On the way back to the hideout, the two °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° of them didn’t exchange a single word.

Seoryeong stubbornly kept her eyes fixed on the changing scenery outside the window, blinking away the redness in her eyes now and then. She clenched her fists, unwilling to let him notice how her hands trembled with anger.

She wanted to slash the face before her into pieces, but even such a violent impulse felt like proof that she hadn’t been able to let go of Lee Wooshin.

“......”

She had curled up for half a year, waiting for her wounds to close, but it all seemed like failure.

Then grief surged in like a tidal wave.

It was Wooshin.... It really was Wooshin....

By the time he belatedly crawled out after her, his figure had already shrunk into a mere speck in the rearview mirror.

She had thought makeup would be enough to disguise her. Yet the way he pierced through her in an instant—her heart jolted even as tears threatened to spill. It was a feeling she couldn’t describe.

They switched cars several times before heading to a new safehouse. Even as she slipped the key into the door of an unfamiliar place, Seoryeong realized she had grown used to this kind of life—so much so that she immediately undressed upon entering. She didn’t spare Kiya, who followed in late, so much as a glance. With a slam—! she shut the door and went into the bathroom.

She braced herself against the sink, steam rising as hot water poured into the tub, and bent her waist forward. Ugh.... She felt like sobs would break out of her.

“......”

Six months ago she had left, rejecting every word from Lee Wooshin, simply because she no longer had the strength to endure. Her hands quivered as she forced herself to peel off her clothes and step into the tub. Scalding water, hot enough to strip the skin, overflowed.

“Ugh...”

Curling up, she pressed her forehead into her knees. Just from seeing him once, her mind was already filled with Lee Wooshin.

Alive... you were alive, you really were. That relief burned through her body.

Seoryeong scooped up water in both hands, swished it around her mouth. It felt like the thick tongue that had once plundered her mouth was still pressing into every corner. She scooped up water again and again, rinsing and spitting, but the memory of his large hands caressing her body wouldn’t wash away. It was unbearable.

“Urgh...”

She remembered how hot that flesh had been when it crashed into her. How deeply that body had pressed in.... Seoryeong slid her flushed back all the way under the water.

But what now.... What did she think she could do, clinging to a tie already broken? Why had she gone to him, body and all? She bit her lower lip.

Just then, the locked door opened without effort and a familiar head of black hair appeared. Startled out of her skin, she hunched down, crossing her arms over her chest.

“What the hell are you doing, get out!”

“You’re the one who ignored the vow between us first.”

“......!”

“I told you not to waver.”

Kiya dropped into the tub opposite her with a splash. Water surged violently and his priest’s robe was soaked in an instant. In the crude light, his face looked both despondent and chilling.

Her mind was bound tight, unable to tell where to begin, how to untangle it. A cross necklace floated on the water’s surface.

“God said—even if it comes late, you must keep expecting it. It will surely be fulfilled, and it will not delay. So the waiting must continue. That’s Habakkuk, chapter 2, verse 3.”

He stared at Seoryeong’s naked body for some time.

“I’ve waited faithfully, Sonia. You know that. For the past six months, I’ve kept my faith with you. That hasn’t changed, not even now.”

The water lapped once more, spilling over. He raised his torso and suddenly leaned forward, bracing against the tub. His shadow fell over her face, her head bumping against the cold tiles.

If his words were true, then the only reason nothing had happened between them until now was Kiya’s patience.

That her safety had depended on someone’s restraint was not at all something she wanted to hear. Seoryeong’s body went rigid.

The hand wedged tight under her arms to shield her chest, her knees drawn in tight—her pulse throbbed there.

She couldn’t move rashly. She didn’t want him to see even the slightest bit of her.

Now it felt like a line had been drawn clearly. She and Kiya—were not like that.

Could never be like that.

“Already forgotten? Wooshin lied to you again and again.”

“......”

“He’s the one who hid the greatest secret from you.”

