Lovers

25

Night Stroll

Even after the door closed with a thud, I waited for a long time. It seemed everyone had left, including the department chief who owned this office, but I was still cautious. After waiting for 5 minutes, I quietly emerged from the closet and briefly looked around the office.

The first thing that caught my eye was, of course, the camera. With that camera there, any unnecessary actions would be pointless. Knowing this, the chief probably left the room leaving his computer as it was, as if to show off.

I visually checked a few photo frames on the chief’s desk. The photo the chief cherishes most is, unsurprisingly, of his daughter. The child, wearing a private school uniform, is smiling brightly. Is the chief a good father to his child? It’s hard to know.

The rest were photos from trips. The most noticeable was a photo taken in front of a yacht. Why in front of the yacht? Not on it? The name written on the yacht was ‘Lilith’. It’s a familiar name, but who could it be?

Looking any further might be risky. The camera was watching me. I opened the office door, checked the corridor, and went out.

I needed to get out of the Security Bureau quickly. It would be the worst if I ran into Riegel here while wasting time. Especially now, when there’s a possibility that Riegel might have noticed something.

Because I was moving quickly, I didn’t notice the man coming from the opposite direction. The man I bumped into was thrown backwards. Oh, shit. I don’t know if he didn’t see me either or if he was trying to bump shoulders on purpose. When a team falls, there are always bastards who try to pick fights, so it could be that kind of problem. …But generally, people don’t pick fights like this with someone like me.

Not many people shoulder-check guys from anti-terrorism or special forces units. First, they can’t win. They end up being thrown back like just now. Second, the consequences are severe. We’re all combat professionals.

“Are you okay?”

As I approached the man who had been thrown back and tried to help him up, he slipped something into my padded jacket pocket as he stood up.

Ah, I see. I checked the camera angle reflected in the corridor’s glass window. Yes, if he put it in here, it certainly wouldn’t be visible.

So he wasn’t trying to pick a fight, but had something to give me.

A man of similar height to me. But I don’t recognize this man’s face at all.

“I’m sorry. I was lost in thought.”

The man apologized with a pale face and started picking up the documents that had fallen to the floor. I helped pick them up too. I wanted to ask who he was, but I was worried. I had seen a lip-reading expert in the Security Bureau before. To my eyes, it was just a flickering screen, but that expert could figure out the entire conversation just from lip movements.

“No, I should be the one apologizing. I was lost in thought too.”

As I handed over the documents I had picked up, the man gave a slight bow and brushed past me. I also walked quickly in the opposite direction.

My heart was pounding. Once outside, I naturally slipped my hand into my padded jacket and felt a piece of paper. It hadn’t been there before. A note? When I gripped it, the crackling sensation confirmed it was paper.

I got outside and boarded a bus. Even on the bus, I didn’t check the note. The Security Bureau could easily access the cameras inside the bus too. Then, after pretending I wasn’t going to get off, I suddenly alighted, and I saw a man who had been following me on the bus looking at me with a bewildered face. So it was surveillance after all. The man kept glaring at me from inside the departing bus.

This time, I called a taxi and got in. Is the driver a normal person? Is there no tail? I forcibly suppressed the urge to read the note.

I arrived at a place where there was likely to be no surveillance. I bought a bottle of alcohol from a nearby convenience store and entered a park. The park consisted of low hills, and my destination was located halfway up one of these hills.

Jay Wu, a man who knew true love, lies here.

That’s what was written on the tombstone. Probably an epitaph carefully chosen by his fiancée. It suited Jay well. That bastard had nothing but love.

I poured half the bottle of alcohol on his tombstone. His words about inviting me to his house when he got married floated through my mind. He said he would do the cooking, that he would take cooking classes. His future plans were so specific and full of love.

As I drank and looked around, there was only silence. No surveillance, no cameras. It’s not an appropriate place to install such things. Not because it’s a cemetery, but because there weren’t any suitable trees to attach cameras to. An open view with not even a mouse in sight, an environment where even one person entering would be too conspicuous. This is what I needed.

While drinking, I slowly took out the note from my padded jacket and unfolded it.

Be careful. Central Station, Exit 13. A-07. 4681.

Central Station must mean Lumaier Central Station, the train station.

Lumaier Central Station, huh…

I put the note back into my padded jacket and took a last look at Jay’s tombstone.

“I’ll… try to come again.”

You know it’s not something I can do just by my will alone. Cut me some slack.

I don’t know if the guy heard my words.

The Thunder Night Market is the largest night market in Lumaier, no, in all of Rotman. It opens every day, with half permanent shops and half stalls. The saying “They have everything except what’s not there” fits this night market well, as countless things are sold.

I walked around and bought some things.

Shoes, pants, underwear, top, padded jacket, hat, wallet, prepaid phone, prepaid debit card.

I chose shoes that were easy to run in, and clothes in plain black. For the hat, I picked a baseball cap that could be pulled down low, and for the padded jacket, one with a waterproof and windproof outer layer that wouldn’t be damaged by sparks or water droplets. The wallet only needed to hold cards, and I paid extra for a prepaid phone that came with an “account.”

