Chapter 209

It was a voice that sounded pretty convinced for someone who’d been hesitating over their words.

“-You’re mistaken.”

I answered clearly.

There was nothing to weigh or dance around. Because it was true.

‘If it at least made sense, I’d listen.’

I tried for a split second to choose my words, then gave up fast.

-You’re saying I’m mistaken.

“Yes.”

-You know it too, don’t you, Jehyun. Honestly... you’re not someone people can easily mistake. Even if your name isn’t, like, insanely unique, it’s distinct enough, and your build stands out too.

“Yeah, but I really didn’t do it, so what am I supposed to do about that?”

At this point I might as well say, you should’ve grabbed Ryu Taejun and tossed him in the middle of a Cheonmyeonggyo temple—then at least I wouldn’t feel wronged. It was so ridiculous I kept letting out these empty laughs.

“Do you have any other evidence? ‘They testified your name’—that’s bullshit. What, did I use a credit card in my own name there or something?”

-.......

“Sure, my build isn’t exactly common, but it’s not like I’m some freakishly huge guy like you, Taeyoung. If you spin the roulette, you’ll get at least one guy who looks similar.”

-...There is other evidence.

“Oh.... What is it?”

So was the reason he hadn’t been answering my calls this whole time because he’d been looking for Ryu Taejun on his own?

‘Or did he start ignoring me completely at some point just because he was suspicious?’

If that were the case, though, contact with Ryu Taeyoung had already been cut off even before I had Joo Seowon reach out. Still, with his only family member disappearing, he probably didn’t have the headspace to joke around over petty stuff. On top of that, Ryu Taeyoung was a guy with pretty heavy responsibilities in the Special Response Team.

Maybe that was why—because he was that kind of guy—he couldn’t dig deeper into some trap investigation and instead came to me like this.

‘Poor bastard.’

His job was probably fucked in every way already, and on top of that his little brother was a total deadweight, so it felt like he’d have a mountain of cleanup to deal with. Feeling a bit of pity, I waited for him to speak.

Just as the silence was stretching long, Ryu Taeyoung’s voice came again.

-My brother’s location was found. About two weeks ago.

“Congratulations.”

-...I saw a photo of you with him. At the docks.

“Ah.”

So it wasn’t something to congratulate. From the start, he’d been holding one clear piece of evidence and tossing out the small stuff first.

‘The docks.’

If he put it like that, it was hard not to have something come to mind. Two weeks ago, the place we’d gathered because we were going to Jinsando had been a dock Cheonmyeonggyo used. I tapped the table lightly and thought for a moment.

‘Should I just say it?’

I hadn’t expected this and had just spent all that time denying it in detail, but the second I confirmed he had something solid, it felt like no matter what I said now, it’d sound suspicious. It was a headache.

‘He’ll probably be convinced by every shitty little “piece of evidence” now.’

I clicked my tongue inwardly and measured the situation fast.

There wasn’t anything else he could pin on me. If Ryu Taeyoung decided on his own to force some weird evidence together and paint me as a fucking bastard, I couldn’t stop him—but as things stood, reality was still better than whatever was in his head.

Sure, admitting some of the truth would create noise in our relationship compared to playing dumb, but right now I wasn’t exactly desperate about Ryu Taeyoung. I never really had been, in the first place.

There was a time I’d thought about being proactive to keep the connection open, but by the time months of no contact had passed, that desire had been gone for a while already.

-Jehyun.

“Yeah.”

Like he was reminding me the silence had gotten long, Ryu Taeyoung called my name again.

-If you want, I can send you the photo too.

“Yeah.... I don’t really want to see it.”

I cut him off slowly and looked out the window again. Listening to this kind of sidelined, low-priority story was getting boring now. My own problems were urgent—so someone else’s family situation... why would I bother?

And honestly, sure, right now he was the kind of guy with a lot of attachment, so he was sad his family disappeared, but after some time passed, his deadweight brother being gone might actually be better for him.

As I listened to someone else’s boring family drama, I stared up at the sky, which had gotten subtly brighter. The sun would be coming up soon, which meant it was time to wrap up this call and head home.

‘What should I do?’

Once I lost interest, I stopped thinking about it.

If telling the truth wouldn’t cost me anything, it was better to just tell it. Either way, with how things looked right now, it felt like it would carry the least risk.

