# Chapter 112
Time seemed to crawl yet rush forward, and his heart felt both urgent and languid.
D-7. The roughly planned date was now just around the corner. Whether it being a Monday was a good thing or not was impossible to judge.
Lee Hwan looked around his hastily cleaned apartment before heading to work earlier than usual. Perhaps because he had turned everything upside down, staying there longer didn’t feel comfortable anyway.
Come to think of it, he wasn’t planning to go to work for a while, and given that he was going against Naru, he likely wouldn’t be able to return at all. Normally, he should have submitted his resignation a month ago… but since he was only given two weeks to begin with, that would have been impossible even if he could turn back time.
‘Should I make up a story about emergency surgery?’
Eventually, before even entering the office, Lee Hwan, with a troubled mind, locked himself in the bathroom. The office would be sparsely populated anyway—some colleagues had field schedules and the rest wouldn’t be in yet due to the early hour—but he felt awkward about staying there.
Just ten minutes to sort out his thoughts. With that in mind, he sat in the stall, contemplating what was about to happen, feeling utterly pathetic.
He grabbed a few strands of hair and pulled them taut, causing one to snap and fall onto his pants. The hair that until recently seemed ready to split and break was slowly regaining its natural color.
Lee Hwan smoothed his glossy brown hair, making a soft rustling sound, and suddenly stopped, enjoying the warmth against his head. For the first time since childhood, he wished someone would hug him. It seemed his heart was growing weak before the big task ahead.
Just then, he sensed movement from a distance, and someone entered the bathroom. The sound of running water from the sink began, and amid that noise, another presence joined in.
For no particular reason, he held his breath and pretended not to be there.
“What the… I’ve never seen the copier spurt ink like that before.”
“I know, right? It definitely said it was out of ink when it stopped… You haven’t thrown away your clothes, have you?”
“Ah, fortunately it only got on my hands, but this… it won’t come off.”
From their conversation, it seemed the copier had broken down. For a moment, only the sounds of running water and clothes being rubbed filled the bathroom. Then their conversation continued, and Lee Hwan unintentionally found himself eavesdropping.
“I wonder why it suddenly broke down…”
“It’s going haywire. Everything in the office is broken—machines and people alike…”
“Hahaha…”
“Why laugh? Among the people, there’s one who’s completely lost it.”
“You mean Joo-ssi?”
‘…?’
Lee Hwan’s eyebrows twitched at the sudden mention of his surname. Are they talking about me? They were just discussing the copier, so why did the topic suddenly shift this way?
He wondered if they often had such conversations or if this was just a smooth drift into gossip. He felt slightly offended at being called “broken,” but since his work life was already a mess, it didn’t shake him much.
However.
“I seriously thought he was someone’s illegitimate child at first.”
“I thought he had some kind of connection too. I’ve never seen anyone work at a company like that.”
“From what I found out, he doesn’t seem to be illegitimate… but he must have connections somewhere. What kind of new employee gets calls from the executive office saying he can’t come in because he’s sick?”
“True, if it were me, unless my limbs were severed, I’d have called directly to apologize and taken half the day off. I would’ve shown up in the afternoon working like a zombie.”
“Must be nice, having such a sweet life. Getting into Naru without being anyone’s son and living however he wants… there must be something else going on.”
“Come on, surely not.”
“You never know. He looks exactly like some kind of kept boy. Trading on his looks. Even if he seems to have connections, how can he get away with living like that without anyone saying anything to him?”
Such blatant fabrication made Lee Hwan’s blood boil.
‘Why are they getting worse and worse…’
It felt as if they somehow knew he was about to leave, and the daily life he had barely maintained was collapsing step by step. Lee Hwan barely suppressed a sigh, swallowing his anger as he stared into empty space.
He suddenly realized what he was doing, sitting on a toilet.
Lee Hwan was well aware of what was being said behind his back. But hearing it so directly for the first time was somewhat shocking.
It was true that he enjoyed the luxury of regular working hours that none of his colleagues practiced. He also rarely initiated conversation unless approached first. He had long given up trying to correct people’s misconceptions.
But he had never caused professional harm or been a nuisance. Rather, he was like a quiet worker who neatly completed tasks he had never been taught and sometimes single-handedly took care of shared responsibilities.
He could understand being called strange, but this kind of insult was a bit much.
‘Without even knowing me properly…’
The voices weren’t familiar. They were probably from a different team. At least Support Team 3 hadn’t particularly ostracized him or given him malicious looks, out of some kind of camaraderie.
But they too must have known about these rumors. Some might have dismissed them as nonsense, but others likely found them plausible. Even if they didn’t say so.
‘Well, they’re not important people anyway.’
Lee Hwan muttered like a fox turning away from sour grapes. Even being generous, the six months after his regression hadn’t been a life for himself. It had just been a desperate struggle. To save the world. To get Taesung back. So it was okay to be misunderstood like this.
