TIN 121

To catch the train, I needed to go to the station located in the city center. Once Seoul Station, now renamed 4HAE Station, it had become fully owned by the 4HAE Group as its name suggested. As a transportation hub, it had far more foot traffic than other places.

To blend into such crowds, I needed to dress somewhat similarly. I couldn’t go around looking like a beggar, and being all wrapped up would look suspicious. This meant I couldn’t safely board the train looking like some half-baked woman wandering the back streets.

So I needed proper clothes, but my current appearance was again the problem. To enter a shop selling decent clothes, you needed to be wearing decent clothes, this dilemma needed to be solved first.

There were many reasons I needed clothes right now. To avoid police, to avoid people’s stares, and to enter clothing shops.

Yes, then this was my only option.

The underground bar served wine and liquor. Unable to use the main entrance, I found the back entrance used by employees. Fortunately, the door was unlocked, and the break room I found had many uniforms hanging casually.

The uniform had a simple design that could pass for a suit at a glance. White shirt, black pants, and a waist apron. Remove the name tag and ribbon, and it could pass for casual wear.

I took a shirt, pants, and someone’s sunglasses and headed to a secluded bathroom. Luckily the length fit well enough, though the pants waist was slightly big. Even with the shirt fully tucked in, there was easily room for a fist.

“…Have I lost weight?”

If Joo Do-hwa saw me, he might mock me, asking if I ran away just to become this shabby. This time I couldn’t even retort that he was just big. I really felt how much weight I’d lost from not eating properly lately.

Well, as long as they don’t fall down…

I tore up my original top and flushed it down the toilet. I rolled up the relatively bulky pants and threw them in the trash bin, fitting for a bar, it was full of dirty items, so one more pair of pants wouldn’t seem strange.

I carefully packed away the hat and mask I’d worn endlessly in one corner of my bag. Instead, I put on the sunglasses I’d taken with the uniform and looked in the mirror.

“Hmm…”

The large-lensed sunglasses fortunately covered about half my face. Testing different angles just in case, not only my pupils but even my eye shape was barely visible. This should adequately hide my identity even in bright sunlight.

Finally, I wet my hands and swept my bangs back. After combing with my fingers to fully expose my forehead, I parted my hair and fixed the style. Though it wouldn’t stay fixed with just water, even the slightly disheveled look worked well enough.

While it was a minor deception, with changed clothes and hairstyle, they wouldn’t recognize me at a glance. Even if they did recognize me, there wouldn’t be time to be certain. Besides, they’d think someone with a warrant on them probably wouldn’t walk around so boldly.

“…”

Maybe I should have broken my nose after all.

I tucked that belated regret away in a corner of my mind. Two days until the train, no…a day and a half. The broken bone wouldn’t heal by then, so all I could do now was act brazenly.

With that thought, I grabbed my bag and left the bathroom. I could wander around until dawn, then buy necessary items when the sun rose. I still had money left anyway, so afterward, I could quickly find a one-day lodging or something.

“Ah!”

But as I turned the corridor corner, a thin exclamation rang out. The slightly heated young voice was enough to make me stop in my tracks. Standing still and turning my gaze, I saw a man and woman pressed together like one body.

“Hah, aahn…”

The breathy moan came from the woman pushed against the wall. The man in front of her had his hand inside her clothes and his face buried in her slender neck. It was a scene fitting for a dark bar, and one that made me instinctively furrow my brows.

Just as I narrowed my brows at this, a familiar name escaped the woman’s lips.

“I’m ticklish, Jaewon-ssi…”

“…”

My lips twitched reflexively. Until then, I’d been largely skeptical, there were plenty of people named Jaewon, and I hadn’t expected to meet him in a place like this.

“Just bear with it a little…You like it here, don’t you?”

But then the man who whispered softly raised his head with perfect timing. The face I saw at an angle was someone I knew well too. The overall neat impression, the dark circles under his eyes, even the calm gaze that slowly moved over.

“…”

Who’d have thought we’d meet in a place like this.

‘Kei, you know. He quit the business.’

Glad you’re not dead. I felt relief inappropriately for the situation. I couldn’t help but laugh secretly seeing him casually enjoying himself. Though the sunglasses made it hard to see clearly, at a glance he didn’t seem badly injured anywhere.

I felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe he quit the business by choice, not force. Perhaps he just lost interest and quit, rather than being threatened. Yes, maybe he was just being capricious like other rich people.

“…Hm?”

Kei stopped moving when he finally noticed me. At first, I thought he recognized me, but he blinked in confusion. Then he raised his lips as if in dismay and sighed long.

“Ah…well.”

He quickly straightened up and pulled the woman into his arms. As if trying to hide her face, he made her bury her head in his chest, then nodded toward me.

“Excuse me…”

The smell of alcohol hit my nose sharply. His half-lidded eyes weren’t just from excitement from the previous activity. His unfocused eyes, swaying body, and slightly slurred speech were all typical of someone completely inebriated.

I moved slowly, trying to act as naturally as possible.

Whether from the alcohol or the dark corridor, Kei fortunately didn’t seem to recognize who I was. No, he didn’t even seem to have the slightest interest in the sudden intruder, who had walked in on them.

That was fine, but the problem was the faint pheromones mixed in the air. The sticky alpha pheromones felt particularly nauseating today.

“…”

I felt queasy even as I walked. My lower abdomen even seemed to ache sharply. Though it wasn’t my first time sensing Kei’s pheromones, they felt unusually repulsive right at that moment.

Fortunately, the woman was a beta. I could tell because there were no omega pheromones mixed in the air. If there had been two special traits, I would have felt even worse, this happened to be a blessing in disguise.

“Wait a moment.”

But as I was passing them, Kei called me to stop. I’d planned to pretend not to hear and keep walking, but unfortunately, Kei strode over and grabbed my arm. Before I could shake off his touch, he forcibly turned me around.

“You…”

An unavoidable tension suddenly gripped me.

Did he recognize me?

Even in the darkness, even drunk, not recognizing me wouldn’t make much sense. Especially for Kei, who had known me for years.

Should I knock him out and run? I couldn’t act on the thought that occurred to me. While it wouldn’t be hard to hit him once and run like I did with Can, causing a scene here would only hurt me. Besides, there was another pair of watching eyes behind Kei.

As I wondered what to do, Kei’s expression subtly changed. Though his eyes were still hazily unfocused, a sharp glint appeared, just like when he was calculating money.

Then, after closing and opening his eyes, he took off his wristwatch and held it out.

“Here.”

“…?”

It was a watch that looked expensive just at first glance. I think it was the same brand as the one Joo Do-hwa had once given me as a gift.

What am I supposed to do with this? As I looked at him with that feeling, he spoke with a slightly slurred speech.

“I’ll give you this… ould you keep what you saw today a secret?”

It was an abrupt statement. What did I see today? I couldn’t even ask.

Kei grinned with a confident face.

“You recognized me, didn’t you?”

His grinning face was so confident it almost seemed arrogant. The way he jerked his chin toward behind him while lowering his voice secretively was the same.

“I’m fine, but it would be troublesome for her if rumors spread.”

“…”

I looked alternately at Kei’s face and the woman standing behind him. The woman who had been in Kei’s arms until just now was covering her face with one hand and had her back turned to me. She must have been quite a celebrity.

“If it’s not enough, contact me here.”

Perhaps interpreting my gaze, Kei now dug in his pants pocket and pulled out a business card. When I reflexively took both items, he nodded with a satisfied expression.

“Now go on.”