Manila Airport.

Just when it seemed like they were finally escaping the summer, it was another midsummer day. As soon as Taejun stepped out of the airport’s interior entrance, sweat formed on his forehead.

The reported reason for his business trip was to handle matters related to the death of a Filipino factory worker at the local subsidiary. However, Taejun had another secret mission. The first was, as he had told the TF team members, to cautiously investigate Nukum and Iaks and understand their true identities. The second was related to Soeun’s father.

“I’m looking for my dad. He’s supposed to be in the Philippines, but we lost contact a long time ago. So, if you find my dad at the Philippine embassy, please contact me.”

In fact, what Soeun had said the day before quickly became the reason for Taejun’s sudden business trip. He had to grasp the circumstances related to the death of Han Honggyu, Soeun’s father, and convey any news that could be delivered to Soeun.

He would deliver the news of her father’s death in a way that would cause her the least pain. So that everything could be resolved with that. So that she wouldn’t focus on a number that wasn’t even saved in her phone anymore.

And thus, all these events would become a thing of the past.

Since all the planned tasks were secret missions, he had to move cautiously all the time.

Taejun thought that after this business trip, he would stay by Soeun’s side for a while. She seemed disappointed about the private bodyguard without permission, so he needed to earn points again by staying by her side. Even though there was a lot to do, he was eager to return to Korea quickly.

Soeun spent a busy morning.

As she met various customers with different stories, lunchtime approached. She had arranged to meet the private bodyguard who had been watching over her for the past few days outside the company, so she hurried her work.

At 11:50, as she waited for her last customer of the morning, she saw a tall woman in a black suit entering the waiting room. She exuded a sophisticated feeling, making it difficult to guess her age. She had heard that the bodyguard was a woman, and seeing her not removing her sunglasses indoors made Soeun vaguely think, ‘Could it be her?’ She greeted the last customer in front of her.

“Hello, customer. I’m AS Agent Han Soeun.”

The last customer was a child’s mother. She brought her son, who was running around everywhere, and sat him on her lap, sighing as she handed over her phone.

“I don’t know how my child found out the password, unlocked it without me knowing, and set it again… and then forgot the pattern.”

“Is your account registered?”

“What’s an account?”

“If it’s registered with K Electronics, you can unlock the lock pattern.”

“I don’t really understand that. Does it exist? I don’t remember it well.”

“I’ll check for you.”

Soeun took the information the customer provided and searched for the account. However, there was nothing in the search results.

“Oh… it seems like there’s no account.”

“Now what do we do?”
“Because of security policy. In cases like this, the service provided by the company is not available. You need to perform a factory reset.”

“Factory reset… You mean resetting the phone? Will it erase the registered phone number and photos too?”

“Yes. Unfortunately, that’s the only way.”

“The phone number is okay, but I can’t lose the photos…”

The child’s mother looked distressed. The child, who had been playing with various items on the desk while sitting on his mother’s lap, hid his hands under the desk, glancing nervously at them.

“It really can’t be helped… All sorts of pictures of our child have been stored here since he was six.”

“You didn’t back them up?”

“I didn’t… Is there really no other way?”

Hesitating in response to the customer’s plea, Soeun searched through a drawer and pulled out a piece of paper. It was a paper with nine dots grouped together, like a mobile phone pattern. Soeun handed a pen and paper to the child.

“Do you know how to connect the dots? Can you draw any shape like when you draw the phone pattern?”

The child drew one pattern in the top box. Soeun nodded and urged him to continue.

“Draw again. Keep going. If the lady finishes it, I’ll give you candy.”

When initially inputting the pattern, the same shape had to be drawn twice. The fact that the child was able to draw the pattern he had drawn once without forgetting and create a lock pattern meant it was a structure familiar to the child’s hands or eyes. Since children have habits that don’t change easily, Soeun decided to trust the child’s preferences.

Although it was a method she had tried and failed at before, this time it might succeed.

The child patiently drew 20 pattern shapes. The child preferred round shapes and liked connecting all the dots without leaving any gaps.