Hong Kong, Part 2
“Then I guess there’s no choice and I have to do it……?”
It was Ha Seok-jun who broke the long silence.
“No. Kang-hae will do it.”
Seong Ha-yeong’s voice was firm.
Ha Seok-jun looked utterly dumbfounded.
And Seong Ha-yeong was dumbfounded that Ha Seok-jun looked dumbfounded.
If you stopped a hundred people passing down the street and asked which of the two was better, Kang-hae or Ha Seok-jun, every single one of them would answer Kang-hae.
Seong Ha-yeong looked back at Kang-hae, who still said nothing.
Then, slowly, she let her gaze travel over him from head to toe.
He wasn’t over six feet tall, but his proportions were excellent thanks to his small face and long limbs.
His body was balanced and well-built, impossible to hide even beneath clothes.
His skin was pale, unlike what you’d expect from a special forces man.
The scar on his jaw gave him a faintly sexy air.
And above all, the thing that drew the eye was his unreadable expression.
At times he looked boyish.
At others, he looked like some old man who had lived through so many storms he’d gone beyond life itself.
This was the first time Seong Ha-yeong had examined Kang-hae’s appearance so closely.
Maybe that was why, when their eyes met, she felt an odd, inexplicable flicker of embarrassment for a brief moment.
“I don’t want to. No, I can’t.”
Kang-hae said it in a hard voice.
Kang-hae didn’t have any particular opinions about homosexuality.
They were simply people with identities different from his own.
“You have to do it, Kang-hae.”
“I’m telling you, I’ve never done anything like that. No, what I mean is, I don’t know how to do that kind of thing—the honey trap…….”
“It’s nothing major. Just think of it as a date. You’ve been on a date before, haven’t you?”
“…….”
The last time Kang-hae had dated was in middle school.
But all they’d done was eat lunch together in the cafeteria, go to a study café during exam season, and visit an escape room café after the tests were over.
Could you even call that a date……?
While Kang-hae was mulling over that for a moment, Seong Ha-yeong went on.
“By any chance, didn’t the Information Command give you training in honey traps or something similar……?”
Kang-hae recalled the training he’d received in the Information Command.
Physical conditioning.
Mental discipline.
Tactics.
Detection.
Reconnaissance.
Survival.
Airborne insertion.
Diving.
Intelligence gathering.
First aid.
Communications gear.
Shooting and weapons.
And the various martial arts he’d learned privately from former athletes in combat sports.
Among all that, there wasn’t even the slightest trace of honey-trap training.
“You didn’t learn it…….”
Seong Ha-yeong understood it the moment she saw his face.
“Anyway, I can’t do it.”
“It has to be you, Kang-hae.”
“Why me?”
Seong Ha-yeong shot a quick look at Ha Seok-jun, as if asking whether he seriously didn’t know why.
Ha Seok-jun butted in between them without reading the room.
“I’ll just do it.”
“Major, would you please back off for a second!”
It was the first time Seong Ha-yeong had raised her voice at Ha Seok-jun.
When Ha Seok-jun shut up, Seong Ha-yeong began trying to persuade Kang-hae again.
“The men Ryan Huang dated all look very similar to you.”
“Similar how?”
“Body type, appearance, even the overall vibe.”
“You researched that too?”
“No, if you just look through Ryan Huang’s social media a little…….”
Seong Ha-yeong faltered.
And Ha Seok-jun, catching on to something, brightened.
“So that’s why you recommended Kang-hae instead of me! I knew it.”
It wasn’t even worth responding to.
Kang-hae looked at Seong Ha-yeong.
There was desperation in her eyes.
“Is this really the only way?”
“For now, yes.”
In the end, Kang-hae asked for one day to think it over.
Time was short, but Seong Ha-yeong understood how difficult it would be, so she said all right.
Kang-hae and Ha Seok-jun left Seong Ha-yeong’s room and headed for the one next door.
Then they went straight into the bathroom and took showers.
As cold water pounded over him, Kang-hae thought, Can I really do this……?
He imagined the things he would have to go through if he accepted.
Even thinking about it made his skin crawl.
It wasn’t the cold shower.
Kang-hae shook his head and stepped out of the bathroom.
