The Capable Courier and a Convenient Truth
(37) The motorcycle guy Yu Hana sent turned out to be far more capable than expected. Weaving through alleys was just the basics—he even vaulted over railings and squeezed through places that weren't roads, pulling off all sorts of tricks before slipping out of Yeongdeungpo's back alleys in no time. From the looks of it, the police had set up a pretty wide net, but without him I would've been in for a real headache. Once we cleared the alleys, he floored it like a madman and dropped me off at the dorm in just ten minutes. And when I say madman, I mean he didn't give a damn about CCTV or anything else. It was an emergency, sure, but I figured we should at least avoid cameras in a situation like this. His answer caught me off guard.
"Ah, you don't need to worry about that, ma'am. The young lady has probably already blocked all the CCTV in this area."
"...She has?"
Being able to control CCTV. That Yu Hana really is something else—every time you think you've seen it all, something new pops up. How is she this competent? The more capable someone is, the more likely their personality is messed up. Maybe gods really don't exist after all.
"We've arrived at your destination, ma'am. For fast, accurate deliveries, look up 'Thunder'~"
"...Thanks for your hard work."
The motorcycle guy gave me a polite bow in front of the dorm and even finished his little self-promotion. What a ridiculous guy to the very end. What even is he? Same with those kimchi-making uncles—nothing about the people connected to Yu Hana feels normal.
I scaled the wall and slipped into the dorm through a window. Yu Hana and Ji Seoeun were already waiting inside.
"Where are Tasha and Seong Jiyeong?"
"They haven't come back yet?"
"Did Seong Jiyeong just vanish, or did she say something before leaving?"
"She probably just disappeared. I wouldn't know though. Seoseo and I were pretending to sleep in our room~"
"I see. Ha, seriously..."
"So what exactly happened?"
I gave the two of them a rough rundown of the earlier events. Yu Hana only knew I'd been with Tasha—she wouldn't have known the details.
"Aw, I missed that epic showdown. What a shame."
"Camera function. Needs attachment."
Even in this serious situation, these two were more upset about missing my tear-jerking brawl(?) with Tasha. I really couldn't trust these people at all. But what choice did I have? In times like this, they were the only teammates I could discuss things with. It felt incredibly unfair, but as fellow members of the same doomed community, I figured I should at least hear their opinions. I'm not exactly the thinking type to begin with. Still, these guys—especially Yu Hana—seemed specialized in that department, so I'd just have to suck it up. First, though, I needed to clear up the things that were bothering me.
"So you're saying you didn't know Seong Jiyeong was Golden Roll either?"
"Nope. Actually, wouldn't it be weirder if I did? Tasha shares a room with her, but our rooms are completely separate. If she teleports out without going through the living room, how would we notice?"
"That's true. But you can track the members' locations. That's how you knew Tasha went out for a night stroll."
If Seong Jiyeong suddenly disappeared in the middle of the night, only Tasha—who shared her room—would have any chance of noticing. But Tasha had left first after waiting for Seong Jiyeong to fall asleep, so if the pretending-to-sleep Seong Jiyeong slipped out afterward, no one would know. Even I couldn't notice someone vanishing from their room without passing through the living room. If I didn't know, it made sense that Yu Hana—who shared a room with me—wouldn't know either. But Yu Hana had the ability to check members' locations. If she'd seen Seong Jiyeong's position suddenly change, she could've figured out Seong Jiyeong was Golden Roll. A sudden change in position could only mean teleportation, and Golden Roll was the only teleporter in the country.
"What, Yeri-yeri~ Are you suspecting me now~? I'm hurt~ I even sent someone to help you and this is how you treat me?"
"Ugh. Fine, I did owe you one today. Still, shouldn't we clear things up properly before moving on?"
"Sure, whatever. I guess I'll need to explain myself to prove my innocence then."
Yu Hana's method of checking members' locations was through their phones. Since pretty much everyone these days carried a phone, she could track their positions that way. Even Ji Seoeun—who'd been kidnapped—had her phone on her even if it was turned off, and when I went to deal with Dr. Oh, I'd taken mine too, so she could tell we were together by watching our two locations get closer. Same with Tasha going out for her night stroll—she'd taken her phone, so Yu Hana knew where she was.
"But Jeong-jeong doesn't usually carry her phone around. How would I have known then?"
So if Seong Jiyeong hadn't taken her phone, Yu Hana wouldn't have been able to track her. And normally, Seong Jiyeong really didn't carry one. It was almost uncharacteristic for someone her age. I'd seen it plenty of times during practice too, so her claim that she didn't know Seong Jiyeong's location seemed legit.
"But you knew today. You mentioned Seong Jiyeong showing up here before I even said anything."
"Yeah. Why did Jeong-jeong take her phone today?"
"Hmm..."
"I thought it was weird too. And this ability isn't passive—I have to check manually. There's no reason I'd check on Jeong-jeong's location in the middle of the night when she was supposedly in her room. When we heard someone go outside, she was still quietly in her room."
"Fair enough."
"Seong Jiyeong taking her phone. Was it for contact?"
"What kind of contact?"
"If she showed up at such a dramatic timing, it's likely she was coordinating with someone who could assess the situation and timing it perfectly."
