Finally Reunited
A gun...?
Han Hae-un froze, unable to risk turning his head.
"Don't turn around. When Act One ends, come down to B5 of the parking garage—spot F-7."
The voice belonged to a man younger than Hae-un had expected, and that alone startled him.
Ba-ba-bam—
The overture announcing the start of the musical thundered through the theater. Hae-un spun around at once, but the space behind him was already empty.
Ryu Yeon-woo's heart hammered as he hurried down the stairs.
What had appeared behind Han Hae-un was Yeon-woo himself, pressing a car smart key to the man's neck so precisely that it felt exactly like the muzzle of a pistol.
Why...? How?
Even as he took the steps two at a time, Yeon-woo ran through every possible scenario. In his past life as Jeon Su-hwan he had never flinched—whether a bomb detonated in front of him or a bullet came flying. Now his emotions ran richer, and he had grown used to living as Ryu Yeon-woo. The racing of his heart proved it.
Yet twenty years of top-tier agent instinct had not vanished. He reached the fifth basement level, mapped an emergency escape route, and double-checked his hat and mask.
Clomp, clomp—
Time passed. From behind a pillar, Yeon-woo watched the target—a young man—approach.
"Stop."
At Ryu Yeon-woo's single word, Han Hae-un halted where he stood.
"...Is it really you, Team Leader Jeon Su-hwan?"
The voice that reached him was slightly choked.
"When Baek Yu-hyeon arrived in Tehran, what was the name of the hotel he stayed at?"
The question from behind the pillar carried no emotion at all.
"...It wasn't a hotel. He went straight to the embassy."
The next question came the instant he finished answering.
"When both the Humvee and the GPS were dead, how did you get back to Yazd?"
"How would I know? You navigated by the stars, Team Leader. It's not like you're Columbus."
Hae-un rushed on before another question could land.
"Look, Team Leader, I understand the caution, but my memories still aren't complete. It's lucky everything you've asked so far is stuff I still remember..."
"Last question. What did I say right before I died?"
At that final probe Hae-un gave a bitter smile.
"...If you rot too long in the field, you'll get eaten someday. But I didn't even rot that long, and I still got eaten."
"Wrong."
A slender man stepped out from behind the pillar.
"I said it was cold and I should wrap myself in another blanket."
"Come on, that was just you talking to yourself."
Ryu Yeon-woo walked forward slowly and held out his hand. Han Hae-un stared at it for a long moment, then gripped it hard. Tears spilled out without permission.
Memories that were not his own flooding in without warning. Collapsing out of nowhere. Days spent investigating alone with no one to lean on. The constant fear that he had simply gone mad, the grinding mental strain as Baek Yu-hyeon and Han Hae-un slowly fused—all of it had worn him down.
"You have no idea how hard I worked to find you, former Team Leader."
Yeon-woo patted the broad back in front of him. The simple gesture flustered Hae-un more than anything else.
"Uh... you weren't this kind of person, were you?"
Yeon-woo huffed a quiet laugh.
"New wine in new bottles. A new life should be lived anew."
Then his expression hardened.
"But you shouldn't have died."
"Yes, I think so too. Unlike you, Team Leader, I was still young."
Yeon-woo shook his head.
"That's not what I mean."
At the firm tone Hae-un looked up again. Yeon-woo called him by the name from his past life.
"Yu-hyeon. What's your last memory of dying?"
"Uh... I heard gunshots over the speaker. When you didn't answer, Team Leader, I followed the manual, destroyed the data, and opened the door to escape. That's the last thing I remember."
Yeon-woo stroked his masked chin.
"You were someone who should never have died. The place you were in wasn't just any safe house. I built it myself. Even inside the NIS, fewer than ten people knew that address."
Understanding struck Han Hae-un like a physical blow.
"You mean..."
"Let's move first."
Yeon-woo scanned the pillars and ceiling, mindful of the cameras, and started walking. Hae-un followed in silence.
Click—
When Ryu Yeon-woo pressed the key fob, the lights of a Porsche parked in a far corner flared to life.
"...Wow. Team Leader, did you reincarnate as the youngest son of some chaebol family?"
Yeon-woo glanced back and gave a short laugh.
"Chaebol? Hardly. Just the eldest son of an ordinary family. Get in."
The moment he sat down, Yeon-woo yanked the black-box power cord free. Hae-un climbed in after him.
"So how old did you come back as, former Team Leader? You look young."
Yeon-woo turned, pulled off the hat and mask, and met his eyes.
"Whoa... wow..."
Muttering "I've seen that face somewhere," Hae-un could only stare at the sculpted features in open admiration.
Not as Jeon Su-hwan but as Ryu Yeon-woo, he offered his hand again.
"I should introduce myself properly. In this life I'm Ryu Yeon-woo—an actor."
"Ah! The one who's been rising lately...?"
He suddenly remembered the junior prosecutor at the office who spent every lunch break glued to YouTube clips of this very actor.
