Chapter 108: You Traitorous Bastard!

I embraced Ri-hyun, who was frozen like a statue, unable to even close his mouth.

As my body touched him, I could feel him flinch noticeably, but perhaps because there were many eyes on us, he didn’t push me away.

Holding Ri-hyun, I whispered softly in his ear.

“Thanks to you, I’ve made a memory I’ll never forget.

I hope you have a similar experience someday.”

Now is not the time to unleash my anger.

Ri-hyun and his cronies, who had planned and executed a plot to kill me, must feel to their very bones what they have done.

They need to realize what consequences a single wrong decision can bring.

And right now, there’s something important left to do.

“Y-you traitorous bastard!”

Perhaps because I had ignored him and walked past, Park Bomyung rushed over and separated me from Ri-hyun.

Park Bomyung, his face flushed red, looked as if he was furious, but at the same time, he also looked very anxious.

As if he were hoping I would say something.

“Say something!

How could you just abandon us and run off to another country!

Huh?!”

Right?

I don’t know how dumbfounded I was when I first saw that in the news.

It was last night.

Breaking news appeared on internet articles and television news.

All the media outlets poured out the same content, as if someone had written a script for them.

[BREAKING] Korea’s Only SS-Rank Guide, Agent Jin, Defects Overseas for a Huge Contract Fee!

The title was something like that.

The content was also close to a complete work of fiction.

It claimed that I had secretly met with a foreign intelligence agent on my way back from the Busan Center and had defected.

And that I had been in contact with numerous countries regarding defection for a long time.

In conclusion, it was about me being blinded by money and abandoning my country and its people.

Looking at my own heart, it’s true that I want to abandon the country and its people and leave, but even though I hadn’t made that choice ‘yet’, a flood of definitive articles came out, and overnight, I had become a national traitor.

That’s why Park Bomyung is glaring at me as if he’s going to kill me.

“Where did I run off to?

I’m right here, now.”

“…Huh… right?

They said he flew overseas, so why is he here?”

Park Bomyung, who had been fuming, seemed to have his brain stop at my words.

He had given up on thinking for himself and was looking at Yoo Eden, asking for help.

Truly… a consistently foolish… no, cute guy.

“Why do you think he’s here?”

Yoo Eden, who seemed to have a surprised expression for a moment, had a calm face again.

Unlike Park Bomyung, it seems he had figured out what was going on just by my appearance.

“I’m asking because I don’t know!

They said he ran away without looking back because he was crazy for money, didn’t they?!”

…Did you really think that…?

Did I look that materialistic all this time?

How could he believe such words without a single doubt….

“Haah… it’s all fake news.

If not….”

Yoo Eden paused for a moment and stared at me intently.

Why is this kid so hard to read?

Is he an ally or an enemy?

“He could have run away and then come back because public opinion wasn’t good.”

“Do you really think so?

If he really had gone over for hundreds of billions of won and a mansion like the news said, what lingering attachment would make him come back to Korea?

He would just live in luxury abroad.

Right?”

It’s not a joke, I’m serious.

If there’s a place that would scout me with such great conditions, I’d welcome it with open arms.

The country and its people are not even worth considering.

“I was just saying.

With such good conditions, he’d come back just because of a little criticism?

It would be much more profitable to not come back to Korea.”

That cunning bastard.

I don’t know why he made such an assumption when he clearly knows it’s not true.

Well… maybe he said it to block any such suspicions beforehand, just in case.

“Wait a minute!

S-so… he wasn’t trying to run away?

He didn’t abandon us either, right?”

Park Bomyung looked back and forth between me and Yoo Eden, reconfirming if he had understood correctly.

His face, which had looked sulky, was also gradually returning to normal.

“That’s what I’m saying.

I never received such an offer in the first place, and I never ran away.”

Only then did a complete sense of relief settle on Park Bomyung’s face.

For some reason… it seems only Park Bomyung is particularly welcoming of my return, but thinking that at least one person was waiting for me is a small comfort.

“Then what were you doing, showing up now, you punk!”

Sigh, this rude bastard.

He doesn’t even recognize his hyung, look at his disrespectful tone.

And what’s with him grabbing my shoulder and shaking me violently.

He’s shaking so hard, my brain is rattling.

“Let go of him and talk.

He said he had his reasons.”

Thank goodness.

