By Zephyria 
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“You’ve come.”
Olga, by nature, trusted no one. She was far from the type to be naive or innocent, and the years spent struggling with loss had made her more cynical and sharp.
Even before Solar City vanished, she was someone who had seen classified documents with her own eyes.
Thus, while she might feel a human fondness for the two men sitting across from her, she had never granted them her steadfast trust.
Yet, strangely, she could conclude that they would not drive her into a death trap. It was unscientific, bordering on instinct.
Besides, from what she had experienced, they were quite good people…
“Did you find it? That was faster than I expected.”
“We’re skilled.”
“I know. I wasn’t doubting you. Still, this case couldn’t have been easy. The information… ah, shall we move?”
Honestly, she would have been satisfied just finding a trace. But judging by their eyes, it seemed they had found something quite decisive.
No matter how skilled the mercenaries were, to snatch news that even the central hadn’t reached so swiftly… Olga calmed her twitching brows and stood up composedly.
A weekday afternoon, a quiet hour when everyone had disappeared inside the buildings. If they were cautious enough to avoid even the outdoor tables where no one sat due to the cold wind…
Perhaps they really had brought back the information she desired.
In the brown eyes she glanced at, there wasn’t a single speck of lie or deception. Olga’s heart beat loudly.
“First, may I ask where you obtained the item?”
And so, Olga did something she had never done before. She took them to her home.
Regrettably, in that spacious house, there wasn’t even a place to sit facing one another. It was because she hadn’t let a single stranger inside since staying in Goryeo City.
Conversation only resumed after Joo-oh lifted an armchair with one hand and moved it.
“As I said, I received it.”
Olga remained silent for a while, staring at the handkerchief Jin Mu-hae held out, before she spoke.
She had no intention of confessing a plan that was difficult to utter even in her dreams, and she had promised the person who gave this to her that she would keep it a secret.
Fortunately, the other party didn’t seem offended by an answer that was essentially a refusal to reveal anything.
Setting aside the pretty lad who was constantly distracted and smiled through everything, even the fierce-looking Jin Mu-hae relaxed the muscles of his brow slightly. It was a signal that it was fine.
“It goes without saying, but they are someone related to the target of the request.”
Was it because she had been anxious on her own after hearing of their tragedy? She had intended not to utter a word, but she found herself becoming strangely soft.
Olga quickly shut her mouth and shifted the subject slightly.
“Anyway, did the clue point to a specific person? Or an organization?”
“Both are correct. If what you understand is accurate.”
“Did you… find a new clue?”
“We obtained something more certain and direct. The person who belongs to the handkerchief.”
Matching his tall stature and build, he didn’t even hesitate. Olga felt as if the 6:00 PM notification she had heard long ago in the center of Solar City was ringing in her ears.
“I see they are alive. Then what about the organization? Where are they now and what are they doing? How far have you made contact?”
She could no longer pretend to be calm. Her heartbeat thundered even in her ears.
As she glanced absentmindedly, a simple cabinet was visible behind Joo-oh’s head. The moment a green plastic toy, completely out of place among the glittering objects, flashed through her vision…
Beep—!
Jin Mu-hae’s arm reached across the table. The Link Watch, which had scanned the folded handkerchief at some point, brightly projected a hologram.
A square. A circle. A triangle. And a dot-matrix drawing of a sailboat.
As the emblem she had once seen in her lover’s documents flashed through her mind, Olga lost her words and stared blankly across from her.
“…!”
A young man, vibrant and healthy, yet likely bearing deep scars across his body.
Not as seasoned or poised as those she usually dealt with, but a man too intelligent and upright to be dismissed as just a rough mercenary.
The man with sharp, well-defined features sent her an inscrutable gaze.
“I brought him. Right before your eyes, Ms. Belova.”
“….”
“The research group that exchanged information with Solar City twenty years ago. The new head of Return flight. For what purpose did you approach them?”
