I'd Like a Word
I'd expected as much, but by the time I opened my eyes, everything was already over.
Not long after I went down, the heroes had stormed in and carried me and the kids out, wounded as we were.
They'd launched an investigation at Freedom's hideout and secured a fair amount of evidence, but every last person who'd been inside had already fled. The finer details of what had happened remained out of reach.
The press was calling it a large-scale sweep of a criminal organization. In truth, all they'd managed was to cut off a tail.
My condition had been critical enough that a hospital stay was unavoidable. Thankfully, Lee Yeon-hui's mother stepped in as my guardian and handled the complicated admission paperwork without a hitch. On top of that, she'd apparently come and gone constantly while I was unconscious, keeping vigil at my bedside. I felt genuinely sorry about that.
Still. Setting all of that aside, the real problem right now was—
"Hic… sniff…"
"Hey. Stop crying."
"I'm not crying!"
—somehow calming down Lee Yeon-hui, who kept sniffling without end.
Yeon-hui had her face buried in my bed, sniffling away, while Yeon-ah slept soundly on the guardian's cot. From what I'd heard, aside from eating and using the bathroom, neither of them had left my side for even a moment. I was grateful—truly, it was touching—but still.
"I told you I'm fine. What's got you crying so miserably?"
"I said I wasn't crying!"
Fine. We'll go with that.
I let out a small sigh and looked away from her. Almost as if chasing my gaze, Yeon-hui's voice came right back.
"They said you were really in danger. A little more bleeding, a little more shock, and you might've died."
"…"
Instead of answering, I looked down at the casts and bandages wrapped around most of my body. Even I had to admit this one had been close. I'd put my body through enough scrapes to know roughly how far I could push it without dying—and this ranked among the worst of them.
"But we're alive, aren't we? You, me, Yeon-ah. All of us."
At that, Yeon-hui's head bobbed up and down in what looked like a nod. Yeah. Being alive like this was enough for now.
Repeating that thought to myself, I carefully set my hand on her head so as not to startle her and stroked her hair as gently as I could.
Yeon-hui kept sniffling through our entire conversation until, worn out from crying, she eventually fell asleep with her face still buried in my blanket. Given how often she'd been at my hospital room, the fatigue must have piled up.
"You're going to wreck your neck sleeping like that."
I wanted to move her into a better position, but in my current state that was easier said than done. I was still fretting over what to do when—
Knock. Knock.
Someone rapped on the hospital room door.
"Come in."
At my answer the door slid open. A man who looked to be in his early-to-mid twenties entered alongside a middle-aged man. The older one glanced between Yeon-hui, draped asleep across my bed, and Yeon-ah sleeping on the caregiver's cot, then broke into a grin.
"Looks like we're interrupting something."
"I don't know what you're imagining, but it's nothing like that."
How old did he think I was, horsing around with kids? My body might have gotten younger, but my head was the same as ever—and I had no interest in that kind of maze, thank you very much. How exactly was I supposed to be messing around with children?
"More importantly, who are you?"
"Ah. Introductions are overdue, aren't they."
At my question, the middle-aged man rummaged inside his jacket pocket and produced a small notebook, holding it out so I could see it clearly.
"Jang Il-seok. Team Leader, Hero Association Administrative Affairs."
"Park Han-sol, same department."
At those introductions, my half-lidded eyes snapped wide open. Not because they'd come from the Association. Given the scale of the incident, I'd already figured they'd send someone to take a statement. But a team leader?
In an ordinary company, team leader might not rank among the highest positions. In the Hero Association, though, the standing that title carried was considerable. The Association wasn't exactly swimming in free time—dispatching someone of that rank just to debrief a kid meant there had to be a reason.
There's something behind this, then.
"I'd like a word, if that's all right."
A smile played at the corners of Jang Il-seok's mouth as he asked.
"That's no trouble. But before that, could you give me a hand?"
I tipped my chin toward Yeon-hui beside me. Catching my meaning, Jang Il-seok gently laid her down next to Yeon-ah. Desk jockeys, huh. Sharp as ever.
Watching that, I pushed myself up from the bed and headed outside with the two of them.
They took me to a café inside the hospital. Being morning, the place was relatively quiet—decent enough for a conversation.
"Here. Drink up and talk at your ease. No need to be tense. And don't worry about the kids in the room—we've got proper security posted on them."
"Thank you."
