Chapter 116: Into the Trap

The scene I witnessed that day was so shocking that I had completely forgotten about the badge.

Ah… why did our smart Poppy have to play with that of all things.

Is this revenge because I haven’t been giving him enough meat lately…?

“Th-that looks like my badge…?”

“No.

I’ve seen yours clipped on at the center.

This kind is only issued once, when you first join.”

Right….

Having two would make no sense.

Wait.

Why am I panicking this much…?

“Then I guess it’s not mine.

Maybe Poppy picked it up outside?”

I just have to play dumb.

Jaeyul wouldn’t know where that badge came from anyway.

“Hm… really?”

Jaeyul held the badge between his fingers, turning it this way and that as he examined it carefully.

What is it.

It’s just a badge.

Why is he looking at it like that.

My heart skipped for no reason.

“Then I’ll keep it.

That okay?”

“Uh, y-yeah.

It’s not mine anyway….”

I got through it safely, which was a relief, but a strange uneasiness lingered.

For some reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this badge might come back to bite me someday.

“Then let’s get some sleep.

You can really rest easy now, hyung.”

Jaeyul stood up first, walked over, and patted my head like he would a child.

Even the way he spoke felt like he was talking to a kid.

Thanks to that, my attention drifted away from the badge.

I should feel my pride hurt at being treated like a younger brother.

I should feel annoyed.

But strangely, it felt good.

Now I understood why dogs love being petted by their owners so much.

The large hand combing gently through my hair felt so nice that I didn’t stop him.

Unfortunately, Jaeyul only said goodnight and turned away.

A beat too late, I thought that I shouldn’t be enjoying things like this so easily.

Enjoying everything without restraint isn’t good.

It was already late, and I should have gone to bed, but as Jaeyul walked away, regret made me open my mouth.

“Jaeyul.”

He stopped after a few steps and turned back.

I hadn’t called him with any particular purpose.

I quickly searched my mind for something to say.

It wasn’t important, but there was something I was curious about.

“Hm?”

“If, hypothetically…

If I really had killed Irihyeon, what would you think?”

I didn’t kill Irihyeon this time, but it’s true that I intended to.

If someone else hadn’t killed him first, I definitely would have.

So in a way, it’s not that different.

Even if Jaeyul seemed calm, Irihyeon probably wasn’t meaningless to him.

That might be why he couldn’t make a quick decision about how to deal with him.

So what would he think if I were the one who killed Irihyeon.

It’s a pointless question now, but I wanted to know how he’d see me if I killed someone in the future.

“You didn’t kill him.

Why would that kind of assumption even matter?”

Where does that level of faith come from.

He knows I have the clearest motive to kill Irihyeon.

He didn’t even see me that night.

So how can he be so certain.

I’m grateful for that absolute trust, but at the same time, it scares me.

If that trust ever breaks, the shock would be enormous.

“I’m just saying.

If it had happened.”

“What kind of question is that.

Let’s sleep already, hyung.”

As if it wasn’t worth answering, Jaeyul turned and headed for his room.

You little—

Are you a T-type or what.

Why are you so blunt.

I gave up on getting an answer and was about to head to bed myself when—

“If you had killed Irihyeon, I don’t think I’d feel good about it.

No.

I would’ve been angry.”

Ah….

I shouldn’t have asked.

That was the last answer I wanted to hear.

At the very least, I expected something like, ‘I’d hear your side of the story.’

But instead, he said outright that he’d be angry.

I reaffirmed my resolve.

I must never involve Jaeyul in my plan to kill the Support Agency Director.

And that fact must never, ever be discovered.

“Poppy, you remember what I said earlier, right.

It’s the place at the very top.”

“Ang?”

This little bastard….

How did he end up becoming such a mercenary.

Poppy clearly understood me, yet tilted his head like he had no idea what I was talking about.

I wanted to smack the back of his head, but I was the one who needed him, so I endured it.

Forcing a smile, I pulled out a bribe and put it in his mouth.

Dried chicken.

“Ang!”

Only then did Poppy start acting like he understood.

You annoying little—

We’ll talk when we get home.

“Whew…

Then hurry up and swallow me.”

Poppy’s mouth began to open grotesquely wide.

