At some point, Seoryeong suddenly woke up and saw the familiar surroundings outside the window.
A small blanket was draped over her lap, and the time on the dashboard clock was far beyond what she had expected.
"When did I fall asleep?"
Seoryeong's face immediately paled at the thought that she might have troubled someone.
"Instructor, you should have just woken me up!"
Lee Wooshin swept his hair back and looked at her with a slightly reproachful gaze.
"If you were going to look at me like that, you should have woken me up earlier!"
Seoryeong hurriedly unfastened her seatbelt and opened the car door. The cold wind that stung her face fully restored her consciousness.
As she held the car door, intending to thank him and meet his gaze, Lee Wooshin suddenly shifted gears and backed up.
Startled, Seoryeong immediately closed the door without saying anything.
Without hesitation, the man turned the car around and drove out of the alley.
"Thank you for the ride home."
Her belated thanks echoed emptily in the air.
Seoryeong stared at the end of the alley where the car had disappeared, then scratched the back of her head. Finally, she walked home with unsteady steps.
Perhaps because of the relief of arriving in her private space, her body suddenly felt heavy. She forced herself to press the door button with the last bit of strength in her fingertips.
Just as the door opened—
"――!"
As soon as she saw the familiar interior of her house, she slammed the door shut violently.
*What was that just now?*
Her heart pounded.
Instinctively, she took a few steps back, shaking her dizzy head.
A foreign body odor had assaulted her the moment the door cracked open. She immediately felt that something was **terribly wrong** as she looked at her pitch-black house.
---
As Seoryeong tensed up and checked the numbers on the door, it suddenly swung wide open—and her forehead hit it hard.
"Akh!"
The shock made her stagger as if she would lose consciousness.
As her body swayed, a black-gloved hand appeared from inside and grabbed her hair. The rough hand dragged her into the house. The stranger tried to slam her against the door again.
A rough palm gripped the back of her neck tightly.
*But one blow to the head was enough.*
Seoryeong caught the man's little finger and **twisted** it, making the attacker's body contort. A sharp scream immediately rang out.
"Aaargh! Damn it!"
The intruder clutched his strangely twisted finger.
"Your jaw will break too."
"What are you—"
Before the sentence was finished, Seoryeong's spinning kick landed squarely on the man's jaw.
The precise strike to the weak point made the large body collapse, leaving only the whites of his eyes visible.
Seoryeong ended it by stomping on the man's temple with her heel.
The too-sudden movement made her nauseous, and her throat felt constricted. She immediately opened the front door.
*I can't possibly stay here any longer.*
However, just as she was about to flee, her eyes fixed on the house that remained silent.
*How many more people might be hiding inside?*
*And who were they?*
As those heavy questions flashed through her mind, a faint smile appeared at the corner of Seoryeong's lips.
She slowly closed the door that had been left open.
"…"
*Looks like they walked into my trap.*
*In that case, I have to let them catch me.*
Seoryeong stood on her tiptoes and headed straight for the kitchen. She suppressed the surging excitement as she pulled out two kitchen knives.
But just as she turned around, a dark figure lunged from behind.
Without mercy, Seoryeong slashed the second attacker's arm with the knife in her hand.
The masked attacker wasn't alone.
*One, two, and the one already down—they numbered three people.*
Seoryeong swung her knife like a raised thorn, attacking the intruders who kept trying to grab her. She couldn't let her guard down, not even for a second.
Suddenly, a kick from a blind spot hit her stomach, and her back slammed into the kitchen cabinet.
Household items fell, creating a loud noise in the middle of the night.
"Ugh!"
Her body felt heavier and slower than usual.
Even so, she gritted her teeth and rolled her body, avoiding the punches and knife attacks that came in quick succession. To compensate for the height difference, she deliberately lowered her body as much as possible, aiming only for vital points.
When her knife was deflected, she attacked with the back of the blade. If her face was punched or her side was kicked, she retaliated in kind.
However, in a crucial moment, a large, black-gloved hand gripped her slender neck tightly.
"Ah!"
Her body was lifted helplessly, and her knife clattered to the floor.
The intruders didn't miss the opportunity and immediately threw her onto the sofa. Half of her face was pressed down until saliva dripped out—but Seoryeong actually *chuckled.*
"Are you from the National Intelligence Service?"
"…!"
The hand binding her arm paused for a moment. But the grip behind her head tightened, making her reflexively grit her teeth.
"You should have approached more politely. What is this? You've already broken all my things."
"…"
"You also should have avoided coming on the day I was having a dinner party." She spat. "I feel like I'm going to throw up."
