Chapter 129.1

Chapter 129.1

Cough, cough. A faint cough echoed beyond the unfinished file. Light footsteps gradually faded into the distance, and a cheerful tune played in the background: She had a husband, she had a husband.

The recording abruptly ended there. Lee Wooshin stared blankly at the darkened screen. His pale face twisted into a grimace.

“Son of a bitch!”

The whites of his eyes, once clear, were now streaked with crimson as if struck by lightning.

The Deputy Director of the NIS and Russia’s Boogeyman were openly discussing Bird Box, a top-secret operation. The recording revealed the Deputy Director’s true intentions—something he had hidden even from Wooshin, who had been directly involved in the mission.

His grip tightened around the phone, the tendons in his hand standing out like steel wires. Did I mishear? Could the file have been tampered with? Not a chance. There wasn’t even a one-percent possibility of fabrication.

His first thought was blackmail. But what leverage could possibly threaten an ambitious woman who had risen to the Deputy Director’s position at such a young age?

Unless she had a fatal weakness that could bring her down…

His thoughts abruptly stopped.

“—.”

Before the special operations team left for Sakhalin, what had Joo Seolheon been like? She had been excited, defensive, and hesitant. He had known from the start that she selectively edited and filtered information about the owl to suit her taste when conveying information…

She would have to be completely insane.

A dry chuckle escaped Wooshin at Kia’s continued display of arrogance. He clenched his molars, swallowing back a curse, just as his phone buzzed again. Once more, it wasn’t the call he had been waiting for.

— “Team leader… I heard you were injured. Are you okay? Can I visit you? I swear I won’t come within ten meters.”

The voice on the other end trembled. Wooshin rubbed the back of his stiff neck and closed his eyes briefly.

“Forget that, Wonchang. Did you go through everything I sent?”

— “Ah, yes…! We confirmed the connection between the NIS director and CEO Kang Taegon. Some executives were involved as well. Thanks to the Poison Tap you installed, we secured plenty of solid evidence.”

“Good work.”

— “So… are you really resigning, sir?”

“…”

— “If your resignation gets accepted, where will you go?”

“I was planning on starting fresh.”

A bitter laugh slipped out. So I really can’t let go of the instinct to scheme and manipulate, huh?

Wooshin twisted his lips and rolled his bandaged foot in a slow circle. A molten pain shot up his leg, but he bit down on his tongue and forced himself to endure it. He planted both feet on the floor and stood up straight.

His brows furrowed momentarily, but then, as if something drained out of him completely, his wax-like face smoothed over.

“Look into what Deputy Director Joo Seolheon did during her time at the ANSP.”

—…What?

“See if there’s any record of her traveling to Russia.”

The sudden order caused a commotion on the other end of the line.

—W-wait, sir…! Why did the target suddenly change to Deputy Director Joo?!

“Joo Seolheon…”

There was talk of an agent who infiltrated Winter Castle and vanished. The one who recorded Winter Castle’s final moments before disappearing without a trace.

Joo had claimed she only knew of the case from rumors. She insisted she had no idea who the agent was—not their name, not their gender, nothing.

Woo-shin’s face turned cold.

“I think she might have been a field agent back then.”

His gaze, now ice-cold, locked onto the window outside.

***

A week passed faster and more peacefully than expected.

Ever since the phone calls—once relentless—had abruptly stopped, time seemed to flow even more smoothly. The constant ringing had felt like an impending scolding, but now, after days of silence, the stillness felt just as strange.

Seoryeong quietly began packing without telling anyone about her involvement in the Equatorial Guinea mission.

The plan was to first gather at a port in France and then travel along the Atlantic coast to Equatorial Guinea—a journey that would take at least several weeks.

Before leaving for good, she felt an unexpected urge to open her husband’s door, something she hadn’t done in a long time.

But as soon as she inserted the worn-out key into the lock, a memory struck her like a tackle—her back slamming against this very door as she had sex with Lee Woo-shin.

The sensation of her shoulder blades hitting the door, the relentless heat and weight pressing into her from below.

Caught off guard by the memory, Seoryeong’s neck flushed red. She pressed her lips together, tightened her grip on the doorknob, and turned it.

“―”

The scent was both familiar and unfamiliar. White sheets, now draped over some objects, signaled their overdue abandonment.