BRF Chapter 16

Woojin tried his best to appear as serious as possible, furrowing his brow and feigning deep contemplation. He took a sip of the iced citron tea without saying anything, a chill running down his spine.

“It seems you have a lot on your mind.”

Kang Eunseong spoke in a relatively calm voice. However, unlike her voice, her heartbeat wasn’t so calm. It was annoyingly loud, perhaps due to her desperate desire for a scoop.

If he could, he wanted to yell at her chest to be quiet.

No, this wasn’t the time to be bothered by her heartbeats. He had to clean up the mess he’d made with his implied promise of a story.

“I apologize. It’s not easy to talk about.”

An involuntary, wry smile touched his lips as he lied. Or perhaps it wasn’t entirely a lie.

Woojin did have a secret he couldn’t reveal to ordinary people, and he did have a scoop to report. Although he would never speak of it.

“I completely understand. Even those who were determined to make a report often change their minds once they sit face to face with a reporter. Some people don’t even show up at the meeting place. And some, like earlier, run away… or hide.”

She gave a rather awkward laugh. The memory of running away and being flustered after being spotted by Kang Eunseong made him close his eyes tightly.

He’d never felt shame in his life until now. Kang Eunseong had kindly added the feeling of shame to Jung Woojin’s long life.

“I should get going. I have to start my day.”

“Yes, please feel free to contact me anytime.”

This woman told him to contact her anytime, yet he caused this whole mess this morning because she wouldn’t answer her phone.

He should have just run away. Or told her he changed his mind about giving the report.

Even if he regretted it, it was already too late. Woojin got up first. Her heart was still racing, but he didn’t feel the same sense of foreboding he’d felt in the morning.

Perhaps the ominous feeling had come over her while she was covering an incident. Either Kang Eunseong should change her job, or…. Woojin imagined the moment Kang Eunseong’s heart stopped and the surroundings became silent, and the horror of it hardened his face.

“What’s wrong? You suddenly look very pale.”

Eunseong rose from her seat and approached him. Her eyes were full of concern as she examined his pale, hardened face. It was rare for anyone other than Hyohyun to look at Woojin with such worried eyes.

He could smell the sweet and sour scent of citron from her, along with a faint body fragrance. The moment the scent permeated his lungs, a fierce stimulation surged through him. His lower abdomen tightened, making him clench his teeth, and the heat rising from the back of his neck covered his eyelids, making him dizzy.

“Would you like to sit down?”

He felt like he would go crazy if he faced Kang Eunseong any longer.

“I’ll contact you later.”

Woojin shook off her hand, which was carefully holding his forearm, and fled the cafe.

The cold air hitting his face brought him to his senses. And he realized how hot his body had become.

The day had fully dawned, and the streets, which had been quiet with early commuters, were now bustling.

Getting into his car, he saw his cell phone, which he’d placed on top of the glove compartment, wedged between the gap of the passenger seat and the center console, vibrating loudly. It must have fallen there due to the vibrations.

“Yeah, what?”

– “Yeah, what?” are you serious right now!

Hyohyun yelled so loudly, making Woojin feel like his eardrums were about to explode. He held the phone away from his ear, barely listening to her raised voice and nagging.

As he started the car, the ABS radio broadcast came on.

– Are you even listening to me?

Her exasperated question pierced through the radio sound and came out through the car speakers. The inventions created by clever humans were convenient and annoying at the same time.

Back when there were no cell phones, it was impossible to contact someone like this and grab them by the scruff of their neck anytime. Back then, there was an art of waiting.

“Yeah, I’m listening.”

– Then what are you going to do?

Woojin hadn’t been paying attention to Hyohyun’s words, so he didn’t know what she meant and couldn’t answer.

– See? You weren’t listening!

“No, I was. I just missed it for a second because I’m driving.”

– I told you last time it was time for a change.

Hyohyun’s slightly softened tone made Woojin realize how out of it he’d been these past few days.

“Right, it’s time for a change.”

He couldn’t stay in the same house with the same appearance for too long, and he needed to change his identity as a precaution. In the old days, it had been a simple matter of stealing paper documents. Back when resident registration cards were printed on flimsy yellow paper.

The local community offices became resident centers, then resident centers became integrated administrative welfare centers…

The more complicated the name of the administrative agency became, the harder it was to manage his identity.

Managing his assets was also becoming more difficult. After the 1993 Financial Real-Name System and the 1995 Real-Name System for Real Estate, Woojin had quite a headache dealing with the assets under his name.

