<Episode 59>
A little past 1 a.m.
Most of the lights in the Hunter Management Bureau’s main headquarters had been turned off. Every time a cleaning robot rolled down the hallway, its blinking sensors swept across the diagonal patterns on the floor.
I pulled my cap down lower and stuck close behind Hunter Lee Hyunwoo. Whenever he moved, his dark shadow rippled across the wall.
I carefully stepped forward.
At that moment, a sensor attached to the ceiling suddenly turned and shone in my direction.
“…Hup!”
Fortunately, before it could touch me, Hunter Lee Hyunwoo pulled me toward him.
“Be careful. It’s dangerous if you step on the white tiles. There are weight-detection sensors underneath.”
His low voice sounded right beside my ear.
I ended up practically buried in his arms, and while clutching my rapidly beating heart, I nodded.
“…I see. I didn’t notice.”
“You only need to follow where I step. We’ll move quickly.”
I slowly nodded.
It wasn’t our original intention to move around this secretly.
The Bureau’s incident archives were open even to ordinary hunters.
However, there was a reason we had no choice but to infiltrate like thieves.
The cause of it all had started two hours earlier in the Bureau’s records room.
***
“Hello… Huh! H-Hunter Lee Hyunwoo!”
When we visited the records room together, the administrator who had been reading a book nearly jumped out of his seat when he saw him.
Everything had gone smoothly at first.
The administrator, who looked as though he had choked on his own breath, listened while we requested access to the records of the Incheon Gate Incident.
But then, while searching for the location of the files, he tilted his head in confusion.
“Huh? Wait a second. Why is access blocked? That’s strange.”
After furiously typing on the keyboard, he let out a quiet exclamation and shook his head.
“Ah, sorry, but it’s classified as a Security Grade B case. You can’t view it in the regular archives.”
“The Incheon Gate Incident is a public case. How is it classified as Security Grade B?”
“S-Sorry! I wasn’t the one who set that! It looks like it was changed at some point… maybe?”
Materials classified Grade B or above were stored on Basement Level 2.
On top of that, viewing them required approval from higher authorities.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll request approval from the Director immediately.”
The moment we stepped out of the records room, Lee Hyunwoo pulled out his phone as if intending to make the call right away.
I lightly grabbed his arm and shook my head.
“…Is the Director someone we can trust?”
Suddenly, Park Jaemin’s interview came to mind.
The reporter who raised their hand had asked their question with complete confidence, as though they already knew I was entering Gates.
That information was something only the Director and Lee Hyunwoo should have known.
‘Where had that information come from?’
If it had leaked from the Director’s office…
And if it had passed through Deputy Director Park Sungcheol before reaching Hunter Park Jaemin…
Then this was a time when we needed to move more carefully than ever.
“I see. That’s a reasonable concern.”
“You’re going to believe me?”
“Then whose words would I believe?”
I had thought that, because he trusted the Director, he might choose not to trust my suspicions.
Instead, he took my side as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
A small smile appeared on my face.
“Thank you. Is there anyone besides the Director who can authorize access?”
“The Deputy Director’s approval would also work… but I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Neither do I. I’d rather just sneak in.”
At a time when the person suspected of killing my parents was Park Jaemin, there was no way I could ask Deputy Director Park Sungcheol for permission to investigate his own son.
As I twisted my lips into a crooked smile, Lee Hyunwoo nodded.
“That’s an excellent suggestion.”
Wait. What was?
“Let’s sneak in. I’ll guide you.”
Having reached his conclusion on his own, he strode away.
I hurried after him.
“W-We really are sneaking in!?”
“That’s right. Unless you’re opposed because it’s illegal…”
Opposed because it’s illegal?
Of course not.
“I’ll just go grab a cap first.”
And so, in the quiet hours before dawn, we began secretly making our way into the underground levels of the Bureau.
Following him, I descended the stairs and carefully avoided the sensors.
After walking for quite some time, a sturdy gray door finally appeared.
“This is the secure archives room. One moment.”
Lee Hyunwoo pulled a thin card from his inner pocket.
Intricate metallic patterns flickered faintly across its surface.
