Chapter 250.1

Chapter 250.1

“What… did you just say?”

Taken aback by the unexpected question, Seoryeong clenched her fingers. Aside from the moment her husband had hit her on the back of the head and disappeared, she rarely experienced significant emotional fluctuations.

However, the Russian words that came out, scraping against her palate, felt strangely unfamiliar today. The Russian professor who had entered with Director Tae Mu-kyung was merely repeating the same words like a parrot.

“In a secret mission, if you had to save either your target or your husband, who would you choose?”

“….!”

Seoryeong slowly exhaled the air she had sharply inhaled. Somewhere, the ticking of a clock sounded unusually loud.

The final hurdle was the Russian interview.

In the workplace where her beloved husband had devoted his youth, she had hoped to pick up even a crumb of Lee Wooshin’s legacy.

Seoryeong felt a chill settle in. In her mind, dark thoughts bubbled up like foam, filled with Russian sentences.

“Reserve Agent 15, are you not going to answer?”

Director Tae Mu-kyung, who had been watching quietly, rolled his pen and urged her. Was she really stuck on words here? His piercing gaze felt sharp. After their marriage, the murderous intent she thought she wouldn’t have to use again suddenly reared its head, but Seoryeong maintained her poker face.

‘I know what answer they want, but I would obviously choose Lee Wooshin, even if the world were to end.’

She scoffed. Should she just flip the table? Her cold eyes alternated between Director Tae and the professor. When Seoryeong glared at Director Tae defiantly, his eyebrows twitched upward.

Choose between the target and Lee Wooshin? Just imagining such a situation sent a fiery surge of intense emotions rising within her. Still, she should have held back. Seoryeong spoke in Korean towards Director Tae.

“Without a doubt, my husband.”

It’s over… I’m done…

Even as she swallowed a sigh, she didn’t retract her challenging gaze. She would have to think of the past eight months as just self-development in Sparta… Even as she reassured herself, her mouth felt bitter.

She really wanted to be Lee Wooshin… the thing she loved most in the world. Lee Wooshin.

She wanted to become one with him, both physically and mentally. Lee Wooshin. Everything was Lee Wooshin. Lee Wooshin. ‘My Lee Wooshin.’

She quickly suppressed her feelings of regret. No matter how much she wanted to, she couldn’t bring herself to say empty words about ignoring her husband.

Just as she was about to rise halfway from her chair, Director Tae let out a laugh as if it were amusing. The sound brushed against her ears.

“If you scratch, it’s no fun if it gets scratched right away. Don’t you have the skills to deflect the question or cleverly avoid the core?”

“….”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that, so let’s answer properly again. In this pressure interview, not only quick thinking is required, but lies must also come out smoothly. What we want to see is not the human side of Agent Joo Seoryeong.”

He pointed firmly at the chair. Seoryeong inadvertently sat back down.

“Put on a proper mask. That’s how you become a useful agent.”

It was a piercing remark. Seoryeong’s eyes shook.

She could manage the physical training reasonably well. She had always been quick, but after regaining her memories from the past, her hesitation in moving her body had completely disappeared, making every process smooth.

Unlike during winter training, she sometimes even felt a primal joy, and the eight months flew by in an instant. However, strategic deception, social manipulation, and calculated acting were like poison to her. Lee Wooshin was undoubtedly superior in these aspects.

Seoryeong felt as if she was facing a wall. If becoming an agent meant speaking empty words, deceiving others with lies, and pretending to be someone she wasn’t…

At that moment, Director Tae Mu-kyung, who had uncrossed his arms, leaned on the desk and asked.

“You must have told lies at some point in your life.”

‘Not that I haven’t…’

‘When I lived with Kim Hyun. I pretended too. And when Lee Wooshin found out he was Kim Hyun, I deceived him until we got married, saying I loved him, even pretending to be head over heels for him during our second wedding in Azerbaijan… Wait. I was quite…’

‘Heartless and overflowing with talent.’

A strange light flickered in her eyes. She took a deep breath.