Chapter 59…………………………….
“Thank you for granting my request that day. I truly mean it.”
It was true that Do-un’s words had hurt her. But that was separate from the gratitude she felt toward him.
When Cho-hee thanked him, Do-un didn’t respond. He simply stared at her silently.
It was impossible to tell what he was thinking. His jet-black eyes were as deep as the dark sea.
“Well then, you must be tired, so get some rest. I should get going now.”
Forcing herself to keep smiling until the very end, Cho-hee turned around. Afraid that Do-un might try to stop her, she hurried out of the study.
Of course, she didn’t hear the door open behind her.
Cho-hee quickly ran upstairs to the second floor and tried hard to calm her pounding heart.
You expected this, didn’t you? It’s okay.
Determined not to show tears on the outside even if she cried inside, Cho-hee stifled her sobs.
After Do-un returned, the atmosphere in the house subtly changed.
She had been worried that sharing the same room with him again would be awkward, but fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—she didn’t need to worry about that.
Since that day, Do-un had not once come back to the master bedroom.
Instead, he left the house at dawn every day and returned late at night.
Sometimes he didn’t come back at all.
He said he had become too busy with work to stay home, but Cho-hee sensed that wasn’t the real reason.
As expected… he must feel uncomfortable being in the same space as me.
When he did return home, he spent only a short time in the study instead of going to the bedroom, then left again.
It seemed he had practically taken up residence in the study, even spending the night there.
At first she felt hurt that he acted as if something terrible would happen if he ran into her, but later she simply couldn’t understand it.
If it was really just a mistake, he could just brazenly pretend it never happened.
This behavior didn’t suit Do-un at all.
Fortunately, Cho-hee had work from Moon-gyu to keep her occupied.
If she hadn’t even had translation work, she would probably have spent the entire day feeling depressed.
Thankfully, she soon became absorbed in the work and didn’t have the time for resentment toward him to take root deeply.
“Being busy really is the best.”
Most of the documents contained material related to trade.
Since it was a subject she had never read about before, she had to stumble through it, looking up terms in a dictionary.
If she could ask Do-un about the unfamiliar terms, the work would go much faster—but in their current situation, expecting his help was impossible.
Aside from the brief conversation on the day he returned, she had no real chance to talk to him.
Whenever she approached to ask even a small question, he would hurriedly leave the house.
Was he really that busy—or did he simply not want to face her?
Cho-hee sighed deeply and turned over another sheet she had finished translating from the pile.
“Again like this.”
She frowned. The page was filled with various words written in different languages.
Most of the documents Moon-gyu had given her were related to trade, but occasionally there were pages like this—random lists of words.
The strange thing was that they were simply lists, not forming any kind of sentence structure, which made them extremely difficult to translate.
“Was it written incorrectly?”
At first she thought it had been sent by mistake, but since there was always one page like this tucked somewhere in the documents, she couldn’t just ignore it.
So she translated it anyway, though she wasn’t sure if she was doing it correctly.
“It’s almost like someone wrote down a code.”
As she struggled through the translation, her hand suddenly stopped.
A code?
Now that she thought about it, something did feel odd. The words were arranged far too randomly to be related to what a trading company would normally handle.
For example: ‘a lunchbox packed by a younger sibling,’ ‘a lime-colored spoon,’ ‘a sad sea whale.’ None of them fit any logical context.
Could it be that someone in Britain was secretly sending coded messages?
But why would they need to use a code?
Cho-hee tilted her head.
Kim Moon-gyu and Iryung Trading Company. From the warehouse full of all kinds of goods to this suspicious translation work…
Something about this really is suspicious. What on earth could it be…
This strange work, which clearly didn’t seem normal, slowly began to stir her curiosity.
Do-un left the house at dawn every day to avoid Cho-hee.
“…Ha.”
He arrived at the company early even though he had nothing else to do and let out a sigh.
Seeing Cho-hee’s face was painful.
Every time he saw her, the emotions he had been suppressing threatened to spill out.
It seemed better not to see her at all if he wanted to give up his feelings.
So he ended up blatantly avoiding her—but he had no choice.
“Mikael, how’s your body these days?”
Joseph, who was beside him, asked casually.
“My body? Why ask all of a sudden?”
“Just wondering how you’ve been lately.”
For someone who said it was nothing, Joseph’s gaze briefly lingered on Do-un’s waist.
Joseph shouldn’t know that he had been shot and stabbed there.
Do-un subtly turned his injured waist away from Joseph.
Although he had explained what happened at the opera house, he had intentionally left out the part about being injured.
If he told the whole story, Joseph would ask why he was hurt—and then he would have to explain that Park Jin escaped because Do-un allowed it, which ultimately stemmed from Cho-hee’s request.
