Kim Haewon tilted his head and looked at me. It was an expression that said what kind of bullshit is that.
‘Oh no, shit, fuck. I’m screwed.’
This was serious. The moment that thought came to my head, I was so shocked that I said it out loud. Looking at Kim Haewon’s dumbfounded expression, it was as good as having already heard the answer. That he had no such feelings at all.
It wasn’t all my fault. Because he was suddenly being so nice to me, I unknowingly jumped to conclusions. The problem was I’d gone way too far on my own… No, anyone would have. Hadn’t Kim Haewon been expressing his feelings about me elaborately in the novel I’d seen just before he came?
‘This is all the author’s fault.’
But Haewon couldn’t read that text, and even if I explained it, he wouldn’t be able to fully understand. Still, I couldn’t bear the current atmosphere if I kept my mouth shut. I stuttered and continued with a shabby explanation.
“D-don’t misunderstand and listen. I said I can see things, right? This is from, from there…”
“That I like Guide Park Garam?”
I nodded my head. It would sound like an excuse, but it was true. Kim Haewon tilted his head to the opposite side and looked at me.
“Does Guide Park Garam believe that?”
“O-of course I don’t believe it… I just asked to confirm. And since you were suddenly being nice to me and all. I could get confused too, right?”
Kim Haewon looked at me with an expression that showed he didn’t agree at all. I rolled my lips inward and bit them, then released them and continued speaking.
“S-so I just asked in case! It’s not like I’m, you know, whatever, that kind of thing. You know what I mean?”
“……”
“Just in case, you know that thing. We’re going to be working together for a great cause! And if I misunderstand or something, it’d be a bit awkward!”
The more I spoke, the more shabby it became. Could it be this shabby? I felt like beating up myself from a minute ago. Kim Haewon still just listened to what I was saying without any particular response.
“A-anyway, I understand well even without hearing an answer. Sorry for asking something unnecessary!”
I hurriedly finished speaking as if wrapping up the topic. Kim Haewon still had no reaction. He seemed to be thinking hard about something.
A brief silence flowed. I was thinking about what words I should spit out, and I couldn’t tell what Kim Haewon was thinking. I deliberately started talking about Pamundong.
“You said going into Pamundong is two days away? Wow, the schedule is tight. Other espers and guides will come too, right? We can greet each other while we’re at it. Last time was too hectic…”
“I don’t like Guide Park Garam. In that sense.”
“Ah, well, I know. I said I understood.”
What’s with the confirmation kill. I tried to round out my grumpy tone as I continued speaking.
“Who said they didn’t know! I’m just saying I was confirming!”
“Not yet.”
“Huh?”
“It seems not yet.”
“What does that mean? Are you saying there’s a possibility in the future?”
“That might be the case.”
It was an eye-opening sound. I waved my hand as I continued speaking.
“No, no, no. No, right?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why would Esper Kim Haewon like me?”
“Isn’t that possible?”
“No, no it’s not. It’s not!”
When I strongly denied it, Kim Haewon tilted his head to the opposite side again.
“Do you want me not to like Guide Park Garam?”
I turned my head in the same direction as Kim Haewon and continued speaking.
“No, if you say it like that, it’s too extreme. That’s not it.”
“Then isn’t it fine?”
“What’s fine?!”
“To just watch things as they are. I said I don’t like you now. Don’t misunderstand.”
The atmosphere became strange. First, Kim Haewon doesn’t like me. But he doesn’t not like me either. He thinks there’s a possibility he might like me in the future. But not now, so I shouldn’t misunderstand.
‘This is such strange logic that doesn’t make any sense!’
I decided to just understand it literally and nodded my head. Kim Haewon doesn’t like me. So all those descriptions in that novel are exaggerations. But he doesn’t dislike me as much as I thought, and that’s the kind of feeling that could exist between colleagues. I went through a series of processes to reach a firm answer in my heart. Then I nodded and continued speaking with confidence.
“So in conclusion, you don’t like me, but you see me as a person who’s somewhat decent. Thank you. Thanks!”
“Does it work out that way?”
“It works out that way!”
I continued speaking as if performing an awkward play. Kim Haewon seemed not to understand, but nodded as if to say if I wanted to dismiss it like that, go ahead.
“You just need to know that I don’t dislike you.”
Why would he say such things? I avoided his gaze. Then I answered very briefly.
“Yes.”
