TS 067

Beyond the large glass wall was a man lying on a patient’s bed. Since the backrest was raised, it would be more accurate to say that he was sitting rather than lying down.

“When did he wake up?”

“About an hour ago. The Director will be here soon.”

Kim Dohee answered with her arms crossed. She had a cautious air.

“The people who know he was moved here are.”

“Just the Director and me. I guess you and Suryeon-ssi know now too.”

Shin Ae-hi had been arbitrarily changing Pavel’s whereabouts. It was a fact he hadn’t known until he received the unexpected location from Kim Dohee. It seemed she was moving quite cautiously to weed out the spy among her close associates.

“I’ll go out just in case. I haven’t been briefed on the details yet.”

“Got it.”

“Good work. You too, Suryeon-ssi.”

“You too, Team Leader.”

Han Suryeon, who had bid farewell to Kim Dohee, came up next to him. Even though Pavel had woken up, he seemed to have no particular feelings about it. Yoon Taehwa gestured with his eyes towards the inside of the glass wall and asked.

“How is it? Your impression of seeing him awake.”

“Is there supposed to be a special impression?”

“You came all the way here chasing that bastard.”

“‘He’s finally woken up,’ about that much? And Hanna will be happy.”

“Hanna?”

“Kim Hye-na.”

So her Russian name was Hanna. They had only met a handful of times, so he didn’t know her personality well, but he thought she would be more human than Han Suryeon. Seeing as he said she would be happy.

Since the guild member Pavel had killed was her colleague, he could understand her feelings to some extent.

The man who had woken up after almost a month had a dazed expression. Seeing as he was staring intently at them, it seemed he understood his situation of being imprisoned. Because it was specially designed glass, he wouldn’t know who was beyond the wall. He fiddled with the handcuffs on his wrist and then leaned back again.

“How are you going to deal with him?”

A curiosity suddenly arose. Yoon Taehwa took his eyes off Pavel and turned halfway. The man who had been staring blankly at the inside of the glass met his eyes.

“You mean, what are you going to do if the Center hands him over?”

“Yeah.”

“First, I have to find out what I need to find out, and then hand him over to Russia.”

“Find out what?”

Han Suryeon’s eyes curved elegantly.

“It’s not like that bastard is the only Ant who has infiltrated the guild. There must be someone who helped him escape. I caught a few before coming to Korea, but it’s easier to deal with them later if I find them when I can.”

It was a slightly unexpected answer.

“Why? Did you think I’d kill him right away?”

“Not right away, but I thought you’d deal with him.”

“Sometimes, I have to throw them to the guild members.”

Somehow, it felt more vicious than the answer that he would handle it himself.

“But of all times, he had to wake up now.”

The pale face turned back to the glass wall.

“If he had woken up tomorrow, I’d be with you right now, fucking…”

Yoon Taehwa covered the mouth that was talking about fucking with a blank face. Not only inside the glass wall, but also in this space, a recording device was installed. It wasn’t operating 24 hours a day, but it wasn’t behavior that would be fine even if it were recorded.

Han Suryeon, who had blinked his eyes a few times, opened his lips and then set his teeth, biting his palm. Yoon Taehwa only removed his hand after he had squashed his cheek. He had picked up a bad habit, a very bad habit.

“Whew, trouble always has to happen when I’m busy.”

With the sound of a door opening behind him, a familiar voice was heard. It was Shin Ae-hi. Yoon Taehwa, instead of showing formal courtesy, got straight to the point.

“Is Kim Dohee not allowed to enter?”

“Pavel might talk about the Kasatka Field Commander.”

Shin Ae-hi’s gaze briefly went to Han Suryeon and then away. She took off her coat and glanced at the inside of the glass wall.

“It’s best to be careful until this incident is made official. Now that he’s woken up, we can make it official tomorrow. …Oh.”

Shin Ae-hi, who had carelessly thrown her coat aside, turned her back.

“That crystal from last time, it turns out it can be used one more time? Thanks for letting me know.”

“It was nothing. It wasn’t a difficult task.”

“I guess the management department didn’t think it was strange that you were using the machine.”

“I just told them the truth. That it was a personal item and I wanted to check it.”

Shin Ae-hi, who was holding the doorknob, tilted her head this way instead of opening the door right away.

“Want to come in and watch together?”

At the proposal to come in, Yoon Taehwa rolled his eyes towards Han Suryeon. He didn’t mind watching from here. If Pavel kept his mouth shut, the person who would open it was Shin Ae-hi. Besides, Shin Ae-hi was a seasoned woman. She was a person who would scrape out not only useful information but also useless information.

“What do you want to do?”

“I’ll watch with you here, Team Leader. And…”

Han Suryeon, who had answered gently, continued, fiddling with his cheek.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell him I’m here.”

“Got it. It’s not a difficult task.”

Shin Ae-hi, who had given a light nod, went inside. The thick door closed without a sound.

“He’s going to find out you’re here eventually.”

“It’s better for him not to know whether I’m here in this very spot or not. The information he gives might change.”

He wondered if it was possible to hide with Shin Ae-hi there, but Yoon Taehwa decided to just let it be. When he turned his head, he saw Shin Ae-hi approaching Pavel. Her hand familiarly pressed the button that connected to the other side of the wall.

– This is… k, hmm. Where am I?

Pavel opened his mouth in a crawling voice. As if he hadn’t used his vocal cords for a long time, the end of his voice trembled. Shin Ae-hi kindly offered him water.

