Chapter 09
“Even your body has already given its answer, and you think keeping your mouth shut is enough?”
Before Yuju’s provocative whisper had even faded,
“Living with a guy like this would be a huge disaster. My body is practically a ticking time bomb, so I’m afraid to let it loose anywhere.” “Ha……”
A low laugh escaped Haesung’s lips. Panicking and stepping back, or scrambling to make up some excuseāat least one of those reactions would have been normal.
Instead, Haesung lowered his head and rested his forehead lightly against Yuju’s shoulder.
Heat throbbed wherever they touched, yet the voice reaching her ear was terrifyingly composed.
“So this is how you plan to slip away.”
Haesung’s forehead shook minutely against Yuju’s shoulder.
She wondered if it was just the sly mocking of a trickster, but the tremor transmitting through his shoulder felt closer to self-deprecationālike a man disgusted with himself. Even in that state, he didn’t let Yuju go. Her wrists remained bound, and his body completely overwhelmed hers.
That left only one option.
“Ha!”
A sharp breath slipped past Yuju’s teeth. Her knee drove upward with all her might toward a place no man should ever touchāthe burning mass currently pressing roughly against her lower abdomen.
Wham!
It sheared viciously through the air, but there was no impact.
Yuju’s knee, diving for his vital spot, was effortlessly trapped and locked between Haesung’s thighs as he twisted to block it.
“……Ha.”
A brief, dry scoff escaped his lips. The forehead resting against her shoulder slowly lifted.
“That last move was a bit too dangerous.”
The self-loathing that had been shaking him until a moment ago vanished like a lie, replaced instantly by an intense, razor-sharp presence.
“What’d you do if you attacked my most prized possession? It’s not like the team leader’s going to take responsibility if this blows up.” “You said it yourselfākill or be killed. The effectiveness is undeniable, at least.”
Refusing to lose, Yuju grit her teeth and poured strength into her trapped legs. Determined to wedge herself between his thighs and land a proper strike this time, she twisted her pelvis and hauled her opposite knee upward.
Haesung, however, had already read that movement. Swallowing a dry laugh, he locked his thighs together even tighter.
“Did you seriously intend to blow it up? A spot that’s going to come in so very useful, time and time again.”
Yuju’s eyes wavered wildly. Right over her immobilized knees, Haesung’s undeniable, rigid hardness pressed against her in raw, unvarnished form.
The sensation she had felt against her pubic bone was now squarely planted against her inner thighsāin a posture where she had tried to attack him, only to end up parting her own legs and offering them up on a silver platter.
“Haah, will you… let go for a second!”
Panicked, Yuju twisted her body desperately to wrench her trapped legs free. But the more she moved, the deeper and tighter Haesung’s thighs locked around her.
Her toes scratched irritably against the mat, but his solid lower body was as unmovable as a boulder.
“You’d better stay still.”
Rolling the words over the tip of his tongue, Haesung applied pressure to the arm wrapped around Yuju’s waist and pulled her hard against him. The recoil forced their bodies into complete overlap.
“If Team Leader Chae is going to press herself against me like this, I can accommodate her.”
Yuju’s movements stopped dead, as if by magic.
Is he out of his mind?
In truth, Haesung was in the more vulnerable position. The sweat beading at his temples, the slow breathing of a man clearly holding something back, the single sharp hitch in his Adam’s appleāYuju could read every single detail from this distance.
He was torturing himself right now.
Yet Haesung didn’t budge an inch. If anything, he pulled Yuju’s waist even tighterānot against his hips, not against her knees, but somewhere much deeper.
“……!”
Yuju’s breath caught in her throat.
Haesung lowered his head and growled low.
“You put a man in this state, and you thought asking if keeping quiet meant getting off scot-free was enough?” “That’sā!”
Before a flustered Yuju could answer, Haesung brushed his lips against her earlobe as if biting it.
“If you answer me now, do you have the confidence to handle it?”
Yuju’s body locked up like stone. Lowering his gaze, Haesung took in Yuju, who was frozen stiff and trembling faintly. Breaking into a satisfied smirk, he released the binds holding Yuju captive all at once and let her go.
“It means you might end up paying for that last attack with your own body.”
Haesung’s voice was regaining its usual leisurely cadence.
“Provocation is an effective weapon, but if you pick the wrong opponent, you end up hurting yourself more.”
Regulating her ragged breathing, Yuju stared intently at Haesung.
“Well. I’m not so sure the opponent came out of this completely unscathed, either.” “Is that so?”
