32
A Man with a Wounded Heart
When I arrived at the cafe, my heart was pounding. I felt like Nina Volkari would be more than ready to kill me this time.
As I cautiously opened the cafe door and entered, wondering what excuse to make or whether to drop to my knees as soon as I saw Volkari’s face, I really did see her slender figure dressed in a three-piece pantsuit like armor. Ugh. It felt like a punch to the solar plexus, taking my breath away. As I stammered, unable to speak, Volkari walked over with clicking heels and suddenly…
She hugged me.
“I’m glad you’re safe.”
?
“Oh my, Team Leader Schnieke! You really are safe!”
Viviana Dogen rushed out from the kitchen and hugged me. Volkari’s hug was fine since she walked over to embrace me, but Viviana was too passionate. My still-fragile side screamed in pain. I involuntarily let out a groan but gritted my teeth and endured it. Viviana’s voice was full of emotion.
And Baral was approaching. He wasn’t running, but his speed was alarming.
No, don’t do it. Don’t put your weight on me. Not you. You really can’t.
Ugh—
Bears tear people apart, and Baral tears apart my side.
This is serious. It feels like the wound is reopening. It definitely reopened.
“I heard you were stabbed in the side. Is it okay for you to be moving around like this?”
You knew that, yet you charged at me like a dump truck?
I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t. Baral’s eyes were also full of concern. How many days have we known each other for him to be this worried? Department 2’s hiring criteria must be based on personality.
“Yes, well… I’m fine.”
Unable to tell him that he just made it worse, I just patted Baral’s back as he hugged me, Viviana, and Volkari. Then Baral let us go, and Volkari and Viviana stepped away from me. And then,
“I heard that Department 1’s hunting dogs were the top talents among special forces, but it seems that was all just a rumor.”
Starting with that, they began to scold me one after another:
“They called you the Grim Reaper, but more like the Grim Sucker.”
“Why are you coming back all beat up when you weren’t even in the ring?”
Ah, my side hurts, and now my heart hurts too. No, the wound to my heart feels even more severe. Where should I go for a wounded heart? As I frowned, the door opened with a jingle.
And a familiar face entered.
“Good grief, you bastard! I thought you were dead!”
It was Lee Martin.
It’s not that I hadn’t imagined this moment, but seeing that face, my expression hardened for a moment.
For what purpose did Lee divert me? Who is he in league with? What are his intentions?
He pretended to be my friend, pretended to be my benefactor, but in reality, he used me.
Lee, who was about to approach me, stopped at the door. Watching him, I moved forward one step at a time.
What are you thinking?
One more step.
Lee’s eyes wavered.
What kind of relationship did he and I have? We were close enough to be called friends. But if asked if we were close friends, only I thought so. Not because I opened up to Lee about my innermost thoughts, but because I didn’t have any particularly close friends. Lee had a sociable personality with many friends, and I wasn’t a close friend to him. Just a relationship that developed from workplace acquaintances to friends. In other words, a relationship that had just crossed over from acquaintance to friend.
To put it another way, not the kind of relationship where one would risk getting fired from work to save the other.
Step by step. With each step I took towards him, he was holding back the urge to avoid me.
I hated this kind of thing.
Saying things you don’t mean, putting on expressions completely different from how you feel, gauging and adjusting people’s thoughts and desires, manipulating situations to your advantage. I had never been good at any of that.
And I had thought Lee Martin was similar to me. But thinking about it, that’s not even close. He’s the team leader of the analysis team. Half of his team does analysis, and the other half are official spies. Team 4’s leader. Lee would naturally be excellent at the things I dislike.
Yeah, I just thought I would be the exception among your “work.”
I thought we were friends.
Just as my father and my brothers always make an exception for me. But if that’s not the case…
“You fucking bastard.”
As I grabbed his collar, Lee struggled with a choked sound. I deliberately lifted him slightly so his feet were off the ground, then immediately let go and growled.
“My life is a complete mess because of you. Buy me another drink. This time, bring out the stuff you have at home, got it?!”
Even as he was grabbed by the collar and nearly choked, Lee showed a momentary sign of relief. He must have been quite worried. He smiled broadly.
“Of course. I’ll bestow upon you my treasures!”
“Bestow? Bestow? This bastard hasn’t come to his senses!”
We laughed and chided each other. We laughed even louder to hide the darkness within.
*
And on the morning of exactly the third day, I folded my arms in front of Birde Efroy, the assistant who came to pick me up. It was hard to accept, after all.
“What is Riegel doing right now?”
