Each Their Own Everyday
Yeon-woo stared up at the ceiling.
No—he was thinking of the agents on the fifth floor beyond it.
Hmm. Besides Kim Su-hyeok, I should put the other two agents to work too.
They had rested long enough by now.
Of course they weren't completely idle. Their baseline duties still included screening everyone who entered the building and monitoring internal and external movements.
Han Hae-un would normally handle this, but it's about time I started handing over the smaller missions.
Yeon-woo pulled out his smartphone and sent a message.
The moment the order went out, Lee Gyu-jin and Park Jung-hyeon—who had been killing time in the fifth-floor office—snatched up their phones.
This time the order hadn't come from Han Hae-un—it had come from the real Alpha-Beta himself. Yeon-woo.
But the two men, who had no idea there even was a real and a fake Alpha-Beta, simply rose from their seats to retrieve the E-7 folder.
Beep-beep-beep—
Lee Gyu-jin opened the security safe and pulled out the E-7 folder.
"Finally moving on to the next op. I was about to lose my mind from boredom."
"Mm. If we're starting an operation, we need to eat properly first. Let's head out front for some gukbap and then get to work."
"We had lunch two hours ago."
"Exactly. It's already been two whole hours since we ate."
Lee Gyu-jin looked at Park Jung-hyeon, shook his head in pure exasperation, and opened the folder he'd taken from the safe.
Inside was the list of Baeksol investments that Han Hae-un had already investigated.
Of course, following the money alone only revealed the companies that operated on the surface. But that also meant these were the companies into which so much capital had been poured that the flow of funds was impossible to hide.
"Daeyoung Media, Paratech Film, Lohai Pictures… So every one of these companies exists just so the target can launder money. The scale is insane. This country really is rotten to the core."
"That's why we're here."
Lee Gyu-jin nodded at Park Jung-hyeon's words.
The agents had accepted the offer so readily because Alpha-Beta had saved their lives more than once—on battlefields and across countless operations. And yes, the financial compensation for their current work was extremely generous.
But the greatest driving force that moved Kim Su-hyeok, Lee Gyu-jin, and Park Jung-hyeon was the same sense of mission: to make the homeland they had once risked their lives to protect a little cleaner.
Lee Gyu-jin grinned at Park Jung-hyeon.
Their personalities were complete opposites, yet the size of the mission burning in their chests was the same.
"Hell yeah. Something's boiling up inside me. Let's get out there and start pounding the pavement. Time to dig hard."
"Got it. What about the gukbap?"
"Ah, for fuck's sake…"
Meanwhile, having finished his reconnaissance mission in Okinawa, Kim Su-hyeok returned the boat to the old man and headed for the harbor.
He checked the flight schedule on his phone.
21:00 HND → 08:35 HNL
A ticket from Tokyo's Haneda Airport into Honolulu International in Hawaii.
First time in Hawaii.
Okinawa was a resort destination too, but the word "rest" had been a cruel joke. He had spent the entire operation enduring the night sea wind and hadn't rested so much as a fingernail's worth.
This time, though, it was a real vacation.
Of course it wasn't simply "you've worked hard, so go rest."
Even if Baeksol somehow managed to pick up Kim Su-hyeok's trail later, the complicated itinerary would throw any tracking attempt into complete chaos.
During the operation he had been unable to avoid every security camera scattered across Okinawa. The odds were low, but Baeksol might still have a skilled tracker among them.
If, after the Okinawa operation, they suspected the fire had been an attack rather than an accident, there was a non-zero chance they would dig into the movements of the man who had visited in advance for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering.
Then they'd start by tracing the rental car, and they might even track down the old man who lent me the boat.
Of course, the only information Baeksol could possibly uncover was that the assistant of a Japanese-American documentary director who had visited Okinawa long ago had rented a boat. Still, it was necessary to muddy the trail afterward.
Hawaii, being U.S. territory, was the perfect place to launder a travel route. Even Baeksol couldn't freely access American immigration records. Not because hacking them was impossible, but because if the FBI or CIA ever got involved later, Baeksol's very existence would be endangered.
Either way, first time setting foot in Hawaii.
Kim Su-hyeok arrived at the harbor and eyed the ferry bound for Kagoshima.
"Haah. First I have to sit on a boat for another twenty-five hours, though."
He would take the ferry to Kagoshima, then fly from there through Haneda and on to Hawaii.
Just thinking about it already made the seasickness rise in his throat.
Not long after, a shared schedule appeared for every actor under Saebyeol Entertainment.
It wasn't the start of filming for Parabola, nor was it a commercial shoot.
The schedule was an awards ceremony.
"We should match dress codes among ourselves!"
At Seo Ji-eun's words, Yeon-woo—who had been sitting at the table sipping his drink—turned his head. Son Jin-uk, who had been chatting with him, looked over as well.
"Dress codes?"
"Yeah! The Korea Arts Awards are next week. Wouldn't it be cool if all the Saebyeol actors showed up with some kind of matching dress code?"
Yeon-woo considered her suggestion carefully.
Idols naturally attended events in matching outfits because they operated as a single team. Actors, however, didn't share that "same team" concept just because they belonged to the same agency, so the idea almost never came up.
