Chapter 68
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: Annie. Don't worry
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[Scene.68 Annie. Don't worry]
Yu-hyeon's demand was immediately relayed to the United States through Marcos.
The CIA, already struggling with the Borderless Consortium's random assassinations and appeasement tactics, looked as stunned as if they'd been slapped on both cheeks.
“The list?”
CIA Director Richard asked, and across the video call, Marcos nodded.
“The deadline is tomorrow.”
“Hmm. An unreasonable demand.”
“He raised the issue of the information leak from our side and the fact that his opinion was ignored when the security level was raised. He said it wasn't a request, but a notification.”
“A notification?”
“He mentioned terminating the contract.”
At Marcos's reply, not only Richard but also Jamie, the head of the dedicated team attending the meeting, and all the agents present stiffened.
Jamie, the team leader, wore a displeased expression.
“Director. I know the Professor is important and holds the key, but…”
Richard raised a hand, cutting Jamie off.
“Marcos. What were the casualties on the ground?”
“We lost five agents disguised as the stunt team.”
“And the Professor?”
Marcos fiddled with something for a moment before speaking again.
“This is footage from the scene.”
At Richard's gesture, an agent quickly operated a computer. A moment later, a video file downloaded and was displayed on the screen.
The footage, which appeared to be from a drone, showed a road. Shortly after, assassins on motorcycles and in an SUV surrounded a sedan, opening fire.
“Hmm…”
As Richard let out a short groan, Marcos spoke again.
“If we hadn't prepared a bulletproof vehicle for contingencies, it would have led to a major incident. In that car were not only famous Korean actors but also Elizabeth Veil.”
When the name Elizabeth Veil came from Marcos's lips, everyone flinched.
“The Elizabeth from the Veil family?”
“Yes, Director.”
A moment later, when a scene appeared of a dirt bike showing up and wiping out the enemies, not just Richard but Jamie and the other agents exclaimed, “Wow!”
Team leader Jamie pointed at the agent on the bike and asked Marcos.
“I'm curious about the name of the agent who handled the situation.”
At Jamie's words, Marcos let out a short sigh.
“That wasn't one of our agents. It was the Professor.”
“Huh? Who?”
Marcos repeated himself, emphasizing that it wasn't one of their agents, but “the Professor.”
“That's absurd!”
Unless the scene on screen was staged or a pre-planned, choreographed action sequence… No. Even if it were, how could the Professor pull off moves like that?
As Jamie, with a look of disbelief, was about to speak again, Director Richard raised his hand.
“Jamie, quiet.”
“…”
“At the time, the agents disguised as stuntmen had already been taken down by the enemy, and I and the remaining agents were positioned further back.”
“Then why did they attack that vehicle instead of the Professor?”
“The male actor in the car had a similar build and hairstyle to the Professor. Since he was moving with the other actors, it seems they mistook the target.”
Richard, who had watched the video to the end, clenched and unclenched his fists, clearly tense. There were too many heart-stopping moments just from watching.
“In such a dangerous situation, shouldn't you have stopped the Professor from getting involved?”
“I apologize. He rushed off before we had a chance.”
“Marcos. I'm disappointed.”
“…”
Getting chewed out by Yu-hyeon and now by headquarters, Marcos looked weary.
“This wouldn't have happened if we had kept the security level normal as the Professor requested from the start. We just ended up giving the enemy something to focus on.”
Marcos voiced his complaint, suggesting that headquarters' decision had also contributed to the incident.
Richard's gaze shifted to Jamie.
Jamie looked flustered for a moment but quickly composed himself.
“Assassinations and appeasements were happening randomly. The Professor's opinion had merit, but we couldn't just stand by and do nothing.”
Jamie's point was also valid, so Richard sighed again.
“By the way, how are we supposed to understand that side of the Professor? A man who used to just conduct experiments in a lab…”
“He completed one of our programs.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“When we established our cooperative relationship, the Professor requested it himself. He said he needed to be able to defend himself in a worst-case scenario.”
“Are you saying… the Professor completed our agent training program?”
“Yes. It happened before you formed the dedicated team, and it wasn't something we needed to disclose, so you wouldn't have known.”
“I see.”
Even as he partially accepted that the Professor had received special CIA training, his eyes still held a look of disbelief.
“Triple A.”
“Sir?”
“That was the evaluation given by the instructors who handled his training. He's also the fastest to ever complete it in CIA history.”
