# Chapter 110
## Preparations
Lee Hwan shut himself in his apartment after taking time off work. He compiled the photos he had organized over the past few days into a document and detailed the experiments taking place in the underground laboratory.
He recorded all the relevant personnel without omission. He added a note that if this evidence was insufficient, he would hand over some of the drugs as well. There were still some left from what he had randomly taken to prevent Jade from being tracked.
Meanwhile, he had sent several confirmation emails to this journalist group, Praxis. He had slight doubts about whether their contact was genuine, which led to a video call with them not long after.
‘My face… I should probably cover it.’
Wearing the mask Kang Dongha had given him would be like revealing his identity. But he worried that completely covering the camera or angling it away might make the other party distrust him. After all, this was the first face-to-face meeting for both sides.
In the end, Lee Hwan hastily pulled a baseball cap low over his face and sat in front of the camera. He had concealed his face like this when meeting Taesung before too. Judging by how Taesung hadn’t recognized him right away back then, it should be fairly effective.
At the scheduled time, the camera flickered once and the other person’s face filled the screen. Lee Hwan tensely opened his ears. After a brief conversation, he could realize in real-time that his choice had been correct.
Praxis. They were indeed professionals. Everything from the conversation to what needed to be done was easy to understand and clear. The communication went so well that it was hard to believe they were conversing in a foreign language.
—Can you see this logo? It’s one of the random patterns we create in-house, with different configurations for each case to verify each other’s identity.
“Is that a… bird?”
—Yes, a kingfisher and a fish. We will contact you with this logo for anything related to the Naru Group from now on. Please remember it well.
“It’s unique… and nice. I was worried that since the people involved in the experiments are such prominent figures, they might interfere by pretending to be you.”
—We’re veterans here. Having experienced all kinds of interference, we’re quite adept at this, so if you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact us.
His distrust didn’t last long. Seeing the man boldly showing his face and name to reassure him, Lee Hwan finally made his decision.
“Alright, Nick. I’ll trust you and send you the documents about the experiment.”
—Thank you for your courage and trust. We’ll quickly review the content and contact you at this address again either today or tomorrow.
The friendly smiling face that had remained until the end cut off with a blip, like a blown fuse. All that remained now was to prepare for his escape. After packing his belongings and securing a place to hide, he needed to erase every trace of the life he had left behind since the regression.
‘Haah… So this is the end of my comfortable life.’
And so began the thorough cleanup.
There wasn’t much to clear out in the apartment anyway. He left the convenience foods in the cupboard and the clothes filling the wardrobe as they were. Instead, he emptied all the trash.
Packaging from stores he frequented, receipts, delivery labels—anything that might reveal his movements was thoroughly shredded and burned. He reset the tablet PC Kang Dongha had given him and dropped it into the Han River.
Afterward, he compressed some convenience food and clothes to last a few days into a backpack and stored it in a locker at a nearby subway station. This was so he could flee without stopping by his apartment if something happened.
However, he couldn’t bring himself to tear up the family photo. Lee Hwan took it out of the frame, carefully folded it so the faces wouldn’t crease, and placed it in his thick wallet.
He silently wished that there would be a day when he could hang it on the wall again.
Praxis contacted him again in the evening. They said they had found several details about the experiments and drugs in the photos Lee Hwan had hastily taken, and expressed their desire to come to Korea personally to receive the drug he had initially mentioned.
Lee Hwan fidgeted with the brim of his cap for a long time before speaking.
“Well, in about two weeks… I might be hunted as a whistleblower. If you give me a contact number, I’ll call you first on a set date.”
—…It would be best to stay as inconspicuous as possible.
Nick’s face had become serious as he answered. He probably already guessed the danger from the document’s contents, but Lee Hwan’s words made him even more certain of the unfavorable situation.
When the video call ended, Lee Hwan let out a precarious sigh and pulled off his cap. His heart was shaken by a tangled mix of relief, as if he had crossed a major hurdle, and anxiety about what was to come.
Now he just needed to quietly continue his company life for about two weeks, then one day simply disappear without a trace. Since what he was trying to hide was such a big deal, the Health Enhancement Association wouldn’t be able to pursue him too aggressively. At most, they would investigate his whereabouts and detain him on minor criminal charges.
But the moment he was caught, his plan would turn to bubbles, and it would be like receiving a death sentence.
Lee Hwan tried to calm his racing heart and resolved to follow the ordinary daily routine he had maintained so far. To show no anomalies and enjoy his last peace—that was the mission given to him for now.
‘For once, an easy task.’
Lee Hwan smiled bitterly and flung the cap he was holding behind him. The black baseball cap flew through the air and landed perfectly on the edge of the pillow.
To soothe his anxious mind, he counted numbers in his head as he stretched out on the bed. Hoping that this peace would last even one day longer.
* * *
After falling asleep in worry, he woke up to find the sun high in the sky. The day was so nice that the clear sky seemed to make his insides feel open and free.
