Another Life With You

Laying the Trap

Chief Kim of the National Intelligence Service sat back in his chair, thoughtfully regarding the woman sitting at her desk across from him. He had been reluctant to visit the Seri's Choice office at first. There was a mountain of paperwork on his desk waiting to be read. He wouldn't admit to it, but Chief Kim had also thought, given what he knew of Yoon Seri as a chaebol known for her relationship conquests, that whatever she had called the NIS about would have been some trivial matter. He was ready to dismiss the agent who had brought the call to his attention, until the words 'North Korea' had been mentioned.

In any other circumstances, Chief Kim would have delegated the task to a junior agent. The timing of it struck him as too coincidental to miss out on, however, given that just one week ago there was a report of a newly discovered tunnel that supposedly led all the way to North Korea, as well as video footage of a man emerging from said tunnel.

He skimmed over the notes he had taken. "So, to summarize," Chief Kim said; talking out loud always helped him to think better. "Ri Jeong-hyeok ssi is being targeted by this Cho Cheol-gang character as revenge for the evidence of corruption which his brother dug up about him. Cho Cheol-gang attacked Yoon Seri ssi because he somehow knew that Ri Jeong-hyeok ssi is working as her bodyguard, and Yoon Seri ssi's whereabouts are easier to discover given her status as a public figure. We aren't sure what he was planning to do once he had kidnapped her."

Yoon Seri and Ri Jeong-hyeok, standing behind her desk chair like a black-clothed sentinel, both nodded in agreement. Ri Jeong-hyeok's story seemed fantastical, something lifted from a melodramatic television drama, except that everything so far corroborated with the background check Chief Kim had asked for before coming here. He had, indeed, arrived from North Korea and been granted asylum. His father was, indeed, the director of the General Political Bureau. South Korea had stringent checks to ensure that defectors from North Korea weren't spies, and Ri Jeong-hyeok had passed the test. Chief Kim was inclined to trust him.

"Alright, then we are left with these questions: how does Cho Cheol-gang have access to resources here? Does he have connections in Seoul? How did he manage get through the Seri's Choice building security?" Chief Kim tapped his pen against the notebook. He looked up stealthily to catch Yoon Seri and Ri Jeong-hyeok's reactions. Yoon Seri looked cool as a cucumber – perhaps being in her office helped maintain her businesswoman façade – while the only thing giving away Ri Jeong-hyeok's concern was the wrinkle between his eyebrows. Framed against the wall of cacti along the back wall of the office, the two of them were so good-looking they could be posing for some sort of catalogue. Shaking his head, Chief Kim returned to his notes.

"Well, I can think of two solutions for now," he said, after some contemplation. "The first one would take longer. I would assign surveillance teams to both of you while the NIS works to locate Cho Cheol-gang. The second one is... unconventional, but probably faster. It only came to mind because of Yoon Seri ssi's unique position."

"The second one," Yoon Seri and Ri Jeong-hyeok said simultaneously, to Chief Kim's amusement. They hadn't even heard the details yet.

---

Seo Dan put down the shotgun she had been hoisting, relieved that she had the excuse of her phone's vibration to do so. Even though it was a sunny day, her fingers had grown numb from the winter air. She clenched and unclenched them a few times before taking her phone out to read the new message she had gotten from Jeong-hyeok:

Stay at home. I will tell you the whole story in person, but I am quite certain the intruder at Seri's Choice was after me, not Yoon Seri. He doesn't know about you or about my home address yet, so it should be safe if you keep to yourself.