"What...!"
Flustered by the invisible attack, Jae-hwan backed away.
He calmly kept watch on his surroundings and braced for the next attack.
But Jeong-ho's perfect stealth was nearly impossible to pin down.
With Jeong-ho's ability being stealth, fighting him inside the tunnel was bound to put Jae-hwan at a disadvantage.
But Jae-hwan didn't back down.
"Mr. Yoon Jeong-ho. I'm not here to fight you."
Jae-hwan slowly opened his mouth and began to speak.
But no answer came back.
"You still have a chance. If you go back now, no one will get hurt. But this is your last chance. You know that too, don't you? The Angel's Wings will stop at nothing... Gahk!"
A powerful blow slammed into Jae-hwan's stomach.
The negotiation broke down before it had even begun.
Jae-hwan belatedly formed a shield of blood to block the attacks, but it was useless against an enemy hidden in the dark.
Jeong-ho immediately struck a second time from behind Jae-hwan.
The pain surging up his back brought Jae-hwan to his knees before he knew it.
Jae-hwan went down.
Jeong-ho made a big movement, as if to deliver the finishing blow.
At that moment.
Having waited for Jeong-ho to let his guard down, Jae-hwan covered his whole body in spikes like a hedgehog.
"Aaagh!"
Pierced by the jutting spikes, Jeong-ho screamed.
Not missing his chance, Jae-hwan sprayed a huge amount of blood toward the scream.
With blood drenching him from head to toe, his stealth was now useless.
Flustered, he began getting ready to run.
But.
"Can't let you do that."
Jae-hwan turned the blood on Jeong-ho into a snare and bound him.
"Haha... You may be a rookie, but I guess you really are Alpha Team, huh...?"
Subdued all too easily, Jeong-ho let out a hollow laugh.
"Figures... you're on a whole other level from small fry like me. I think you'll live a long time, Jae-hwan."
Jeong-ho accepted his bonds with surprising calm.
With the look of a man who had given up on everything.
Jae-hwan looked at him with pity and asked.
"Why on earth did you leave the organization? You must have known it would end up like this."
"Why?"
Jeong-ho looked at Jae-hwan with empty eyes.
A moment of silence passed.
"Why do you think? You saw what happened to Section Chief Kim Min-jun, didn't you?"
Jeong-ho began talking about Section Chief Min-jun, who had died not long ago.
"I did. But why does that..."
"He was much stronger than me. And he still died. I... I can't do it anymore. If I stay here, I'm going to die, no question."
Jeong-ho's words shocked Jae-hwan.
All this time, he'd only thought about killing aberrations; he'd never seriously thought about death.
"But that's..."
"You're strong to begin with, so you probably can't understand. But we're different. Every single day, we're facing death. Even if it's just for one day, I want to live a normal life without that fear."
Jae-hwan couldn't say anything to Jeong-ho's honest answer.
He knew it was a job where he put his life on the line, but he'd never thought he could actually die.
He'd never yet been in mortal danger, and whenever he got hurt, Ji-yeon's ability fixed it in no time.
"Still, I think dying as a deserter is a dog's death. You're still alive, so somehow..."
Jeong-ho shook his head and cut off Jae-hwan, who was desperately trying to persuade him.
"No, I told you. It's all over. Because..."
Beep, beep, beep.
"I have no intention of going back, even if it kills me. I'd rather end it than tremble in fear every day."
'A bomb?'
Thrown by the unexpected turn, Jae-hwan leaped far back.
"Run farther. There's no need for you to die with me for nothing, right?"
Jeong-ho pressed the switch connected to the fuse without hesitation.
KA-BOOM!!!
Caught in an ear-splitting blast and a massive fireball, Jae-hwan was flung away.
Beeeep—
His ears were ringing.
He felt a searing pain, as if he'd been burned.
"Ugh... ugghhh..."
Having slammed into everything as he was thrown, Jae-hwan groaned as he endured the pain.
A little later.
His senses slowly began to return.
Jae-hwan struggled to open his eyes through the scattering dust and ash.
But Jeong-ho wasn't there.
Dying flames and acrid smoke.
And nothing but bloodstains and scraps of flesh left behind.
"......."
Jae-hwan stared blankly at the sight.
A long time passed like that.
He picked up his phone, which had flown far away.
"Hello? Kim Jae-hwan! Where are you right now?! What about Yoon Jeong-ho? What was that explosion just now?"
"Team Leader."
Jae-hwan answered Chang-ho on the other end of the line in a trembling voice.
"It's over. Assistant Manager Yoon Jeong-ho... killed himself."
***
In the middle of the night, a corridor of the National Police Agency where not a soul passed by.
Jae-hwan sat there blankly, sinking into gloom.
"Here. I brought you coffee."
"...Thank you."
Feeling sorry for him, Ji-yeon had brought Jae-hwan coffee.
"Where's the Team Leader?"
"He's writing the report. He told me to come check whether you're okay. So what happened?"
"......."
Ji-yeon quietly sat down next to Jae-hwan, who said nothing.
"You can take your time telling me what happened. No, if you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to. It doesn't look like it ended well."
Ji-yeon shrugged and went on.
"Well... I'll stay by your side, anyway."
Jae-hwan hesitated for a long while before finally speaking.
"Senior... how many years did you say Assistant Manager Yoon Jeong-ho had been here?"
"It was his 5th year. Why do you ask?"