With an endlessly kindly face, Jang Il-seok handed me a kiwi juice. Falling in with his words, I set my mouth to the straw and took a pull.
"I've heard a lot about you from Hyeon-seong. Said you were a sharp kid."
An opening line. This was the preamble—the real talk would come next. I pulled my mouth from the straw without answering and looked at him. He spoke again.
"Sharp or not, pinning down Freedom's hideout couldn't have been easy. Care to tell me how you found it?"
So this was where the real conversation started.
"I heard the Association and the police had received threat letters, so I got scared and set up my own CCTV. I tracked their route with that."
A glint entered Jang Il-seok's eyes. Was that wariness climbing?
"Even if you managed to track them, it could have been quite dangerous. Why didn't you report it to us right away?"
"I was right there when Hyeon-seong hyung got the call to deploy. I figured one kid's CCTV footage wouldn't be enough to move anyone."
"So that's why you sent the evidence photos and the location?"
"Yes."
To get people already in the field to shift course, I'd needed something more solid. So before I made my proper entry into Freedom's hideout, I'd sent photos of the armed Freedom members and the location data to Lee Hyeon-seong's phone.
"You didn't wait for us because you didn't trust us?"
"The opposite, I'd say. I didn't know whether you'd trust me."
Honestly, I'd figured there was about an eighty percent chance they'd come. Of course, one photo and a tip from a kid wasn't going to move an entire unit on the spot, so I'd accounted for the delay. The real issue had been the process. If they did come, I'd expected them to send a recon team first to verify, then deploy. The fact that Hyeon-seong had pushed hard enough to get people in immediately had been an unexpected stroke of luck.
"A foolish question, a wise answer."
Jang Il-seok huffed a short laugh at my reply, then met my eyes again and pressed on.
"During the investigation of Freedom's hideout, a number of Non-Awakened corpses were discovered. Any idea what that was about?"
So everything up to now had been a warm-up. What I'd thought was the start of the real questioning had only been the introduction. Judging by his expression, posture, and gaze—the way he was determined not to miss a single signal coming off me—this question carried real weight.
"Didn't you already hear all this from Lee Yeon-hui and Lee Yeon-ah before I woke up?"
"I'd like to hear it from your own mouth."
"Same as what those two said."
"Specifically?"
"I'd rather not remember."
It was information that wouldn't matter much if I told them. But the important questions almost certainly weren't finished. The answers I gave here could shape what came next, so I judged it best to avoid anything too direct.
"I see. Sorry to dig up hard memories."
A formulaic reply. His face didn't show it, but on paper I was classified as a victim—so even if I stonewalled like this, he couldn't push too hard.
"Next. At Freedom's hideout, we found traces of a powerful weapon classified as illegal. Anything come to mind regarding that?"
"Hard to say. Things were pretty chaotic."
A follow-up to the previous question—and another truth that wouldn't hurt me if it came out. Which meant this was a game where I held the absolute advantage: I could afford to lose this card and still force him to show his hand.
"From the circumstances, there appear to have been roughly two clashes between a powerful Awakened and a high-grade weapon. We also confirmed combat between considerably strong Awakened. And you remember nothing of that?"
There it was. He'd shown his hand first. The illegal weapon use, followed by combat between Awakened—that was the real aim of the question. All the more reason I couldn't answer. I had not the slightest intention of letting the world know about Yeon-hui, who still hadn't fully Awakened.
"As I just said, the situation was so chaotic I'll need more time to think it through. What I do remember is that someone who seemed to be Hyeon-seong hyung's superior showed up, kidnapped Yeon-ah, and that I chased after him in a frenzy trying to get her back. That's about it."
At my answer, Jang Il-seok's brow twitched. He knew, of course. My reply was laced with poison.
Lee Hyeon-seong's superior. From my conversation with Hyeon-seong at the time, I'd learned the man was team-leader rank. There had been a spy among the people who formed the backbone of the Hero Association. And despite having security posted, they'd failed to prevent a kidnapping—a bungled response. I'd half-threatened him after first confirming these were facts the world didn't know. A sneer that said, You made this mess yourselves, and now you're here running your mouths? And a display that I knew things that hadn't been made public—that I could air them whenever I chose.
Jang Il-seok kept the same expression as before. Park Han-sol, on the other hand, couldn't hide the fluster settling over his face.
"I'd heard you were clever, but this goes well past that."
"If I'd only been ordinarily clever, you think I could've put my parents behind bars?"
