A New Home (2)
Sofa, table, and odds and ends had finally found their places in the once-empty townhouse living room.
With the furniture in place, it at last felt like a home someone actually lived in.
Standing in the middle of the room and looking around, I nodded.
Well, this isn’t bad.
Then a thought drifted through my head.
In Korea, people usually held a housewarming after moving in.
Of course, this was America, but I’d heard they did something similar here too—a housewarming party.
Could be nice. A chance to say hello to everyone, too.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and slowly scanned through my contact list.
I hadn’t thought I knew that many people in the United States, but once I started scrolling, the list was longer than I expected.
Most of them were CIA colleagues, of course.
First I texted Elena, who’d helped me find the place in the first place.
Then I reached out to Mo and Nad, who I’d heard had finished training and were now being educated at Langley.
Ryan’s still at Langley too, so I should invite him as well...
It had been a long time since I’d seen any of them.
As I kept scrolling, my finger paused over two names.
Cole McKinnon
I stared at the screen for a moment and rubbed my chin.
Would that gruff, irritable bastard really come to someone else’s housewarming just to sip beer?
More likely he’d read the message, snort, and ignore it entirely.
Still better than not inviting him.
With a faint grin, I hit send.
Whether he showed up or not, I’d done my part by inviting him.
Scrolling a little farther down, my gaze stopped again at two more names.
Neil Campbell
David Hoffman
The two men I’d ended up knowing by chance.
Neil Campbell was the SAC chief who handed out my missions, and Hoffman was the head of CIA Operations.
They weren’t exactly people I had some deep personal bond with, but if I was throwing a housewarming and only inviting CIA colleagues...
Well, might as well ask.
Those two were higher-ups, after all. I figured they’d politely decline.
After a moment’s hesitation, I sent them invitations too, telling them I’d moved.
Good. That’s everyone.
I set my phone down on the table and checked the calendar.
I’d invited everyone for this weekend, so now the real question was how much food I needed to prepare.
“A few pizzas and some beer should be enough, right?”
I muttered it while glancing toward the kitchen.
Probably only Elena, Ryan, Mo, and Nad would come to the housewarming anyway.
“Yeah. Let’s keep it simple.”
Feeling relieved, I opened the refrigerator and counted the remaining beer cans.
I had no idea that was the start of a housewarming from hell.
***
...
I stood in the corner of the living room and stared silently at the miserable scene I’d created.
The first floor of the townhouse wasn’t all that spacious, yet it was now packed wall to wall with broad-shouldered men and women.
Every single person I’d invited had shown up.
Everyone except one man.
McKinnon.
The three pizzas sitting forlornly on the table looked pathetic. There was nowhere near enough for this crowd.
I wanted to go back in time and punch myself for thinking a few simple preparations would be enough.
“Hey, Lee, is it okay if I look around?”
Nad was already in high spirits.
He was darting all over the cramped living room, poking his nose into everything and talking nonstop.
Even while doing that, he kept striking up conversations with one person after another. The guy was a menace.
Mo, on the other hand, stood calmly in one corner with a beer can in hand.
Amid all the chaos, he alone looked completely at ease.
Ryan was the same.
He had claimed an entire one-seat sofa for himself and was leisurely sipping beer.
He looked like the sort of man who’d be perfectly at home anywhere on earth.
“Dave, over here.”
And then there was Elena.
She’d come early and helped me prepare for the party, laughing and chatting all the while, but now she looked distinctly exhausted.
The expression on her face, bright with excitement at the thought of a long-overdue party, had met its dramatic end when her boss arrived.
“Oh, dear. This is a bit of a mess.”
Hoffman came over smiling when our eyes met.
“It’s like meeting the lead of a TV series in person. You look even better in the flesh, Lee.”
Messy gray hair, sharp gray eyes, and a casual shirt that made him look nothing like Campbell.
I took the hand he offered and gave him a brief shake.
David Hoffman.
I’d spoken to him on the phone, but this was our first time meeting in person.
Even if he was acting in the position, the deputy director of operations was practically sitting at the very top of the CIA.
