#145
Hyun Dowoon and Shin Haejun were tracking Lee Jaeha’s route on a map of Seoul, discussing future tracking plans with their secretaries and security chiefs.
“What’s in this area?”
Lee Jaeha, who rarely went out unless someone was with him, was unlikely to have a place to rely on. Had he gone to find someone he knew before his awakening? But if he had contacted or met someone in any way, Nine would have surely noticed.
They had secured nearby CCTV footage, but there were many to go through and it would take time to analyze them, so they were still waiting.
“Oh! A sighting has been posted!”
One of the security guards suddenly shouted loudly. At the mention of a sighting, Shin Haejun snatched the guard’s phone and quickly checked the content.
Hohoi Got squided today lolㅋㅋ Guide Lee Jaeha who granted a selfie and autograph request even during a mission, truly good personality bb
#LeeJaeha #Sighting #FaceGone #Handsome #GotAutograph #Daily #Socializing #FollowBack #FollowFirst
Mission? There was no way Lee Jaeha would have a mission to move alone, so he must have lied. Shin Haejun suppressed the urge to kill the stupid witness. While grateful for posting the sighting to aid tracking, he felt increasingly irritated that they dared to ask for a selfie and autograph.
‘If it had been a real mission, it could have been dangerous.’
It wasn’t the first time he’d seen the public treating a public figure’s time as if it were nothing, but he couldn’t help but be angry thinking about the man who stubbornly got an autograph even after being told it was a mission.
Moreover, he immediately posted it on SNS, which made Shin Haejun think he was incredibly stupid.
Shin Haejun glared at Lee Jaeha’s photo with an extremely annoyed expression. More precisely, at the man who was pressing his face close to Lee Jaeha’s side, making a V sign with his fingers while Lee Jaeha smiled awkwardly.
He disliked how the man had covered only his own face with a sticker, and how he had taken such a close photo next to Lee Jaeha. Thinking about it, he felt like a fool for not having thought to take such an intimate photo with Lee Jaeha himself.
Seeing him boast about the autograph made him even more annoyed. Although he knew that the more such sightings appeared, the faster they could find him, he was still angry that he hadn’t gotten the first autograph himself.
Staring at the writing that said ‘Always be happy, Lee Dongho-ssi’, Shin Haejun became very curious about what expression Lee Jaeha had worn while signing it. Whatever it was, it probably wasn’t an expression he wanted to show this man.
“GPS confirmation shows it’s an alley not far from the center!”
Apart from his bad mood, tracking Lee Jaeha had certainly become much easier. This was because the GPS of where the photo was taken had been tracked.
Shin Haejun and Hyun Dowoon were convinced that Lee Jaeha was moving towards some destination. If his goal had been to just get far away, he would have used transportation like the subway or a taxi, not such alleys.
They had secretly searched bus terminals and airports after learning of his departure, but found no trace of Lee Jaeha having been there.
In this situation, discovering that he was moving on foot made tracking faster as they only needed to check nearby CCTV.
As they sorted through some of the hundreds of data points, checking them against the timeline and drawing directions on the map with solid lines, it became clear that Lee Jaeha was definitely heading somewhere without wandering.
Hyun Dowoon, who had been staring intently at the vicinity of the straight-line distance, muttered in a voice as cold as frost.
“…The hotel.”
Hyun Dowoon pointed to the luxury hotel near the center.
“Gardner and Miller are still staying at this hotel, right?”
“Ah… Yes, that’s right!”
Recalling the American S-class pair, Hyun Dowoon rubbed his forehead and sighed deeply.
They should have done something about them earlier when they kidnapped Lee Jaeha. Because it was Nine’s ploy and Lee Jaeha had earnestly asked to leave them alone, they had pressured the U.S. government side and forgotten about it. They had even felt reassured seeing them quietly enjoying their vacation without trying to contact Lee Jaeha or do anything unnecessary after that.
‘How did they contact Jaeha?’
Lee Jaeha had clearly been displeased about the kidnapping incident. Although he felt somewhat at ease because he hadn’t been treated particularly harshly, he definitely disliked the kidnapping itself. So he certainly wouldn’t have gone to the kidnappers voluntarily.
However, what made him anxious while thinking this… was that no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t figure out how they had made contact.
None of Lee Jaeha’s personal belongings had changed. If there had been something wrong with his phone, Nine would have noticed. Nor had they seen Lee Jaeha meet any new people recently. More precisely, they hadn’t seen Lee Jaeha go out alone.
