After a flight of approximately three hours, they finally set foot on Sakhalin soil. As soon as she stepped off Blast’s special cargo plane, the first thing that greeted Seoryeong was a biting cold that pierced her to the bone. The island’s weather, nearing ten degrees below zero, was so fierce that it almost made her want to turn back. While she just stood still, frozen, letting the winter wind lash her face, Lee Wooshin, who was passing by, suddenly lowered her jacket hood and put it over Seoryeong’s head.
“Ah, I already received the satellite data and had a look around―”
He was talking to Channa over the radio when he turned towards them. When Seoryeong was slightly surprised, he moved his mouth, asking ‘why’. For no clear reason, Seoryeong avoided his gaze and adjusted the military bag hanging on her shoulder. As they began to walk, an old jeep was already waiting, ready to take the team members. Ki Taemin was checking weapons in the trunk, and Jin Hoje bent down, touched a tire, and shook his head slightly.
“I’m not sure if this will run properly.”
“You sit in the back, and Han Seoryeong will sit in the front passenger seat.”
With a loud thud of the closing door, Lee Wooshin sat behind the wheel. It was a signal for everyone to get into the car. Seoryeong hesitated for a moment, but finally gave in to the cold air and opened the front passenger door. The old door handle creaked. Even the seatbelt was broken in the middle and couldn’t be used properly.
“Wait, wait a minute, Team Leader…!”
Jin Hoje hurriedly got into the back seat and exclaimed loudly.
“If the Team Leader sits next to the new member, it’s too dangerous!”
His voice echoed sharply in her ears. All the other members also wore serious expressions, as if agreeing. Usually, when the Team Leader was driving, the sniper Ki Taemin would sit next to him for protection. Besides being the most reliable in protective fire, the deputy team leader, Yoo Dawit, also had to stay with the other members to be on guard in case the Team Leader was unable to perform his duties. So actually, Yoo Dawit and Jin Hoje were supposed to guard the new member from the front and back. Although Team Leader Lee Wooshin usually seemed relaxed, once a mission began, he would transform into someone as sharp as the devil. So when he broke the unwritten rule and changed the seating arrangement, everyone felt confused.
“Team Leader, what if there’s an accident…!”
With anxious eyes, Jin Hoje looked back and forth between the driver’s and front passenger seats.
“One of you could die, you know!”
Seoryeong flinched, and her shoulders trembled. The anxious gazes of everyone turned to her, and Wooshin just clicked his tongue. He pressed Jin Hoje’s protruding forehead with one hand while starting the car engine. The vibration from the rough engine sound could be felt through the seats they were sitting on. As Wooshin stepped on the clutch and shifted the manual gears, the rusty exhaust pipe shook violently.
“Yoo Dawit is here, so why are you worried?”
“Huh…?”
“That’s why I gave him the armband.”
“……!”
Seoryeong frowned and looked sharply at Wooshin. For some reason, the way the man spoke, as if assuming that if someone had to get hurt, it should be him, felt very unsettling. Although he must have felt that piercing gaze, Wooshin continued driving through the vast field without saying a word.
Am I being a burden to Wooshin now? No, who is treating me like a burden? Is this why he wanted me to sit next to him? Seoryeong silently clenched her teeth. Jin Hoje leaned back in his seat, grumbling. As they passed over the bumpy road, everyone’s body inside the car swayed and bumped against the sides. When she turned her head, Seoryeong saw an endless expanse of fields beyond the window. For some reason, her heart had been pounding rapidly since earlier.
“――.”
Overseeing the children at the monastery, huh… Even though her body shook due to the uneven road, Seoryeong kept repeating the explanation of this mission in her head. The car continued along the dirt road. The sound of crushed stones under the tires went “brak,” and from the loosely closed window, the scent of earth entered. In the vast fields stretching like the horizon, reeds and tall grasses grew wild and dense. The large umbrella-shaped leaves were even taller than a person, and it felt like even rain could be blocked by hiding underneath them. Among the dense grasses, Koreans could occasionally be seen. Suddenly, Seoryeong felt nauseous. Although she wanted to distract herself, she couldn’t take her eyes off the scenery, and finally said, “...Oh, right, sunbae. Remember the conversation that was delayed back then? About that very famous Russian Prime Minister’s family…”
The car suddenly jolted violently, either from hitting a rock or a pothole. Wooshin immediately reached out and held Seoryeong’s head to prevent it from hitting the roof. Meanwhile, the other team members cursed while holding their bumped heads. Wooshin’s gaze at that moment, though only for a brief instant, seemed to freeze. But Seoryeong continued her words while tightly gripping the worn- out door handle.
“The one who supposedly married a Korean woman…”
“Ah! You mean that romance story, right!”
Jin Hoje chimed in cheerfully, but Ki Taemin, who was assembling a pistol, sneered.
“Hey, stop feeding nonsense to the new member. If you’re going to tell a story, tell it right. What romance.”