Before my shoulder was dislocated, Jaeyul stopped Park Bomyung.

The kid who wouldn’t budge with my strength was so easily pulled away.

“Reasons…?

What?”

“Ah, that’s….”

It was when I was about to open my mouth to tell him the ‘unavoidable circumstances’.

“Hyung…!

I don’t know how worried I was!

No matter how much I thought about it, you’re not that kind of person….”

It seems Ri-hyun has also come to his senses.

He grabs my hand with teary eyes.

And then he was relieved, as if he had really been worried.

As if that was a signal, Hwang Jiyu and Im Chan also approached me and offered an awkward greeting.

Disgustingly, from the ones who had almost killed me and Jaeyul.

“Hyung, I don’t know how worried I was that I couldn’t contact you all of a sudden!

Where on earth were you and what were you doing?

Why did such an article come out all of a sudden!”

It seems Ri-hyun had been waiting for me to come out of the office.

As soon as I came out to grab a snack, Ri-hyun stuck to me.

While asking a crazy question.

“Who knows.”

“I was so worried that you might have gone into the gate because of what I said.”

This is a really amazing bastard.

A born actor, I’d say.

How can he rattle off lies without batting an eye like that?

It seems Ri-hyun has concluded that I didn’t go into the gate.

It’s a natural guess.

If I had remained in the collapsed gate, I wouldn’t have been able to return in such a good condition.

“Really?

I thought it was a trap you had set for me to go into the gate.

While even lying that Jaeyul was still in the gate.”

“Th-there’s no way, hyung!

I just didn’t hear the news that Jaeyul had come out of the gate because I had left the front of the gate first.

…Really.”

Finally, Ri-hyun’s poker face cracked.

A clear hostility was contained in the eyes of the considerably flustered kid.

Unlike his acting tone.

“Well… let’s say that’s the case, for now.”

“…For now, you say?”

“Why are you so nervous!

I’m just kidding!

Why would you do something like that to me.

Right?

I have some business to attend to, so I’ll be going first.”

It was when I was walking down the corridor, leaving behind Ri-hyun, whose face had become completely devoid of any laughter.

A sharp voice, as vicious as his glare, stopped me in my tracks.

“Where on earth were you and what were you doing all this time?

If you had shown up earlier, such pointless rumors wouldn’t have spread, would they?”

How can he blame me?

His character is beyond what can be expressed with the word ‘shameless’.

He must be on the verge of going crazy, not only annoyed that he couldn’t kill me, but also that I had returned in perfect condition after he had spread a ridiculous rumor that I had run away for money.

I was curious how the Agency Head would handle my disappearance, but it seems he had thought it through quite a bit.

It was a perfect plan to make me a national traitor so that no one would look for me.

To be honest, I want to applaud him for setting up such a meticulous plan.

“Hmm… it’s not a joke, really.

I was so scared to come out because it seemed like someone was trying to kill me.”

I stood facing Ri-hyun.

Even though there was a considerable distance between us, I could clearly see the nervous gulp of saliva go down Ri-hyun’s throat.

The tongue that wet his dry lips once, and the act of trying to hide his trembling eyes by blinking several times, were all a confession that he was the culprit.

I had thought Ri-hyun was a very good actor, but looking at him now that I know everything, it doesn’t seem to be the case.

It was just a clumsy and crude poker face, fitting for his age.

“…Who is it…?”

He seems to want to confirm how close I am to the truth.

I’m not going to express my anger at Ri-hyun right away.

I’m going to drag this out, hoping that he will feel the pain of a racing heart for a long time.

It’s very enjoyable to see that it’s already having an effect.

“If you know who it is, will you help me…?”

I asked with as serious an expression as possible.

“O-of course!”

Ri-hyun answered with an excited voice, as if he thought he was excluded from the list of suspects.

“…It’s someone you know too.”

“Yes…?

Who….”

“The Agency Head.

Your uncle set a trap to kill me.”

Ri-hyun had an expression as surprised as when I had returned.

It seems he can’t gauge whether the situation is in his favor or not.

“You’ll help me, right, Ri-hyun-ah?

Even if he’s your uncle, he should be punished for doing something bad.

Right?”

To be honest, I’m not even curious about the answer that will come out of Ri-hyun’s mouth.

Because no matter what he answers, I have no intention of forgiving them.