Chapter 663

-Fuck, no way

-Please no

-Don’t do this TT___TT

-I’m so fucking nervous, stop the footsteps already

IP 85.152 screamed too.

But then the camera shifted.

Across the crosswalk.

Between the passing cars stood Taeo.

Dressed entirely in black, with his cap pulled low, he watched Lia from behind and followed at a distance.

Unable to bring himself to walk beside her.

Unable even to say, Let’s go together.

Unable to call her name even once.

All Taeo could do was quietly walk through the night streets while keeping her within sight.

He could not take his eyes off Lia’s back as she quickened her pace against the cold, almost trotting along.

-Fuck, there it is again, those abandoned-dog eyes, ah TT__TT

-What the hell is with Han Yohan’s eyes, he looks so pitiful TT_TT

-I’ve made up my mind. I’m on Team Taeo-Lia. At this point it’s basically a law of nature, there’s no helping it

-There are barely any scenes where these two are in the same shot and that’s exactly what makes people lose their fucking minds

Lia slipped inside the cathedral with the other people.

The traffic light at the crosswalk turned green.

Taeo stood there for a moment, looking at the cathedral.

Blink. Blink.

The green light urged him on, as if telling him to hurry.

Taeo stepped onto the white stripes of the crosswalk.

He walked forward.

Into the cathedral, where a beautiful hymn could be heard.

A priest in vestments was speaking, while Lia sat quietly with a mantilla over her head, focused on the Mass.

And far away on the diagonal, Taeo sat looking at Lia’s profile, wanting at this very moment to deny the existence of God entirely.

As the beautiful hymn filled the space.

As pure white light poured down over his head.

-What is this, did I have a Catholic kink this whole time

-The mantilla suits her so fucking well TT__TT angel melon bread

-Suddenly I want a baptismal name; this is so holy T_T

-Can she please turn around just once T_T there’s an abandoned dog behind her

Lia clasped her hands together and focused seriously on her prayer.

“Do not worry, do not be troubled, do not lose heart, do not be afraid.”

Her face was calm as she made the sign of the cross and prayed.

The cathedral light catching on her eyelashes seemed especially bright.

After Mass ended, Lia left the cathedral.

With the warm lights behind her, she looked almost radiant, as though wrapped in a halo.

As she walked among the crowd, Lia gradually began to realize there was no one left on the street but her.

Step.

Step.

Step.

The sound of another person’s footsteps behind her happened to grate on her nerves.

Just then, the wind suddenly blew harder.

The scarf she had loosely wrapped around herself flew backward.

Instinctively, she turned around.

And there—

“Oh....”

It was that man.

The man who kept making Lia tense up.

As if stepping out of the darkness, he bent down without a word and reached out with his right hand.

He picked up the scarf Lia had dropped.

Then casually dusted it off with his left hand.

He came closer.

On the dark streets of Moscow.

With the bright, sacred cathedral visible far behind them.

Orange streetlights wrapped the two of them in their glow.

The man closed the distance however he pleased and placed his hands at Lia’s neck.

The way he carefully retied the red scarf around her looked practiced.

As though there had been someone he had been doing this for, for a very long time.

He barely even answered her most of the time, so this sudden tenderness felt unfamiliar.

Still, Lia tucked her lips inward and quietly let him do it.

His rough, cold knuckles brushed across the bare nape of her neck.

At the sensation of skin against skin, Lia unconsciously held her breath.

Unlike Lia, the man had lowered his eyes as he tied the scarf, and his face looked almost pure.

It was hard to believe this was the same man who had single-handedly shot down and subdued that many enemies in the field.

The tips of their shoes, which had briefly brushed beneath the table earlier, were now on the verge of touching again.

Thanks to the light, their elongated shadows stretched across the ground beneath their feet.

Their bodies looked close enough that they might kiss at any moment.

After maintaining the tense silence for a while, Taeo spoke.

“There’s something I want to ask.”

“What?”

“How did you end up joining Interpol?”

His hands moved away after he finished tying her scarf.

Only then did Lia notice that the orange streetlight was touching the right side of his face.

He looked unusually warm.

His gaze on her was filled with emotions she could not understand.

The sound of a piano began to layer over the scene.

A calm melody that seemed to melt the cold winter wind.

Between the slow notes of the keys came Lia’s clear voice.

“There were a lot of things I wanted to know.”

“...Like what?”

“The code they use, the circuits they reroute through, the evidence they hide. I wanted to find those things and stay one step ahead.”

Snow began falling from the sky.

A clear crystal settled at the tip of Lia’s eyelashes.

Lia did not know her past.

She did not want to know it, and she was not allowed to.