When he came out, Ha Seok-jun was sitting at the table, sipping beer.
“Want one?”
Ha Seok-jun asked as he looked at Kang-hae, who’d just finished showering.
Under normal circumstances, Kang-hae would never have drunk with Ha Seok-jun, but at that moment he needed alcohol too.
Kang-hae took a beer from the minibar and sat down at the table.
Glug—
He knocked back half the can in one go.
But the tangled thoughts boiling in his head refused to settle.
“This is the first time we’ve ever drunk together.”
Ha Seok-jun said in a tipsy voice.
The Information Command personnel used wild strawberries, pine mushrooms, dogwood berries, houttuynia, kudzu, and other things they’d gathered in the mountains to make infused liquor.
Then, when a big training exercise was over, they’d dig up the bottles they’d buried in the ground and drink.
Since Ha Seok-jun had never attended those trainings, of course he’d never been included in those drinking sessions.
So even though Kang-hae and Ha Seok-jun had served together for more than a year, they’d never once drunk together.
After finishing an entire can of beer, Ha Seok-jun pulled a medicine packet from his pants pocket.
Gulp—
Then he swallowed the pills dry, without water.
Kang-hae had seen him doing the same thing on the flight to Hong Kong, but then as now, he didn’t ask what the pills were.
“Ah, these. They’re prescribed by a psychiatrist. Ever since that day, I haven’t been sleeping well…….”
“…….”
If he meant that day, he was talking about the day they killed Captain Ahn Yeong-wook of the 1st Division Reconnaissance Battalion.
He’d watched a man being murdered right in front of him.
And he’d become an accomplice before he knew it, so it wasn’t exactly hard to understand.
Kang-hae looked silently at the drunken Ha Seok-jun.
The Ha Seok-jun he’d known in the Information Command years ago and the one sitting here now were very different.
His appallingly poor self-awareness and slimy opportunism were still there, but
Kang-hae didn’t feel nearly as much like killing him as he once had.
Because of the medicine?
It occurred to him that maybe it was because of the medicine.
After her older son died, Kang-hae’s mother had swallowed handfuls of pills prescribed by a psychiatrist.
She’d become listless, and sometimes she’d be sluggish and dim; other times she’d ramble without making sense.
To shake off that memory, Kang-hae emptied the rest of his beer into his mouth.
“Kang-hae, I’m sorry about that time.”
“……?”
Ha Seok-jun pointed at Kang-hae’s jaw with a finger.
He meant the scar caused by Byeon Dong-jin slashing him with a knife when he was a trainee.
“It was promotion season then… we should’ve sent that bastard to the military prison…….”
“Go to bed.”
Kang-hae stood up and lay down on the bed.
There was something far more important than figuring out why Ha Seok-jun had changed.
Kang-hae forced himself to think only about that.
Approaching Ryan Huang.
He kept worrying over it until deep in the night, and by the time morning came he could finally fall asleep.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Bitcom was headquartered in the ICC.
After work, Ryan Huang would head up to O2 Bar on the 118th floor and drink single malt whisky alone whenever he had nothing special to do.
It was an old habit.
That day too, Ryan Huang finished work at ten p.m., took the elevator, and pressed 118.
When the doors opened, lights that created a dreamy atmosphere spilled out.
Ryan Huang walked into that glow.
He passed the people admiring Hong Kong’s night view and headed for the seat he usually took.
It was a place set aside for customers who drank alone, like Ryan Huang.
The bar was always crowded with people there to enjoy the view, but the seat Ryan Huang chose had its back to the floor-to-ceiling window, so it wasn’t very popular.
Visitors who came to Hong Kong only briefly never sat there.
Ryan Huang drank alone, his back turned to everyone else.
Then, the moment he turned his head to the side, his whole body stiffened.
His ideal type was sitting alone, drinking.
Pale skin.
Big eyes without double eyelids.
The boyish gaze held in those eyes.
And the scar near his jaw, for some reason oddly touchable, though Ryan Huang had no idea why it was there.
Ryan Huang stared at the man in a daze, unable to look away.
And the instant their eyes met, his heart lurched.
Ryan Huang didn’t turn away.
Nor did the man.