A brief, dry scoff slipped past Haesung’s lips.
The heat he had forcibly suppressed flickered across his eyes before vanishing.
That was all.
Haesung straightened his ruffled collar and pulled down his rolled-up sleeves.
“Good work today, Team Leader Chae.”
With that, he walked toward the door. Just before his hand touched the handle, Haesung’s steps paused.
“Next time, I won’t be so gentle. Whether what Team Leader Chae managed to prop up was my temper, or something else…”
His head turned slightly over his shoulder. His gaze drifted idly somewhere into empty space.
“Find out for yourself next time.”
The door clicked shut.
Left alone on the mat, Yuju stood frozen for a long time, completely unaware of what kind of expression she had just been wearing.
Somewhere on her body burned with a stinging heat.
The exact moment she tried to figure out where, Yuju’s train of thought flatlined.
Right before the door closed, the spot where Haesung’s gaze had lingered wasā
Her lower abdomen.
…That bastard.
Yuju muttered a short oath toward the empty air.
The tips of her ears burned hot.
Stepping out into the hallway, Haesung didn’t even make it far.
“Damn it.”
He shoved the door of the adjacent locker room open as if to break it and hurled his body inside. The front of his trousers was swollen so tautly it felt like it would burst, making even normal walking impossible.
Click.
The moment he locked the door, the chill of the steel cabinet bit into his spine. Tossing his head back as if that were his only lifeline, Haesung closed his eyes. But it wasn’t enough to cool the boiling heat raging in his lower abdomen.
āLiving with a guy like this would be a huge disaster.
Closing his eyes, Yuju’s voice revived in his ears. The smooth curve of her waist as she had pressed against his hips earlier, the body heat when she leaned against his shoulder trapped inside his arms, the faint scent rising from the nape of her neckā
Not a single detail was missed.
“You’re the one who started playing with fire, Chae Yuju.”
With trembling hands, Haesung dragged a dry hand down his face. His large hand swept across his entire face a couple more times before stopping. It felt as though Yuju’s body heat still lingered at his fingertips.
It was an illusion. Knowing that full well, Haesung dragged that hand downward anyway.
Bracing one hand against the cabinet to support his weight, he pressed his forehead against the door. The cold steel met his skin, but the heat dragged straight from the training room showed no signs of cooling from a mere touch.
Sweat dripped from the ends of his damp hair, tracing down the back of his neck and sliding between his collarbones.
“……Ha.”
A choked breath slipped low through his clenched teeth. He had never intended to hold back from the beginning. His other hand clenched and unclenched beside his thigh before finally gripping the waistband of his trousers. Veins stood out on the back of his hand, and the muscles in his arm braced against the cabinet pulled taut.
“Ha, fuck…… seriously.”
Closing his eyes, Yuju was right there.
The sensation of his palm wrapped around her waist came to mind firstābody heat transmitting right through the thick uniform fabric. Even knowing he had to let go, his fingers refused to unfurl of their own accord. Clenching his molars made the muscles in his jaw bulge, and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed a breath.
The feel of her waist in his grasp, the breath trembling against his ear, that composed voice that had provoked himā
āIf you answer me now, do you have the confidence to handle it?
The sensation of Yuju’s body locking up like stone at that moment replayed vividly in Haesung’s hand.
Her shoulders stiffening, the muscles near her waist flinching, the jawline desperately trying not to turn its headāit was all too clear before his eyes.
How had Yuju interpreted that silence, the one where answering felt like it would mean there was no turning back? A breath she had tried to swallow caught in her throat, breaking out like a cough.
The narrow locker room filled with the sound of his ragged breathing. The whir of the ventilation fan echoed overhead, and the irregular rustling beneath his palm bounced off the walls and returned.
“Ugh, ugh!”
His waist arched sharply once. Pressing forward as if pushing off the floor with his toes, his forehead pressed harder against the cabinet door.
His vision flashed white. His ears grew muffled, and only the sound of his pounding heart thudded against his temples. The steel cabinet beneath his forehead had grown lukewarm by now.
Breathing heavily, Haesung stared with unseeing eyes at his own reflection in the cabinet surface: ruffled bangs, parted lips, fingers trembling faintly from the aftershocks of release.
Gone was the man who had smiled so leisurely at the training ground just moments ago; this wreck stood in his place.
Staring blankly at the evidence left on his hand, Haesung let out a thin, dry scoff.
“Who’s calling who a ticking time bomb.”