A piece of life that should have been the most natural thing in the world was forbidden to her.

So all of her suppressed, confined intellectual hunger was aimed toward the future.

I just have to keep looking forward without turning back.

If I’m not allowed something, then I’ll make it myself.

Taeo was trapped inside eyes shining with the self-assurance she had carried for a very long time.

“If I learn things like that, there are a lot more people I can save.”

I’ll save you.

Lia spoke bravely and confidently of the promise Taeo had failed to keep.

“It’s not a good habit to expose yourself to danger.”

“Are you really the one to say that...? Last time you were alone against dozens of people....”

Even as she spoke, Lia studied Taeo’s face.

Such a strange man.

A man who was far too difficult to understand.

“You didn’t even ask for help. If that many people come at you, you’re supposed to call for backup.”

She had no idea why he kept acting like this toward her.

Ever since the day he warned her not to even try to see through him.

He had always kept his distance.

As though nothing had ever happened.

And yet.

Why did he keep....

The man’s eyes were unreadable.

He turned his back and began walking ahead.

After taking a few slow steps through the falling snow, Taeo said,

“I’ll take you back, so follow me.”

The dark night street.

Taeo’s long shadow reached Lia’s feet.

What kind of person are you?

Why do you keep shaking me up?

Realizing Lia was still standing there as though rooted to the spot instead of following him, Taeo half-turned around.

As if asking why she was not coming.

“Excuse me. I have something I want to ask too.”

“...”

“I look like your ex-girlfriend, don’t I?”

The reasoning that had led her to that conclusion was flimsy.

But she felt as though she could not stand it unless she asked.

Lia touched the scarf he had wrapped snugly enough that no wind could get through and asked the question.

The familiar way he had tied the knot made her strangely sulky.

“What?”

“...”

Taeo looked at Lia as though asking whether he had heard her correctly.

Then the expression on the face of the man who always wore the same one began to change.

Slowly, he relaxed.

As though disarming himself.

He laughed out loud.

Like a carefree boy.

A face she had never seen before.

A laugh she had never heard before.

At the sight of someone who had always seemed so solid suddenly coming undone, Lia’s cheeks flushed red.

“No, why are you just laughing instead of answering....”

Taeo covered his mouth with one hand.

It seemed the aftereffects of his laughter had not faded yet.

Lia was still standing firmly in place.

As though stubbornly declaring that she would not follow him unless he answered.

You grew up loved.

You still know how to act spoiled.

Taeo looked at Lia as though caressing her with his eyes.

He was relieved.

And yet he could not stop the ache in his heart.

Right now, he was neither the Taeo whose bloodshot eyes had burned with rage earlier, nor the Taeo who shot down enemies with emotionless eyes in the field.

Just as he always had.

He softened only in front of Lia.

And under that man’s gaze, Lia’s cheeks had already turned almost the same color as her scarf.

Clear snowflakes settled on her long, straight hair.

“It’s not like that, so come on.”

“If it’s not like that, then what is it?”

“You’ll catch a cold if you stay out in the snow too long.”

“Why do you only say what you want to say and ignore my question? Do you think Interpol is a joke? Ever since last time, ICC just does whatever it wants.”

Lia stood there stubbornly.

Taeo had no idea what he was supposed to say.

What should I call you?

Someone who was once my everything, but now has become nothing to me.

So he simply answered.

“Someone I wanted to see.”

“...”

“Come on.”

Taeo gave her nothing more.

At the vague answer, Lia hurried after him with quick little steps and took the place beside him.

“So. Isn’t that basically an ex-girlfriend?”

“...”

“No, seriously, why do you answer like this? You’re making me want to interrogate you.”

“...”

“If you keep ignoring me, I’m just gonna start talking casually to you.”

“...”

“Hey.”

“...”

“Hey!”

“...”

“Wow. If I knew you were going to be like this, I wouldn’t have answered your question in detail either. So petty. Seriously. Did you hear some bad advice somewhere? Is this your whole ‘mysterious man women are curious about’ concept? Right?”

Lia kept chattering away, as though trying to hide her reddened cheeks.

With both hands tucked into his pockets, Taeo naturally shifted his body to the left.

Because the wind was blowing from left to right.

As pure white snowflakes drifted on the wind, Taeo walked alongside the chattering Lia.

Matching his pace to hers.

The slow piano melody continued to flow around the two of them.

* * *

The office worker who had only been trying <Code Name: Time Seven> for a taste and had even wondered whether she should switch over was ultimately watching the drama as though someone had grabbed her by the collar and forced her to stay.

“What is thiiis....”

It had already been a while since she had stopped eating her scoopable Meloni and covered her mouth with both hands instead.