Even back when Yeon-woo was at LN, the only fellow entertainer he had any personal friendship with was Son Jin-uk. Most actors under the same roof never even met each other.
"Hmm. A dress code… Not a bad idea."
"Right?!"
Of course no one was suggesting they walk the carpet in identical idol-style uniforms.
"If we're doing a dress code, just matching the color palette should be enough."
"That's what I was thinking—how about black with gold accents?"
Son Jin-uk raised his hand first.
"I love that luxurious vibe. I'm in."
"Black and gold. Nice. Classic is always best."
There was one person who got especially excited every awards season.
"Ye-eun noona's going to love this. She's been complaining that she's just collecting a paycheck without doing anything lately."
Because Yeon-woo still had no firm schedule of his own, Lee Ye-eun had little to do. She oversaw the stylists assigned to the other actors, of course, but her eyes only truly lit up when she was dressing Yeon-woo himself.
"Are all of our actors going this time?"
"Well, noona and I are going for Sketch, the White Blood expedition members will be there too… and Jin-uk hyung's going for Prisoner, right?"
"Yeah. If you win again this year, that'll be three years in a row."
"True."
Domestic awards bodies in Korea paid extremely close attention to overseas reputation. Some people criticized it as cultural toadyism; others argued that high popularity meant the public had already chosen the winner, so the awards were only natural. The real reason was simpler: awards shows needed ratings and box-office heat just like everything else.
And since both Sketch and White Blood had received enormous acclaim abroad, their wins at domestic ceremonies were essentially locked in. The only question was which awards they would take home.
"Ji-eun-ssi, I heard you got nominated in the Entertainer category as well as Acting?"
"Heheh. Well, I do happen to be rather good at variety, you know?"
"Why are you talking like that?"
"Ah, I've been hanging out with Han Byeol a lot lately…"
Ever since Saebyeol Family, Son Jin-uk and Seo Ji-eun had grown close enough to banter freely. Yeon-woo watched the two of them with a small smile, then sent a message somewhere.
The reply arrived at the speed of light.
…This bastard just sent consonants. If I call him out on it I'll sound like a boomer.
Yeon-woo scratched his cheek.
Hmm. I feel like there was something else on the schedule during this Arts Awards season… If it were work-related, Management would've said something by now. Was it Baeksol-related? But I wouldn't forget something like that…
After a moment of thought, Yeon-woo's eyes suddenly widened as something clicked.
"Ah! Those bastards are shipping out for the military soon."
Around this time last year, while shooting the Patriots and Veterans Month commercial, he had thought that his friends would be enlisting the following year. The memory surfaced now.
Seo Ji-eun and Son Jin-uk both looked at him.
"Who's going to the military?"
"Seong-sik and Jun-su."
Woo Seong-sik and Kim Jun-su's enlistment dates were almost here.
He would need to see them once before their schedules got too packed.
At that very moment, Woo Seong-sik and Kim Jun-su were sitting through the final semester of classes before enlistment.
When the general-education lecture that all three of them—including Hong Yu-ri—had registered for together finally ended, Woo Seong-sik's mouth stretched into a five-foot pout.
"Noona, you said this was a free-ride class."
"I'm telling you, when my classmates took it last year it was nothing like this…?"
To graduate, students had to complete at least nine credits in the "Language and Expression" area of free-elective general education. Among those courses, the one reputed to have the easiest assignments and the lightest workload—the so-called "free-ride lecture"—was Employment and Interview Strategies. All three of them had fought tooth and nail to get into it.
But something had changed this year. The group project looked anything but easy.
"Okay, fine, team projects are normal. But the content is ridiculous. Isn't this the kind of thing high-school kids go home and get from their parents? What is this, a networking flex contest…?"
"'Must include an interview with a successful figure in any field'…"
"They said a written interview is fine, so maybe we just make something up? And they said 'successful' doesn't have to be some huge deal—just someone who landed a decent job is enough."
Woo Seong-sik shook his head at Kim Jun-su's suggestion.
"You can tell just by looking. Do that and an A is already out the window."
Originally, Employment and Interview Strategies had required nothing more than a mock interview practice session—students simply traded questions and answers among themselves. Each team had four members, so besides the Jun-su/Yu-ri couple and Woo Seong-sik, there was one more person.
Watching the three of them sink into despair, Oh Yu-bin from the Political Science and Diplomacy department hesitantly raised her hand.
"Um… I can try asking some of my seniors or people I know if there's anyone worth interviewing."
"Ah, thank you, Yu-bin-ssi. I'll look around too."
When Woo Seong-sik answered in an unctuous tone, Hong Yu-ri shuddered at the goosebumps rising on her arms and shook her head.
"Ugh, Yu-bin-ssi. Do not get close to this guy. He's weird."
"Me? Out of nowhere? What did I do?"
Then Kim Jun-su, who had been silent until now, raised his hand.
"Actually… there's someone ridiculously successful right next to us."
"Huh?"
The whole team turned to look at him.
A second later, Woo Seong-sik and Hong Yu-ri's expressions changed as they realized exactly who he meant.
"W-wait, can we even do that?"
"He's successful, sure, but isn't he… too successful…?"
Seeing their reactions, Oh Yu-bin tilted her head.
"Who is it?"
"Well… he's our friend…"
And so began the interview that would go down in Yonha University legend.