“That’s…?”
“A master security override card. I grabbed it while you went to get your cap. Just in case.”
Beep.
The moment he held the card beneath the keypad, the door unlocked with an almost inaudible sound.
A faint metallic smell drifted from the humming security machinery.
Large mobile shelving units stood in rows, and metal plates displaying dates and codes were attached to the front of each shelf.
“There’s a lot more material than I expected. We would’ve been searching forever if we didn’t know the code.”
Fortunately, we’d already checked the code through the administrator earlier.
When Lee Hyunwoo repeatedly asked whether the file was really classified, the administrator eventually stammered out the security-level code as well.
“The code was IC-0321. Since this is Section A… it should be somewhere around there.”
“I’ll search the back.”
We split up and headed in opposite directions.
The only sound inside the silent archive room was the humming of machinery.
‘It should be around here.’
Standing on my tiptoes, I scanned the codes on the top shelves.
IC-0316…
IC-0318…
IC-0320…
My fingers paused.
The next compartment.
IC-0321.
“…Found it.”
I grabbed the large plastic box on the shelf with both hands.
Lee Hyunwoo, who had approached at some point, took the box from me and set it on the floor.
When we opened it, neatly organized files wrapped in transparent plastic filled the interior.
I pulled out one labeled Deployment Hunter List and opened it.
‘Hunter Lee Hyunwoo’s name is at the very top.’
The hunters dispatched to the scene were listed in order of rank.
Several familiar high-ranking hunters appeared on the list.
But no matter how many times I checked, I couldn’t find Park Jaemin’s name.
‘As an A-rank hunter, he should be near the top.’
After watching me scan the list over and over again, Lee Hyunwoo asked,
“Are you looking for someone?”
“…Was Hunter Park Jaemin not deployed to this incident?”
At my cautious question, he shook his head.
“He had only recently awakened at the time. He was still in training and couldn’t have been deployed to a major incident like this.”
“But…”
I was about to tell him what I had seen in the dream, but stopped myself.
Even if I claimed I’d seen Park Jaemin through an item, it wouldn’t matter if he hadn’t been at the scene.
‘…Then who did I see?’
At that moment, I noticed an external drive wrapped in plastic near the bottom of the box.
A label was attached to it:
Field Recording Video 01
A field recording…
“Wait. We need to watch this first.”
Lee Hyunwoo connected the USB-style drive to his Hunter Watch.
A few seconds later, light spread from the watch, and a hologram appeared in midair.
The footage showed buildings collapsing beneath the Gate.
It was exactly like the scene from my dream.
Flames rose everywhere, and people fled in utter panic.
Behind them, hunters could be seen entering the Gate.
At the front stood Lee Hyunwoo himself, dressed in hunter combat gear.
“Come to think of it, you entered the Gate that day, didn’t you?”
“That’s right. We had to close the Gate to prevent further casualties.”
That meant Lee Hyunwoo had a perfect alibi for that day.
Just as I nodded in relief…
“Huh? That man…!”
In one corner of the screen stood a man in hunter gear, wearing a black cap pulled low over his face.
It was the same outfit I’d seen in the dream.
“Zoom in on that part!”
The image was enlarged as much as possible until the blurry figure filled the screen.
The man, who had been watching the hunters entering the Gate, suddenly turned his head toward the camera.
“…Park Jaemin?”
Even through the poor image quality, Lee Hyunwoo recognized him immediately.
“But he wasn’t on the deployment list. What happened?”
“I’m not sure. But unlike now, Park Jaemin couldn’t hide his arrogance in those days. If it was him back then, it’s entirely possible he entered without authorization.”
The man spat roughly onto the ground, adjusted his mask, and disappeared off-screen.
Watching his third-rate thug-like behavior made me frown.
If that was the case, then the person Yoon Seah saw murdering her fiancé was also far more likely to have been Park Jaemin than Lee Hyunwoo.
“How could Seah mistake him for you?”
“Who knows. Perhaps because he and I resemble each other.”
After stopping the video and putting away the drive, he spoke in a coldly mocking tone.
“Park Jaemin and I have the same father, after all.”
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