Seo Won immediately rose from his seat upon receiving Woo-chan’s message. His chair nearly toppled over, but he didn’t care as he rounded his desk. He didn’t forget to grab the suit jacket that he always habitually hung on the coat rack.
Throwing open the office door, Seo Won stepped out and signaled to Lim Du-hyuk, who was waiting as expected.
“Lim Du-hyuk, I’m heading out. Come with me.”
“How many people should I prepare?”
“Just you.”
“Understood.”
Du-hyuk, clearly guessing the reason he was chosen, didn’t even bother asking about their destination. He simply followed after Seo Won. As he walked, he slipped on his suit jacket with movements that seemed noticeably hurried.
They had just passed the corridor leading from the office and reached the stairwell when it happened.
Cha Han-gyeom was coming down the stairs, clearly on his way to Seo Won’s office. Predictably, Jung Ah-young was trailing right behind him.
“Where are you going?”
Han-gyeom instantly realized Seo Won was heading out, just from the fact that he was putting on a suit jacket.
It was rare for Seo Won to send his main body out. If there wasn’t even time to dispatch a projection, or if the matter was important enough that the main body had to go in person, then it had to be something urgent.
Rather than answering Han-gyeom’s question, Seo Won stepped closer and adjusted the front of his cardigan.
“The wind’s chilly today. Why are you dressed so lightly? Jung Ah-young, close the window.”
“Ah! Yes, sir!”
Startled by Seo Won’s words, Ah-young quickly moved to the window. It had been slightly open for ventilation, but she hurried to shut it.
Han-gyeom thought Seo Won was being overprotective and gave his outfit a once-over again.
“I’m just staying indoors, so what’s the big deal? Anyway, where are you going?”
“Got something to pick up.”
“Pick up what?”
As Seo Won fastened each button of Han-gyeom’s cardigan himself, a small smile played on his lips.
“Why are you so curious?”
In the past, his tone would’ve been cold and clipped, like slamming into a wall. But now, it was gentle—like he was soothing a whiny child.
That soft atmosphere made it awkward to press further.
“I was just surprised you’re going out in person, that’s all.”
To be honest, if it involved work, even if Seo Won explained it a hundred times, Han-gyeom wouldn’t understand. Only now did it hit him that he’d asked something pointless.
Once he’d finished buttoning up the cardigan, Seo Won reached up and gently patted Han-gyeom’s head. Feeling like he was being treated like a child, Han-gyeom narrowed his eyes in protest and glared, but Seo Won’s tender gaze didn’t waver.
“It’s a bit far, so it’ll take some time. Don’t wait up.”
“Come back early. You have to do the Guiding.”
“…Yeah.”
After brushing Han-gyeom’s cheek one last time, Seo Won finally turned and quickly descended the stairs. His figure disappeared in moments.
Even after Seo Won was gone, Han-gyeom silently stared down at the end of the staircase he had taken.
Noticing the quiet mood, Ah-young glanced over and gave Han-gyeom a soft smile as she asked,
“Since the Director’s out, should we just head back to your room?”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
Han-gyeom turned to follow her back. As they walked, he absentmindedly fiddled with the buttons on his cardigan, his lips moving in a faint murmur.
“He said it was urgent, and yet he still fusses over stuff like this…”
“Huh?”
Ah-young hadn’t caught what he said—his voice was too low. Eyes wide, she gave him a look that asked him to repeat it, but Han-gyeom just shook his head and picked up the pace, brushing it off.
Around that time, Seo Won, now seated in the car, finally spoke up to Lim Du-hyuk, who was behind the wheel, and told him their destination. The moment he heard it, Du-hyuk understood right away and started the engine without hesitation.
Seo Won bit down on his lip as he watched the scenery blur past the window.
Once he met Kang Woo-chan and heard everything—once he knew the full story—there would be no turning back.
Now that he was aware of Han-gyeom’s prolonged torment and the hell he’d endured… if he were to uncover the truth about his own heart transplant too…
‘You were prepared for this!’
There wasn’t even the slightest thought of turning back now.
‘Pretending not to know won’t change anything.’
Crack.
His grip on the phone in his hand tightened so hard it felt like he might crush it. The small sound jolted Seo Won out of his spiraling thoughts. He looked down at the innocent phone’s black screen.
Reflected on that dark surface was the face of a man etched with bitterness and grim resolve.
***
About three hours later.
Seo Won arrived in front of an old, nearly abandoned building in a remote, deserted lot. Without hesitation, he walked in, Lim Du-hyuk close behind.
