Chapter 16: A Troubled Transfer

“……”

“……”

“……”

Though it wasn’t an enclosed space, Hanseol felt suffocated.

A strange silence persisted, growing more oppressive with each passing moment.

Neither person dared to speak first. Ryu Yishin and Jo Jinwoo simply stared at each other, as if locked in a silent battle of wills.

Hanseol, who could perceive these sharp, cutting emotions not with his eyes but as physical symptoms like headaches and nausea, instinctively sensed the danger.

This was a natural progression of his heightened awareness.

If a fight were to erupt here, the first person to lose their life wouldn’t be Ryu Yishin or Jo Jinwoo, but Hanseol himself.

“S-sorry, Team Leader! Jinwoo hyung, I’ll come back later!”

When his own life was on the line, Hanseol’s mind worked faster than anyone’s.

Without a hint of fear, he boldly seized Ryu Yishin’s hand with his uninjured one and began to move.

Ryu Yishin’s brow twitched slightly at the audacious move.

Yet, for some reason, he began to walk without a word of complaint, matching Hanseol’s measured pace.

As they walked across the warmly air-conditioned corridor and neared the elevator, Ryu Yishin abruptly stopped without warning.

The sudden halt pulled Hanseol backward, causing him to bump his back against Ryu Yishin’s chest.

“You.”

“…Yes?”

Hanseol, having just regained his composure and straightened his posture, looked bewildered as he questioned Ryu Yishin.

The prickly, thorn-like emotions he had felt emanating from Ryu Yishin seemed to have somewhat softened.

Still, Hanseol faced Ryu Yishin, tightly gripping the thread of his tension.

“Just now, you didn’t do anything, right?”

“D-do what…?”

Driven purely by the instinct to survive, Hanseol had done nothing more than fearlessly grab Ryu Yishin’s wrist and pull him along.

Although the sharp tension had subsided compared to when he faced Jinwoo, Hanseol couldn’t fully decipher Ryu Yishin’s expression, leaving him to nervously dart his eyes around.

Ryu Yishin had been repeatedly asking if he hadn’t done anything since last time.

Though Hanseol longed to ask what precisely he was so curious about to pose the same question, he merely mumbled a vague answer, prioritizing his own survival.

He had only belatedly remembered that Ryu Yishin disliked having to repeat himself.

“N-no, I didn’t do anything…”

Hanseol, shrinking into himself, spoke in a hushed, almost inaudible voice, nervously watching Ryu Yishin’s reaction.

Ryu Yishin gazed steadily into Hanseol’s dark eyes, which held not a single speck of deceit.

Without a word, he gave a slight nod, then once again seized Hanseol’s wrist.

Such was the powerful grip that Hanseol’s brow furrowed, and a groan involuntarily escaped his lips.

A wave of worry washed over him, fearing he might lose the use of his good right hand as well.

Yet, Ryu Yishin seemed utterly unconcerned.

‘If his right hand hurt too, eating would become difficult…’

Hanseol mulled over this somewhat despairing thought, yet he couldn’t even resist Ryu Yishin, allowing himself to be dragged along.

A subtle smile played on Ryu Yishin’s lips as he strode ahead of Hanseol.

It was an expression laced with a profoundly sinister agenda, but Hanseol, oblivious to this, simply kept walking.

****

“It seems you’ve only sprained a ligament a bit. A few days of caution and you’ll be fine.”

“Yes…”

“Shall we go lie down over there? Let’s get some acupuncture.”

Troubled and restless, Hanseol hadn’t slept properly, tossing and turning all night.

When he arrived at work in the wee hours, the first place he headed wasn’t his office, but the company’s affiliated hospital.

The hospital, which occupied an entire ten-story building behind the main Security Agency headquarters, was quiet and deserted, as was expected at such an early hour.

Among its many departments, Hanseol unhesitatingly sought out the Oriental Medicine Internal Department on the fourth floor.

“But why are you alone today? You always used to come with Jinwoo.”

Dr. Shin wiped Hanseol’s left wrist and forearm, where she would insert the needles, with a cold, alcohol-soaked swab, asking with a puzzled expression.

Jinwoo had always been the one to bring Hanseol here whenever he complained of muscle pain from overexertion.

In that sense, her question was entirely natural.

“I’m not on the same team as Jinwoo hyung anymore…”

“Huh?”

“I’ve been transferred to Team 1…”

Dr. Shin, who had been inserting needles with mechanical precision, hastily pushed up her glasses, her eyes wide with disbelief.

Hanseol, whose brow had furrowed slightly at the faint prickling sensation, forced a smile, pulling up the corners of his lips.

His expression was so awkward, anyone could tell it was a forced smile.

“Team 1, you mean… where Team Leader Ryu Yishin is?”

“Yes…”

“No, how did that happen?”

Dr. Shin continued her questions without missing a beat in her work, her widened eyes fixed on Hanseol.

By then, several needles had been inserted into Hanseol’s wrist and forearm.

Dr. Shin’s questions left Hanseol feeling quite flustered.