Roughly wiping away the traces splattered on the cabinet, Haesung looked at his own face in the mirror one more time, then growled low:
“Driving a man to look like this.”
09.
The next day, conference room on the 6th floor of the NIS Incheon Branch.
A temporary briefing handed down from upper management began. Inside the conference room, team-leader-level personnel including Yuju, along with Ihyeon, took their seats.
“Ha Gyungmo is scheduled to enter the country next Thursday.”
A man’s photo popped up on the screen.
“Ha Gyungmo is the external network manager for the Cheongryong Faction, and has maintained extensive connections with domestic political and business figures. Since leaving the country seven years ago, he has been identified as having built new channels centered around overseas bases.” “What is the reason for his sudden entry into the country?” “It is presumed to be for the purpose of restoring domestic networks.”
The briefing officer’s voice was dry, but Yuju couldn’t pull her gaze away from the photo.
The face she had only ever seen inside a file for five years was posted on official operation materials today for the first time.
Just as her fingertips were growing coldly rigid, Ihyeon spoke up casually from the side.
“You’re going to burn a hole right through that photo. Is Ha Gyungmo your ideal type or something?”
To that joke, Yuju replied without blinking an eye.
“Not my ideal type, but we’re old acquaintances.”
Though they had never faced each other in person, it was a relationship with no other word to call it except old acquaintances.
“If you’re old acquaintances, does that mean you know that guy better than I do?”
Only then did Yuju shift her gaze.
Across the table, Haesung was sitting with his arms crossed. A smile that had started forming at the corners of his mouth hadn’t quite completely vanished from his face yet.
“……”
It wasn’t that she deliberately didn’t answer. She just hadn’t sorted out what to say.
The officer’s gaze also shifted from Yuju to Haesung.
“I understand that Black Core has related intelligence. I heard that if it’s Team Leader Do Haesung, you’ve probably dealt with that name at least once.”
Haesung gave a faint, silent nod.
It meant that a face she had ultimately failed to face, this man had already faced before. Yuju’s brow narrowed minutely as she read the implication.
Ihyeon’s gaze swept once between Yuju and Haesung.
“You’re all old acquaintances. Then you might as well properly exchange greetings.”
With a small laugh at the tail end of his words, he flipped the file.
“Team Leader Do and Team Leader Chae, come to my office when this is over.”
In time with Ihyeon’s gesture, the sound of the presentation screen flipping to the next page could be heard. Yuju gave a short nod to answer Ihyeon’s instruction.
Yuju picked up her tablet again. Her fingertips were still not completely relaxed.
Before heading up to the director’s office, Yuju stopped by her office and grabbed the top of her laptop.
However, before she could lift it even a single centimeter, a heavy resistance caught at her fingertips.
Thud.
Haesung was pressing down gently on the center of the laptop with a single long index finger.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Yuju snapped, glaring at Haesung’s finger resting on top of her laptop. Her sharp eyes clearly conveyed the message: If you don’t have business, get out of the way.
Any ordinary man would have taken a step back, but Haesung didn’t blink an eye. Instead, he stepped forward aggressively, looking down at Yuju.
Haesung’s gaze moved leisurely from Yuju’s eyes to her lips, and then back to her eyes.
“Didn’t the director tell you to come right away?” “Since when have you been so good at following orders?”
Yuju retorted as if she found it absurd. At that, the corners of Haesung’s lips curved obliquely.
“Starting right now. Team Leader Chae doesn’t seem to be listening, so I thought I’d set a little example myself.”
Haesung smiled slyly and blocked Yuju’s path.
Her schedule was already tight enough. Yet with just the addition of Do Haesung, a task that should have taken ten minutes stretched out to an hour.
Yuju pressed hard against her temple.
“Get it away. That finger.”
Haesung didn’t back down.
Instead, he tapped leisurely on the laptop lid. Tap. Tap. It was a rhythm that seemed determined to eat away at her patience one notch at a time.
Just as Yuju raised her head to snap something back, Haesung leaned his upper body forward first to match her gaze.
“I have something to ask.”
Yuju dryly appreciated Haesung’s handsome face for about one second before opening her mouth.
“I’m sorry. The current agent is preparing upper-management reports, so the connection is difficult. Please try calling back later.” “……” “If you hear the beepāit means hang up.”
Haesung didn’t blink an eye at Yuju’s eccentric sharp-tongued retort. Instead, wiping away the faint playfulness lingering at the corners of his mouth, he let out a low, settled voice.
