ITSN 26

Chapter 26

He watched Yoo Hae-in fleeing as he stepped backward.

Behind her, Yoo Dong-hyuk followed.

“Yoo Hae-in!”

Shouting his sister’s name, he strode forward, his back looking like an angry wild boar.

“That bastard…”

Taijo spat out the words as if chewing on them and turned his steps around.

Walking to the car, he recalled the earlier situation.

As Yoo Hae-in approached after leaving the gate, a sweet osmanthus scent wafted from her.

It wasn’t perfume or soap. It was her natural scent.

When one needs to disguise their identity, the hardest thing to hide is body scent. No matter how much perfume or other fragrances you use, your true scent will inevitably reveal itself.

Nine years ago, during his first mission—when he was acting as Kang Shin-joo in the Russian Language and Culture Department—Joo-hong had eventually discovered his scent.

The reason he couldn’t meet someone often or stay in one place for too long during operations was exactly that: if his scent was detected, everything would be revealed.

And scent, even if facial memories fade, remains until the end. Just as Joo-hong’s scent was imprinted on him.

Of course, this sweet osmanthus scent alone was not definitive proof that Yoo Hae-in was Joo-hong.

“Still, I can at least assume you’re Joo-hong.”

There was hope in that small clue.

Taijo took out his phone and made a call. Soon, a voice answered on the other end.

• Yes, boss.

It was Seok Il-du, his secretary and backup.

“Seok-du, sometimes when we face an unsolvable problem, applying a hypothesized theory can solve it, right?”

• You mean if we’re lucky and the hypothesis is correct, we can solve it.

Luck. Yes, one must be lucky first.

But in situations like this, instinct outweighs luck.

Right now, all his senses were telling him: Joo-hong is Yoo Hae-in, and Yoo Hae-in is Joo-hong.

Earlier, he had leaned toward the woman to confirm the faint osmanthus scent.

The ear of the woman he looked down upon was red like a ripe apple. It made him want to take a bite, and once again, he thought of Joo-hong.

Not just that. The way she cupped her blushing cheeks after being whispered to “grow well” was unmistakably Joo-hong.

“In that sense, should I recite whether I’ve deduced the answer correctly?”

Immediately, the sound of typing erupted from the other side of the line.

• Half of it is correct, half is wrong.

“What’s the wrong half?”

• As Director Yeom said, there wasn’t time to swap people. But…

“But?”

• Still, there were definitely some strange points.

“Is that the correct half?”

• Yes, I heard this directly from the medical staff at the hospital.

Seok Il-du lowered his voice slightly and continued.

• Yoo Hae-in regained consciousness and had one outburst.

Outburst? Was this the day he supposedly self-harmed? After he left, it seems he had slashed his arm. The room was reportedly covered in blood.

• At that time, he said this:

Seok Il-du paused for effect, then continued.

• I have to check if I really died…

“…What?”

• Part of it was caught on the corridor CCTV. Do you want to see it?

“Send it.”

No sooner had he said that than his phone vibrated.

• There’s more.

“Tell me.”

• I discovered this with my eagle eyes.

The typing sound on the other end became chaotic again.

• The wound healed far too quickly.

His voice carried a strange excitement.

• I’ve never seen anything like this. It was like a YouTube video in double speed.

His speaking speed picked up too.

• I suspected this. Yoo Hae-in died in that accident but came back in a zombie-like state…

“Zombie?”

• I mean zombie just as a term, a mysterious existence. So he might do things completely unexpected…

“Cut it.”

Taijo hung up.

Zombie… mysterious existence…

It was ridiculous. An impossible thought.

And yet, instinctively, he considered the possibility.

Could Joo-hong’s soul inhabit Yoo Hae-in’s body…?

“Damn it.”

Ridiculous. Impossible.

Brushing his face roughly, Taijo drove with a complicated state of mind.

“Yoo Hae-in, stop there.”

Yoo Dong-hyuk followed behind Joo-hong.

Though not as tall as Taijo, Yoo Dong-hyuk was tall, his muscular frame thick and imposing.

Following him felt like being attacked by a massive rhino.

Just as he set foot on the stairs,

“Yoo Hae-in!”

Yoo Dong-hyuk finally caught up and grabbed her.

“What are you doing!”

Joo-hong staggered as her arm was roughly held, forcing her to stop. Yoo Dong-hyuk pressed her against the wall.

“You should listen to your brother.”

She lifted her head arrogantly, her eyes condescending. Quite overbearing.

Yet it was natural for him; he seemed to treat his sister this way often. Even when she couldn’t see.

But now she could see. He couldn’t bully her so easily.

“What do you mean?”

Joo-hong met his gaze firmly, standing her ground.

Yoo Dong-hyuk was visibly taken aback.

Naturally. His sister, now with her memories restored and eyes working, wasn’t docile like before.

Perhaps that’s why his usual harshness softened.

“I told you, I’m not that bad of a brother.”

Though slightly insincere, a smile tugged at his lips.

“Everything I do is for you.”

“Everything you do?”

Joo-hong gestured to his hand that gripped her arm as if to break it, pressing her against the wall.

“It doesn’t feel like it.”

Only then did his grip loosen, and he gently smoothed out her crumpled shirt.

Even on a shirt, his touch made her shiver. Like a snake crawling.

“Enough.”

Joo-hong pushed his hand away.

“If you have something to say, just say it. I’m tired.”

Whatever he had to say was obvious.

He’d insist, like a parrot, that the engagement could never be broken. As if that were the only thing she had to do.

But then…

“You have something you need to do.”

Joo-hong furrowed her brows.

“Something I need to do?”

This was unexpected. Yoo Dong-hyuk giving his sister an actual task? She was usually treated like useless dead weight, or recently, a shut-in.

“What do I need to do?”

“There’s a party next week hosted by the Russian embassy.”

“…Party?”

“You usually couldn’t attend large events since you couldn’t see, so we only went to small parties.”

Joo-hong thought quickly.

“Now, you need to attend major events too.”

It was a bit overwhelming.

The parties Yoo Hae-in had attended were small, around 10–15 people. But an embassy-hosted party could easily have over 100 guests.

But that wasn’t the point. The key was that it was the Russian embassy.

A spy who had stolen <InnoSystem>’s core technology could have sold it to Russia. The police believed the Russians had been behind it all along.

Even the brokers like Rock, who erased evidence, were connected to Russia.

Industrial espionage and Russia. Inextricably linked.

This meant the probability of the mafia showing up at the Russian embassy party was very high.

It was a perfect opportunity to narrow down the 26 mafia suspects even further. Not bad.

“Attend and show that Yoo Hae-in, the heiress of InnoGroup, is in good health.”

That was fine.

“However, you must go with Seo Taijo.”

But going with Taijo was somewhat inconvenient.