He had a rough idea of how things had come to this, but he somehow couldn’t bring himself to explain.

He hadn’t even fully accepted the reality himself; how could he casually explain it to someone else?

While Hanseol bit his lower lip, unsure of what to do, Dr. Shin connected an electro-acupuncture device to the needles near his forearm, carefully adjusting the intensity as she asked him:

“How’s the electro-acupuncture intensity? It’s not painful, is it?”

“No, it’s fine.”

“I think any higher would be too strong, so let’s keep it at this.”

Dr. Shin, her lips curving into a gentle smile, gave Hanseol one last glance before standing up.

Her curiosity seemed to have waned; without asking Hanseol anything further, she drew the curtain and left without hesitation.

In the sudden quiet and stillness, Hanseol stared blankly at the ceiling.

“……”

Having told even a third party, completely unrelated to the matter, that he was going to Team 1, a sense of emptiness washed over him, as if everything was truly set in stone.

His body, still aching with muscle pain, retained a tension as if it were at the peak of a large-scale battle.

This made the current situation feel unreal, and he couldn’t help but perceive it that way.

‘What will become of me now?’

‘Will I really have to live as a member of Team 1?’

‘Can’t I go back to Team 7?’

‘Living under Team Leader Ryu’s scrutiny seems too agonizing; what should I do?’

‘Should I seriously consider quitting?’

‘But if I quit here… what will I do to make a living?’

Only questions endlessly swirled in his mind, one after another, yet no clear solution presented itself.

His repeated sighs were heavy, laden with Hanseol’s complicated emotions.

‘Ah, I don’t know. For now, to get through today safely, I should get some sleep.’

With one last short sigh, Hanseol slowly closed his eyes.

Having stayed awake almost all night, he was fortunate that sleep instantly overwhelmed him, without any restless tossing and turning.

Hanseol didn’t bother to fight the consciousness that was rapidly slipping away.

Touching the wrist brace Dr. Shin had personally fitted for him, Hanseol stepped out of the elevator and painstakingly made his way toward the Team 1 office.

In truth, he desperately wanted to deny reality and head to the Team 7 office, but Hanseol quickly pulled himself together.

Even so, his troubled mind hadn’t fully settled, making his steps heavy.

Standing before the door, an unbidden sigh escaped him, one he hadn’t managed to suppress.

He still didn’t want to admit it, but as it was his first official day reporting as a Team 1 member, he hoped today would pass without incident.

With that wish, he held his employee ID to the security scanner.

After scanning his fingerprint to fully unlock the door, he stepped inside.

As expected, the office was empty.

It was just past seven o’clock, so the air naturally felt chilly.

Hanseol found the light switch near the entrance, flicked it on, and cautiously stepped further inside, making his way to his desk.

Just yesterday, this desk had been starkly empty.

Now, he saw his tablet, a few books he occasionally read in his free time, a mug, and his notebook and writing tools, all haphazardly placed.

It seemed someone had moved all his belongings from the Team 7 office.

He wondered for a moment whose hands had touched them, then dismissed the thought, assuming it was one of the team members.

Hanseol then began tidying his surroundings.

He put his notebook and writing tools in a drawer, placed the mug in a corner, and neatly propped up the books against the partition.

Only then did he connect the charging cable to his tablet.

Breathing a light sigh of relief, Hanseol immediately turned on his tablet and connected to the company intranet.

Yesterday, he had been too distracted and busy to even think about checking anything, but a thought had suddenly struck him with the dawn.

It was the personnel transfer announcement.

[Central Branch /]

Hanseol didn’t even have to bother searching for it; the announcement appeared on the main page as soon as he logged in.

He let out a faint sigh, entered his employee ID to log in, and then pressed the tablet screen with his finger.

The screen soon changed, displaying a concise notice.

[The following are]

[Investigation Team 7 Jung Hanseol: Investigation Team 1]

Starting with his own name, a list of those affected by personnel transfers was written below.

Jin Taeyoung and Lee Seokhyun, his former colleagues from Team 7, were transferred to the Southeast Branch.

Kang Yunmi from Team 2, whom he had previously met, was assigned to the Northwest Branch.

Yang Hyunsoo from Team 5, with whom he had exchanged greetings during guiding support missions, was dispatched to the Southwest Branch.

Even among the names that followed, there was no trace of any other Guide besides Hanseol.

He had definitively confirmed that he was indeed an exception.

Hanseol soon resigned himself, turned off the tablet screen, and leaned weakly against the chair’s backrest.

His energy had been draining since morning, leaving him with no desire to look into anything further.

The office atmosphere, which felt not just calm but almost desolate, was unfamiliar, causing both his body and mind to constantly shrink back.

“Haa…”

Naturally, questions inevitably arose for Hanseol.

Why had Ryu Yishin specifically brought him to Team 1?

Ryu Yishin had experienced his guiding during the large-scale battle, so he must have been aware of the side effects.

Hanseol simply could not fathom Ryu Yishin’s intentions, to go to such lengths to bring him to Team 1, enduring all of that.