In fact, since everyone gathered here worked under Operations, that meant he was essentially all of our boss.
The guy’s not at all what I imagined.
He felt like a slightly disheveled, oddly cheerful next-door uncle.
Seeing him, I was reminded of Luo Qing, the MSS deputy director I’d once met in Hong Kong.
Was this what all the senior officials in intelligence agencies were like?
“Good to see you, Lee.”
Campbell, who had come up behind Hoffman, gave me a short greeting.
It was our reunion after the Prague operation. As always, his tone was dry and concise.
“I’m doing well, thanks to you. And thank you for coming.”
I gave a short nod.
Meanwhile, the housewarming only grew stranger.
That clueless idiot Nad actually went up to Hoffman and tried to make small talk.
Elena’s eyes flickered with alarm, but to my surprise Hoffman took Nad’s chatter in stride and played along with his jokes in a casual, easy manner.
If anything, it was Campbell who made the air freeze over.
When Campbell shot Nad one cold glance, Mo, who was standing behind him, hurriedly grabbed the hem of Nad’s shirt and yanked him back.
The pizza disappeared in no time, and someone started fussing about buying more beer from nearby.
Then Elena slipped over to my side.
“Dohyun.”
“Yeah?”
“Next time, show me the guest list first. Please.”
She spoke through clenched teeth, her voice low and sharp, and I silently looked away.
I had nothing to say. This disaster was entirely my own fault.
And then it happened.
Ding-dong—
The doorbell rang like a rescue signal.
I practically fled to the front door and flung it open.
Standing there was, to my surprise, McKinnon—his usual blunt, expressionless face firmly in place.
In one hand he held a bottle of what looked like expensive whiskey, and he gave a slight nod in greeting.
“Lee.”
“Oh, you came?”
That made everyone present.
I was just wondering whether I’d somehow become strangely likeable when McKinnon’s gaze slid over my shoulder and into the living room.
Exactly one second later, his face stiffened the instant he spotted Hoffman and Campbell.
Without the slightest hesitation, McKinnon shoved the whiskey bottle into my arms and spun on his heel.
“Where are you going?”
On reflex, I reached out and clutched his clothes.
He snapped his head around and glared at me with terrifying intensity.
Then, in a voice so low it couldn’t possibly carry into the living room, he growled at me, “Fuck. I’ve stepped into every kind of shit trap in my life, but I want it known that this is the first time I’ve been this blindsided.”
McKinnon ground his teeth as he hissed, “And why the hell are those two bastards here?”
“...I invited them,” I said. “For the housewarming.”
McKinnon stared at me like I was a complete lunatic.
“I already knew you were a goddamn freak, Lee, but this is next-level.”
What a bizarre compliment.
Just as I was about to answer, a low, heavy voice drifted from inside the living room.
“Hey, Cole. Get in here.”
A short, unmistakable command. Campbell.
“...Damn it. I worked my ass off to avoid seeing that face.”
McKinnon clicked his tongue and trudged into the living room.
The moment he joined the group, the awkwardness hanging over the house hit its peak.
Everyone stood around pretending not to notice one another, fiddling with beer cans like a pack of strangers at a funeral.
Ah, this isn’t the housewarming I had in mind. Something’s gone very wrong.
I couldn’t stand the suffocating silence any longer and finally made a decision.
“Everyone, I think my place is a little too small. There’s a decent pub nearby. Why don’t we all move there?”
***
Once we shifted to the spacious pub on Main Street, the stifling atmosphere that had pressed down on the townhouse scattered like smoke.
The open ceiling and the music loud enough to cover awkwardness did a fine job of loosening everyone up.
I glanced toward the bar.
Mo and Ryan were seated side by side, clinking glasses and talking away. Maybe because they were both military men, they seemed to have plenty in common. A faint smile lingered at the corner of Mo’s mouth, and Ryan looked far chattier than usual tonight.
Across from them, in a corner seat, McKinnon sat alone.
He’d opened the whiskey bottle he’d brought all the way from the house and was drinking it in silence.
No one approached him, and he seemed perfectly content to spend the evening alone.
