“You…!”
Joo Seolheon’s face hardened. Lee Wooshin remained calm and arrogant as usual, but his hands couldn’t stay still. From the expression as he rubbed the back of his neck, his undeniable nervousness was clear.
“Before a bigger mess happens, we need to bring her back quickly.”
“I think you’re the one who will cause a mess.”
That gaze seemed to pierce through his heart. But even facing that sharp stare directly, his heart remained unshaken. He only thought that this was the last chance to reveal everything. His head was full only of Han Seoryeong. However, the greater his feelings for her, the deeper the guilt rooted within him. Since that hug and kiss, it felt like living in a nightmare, even with his eyes open. Have I been a person with a conscience all this time? Impossible, not even if I died and came back to life. The pain it caused was worse than he thought. Every time the gauze stained with pus was thrown into the trash, his cunning resolve was also wasted. That’s how Han Seoryeong won. She made him step onto a path he had never imagined taking.
“Wooshin, I advise you, don’t continue down that road.”
At that moment, a pair of sharp eyes stared at him as if piercing through everything.
“Only now do you want to live like an ordinary person? Isn’t that too greedy?”
Lee Wooshin didn’t react. Joo Seolheon extinguished the cigarette she was smoking, then slipped a second one into her mouth. Thin smoke veiled her facial expression like a curtain.
“Kim Hyeon wasn’t just an illusion. For you, that owl, that wedding house, that married life… it was all fake and illusory. But why are you the one who got caught? Do you want to take it back? Even hoping to be forgiven?”
From somewhere, the smell of rotten food wafted. Someone had urinated inside the ruined shop, and a pungent stench permeated the air. But in such a place, Joo Seolheon remained seated with her legs crossed, without losing a bit of her composure.
“So, you think that if you reveal your identity, you’ll receive some kind of forgiveness?”
“I will go to prison.”
“What?”
“No need for long speeches. I accept the charge of leaking state secrets.”
“…….”
“Even thugs usually get out with one finger intact. That’s how much I’ve calculated.”
“Our problem can’t be solved with just one finger.”
“Then how many more do you want?”
As soon as that arrogant smile appeared, Joo Seolheon stood up from her seat. With quick steps, she approached and forcefully stomped on Lee Wooshin’s injured foot with the heel of her shoe. The pain from the newly stitched wound felt as if it was reopening. He gritted his teeth to endure the pain. Joo Seolheon twisted her heel several times as if extinguishing a cigarette.
“Go and catch that Owl. Getting caught by that girl’s hand once in a while isn’t a bad idea. But you have to act the same as before, Lee Wooshin. The Owl’s husband must always disappear right before her eyes.”
Heat instantly rushed to his head. Lee Wooshin clenched and unclenched his fists while clenching his jaw as hard as he could.
“Don’t reveal all the mysteries about Kim Hyeon just to soothe your own heart.”
“Damn it, Director. What you just said sounds like telling Seoryeong to keep living in suffering.”
“Isn’t that still better than dying?”
Her face was cold and emotionless.
“Hating someone means you still have the energy to live. Missing someone means you want to endure until the end. And searching for someone… that’s hope, even if it’s rotten. But if you destroy everything… will that Owl still stay by your side?”
His face began to harden with anger. It was the same as reinforcing his own fears. His lips felt glued shut, unable to move even slightly.
“On the contrary, that Owl will be destroyed. If even a sliver of hope disappears. If she no longer has a reason to stay here. If she ever meets Rigai… Then, she will follow in her father’s footsteps.”
Suddenly, the collar of his shirt was pulled roughly.
“If she falls into Russian hands like that, the Owl will lose her skull. In a place you can’t reach, she will live in darkness without ever seeing the sunlight, and eventually emerge as a rotten corpse.”
Thud! Lee Wooshin finally couldn’t restrain himself and slammed Joo Seolheon against the wall. This had truly crossed the line. Burning anger, like fire, seeped into his spine and consumed his entire mind. He gripped his superior’s upper neck with one hand and pressed her hard against the filthy, graffiti-covered wall. Joo Seolheon no longer looked like a superior. She was just something that deserved to be eliminated. The woman’s neck turned red from his strong grip.
“You should have settled everything by just losing one hand or one leg.”
His voice was calm, but something terrifying seethed within it, as if it would explode at any moment.
“Code name… Zoya.”
“――!”
