62
As soon as Minjae opened the front door, he again found Jihwan right in front of him.
“Good morning, sunbae.”
“We don’t have any schedules together this morning, do we?”
“No, I know.”
Jihwan was staring intently at Minjae. What are you looking at? Minjae followed Jihwan’s gaze.
Jihwan was scanning Minjae’s neckline area. He seemed to be both searching and monitoring. Momentarily tense, Minjae’s body stiffened.
“So why did you come?”
“Is your guiding level okay?”
Jihwan’s gaze pierced down to Minjae’s wrist. Reflexively, Minjae hid his wrist. Jihwan’s eyebrows crinkled slightly. What’s wrong with this guy? Minjae frowned.
“I’m fine. Why?”
“…Why are you hiding it? Is it not good?”
No. It’s not like I’m getting a guiding check-up from you. What the hell? Minjae was dumbfounded by Jihwan’s strange comments first thing in the morning.
Jihwan looked at the bewildered Minjae with a serious expression. He kept insisting that Minjae should go to the guiding room or infirmary until Minjae asked if he was crazy, at which point he finally stopped.
Still not satisfied, he followed Minjae like a puppy all the way to his meeting with Eunjeong, forcing Minjae to chase him away near the conference room.
He’s acting stranger by the day. Minjae thought.
“Are you tired?”
Eunjeong asked. Minjae pressed his temples firmly with his thumb.
“A little. Eunjeong, do I look that… sickly?”
“…You? Well… to me, you seem more stupid than sickly. Why?”
“Hey.”
When Minjae glared at her, Eunjeong just shrugged and said, “Never mind then.”
“More importantly, there’s something you need to check.”
Eunjeong handed Minjae a crumpled piece of paper.
Recently, Minjae had asked Eunjeong to search The Crow’s headquarters. After considering, Eunjeong had sent Seoyeon’s younger sibling. And that sibling had brought this note.
“The inside was already completely cleaned out.”
I figured. Minjae nodded at Eunjeong’s words. The cult leader would have taken all important items when fleeing, or if the leader had been kidnapped, the perpetrator would have taken everything.
The paper had numbers, alphabets, and symbols written on it. Seeing units like cc and ml, it looked like a recipe or formula.
Minjae judged it was more likely a formula than a recipe. This meant there was a high probability that experiments had been conducted with the children. What kind of experiments? Minjae’s mind became complicated.
“By the way, sunbae, is something going on with Park Jihwan lately?”
Eunjeong asked. Just as Minjae had been thinking about Jihwan’s strange behavior, hearing his name from Eunjeong put Minjae on edge.
“Park Jihwan? Why?”
“He asked me to teach him combat skills. And to keep it secret from you.”
Secretly? Minjae thought of Jihwan, who had been exhibiting more unusual behavior than usual lately. He tended to act like a button had been pressed when it came to matters concerning Minjae.
Given what he had witnessed recently, it made sense that he might be feeling mental pressure. But combat skills…
“Does he want to fight me or something?”
“…He’s challenging you? Should I beat him up?”
When Minjae pondered, Eunjeong asked seriously. Her fingers cracked with a snap sound. It was quite cute. Minjae smiled as he took Eunjeong’s hand.
“Hey, I can beat him up too, you know? Could you please stop treating me like I’m weak?”
“Sunbae, don’t fight.”
Eunjeong stated firmly in response to Minjae’s joke.
Typically, fighting humans in terrorist situations is rare. But things change when hostages are involved. Knowing how Minjae fights, Eunjeong hated the idea of him participating in physical combat.
Minjae laughed lightly and patted Eunjeong’s shoulder.
“He’s probably just trying to protect himself. Just teach him some basic self-defense.”
“…Okay.”
It makes sense he’d want to prepare, given how often they face sudden attacks. Either way, learning self-defense couldn’t hurt.
Eunjeong smiled mischievously, as if she had something in mind. Minjae felt a bit sorry for Jihwan.
***
In the dark dawn, flames suddenly rose from a building in a deserted alley. Without an explosion sound, the quietly burning flames quickly engulfed the entire building.
The flames, perhaps chemically treated, displayed various colors like yellow, blue, and purple. People in nearby buildings took photos of the fire and uploaded them to their social media.
Firefighters arrived within 10 minutes but struggled to contain the large flames.
When the flames were somewhat controlled after nearly an hour of suppression, reports flooded in about another building burning in the vicinity.
In total, six buildings burned down successively overnight.
[Breaking news. Six buildings suddenly burned down overnight. While there have been no reported casualties yet, all were empty buildings. With no gas leaks detected, the cause is suspected to be ‘arson’.]
[These six buildings were known as prayer halls of the cult group ‘The Crow’, which recently shocked the nation with a mass suicide attempt on a bridge, raising possibilities of revenge-motivated arson.]
[Investigation revealed that the arson material was manufactured by combining volatile oil and chemicals. These can be obtained from supermarkets, hardware stores, and gas stations, adding difficulty to the investigation.]
