A week had passed since Lee Kanghyun had walked into the Association detention room of his own accord.
The Association detention room had a higher security classification than an ordinary holding cell, and because of that, visitation was completely prohibited.
For Kang Yujun, the past week had been nothing short of hell.
Lee Kanghyun was sensitive. He hated anything dirty and found unfamiliar environments annoying. Is he eating properly? Can he sleep on that hard floor? What if something hurts and he can’t even tell anyone, and he’s suffering through it alone?
The more one thought led to another, the more Kang Yujun felt himself burning up inside.
At last, the court issued an order for Lee Kanghyun’s release. Of course, that did not mean the charges had been cleared. Lee Kanghyun was still a suspect and would have to remain under investigation without detention. But at least they could get him out from behind those cold iron bars.
Kang Yujun blamed himself. If I’d just moved a little faster, Kanghyun would never have had to walk into a place like that himself.
He might have gone in voluntarily, but a detention room was little different from a prison. Kang Yujun could not even imagine how suffocating a place like that must be for a free spirit like Lee Kanghyun. He might be curled up in a corner right now, staring hollow-eyed at the wall and resenting him.
Kang Yujun clenched his fist.
He stopped in front of a massive iron door. An employee hurriedly tapped a key card and entered the code.
Kang Yujun took one deep breath, then yanked open the tightly shut iron door.
“Lee Kanghyun…!”
He strode into the room as though he might run straight over and pull him into his arms.
“…….”
But the moment Kang Yujun saw inside, his steps stopped.
The pitiful stray cat soaked through by the rain that he had imagined was nowhere to be found.
Lee Kanghyun was lying on the cramped cot.
And not just lying there. He was sleeping as comfortably as could be, completely dead to the world.
He looked impossibly happy.
“…Ha.”
A hollow laugh escaped Kang Yujun.
Worry? Anxiety? Restlessness?
Every emotion that had been eating him alive for the past week evaporated in an instant.
Who the hell was I worrying about…?
Far from losing weight, Lee Kanghyun’s face actually looked a little fuller, perhaps thanks to regular meals.
Not that it made much difference. His body was still as skinny as ever.
Utterly dumbfounded, Kang Yujun stood there for a while without saying anything, simply staring down at him. Relief settled in alongside an involuntary laugh.
Yeah. This is Lee Kanghyun.
He slowly approached the bed. Then he crouched down until he was eye level with Lee Kanghyun’s face, which was hanging slightly over the edge of the mattress.
“Kanghyun.”
Lee Kanghyun did not so much as twitch.
“Lee Kanghyun. Wake up. We’re going home.”
Kang Yujun tapped his cheek with his fingertips, then gave it a firm press.
It was not soft.
If anything, he could feel the bone.
I thought he’d put on weight. First thing I’m doing once we’re out is feeding him.
Kang Yujun kept pressing his cheek until Lee Kanghyun’s brow finally creased.
“Mmm….”
Lee Kanghyun shook his head as if annoyed. With visible effort, he dragged his neck up from where it had been bent over the edge of the bed, lay flat again, and mumbled without opening his eyes.
“…If it’s food, just leave it and go.”
“Mealtime’s over. It’s time for you to get out.”
“Don’t care. Five more minutes.”
Lee Kanghyun pulled the blanket all the way over his head.
He did not even seem interested in figuring out what was happening. He was simply irritated that someone had interrupted his sleep.
Kang Yujun let out another incredulous laugh.
“Hey. The court denied your detention. You can leave.”
He yanked the blanket away.
Lee Kanghyun stared blankly up at Kang Yujun through irritated eyes.
It took three seconds for his gaze to focus.
Then another two for him to recognize who he was looking at.
“…Huh? Kang Yujun?”
Lee Kanghyun finally asked in a hoarse voice.
“Why are you here? Did they arrest you too?”
“I came to pick you up, idiot. It’s been a week.”
“Already?”
Lee Kanghyun blinked as though he could not believe it.
“Get up. Let’s go.”
Lee Kanghyun slowly pushed himself upright and gave a small sigh.
“Ah. I liked it here.”
“What’s there to like about this cramped place?”
“It’s quiet. Nobody talks to me. And without a phone, you can’t contact me either.”
Kang Yujun’s eyebrow rose slightly.
He liked it because I couldn’t contact him?
Isn’t that a little much? I spent the entire week worrying myself sick that he might be having a hard time, and meanwhile he liked it here because I couldn’t call him?
Kang Yujun found himself feeling a little hurt despite himself, and for no real reason, he grabbed Lee Kanghyun more roughly than necessary and pulled him up.
“Are you coming out or not?”
He dragged Lee Kanghyun out of the room.
Lee Kanghyun shuffled slowly down the corridor, then suddenly stopped as though something had occurred to him.
“Hey, Kang Yujun.”
“What? I’ve got the car waiting. Let’s hurry up and get something to eat.”
Kang Yujun spoke a little curtly and pushed at Lee Kanghyun’s back.
Lee Kanghyun did not budge.
“Before we eat, there’s something I need to check.”
“What?”
Lee Kanghyun pointed beneath his feet, toward the underground levels of the Association building.
“Let’s go look at the corpse.”
Kang Yujun’s eyes widened.
“Corpse? You mean the intruder?”
