Myo answered the phone without checking who the caller was. She raised her voice in annoyance, swearing, “I told you I’m done talking about this case, damned bugger…”
- Choi Mi-Na. It’s me.
“Uh?” Myo quickly lowered her voice. It had been a while since she heard this person’s voice over the phone, but she clearly recognized who he was. “Choi Ji-Ho?”
- I certainly am happy to hear your voice and learn that you still have no manners.
“Kekeke, why? Want to be called oppa?”
- I refuse. Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps.
“Good choice.”
Myo, better known as Choi Mi-Na, smiled and made herself comfortable on a pillar above Banpo Bridge.
- Your relationship with the Special Police Force’s leader seemed to be the same as before.
“It’s none of your business. Just because you initially helped doesn’t mean you deserve to meddle. You know that, right?
- Mi-Na. It’s not that I don’t know how much you hate villains, but…
“Why do all men act the same? I’ll hang up if you’re going to nag. Tell me the main point in three seconds. Three...”
- I’m thinking of using one of the three wishes.
“Glad to hear that. Go ahead and tell me.”
As Mi-Na calmly continued the call with Ji-Ho, she gradually frowned. After ending the short call, she hit the head of Yevgeny's corpse again and sighed.
‘My gosh, so he wants me to be the nanny for that ninth brat, the troublemaker?’
She already felt dizzy thinking about it; she felt like throwing up.
***
Yu-Seong made an appointment with Kim Do-Jin for late afternoon the next day. Around noon, Jin Yu-Ri headed to the dungeon to train and further develop her skills. Even though she had hurriedly made a schedule, any hunter with an ability like hers was welcomed in any party or attacker team.
Yu-Ri was going to leave the house first. Before she left, she gave Yu-Seong the contact information of the so-called ‘Jenny’ that she had mentioned when they had been trapped in the room of sacrifice. “When I’m away, feel free to contact her if you need anything. She’s a smart kid, so she’ll do a good job for a lot of things, oppa.”
“Isn’t she your friend who you tried to keep in secret?”
“Yu-Seong oppa, that’s when you liked to flirt with girls too much. Jenny is quite a beauty, you know.”
“How about now? I still don’t hate women.”
“But it’s not like you’re flirting with anyone. And, you’re clever enough,” said Yu-Ri with a smile.
Yu-Seong shrugged his shoulders. Yu-Ri was speaking rather indirectly, but it was obvious why she finally gave Yu-Seong Jenny’s contact information.
‘It’s because I can be trusted now.’
A secret organization was a secret for a reason. It should be as untraceable as possible even to those who had a large influence, such as Woo-Jae. To do so, the fewer people who were aware of them the better. Also, they should not reveal a secret organization’s information to foolish people who could easily expose them.
If it was the original Yu-Seong, there was a high probability that he would have quietly bragged to even a bar woman that he even knew about a plausible secret organization. It would have soon become a secret that everyone knew about. Wasn’t this a common story?
Yu-Ri didn’t want to easily reveal the card in her sleeve. Also, as mentioned, now that she believed in Yu-Seong, she could inform him of their existence. He felt proud and happy that he now had one more secret weapon for himself.
In the afternoon, Yu-Seong headed to the meeting place–Itaewon–with Do-Yoon as an escort and driver. He thought it wouldn’t take too long because it was close to home in Hannam-dong. However, when they got closer to the downtown area, there was so much traffic that he thought it would take longer than expected.
Yu-Seong took out his phone and texted Kim Do-Jin that he would be a little late. Then, he spoke to Do-Yoon. “It would be faster to just walk from here.”
“…I forgot that it was a busy weekend,” replied Do-Yoon as he grabbed the steering wheel with a stumped look.
“Well, that’s not your fault. I didn’t know today was Saturday either.”
After losing track of time for a while, Yu-Seong did not even realize the day of the week. He looked at Itaewon street, which was full of green and red decorations, with a strange gaze and smiled. He commented, “Come to think of it, it’s Christmas soon.”
“This year is coming to an end. Time seems to go pretty fast. There’s been a lot of things recently…”
“It’s going to be even busier in the future. By the way, don’t you want to date someone?”
“I don’t think I am qualified yet, young master.” Do-Yoon’s face stiffened at the rather insignificant question. He grabbed the wheel tightly. This was because the fight with Baek Cheol from a few days ago had come to his mind.
‘…I think I have just uselessly woken up a sleeping wolf. Do-Yoon is the type of person who’s too serious about certain things.’
In fact, it was the same for Yu-Seong, who had no intention of dating himself, so it felt like he had been swept off by the word ‘Christmas’ and had asked a useless question.
“Too much is as bad as too little. There’s nothing to worry that much about all the time.”
“I will take your words to heart.”
Do-Yoon’s personal thoughts couldn’t be discerned from his face, but he gave Yu-Seong a good answer. That did not mean he could be persuaded by long talk, so Yu-Seong decided to shut up. Just in time, a text notification came on his phone.
- You are already 5 minutes late. Are you kidding me?
- I’m not kidding, there's really a lot of traffic.
- …I’ll head over there. Where are you at?
Yu-Seong closed the messenger window on his phone and looked at Do-Yoon. “I can’t wait anymore. Just drop me off on the side at the red light.”
“Are you going alone?”
“We're downtown in the evening. It’ll be hard to cause trouble in this kind of place unless they are certainly crazy. Perhaps I’m sure the Special Police Force is also dispatched there just in case.”