"Assistant Manager Yoon Jeong-ho told me. That he'd lived feeling the fear of death every single day. So that means he'd been doing that for 5 years."
"...I suppose so."
"Will we end up like that someday too?"
Jae-hwan's question left Ji-yeon at a loss for words.
She had once been gripped by the same thought.
"That's..."
The moment Ji-yeon finally opened her mouth.
Ji-yeon's phone suddenly began to ring.
"It's the Team Leader."
After hanging up, Ji-yeon let out a short sigh and answered Jae-hwan.
"A new case. They say it's suspected to be an aberration. Get some rest for now, and when they call, let's go back to work."
Jae-hwan nodded heavily at Ji-yeon's words.
"But what kind of case is it?"
"Ah, this."
Ji-yeon glanced at Jae-hwan to read his mood before continuing.
"It's a suicide case."
***
Traces of brain matter and blood, splattered gruesomely.
Left speechless for a moment by the horrific scene, Jae-hwan looked at the others.
The others, on the other hand, began examining the scene as casually as ever.
'Is it one of two, then? Either I become as numb as them, or like Assistant Manager Yoon Jeong-ho...'
The bitterness lasted only a moment.
Jae-hwan soon went over to the others and asked a question.
"Is there anything unusual? It just looks like a suicide."
"Yeah. Any way you look at it, it seems like an ordinary suicide. Except that the method doesn't make sense."
Chang-ho answered Jae-hwan's question casually.
"A method that doesn't make sense...?"
"Right. This kid died while walking. Even with a cliff right there, as if possessed by something."
"That's definitely suspicious."
Jae-hwan agreed with Chang-ho.
"Isn't there anything special about the victim?"
"Depression, relationship with the parents, friendships, nothing wrong with any of that. Only..."
"Only?"
Jae-hwan raised his eyebrows at Chang-ho's trailing pause.
"This kid was a problem student."
***
After a quick investigation, the group looked into the dead student's record.
The deceased had certainly been a bad student.
But going over the record, one question came to the group's minds.
"Is this enough to earn a grudge that gets someone killed?"
"It doesn't seem like the kid really hurt anyone, does it?"
No extorting money or valuables, no violence.
Just skipping class a few times and hanging around with a gang.
"For now, I've asked HQ to keep watch on the rest of the gang. If anything happens to them, we'll know right away."
Chang-ho tried his best to reassure the group.
Letting Chang-ho's words go in one ear and out the other, Jae-hwan blankly watched the students heading home.
'I really can't figure it out. An aberration hiding among such ordinary-looking people. No matter how many times I do this, I can't get used to it. Huh...?'
At that moment, one student caught his eye.
A schoolgirl walking along with a vacant look in her eyes.
She was moving forward aimlessly, as if possessed by something.
'Wait, don't tell me...?'
Jae-hwan felt an inexplicable sense of wrongness.
Just as Jae-hwan was about to dash out, the crosswalk light turned to stop.
"Team Leader! Over there!"
Jae-hwan desperately reached out to grab her.
But just before his hand reached her.
A truck barreling in at furious speed ran her over and tore on past.
***
The peaceful afternoon road by the school turned into pandemonium in an instant.
"Please move aside! Police!"
Pushing through the screams and murmuring on all sides, the group barely managed to reach the body.
"What the... Didn't HQ say they were watching that whole gang?"
"They did! But this, what the hell..."
With that, Chang-ho immediately called HQ.
Ji-yeon carefully examined the mangled body.
"...Gruesome. There's no way to heal this, or anything else."
"I had a weird feeling and tried to check, but I never thought I'd be this late..."
"No, it's not your fault."
Ji-yeon told the self-blaming Jae-hwan firmly.
Even so, Jae-hwan could only stare blankly at the gruesome scene.
Guilt at failing to prevent it, and the shock of witnessing the horrific scene with his own eyes.
Ashen from the shock, Jae-hwan stood frozen in place.
Ji-yeon could only look at him with pity.
A little time passed.
Done with his call to HQ, Chang-ho shared new information.
"Looks like we were wrong. The one who died this time wasn't a delinquent."
"What?"
"In fact, they say she was a diligent student."
New information they'd never imagined.
They'd have to revise their original hypothesis entirely.
"When they said delinquent, I naturally assumed school violence or something was involved."
"Then what about this victim? Is there nothing in common with the last one?"
Chang-ho flipped through his notebook, skimming the information.
Then, as if he'd suddenly found something, he spoke in an excited voice.
"Weren't all the dead students on the track team?"
"The track team? Something must have happened there."
Chang-ho nodded at Jae-hwan's reasoning and went on.
"For now, let's start the investigation over from here."
Ji-yeon and Chang-ho began talking it over and making plans.
But Jae-hwan just couldn't focus.
In the end, he couldn't hold it in and voiced his unease.
"...Will we be able to stop the next suicide?"
Chang-ho, deep in conversation, glanced at Jae-hwan and spoke calmly.
"I've said it over and over, but you'd better get used to it. We can't save everyone anyway."
Jae-hwan could only nod.
In the end, no matter what he did, he couldn't prevent what had already happened.
Even at this very moment, someone might be dying.
There was no way to prevent those deaths either.
All he could do was stop the aberration before more people died.
"So what do we do now?"
"What do you mean, what do we do?"
Chang-ho answered with a sigh.
"We dig through everything."