Yeah. That’s how it should be.
And yet, for some reason, that ridiculous Guide named Yeon Yu-jin’s face wouldn’t leave his mind.
That guy… He acts and talks so much like Ga-hyun.
Was that part of the performance the government had instructed him to carry out too?
If so, then Yeon Yu-jin was unforgivable as well. He was no different from someone actively mocking Ahn Ga-hyun’s memory.
Wonder what the others would say about that.
Maybe he should’ve just killed him.
Scratching the back of his head, Hyun Je-ha soared into the sky and vanished.
***
With both Yeon Yu-jin and Hyun Je-ha now gone, government agents swarmed into the underground vault.
“What happened here?”
“What about the vault?”
“It’s already been opened.”
“Clicking our tongues won’t help now. That was our last lead to catch the rat.”
As soon as the alert came through—Red Code-registered Ahn Ga-hyun’s vault had been accessed—executives from the Ability Users’ Association came rushing in.
Many of them weren’t even Ability Users themselves, but civilian officials.
Accompanied by their most trusted teams, they immediately began investigating the records to find out who had opened the vault.
“Who visited the underground vault today?”
“Two people.”
“They must be Ability Users, obviously. Do we have IDs?”
“One of them is a Guide. The other… we can’t identify. Normally, we determine identity by analyzing the energy waves dispersed in the air, but this one completely suppressed their wave signature. We have no way of knowing who they are.”
“No need to dig further. If they’re hiding their wave pattern, it has to be the one we’ve been tracking.”
Hyun Je-ha.
After losing his partner twenty years ago, he went rogue, betrayed the government, and became the leader of the anti-government faction.
Director Shin Yoon-hee of the Ability Users’ Association—herself an Esper with detection and analysis abilities—pressed the agent.
“Can you zoom in further on Hyun Je-ha’s current form?”
“…It’s impossible, Director. Every video we have that might show him is distorted and blurry. Even worse, the footage seems to be… deteriorating. It’s like he tampered with the CCTV system—clips are literally disappearing frame by frame.”
“Damn it.”
“The only thing we can confirm right now is that he spoke with a Guide.”
Shin Yoon-hee raked her hands through her hair and gave a firm order.
“Then find out who that Guide is. If they had a conversation with Hyun Je-ha and made it out alive, they’re definitely connected.”
“Understood.”
An Esper began running a search based on the existing Guide registration database, then frowned in confusion.
“Um… Director?”
“What is it?”
“This Guide… are we sure they really have anything to do with Hyun Je-ha?”
“What are you saying, Da-rae? This is the same Guide who broke into the vault of ‘Ahn Ga-hyun’—Hyun Je-ha’s most obsessed-over partner Guide. There’s no way they’re unrelated…”
“But this person—he’s barely just turned twenty, and he’s… an idol.”
“…What?”
“His name’s Yeon Yu-jin. He’s not exactly famous, but he is in an idol group.”
“…What the hell…”
The Esper called Da-rae handed her phone to the dumbfounded Shin Yoon-hee.
“Check the search results.”
“…He’s real?”
Displayed under the fresh search bar was Yeon Yu-jin’s idol profile.
Is this for real?
As Director of the Ability Users’ Association, Shin Yoon-hee was stunned.
Sure, the world had stabilized a lot compared to the past. Espers and Guides had far more freedom in society now.
She’d heard talk of idol groups made up of Espers and Guides before… but still.
She never would’ve imagined that the person who accessed Ahn Ga-hyun’s vault—and actually spoke to Hyun Je-ha—would be a Guide from one of those groups.
Curious, Shin Yoon-hee typed Yeon Yu-jin’s name deeper into the search bar.
“Yeon Yu-jin… Sub Vocal and Sub Rapper of the idol boy group Secreti, huh.”
A dime-a-dozen D-rank Guide. The only Guide in the group, which made him unpopular with fans. Known for his terrible attitude, cementing his image as a complete flop—the worst member in the worst group.
“All I’m seeing is useless gossip.”
“My thoughts exactly, Director,” Da-rae replied.
Other agents were equally baffled.
“I mean, this is basically the equivalent of someone falling out of the sky.”