But now, he had Hyohyun and her connections to a law firm. Of course, she hadn’t told the lawyer everything about Woojin’s situation. They simply did as Ban Hyohyun instructed, working within the bounds of the law without asking any questions.

– They say it would be good to create multiple identities. To divide the assets. Let’s create two identities that you absolutely need to use in real life, Woojin, and divide the assets into smaller portions. Then, if you need to change your identity again later, you only need to touch one of them.

“And leave the other identities with the divided assets as they are?”

Humans, who have achieved dazzling technological advancements, seem to be better at thinking in this direction. Woojin hadn’t even thought of creating multiple identities, and even if he had, he probably would have been too bothered to do it.

– Yes, that’s right.

“Is it reliable?”

And people like Woojin, who found everything bothersome, were generally suspicious. Because they’re suspicious, they don’t get involved in unnecessary things, so they have fewer bothersome things to deal with.

– Don’t you trust me?

“Humans are inherently untrustworthy.”

– If I was going to rip you off, Jung Woojin, I would have already reported you to the broadcasting station!

Hyohyun suddenly started acting.

– It was at that moment! The researchers raided the man’s house. And there he was, a man who truly didn’t age was living there. That’s how the secret research on preventing human aging began.

“Cut it out. You’re addicted to TV.”

He heard laughter from the other end of the line.

– Anyway, why did you rush out earlier?

“I’m going home, so hang up.”

Woojin hung up the call without listening to Hyohyun’s rambling.

He knew he would face a barrage of questions from Hyohyun when he got home. But today, the fact that it was the only place he could go back to was a little annoying.

* * *

After leaving the cafe, Eunseong headed straight to the broadcasting station. She didn’t know what kind of information Jung Woojin was hiding, but it seemed to be a serious matter.

What could it be? 

She pondered the question on her way back but couldn’t come up with an answer. As soon as she entered the office, Taeyoon’s nagging flew at her.

“Hey! You, with your supposedly broken phone, suddenly disappear without a word and then show up like this? What’s the deal?”

She had told Jung Woojin that something had come up and she couldn’t answer the phone. Having barely exchanged names, she couldn’t very well tell a man she’d just met, a potential source of valuable information, that she’d dropped her phone in the toilet.

Eunseong called Taeyoon outside, saying she needed to talk to him for a moment.

“What? What’s going on?”

Taeyoon raised his voice gruffly, as if intentionally letting everyone in the office hear.

Eunseong looked around the hallway and pulled Taeyoon to a secluded spot in front of the emergency stairs.

“What is it? What’s going on?”

Taeyoon’s voice instantly softened.

“The person who was supposed to give me a tip came to see me.”

“And?”

“But he changed his mind and left.”

Taeyoon nodded understandingly.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier. A lot of people were looking for you, so I jumped the gun. You’re not upset, are you?”

Taeyoon was a really good senior colleague.

“But you… when was the last time you showered?”

And an honest one, too.

“Yesterday morning?”

Or was it the night before last? 

Eunseong grabbed the front of her sweatshirt and sniffed it.

Taeyoon pinched his nose, waving his hand dramatically as he backed away.

“Ugh, go take a shower and change your clothes first. Ugh, I can’t believe I went to get coffee with someone smelling like this!”

The circumstances of buying the coffee were also unfair. They had done a ladder lottery among the entire news headquarters staff for who would buy the morning coffee, and Eunseong had lost. She couldn’t even begin to describe the anxiety she felt watching the news graphics designer staff waste his talents creating the ladder for the lottery.

The shock of having to pay for dozens of cups of coffee out of a salaried reporter’s wallet felt like getting shot.

“Alright, alright.”

As Eunseong turned around with a perfunctory reply, Lee Dongha, the news director, poked his head out from the other end of the hallway.

“Is that Kang Eunseong?”

“Yes, Director!”

When Eunseong replied loudly, Director Lee exclaimed, as if pleased.

“Come see me for a second.”

Taeyoon shook his head, his expression suggesting that even he couldn’t handle the director. He gave Eunseong a sympathetic wink, as if apologizing, though she hadn’t asked him to do anything about Director Lee.

How did such a kind soul like Gong Taeyoon survive in the cutthroat world of broadcasting?

Eunseong hurried over and followed the director. The director seemed to be heading into the news headquarters meeting.

“Are you preparing well for the audition?”

“Huh?”

At her question, Director Lee stopped abruptly and loosened his tie a bit with a frustrated gesture.

“The anchor audition. I told you to prepare. The date will be announced today. Be ready, got it?”