadn’t disappeared.

Once part of the Blue House Presidential Security Service, he was well aware of how vulnerable venues like this really were.

No matter how elite a security detail might be, most lacked the technical expertise to fully understand all mechanical systems. If someone harbored malicious intent, deception would always be possible. He remembered thinking that while watching the bloated security chief huff around during prep.

There was no such thing as 100% prevention.

What mattered was reaction time.

—Stand by. The lights in the venue will go out soon. No one leave your positions.

—A-2, copy.

—A-3, copy.

“A-4, copy.”

Snapping out of his wandering thoughts, the security guard responded crisply.

A moment later, the internal lighting shut off, and a large beam projector lit up the screen. An introductory video began to play—a general promotional clip about the symposium.

The words Sponsored by the National Intelligence Service appeared and then disappeared from the screen.

—Huh...?

A strange reaction crackled faintly in his earpiece.