A Triple A rating. New agents were selected and trained every year, but the number who had ever received this rating could be counted on one hand. And yet, the Professor—a man who seemed more suited to fiddling with books and staring at monitors—was a Triple A special agent-level operative.
“Is that true?”
Jamie still looked unconvinced.
“Don't try to judge him by ordinary standards. But is that what's important right now?”
As Richard frowned, Jamie backed down, saying, “No, sir. I was just surprised.”
Just as Richard said, the more pressing issue was how to handle the Professor's demands, not how he had acquired such skills.
True to its reputation, the CIA hadn't been idle.
They had conducted an in-depth investigation into how the leaked information had circulated and who had reacted to it.
In the process, they had discovered the organization called the Borderless Consortium and had even identified some of its members.
“The problem is that some American corporations and politicians are also part of that consortium…”
As Richard deliberated on how much information to disclose, Jamie offered his opinion.
“I acknowledge that the Professor is remarkable, but at the end of the day, he's just one individual. Once he understands the reality of the situation, won't he restrain himself a bit?”
“Make him understand reality, you say.”
“An individual can't defeat an organization, and an organization can't overcome a nation. The Borderless Consortium isn't just a collection of companies, is it? Frankly, even we know who they are, but we're not in a position to act rashly.”
“It could escalate into an investigation of domestic companies, or worse, a diplomatic issue.”
At Jamie's words, all the agents in the meeting seemed to reach a similar conclusion, their expressions showing agreement.
“If the Professor learns this, he'll realize that revenge or what have you won't be easy.”
“And he'll also realize that he's only safe if he continues to work with us?”
Richard finished Jamie's thought.
“Isn't that the best course of action?”
“Show him the enemy's scale and power to make him exercise restraint. Not bad. Marcos.”
“Yes, Director.”
“The list. I'll send it. And package what we just discussed nicely and explain it to him. He may be angry and want to do something right now, but tell him he'll only end up exposing his own identity. Well, it's not like these are targets an individual can touch anyway, so he'll probably restrain himself.”
“Understood.”
“And increase the security detail. If he hadn't caught their attention, it might be different, but now that they know the assassination failed, they'll surely send someone else. We'll discuss the Professor's case again later. How is the security for the other researchers coming along?”
The Professor was the core of the project and a key figure, but numerous other scientists and researchers were also involved.
Every single one of them was a vital talent and an irreplaceable asset.
***
“Yu-hyeon. I'm here, in front of your house.”
“I'll be right down. Just wait a…”
“Wouldn't it be better if I came up?”
Elizabeth insisted on going into his house rather than having Yu-hyeon come out.
Yu-hyeon glanced around his study.
“I'm coming down.”
When Yu-hyeon refused, Elizabeth's voice softened slightly.
“…Yes.”
Elizabeth, who had been kicking at the small stones on the ground in a small fit of pique, immediately straightened her posture when the door opened.
Yu-hyeon sat down with Elizabeth on a bench in the yard.
Elizabeth seemed to be waiting for Yu-hyeon to speak first, but he remained silent, simply gazing at the night sky.
He knew exactly why she had come and what she wanted to ask, yet there he was, staring at the sky like a stone statue.
Elizabeth looked hurt.
About five minutes passed like that. Finally, Elizabeth was the one to speak.
“You're not going to tell me, are you.”
“I don't know what I'm supposed to tell you.”
Yu-hyeon finally spoke in response to Elizabeth, his gaze still fixed on the sky.
Silence fell between them once more.
In the end, it was Elizabeth who broke the silence again.
“If it was something I needed to know, you would have told me, right?”
Yu-hyeon nodded silently.
Elizabeth wrapped her arms around herself, hunching her shoulders.
“That means… just as I thought, today's situation wasn't normal.”
“…”
“Yu-hyeon.”
“…”
“It's okay if you don't tell me.”
Yu-hyeon's gaze, which had been fixed on the sky, slowly lowered. It rested on the profile of Elizabeth, who, opposite to him, was looking down at the ground.
“I… I was just… worried.”
“…”
“You're… okay, right?”
Elizabeth turned her head slightly to look up at Yu-hyeon.
“Yes.”
Again, Yu-hyeon's reply was brief.
“Tch. Would it kill you to give a longer answer?”
Elizabeth sat up straight and leaned against the back of the bench, while Yu-hyeon turned his head back to the night sky. The two of them sat like that for a while, just watching the stars.
In the deep, cloudless night sky, countless stars twinkled as if they were about to spill over.
Once again, it was Elizabeth who broke the silence.