The cute look vanished, replaced by something truly monstrous.

His jaws opened wide enough to swallow my head in one go.

Even though I’d already made up my mind, the sight made me anxious.

Part of me wanted to scream and tell him to stop.

Ignoring my feelings, the huge maw began swallowing me.

Pitch-black darkness enveloped my entire body.

Up and down.

Front and back.

I couldn’t tell anything apart.

I couldn’t feel my arms or legs.

I couldn’t even speak.

It felt like I’d lost my body and only my consciousness remained.

The world inside Poppy’s mouth was always an incomprehensible place.

I won’t just disappear like this, right…?

I had no idea how much time passed.

One second.

One hour.

One year.

There was nothing by which I could sense time.

To be clear, I’d let Poppy swallow me so I could sneak into someone else’s house.

Just like he’d made a hole in our wall before, he’d swallow me, burrow through the building’s exterior, and spit me out inside.

Whose house, you ask.

Obviously—the Support Agency Director’s.

The security from the first floor up was far too tight to enter any other way.

“Ghk—!”

While floating in the darkness, I suddenly heard a loud sound.

Almost at the same time, a faint light stabbed into my eyes.

After being in pitch darkness for so long, it felt like staring straight into the midday sun.

My eyes burned.

“Ugh… ngh!”

As I groaned with my eyes squeezed shut, something suddenly pushed into my open mouth.

Something fluffy.

Round.

Like a ball of fur… what is this.

I snapped out of it and pulled out whatever had entered my mouth.

It was Poppy’s head.

That bastard had shoved his head into my mouth.

What the hell is he doing.

“Ang.”

“…Ah….”

Poppy quietly explained.

He’d done it to stop me from making noise.

Looking at it that way, he really is smart…

But—ugh.

Dog fur in my mouth….

Once I gathered myself and looked around, an unfamiliar interior came into view.

Even without proper lighting, I could tell it was lavishly furnished.

It was practically a palace-like penthouse.

I had no idea how a civil servant’s salary could afford something like this.

Well, after tonight, all that money wouldn’t mean anything anyway.

“Let’s go.”

There didn’t seem to be guards inside the residence, but just in case, I moved carefully with Poppy as I searched for the director.

Empty room.

Empty room.

Empty room.

He’d sent his family somewhere safe overseas, apparently.

Many rooms stood vacant.

After confirming no one else was present, I stopped in front of the room that, by layout alone, was clearly the director’s.

I checked my newly prepared full-body suit, mask, and gloves one last time and opened the door.

The moment I did, what lay inside was nothing like I’d expected.

It shocked me in a very different way from Irihyeon’s room.

“You finally came.”

The Support Agency Director sat leisurely in a chair, holding a glass of liquor on the rocks.

He showed no surprise at all, as if he’d been certain I would come.

His composure was what shocked me.

How did he know…?

“Did you really think I’d stay quiet after my nephew died like that?”

That had bothered me.

The fact that the director had been unnervingly quiet.

If Irihyeon had been murdered, he should have turned everything upside down.

But he’d been nowhere to be seen.

I’d simply assumed the shock had hit him hard.

After all, Irihyeon was his beloved nephew.

“Killing Irihyeon so grotesquely wasn’t enough for you—

you even try to threaten me with his corpse?

Did you think I’d be scared of something like that?”

So that horrific scene carried that meaning…?

I’d thought it was simply a display born of hatred.

Maybe the real target of Irihyeon’s murderer had been the director all along.

A warning not to get out of line.

“You can take off the mask now.”

The director looked at me as though he were tracing my face beneath the mask.

As if he’d known I would come.

That couldn’t be.

If he’d truly suspected me, he’d have tried to kill me long ago.

“Take off the mask, Jin Se-hyeon.”

Impossible.

Did he really identify me in such a short time.

No.

It makes more sense that he expected me to come from the beginning.

And knowing that, he’d stayed silent all this time…?

Suddenly, I realized I’d walked straight into a trap.

Unlike with Irihyeon, this one left no escape.

📚 Also on NHV Novels

Could It Be That I’m Actually the Strongest Final Boss?

ComedyFantasyFemale Protagonist

Read Now →
Not interested