Chapter 265.1

Chapter 265.1

The two men moved at the same time.

Bang, bang, bang!

Flames burst from their muzzles. With Asha’s sharp shout, holes tore through the foreheads of two mercenaries and they collapsed on the spot. Asha barely ducked in time, clutching one shoulder as she crawled into a blind spot.

Even so, Tae Mu-kyung did not stop. This time, he aimed at Seoryeong’s head where she lay trapped in the bathtub.

Bang, bang!

Whether the gunshots came first, or—

“Get down!”

Lee Wooshin roared, his voice scraping raw from his throat as he slammed down on Tae Mu-kyung’s wrist.

Like an obedient child, Seoryeong pressed her nose tight and dropped into the water, sinking until the crown of her head submerged completely.

The bullets, their trajectories knocked off course, thudded into the edge of the tub. Seoryeong stared at the timer counting down in reverse.

“―”

Bubbles rose from her mouth as stray bullets skimmed across the surface of the water.

The two men crossed their arms to block each other, blocking and countering in rapid succession. They pulled triggers, rammed forearms together to throw off aim, then collided again.

Bang, bang, bang!

The muzzles swung wildly as they fired. Their arms clashed around the pistols, and the gunshots moved in a single rhythm. Stray rounds flew everywhere.

Gunfire and martial strikes blended into one seamless sequence. They did not pause for even a beat. They fired again, struck at wrists, and fired again.

“――!”

Stray bullets ricocheted in chaotic bursts. Each time a round slammed into Seoryeong’s bathtub, Lee Wooshin ground out a curse through clenched teeth and drove his fist harder.

Tae Mu-kyung locked his gaze onto that desperate expression. His stare clung, unnaturally persistent.

“Yes! That wretched look…! That’s what I wanted to see.”

A hollow smile flickered across his indifferent face and vanished. In that instant, Lee Wooshin kicked up at Tae Mu-kyung’s wrist.

As the pistol flew into the air, Lee Wooshin followed with a brutal strike to Tae Mu-kyung’s solar plexus. Tae Mu-kyung coughed and staggered back, a thin line of blood trailing from his mouth.

Lee Wooshin did not waste the moment. He slammed the reeling Tae Mu-kyung against the wall. He snatched the airborne pistol out of the air and jammed it beneath Tae Mu-kyung’s jaw.

“You call yourself a Director. Aren’t you ashamed to face your juniors?”

Tae Mu-kyung let out a ragged laugh as the gun pressed into his throat.

“I saw it back then. On the way back after withdrawing from Hong Kong….”

“….”

“You were heading off on your honeymoon with your wife, right? I never imagined the woman tapping that white cane, because she was blind, could be Agent Joo Seoryeong. Looks like you ran a far more vicious operation than I did.”

“….”

“Back then, I couldn’t shake that woman’s voice, even though she was nothing but my pretend wife. It bothered me. I couldn’t figure out why. She kept crying without stopping. I almost wanted to tear my ears off.”

Tae Mu-kyung glanced again at the ‘Kim Hyun’ mask, as if searching it.

“Then I spotted your face… that face… at the terminal.”

A hollow laugh slipped from him. His expression looked almost like he was crying.

“That’s when I realized what I had left behind.”

His cheek twitched faintly.

“The face I ran away wrapped around me, that same face stood there smiling while holding his wife. The whole thing looked like some ridiculous play. So I laughed too. Because in the end, you were going to end up like me.”

Lee Wooshin tightened his grip on the barrel. He refused to let his hand shake. At the same time, beyond the rapid clatter of keys, Na Wonchang’s stiff voice rang through his earpiece.

“…It’s confirmed, Team Leader. I do not know how it turned out like this, but I found the disciplinary report that was uploaded to the Agency for Defense Development. Article 17, Clause 3. ‘All equipment must be assigned one to one. Unauthorized sharing is prohibited.’ An employee from Intelligence Division Team 7 personally filed the disciplinary request.”

Lee Wooshin’s face hardened without a word.

“The Kim Hyun mask’s serial number is ADD-2018-MK-IV-0071. It says the mask was urgently loaned to support Agent Tae Mu-kyung’s withdrawal route at the time.”

Fuck. His brow furrowed on its own.

“Approval for mask sharing normally requires twenty four hours, but they did not have time to wait. It looks like they loaned it without authorization, and the employee later turned himself in.”

The honeymoon he had taken with his target owl. If another ‘Kim Hyun,’ sneaking out after finishing an operation at that passenger terminal, had seen the real ‘Kim Hyun’…

If, on his way out under orders, leaving behind the wife who had been tortured, he had seen ‘Kim Hyun’ holding that wife’s hand and going on a trip…

“I will never forget the face I borrowed.”

Tae Mu-kyung spoke as if reciting something distant.

“At first, I felt a sense of kinship. Agents are all the same in the end. I thought maybe you would suffer the same loss I did, then get dragged off like livestock to another mission. Even if the segment of my life that once existed had been shredded into documents by a machine. We would just have to put on new faces again. That was the professional calling we chose.”

“.…”

Lee Wooshin only exhaled quietly, offering no reply.

“But then. You retired.”

His voice froze over with cold mockery.

“So who is the real failed agent here?”

Tae Mu-kyung struck at Lee Wooshin’s throat, exploiting the briefest hesitation. A solid forearm crushed against his airway, and in an instant their positions reversed.

Thud. Lee Wooshin’s back slammed into the concrete wall with a dull impact. Tae Mu-kyung frowned and asked,

“What does it feel like to retire and live like an ordinary man?”