“Looks like you’re pretty angry. Your character’s different today. Decided not to play innocent anymore?”
He pointed out Marvin’s changed attitude. Marvin had unconsciously shown his true self in anger. But he wasn’t in the mood to put on a public smile now.
“I never pretended to be innocent. If you want to pick a fight, I’ll be on my way.”
“Why are you so eager to hide your Trait? Are you ashamed of being an Omega?”
“What kind of…!”
Marvin blurted out louder than he intended. Of course he wasn’t ashamed. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to argue further, and swallowed.
“Actually, I was curious how you’d react if I outed it flatly. You’ve been kicking and screaming—so it must be a pretty important secret. Why is that?”
He turned fully toward Marvin, took a step or two closer, and stood right in front of him. Tilting his head down slightly, he whispered so softly it was barely audible.
“As I said before, I don’t do wordplay for fun. Answer only ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Otherwise I’ll lock you up for violating the Trait Law.”
His flat threat cut through Marvin’s ears. Marvin raised his head to look at Jang Jin-woo. His gaze, cast downward at Marvin, settled calmly on his face.
In that moment Marvin realized two things he hadn’t noticed before. One, his iris was paler than last time. Two, he was quite angry.
“So you, Kim Ma-bin, don’t entertain clients?”
“…Yes.”
“Then why are you working here? You’re an Omega. Don’t you know the Allocation System business can only hire non-Trait Carriers, aside from entertainers?”
He hadn’t known that. As soon as he started picking on him, an unexpected illegality surfaced.
“……”
“You’re here by your own choice, right?”
“Well… Prosecutor, I don’t know what you want to know, but you could just report me if—”
“I told you to answer only ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ I asked if you work here because you want to.”
His oppressive gaze pinned Marvin down. Marvin saw exactly what he meant: he was testing what Marvin would say. Marvin held firm.
“…Yes, I’m here because I want to be.”
Jang Jin-woo’s brows narrowed. Suspicion thinned his eyes. Even if it didn’t look that way, there was no changing it now.
Then what should I have said?
He watched Marvin stubbornly clench his lips for a long moment. His frown was blatant. If Marvin had lied, he’d have been taken in. When the approach didn’t seem to work, he stepped back as if giving up.
“Got any cigarettes?”
Jang Jin-woo accepted a cigarette from Marvin and lit it immediately. Exhaling a light breath of smoke, he asked,
“You graduated from the Military Academy?”
His tone had dropped. When Marvin didn’t answer right away, he turned his head back to him, as if to say it was okay to share that.
“…Yes, I did.”
“But you’re not in the military?”
“No.”
“Any reason you can’t let that be known?”
He just stared at Marvin over the cigarette in his mouth, as if inviting him to answer.
“What are you, really?”
He tried a lighter question, almost to himself. Then, seeming to give up, he took a long drag, stubbed it out in the ashtray, and flopped onto the shining faux-leather sofa. Tugging at his tie, he spoke wearily.
“My take is this. At first, I thought you were a straight man who hated being an Omega—common case, no interest.”
That sounded like his impression from their first meeting.
“Then I thought you were a Carrier with a tragic background, or a patient suffering from a pheromone disorder. That was odd too. You looked too put-together for that.”
Recalling their hospital meeting, he leaned his head on the sofa arm and looked at Marvin.
“Do you know where I went today?”
He paused as if daring Marvin to guess. Marvin still stood frozen in place. In Jang Jin-woo’s blank expression on the deep-red sofa, Marvin felt a sticky unpleasantness.
“I thought it was strange. No transfer records, no medical or discharge files accessible. Treated like someone who didn’t exist—but whenever I asked about you, I got a call from above.”
“……”
“And today was the ultimate, right?”
He seemed to laugh lightly, but it was mockery. He made it clear even thinking about it annoyed him.
“Who are you? What are you that the Chief of Staff has to get involved to keep you hidden?”
His long-suppressed hostility finally surfaced. It meant that the summons had really pissed him off—and at the same time, he’d been so curious he’d raced here straight from the Blue House.
Marvin tightened his lips and lowered his gaze. The anxiety that had pounded at the door now revealed itself and left him feeling helpless.
It seemed the person sitting next to him on the call with Deputy Director Choi Hyeong-il was Im Sang-wook, the President’s Chief of Staff. He and Choi had been close since high school. Marvin hadn’t expected the Chief of Staff to be involved… things were more tangled than he thought.
On the other hand, he felt relieved. He’d guarded security all along. Now that the higher-ups had flat-out warned Jang Jin-woo, there was no reason to hide any further. It felt like the gag had been released.
“What did the Chief of Staff say?”
“He told me not to do unnecessary things.”
“……”
Im Sang-wook was also a former prosecutor, so they must be on familiar terms. It also seemed to bruise Jang Jin-woo’s pride.
“So I wanted to do it even more.”
“Unnecessary things.”
Jang Jin-woo snorted at himself, looking straight ahead. It wasn’t directed at Marvin.
“The Chief of Staff’s right. It’s not your business—just pretend you don’t know. It’s not something you need to be involved with professionally.”
“Seems that way. I’m pretty bruised.”
Marvin couldn’t help but give a wry smile at how human that sounded.
“You get bruised too, Prosecutor.”
“Business as usual. But this time I got scolded for no reason—I felt it was unfair. So you’re never going to tell me who you are?”
Having not gotten the answer he wanted, he’d come looking for someone easier. Jang Jin-woo leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, fingers laced loosely. He pressed his long fingers against his smooth nose and stared at Marvin.
“You’re an NIS agent, Kim Ma-bin, right? Special Operations?”
He suddenly asked directly—and accurately. He watched every moment of Marvin’s hesitation.
Marvin hesitated, but he’d already resolved himself. Denying it now in front of the man who’d just chided him would be pointless. He let his eyelids drop slightly, signaling assent. Jang Jin-woo nodded.
“You don’t seem to be on assignment here in Korea… Maybe under house arrest or in safe-house duty? I pried carelessly. The reason seems related to your Trait type.”
“……”
“I don’t know what happened, but it must’ve been frustrating to see an active field agent sitting idle for months. No word from above, and some idiot sniffing around and pestering you—must’ve been awkward.”
Marvin clenched his jaw. Hearing his past weeks summed up in a few words felt like dissection alive. Yet in his words Marvin found an odd consolation, which made him all the more determined to feign indignation.
“You can handle the hotel incident by the book. If I bear any responsibility, I will—I’ll pay fines. But don’t record it. Let it end in a non-prosecution. I’ll be more careful henceforth.”
At those words, Jang Jin-woo laughed with a deflating sound. He sighed as if saying, “Oh, really?” and rubbed his chin.
“I’ve heard the same advice twice today.”
It seemed the Chief of Staff had said much the same. As he inhaled, a trace of annoyance touched the corner of Jang Jin-woo’s mouth. Closing a case before indictment was the one thing prosecutors hated most.