"Timing... She really did show up at an absurdly perfect moment."
"So my suspicion's cleared?"
"Yeah, I guess. Sorry for doubting you for no reason."
Made sense—there's no way she could just know someone's location without some kind of device. Given how she'd handled the CCTV earlier, Yu Hana's ability was clearly hacking-related. Tracking locations through phones didn't seem like a lie either. There was still something vaguely suspicious about it, but pushing further would only backfire. I had zero evidence anyway. And logically, there wasn't anything wrong with her explanation.
"Ah, and while we're on the subject—the guy you sent earlier. Can I trust him? Things were dicey, so he saw my face."
"Lightning Bro? Of course~ I don't use people I can't trust~"
"He seemed pretty flippant. Is he connected to those kimchi-making uncles?"
"Something like that."
"What does he do, anyway?"
"Didn't Lightning Bro give you his card? He does quick deliveries."
"Quick as in delivery service? So that's what that was about."
No wonder he'd been going on about speed and accuracy and deliveries. He was literally a delivery guy? Though he did handle that motorcycle like a pro. Come to think of it, Yu Hana's people were surprisingly upstanding. Maybe they really didn't do anything illegal? That was kind of surprising. The guy called "Thunder" hadn't seemed like an ordinary person either. Since there hadn't been any issues with Dr. Oh, I should probably trust that this time would be fine too. It was a shame I couldn't have used the helmet as a substitute for the rabbit-ear helmet to avoid showing my face, but that had been unavoidable. It's not like I'd be doing this kind of thing again anyway, so what was the problem?
With the questions mostly resolved, it was time to tackle the real issue: what to do about Tasha, who'd disappeared with Seong Jiyeong.
"What's the main problem here?"
"I was most worried about Tasha getting caught while operating as Black Yaksha. That would've dragged our entire company into it. But if that happens, you'd be in just as much trouble as Ji Seoeun, right? You're all hiding your abilities anyway. A thorough re-examination is guaranteed, and these days they can detect pretty much everything. Even if Ji Seoeun's fine, hacking-related abilities are under special government management, so you'd be flagged as a person of interest."
"That's true~ And the same goes for Jeong-jeong. So that's why she took Shasha with her?"
"I think that's part of it, but I'm guessing she wants to recruit Tasha outright."
"Aha~ Makes sense. Someone like Shasha would be..."
Ji Seoeun, who'd been quietly listening to our conversation, offered her opinion.
"Then isn't it fine? If Tasha gets recruited by Seong Jiyeong, we can stop worrying."
"Stop worrying?"
"I don't know what Tasha's goal is, but if she's with Seong Jiyeong, she won't get caught."
"That's true..."
Thinking about it, she was right. If Tasha operated with Seong Jiyeong, she wouldn't get caught. Golden Roll had avoided capture this whole time thanks to teleportation—if Tasha had teleportation backing her up, how would anyone catch her? The biggest problem had been getting arrested, but if that wasn't a risk anymore, there was no reason to worry.
"This... might actually work out better than I thought?"
Honestly, whether Tasha or Seong Jiyeong did Phantom activities didn't matter to me as long as they didn't get caught. Operating at night regularly might take a toll on their stamina, but watching how these people operated, it didn't seem like it'd interfere with their schedules. They were already doing hardcore training and still managing to keep up with practice while doing Phantom work on the side. Tasha even looked completely fine, like she'd just had a good night's sleep. Once official activities started, things would get busier than practice, but since they were trying to hide their identities, they'd probably keep things low-key enough. I didn't know why, but they both seemed to want to debut and do activities anyway. If anything, this was the perfect position. Neither of them had any idea I was the weird rabbit-helmet person, so there wouldn't be any issues. I could just let them team up and do their Phantom thing while I focused on my own work. It was such a clean solution that my past self, who'd been agonizing over it, felt pathetic in comparison.
"This is why you need someone who uses their brain."
Really, using your head made life so much easier.
"But then we won't get to see Yeri-yeri in the cool rabbit helmet again?"
"Probably not. Wearing something like that in the first place was a bit..."
"Don't like it? Disappointing."
"No, it's not about liking or disliking it. It's just funny that I'd be wearing something like that. I don't really want to hide my identity and do stuff anyway."
"That's a shame~ I thought there'd be more fun things happening."
"Save the fun stuff for later. This incident alone was exhausting enough."
"If that's what you want... I'll keep quiet, even if it's disappointing."
"Yeah, I like that attitude. Let's just leave Seong Jiyeong and Tasha to play around on their own."
Personally, I did like Tasha, but I'd already done my part by putting on the rabbit helmet to save her from falling into a trap. Even that had been a mistake because I didn't know Golden Roll existed—if I'd known Seong Jiyeong was Golden Roll, I wouldn't have gotten involved at all. When it came to rescuing people, nothing beat teleportation. Two quick trips and it would've been done without any hassle. And more than anything, I didn't want to get dragged into something that looked endlessly complicated. One lifetime of suffering was enough. This time, I was going to avoid anything tiring and just coast along.
With that direction decided, I waited for Tasha and Seong Jiyeong to return. I'd greet them as naturally as possible, pretending I knew nothing.