Only then did Joo Seolheon show a strangled expression. Her previously neat hair began to fall apart, and her breathing became ragged. Lee Wooshin stared intently at her, not wanting to miss a single reaction.
“You damn dog… You should have just done what you were ordered…!”
Her face, which was initially pale, now darkened further, as if all life had drained from it. But the two pairs of eyes that clashed fiercely continued to stare at each other. Then, as if urged by something, Joo Seolheon silenced herself. In that incomprehensible destruction, she slowly opened her mouth.
“Rigai… was the only person who ever succeeded in the brainwashing experiment….”
Her hollow voice flowed without intonation, as if from a very distant past.
“Initially, they injected a propellant solution into the human body to produce a permanent hypnotic effect. Because the effect couldn’t be removed without a trigger, it was called brainwashing, but it was more accurately a very strong suggestion.”
“…….”
“There, Rigai went further. He believed that by implanting an electronic chip in a person’s head, they could be reused.”
She closed her eyes tightly, then opened them again.
“He said the initial design he completed was absolutely perfect. But at the time, there was no technology to support it, so it was all just considered classified information and eventually ignored. Even so, the idea of recycling humans... who wouldn’t be tempted?”
Lee Wooshin listened silently, though his eyebrows twitched slightly.
“With that, Russia began to believe they could build Eurasia, and America also had its eyes on it. It was clear that whoever realized that technology first would become the strongest country in the world. Whoever secured Rigai’s design first would rule the world. The thoughts of the higher- ups, wherever you go, remain the same.”
It was then that Joo Seolheon’s eyes began to tremble.
“Then, Rigai became disabled, and no one managed to find his research results. But…”
Suddenly, her reddened eyes began to shake violently. She couldn’t even scream, only whispered softly.
“It... it’s in that child...”
Her tightly closed lips suddenly turned pale. That faint, almost inaudible voice shattered the entire mission that Lee Wooshin had known. Joo Seolheon, who had only shown small pieces all this time, revealed the hidden side of everything for the first time.
“Rigai bequeathed all his legacy... into that child’s head.”
“……!”
Lee Wooshin’s eyes also hardened. Joo Seolheon grabbed his collar and pulled him closer, pressing her subordinate’s lower face so tightly. The movement mirrored the fear of someone who had just confessed something they shouldn’t have.
“Why do you think I cut off the flow of information to you? Almost no one knows that Rigai had a daughter. Even the few agents who knew... almost all of them are dead―”
The gaze that was once cold now turned bitter as it fell upon him.
“Maybe you’ll become one of them too.”
“……!”
Lee Wooshin couldn’t feel if he was still standing properly on both feet.
“The Owl must not be known to the world. Just let her continue to mourn her husband, as she has been doing all this time. We just need to play hide- and-seek with her occasionally, while keeping that child’s eyes closed.”
“…….”
“That safe world, who are you to want to destroy it?!”
She screamed as if her body was being torn apart by pain.
“There is no beautiful way to protect something!”
Her words sounded cruel. Slowly, her grip on Lee Wooshin loosened.
“There are missions that are carried out for a lifetime, betting your entire being. That’s what’s called responsibility, Wooshin. What you need to discard isn’t guilt, but the excessive desire to be loved.”
A nauseating feeling began to rise. A wild desire to destroy everything raged within him.
“If you truly want to protect her, don’t succumb to that weak side of yourself, Lee Wooshin.”
The first person to leave that place was Joo Seolheon. Now Lee Wooshin was alone in the place that felt like ruins, swallowing the burning emotions that wouldn’t subside. He stood there for an unknown amount of time, like a withered tree that had completely rotted. It felt like hot iron being forced into his lips, tongue, and throat. With a rough and tired face, Lee Wooshin checked his watch. The time to organize his thoughts and information felt too short, but as soon as he imagined Seoryeong now far out in the middle of the ocean, his aching legs began to move on their own. He sat down on the chair that Joo Seolheon had pushed and took out a photo from his coat pocket. The day Operation Birdbox ended. Their crumpled wedding photo, which he still couldn’t bring himself to throw away. Several times he stroked Seoryeong’s face in the white dress in the photo. I can only be her husband... when I am Kim Hyeon.
“――”
Lee Wooshin stood up from his chair. For him, this was the first time in a long time that he would meet his wife. All the remaining light in his eyes had gone out.