“Yeah. That bastard’s body is in the Association morgue, right?”
“Right. Crimes involving awakened people fall under the Association’s jurisdiction, so the body should still be here.”
“I need to see it.”
Kang Yujun’s expression turned puzzled.
“Now? If we want to inspect it officially, we’ll have to go through the proper procedure. He’s unidentified, so there’s no family to deal with, but we’d still need the prosecutor in charge to approve it, and then—”
“Wait. No family? He’s unidentified?”
“Yeah. No dental records, no fingerprint matches. Nobody’s claimed the body either, so they’re still holding it.”
“Then why the hell did Assemblyman Kim make such a scene at you about whether you’d spared a thought for the victim’s family?”
Kang Yujun shrugged.
“He was just looking for something to attack us with. Making things up so he could turn people against us.”
Lee Kanghyun let out a disbelieving laugh.
If he’d attacked our morality by bringing up a family that didn’t even exist, then the truth had never mattered to him in the first place.
He probably just wanted to attack an S-rank Hunter.
The sheer shamelessness of it was almost impressive.
“Anyway, going through the official process is a waste of time.”
“Then what are you going to do? Give up and go eat first?”
“Give up? Who said anything about filing an official request? I’m going in to see it right now.”
“…How?”
“We sneak in.”
For a moment, Kang Yujun wondered if he had heard correctly.
“You’re serious? You’re not too lazy for that?”
“I am. But something’s weird.”
Lee Kanghyun’s eyes turned serious.
“The autopsy results don’t make sense. I only twisted his arm, but they’re talking about signs of torture and all that shit. Like somebody tampered with it. I need to see it with my own eyes.”
Faced with Lee Kanghyun’s certainty, Kang Yujun fell silent.
The autopsy results.
The contents of the autopsy report he had seen several days earlier flashed through his mind.
He had felt something strangely off about it too. He simply had not had the time to dig deeper while everything was happening at once.
Getting Lee Kanghyun out had been more important.
What if Kanghyun’s right? What if those injuries were fabricated, or caused by a third party?
“Are you doing it or not? If you’re not, I’ll go alone.”
“Of course I’m doing it. Obviously.”
Kang Yujun quickly wiped the serious expression from his face, smiled, and nodded.
Nothing had been confirmed yet. He did not want to pass his own unease on to Lee Kanghyun for no reason.
“If Kanghyun wants to play cat burglar, his owner has to help.”
Lee Kanghyun’s face immediately twisted.
They were in a fairly serious situation, and the bastard was screwing around again.
“Whatever.”
Lee Kanghyun swept his gaze around.
Employees and Hunters were busily coming and going through the Association lobby.
“The main entrance has too many CCTV cameras. Annoying. Let’s use the staff passage.”
Lee Kanghyun changed direction toward the side of the building.
Kang Yujun followed behind him with an intrigued expression.
They stopped in front of an iron door on the side of the building bearing a sign that read AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.
Lee Kanghyun tried the handle, but the door was firmly locked and only rattled in place.
“Know the code?”
Instead of answering, Lee Kanghyun grabbed the handle again.
Crunch.
With extraordinarily precise control over his strength, he crushed only the internal locking mechanism without making enough noise to tear the hinges free.
The door swung gently open.
“Strong.”
Lee Kanghyun did not even acknowledge the compliment.
“Now shut up for a minute.”
The two of them reached the emergency stairwell.
The morgue was on basement level three. The ceilings were high, so they would have to descend quite a few flights of stairs.
But CCTV cameras were installed throughout the stairwell.
If they simply walked down, they would be caught immediately.
Lee Kanghyun glared at the cameras.
Kang Yujun stepped forward.
“I’ll do it.”
Kang Yujun lightly snapped his fingers.
The moisture in the air instantly formed a dense mist around the CCTV lenses.
On the footage, it would merely look as though the image had gone hazy from condensation. There would be no trace of anyone passing by.
A few people might suspect it was Kang Yujun’s Ability, but so what?
There would be no direct evidence.
“Oh. That’s useful.”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
The two S-rank Hunters descended the stairs without a sound.
They reached the corridor on basement level two.
This was an area mostly used by researchers.
Lee Kanghyun concealed himself behind a wall and waited for the right moment.
They needed an ID card to enter the secure area on basement level three where the morgue was located.
After a short wait, a researcher in a white coat came walking toward them with an ID card hanging around his neck.
“Want me to knock him out and take it?”
Kang Yujun whispered.
Lee Kanghyun looked at him in disgust.
Is this bastard really a national hero? He just casually suggested knocking somebody unconscious.
“No. Don’t make this into a bigger mess.”
The moment the researcher rounded the corner, Lee Kanghyun moved.
There was not even the sound of fabric brushing past.
Lee Kanghyun’s afterimage flashed by the researcher’s side.
The researcher tilted his head.
“What was that? Wind?”
He casually pressed the elevator button.
Then he lifted the lanyard hanging from his neck, intending to tap the card against the reader.
“Huh?”
But there was no ID card hanging from the end of it.
Only the empty lanyard dangled around his neck.
“Where’d it go? Did it snap off?”
Confused, the researcher looked around the floor.
He had no idea that some distance away, behind the emergency exit, Lee Kanghyun was holding the stolen ID card between two fingers and waving it at Kang Yujun.