“Where did you see Ha Gyungmo?” “……” “You said you were old acquaintances. Based on Team Leader Chae’s career, he’s not someone you’d normally cross paths with.”
Yuju’s fingertips slowly slipped away from the edge of the laptop.
She had grasped the identity of that name five years ago. However, the name itself belonged to a much older memory.
Yuju withdrew her hand from the laptop she had been about to open. She buried her body straight into the chair. This wasn’t the time to bring that up.
“Then what about you?” “About ten years ago.”
If it was ten years ago, that was the period when Ha Gyungmo was still staying domestically. Considering that Black Core was an organization that rarely intervened in domestic operations, it surely must have been an overseas-linked matter.
Yuju’s mind worked mechanically. Back-calculating Haesung’s age and career path was a matter of an instant.
……He was already deployed to the field back then?
And if it was ten years ago.
Simultaneously with the calculation finishing, Yuju’s eyes trembled minutely.
Yuju’s gaze drifted on its own accord to Haesung’s face. The jawline, mouth, and eyes of the man leaning against the edge of the desk. It was an outline that wasn’t unfamiliar. A face she had frequently seen once overlapped with it briefly before dissolving away rapidly.
If it was ten years ago, that was when that person was still alive.
Do Haesung is not Jung Taeha.
Yuju re-engraved that sentence inside her head. It was a familiar spell she had muttered countless times ever since she first saw Haesung.
Haesung’s eyebrows twitched ever so slightly.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” “If it was ten years ago, how old were you?”
Yuju asked back, echoing Haesung’s question.
“Twenty-six.”
Haesung answered. Yuju slowly chewed over that number.
She knew very well that Black Core was an organization that did not interfere in domestic operations. That meant a twenty-six-year-old man had walked alone across national borders, wiping away his name and nationality.
A life where if you fail, the organization denies its very existence, and even if you succeed, you can never speak of it to anyone.
Do Haesung at twenty-six. The nameless hours he must have spent.
A brief sigh welled up inside Yuju before quickly settling down. It wasn’t pity. Sympathy even less so. It was just those ambiguous, nameless things that felt like a breath slipping out thinly.
……I have never once thought about this person’s life.
Only then did Yuju realize.
Whenever she faced Haesung, the only question running through Yuju’s head had been a single one:
Is he Jung Taeha, or not?
How should she interpret the resembling face?
Within that framework, Yuju had always calculated Haesung simply by the probability of his being Jung Taeha, never trying to see what kind of time Do Haesung himself had passed through to get here.
Yuju lowered her gaze once without realizing it.
“You were a kid. To be running field ops.”
Haesung didn’t answer right away.
However, the trace of a smile was gone. The playfully upturned corners of his mouth and the playfulness of his fingers that had been tapping the laptop until just a moment ago vanished like a mirage.
Haesung was simply looking down at Yuju. A gaze that was neither long nor short lingered over Yuju’s face.
It looked as though he had almost finished reading the inside of Yuju’s mind, or as though he had already read all of it yet chose to pretend not to notice and covered it over.
Then Haesung let out a soft laugh. It was a short laugh that seemed to have slipped out despite him trying to swallow it inside.
“You’re young, too.”
Still. Haesung lightly, playfully brushed a stray lock of hair at Yuju’s temple before stepping back.
The director’s office door opened, and Yuju and Haesung stepped in side by side.
“Are you all ready to welcome our honored guest?”
Seated at the head, Ihyeon had Haesung’s file spread open indifferently before him.
“……”
Instead of answering, Haesung swept a casual glance over Yuju, then buried his body deep into the sofa and slowly crossed his legs. Yuju likewise silently fixed her gaze solely on the file on the table.
A power struggle heavier than the silence of the two people settled over the room.
Ihyeon’s pen tip tapped, tap-tapped against the file, reading the uncomfortable airflow in an instant.
Yuju’s eyes remained unfocused, lingering on Haesung’s photo. Thousands of scenarios were flashing through her head.
“Team Leader Chae. Would you like to step right inside the photo? If you’re that glad to see him, should I go out and welcome him with a bouquet of flowers?”
Only then were Yuju’s eyelids lifted leisurely. Her eyes, emerging from deep thought, shone with cold rationality.
Yuju shifted her gaze to the man sitting across from her.
“Team Leader Do Haesung.”
Haesung’s eyebrows lifted slightly.
It was a terribly dry voice, mixed with not a single shred of hesitation nor a particle of shyness.
“Let’s live together.”
Tap. Ihyeon dropped the pen he had been holding.
