Chapter 158.2

Chapter 158.2

Wooshin noticed the bullet hole in the priest’s robes and immediately crushed down on his shoulder like a vise. He followed up with several brutal kicks to the lower ribs, forcing Kia to cough violently.

Most people would crumple like a fetus when hit in such vulnerable spots, but Kia endured the pain as if it were nothing. Wooshin gritted his teeth at the infuriating display.

“Did you really think you’d walk away clean after being caught red-handed?”

He pulled out a pen knife, stabbed it into Kia’s shoulder, and twisted his arm.

“Still not done?”

Kia grinned, his teeth stained red. At a glance, it looked like he was yawning in the face of Wooshin’s threat, but Seoryeong instantly grasped the underlying meaning.

“Still haven’t found Kim Hyun, huh?” She hesitated, lowering the gun she had taken from Joo Seolheon.

“I’m not the bad guy here,” Kia slurred, pinned against the wall. “I just did what the deputy chief asked.”

“….”

“What’s wrong with keeping a promise? I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Seoryeong stared down at the two bodies sprawled lifelessly on the floor. Her gaze was detached, as if observing strangers, yet she couldn’t tear her eyes away.

One man, mutilated beyond recognition, and an NIS executive, stealing another’s face, now embracing a criminal. It was a disgrace to honor itself.

Yet, as if entranced, she knelt and closed Joo Seolheon’s eyes. At the same time, she roughly tore off the woman’s overhead mask.

For a moment, she stared at Seolheon’s real face, strangely peaceful, before coldly looking away.

“Instructor, that’s enough. Let’s go. Now.”

Seoryeong crumpled the stolen face mask like clay, urgency in her voice. The thought of leaving even a trace of herself at this scene made her skin crawl.

She hesitated over what to do with Seolheon’s gun before finally tucking it into her waistband. There was no time to wipe fingerprints, every second counted.

Just then, the door burst open. Men in black suits flooded in, surrounding the scene.

“——!”

She couldn’t tell who they were, but the moment they locked eyes with her, they seized her without hesitation and began dragging her out.

“Are you Han Seoryeong?”

“Let go!”

But her arms, held in an iron grip, didn’t budge.

“An arrest warrant has been issued for Blast Security’s special ops team, including CEO Kang Taegon. Charges range from violations of the National Security Act to bribery, illegal lobbying, and international law breaches, dozens of counts. You’ve worked for drug cartels, Russia, and other dictatorships, haven’t you?”

“….”

“We’ll clean up the scene from here. Don’t get caught by the prosecution, get out before the police swarm the place. That was the deputy chief’s last order.”

The words barely registered.

She turned to Wooshin and saw he was in the same situation; men pulling him away while speaking rapidly, their politeness barely masking urgency. His expression hardened as he glanced back at Joo Seolheon’s body one last time.

Seoryeong stood frozen, still reeling, but Wooshin, who had regained his composure first, strode over, his brow deeply furrowed.

“You heard her, so get your f*cking hands off.”

He knocked away the men’s grasping hands and pulled Seoryeong into his arms. She let him lead her out, but her gaze kept drifting back, first to Rigay, then to Joo Seolheon…, and then–

A well-trained group swarmed Kia, pinning him down as if binding a criminal. Even with his face pressed into the floor, Kia kept laughing, soft and mocking.

This wasn’t a desperate fight for survival like the old days, but the sight of him acting so familiar, so unbothered, suddenly made her sick.

‘How old are you now, and you’re still letting yourself get dragged around like this? ‘

Watching Kia restrained, arms twisted behind his back by agents, her stomach twisted for reasons she couldn’t explain.

Unconsciously, she pursed her lips and let out a sharp whistle.

If it was Kia, he’d recognize it. He had to. They’d communicated like this hundreds, thousands of times; avoiding bears, leaping out of windows, spinning into each other’s arms with signals only they knew.

Sure enough, his dazed eyes snapped toward her. His stiff expression melted, as if catching the scent of Sonya, and for a brief moment, his eyes glistened.

A single tear fell.

‘Run. And follow me.’

That’s what the whistle meant.