ITBF 01

CHAPTER 01

An Emergency Meeting at the National Intelligence Service

“We have determined that Kim Hyun-chul is currently hiding out on ‘Haesam Island’ off the southern coast.”

The information was that an industrial spy who had leaked a prototype sample of a next-generation all-solid-state battery—one that could mark a major milestone in the development of South Korea—had hidden himself on a small outlying island off the southern coast.

“Even the people on the main island barely know the name Haesam Island. He certainly went to a lot of trouble to find a place like that to hide.”

Tae-joo crossed his legs and idly wiggled the tip of his foot before pointing with his chin toward the screen displaying the PowerPoint presentation.

“Are you sure it’s Kim Hyun-chul? You can’t see his face clearly.”

At Tae-joo’s words, the subordinate moved to the next slide.

A picture appeared of Kim Hyun-chul, wearing horn-rimmed glasses, drinking makgeolli with someone who appeared to be a villager. He was dressed in a sleeveless undershirt and loose traditional trousers.

“For a traitor to his country, he sure seems to have a talent for getting along with people—wait.”

Tae-joo’s eyes, which had been mocking the criminal, widened to an unbelievable degree.

As though unable to believe what he was seeing, Tae-joo shook his head repeatedly and rose from his seat.

Then he slowly walked toward the briefing desk.

He gestured for his subordinate to step aside and tapped on the laptop screen.

The more he zoomed in, the more the face of a young woman standing behind Kim Hyun-chul, holding a bundle of weeds she had pulled from the ground, filled the screen.

At first glance, she looked no older than a college student.

Despite her youthful and adorable appearance, the girl wore an extremely sorrowful expression.

“Team… leader? Do you… know her?”

Tae-joo did not hear the worried voice of the youngest employee.

His attention was focused solely on the woman on the laptop screen, and his eyes began to redden.

Before long, with trembling fingers, he slowly traced the outline of the woman’s face on the screen.

“I found you. My baby sister…”

It had been twelve years since his youngest sister had been kidnapped.

Haesam Island

“Hey! Balbali!”

At Sang-hyuk’s call, Hae-som, who had been picking chili peppers in the vegetable garden, flinched.

It was Park Sang-hyuk, the man from next door who had tormented her terribly since she was little.

Like Pavlov’s dog, merely hearing his voice was enough to make her body shrink instinctively.

“Are your ears plugged? Get your ass over here, you mutt!”

Hae-som let out a small sigh and tossed the peppers onto the ground.

Then, despite her reluctance, she obediently walked toward Sang-hyuk, who was sitting on the wooden veranda.

That bastard always comes around and acts like he owns the place whenever Mom isn’t here.

Hae-som frowned irritably, but then she remembered her mother, who went to the main island for a few days once every two or three months.

Mom should be back around dinner time.

Today is July 11. My birthday.

Right. Relax your expression. Don’t get into a fight with that bastard for no reason.

As she thought of her mother and tried to calm herself, Hae-som sighed and quickened her pace.

When she reached the veranda, Sang-hyuk pressed a back-scratcher against her stomach and poked her repeatedly.

“What’s with you? Did you just sigh? And what’s with that disrespectful look?”

“No.”

“‘No’? You’re talking casually to me? You little—”

“You told me to talk casually before. You said you didn’t like hearing me speak formally.”

“Are you going crazy because the dog days are approaching? Why are you barking and making such a damn fuss?”

Hae-som forcibly swallowed the suffocating breath rising from her chest.

Endure it. This too shall pass.

How much delicious food and how many pretty clothes will Mom bring me when she comes?

Just endure it. Endure.

With that resolve, she silently repeated her own name once again.

Yoon Hae-som, born July 11.

Ever since she had arrived on this island, she had repeated those words to herself several times a day so that she would never forget them.

She also repeated the names of her real parents and their home address.

Unfortunately, she had eventually forgotten the address of the house where she had lived as a child.

The one thing she was fortunate enough to remember was the names of her older brothers, whose biological parents had incorporated the syllables of “Taegeukgi,” the Korean flag, into their names.

‘Tae’-joo, ‘Geuk’-joo, ‘Gi’-joo.

Ha… But what good does that do? I can remember their three-syllable names, but their faces have already become hazy.

Was she ten when it happened?

Or nine?

“Sweetie, shall we go to Mommy’s house?”

That was how long ago it had been since Gyeong-hae, the owner of this house and the woman Hae-som now called “Mom,” had taken her away.

It was not until Hae-som was eighteen, old enough to have a fairly mature mind, that she seriously began thinking that she had to escape from the island.

She had become terrified that she would forget the faces of her mother, father, and older brothers, and she tried desperately to escape somehow.

But every time, she worried about Gyeong-hae.

