## Chapter 42 – 04. As Long as It’s Not Me
+++
What business could Team Leader Seo Hyun-joo possibly have with Korea Prestige?
Korea Prestige was the holding company that controlled the most gigantic corporation in the country. A VIP card exclusively for the royal family of such a company?
I didn’t know the exact conditions for receiving one, but it seemed difficult without a very deep connection.
The fact that the card was issued by Korea Prestige, not Korea Card, was also suspicious.
Not just a simple partnership, but a card literally issued by Prestige.
“….”
The benefits were also beyond what was rationally acceptable.
Just in case, I tried using it to pay for things other than food, but the results were all the same.
Everything was uniformly discounted by 90%.
A ₩100,000 dress could be bought for just ₩10,000,
and a ₩5,000,000 luxury handbag could be bought for ₩500,000.
Seriously,
did a card like this even exist??
Unable to contain her curiosity, she dug up information about the card until Hyun-joo returned.
However, she couldn’t find the most important information, such as the ‘issuance conditions.’
+
+
“…You’re back.”
“Yes.”
Hyun-joo, who returned late at night, looked quite tired.
But considering that, her appearance was neat.
She was fresh from head to toe, and smelled nice.
It seemed like she had showered somewhere.
Yoon Ha-young returned the card.
“Ha-young-ssi. You can order something more expensive. As you know, it’s a special card.”
“Ah… Okay. Thank you.”
She had been about to ask about the card’s identity, but ended up keeping her mouth shut.
She couldn’t figure out whether it was okay to ask or not.
What if she asked… and heard a shocking answer…?
‘I can’t handle… any more shocks…’
+++
The next day.
Even though it was a Saturday, a day off, Hyun-joo was busy preparing early in the morning.
She looked like she was going on a trip somewhere.
“Where are you going today?”
“….”
She hesitated for a moment before answering.
“Yes. Every weekend, a little…”
Then, she put the card from yesterday back on the table.
“I’ll be back on Monday. Use this in the meantime.”
“Eh… Monday…?”
“Every Saturday morning to Monday night. That’s when I’m away from this house.”
What on earth did she do that took so long??
‘No, wait. Monday is a work day, so it’s actually just Saturday and Sunday… What does Team Leader do somewhere?’
The card on the table felt especially strange.
A card that an ordinary person could never obtain.
A team leader who had to leave home for several days every weekend.
And,
‘That day’s… that…’
The scene she had seen in the video, so intense and unforgettable.
They were clearly all separate incidents, but for some reason, she couldn’t separate them.
‘Let’s, let’s hypothesize. That ‘young master’ is a very high-ranking person at Korea Prestige, and he received sexual favors at Rainbow Miracle. By chance, Chief Kim Dong-gi was delivering trainees who were the tribute. I saw that and wrote an article, and Team Leader immediately took it down, but it reached the ears of that high-ranking person at Korea Prestige. So Team Leader was called in to apologize to that person, and was brutally raped as compensation…
The next day, that video was delivered to my email.’
But what if the relationship between the Team Leader and that ‘young master’ continued even after that?
Then, wouldn’t it be possible to receive a card like this?
The Team Leader was capable, had a social position, and was very pretty as a woman.
She would be worth having around for fun, though it was a vulgar expression.
‘The fact that the evidence of Rainbow Miracle has completely disappeared… If it’s the power of Prestige, which controls the Korea Group… it might be possible.’
Along with that, there was another possibility.
That the ‘young master’ and Team Leader Seo Hyun-joo had been in cahoots from the start.
– What’s the reason the reporter is giving Rainbow Miracle special treatment? Except for the fact that Team Leader Seo Hyun-joo was raped… no, watched a video that ‘could be seen’ as rape… Isn’t it the same as any other agency?
‘….’
She shook her head.
She wouldn’t think that far.
The video was very real, and Hyun-joo, who was being victimized, really looked like she was being raped.
“Ugh…! What on earth is Team Leader…!!”
She quickly prepared to go out.
It was instantaneous.
And she grabbed the card on the table and left the front door.
‘Ah, it’s not too late yet, right?’
When she came out of the apartment, she saw Hyun-joo opening the car door and getting in.
Yoon Ha-young hurriedly looked around for her car and ran.