[Now, give a faint smile and tilt your head just a little. Like someone who has something to say.]
Seong Ha-yeong’s voice came through Kang-hae’s earpiece.
Before coming to the bar, she had given him a wireless communication device smaller than a grain of millet.
Kang-hae had tucked it into his left ear.
At that same time, Seong Ha-yeong and Ha Seok-jun were in the hotel room, watching O2 Bar on a laptop.
A few hours earlier, Seong Ha-yeong had asked the National Security Office for help.
The National Security Office had requested cooperation from the National Intelligence Service.
Employees from the NIS Cyber Security Bureau had hacked the CCTV installed in O2 Bar.
They then sent Seong Ha-yeong a link that let her watch the live feed.
And now Seong Ha-yeong was watching Kang-hae and Ryan Huang in real time from the hotel room.
“You here on vacation?” Ryan Huang asked, looking at Kang-hae.
Ryan Huang realized his voice had just trembled.
He thought that was actually a good thing.
And he wanted that man to know he was trembling too, right now.
“Sorry. I don’t speak English very well.”
“Oh, dear…….”
Ryan Huang was genuinely disappointed.
The languages Ryan Huang could speak were Korean, English, and Cantonese.
If the man sitting one seat, then another, then another over were Chinese or Japanese, the conversation would be over.
Of course, they could use a translator app.
But he would never be able to convey his true feelings completely that way.
“Where are you from?”
“From? Korea. South Korea.”
The instant Ryan Huang heard the answer, the word fate flashed through his mind.
Ryan Huang picked up his glass of whisky and moved to the seat beside Kang-hae.
“Nice to meet you. I lived in Korea when I was little too.”
“Ah?! You’re Korean?”
Kang-hae said with a bright smile.
Ryan Huang thought to himself that his smile was really beautiful.
“More precisely, I’m Korean American. My name’s Ryan Huang.”
Ryan Huang held out his hand.
[Shake his hand and don’t let go for five seconds. Ah, and look at him steadily.]
Seong Ha-yeong’s voice came again in Kang-hae’s ear.
And Kang-hae did exactly as she said, taking Ryan Huang’s hand.
Ryan Huang became certain.
This man, who was staring at him steadily and wouldn’t let go of his hand, was interested in him too.
“My name’s Ha Seok-jun.”
After the handshake ended, Kang-hae introduced himself as Ha Seok-jun.
“Ha Seok-jun? That’s a pretty name.”
“Really? I don’t like it very much.”
“No, it’s pretty. The name too…….”
Ryan Huang immediately regretted what he’d just said.
He also thought he’d been rash.
But the smile Kang-hae sent him made him forget that thought.
“Are you here in Hong Kong on vacation?”
“Yes.”
“Alone?”
“Yes. I came alone.”
“Have you ever been to Hong Kong before?”
“No. This is my first time.”
“Need a guide?”
“I prefer being alone.”
“Ah…… you like being alone…….”
“Only during the day.”
“……?”
“Not at night.”
“……!”
Kang-hae brought his glass to his mouth.
Then he slowly swallowed the liquor.
What kind of woman is Seong Ha-yeong, anyway……?
Everything Kang-hae had just said had been scripted by Seong Ha-yeong, and the words that had nothing whatsoever to do with his usual self left him confused.
Kang-hae found himself wondering what kind of relationship Seong Ha-yeong had been having with men.
And Ryan Huang decided there was no point hesitating anymore.
Everything Kang-hae had done and said was a signal.
“There are some pretty good drinks at my place.”
“I like sweet drinks.”
“Doesn’t that depend on who you’re drinking with?”
“Then it’ll be sweet.”
“If you’re okay with it, want to come over and have a drink at my place?”
Seong Ha-yeong’s voice came again.
[Make a face like you’re thinking about it.]
Kang-hae did as she said and put on a thoughtful expression.
[Now say yes.]
The moment he said it would be good, Ryan Huang stood up and settled the bill.
Of course, that included Kang-hae’s drink too.
And in the meantime, the white man and woman seated by the window had also risen and were heading to the counter.
The man who stood was Daniel Parker.
The woman was Alex White.
Both were agents working at the CIA’s Hong Kong station.