He planned to say his final goodbyes to Naru on Friday afternoon, and in two days he would be leaving for the gate on field duty, so he only needed to endure these unpleasant people for exactly three more days.
When it was all over, he’d become unemployed for a while and wreak havoc on Kang Taesung’s finances. Lee Hwan inwardly giggled thinking about Taesung, who would have to be his footrest for a while due to his guilt.
“By the way, Team 3 is pitiful too. I heard all new employees get sent there, so the atmosphere is already unsettled, but who would’ve thought such a weird person would join them.”
“Why, someone says they come to work just to see his face. Tell them to endure by watching him like a houseplant. Ah, this won’t come off even with soap. Let’s just go, go.”
The sound of water abruptly stopped, and footsteps faded away as the presence gradually disappeared. Lee Hwan pouted as he touched his face and quietly exited the stall.
‘Endure my ass. I’ll be the first to leave, you bastards.’
What do they mean, watching like a houseplant? I bet I could do any job better than you all. Lee Hwan rolled curses in his mouth as he left the bathroom.
Whether he announced it now or three days later, suddenly quitting would be equally abrupt. So he decided to inform them about his resignation after returning from the gate. He didn’t want to feel out of place in that dim space.
* * *
As each day approached the deadline for his escape, Lee Hwan oddly felt as if the day of the final battle was drawing near.
The truly important thing wasn’t the escape itself but delivering the data and the drug.
As time passed, on the night before his last field duty, Lee Hwan received a number from Praxis. The set date was the D-day he had mentally fixed. He had actually wanted an earlier meeting, but was told that preparation was needed to transport the drug abroad, and this was the best they could do.
After finishing the video call, Lee Hwan stretched out on the bed and carefully thought about what had happened yesterday.
‘Jade… he looked really pissed off.’
He finally told him what was about to happen. Vaguely, something like Naru would notice the anomaly within a week and start investigating.
That day, Lee Hwan thought he heard “I told you so” at least five times. I told you not to go there, I told you not to take the drug without a plan, I told you to put it back earlier…
Then, perhaps realizing they weren’t close enough for such casual scolding, Jade fell silent for a moment. Though they hadn’t known each other long, most of their meetings had been in silence, so Lee Hwan didn’t find the quiet particularly awkward.
So Lee Hwan, despite Jade’s drooping eyebrows, tactlessly asked if Kang Taesung was doing well. He said he’d heard news when moving around, but it had been too quiet lately and that made him anxious.
Then Jade’s temple vein bulged as he gritted his teeth and rolled his eyes, pretending not to notice.
‘I don’t know either, that guy. What the hell is he doing, not answering a single call…!’
It was the first time Lee Hwan had seen Jade so agitated, making him wonder if he’d touched a nerve. The man who seemed like he would calmly retaliate even after being hit with a wrench suddenly scrunched up his face.
But as soon as he saw Lee Hwan nibbling on his lips, Jade stopped cursing and calmed his anger. After a brief silence, he too gradually began to share a story he had been keeping.
‘Actually, I told Kang Taesung about the drug. I thought he should know what you’ve been meddling with. And I thought it might stop him from going too far…’
‘…And?’
‘He seems to think you’ll get caught with 100% certainty. He disappeared saying he would delete the CCTV records and hasn’t shown up yet.’
‘What? Why would he delete those records?’
Taesung going to erase the underground CCTV footage was something he never imagined.
‘That’s what I said. Well, recently he’s always disappeared briefly and reappeared a few days later, but…’
‘You mean he’s not coming back this time?’
‘He’s not even answering his phone. At least before, he would pretend to answer once every few calls, however half-heartedly.’
Jade said it might just be another one of Taesung’s whims, or maybe something had upset him, but Lee Hwan couldn’t quite believe it.
Of course, Taesung must be doing it to save Jade, but still—the fact that he went to do something dangerous to help him. And then didn’t return. A needless anxiety filled Lee Hwan’s chest in lumps.
Their last meeting had been during that disaster. Until then, his tone and voice had seemed to have a frosty edge. Lee Hwan felt an anxious anticipation, wondering what wind had blown to make him suddenly want to help.
Suddenly, he remembered that arrogant corner of Taesung’s mouth slightly smiling while ordering him dessert at the cafe. And also that warmth when he saved him and sent him to the shore during the disaster.
Lee Hwan forced down his heart, which had started pounding without grasping the situation, and tried to focus on what Jade was saying.
‘I don’t think anything has happened to him… but we should always assume the worst.’
‘By worst, you mean the research wing discovering that Kang Taesung tampered with the CCTV, and them suspecting us and doing something… Is that what you’re saying?’
‘You. Have you ever been hunted by people?’
His eyes sparkled as if Lee Hwan had guessed correctly, and a question tinged with a bit of sympathy immediately followed. It was a very sudden and ominous question.