Though it seemed like no one would be inside, wary gazes could be felt from every shadowy corner of the building.
Those eyes were sharp enough to make Du-hyuk, trailing after Seo Won, tense up and speak in a cautious tone.
“Are you sure this is safe? It seemed dangerous last time too, but this feels even worse.”
“It’s only because I came in person. Don’t worry about it.”
Seo Won brushed it off like it was nothing.
If it were just a projection, one encounter with Woo-chan would’ve been enough to suppress any threat—but this was different. This was his real body.
Now that he was Imprinted with Cha Han-gyeom, there was no one left who could overpower him.
Ironically, Han-gyeom always came to mind in moments like these.
Whether he wanted to or not, Cha Han-gyeom had always been protecting him.
That was simply the life Cha Han-gyeom had lived. Regardless of his own will, he had protected Espers—saving them over and over again.
Just as he had once saved Seo Won.
The realization sent a tremor through Seo Won’s chest, filling him with a conflicting mix of awe and sorrow.
When he reached the room where Woo-chan was staying, Seo Won was met by Lee Ji-hye standing guard at the door.
“If you try anything funny, I’ll kill you.”
Ji-hye stood with one hip cocked and arms crossed tightly, her eyes brimming with lethal intent. If Seo Won so much as laid a finger on Woo-chan, she looked ready to enact a real-life “if you die, I die too” scenario without hesitation.
Seo Won said nothing in return. He simply looked at her. Ji-hye had been expecting some arrogant remark, something dripping with his usual condescension—but nothing came. He was silent.
‘What the hell? What’s up with him now?’
Ji-hye immediately sensed that something about Seo Won was different. His usual haughty gaze was gone, and the cold aura that used to surround his blank expression was nowhere to be found. In fact, the air around him had changed so much that it startled her—gone was the predator in a snowstorm.
Seo Won turned to the door and asked calmly,
“Is that all you have to say?”
“…Yeah.”
In truth, beyond the threats, she didn’t have anything meaningful to say. It wasn’t like she’d summoned him—Woo-chan had.
Looking vaguely unsettled, Ji-hye knocked on the worn-out door.
“Woo-chan, Seo Won’s here.”
“Let him in.”
Only after hearing Woo-chan’s voice did Ji-hye, still reluctant, open the door. Seo Won stepped inside alone, leaving Lim Du-hyuk waiting outside.
The room hadn’t changed much since his last visit via projection. And yet, there was a strangely heavy, oppressive air hanging over it.
Inside was only Kang Woo-chan.
A thin document envelope lay on the table in front of him.
“All the info I dug up is in there.”
Seo Won sat across from him and picked up the envelope, pulling out the papers inside. As he looked them over, Woo-chan spoke again, watching him closely.
“The original files tied to the request were all destroyed. Instead, it looks like they preserved the data by turning the administrator into a husk and isolating him separately.”
Woo-chan spoke while recalling Jung Tae-woo, whom he’d found at the nursing facility.
“They deliberately blocked any further memory formation. Used him as a living archive they could extract information from whenever they needed.”
“What a troublesome method.”
“The Fourth Ability Analysis Research Facility handled far more dangerous and covert requests than any other lab. If their operations were exposed, it could instantly take down some very powerful people.”
There was no need to explain that “powerful people” referred to figures with enough political and financial clout to shake the entire country.
“That’s why they erased all visible data and instead relied on the deepest parts of the human brain.”
It didn’t matter if the administrator couldn’t recall every minute detail. Seo Won had heard that the Esper Association possessed Espers capable of delving into the deep recesses of the mind to extract information from the past.
Fortunately, someone with such an ability was among Kang Woo-chan’s associates.
However, this Esper didn’t simply “see” memories—he was an Ability User who created items that stole them. Because of that, the person whose memory had been extracted with one of Woo-chan’s items ended up losing parts of their past entirely. Woo-chan, of course, wasn’t the type to care about that kind of collateral damage.
As Seo Won silently scanned each document, Woo-chan watched the subtle changes in his expression.
The contents—converted into written form through memory theft—were nothing but cold, hard truth.
That’s precisely why Woo-chan was curious. How would Seo Won react? What would he do next?
He had expected an eruption—a violent storm. But Seo Won was shockingly quiet. So quiet, not even the sound of his breathing could be heard.
Then, Seo Won reached into his pocket and pulled something out.
It was a cheap disposable lighter—the kind Han-gyeom used when he smoked. Its fuel nearly depleted, it gave a weak sputter as it struck a small flame with a faint click.
That flame quickly caught the edge of the documents and began to consume them.
