Chapter 264.1

Chapter 264.1

At that moment, the water overflowing on the monitor sloshed again. Seoryeong, who had been listening quietly to Tae Mu-kyung, suddenly burst into laughter.

Her bright peal of laughter echoed inside the bathtub. Even though her swollen belly was bound like an animal, she kicked her legs as if she were enjoying a leisurely soak.

At the incomprehensibly carefree sight, Lee Wooshin dragged a hand across his face.

On screen, she glanced back and forth between Tae Mu-kyung and the phone, then asked calmly,

“So if I call my husband, you are definitely going to save me?”

“That is right.”

“And then the sniper puts a hole in my husband’s forehead?”

Tae Mu-kyung lifted one shoulder as if to say it could not be helped.

Seoryeong’s lips curved up in satisfaction. She toyed with the phone.

“Fine. I will call.”

“….”

“I should at least hear my husband’s voice before I die.”

She began pressing the number pad slowly.

At her cold composure, Na Wonchang started trembling and hiccupping.

―“Te–team leader… did you perhaps upset the owl somehow? You said snipers are positioned everywhere, right? The side where the phone rings dies, right?!”

“….”

―“Team leader, are you finally being dumped?!”

At the near wail in his voice, Lee Wooshin lifted his brows.

“Shut up. I am trying to figure out what I did wrong too.”

‘Did I… upset her somehow?’

He did not move an inch as he stared at the monitor.

Unaware of her husband’s frantic state, Seoryeong only smiled brightly and pressed the call button.

Meanwhile, Tae Mu-kyung stood at an angle, whistling faintly as he watched the hostage splash in the tub. He rubbed his chin. When his gaze happened to meet the camera beyond the monitor, a flicker of bewilderment crossed his face.

―“Why does the owl look excited?! Team leader, you might die!”

Another stunned voice crackled in his other ear.

‘Exactly. What did I do wrong?’

‘No. That was not it. What am I missing?’

“.…”

Lee Wooshin gripped the monitor and narrowed his eyes, studying his wife’s expression. As expected, not a trace of tension showed on her smooth face. Water clung to her skin and only made her look more beautiful, which made the situation even worse.

If even he, her husband, felt this absurd, what about Tae Mu-kyung?

He shifted only his gaze toward the director. Tae Mu-kyung let out a hollow breath and rested a hand at his waist.

“Why, Director? Did you expect me to cry and beg?”

“.…”

“I do not know why you suddenly took an interest in my husband, Director. But I do not like it. I do not want to show him to you, and I do not want you paying attention to him. Have you ever been married? I have never seen a ring mark on you since training. Do you know my husband personally? Or is this… some kind of sexual interest?”

Seoryeong’s eyes sharpened blatantly.

At the same time, a long silence fell across both in-ears.

Soon, He Channa muttered, “Sigh… people see only what they want to see…” and broke the silence, but Lee Wooshin pretended not to hear and only blinked.

“Who exactly threatens someone like this just to see another man their own age?”

“Agent Joo Seoryeong.”

Tae Mu-kyung rubbed the back of his neck as if tired. In a low voice, he asked again,

“You understand that if you place the call now, your husband dies. And you still intend to call?”

“It seems far better than handing my husband over to you.”

“.…”

“I already told you. I will not show him to you. Whatever your intentions are, do not take interest.”

“.…”

“He is mine.”

‘Ah, Seoryeong…’

Lee Wooshin dragged a dry hand down his flushed face.

“I appreciate it, but that is not what this is about, so let us calm down first…”

He muttered words she could not hear, yet a grin kept slipping out. He scratched his itching brow with the tip of his gun barrel and tightened his lips.

The rage that had surged to the top of his head gradually settled. A faint sweetness lingered in his mouth. Even in a situation where their lives hung by a thread, feeling his wife’s unwavering possessiveness filled him with a strange surge of strength.

‘Ah, how old fashioned.’

Should he not have outgrown the phase where his heart pounded and his body reacted over something like this? A man truly had no end to himself.

Just as Lee Wooshin felt an odd swell of pride, Na Wonchang cut in anxiously.

―“Team leader, this is not the time to smile! I told you before, when I went through the owl’s files… I said I was afraid of getting on her bad side someday! I ran thermal detection. There are three snipers confirmed!”

“.…”

The moment Seoryeong lifted the phone to her ear, the generator that had been roaring loudly came to a sudden stop.

At the same time, Lee Wooshin’s phone began to ring in his pocket.

He slowly licked his lower lip and answered the call. He could not take his eyes off her feet splashing in the water on the monitor.

Hold on. I will break through this wall and get to you.

“Is the bathwater warm? Did that bastard at least set the temperature right?”

He asked gently.

Seoryeong’s eyes curved as she smiled.

―“Instructor. We do not have time for a long talk, so for now, die.”

“…What?”

His mind blanked for a second. Something about that sentence felt wrong.

―“It is okay. You trust me, right?”

“.…”

‘I trust you. I trusted you like hell, baby.’

‘If not me, then who would believe a little menace like you who told me to die first and ask questions later?’

―“Do not try to find me. Dying and becoming a corpse will be the fastest way for us to meet. See you soon.”

Her last words.

Far outside the building.

In the sniper’s crosshairs, Lee Wooshin’s hardened face filled the scope.