[Additionally, with no proper surveillance cameras installed near The Crow’s prayer hall buildings, finding witnesses to the arson has become urgent.]
Minjae zoomed in on the tablet screen to examine the photo of the burned building. From the outside, it appeared to have burned very cleanly to the interior. This meant everything inside had been reduced to ashes. The chemicals must have been specially manufactured for this purpose.
The building where he had sent Taehyun recently had also burned down. This meant that whoever set the fire truly knew the identity of the headquarters. And they had reasons to destroy it.
Minjae became slightly anxious. He was supposed to be the one pursuing, but oddly, it felt like he was the one being caught by the scruff of his neck.
Minjae turned off the tablet screen and lay down. The arsonist would probably never be caught. And so, The Crow had completely submerged itself below the surface.
***
Taehyun sat in his room examining the glasses. He separated the lenses to inspect them, but they were ordinary, commonly used lenses.
What’s the real wire? Taehyun inserted a micro camera into the hole to check. It seemed the wire structure connected not to the lens but to the missing screw. So the key component was indeed the screw that had been taken.
-Noona, I found something strange. When are you free?
-I’ll come now.
Seoyeon’s reply was quick. It seemed she was coming to the dormitory since other people might be watching.
Taehyun looked around his room. Scattered clothes and uncleared trash caught his eye.
-Wait 10 minuã…œtes!
-LOL, clean up quickly. I’m invading now!
Oh, I’m screwed. Taehyun’s body quickly sprang from the chair.
He bundled all the clothes together and stuffed them into the narrow closet. Then, finding a black plastic bag, he gathered all visible trash and tied it up. He swiftly opened the window and wiped the floor with wet wipes.
Knock knock.
A knocking sound was heard.
“Open the door~”
Seoyeon’s voice came through. Just a minute! Taehyun yelled, sprayed deodorizer that had been rolling in the corner of the desk, fanned vigorously with his hands, and then walked to the entrance. He didn’t forget to check his face in the mirror on the way.
“Why did you take so long to open it?”
“I was cleaning a bit…”
Seoyeon glared at Taehyun playfully, then entered and pretended to swipe the wall with her index finger.
“Hmm… cleaning score: forty points.”
“Ah… who cleans walls…!”
When Taehyun expressed his grievance, Seoyeon burst into laughter.
“So. What did you find?”
“First, the photo of the note I sent to you… and these glasses.”
“Glasses?”
“Yeah. One screw is missing, and there’s a wire inside.”
Seoyeon took the glasses from Taehyun and began examining them. Taehyun handed her a micro magnifier. Seoyeon inspected the glasses thoroughly. Then she discovered a small hole in the temple of the glasses.
“This is a microphone. A recorder.”
“A recorder?”
“Yes. Lenses are easier to detect. Seems they chose something quite analog.”
Taehyun looked at Seoyeon with a puzzled expression and asked.
“Why bother? Recording can easily be done with a phone too.”
“True. But phones are also easy to detect.”
So it’s either a backup or a clever trick? Seoyeon sighed while examining the glasses.
“Whatever it is, the important thing is that it’s inside the missing screw.”
“Yeah. I could try to restore it once more to find the screw, but…”
“The recordings or files would be gone…”
Taehyun nodded. He could perform multiple restorations of objects, but he couldn’t restore any information that had been inside.
And from the second restoration onward, there was a risk of returning to the original state with even a small mistake. Meaning the glasses would revert to a plastic lump.
Not helpful again. Taehyun folded the glasses away with a somewhat bitter feeling.
“Does Eunjeong know about this?”
“No. I only passed on the note to her. This isn’t certain yet…”
“Good job.”
Seoyeon patted Taehyun’s back. Taehyun slightly leaned his head on Seoyeon’s shoulder.
“Someone made the first move…”
“The Center Director’s side?”
“Hmm… on the surface, the Center suffered losses from this incident… It’s ambiguous. Kim Jinsung never willingly takes losses in any situation.”
At Seoyeon’s words, Taehyun thought of another person. And he wanted to know how much Seoyeon was hiding from him.
“Taehyun, if possible, could you find out if there’s another party involved?”
“Of course.”
“Thank you. I only have you.”
Seoyeon spoke softly. “Noona.” Taehyun called Seoyeon in a low voice. “What is it?” Seoyeon answered with a gentle voice.
“The task that father assigned you. If you tell me, I can help better.”
“……”
Seoyeon was silent. Feeling anxious, Taehyun lifted his face to look at Seoyeon.
“Taehyun, I’m fine.”
Seoyeon wore a kind smile. It was a gentle refusal.
Smiling Seoyeon was dependable and solid to everyone. Seoyeon was strong. But Taehyun thought she looked precarious.
Father must have ordered her to keep silent. In that case, I need to find out what these highly confidential instructions were. Taehyun nodded, smiling as usual.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