The fact that Kim Haewon didn’t dislike me was something new. Until recently, I’d thought I was the icon of distrust to him. Did he deliberately say that to let me know it was a misunderstanding? I sneakily glanced at Kim Haewon.
Kim Haewon, as if he thought he’d finished everything he had to say, said he’d brief me first about Pamundong on his tablet PC. Even though it was trivial, it felt like unnecessary kindness. I kept glancing at him. He searched for and showed me Pamundong on the tablet PC with a calm expression.
“Pamundong looks like this. We’re planning to go exactly this way. Thanks to the flight path Wuxin had set, we could easily find the secret location.”
“Yes. But would the Chinese government not know this location?”
“It will be difficult. Even the Pamundong executives are keeping their mouths shut about this part. Unless there’s a spy on our side, the Chinese government won’t know.”
“We should hope so.”
“According to my informants, the Chinese government initially searched Pamundong, but it appears they couldn’t find Suo Weiqian’s secret location.”
Kim Haewon’s intelligence would be more accurate than anything else. I wondered what was in Pamundong’s secret base, and worried whether the Alliance Leader had already made a move. It would be good if the novel was uploaded before that. Continuing my worries, I carefully brought up the topic of the novel to Kim Haewon.
“You know that novel and dream that only I can see.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t actually believe it, right?”
“You might feel bad, but I’ll be honest. After returning from China, I thoroughly looked into Guide Park Garam’s surroundings on my own. But I couldn’t find any contact with the outside.”
“……”
I knew Kim Haewon would investigate me. I would have done the same. But I didn’t think he’d tell me this fact so directly.
I didn’t feel great about it, but it seemed better than continuing not to know. Above all, hadn’t he told me first before I found out?
During the conversation, I seemed to be becoming gradually more lenient toward Kim Haewon. To the extent that I wondered if a person’s mood should change so easily like flipping the palm of a hand. But hadn’t I felt hurt in the first place because of a momentary conversation? Perhaps it was too natural a reaction. I decided not to think too strangely about it. Kim Haewon continued speaking.
“I didn’t investigate because I didn’t believe. I needed final confirmation.”
Kim Haewon seemed worried that I might misunderstand his caution. I spoke coolly.
“Anyway, so you came to believe me because of that?”
“Yes, I decided to believe.”
It must have been a big decision for Kim Haewon. He was someone with many old-fashioned aspects. Rather than making an effort to accept things that didn’t fit his standards as his own, he’d cleanly refuse and bear the resulting damage. He also had quite a temper, so if you touched him wrong, you could see blood.
Such a person spent days investigating to gain final confirmation, and ultimately decided to believe me—it was somewhat moving.
‘Today he’s making me a bit emotional.’
Perhaps because there were many parts I’d been disappointed about, I was moved even by small parts. And I was able to tell the stories I knew with less hesitation.
“In that novel, there was talk about MK. The person who injected drugs with a syringe to control Esper Ryu Heegang was Alexa Lu from MK.”
“…!”
“It was also in the novel that Esper Kim Haewon found out MK was involved through informants and spoke about it at the SS-class esper meeting.”
Kim Haewon seemed quite surprised. Apparently the content of that novel matched reality precisely.
“That information is quite accurate to be a dream or fantasy.”
“There are many wrong parts too.”
“What parts?”
“Just… parts I can’t say.”
I made vague excuses. I couldn’t say with my own mouth, ‘Like the parts where Esper Kim Haewon thinks about me, all those damn BL maniac parts are wrong.’
“What exactly is MK as a company?”
“Even though Alexa Lu’s name came up, you don’t know where that place is?”
“I only know it’s in San Francisco.”
“They’re a gang. Originally they were drug dealers who traded drugs with mafias. They were nothing special. At some point, they gradually grew in size, then changed their posture to their current business form and firmly established themselves.”
“What business does the organization focus on now? What does MK mean?”
“Murderous K. Shortened to MK, it’s a contract killing organization.”
It was unexpected since I thought it would be a company related to medical products. Then where did that drug come from? Did the Alliance Leader send it? All four organizations are places involved in crime, war, and murder. How did they come to know the method of opening gates? I bit my lip in curiosity and asked.
“What does K stand for?”
“It comes from Koral, the name of the organization’s founder. After that, all the bosses use the name K.”
Haewon hesitated slightly and continued.
“There’s talk that this K was involved in Akutagawa Yu’s naturalization.”
It was information he hadn’t told anyone. I opened my eyes wide in surprise at the name Akutagawa Yu.
