11 Virtues A Hero's Civilian Friend Must Uphold - Chapter 45

“Ugh, what’s with this smoke?”

Lee Seol Ah barged into the living room after entering the passcode as if it were her own home, coughing and waving her hand to clear the hazy smoke obstructing her vision as soon as she entered.

She calmly surveyed the chaotic scene in the living room, then looked down with disdain at the recent troublemaker who was leaning on the sofa, smoking incessantly without even glancing her way.

Seol Ah tossed her handbag carelessly onto the opposite side of the sofa and sat down, crossing her legs.

“Smoke outside. Why are you making the living room foggy like this?”

“Get out.”

“Oh, how scary.”

Several ashtrays on the table were piled high with countless cigarette butts, evidence of smoking multiple packs.

Seol Ah had always been observant, but today she was particularly scrutinizing Han Jae Kyung’s razor-sharp attitude as she asked:

“I heard you met Yoon Na Eun?”

“…”

“Come on, I told you. We should just bring her in, didn’t I?”

Seol Ah leaned back on the sofa, crossing her arms as if she couldn’t understand.

Having observed all of Jae Kyung’s actions from the sidelines for the past three years, she thought everything he was doing now seemed foolish.

Seol Ah openly mocked him, saying:

“Judging by your expression, she must have cursed at you. Well, did you expect her to say something nice?”

Jae Kyung removed the cigarette from his mouth and turned his head to look at Seol Ah.

His cold gaze was enough to intimidate anyone, but Seol Ah was unfazed.

Twirling her brown hair around her finger, she shook her head.

“I really don’t get it. It’s not like Yoon Na Eun is as capable as K. If you play your cards right, you could bring her in easily. Why are you enduring this?”

I’ll do whatever it takes to separate her from J. I can even keep K and L from interfering, okay? Seol Ah was genuinely frustrated.

She admitted to being a villain and a bad person, but she was also a romantic who passionately loved someone unrequitedly.

Since falling in love, she had come to respect all kinds of affection in the world and understood Jae Kyung’s desire.

She felt a strange sense of kinship with him for falling in love with someone who despised him, and was eager to help in any way she could, but she couldn’t understand why he refused to accept her assistance.

If it were me, I would have brought her here right away and laid her down next to me.

Seol Ah grumbled, genuinely lamenting why K wasn’t a civilian like Yoon Na Eun, when she heard a clicking sound of something being loaded.

She discovered Jae Kyung pointing a gun at her while holding a cigarette in his left hand, and pouted.

“You’re so cold. You have no affection for your colleagues.”

“I’ll count to three. If you don’t leave, I’ll take it as you wanting to die.”

I can just drop the body here, right? Reminding her that this was the top floor of a high-rise apartment, Jae Kyung’s tone made Seol Ah squint her eyes in annoyance.

“Are you really going to do this? I even brought a gift for you.”

“One.”

“This is a drug still in clinical trials that I begged and pleaded for at the lab to give to K.”

“Two.”

“They say it can erase past memories.”

“…”

Jae Kyung’s lips tightened, having intended to pull the trigger without hesitation after counting to three.

Seeing his reaction as expected, Seol Ah grinned.

“It’s supposed to slightly affect brain cells, causing selective memory loss or something.”

She waved a small, transparent ziplock bag in front of his eyes. Inside was a white powder.

“It’s still in clinical trials, but the effects are supposedly certain. The downside is that long-term use can cause cognitive impairment, but is that really important?”

“Then what is important?”

Jae Kyung scoffed as he heard Seol Ah’s story and retorted.

The gun barrel was still aimed at Seol Ah. She shrugged as if asking why he was questioning something so obvious.

“What’s important is that you can reclaim your love!”

“…”

“You know. Neither you nor I can be loved by them in our right minds anymore, right? But if we erase the past, we can be loved. We can appear before them as good people as much as we want.”

“…”

“Aren’t you resentful? Having your role stolen by J.”

You were the one who really protected her, but like the Little Mermaid, isn’t it frustrating to have your credit stolen by someone else? Seol Ah spoke in a gloomy tone.

“Since that day, I’ve sincerely come to respect your love. How can you be so self-sacrificing? I was deeply moved.”

Seol Ah clasped her hands to her chest, genuinely looking impressed. Jae Kyung’s brow furrowed.

“So claim it.”

Seol Ah smiled.

“What’s the problem? We can turn Yoon Na Eun’s mind back to when she was nineteen and couldn’t live without you.”

I’m dying to use it on K but I can’t because I’m afraid he’ll kill me, but you have a much easier target, so why aren’t you doing this? She was frustrated.

Jae Kyung seriously considered how long he should listen to this crazy person’s nonsense.

He stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray with his free hand that wasn’t holding the gun and asked:

“You want me to feed Yoon Na Eun a drug that will obviously make her mentally ill?”

And it’s not even out of clinical trials yet. Jae Kyung glared at Seol Ah with an icy coldness.

Are you crazy?

Faced with his chilling warning, Seol Ah instead widened her eyes in surprise and retorted:

Oh my, Han Jae Kyung.

“Don’t tell me your feelings are so lukewarm that your love would cool if Yoon Na Eun went a little crazy?”

“…”

“So what if she’s mentally ill. You love her, don’t you?”

“Three.”

Jae Kyung finished counting the number he had stopped earlier and pulled the trigger.

There was no loud noise thanks to the silencer, but the bullet that flew mercilessly landed on the sofa where Seol Ah had been sitting until just now.