It was common for the Special Police Force–the hunters in charge of Villains–to be on standby in downtown areas, hiding their identity in case of sudden events or acts of terrorism.
“I understand, young master.”
There were many talented people in the Special Police Force. And in fact, it was quite rare for big incidents and accidents to take place in these downtown areas.
‘I’ve now decided not to let my guard down, but…’
It did not mean that Yu-Seong was going to hold his breath without doing anything, as if he were scared. If he ever had that mindset, he would not be able to hunt dungeons. The important thing was to be always aware of the fact that accidents could occur and to be fully insured.
Before getting out of the car, Yu-Seong checked the location tracker that was attached to the pocket inside his coat and it was working properly. He nodded. “My location will be sent on a real-time basis anyway, so come to me after you park the car.”
“Yes, sir.” Do-Yoon stopped the car on the side road, dropped off Yu-Seong, and then left.
It had been a while since Yu-Seong went out onto the street alone, and was in a somewhat strange mood.
‘Now that I think about it, I was always with Jin Yu-Ri and Jin Do-Yoon.’
How long had it been since they had been so far apart from him like this? It felt awkward, but Yu-Seong wasn’t afraid.
‘At least, I am in Itaewon.’
He had many safeguards in place, but there was one thing that would assuredly keep him secure.
‘There is the lounge bar that Choi Mi-Na uses as a hiding place.’
It was a simple reason why the second daughter of the Comet Group–also famously known as a monster–was hiding in Itaewon.
‘Because she belongs to the Special Police Force and she hates Villains.’
At this point, she seemed to have a terrifying personality which no one could stop. However, she also had her own pain.
It happened when Mi-Na was about 5 years old.
Villains invaded the mansion where Mi-Na and her mother lived together after they had moved out of Choi Woo-Jae’s place. As Choi Woo-Jae was abroad at the time, he had no time to deal with it. Thus, it was an incident that resulted in many victims.
Above all, the memory that remained intensely in Mi-Na’s mind was the death of her mother. She had died while Mi-Na could only watch while hiding in a secret space behind the closet Mi-Na hadn’t even been able to burst into tears and could only crouch down holding her breath. At that point, she had been too young, weak, and miserable. It was a rather natural step for her to join the Special Police Force.
Surprisingly, Choi Woo-Jae did not know that Mi-Na was currently in the Special Police Force. If he had known, he would have strongly opposed it, saying not to do useless things. And no matter how famous Mi-Na was for doing whatever she wanted in the whole family, she would not be able to completely go against Woo-Jae’s will.
In fact, this was Choi Mi-Na’s position or perspective: She wanted to catch Villains, but they were so clever and vicious that it was too much to pursue without any information. However, if she ran a private organization that could deal with such information, it would certainly be seen by Choi Woo-Jae. Therefore, Mi-Na joined the Special Police Force.
The identity and affiliation of each individual within the Special Police Force were known only to one person in the country – the Leader of the Special Police Force. The information of members in the Special Police Force was strictly abided by the principle of confidentiality even to the chairman of the Korea Player Association just in case.
The strange thing was why the Leader of the Special Police Force accepted Choi Mi-Na. Even though it was clear that if Choi Woo-Jae found out about this, the risk of the Leader of the Special Police Force would be severe.
As always, there was no detailed description of this setting in the original novel.
‘Choi Mi-Na is the last resort anyway.’
Fortunately, Yu-Seong was not very curious about what the truth would be. In fact, it was better not to bump into her. Mi-Na hated evils, and so she disliked Yu-Seong who usually used to act like a rascal. He did not expect that her thoughts would have now changed much from then.
`Rather, it’s a relief if she doesn’t think I’m worse because she thinks I’m just acting for my reputation.’
Anyway, the last resort was Choi Mi-Na. Just in case the future has changed, last night he also investigated the lounge bar run by Mi-Na which appeared in the original novel.
‘Fortunately, nothing has changed here.’
Both the lounge bar and Mi-Na were still in Itaewon. No matter how much she hated Yu-Seong, she would not let him die when a dangerous situation came. That was the reason why he dared to choose Itaewon as the place to meet Do-Jin.
‘By now, Ji-Ho hyung-nim would have asked her about that. Oh, come to think of it, how related would the Special Police Force be with hyung-nim?’
His thoughts wandered here and there as he walked on the street. No one recognized Yu-Seong because he deliberately wore a hat, glasses without lenses, and even a mask to hide his appearance.
‘I feel like I am a famous celebrity for some reason.’
In fact, almost everyone knew about Yu-Seong in Korea–this world–so he could be called a famous celebrity.
‘I indeed have the skill of an attention seeker, but I don’t need to draw useless attention for a day like this.’
The important thing was the conversation with Kim Do-Jin. Yu-Seong thought Kim Do-Jin was probably thinking the same thing. His thoughts continued on until he faced Do-Jin who grandly appeared on the other side of the crosswalk with a huge crowd behind him.
‘That crazy guy. He's quite an attention seeker as well if you get to know him.’
Come to think of it, Do-Jin never hid his appearance when heading somewhere even in the original novel. Thanks to this, there were always accidents and incidents regarding him, but he did not care at all. Rather, he just used all of those things as a stepladder for his growth.
‘If it’s like this, isn’t it meaningless for me to cover my face?’
Would Do-Jin recognize him in this state? Yu-Seong continued thinking about it, because he felt it was rather burdensome to approach and talk to Do-Jin.