Elena had taken a seat at a round table farther in with Campbell and Hoffman.
She looked far more relaxed than she had in the townhouse living room, though there was still something serious about the table, as if they were holding a meeting rather than a party.
“I go first!”
Nad and I were standing in front of the dartboard.
He threw his darts with exaggerated flair, but they all bounced off the edge of the board.
Now it was my turn. With a light snap of the wrist, I sent three darts flying, and all three planted themselves dead center in the bullseye like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Fuck! Don’t cheat, Lee! How the hell do you land every single one in the middle?”
At Nad’s outrage, I gave a small shrug.
“That’s not cheating. That’s skill.”
“Goddamn it. One more round!”
Nad had just stepped back to retrieve the darts, grumbling in frustration, when—
Thud.
His back slammed hard into one of the men at a nearby table who was drinking with his group.
Beer sloshed over the rim and spilled onto the floor.
“Oh! Sorry, man. Didn’t see you there.”
Nad raised a hand with his usual easy grin, but the man he’d bumped into did not appreciate it.
“What the fuck, keep your eyes—”
The man was already spitting out curses when he noticed me standing behind Nad, and his face twisted into a scowl.
He was one of the guys who’d started trouble at the bar when Elena and I had come by to look at the house a few days earlier.
Already well into his cups, his eyes were glossy and unpleasantly bright.
“What’s this? The Oriental bastard from last time? Bringing an Arab guy along as a sandwich filling today?”
This time he was openly spoiling for a fight.
The last time Elena had been there, and I’d let it slide because it wasn’t worth the trouble, but this was the second time.
I toyed with the dart in my hand and thought it over.
Too many eyes were on us here, so I couldn’t start a scene right away.
I was already wondering whether I should follow them outside and teach them some manners when—
“What’s going on? You okay?”
Mo had already come over and stopped beside me.
Even through his clothes, you could tell he was heavily muscled.
He didn’t have to say a word; just standing there with his arms folded was enough to make the man hesitate.
At the same moment, McKinnon, who had been drinking in the corner, rose and strolled over with a whiskey glass in one hand.
“Hmph.”
He didn’t even bother looking at them.
He simply stood at my side at an angle and took a dry sip of whiskey.
But with a frame nearly six and a half feet tall, a long scar slashed beneath his jaw, and those feral gray eyes, he was intimidating enough on his own.
Was there anyone who fit the phrase “wolf” better than this man?
And that wasn’t all. Campbell and Elena, still seated at the table inside, had also turned their attention this way.
Finally, Ryan, who had briefly stepped away to use the restroom, stopped behind the men.
“What are you doing?”
Ryan asked me in a lazy voice.
The men startled and whipped around at the sound behind them.
The one with the quickest head on his shoulders frantically looked around.
“...Damn.”
Whatever calculations he’d been running in his head, all the color drained from his face.
In a voice that had sobered instantly, he said to his friends, “Hey, cut it out. L-let’s go.”
He yanked roughly on the arm of the guy who’d started the trouble and backed away.
He’d clearly realized on instinct that if they kept pushing here, they were fucked.
Lucky them.
I hid my disappointment as I watched them hurry out of the pub.
“Guys like that are everywhere. Be careful when you’re walking around alone outside, Lee.”
Mo gave me the advice in a low, concerned voice.
At that, McKinnon let out a dry laugh like he’d just heard the least funny joke in the world.
“Ha. Christ. Who the hell is warning who?”
He tossed back the rest of his whiskey and muttered, “If you’d seen what this punk can do with just a needle, you wouldn’t be saying that.”
He was talking about the Prague operation.
It had sounded casual, like a joke, but knowing McKinnon’s personality, it was basically an extravagant compliment.
And one of the people who heard him had suddenly started looking very interested.
It was Nad.
“Oh, shit. Mister Needles, huh... that’s freaking awesome!”
With absolutely no fear, Nad immediately started trailing after McKinnon and chattering at him.
Predictably, I had a bad feeling he’d just earned himself yet another nickname.
Worst housewarming ever. Seriously.