Chapter 7.2

Chapter 7.2

Haewon, still wrapped in the blanket, sat up. She looked around the bunker, which was no different from yesterday, and spoke.

“Is the skirmish over?”

“It’s ongoing. Can’t you hear it?”

She held her breath and concentrated on her hearing. A faint rumble of the ground reached her. She couldn’t tell if it was an attack from government forces or a counterattack from rebel factions.

“This is serious.”

Haewon looked at Yeonwoo. Not a small number of people had been dispatched to this dangerous country just to save Kwon Yeonwoo. Yet the man himself was resting in the safest spot, while those who were dispatched were in danger. It was incredibly unfair.

“Worried about your agents, are we? I heard the Blacks aren’t very close to each other. Or was I wrong?”

She thought it wasn’t even worth answering, so she didn’t reply. Instead, she asked him the question she most wanted to ask.

“Why did you save me?”

“Hmm.”

Yeonwoo stroked his chin and stared at Haewon. She did not avoid his lingering gaze, meeting it directly as she waited for an answer.

There had to be a reason Kwon Yeonwoo risked his life to save her.

Was she valuable to him? But in what way?

“Oh, just… because it would annoy me if you died meaninglessly?”

“What?”

Kwon Yeonwoo grinned, then changed the subject.

“See? I told you not to go. What would you have done if I hadn’t saved you? You’d be heading straight to the underworld. Oh, wait, don’t the Blacks turn into stars when they die?”

Haewon was so dumbfounded that she let out a hollow laugh, then quickly shut her mouth.

In the National Intelligence Service headquarters, there was indeed a plaque etched with stars. If a Black agent died in the line of duty, they were etched onto the plaque as a star. Their names could not be revealed, so they were simply nameless stars.

When she didn’t answer, Yeonwoo continued rambling to himself.

“Actually, I did hesitate a bit. I didn’t want to go out where bombs were raining down like cats and dogs. I’m not exactly the type to meddle either. Hmm… Could I have fallen for Angel?”

“Don’t say such a horrible thing.”

Haewon frowned. Now she realized his light tone wasn’t due to medication; it seemed to be his natural way of speaking. As the conversation seemed to drift into trivialities again, Haewon got up.

“Where’s the bathroom?”

“That way, inside.”

She opened the door located at one side of the bunker. Inside revealed a makeshift kitchen piled with groceries, a toilet, and a shower.

Haewon carefully adjusted the towel wrapped around her body to keep it from falling, then looked inside.

“You didn’t throw away my clothes, did you?”

She had no spare clothes, so she planned to wash and wear them, if necessary. She couldn’t keep going wrapped in just a towel. Eventually, she would have to leave this place.

From behind her, Yeonwoo shrugged his shoulders.

“Hmm. I don’t remember.”

“What did you say?”

Dumbfounded, she turned back to Yeonwoo. He was rubbing his eyes and stretching. Haewon narrowed her eyes and stared at him, given his unwilling-to-tell demeanor.

“Why are you acting like this?”

“What do you mean?”

She took a step closer to Yeonwoo and asked. To be honest, Haewon couldn’t quite grasp the situation.

“Kwon Yeonwoo. What do you want from me? Just be honest.”

Yeonwoo looked at Haewon, who was asking him a direct question, and curved the corners of his mouth upwards.

“Oh, I want a lot. Here we are, in a confined space, just me and a pretty woman.”

“……”

Haewon’s expression hardened as she looked at Yeonwoo. Just when she thought he seemed normal, his casual vulgar remarks made her think he was out of his mind again.

She held her breath, her eyes searching for anything she could use as a weapon.

“Hahaha. Looking for a gun, aren’t you? Always so fierce.”

Yeonwoo’s smile never left his lips, as if something amused him greatly. While he laughed senselessly, Haewon, with an expressionless face and clenched fists, racked her brain trying to figure out how to escape this place.

“I guess this is how the woodcutter felt.”

“……?”

“I don’t want to give you clothes because you’ll probably fly away the moment I do. And I went through so much trouble to save you.”

She couldn’t believe her ears. Why was he bringing up ‘The Fairy and the Woodcutter’ now?

“Well, don’t worry, I won’t keep them from you until you’ve had three children.”

“What a damn lunatic.”

She couldn’t hold back her thoughts and blurted them out. She usually hid her emotions well, but right now, she didn’t particularly want to.

From the moment she opened her eyes until now, everything Kwon Yeonwoo had said and done towards her was nothing but a series of bad jokes. Haewon pondered his words carefully, then narrowed her eyes at him.

“Could what you want be… to sleep with me?”