Forgetting the previous day’s concerns, Lee Hwan left his home late and was enjoying his day off for once. The pleasant clinking of tableware sounded joyful.
Plump sausages glistening with oil, scrambled eggs, and two well-toasted pieces of bread. Food made by others would taste good regardless, but this was a perfect brunch that made his mouth water just from the smell.
When he scooped up a forkful and put it in his mouth, the eggs—neither completely cooked nor too raw—melted softly on his tongue. With each chew, sounds of pleasure escaped involuntarily.
‘Ahh… eating while others are working makes it twice as good.’
It was a plate clearly filled with his favorites, a selective eater’s choice. But thinking of it as a last supper in this temporary peace, Lee Hwan somehow felt everything was extremely elegant and solemn.
Especially since he had slept well for once, even his normally sharp mental state was gradually settling down.
Although it wasn’t the weekend yet, Lee Hwan was sitting in his usual café. Since his normal routine consisted only of lying at home, training on a small mountain, or going to the café, he didn’t have many other choices.
Fortunately, it was the right choice. The café at 11 AM on a weekday was quiet and comfortable without a single person, slowly suppressing the anxiety that had remained at the bottom of his heart.
Just as the peaceful silence was starting to feel a bit boring:
“It’s not even Saturday yet, what brings you here?”
The owner, serving orange juice as a complimentary service, sat down across from him with a timely smile. Lee Hwan hurriedly swallowed his food and wiped his mouth.
“I took some time off because I was sick. Extended it to the weekend.”
“Sick? Where?”
“Uh… just feeling a bit like I’m coming down with a cold.”
After giving this vague excuse, Lee Hwan smoothed his sharpened jawline with his hand, wondering if he still looked like a sick chicken.
“Well, it is getting chilly these days. Maybe it’s because you’re busy with work, but you seem to be getting thinner too, Lee Hwan-ssi.”
The owner spoke to him like a close friend. Lee Hwan hesitated, still not used to such familiarity, then nodded quietly.
After exchanging a few messages using the number on his business card and sharing his name, the owner had started calling Lee Hwan by his name. It seemed to be his way of expressing friendliness.
Of course, Lee Hwan still called him “Owner,” but he didn’t seem to mind at all. In a way, even that was considerate of him.
“Shouldn’t you be eating porridge then?”
“I’ve already had enough porridge to be sick of it. For now, even if I’m sick, I’d rather just eat regular food.”
Lee Hwan smiled as he speared the last piece of sausage with his fork. The recent impact of the green porridge had been quite significant, making him not want to look at anything slimy for a while.
“So I came here to see you too, Owner. If you’re not too busy, we can chat a bit like this.”
He unnecessarily flattered the other to lift his mood. As if he had come to meet a friend while really just coming for a meal.
‘Well, it’s not entirely untrue.’
Walking to the café that morning, Lee Hwan had thought about how he might not be able to see the people around him for a long time.
In that case, wouldn’t it be okay to hang out a little with someone relatively close? Like the café owner whose name he now knew but wasn’t close enough to call casually.
The café owner was like a semi-NPC he met only on weekends, but he was the best among those who initiated conversation with Lee Hwan. The problem was that the other candidates were Kang Dongha or the AI built into his phone…
Even setting that aside, he was a good acquaintance for making small talk about daily life.
Lee Hwan looked at the owner who was smiling back at him with his chin in his hand, chewing the last sausage. He was a good cook, had a relatively smooth face that made him likable, and his manner of speaking was incredibly friendly. It was largely thanks to the other party that Lee Hwan had been able to become friendly despite his tattered mental state after the regression.
So if the situation had been more relaxed, he would have set aside his suspicions and tried to get along well.
‘But now, it’s a bit difficult.’
Separate from easily accepting any kindness, Lee Hwan had always been a bit clumsy at trusting others. This was because the experiences he’d been through hadn’t been smooth at all.
So regardless of whether the owner was kind or not, hardly any of what Lee Hwan had shared so far could be used to identify him. It might have been an overreaction, but he checked and remembered the information that had inadvertently slipped out.
That he wasn’t unemployed, that his boss was acting like a jerk, that he was so busy with something that he only visited the café on weekends. Besides his name and age, that was probably all the personal information Lee Hwan had revealed to the owner.
It was extremely difficult to mingle comfortably with someone while watching his words every moment. Life was already arduous enough, so Lee Hwan didn’t particularly want to go through such trouble.
As a result, although they had somehow ended up in contact and seeing each other weekly, to Lee Hwan, this man was still just the café owner.
‘I wonder… how did I become so close with Kang Taesung before?’
Unlike the owner, Taesung had truly entered Lee Hwan’s life like a meteor impact. Without time to measure, wait, or consider like now—just with a bang. It was less a process of becoming friends and more like being swept up in each other.