If Joseph found out that he had done such a thing because Cho-hee asked him to, he would certainly be furious.
To Joseph—and to everyone else—Cho-hee was nothing more than someone who could be used for their mission.
He couldn’t let them know that she had become something more than that to him.
If they thought she interfered with the mission, they might even insist she be sent somewhere else.
So Do-un had deliberately shared as little information about Cho-hee with his comrades as possible.
Which meant they probably couldn’t even imagine the burning pain he was feeling now.
“My body is perfectly fine. Since when did you start worrying like this?”
“I’m not worried…”
Joseph trailed off uneasily.
“There may soon be a situation where we’ll need to use force. You should manage your condition.”
“Use force? Is someone coming here?”
Do-un frowned at the unfamiliar information.
Joseph continued, his voice now heavier.
“The American consul will soon visit here.”
“I know. That information was shared by the Gyeongseong branch last time.”
All intelligence from the Provisional Government of Korea was encrypted and shared among agents.
They already knew the American consul would visit Pyongyang after stopping in Gyeongseong.
There was even news he might visit Sinuiju, likely because Wada—the director of railways in the Governor-General’s office—was stationed there.
“So it’s confirmed he’s coming to Sinuiju. Then what’s the order? Are we supposed to prevent him from meeting Wada?”
“No. That meeting will proceed as planned.”
“Then?”
“We plan to meet the consul as well.”
“Our side… meaning?”
“Teacher Seok-oh will secretly come here from Shanghai.”
“Teacher Seok-oh?”
Do-un looked surprised at the unexpected name.
Teacher Seok-oh was one of the founding members of the Provisional Government of Korea and currently the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
If someone as important as him was coming to Sinuiju in person, it meant something extremely important was going to be discussed.
“Is he going to meet the American consul himself?”
“Yes.”
“He must plan to meet him while avoiding the eyes of the Japanese.”
“However, because of recent events, the Japanese are extremely alert. We’ll need to approach this in a different way than before.”
As Joseph spoke, Do-un quickly began thinking of ways to arrange the meeting between Teacher Seok-oh and the consul.
But Joseph immediately noticed and continued.
“Mikael, this time we’re not the ones making the plan.”
“If it’s not us, then headquarters already issued an order?”
“Correct. D-day is three days from now, during the concert at the American consulate.”
“That’s the same day Wada’s group is attending.”
“It’s always darkest under the lamp.”
Do-un frowned suspiciously. Even at a glance, it sounded reckless.
If their paths crossed, not only he but Teacher Seok-oh could be captured.
Unless there was another part to the plan…
Suddenly, realization flashed through his mind.
“…You mean we’ll throw out bait to divert their attention.”
“Exactly. That’s precisely what headquarters expects from us.”
Do-un slowly nodded.
It was a plan that might actually succeed.
As Joseph said, the Governor-General’s office would never imagine that a high-ranking figure from the Provisional Government would attend an event they themselves were attending.
Divert their attention outside and make the meeting happen.
“Very well. Then you and I will—”
“No. This mission will be yours alone.”
“Mine alone?”
Not even Rita or the other agents would accompany him?
It made no sense for him to be sent alone on such an important mission.
Joseph had said it was darkest under the lamp. That meant Do-un would enter openly…
“As a businessman, ‘Mr. Lee,’ not as an agent, I presume.”
“Exactly. And one more thing.”
“What is it?”
“The bait cannot be you. It has to be Sung Cho-hee.”
“…What?”
The moment Cho-hee’s name left Joseph’s mouth, Do-un’s fingers went numb.
Cho-hee would be… what?
“Cho-hee as bait?”
“You’ll open the door from inside the consulate and guide him in. That’s how Teacher Seok-oh will enter safely. And all of this will only work if Sung Cho-hee draws everyone’s attention.”
It felt as if his blood ran cold.
Do-un tried to calmly analyze the situation, but his mind had already gone blank.
If she became involved, Cho-hee would certainly be put in danger.
No—there was a possibility she would be in danger.
But he couldn’t send her relying on that mere possibility.
“How can you involve a civilian in something like that? Absolutely not.”
“You have a contract with her, don’t you? If she accompanies you as your wife, it would make sense.”
“She’s not suitable for this kind of work.”
A low voice slipped through his clenched teeth. But Joseph shook his head in frustration.
“If it were city hall or some Japanese building, we could manage it ourselves. But this is the American consulate! We cannot approach it. The only person who can enter there is you—the son of Lee Kang-won.”
Reality crashed over him like a tidal wave.
The day of choice he had hoped would never come had finally arrived.
He stood at a crossroads where he had to choose one of two things:
Cho-hee’s sacrifice,
or devotion to his country.