As Han Hae-un, not Baek Yu-hyeon, he took the hand and gave a formal introduction of his own.
"I'm Han Hae-un, prosecutor at the Busan Western District Prosecutors' Office."
"Hmm. So it was you. The House of Love and Hope."
Yeon-woo nodded, recalling their earlier phone call.
"Haha. Back then only scraps of memory were surfacing. I had no idea what was happening."
Under the parking-garage lights Hae-un studied the face again and let out another low whistle.
"Did you save the country in your past life? Ah... wait. You actually did."
Looking at the former team leader who had returned with a face so blessed it stood in stark contrast to his own sharper features, Hae-un nodded. Several of the operations Team Leader Jeon Su-hwan had closed had been partially declassified as training material; Hae-un had heard them told as legends from the day he first entered the NIS in his previous life.
Yeon-woo chuckled at the absurd remark.
"Still the same. Still spouting nonsense."
"You've really changed. This is the first time I've ever seen you smile, Team Leader."
What Hae-un did not know was that Yeon-woo had brightened far beyond the expression he wore now. If anything, meeting someone from the Jeon Su-hwan years today had pulled more of the old personality to the surface.
"Anyway—you said your memories come and go. What does that mean?"
At the question Hae-un poured out everything he had endured and everything that had resurfaced. After carrying it alone for so long, simply speaking it aloud to someone cleared his head like fresh air.
Yeon-woo listened, then fell silent, thinking.
Why is his case different from mine?
He had sometimes wondered whether the original high-school Ryu Yeon-woo—bullied to the point of attempted suicide, yet described by his little sister So-hyun as a bright, kind older brother beneath the shyness—had left some residual influence that softened his own temperament.
"Hmm. Difference in mental strength, maybe..."
"Sorry?"
Yeon-woo laid out the hypothesis he had just formed. The original Ryu Yeon-woo's ego had been so thoroughly crushed by bullying that the powerful self of Jeon Su-hwan had taken almost complete control, leaving only faint traces. In Hae-un's case, the prosecutor's strong identity was colliding with Baek Yu-hyeon's and the two were slowly fusing.
"Mmm. That actually makes sense."
To share the theory and exchange information, Yeon-woo had no choice but to reveal parts of his own private history. He did not yet trust Hae-un completely, but even if the man went around talking about reincarnation, no one would believe him.
"The real question is why the two of us."
Hae-un answered without hesitation.
"I think of it as a calling given by God."
"I didn't know you were that devout."
Yeon-woo edged a little farther away on the seat. Hae-un flapped his hands in panic.
"What? No—I mean the 'heaven' in the national anthem. Heaven and earth, the spirits, that sort of thing..."
Yeon-woo watched him flounder and smiled quietly.
"You were joking. Haah. I'm never going to get used to this new personality of yours."
The teasing ended. Yeon-woo's face turned serious.
"The fact that both of us died means, with very high probability, that someone inside the NIS deliberately intervened."
"Yes—and someone high up."
Yeon-woo nodded.
"It might not be a single person. It could be a faction. In my past life I never paid much attention to internal power struggles, but there were still a few people I found suspicious."
When he finished, Hae-un asked the question that had been burning in him.
"Team Leader, did you ever file a report from a public phone in Daejeon?"
"Hm? How do you know about that?"
Hae-un explained how he had obtained the information. Yeon-woo shook his head slowly.
"That was reckless. Using an old code key to access the database..."
"I was desperate enough..."
"That report was about our final mission. I meant it to close the last loose end from my previous life."
"Ah—the North Korean Reconnaissance General Bureau that was brokering illegal arms deals?"
Yeon-woo nodded.
"I thought you said your memory was still patchy."
"Haha. The Iran operation is almost all back now. It shows up in my dreams every night."
"The only piece of intel I managed to get was a name. Baeksol. At the time I assumed it was the cover name of a Reconnaissance Bureau operative. Looking back, it might never have been a person's name at all."
Hae-un repeated the word under his breath, nodding.
"I'll start digging from that angle."
"The way you're doing it now is too dangerous. You know as well as I do—the NIS has eyes everywhere in this country."
Yeon-woo pulled a notebook from the dashboard and wrote down a man's name and a cipher.
"You said your base is Busan right now. Find this person and ask for information. My death is still classified, so using the name 'Jeon Su-hwan' won't cause any problems."
"Understood, Team Leader."
Hae-un answered with a crisp salute. Yeon-woo laughed under his breath.
"I'm not a team leader anymore. Just an actor with a lot of dreams."
He stared at the word Baeksol written in the notebook, then continued.
"Whoever used us, I have no intention of letting it slide. But for now, accept this new life and enjoy it. Baek Yu-hyeon and Han Hae-un—both of them are you."
Hae-un nodded and promised to move carefully, slowly, and thoroughly.
While the two of them talked in the fifth-basement parking garage, every entertainment page of the Korean news was plastered with the name Ryu Yeon-woo.