Seol Ah, who had spun her body to avoid the gunshot, cackled.

She leaped over the table while still holding the small ziplock bag.

In an instant, she approached the sofa where Jae Kyung was sitting and slipped the bag of drugs into the pocket of the cardigan he was wearing.

Seol Ah smiled slyly.

“You’re on vacation starting tomorrow, right? The boss said you should rest well after all your hard work.”

“…”

“It’s better to just bring Yoon Na Eun in before she really gets hurt. Isn’t it a better choice for her to live happily on the surface, even if next to her enemy, rather than die disguised as an accident?”

How long do you think you can protect her, Jae Kyung? Her tone was like soothing a young son, and Jae Kyung’s gaze blurred.

He irritably pushed away the gun barrel and said:

“She’s just an ordinary person now. Neither she nor her mother are of any use anymore.”

“Is it important that they’ve become useless? What’s important is that they’ve upset the boss’s mood.”

“…”

“It’s not their fault for having a bad father and husband, is it? The boss has been lenient so far because he likes you, but if it were me, it would have been over immediately.”

Not even knowing how much you’re favored. Tsk tsk. Seol Ah clicked her tongue.

“But you know I’m on your side, right? I support all the love in the world!”

Fighting, Han Jae Kyung! After showing her support by clenching her right fist cutely, Seol Ah grabbed her handbag and left the living room without hesitation.

Jae Kyung, who remained sitting quietly without even looking at her retreating figure that disappeared as arbitrarily as she had entered, soon put down the gun and fumbled for the cigarette pack on the table again.

After confirming that not a single cigarette remained, he roughly threw the empty pack.

“I need the investment and export details related to the XX System and XX Heavy Industries from 3 years ago. I’ll investigate the stock price fluctuations myself, and please also gather the original proposals from the shareholders’ meeting and board meeting that took place after Chairman Yoon Seok Hoon’s accidental death at that time. I’ll conduct the rest of the investigation separately.”

The center director, nearing forty and in his 13th year as a hero, looked up pensively at Team Leader Seo Hee Won’s face as he stood before him, listing the necessary information without pause.

He considered scolding the guy who had barged into the center early in the morning just to rattle off what he wanted to say, but he kept his mouth shut as each issue mentioned was equally serious.

Even after Hee Won’s report, he rubbed his forehead tiredly with his fingers for a few seconds before leaning forward with his arms on the desk.

“…Is it credible? What’s your basis?”

“My intuition, sir.”

“…”

“If you don’t support me, I’ll move separately on my own.”

Faced with this threat disguised as a request to help unless he wanted to see him cause trouble, Center Director Ji Hwan let out a hollow laugh.

As the founder of this center and the hero who had been active from the very beginning under the codename ‘A’, he sensed that the chilling atmosphere emanating from the young man was unusual and blinked slowly.

“If what you’re saying is true, this isn’t just a dogfight, it could turn Seoul upside down.”

“Seoul is always being turned upside down. Those bastards are always causing chaos with bombs.”

“You know what I mean… I’ll look into it by next week.”

“By the day after tomorrow, please.”

This brat? Ji Hwan raised his eyebrows. Does he think he’s the boss?

But Hee Won, one of the few who wouldn’t be intimidated by such a fierce reaction, continued:

“A civilian is already involved. They’re being threatened with their mother’s life. I hope your words about protecting the weak being the top priority weren’t just empty talk, Director.”

“Since when did you start championing civilian protection? You’re the crazy bastard who always asked if it was okay to kill them if they got in the way, wanting permission to murder.”

Judging by his usual behavior, Hee Won’s current attitude was almost fraudulent.

But Hee Won, already armed with shamelessness, continued as if he hadn’t heard:

“I also need personnel support.”

“Use your team members for now.”

“I’m not telling those guys for now. There’s a high possibility they’ll mess up the job due to emotional turmoil since the civilian is friendly with them.”

“And you won’t?”

“…”

“It’s her, isn’t it? The civilian you’ve been personally guarding for 3 years.”

Hee Won closed his mouth. Ji Hwan narrowed his eyes as he leaned back in his chair.

“You like her.”

“I won’t show it and it won’t interfere with the work.”

“This guy isn’t even denying it.”

“So, are you going to support me or not?”

Ji Hwan laughed incredulously at the suddenly informal speech.

“Look at how you’re talking to your uncle.”

“Do you want me to act like a whiny nephew? Please help when I’m trying to be mature.”

“…Wait. I’ll assign someone now.”

Knowing his nephew’s yellow streak since childhood, the center director assigned additional personnel without further ado and handed the list to Hee Won.

Hee Won’s brow furrowed as he flipped through the additional materials handed over.

Seeing his reaction, Ji Hwan said:

“He’s been working there for about a year under the name Han Iseo, and he probably made contact with that civilian inside the company. It seems the civilian girl’s mother has opened a deal with that company.”

He could easily find out where Na Eun had come into contact with that bastard just by tracing her movements.

He made an unpleasant face as he looked at the photo of Han Jae Kyung, who was shamelessly cosplaying as an ordinary office worker.

Eventually, the center director continued:

“But that bastard quit last week.”

“…Why?”

“That’s what we’re going to find out from now on, and what’s more problematic is where he got re-employed after changing his name again.”

“Where is that?”

In response to Hee Won’s question, the center director sighed briefly.

He mentioned the name of a large cram school in central Seoul with slightly complicated eyes.

Upon hearing this, a curse immediately left Hee Won’s mouth.

“That son of a bitch!”