“Huh? I was just―!”
“Han Seoryeong, don’t be charmed by this guy’s talk. That story is famous precisely because it’s a tragedy.”
“A tragedy?”
“Yeah. The Solzhenitsyn family tragedy. They all died in an accident. It seems their lineage was even cut off.”
A moment of silence enveloped the car. Seoryeong immediately turned sharply towards Jin Hoje, like someone who had just been betrayed. Her expression seemed to say, ‘Didn’t you say it was a romantic story?’ Jin Hoje pulled his neck in and smiled awkwardly. Then, in a low voice, he said, “But still… They crossed national borders, differences in status, age gaps, and finally got married…! They even died on the same day and at the same time. That’s also quite beautiful, I think…”
Ki Taemin immediately slapped his friend’s head from behind. Seoryeong pondered for a moment, then asked again.
“Then, what kind of accident actually happened?”
“That’s enough about that.”
Suddenly, Wooshin, who had been silent the whole time, cut off the team members’ conversation. With his jaw clenched tightly, he swerved the car sharply. The team members’ bodies leaned to the side, and the car seats creaked softly.
“Two kilometers left. Don’t let your guard down.”
After passing an unpaved dirt road, the first thing that caught their attention was the brick-red facade of the monastery. For some reason, a feeling of nausea came over her, and Seoryeong bit her lower lip, trying to swallow her acidic saliva. While the car slowly decelerated, suddenly a man appeared and roughly opened the car door, forcefully pulling her calf.
“――!”
In an instant, her body slid downwards, and rough hands went under her armpits. The person pulled her out like drawing a baby from its mother’s womb, without hesitation. Seoryeong immediately grabbed the door handle, but the very old handle simply came off. Finally, her body fell out of the vehicle along with the incident. All of this happened in less than a second.
“This bastard…!”
Instantly, the sound of car brakes screeched, and Lee Wooshin shouted loudly. However, it was too late to back up. Seoryeong decided to use this man as a meat shield, and suddenly she twisted her body. Their bodies collided heavily, and an unfamiliar scent filled the air. As they rolled on the dusty ground, dust billowed up. Hah… hah… The opponent who was hugging her breathed heavily. A relieved laugh could be heard between his breaths.
“Sonya… my daughter… finally…!”
At the edge of her swaying vision, black hair could be seen. Under the sunlight, the hair looked slightly reddish depending on the angle. Shortly after, their noses almost touched, and their gazes met. Piercing black eyes, difficult to forget. The sound of bodies clanging as they rolled on the bathroom floor, a priest smiling widely with his white teeth visible.
“Han Seoryeong―!”
Lee Wooshin slammed the car door shut while shouting. From the back seat, three gun barrels pointed directly at them. In that instant, the priest whispered in her ear.
“I also invited your husband here.”
Her body stiffened. At the same time, a great force separated the two of them. Lee Wooshin immediately kicked the priest’s head with his military boots and bent his arm. The priest, whose face was plunged into the mud, grimaced and gasped for breath. Even so, Lee Wooshin continued to grip the priest’s head, pressing it against a large, protruding rock.
“Sonya, my daughter, look at this, how cruel your husband is, aagh―!”
Suddenly, Lee Wooshin twisted the priest’s shoulder roughly. A loud ‘click’ sound was heard as one of his arms hung limply. The priest opened his mouth wide and began to cry with a hoarse voice.
He cried incessantly, begging to be saved. Just hearing it was agonizing. Even so, Lee Wooshin showed no expression of pity. Is it okay to hit a priest like this? With the priest’s childish crying, Seoryeong finally came to her senses. This place is a monastery, not Lee Wooshin’s territory, and whatever the reason, this is a priest being tortured by a mercenary. Seoryeong dusted off her knees and pulled Lee Wooshin.
“This person seems to be from the monastery; if we ask carelessly, it could be dangerous.”
“……”
A moment of silence. Lee Wooshin’s dark eyes stared at her. Why? When she asked with a blank face, Lee Wooshin remained silent and helped the priest to his feet. The priest bit his lip and shivered his shoulders. Seeing his pale face and his body covered in blood and mud, he looked very pitiful. The priest stumbled towards Seoryeong and intended to shake her hand, but seeing his limply hanging arm, he looked annoyed. He flatly adjusted his shoulder and then smiled again before extending his hand.
“Kiya… I’m Kiya. My Korean is bad. I use everyday language, okay?”
The tears at the corners of his eyes looked like badly applied paint, giving a strange impression. Kiya’s gaze was fixed on Seoryeong like a magnet. His face looked happy or perhaps touched, his eyes clearly expecting something. Seoryeong felt suspicious. Like the gazes of strange people… was he suddenly going to pull down his pants? As Seoryeong narrowed her eyes, perhaps because her body had been shaken earlier, her stomach suddenly felt very bad.
“Uwek―! Kek, kek…!”
Suddenly, a large amount of liquid spilled onto Kiya’s hand.