– Where do you think? Seeing as you’re being so obedient, I think you have an idea. Drink. I didn’t mix in any truth serum or anything.

Whether he believed her readily or had given up, Pavel drank the water. His muscles, which he hadn’t used for about a month, seemed to have atrophied, and his physical condition was so bad that Shin Ae-hi had to open the bottle cap for him.

Shin Ae-hi, who had been watching him blankly, sat on the edge of the bed without hesitation.

– I went through your head a bit while you were sleeping.

– …

– You met Monomorium, didn’t you?

As he was quietly listening to their conversation, Han Suryeon pressed his body against his back. He wrapped his arms around his waist, pretending they weren’t, and then his chin touched his shoulder.

“Are you not going to get off?”

“They can’t see us from there anyway.”

“You’re bothering me.”

“It’s boring to listen to. I think it’s going to be like this for a few hours.”

When he lowered his head with an annoyed expression, Han Suryeon looked up at him and crinkled his eyes in a smile. From the front, two voices continued.

– Will the Center… protect me?

– Protect you?

Shin Ae-hi burst out laughing.

– From whom? Monomorium? Or Kasatka?

– Both.

– Spill what you know first.

– Are you referring to his personal information?

– Anything.

Pavel’s gaze went past Shin Ae-hi to the glass wall. He must have noticed from the time he woke up that there were people standing on the other side.

– He’s a man in his mid-30s. And an ability user who deals with space.

– A Shooter?

– That’s right.

As expected. Pavel paused for a moment, choosing his words. It seemed difficult for him to speak.

“Is he usually this obedient?”

“What is?”

“He’s spilling everything.”

“He probably believes that they’ll let him live if he cooperates with the Center.”

He was cooperating so readily that it was actually suspicious.

Is it his survival instinct? Yoon Taehwa recalled the day he had first met Pavel. Engulfed by Hae Na-eun’s hallucination, he had run with all his might, like a person fleeing from a murderer.

‘Is he doing this because he wants to live?’

Pavel was a mental-type ability user. Although an individual’s tendencies couldn’t be linked to the type of their ability, mental-type ability users were generally quick to grasp a situation.

“By now, he’ll know that the reason he’s still alive is thanks to the Center.”

Han Suryeon whispered in a fresh voice and slyly rubbed his lips on his neck.

“And he saw you before he fell into a coma, Team Leader. He probably has a rough idea that you saved him from the explosion, too.”

“Even so, he’s too compliant.”

“Not everyone who joins a terrorist organization has a bold personality. Don’t you know the reason why the Ants gathered?”

“They’re ability user supremacists.”

“It’s a group that gathered for such a foolish reason, there’s no way there would be solidarity in the organization. Their own survival comes first.”

It was a rather scathing tone, but Yoon Taehwa also agreed to some extent. Ability user supremacy, it was a childish set of values that not even an eight-year-old would hold.

Yoon Taehwa did not like ability user supremacy. He didn’t live with any great conviction, but he thought that regardless of the label, there was no ideology as foolish as supremacy.

– What else is there?

– He’ll know by now that he’s in Korea.

– To be precise, he knows he’s in Seoul.

– That he’s a member of the Center?

A crack appeared on Shin Ae-hi’s face.

– Monomorium infiltrated himself?

– So I’ve heard.

He had expected there to be a spy, but he had thought the possibility of him having infiltrated himself was small. Tsk. Yoon Taehwa clicked his tongue.

– Since when, exactly?

– I don’t know that either. He’s the type to move alone.

– Ha, this is so fucking annoying.

Pavel silently rubbed his handcuffed wrist. He was clearly tired from just a few minutes of conversation. As his breathing had become ragged, he let out a slow breath and then said something out of the blue.

– Where is that person?

– That person?

Shin Ae-hi, who had been thinking about something with a complicated face, answered perfunctorily.

– I mean the Borein leader.

Even though he had popped up in the conversation, Han Suryeon didn’t lift his chin from Yoon Taehwa’s shoulder. He was still just curling up his body.

“It seems he saw you when he briefly woke up then.”

“Mmm, I guess so…”

Suddenly, he thought it was strange. Although he had gone with Han Suryeon on the day they had captured Pavel, Pavel hadn’t had a chance to see Han Suryeon. He had been knocked out in the explosion, and even when he had briefly regained consciousness, he had been engulfed by an ability and had immediately passed out again.

‘And after that, he was in a coma the whole time.’

So why is he looking for Han Suryeon as if it were a given? There was a possibility that he thought he would naturally have been pursued since he had run away from the guild, but it was strange that he had singled out Han Suryeon.

“He might be mistaken because of Na-eun-ssi‘s hallucination.”

“So you’re saying Pavel is most scared of you. It seemed he was pretending not to be at the time.”

As if he hadn’t expected his feigned innocence to be revealed by his own mouth, Han Suryeon’s brow faintly furrowed, and then he smiled bashfully as if to gloss it over.

– Why are you looking for that man here? And I haven’t given you the right to speak. Explain why Monomorium infiltrated the Center first.

– It must be because of Yoon Taehwa.

At the name that had come out of nowhere, Yoon Taehwa tilted his head askew. Why me?

– Team Leader Yoon?

– He has a special ability, doesn’t he? Nullification.

At the same time, the force of the arms wrapped around his waist grew stronger.

“I knew it.”

At the soft voice coming from below, Yoon Taehwa reflexively rolled his eyes.

“There are too many bastards who are interested in you, Team Leader…”

Unlike his fluttering voice, his bared-teeth smile was quite fierce.