A voice she used to play softly, as if savoring it, on nights when sleep wouldn’t come. That tender voice echoed in Olga’s head like an auditory hallucination.
—Olga Belova. You were always right.
* * *
Joo-oh was utterly excited all the way back to the Jaegang District.
He wasn’t hopping or swinging his arms wildly, but his cheeks were slightly flushed, and anyone could tell he was suppressing his excitement.
Occasionally, he placed a hand on his chest and let out a long sigh. Thinking he might be ill, Mu-hae checked his chest, and it was thumping rapidly.
“Too… too.”
“Just say it. Say it. How many times have you made that sound already?”
“It’s just… I don’t think words are enough.”
Regardless of the scolding, he took photos of strangers, sighed repeatedly, smiled with narrowed eyes, and made a strange ‘keeing’ sound as he buried his head into Mu-hae’s arm and back.
The crazy bastard pushed so hard that Mu-hae stumbled while walking.
“Ugh, walk properly, will you?”
Though he expressed irritation, it wasn’t that he couldn’t guess how the other felt. Mu-hae himself had felt as if he were floating in a dream since leaving the Garam District.
The silence that had flowed like an eternity and the trembling, wrinkled hands. A moment of coincidence so exquisite and difficult to fathom that one might suspect it was someone’s design.
‘If I had stepped forward sooner, I might have realized it earlier.’
‘Since we reached this place thanks to the information you leaked, in the end, we received Ms. Belova’s help.’
At this point, it would be harder not to know her intentions in seeking Return flight.
However, there was a gap as vast as the difference between Mu-hae’s breakfast cereal and a Fruit Tornado between a guess and an explanation heard directly from the person.
Surprisingly, Olga remembered the contents of the classified documents vividly even after all these years.
To be precise, it would be more accurate to say they were engraved in her mind. Since she had tried to forget but failed, she was effectively held captive by the past.
Perhaps Olga had unconsciously known even before finding the bracelet. What the dead had yearned for, and what kind of future they had dreamed of.
The information, a tangle of shock and hope, had remained intact within her and was now delivered to Return flight.
“Get inside.”
Mu-hae pushed Joo-oh, who was still groaning in a daze, into the house.
He slowly took off his shoes and flopped face-down on the floor.
The way he curled his body and took deep breaths for a long time made him look like a sick person for no reason, so Mu-hae touched his forehead, even though he knew he wasn’t.
As the large hand landed, Joo-oh let out a ‘kirrrung’—an even stranger moan than before—and clung to him.
“Too…”
“That’s enough.”
“It was too cool. I love it so much. I’m so glad. I’m so happy.”
Finally, the fragmented expressions burst out all at once, and his red eyes sparkled. The guy who didn’t get drunk even when drinking alcohol was flailing like a blackout drunk.
“Did you just bite me?”
Yam. Joo-oh nibbled on his shoulder before leaning against him limply.
To someone who knew his identity, it was a chilling bite, but instead of goosebumps, the corners of Mu-hae’s mouth twitched slightly.
“T-47. We’ve found them all now. Right?”
“Not all. We only have a rough guess of the location.”
“We can just go get it. How do we get there?”
Now that his brain seemed to be functioning, the fellow spoke in proper language. Mu-hae looked down at him blankly before grabbing him by the scruff of the neck to pull him up.
“I haven’t cleaned the floor yet. Stop rubbing yourself on it and go to the sofa.”
“There’s dust on the sofa too.”
“I gave it a rough wipe earlier. Dust it off the rest of the way and lie down.”
Joo-oh nodded obediently and sprawled out on the sofa. He looked exactly like someone shivering from the deep lingering emotions after watching a perfect movie.
‘…Indeed.’
An agreement that couldn’t be spoken lingered late in Mu-hae’s throat.
Indeed. Thanks to matching information with Olga for hours, he knew the location roughly.
‘Where did you say…’
‘Central. There is a research facility in the deep layers.’
He had no inkling of how on earth he could possibly gain access to such a place.
203 – I Became a Monster in a Dead Game