“Yu-hyeon. You know…”
“…”
“I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I hadn't met you back then.”
“Your habit of wasting time on useless thoughts hasn't changed.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“No. Not for me. If I hadn't read what you wrote… If I hadn't insisted on meeting you… If, after meeting you and hearing what you had to say, I had run away like a frightened child…”
“…”
“I would have died. Cold in my bed.”
“Elizabeth.”
“Call me Annie.”
“…”
“Call me Annie.”
“Elizabeth. If you keep indulging in fantasies, you can't live in reality.”
At Yu-hyeon's seemingly cold words, Elizabeth didn't look hurt. Instead, she smiled as if she had missed this kind of conversation.
Elizabeth turned her head to look at Yu-hyeon.
“M.”
“…”
“Why did you save me back then? You could have just pretended not to see.”
At Elizabeth's question, Yu-hyeon lowered his gaze to look toward the distant horizon.
“Elizabeth. Do you see that cliff over there?”
Elizabeth followed Yu-hyeon's gaze to the cliff at the edge of the farm.
“A child is standing there alone, precariously.”
“…”
“What would you do, Elizabeth?”
“I'd… grab the child.”
“Yes. In the East, we call that *bulinjisim*.”
“*Bulinjisim?*”
“It refers to the heart that cannot bear to ignore the hardship or crisis of another.”
“So, to you, I looked like a child standing on the edge of a cliff.”
Elizabeth pouted before speaking again.
“What about now? Do I still look like a little kid on the edge of a cliff?”
Yu-hyeon tore his gaze from the night sky and met the eyes of Elizabeth, who was looking up at him.
“What do you think, Elizabeth? Do you still feel like you're standing on the edge of a cliff?”
Elizabeth simply smiled, without a word, at the gaze of Yu-hyeon who was looking at her—no, *seeing* her.
It was just a small smile, but it contained a multitude of emotions and answers.
Seeing Elizabeth looking up at him with a smile, Yu-hyeon let out a small chuckle. Then he turned his head and fixed his gaze on the sky again.
“Elizabeth.”
“Yes.”
“Don't.”
“…”
“The me that you see… the me that you think of… think of me as just a small, passing connection from a time gone by.”
The small smile on Elizabeth's face froze at Yu-hyeon's words.
“Yu-hyeon.”
“Yes, Elizabeth.”
“It's okay.”
“…?”
“And I understand.”
Yu-hyeon looked at Elizabeth, as if asking what she suddenly meant.
“You can call it admiration. You can call it respect. I won't say that I like you, or that I love you.”
“…”
“I'm… still happy.”
Elizabeth tapped the ground beneath the bench with the tip of her shoe before slowly rising to her feet.
“I won't ask what happened, or why things turned out the way they did today.”
“…”
“But, please don't get hurt. I don't want to go back to those days that were like a living hell, filled with nothing but sadness.”
With those words, Elizabeth turned to leave.
“Elizabeth.”
Elizabeth's steps faltered at Yu-hyeon's call.
“If I were M, this is how I would have answered.”
Elizabeth turned her head toward Yu-hyeon.
“Not a thing.”
“…”
“Annie. Don't worry. Everything will work out just fine.”
At Yu-hyeon's words, Elizabeth added with a bashful smile.
“believe in it. my Master.”
Yu-hyeon and Elizabeth nodded to each other before going their separate ways.
A moment later, from behind the wall of the guest house next to the main building, Lee Ha-na, Seong Ye-rim, and Sam—Elizabeth's guardian, vassal, and nag—emerged.
Lee Ha-na and Seong Ye-rim realized that the relationship between Yu-hyeon and Elizabeth was more complex than they had thought.
The fragmented conversation and the subtle emotions mixed within were more than enough for them to catch on.
While they hadn't had a full-blown conversation, it seemed Elizabeth had been in a very dangerous state before meeting Yu-hyeon, and he had played a significant role in helping her overcome her crisis.
The only silver lining, perhaps, was that Yu-hyeon seemed to view Elizabeth not as a grown woman, but as a student he had taught.
While the two women wore complex expressions, Sam, who had been eavesdropping with them, was red in the face, looking as if he were about to explode.
“That damn playboy! Does he think the young lady will fall for that?”
At Sam's disgruntled outburst, Lee Ha-na and Seong Ye-rim looked dumbfounded.
*Excuse me, mister. Are you completely oblivious?*
*Anyone can see that Elizabeth was the one hitting on him!*