They'd already finished their background check on me and dug into my past. I was telling them to quit asking questions they already knew the answers to. The tone was a bit snide, but right now pushing hard was the right call. I held the advantage in information and in position.
Jang Il-seok and I fell into a brief silence after those last words. Our eyes stayed locked, and the quiet showed no sign of breaking. Park Han-sol seemed to sense the strange tension running between us; his eyes flicked back and forth from one of us to the other.
A few seconds of stillness stretched on.
"Ahahahaha! Forgive me. I've been dealing with criminals right up until now, so I got a little too into character without realizing it."
"It's fine. I was having fun too."
"You answered so sharply I meant to play it off as a joke at first, but I missed the timing."
Laughing heartily, Jang Il-seok shed the heavy air from a moment ago and returned to the kindly-uncle impression from our first meeting.
"That's all the questions I have. Sorry to bother you while you were resting. I'll walk you back to your room."
"You're busy—no need to go out of your way. I wanted to stop by the convenience store anyway."
"Understood. If anything we asked jogs your memory, give me a call at this number. Appreciate your help today."
"Glad I could be of use."
I slipped the business card Jang Il-seok held out into my pocket, clasped the hand he offered, and rose from my seat.
Watching Park Yeon-chan's retreating back, Jang Il-seok murmured under his breath.
"That one's no ordinary kid."
"No kidding. The way he talks doesn't sound like a child at all."
When Park Han-sol chimed in agreement, Jang Il-seok gave a thoughtful hum, glanced sideways at him, and asked in a tone that sounded like a test.
"How much of it did you catch?"
"Well… toward the end, I could tell he was needling us."
"And?"
"And I got the sense he'd figured out we'd run a background check on him."
"And?"
"And… I'm sorry. I don't know beyond that."
Under the barrage of questions like a pressure interview, Park Han-sol shrank into himself.
"I'll tell you, for the sake of the next generation. That kid spent our entire conversation reading me. Gestures, movements, breathing, the shift of my eyes—every signal my body was putting out."
"How do you know that?"
"Because I was reading every last thing about him, too."
Letting out a breath, Jang Il-seok straightened his clothes and lifted his gaze toward Park Yeon-chan climbing the stairs.
"That boy knew from the start. That in this exchange, he held the upper hand over us. And he steered the conversation all the way to what we truly wanted answered."
"But Team Leader—if you already knew that, was there any need for us to ask first?"
"He probably guessed it. That we hadn't come just to ask about some trivial incident report."
"How do you mean?"
"Because I'm a team leader."
"…!"
Given the nature of his work, observing people had become second nature to Jang Il-seok. That was why he clearly remembered Park Yeon-chan's reaction when he'd first introduced himself. The change in the boy's pupils hadn't come when they revealed they were with the heroes—it had come the moment Jang Il-seok stated his rank as team leader.
So he knows how much weight the title of team leader carries inside the organization.
It wasn't exactly classified information, but it wasn't something widely known to the public either. Jang Il-seok had wondered if the boy somehow knew—but Yeon-chan was so young he hadn't dug any deeper at the time.
Turns out it wasn't my imagination after all. Heh.
He was still turning over that first misjudgment born from his initial impression of Park Yeon-chan when Park Han-sol tilted his head, looking unconvinced.
"Even so, I still wonder whether we really needed to show our only card."
"You think I'm an idiot? I didn't just hand it to him."
"Then what exactly…"
"No matter how capable someone is, the moment the prey they want comes into view, a gap opens."
"…Ah!"
"The sisters—Lee Yeon-ah and Lee Yeon-hui—didn't seem to know a thing about the clashes between Awakened. But Park Yeon-chan, when I asked about those clashes, had a face that said he had absolutely no intention of giving up that information."
"Which means—"
"Right. We can take it that he knows. About those clashes."
"I see! As expected of you, Team Leader—incredible!"
Watching his junior's eyes go wide with admiration, Jang Il-seok wore a bitter smile. That was all they'd gotten. In that exchange—no, from the moment they'd met him—Park Yeon-chan had walked away with a great deal. And all they'd managed to pry from the young boy was that single scrap.
No matter how you looked at it—even at a glance—this was Jang Il-seok's clear defeat. Which was why he couldn't bring himself to feel pleased.
At this point, I can't even muster frustration or anger.
Stepping outside the hospital and looking up at the wide sky, all he could do was let out a hollow laugh.