Besides, the island where she was trapped was a tiny outlying island located far from the main island.

Even if all the villagers were counted together, there were only three households: the village chief and his wife, Sang-hyuk’s family, and an elderly couple in their eighties.

None of them seemed to have any particular connections to the mainland, and except on market days, hardly anyone ever came and went from the island, making escape difficult.

In other words, boats hardly ever came there.

Very occasionally, employees from the marine national park or electrical construction workers would visit to measure environmental indicators or deal with problems with the power supply, but whenever they did, Gyeong-hae locked Hae-som inside the house.

Even on this tiny island, Gyeong-hae was known as a crazy woman, so the villagers never told outsiders about Hae-som’s existence.

That did not mean Hae-som had immediately realized that she had been inhumanely kidnapped by Gyeong-hae.

It was only after some time had passed that she came to understand that she had been kidnapped to this island.

On the day she was kidnapped, an unfamiliar middle-aged woman approached her on her way home from school, claiming to be a friend of her mother.

Naturally, Hae-som was suspicious at first. But the woman knew her parents’ names and even the hospital where both of them worked. She had also shown Hae-som photographs of herself with them.

At the time, with that much evidence being presented to her, it was actually difficult not to believe the woman.

Above all—

“I have a daughter about your age, too. Would you like to be friends with my daughter?”

“……”

“My daughter is sick and can’t go outside. Would my good little girl come with me and play with her?”

Hae-som had been a sheltered, precious little girl who had known nothing but love all her life. Hearing about a sick child tugged at her heartstrings.

But after following the woman a long way, there was no child waiting there.

There were only a few pieces of a little girl’s clothing and some toys.

Whenever Hae-som fiddled with them and the woman burst into tears, she would hold the woman’s hand.

Whenever the woman thanked her, Hae-som felt sorry for her.

The woman—Gyeong-hae—treated Hae-som very well.

So well that Hae-som could never quite shake the feeling of pity she had for her.

Gyeong-hae’s gaze toward her was so affectionate and gentle that Hae-som sometimes genuinely felt as though she were her mother.

“Sweetie. You’re awake?”

At some point, Gyeong-hae began calling her daughter.

Hae-som initially thought it was simply because they had grown close.

But Gyeong-hae truly regarded her as her daughter.

Hae-som did not dislike Gyeong-hae’s kindness, but she missed her own mother, father, and brothers.

So whenever she cried and begged to go home, Gyeong-hae would suddenly change her expression and reach for a switch.

There were also times when Hae-som desperately ran toward the shore in an attempt to escape, only to be caught by Gyeong-hae and severely scolded.

And back then, Hae-som had been too young.

Whenever Gyeong-hae apologized and gave her delicious snacks afterward, Hae-som simply forgave her.

Thus, she gradually became accustomed to life on the tiny island where Gyeong-hae’s daughter did not exist and Hae-som was the only person by her side.

As she grew older, she began to sense that something was terribly wrong.

Then, one day, when she made a serious attempt to escape the island, she was discovered and caught by Sang-hyuk, who was old enough to be her uncle, and dragged back.

“You’re going to be my wife once you become an adult! Where do you think you’re going?”

It was Gyeong-hae who saved her then.

“If you lay even a finger on my daughter, I’ll cut your damn belly open, you bastard! Understand?!”

After that day, Gyeong-hae took even greater care of Hae-som and kept her hidden.

“Sweetie. Don’t abandon Mommy. You’re all Mommy has… sob…”

Every day, she told Hae-som that she loved her.

“You only think about yourself! You ungrateful brat! Do you really think you can live without your mother?”

Of course, there were also many times when she suddenly changed.

And so, twelve years passed.

Because she had lived under Gyeong-hae’s constant manipulation for so long, Hae-som gradually became numb and helpless about living on the island.

There was no school on the island, and Gyeong-hae refused to send her to the main island either, so Hae-som received no formal education.

Fortunately, there were many miscellaneous books in the attic of the house.

Whenever Gyeong-hae occasionally left the house, Hae-som would read those books obsessively.

Through them, she gradually began to suspect that there was something seriously wrong with Gyeong-hae’s mental state.

The more she realized this, the more uneasy she felt about leaving Gyeong-hae alone and escaping the island.

But her desire to escape grew stronger and stronger.

“You little—hey! Your big brother is talking to you, and you’re daydreaming?! I swear…”

That bastard was a major reason for it.

Ever since Hae-som had turned twenty, the shameless bastard had repeatedly looked at her in a lecherous way.

This is horrible. If I stay here, I’ll definitely end up being forced to marry that bastard.

“Learn to appreciate your future husband and start practicing how to serve him properly, you mutt.”

Future husband?

Ugh.

Should I just slam my head into his face?