“Hyun Je-ha hasn’t made contact with anyone in twenty years, right?”
“And now he randomly meets up with some fresh-faced Guide barely out of his teens?”
“Forget that—how the hell did a D-rank Guide even know about Ahn Ga-hyun’s vault?”
“Honestly, it doesn’t look like he’s connected to either of them. It’s way too random. There has to be someone pulling the strings behind the scenes.”
The government hadn’t made any real progress on this case in two decades either, so the room exploded into a chaotic storm of speculation.
“Enough! Quiet down, all of you!”
Shin Yoon-hee’s shout finally restored silence.
“…What’s our next move?”
“What else? We follow protocol. First, we assign a government agent to monitor Yeon Yu-jin—the Guide who made contact with Hyun Je-ha.”
With constant surveillance, something would eventually slip.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
This was the only Guide to meet Hyun Je-ha in twenty years. Idol or not, even if he were a member of the National Assembly, he had to be watched.
“There’s a chance he might run into Hyun Je-ha again. That’s why we need someone on our side watching him like a hawk.”
“But why’d it have to be an idol…”
“What do we even do in this case?”
“Ugh.”
Who even knew anything about idol culture?
This was the most awkward moment in Director Shin Yoon-hee’s entire career.
As she hesitated, one agent cautiously raised a hand.
“What if we disguised ourselves as a sasaeng fan to keep tabs on him?”
“You a normie? Sasaengs get cracked down on hard these days. Even a failing idol group will call the cops if some weirdo keeps hanging around.”
Another agent—one clearly well-versed in idol fandom—chimed in.
“And if our agent gets arrested in the process…”
“That’ll make headlines.”
“Director’ll have to hold a press conference to explain.”
“Talk about total humiliation.”
The room devolved into a wild imagination fest of worst-case PR disasters.
They looked almost delighted to be doom-spiraling.
Shin Yoon-hee scowled at her agents, who chirped like sparrows.
“Can we not?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“In any case… where should we assign someone?”
She turned to the agent most knowledgeable about idol fandom. He thought for a moment, then replied:
“The manager! What if we plant one of our people as his manager?”
“The manager?”
“Even a failing idol group needs a manager. If we sneak someone in as a road manager, it should work! Maybe not a team lead or higher, but road managers are always in short supply. No better infiltration route than that.”
The agent’s logic was solid.
Secreti, the idol group Yeon Yu-jin belonged to, had launched with high hopes but had now become the absolute bottom of the barrel—so much so that no one even wanted to be assigned as their manager.
Their current manager, Kim Hyun-soo, was doing his best to care for the group, but was suffering from stress-induced gastritis.
And after Yeon Yu-jin’s recent car accident, there had already been whispers at HB Entertainment about hiring another road manager.
“A manager would be with him practically 24/7, so no worries there. And since managers quit all the time anyway, nobody’s gonna question it if we make up a reason.”
Impressed by the agent’s enthusiasm, Director Shin Yoon-hee nodded.
“Alright then. You’ll infiltrate the group as their new manager.”
“Got it—wait, what?”
“You seem like the perfect fit. You know the industry inside and out.”
“Uh… but Director, hold on—surely there are more capable seniors than me—”
Before he could even finish, the rest of the agents quietly slipped away like a retreating tide.
“Good luck out there, junior.”
“Man, glad I’m just a normie.”
“Work hard as their manager.”
“Hey, this is a once-in-a-lifetime shot to catch Hyun Je-ha. Pull it off, and you’re on the express train to a big promotion. Congrats.”
“Wait—what the—”
As he stammered in disbelief, Shin Yoon-hee smiled and patted him on the shoulder.
“You’ll do fine, Agent Lee Ha-ram. I’ll approve a hefty bonus under external deployment expenses, so don’t worry.”
Tears welled up in Agent Lee Ha-ram’s eyes.
Secreti’s literally my least favorite idol group…
And now he had to keep close tabs on Yeon Yu-jin—the last person he ever wanted to deal with.
“…Understood.”
The weight of full-time surveillance had settled firmly onto Lee Ha-ram’s shoulders.