---
The intruders tied her body to the dining chair with cable ties.
Now, sweat streamed down the foreheads of the masked men. One of them shook the attacker lying near the door and said, "Senior, wake up," while the others knelt down, panting.
Clearly, they were panicked by the unexpected resistance.
Seoryeong, who had been silent while biting her lip, suddenly lowered her head and started to vomit.
"Ugh! *Ugh!*"
The acidic vomit spread across the living room floor, shaking her body. A stinging sensation traveled from her throat to her nose.
Cold gazes stared intently at her.
"――!"
*Beep, beep.*
The monotonous dial tone broke the silence.
The man whose shoes were now covered in vomit pulled an old phone from his pocket. He answered the call with a stiff posture, as if facing a superior. His answer was short and rigid—"Yes, yes"—while glancing at Seoryeong from the corner of his eye.
"The target has been secured."
That brief report made Seoryeong's heart pound.
*A call at a time like this?*
*Could it be... the "deputy head" from that interrogation room?*
She spat blood onto the floor, her eyes flashing. She wanted to rinse the bitter taste from her mouth, but unable to, she kept spitting.
The man holding the phone activated the speakerphone.
"Miss Han Seoryeong, aren't you scared yet?"
A woman's voice she had never heard before came from the speaker.
At the same time, a dirty smile spread across the bound man's face. The intruder in front of her frowned at that expression.
The voice from the phone sounded like it belonged to a middle-aged woman.
"Don't make this problem bigger. Just hand over the account number, and we'll retreat quietly."
"Hello."
The room fell silent at her sarcastic greeting, accompanied by a thin smile.
"You seem to know my name, so can I know who *you* are?"
"…"
"When I tried to defect, my attempt failed. But it turns out touching the president's relatives is much more effective."
She chuckled softly, but the voice from the other end turned into a heavier threat.
"Don't make this mess worse. Finish it quickly."
"I'm just asking who you are."
"Where did you hide the five billion?"
"If we're talking about money, shouldn't introductions come first?"
"Did you hear that? Rough her up a bit."
The man holding the phone clenched his leather-gloved fist.
In an instant—**smack!**
Seoryeong's head snapped to the side.
Another slap came from the opposite direction.
The man alternately clenched and opened his hands, systematically hitting both sides of her face. Seoryeong's vision swam as the blows continued to land.
But finally, she spat out blood.
She wasn't surprised.
*Hadn't Lee Wooshin also used to stab people and hang them from the ceiling?*
"Is this how you treat someone you're negotiating with?"
"Negotiating?" The woman's voice mocked. "Negotiating *what?*"
But Seoryeong actually felt satisfied.
*This was proof that she had indeed hit their weak spot.*
*The right person must have arrived.*
She felt excited.
"You want to find the five billion, and I want to find Kim Hyeon."
"…!"
"If you want that money through legal channels, you should just report me. If you want to take it secretly, bring Kim Hyeon before me." Her voice hardened. "But you can't do both, can you?"
"…"
"The National Intelligence Service has been playing with me."
Now her voice was like a suffocating cold fog.
"For some reason, you blinded me. Told Kim Hyeon to approach me. Even orchestrated our marriage." She leaned forward despite the restraints. "All of that must be a secret that can't be revealed. That's why the news about the missing five billion never surfaced."
Her eyes glinted.
"So, what am I? Why can't you even report me—and instead sneak in like thieves to beat me up?"
A faint laugh came from the phone.
"Miss Han Seoryeong, listen to one sincere piece of advice: *don't even try to fight the NIS.* What else can you do now? It won't be you who dies—but your people."
"…"
"You think hiding Channa will make you win?"
Seoryeong's gaze turned cold.
"I'm not the only one being beaten like a dog right now."
"…!"
"How dare you make such a pathetic joke and try to threaten us?"
The voice was now filled with piercing arrogance.
"You want to lose your sight again?"
---
As the woman sneered through the speaker, Seoryeong suddenly kicked the groin of the man in front of her.
She lifted the chair that bound her body and slammed it into the man's head.
"Ugh!"
Seoryeong fell with him, then grabbed a knife from the floor and cut through the cable ties.
The chair leg struck another man's groin. The knife she deliberately threw deeply slashed the third attacker's face.
She calmly picked up the fallen phone.
"Like you said—only the subordinates die."
Her smile vanished completely.
"So, how about we change the terms of negotiation?"
She knew this level wasn't enough to meet Kim Hyeon directly.
But she didn't feel defeated.
"I want to talk to my husband."
Her voice was ice.
"A voice in exchange for five billion—that's a fair deal, isn't it?"