Emails, messages, newspapers, basically everything Lee Jaeha might access was being filtered once. There was no way they could have made contact with Lee Jaeha through all that.
This meant, although he hated to admit it, that Lee Jaeha had gone to meet them directly.
“Contact the hotel… No, let’s go directly. Are you coming too, Shin Haejun-ssi?”
“Of course.”
Shin Haejun sprang to his feet. Then, with an expressionless face, he placed his hand on Hyun Dowoon’s body.
Instantly teleporting to the living room of the hotel room where Ray’s group was staying, the two looked around at their surroundings.
“Their personal belongings are still here.”
Shin Haejun muttered with a frown. Then he turned his gaze as he heard movement and clicking sounds from inside the room.
“Oh my goodness!”
A room maid coming out with used towels screamed in surprise at seeing the two men standing like statues. Ignoring the maid’s shock at the sudden appearance of outsiders, Hyun Dowoon strode over and began questioning her.
“Where are Raymond and Liam?”
“If… if it’s about the guests of this room, I don’t know.”
“Was there anything different from usual? Did they make any requests at the front desk?”
“I don’t know about that. I only clean the rooms…”
As the middle-aged room maid replied with a confused face, clutching the towels tightly, Shin Haejun noticed that Hyun Dowoon was in an unusually tense state. Normally, Hyun Dowoon would have acted smooth to the point of being shameless while extracting information, but now he was asking with a very stiff face, as if threatening.
Of course, he could understand the feeling. Shin Haejun himself felt like demolishing the entire hotel and shaking people to find Lee Jaeha.
“Was there really nothing that changed? Not even a little?”
Shin Haejun approached quickly, putting on a kinder face than usual as he asked. It was to hide his impatient feelings, but he had to get as many hints as possible somehow. Based on the circumstances, it seemed likely that Lee Jaeha had come to this hotel.
“Ah…!”
As they waited anxiously for an answer, the room maid suddenly let out a short exclamation. She had clearly remembered something.
“Well, the guests of this room always leave tips near the pillows… but today was a bit strange.”
“How was it strange?”
Shin Haejun asked hurriedly. The maid replied in a small voice with wavering eyes.
“It was unclear if it was a tip or not… I was wondering about it…”
She pointed to the table with her hand.
“Today there were no tips near the pillows at all. Instead, there was a bundle of money over there, so I was wondering if it was a tip or not.”
A pile of money was stacked on the table. Hyun Dowoon, who glared at it, strode over and examined it from various angles.
“It’s probably a tip.”
He gritted his teeth and turned his gaze to Shin Haejun. If they had met Lee Jaeha, there was no way Ray and Liam would be quietly waiting in the room.
Considering Liam’s ability, they had clearly already left. If it weren’t for the hour and a half delay, they might have been able to catch them. Thinking this, his teeth ground together.
“…So they’ve filed for takeoff.”
When Shin Haejun contacted the airport corporation just in case and asked about Ray’s group’s private jet, the answer came back that they had filed for takeoff a while ago. However, there were no other reported passengers besides the pilot and private steward.
“By any chance… do you know which state Raymond and Liam’s mansion is in?”
It seemed clear that they would have to go to America. When Shin Haejun asked just in case, Hyun Dowoon sighed with a burning expression.
“Wouldn’t it be faster to ask which states their mansions are not in?”
Those two were the most famous S-class pair in America. In fact, there was some ambiguity because Liam’s ability was difficult to use practically in dungeons, but the combination of Raymond’s star power and Liam, who was born into a naturally wealthy family, made them America’s symbolic pair.
Given the enormous wealth they had accumulated, their disclosed real estate assets alone were not just one or two properties. If undisclosed assets were included, tracking would clearly not be easy.
‘If they were in Korea, it would have ended simply…’
As if knowing that they thought there was nothing they couldn’t find under Korean soil, Lee Jaeha had gone far away to America. It was a smart choice, but it made them feel unbearably self-loathing, sensing that he sincerely wanted to leave their side. Hyun Dowoon buried his face in his hands, even thinking the reversed thought that Lee Jaeha had gone to America because he had arrogant thoughts.
“…Given the situation, we have no choice.”
After taking a deep breath, Hyun Dowoon raised his head and met Shin Haejun’s resolute eyes. They had wanted to avoid doing this if possible, but now that an unavoidable situation had come, there was no other way.
“Tell Nine to control those two again…”
“We’ll have to reveal that they kidnapped Jaeha-ssi in America.”
Although they had different thoughts, both seemed necessary to use. Shin Haejun forced a smile to drive out the room maid who was interfering with calling Nine.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