For three days, Riegel hadn’t appeared before me. Of course, he might have had other schedules, but I had a feeling that wasn’t the case.
His mansion was always quiet, but the atmosphere over the past three days could be described as gloomy. The staff in ancient Asian attire were polite to me but didn’t seem inclined to be friendly. The faint hostility emanating from them told me two things. Riegel was secluding himself because of me. And the staff were angry enough at me to show it, which meant they had goodwill towards their boss, Riegel. I personally couldn’t understand why they liked a boss who made them do this kind of costume play.
Birde Efroy seemed to like her employer as well, as her eyes turned cold as soon as Riegel’s name left my mouth.
“He’s doing well.”
“What is he doing?”
“My employer is Mr. Riegel, not you, Mr. Schnieke. So I can’t tell you that. Mr. Riegel doesn’t want you to know about his—”
“If I break a mirror with my bare hands here and become covered in blood, will Riegel appear?”
I’m not good at using my head, but I can use my body. In fact, I could turn this house upside down, but I was concerned about Riegel being my benefactor. What can I do? I need to threaten, but if I can’t harm Riegel, the only option is to put my own body on the line.
At my words, Efroy’s eyes turned fierce, but if I was going to back down from that level of killing intent, I wouldn’t have brought it up in the first place. The atmosphere in this mansion is definitely strange.
Something’s wrong with Riegel.
“…He’s just a little unwell, there’s no problem—”
“He’s sick? Sebastian Riegel?”
He looked healthy to me.
I’ve seen Riegel’s naked body. It was a well-trained body. And it clearly wasn’t just built with gym equipment. He’s someone who has honed techniques to protect himself. Shouldn’t he be quite healthy?
“He gets sick… sometimes.”
“You’re even saying ‘sometimes’? That means it’s not just once or twice, right?”
As if… he has some kind of illness…
Suddenly, Riegel’s file flashed in my mind. He had received psychiatric treatment for a long time due to the trauma from being kidnapped.
There probably isn’t anyone here to hear, but I lowered my voice anyway and asked.
“By any chance, is the part that hurts…”
I pressed my palm to my chest once and asked.
“Here?”
If so, this atmosphere and Birde Efroy’s hardline stance all make sense.
“…He’s been a bit sensitive to stress since he was young.”
Her tone was subtle. As I stared at her, she sighed.
“We’re elementary school classmates.”
I shouldn’t be surprised by this at a time like this, but if they’re classmates, they should be the same age, but that can’t be. Birde Efroy looks at most about Viviana Dogen’s age, but she’s older than me? That’s the most surprising part.
“There was a… bad incident, and he’s been like that since then.”
“You mean the kidnapping incident?”
At my words, Efroy glared at me. Her blue eyes clearly held accusation, as if asking how I dared to mention that tragic incident. But there’s no point in beating around the bush when Riegel has been hiding for three days.
Seeing that I wasn’t backing down, she let out another heavy sigh and answered.
“Yes.”
“So he’s sick now because he’s stressed? By sick, do you mean he collapsed? Or—”
“He’s just lying in bed. Lethargy.”
“Where’s the bedroom?”
Ah, so I get the general situation. Riegel was talking with me and then thoughts of “Lee Shin-yeon,” his deceased ex… boyfriend? Or unrequited love? Whatever, it doesn’t matter, but thoughts of that person came up and he fell into depression. So he’s been lying in bed lethargically for three days.
Wow, how leisurely.
I didn’t feel like listening anymore. Of course, I know that depression is a very dangerous illness. Many people in our industry suffer from depression, bipolar disorder, panic disorder, and such. But I can guarantee that no matter how depressed someone is, they all move when bullets are flying and people are dying on the scene. Because no one wants to die.
And I’m in exactly that situation right now. Bullets are flying from all directions, and I have to run without even knowing where I am. In this situation, if the person next to me sits down claiming depression, what should I do?
Even if I have to apologize later, right now I needed to make them run with me, whether by hitting them or yelling at them.
Efroy didn’t want to answer when I asked about Riegel’s bedroom. She seemed to think that was the one thing she couldn’t tell me, so I made a move to smash the mirror with my fist. If my hand becomes bloody, Riegel will appear. I was sure of that. Riegel had always tried to save me whenever he judged that I was in danger.
Eventually, Efroy guided me to Riegel’s bedroom. And there, I could indeed meet Riegel, lying down with his black hair spread out like wet seaweed. His dazed eyes, as if he had just woken up, were as blue as the clear early winter sky. Those eyes moved very slowly to take me in.