Quietly, I tossed the conclusion at Ryu Taeyoung, who was waiting for my answer.

“I... met Taejun.”

-You met him.

“Yeah.”

-Where....

“You said you had the photo, didn’t you? I saw him at the docks. The docks that lead into Cheonmyeonggyo’s base.”

After I said it, there weren’t any words from the other end.

‘He’s probably thinking something shitty on his own again.’

To drag him out of his delusion, I added more.

“Of course, I don’t have any bad blood with Ryu Taejun.”

-...What?

‘Or do I?’

After meeting him, I did develop a little. Still, it wasn’t some extreme hatred that made me want to kill him, and it was the kind of small irritation I could just ignore and throw away, so it felt fine to gloss over.

“To be precise, I’m not interested. If I had to pick between the two of you, I was more interested in you, Taeyoung. Because you... saved me? Twice. And you even bought me food.”

-.......

“And what you said just now isn’t true either. You kind of crushed the actual point and skipped over it, but if you only look at the conclusion, you’re asking why I dragged Ryu # Nоvеlight # Taejun into some cult den, aren’t you.”

-But you said you definitely met him. When was the last time—no, then was that the last time?

“Yeah. But the order’s kind of backwards.”

-.......

“It’s not that Taejun met me and then went into Cheonmyeonggyo. It’s closer to me meeting Taejun because I was trying to enter Cheonmyeonggyo’s base. Taejun was already hooked on that cult from the start.”

The bad blood part had a little lie mixed in, but the last line didn’t have a single lie in it. I’d never sincerely egged him on. In the first place, wasn’t it because his brother had fallen into Cheonmyeonggyo that Ryu Taeyoung came to me for that pointless advice about his worries?

‘Thinking about it, this is fucking absurd.’

So did Ryu Taeyoung contact me because he thought I was some deranged believer who’d shoved his brother into a cult’s stronghold?

“Do I look like a Cheonmyeonggyo believer to you?”

-Of course... I thought you weren’t.

“.......”

-...But can’t I also not rule out the possibility that I judged someone wrong?

Mm. Yeah, that was plenty possible. Starting with the fact that he was still burning money trying to find Ryu Taejun.

In a slightly drained-sounding tone, Ryu Taeyoung started rattling off a stream of nonsense.

-I haven’t seen you many times, Jehyun, but I thought you were a good person. You do have... aggressive speech, but you can’t judge someone just by that. And you cooperated actively with the investigation, and back when we ate together then....

“.......”

-Are you okay?

Ryu Taeyoung half-assed wrapped up his words in the middle and asked something else.

Of course he wasn’t asking about my state or condition.

“He was fine until the end.”

-The end...?

“Either way, he went into Cheonmyeonggyo’s base.”

After hearing the clear answer, Ryu Taeyoung went quiet for a moment, then finally asked the question he hadn’t asked at all—maybe the one he was most curious about.

-Then why the hell did you... go to Cheonmyeonggyo’s base?

“Yeah, good question.”

-Jehyun.

“I got religious for a bit.”

-.......

That was the only thing I could say that cut out the before and after. I twitched my eyebrow and added,

“Not anymore.”

Well, I did meet a ‘god’ and understand some truth, and separate from my body condition, my mana had increased too... so couldn’t you say I had a bit of faith for a while?

Smiling faintly, I held the phone a little farther away.

“Cheonmyeonggyo’s a mess on the inside right now... if you go in around this time, you can get some pretty good results.”

-What do you mean it’s a mess inside....

“I’ll contact you again next time.”

-Wait....

Before it could drag on longer, I ended the call and dropped my phone onto the table with a thud.

‘Huh.’

I was planning to go again and meet Jin Haedo one more time anyway, so if I was going to use Ryu Taeyoung, I could use him then. And right now, there was something even more important than that.

“Did you sleep well?”

At my question, Do Yehyun nodded slowly. Without getting up, I leaned back against the chair and quietly looked at him.

“How’s your condition?”

“I’m fine.”

Other than his voice being a little rougher than yesterday, he didn’t look like his condition was bad. The marks left here and there on his body had also returned to normal pretty fast.

“Yeah?”

“.......”

“Then should we go home now.”

Yeah. Now it was time to go home and face the things I needed to deal with.