“I know....”

“No. You don’t know a thing.”

His eyes, white showing all around, dropped to the breast that peeked out from beyond her arm. He couldn’t tear his gaze away from the smooth flesh, licking thickly over his lower lip.

“His real name is Yuri Solzhenitsyn. The only bloodline of Maxim Solzhenitsyn—the one who ravaged the Goryeo brethren...! While we were suffering, that little master lived in luxury! And you don’t find that revolting?”

Seoryeong, shoulders held defensively tight, winced as if struck. It felt like a hammer smashed down from her temples to her molars, a splitting headache.

“You think that’s all?”

“...Stop...” 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

She grimaced, gasping for breath.

“Wooshin hid something far worse.”

“I said stop...”

She shoved Kiya’s shoulder roughly. Whatever it was, she didn’t want to hear it from him. A thought flashed—maybe this secret was the very thing Wooshin had tried so desperately to tell her.

Begging her to listen, harming his own body, chasing her all the way to Russia just to make some excuse.

And yet she had only ever twisted his words, refused him—while Kiya’s words slipped in so easily...—

“Ju Seolheon gave birth to you.”

With a crash, water surged like waves. So easily.... So easily, so....

“She bore you deliberately and locked you away in the monastery.”

“......!”

He lowered his head and whispered, white teeth showing between parted lips. Kiya stirred the water violently with his fingers, brushing somewhere along her legs.

Who...? Ju Seolheon? The First Deputy Director of the NIS...?

That woman, dead?

Even the occasional ripples ceased.

The woman—you killed, that woman?

Her exposed shoulder trembled. Seoryeong glared at Kiya spouting absurd nonsense. But the headache kept her from opening her eyes fully. One side of her face collapsed, messy with pain, but little by little her emotions drained away into blankness.

“That’s why I got rid of her. You didn’t need someone like that.”

“......”

“Same goes for Wooshin. Is a bastard who only lied to you worth anything? I’m someone who can whisper to the Kremlin at any time that he was an NIS black operative, Sonia.”

Kiya stroked her slippery skin with his thumb, slick from soap. I’m the one waiting for you, right? That’s what his look said as he smacked his lips. Then her clenched jaw was seized in his grip.

“So now it’s time you help me—and become a bitch.”

***

The young agent who introduced herself as Natalia Yegorova put a cigarette between her lips the moment she arrived at Kiya’s hideout.

The white fur slid from her shoulders. As she twisted her crossed legs this way and that, her black stockings stretched taut and glossy. Even in the cold weather, the skintight mini dress she wore was barely palm-sized.

“They said he’s blind, so at first I thought it would be easy.”

Lipstick smeared on the cigarette. Seoryeong went into the kitchen to bring her bread and soup, seeing how cold she looked. The place wasn’t large—only a few steps—and yet the girl’s bright, chirpy voice never ceased behind her. Clatter, clatter, Seoryeong took out bowls and ladled steaming soup.

“A few days ago his fever spiked so high. But no one would let me into his room. Tch... people are just troublesome. When he was delirious with the fever would’ve been the perfect chance. Progress is so damn slow.”

She bit the end of her cigarette.

“I can’t tell if it’s his nose or some kind of instinct. The moment I try to strike up conversation, he swerves off elsewhere—like a hound with a nose for danger! Honestly, I thought if I just bumped my chest into him a few times it’d work. Softness, warmth. Touch is what sparks the imagination, right?”

Natalia began venting about the hardships of her assignment as soon as she sat at the table. She was young, very pretty, and voluptuous. It was obvious why such an alluring agent had been sent to infiltrate the Solzhenitsyn mansion.

“But instead of melting, he’s a man with thorns all over his body, sharp as blades!”

“Knew it.”

Kiya, who had been propping his chin on the table listening, grinned.

“That’s why I called you here, Natalia.”

“What are you talking about?”

“To introduce you to someone who’ll help.”