+++
– Someone wrote this song before~ And I could tell you where it’s from The 4736251 to put my mind at ease~
A very faint and sentimental music was playing.
She liked this part, as if it was turning back time to a glamorous and beautiful past.
But now, for some reason, only bitterness washed over her.
– Tailgating detected.
The car’s information panel kept displaying warnings.
It meant that someone’s car had been following her all along.
It was probably Yoon Ha-young’s car.
How foolish.
For a reporter, she couldn’t even do a proper tail.
How had she been doing her reporting all this time?
“I’ll have to… give her a lot of training…”
+++
“Ugh… Where are we even going…”
Since having the AI ‘follow that car’ required the other vehicle’s consent, a human had to drive the tail.
And tailing without getting caught, not just ordinary driving, consumed quite a bit of mental strength and energy.
Fortunately, not long after she had voiced her dissatisfaction, the Team Leader’s car seemed to have arrived at its destination.
A large mansion nestled against a hill on the outskirts of Songdo Future City.
She was a little nervous because a huge gate was blocking the road leading up from below, but it just opened when she got closer.
‘Not just anywhere, but a mansion that size in Songdo…’
She fidgeted with the hand holding the steering wheel.
Tension was gradually consuming her.
‘Some people are struggling to live in a 4-pyeong studio in Ganghwa…’
Indeed.
Who could live in a house like this?
And why was Team Leader Seo Hyun-joo visiting this mansion?
Hyun-joo’s car stopped again in front of another huge gate that was blocking the way.
Then, when the gate opened, it went inside.
The appearance of the mansion was briefly visible beyond the gate.
‘…I probably can’t go in, right?’
It had somehow passed through on the road, but that gate was a real gate that separated the inside and outside of the mansion.
Unless she was invited, she obviously wouldn’t be able to enter.
Still, unable to give up her lingering feelings, she lingered for a few minutes, then parked her car on the side of the road and got out.
And she zoomed in on the mansion with the camera she had brought.
“…I guess I can’t see anything.”
Even though it was a fairly expensive camera, she couldn’t take a picture.
How strong of a field was deployed?
Just in case, she took a few pictures.
“Hoo… I’ll go back for now-,”
Thud.
At that moment.
Something touched the back of her head.
“…Eh??”
She knew instinctively.
If she moved, her head would explode.
Her body stiffened with extreme tension.
“Ah… I, uh, I got… lost…”
She slowly raised her hands.
The hand holding the camera was trembling.
‘Shit! I was too careless…!!’
Just as she was about to say that she would leave right away, so please let her off the hook,
– Execution mode. Terminator.
She heard something strange.
And as if a robot was transforming, she heard sound effects, and something pushed the back of her head forward.
“If you move, I’ll shoot?”
“…!!!!”
And then, a very familiar voice followed.
“Reporter Yoon Ha-young.”
That voice cruelly pierced her ears.
+
+
“….”
“….”
Reporter Yoon Ha-young’s eyes were blank as she slowly walked inside the mansion.
She couldn’t understand what was going on at all.
‘Why… Prosecutor Lee Na-eun…’
That thing that had touched the back of her head,
and that thing that was still poking her back.
It was none other than a Terminator.
The pinnacle of prosecutorial power and a symbol of investigative legitimacy.
The moment the trigger was pulled, her body would die, scattering thousands of pieces of flesh that she had seen the other day in all directions.
And the voice that said she would shoot if she moved was definitely Prosecutor Lee Na-eun’s.
‘I had my doubts… There were strange things, and I was suspicious every time I discovered them, but I still believed… But…’
Yes.
Even considering all that,
Why was she coming out from here?
She couldn’t understand that much.
“You’re two minutes late, Prosecutor.”
A woman guarding the front door said with a cold face.
Prosecutor Lee Na-eun nudged Yoon Ha-young’s back.
“I found an uninvited guest here. I was late because I was bringing her.”
“Hmm.”
The woman examined Reporter Yoon Ha-young.
Yoon Ha-young, who had been half out of her mind until then, finally saw the woman’s appearance-,
“!!!”
There was no mistake.
Surely,
it was the police officer who had come to her house after receiving the report!!
“W-what… What’s going on…”
Im Soo-ah scanned Yoon Ha-young from head to toe.
“She’s a little lacking… but she’s worth putting up. Undress her and send her in.”