The top layer of the ice cream had softened so much it was nearly liquid now, but she was too absorbed in the drama to even think about eating it again.

“Han Yohan is good at romance....”

This was not the old Han Yohan who killed every ounce of chemistry he had with anyone.

Just walking side by side with someone was enough to make her heart pound.

She had expected a man who barely spoke to be boring, but the fact that he barely spoke only made people lose their minds even more.

[Drama/Film/Actor TALK/ I was screaming earlier because I was so fucking pissed and now I’m screaming because I’m so fucking happy]

The fact that he just accepts it when someone way younger starts talking casually to him is already enough to make women go insane, fuck TT__TT

-Anonymous 1: Those eyes that look like even her dropping honorifics is adorable... what are we supposed to do with that

-Anonymous 5: The abandoned-dog eyes turning into boyfriend eyes is seriously gourmet shit, I can barely breathe, damn

?Anonymous 6: “Damn” is a little.. T_T

?Anonymous 6: I’m really sorry, I don’t normally swear, this is just an unavoidable law of the universe

[Drama/Film/Actor TALK/ Please give us our country back, Taeo is too strong, I think I’m going to cry]

Only Nara’s face can console us now

-Anonymous 1: Independence Fighter Squad, seriously stop LMAOOOO

-Anonymous 3: I’m crying like I lost my country, please, our side... the second male lead does all the clowning around but the male lead takes all the cool points TT_TT

-Anonymous 7: I just instinctively know we lost.. how the fuck are we supposed to beat that, seriously TT_TT

[Drama/Film/Actor TALK/ Isn’t that the still cut from when the dating rumor broke? I can see why people got delusional over it]

Even random passersby were probably drooling like, yep, that’s a dating scandal alright... there was a reason everyone reacted that way

-Anonymous 1: Oh right LMAO now that you mention it, that really is the photo everyone went crazy over

-Anonymous 5: If I saw them like that in real life, I’d immediately think, ah, they secretly registered their marriage and are on their way back home;

?Anonymous 8: How far are you taking this LMAOOOO

?Anonymous 10: But Han Yohan really does suit marriage more than dating.. Taeo and Lia, get married

“Oh, right?”

The office worker suddenly remembered that the man involved in Han Yeoreum’s first dating rumor had been Han Yohan.

Thinking back to how the whole thing had set both portal sites and social media on fire, she found herself curling her toes.

“I’d honestly be fine if they were really dating... since it’s Han Yohan.”

If they ever did a wedding pictorial later, she absolutely wanted to see Han Yeoreum in traditional wedding clothes with rouge dots painted on her cheeks.

And she was not saying that just because she worked for a hanbok brand.

The two of them genuinely suited the word traditional wedding far better than simply marriage.

“Like an older groom who cherishes his young bride as though she were his daughter....”

The office worker imagined Han Yohan removing the hairpin from Han Yeoreum’s hair and suddenly grew flustered.

“This is the kind of thing otaku? do.”

That was right.

She was an ordinary person, through and through.

Realizing she had discovered a side of herself that had never existed before left her bewildered.

“No, but this is... they started it first....”

Thinking it was the fault of the two people who gave off that kind of atmosphere even without wearing hanbok, the office worker finally reached a conclusion.

Han Yohan’s face and aura resembled hanbok against the backdrop of the story the two shared.

A past hidden beneath layer after layer, yet seemingly ready to slip open if someone tugged on a single ribbon.

Fingertips that never touched openly, yet passed dangerously close.

The strange tension created by the restrictions on their actions.

Without even realizing it, the office worker wrote a post with trembling hands, just like the otaku she had once thought only other people could be.

Input: Whenever Taeo and Lia are together, it just feels like their wedding night...

And in only one minute, her post received 67 recommendations and proudly rose to the popular posts.

[Code Name: Time Seven Minor Gallery]

[Whenever Taeo and Lia are together it just feels like their wedding night T_T]

The way Lia gets curious and embarrassed and Taeo just stares at her

Anonymous (17.1) Yeah yeah yeah yeah, I was wondering what it was, this is exactly it

Anonymous (18.222) Ah, you fucking get it

Anonymous (2.36) I just swallowed so fucking hard

TaeoLiaGetMarried (12.25) Ah, no wonder, this is exactly it LMAO the tension is fucking insane

The office worker finally noticed that her ice cream had completely melted, but she immediately discarded the idea of getting up to put it in the refrigerator.

What if an important scene passed while she was gone?

-??

-No

-What the hell is this, we were having such a good time

-TT___TT guys

And that moment arrived sooner than expected.

At the final meeting for the yacht-party infiltration operation.

Because Taeo and Lia broke into a full-blown fight.