I put all of these in a large plastic bag and, carrying it over my shoulder like Santa Claus, entered an inn across the street. Befitting an inn in the red-light district, the atmosphere was truly trashy. From the front of the inn, half-naked women were hiking up their dangerously short skirts and haggling prices. Next to them, men in pants that blatantly revealed the contours of their genitals were doing similar things while stroking that area.

As I was walking through this insane collaboration of prostitutes and male prostitutes, someone grabbed me. I naturally thought it would be a woman, but it was a man.

“Do you like getting fucked?”

The man grasped his enormous thing over his pants, stroked it upwards, and grinned. I was a bit dumbfounded in this situation. Why is a man grabbing me instead of a woman?

Of course, I could be gay. After all, I’ve never dated anyone, so my latent sexual preference could be gay!

But the probability is higher that I’m not! Why are you! So sure about my sexual preferences! That even I don’t know!

“Why do you think I’d be the one getting fucked?”

“Huh? Are you a top? I specialize in topping, want me to introduce you to someone who likes bottoming? Gerner!”

The man shouted, calling someone in the distance. Ah, really! Standing askew with the black bag over my shoulder, I asked,

“Why do you think I’m gay?”

“…You’re not?”

The man tilted his head away from me a bit, looked at my face once, then rubbed his palm over his own face and said,

“Your face just looks like it, you know?”

“Your eyes look exactly like dead fish eyes, where do you get off judging other people’s faces? Shut up and go sell your body.”

As I cursed and walked past him, I heard him mutter, “What an asshole.” Meanwhile, I left the barbaric area where money and sex were exchanged and entered the inn.

The assigned room was on the 6th floor. I went up to the room and closed the door.

I blocked the peephole on the door with tissue, turned off the lights, and prepared for any hidden cameras that might be there. It’s fine if my body is filmed to some extent, but it becomes a problem if it falls into the hands of the Security Bureau.

Then I changed all my clothes, left all my belongings in this room, and took only cash, the newly bought prepaid phone, and prepaid debit card into the bathroom and opened the window. There was no other way to avoid being caught on the inn’s entrance camera.

Hanging from the 6th-floor window, I swung my body left and right to create momentum and jumped to the drainpipe. Fortunately, I caught the drainpipe, and when I jumped down from there, I landed on the roof of the adjacent building. After crossing the roofs of several buildings, I found one with an open roof stairway door, went inside, and came down to the 1st floor.

After escaping the cameras like that, I walked to the Central Station. This was the advantage of Thunder Market from the beginning. Its proximity to the Central Station.

Central Station, Exit 13. I arrived at locker A-07 in the storage area and entered the password 4681. With a clunk, the locker door opened.

At first, I thought it was paper, but when I took it out, I realized it was photos. Judging by the fact that there were just a few photos thrown in without an envelope, it seems they were hastily put in and left. Could it be Walter? He might have put this in while on the move. Or it could be someone else.

I looked at the back of the photos first, rather than checking what was in the pictures. I was wondering if there might be something there hinting at who put these photos in.

But the single name scrawled on just one photo was a name I’d never seen before.

Joseph Kuno

I checked the front of the photos. They all appear to be surveillance photos. Since they’re all of the same person, this person’s name must be Joseph Kuno.

I don’t know who brought these photos here, and I don’t know who gave me the note. I don’t have the ability to judge whether this is a trap or not. But some traps, even if they are traps, have no other option but to walk into them.

I crumpled the photos and put them in my back pocket. Then, passing by an ATM booth set up by a bank, I went in and shredded the note I received from the Security Bureau.

As I came out of the Central Station, I could see a Ferris wheel in the distance. What did they say when they built that? That it’s bigger than the one in L city? That Ferris wheel near the night market is a famous tourist spot along with the night market.

It’s also a sanctuary for pickpockets.

“Aagh!”

When a person walks with such a harmless face like this, they always think you’re an easy mark. I twisted the wrist of the guy attempting to pickpocket me while pretending to pass by. Why don’t you guys ever change…

Wait a minute, you bastard, your face suddenly looks familiar today?

“Wasn’t just selling your body enough?”

At my question, the man’s face turned bright red. Due to shame,

“Ow, ow! It hurts!”

Apparently not. Seems it’s due to pain. I thought about breaking it completely but let go. The man then whined, clutching his throbbing wrist.

“Were we enemies in a past life? Why do you keep showing up in my territory and causing trouble?!”

“Wow, I really have a lot to say, but I feel like my mouth would get dirty, so I won’t retort.”

As I turned my back on him, he asked,

“By the way, how old are you?”

“Get lost.”

“…Where do you live?”

“I said get lost!”

I gave him the middle finger without even looking back.

But that bastard’s pickpocketing skills were pretty poor, what kind of guy is he?

Then I realized. Had he been following me? But I didn’t notice? A chill ran down my spine.

The moment I quickly turned around.

There was no one there.