Chapter 166: Hide and Seek (2)
Ahn Su-Jin’s head completely blanked due to the aggressive Kang Ra-Eun. Her heart was beating so hard that it was about to burst. She knew that Ra-Eun was a celebrity that was extremely praised for her beauty, but she really was beautiful up close. Su-Jin found herself laughable for admiring Ra-Eun’s beauty in a situation like this.
Just then, Ra-Eun suddenly stuffed her hand into Su-Jin’s jean pocket.
“M-Miss Kang...!”
Su-Jin blushed in bewilderment. She tried to push Ra-Eun’s hand away, but it did not budge. Despite them both being women, the difference between their strength was colossal. Unlike Su-Jin, who had chased one scoop after another while constantly sleep-deprived and working late, Ra-Eun had toned her body through consistent visits to the fitness center.
Ra-Eun stuffed her hand into Su-Jin’s back pocket. It was not to grope her, but to search for something. If she had still been a man, this would absolutely not fly.
“I knew it.”
Ra-Eun took out a small voice recorder from Su-Jin’s pocket. She knew that considering Su-Jin’s personality, she would always have a voice recorder with her to record evidence, and her prediction had been spot on.
Ra-Eun turned off the voice recorder and looked at Su-Jin in disappointment.
“Didn’t I tell you last time as well? That excessive curiosity of yours will be the end of you.”
“Are you... going to kill me?”
“No.”
Ra-Eun couldn’t afford to kill Su-Jin. She needed her to live a very long life, since she needed her to act as her mouth. No, it was more accurate to say that Su-Jin needed to act as the ‘masked woman’s mouth’ instead of Ra-Eun’s.
“Why do you have your voice recorder on when we’re just on our way to buy coffee?” Ra-Eun asked.
“Because I think... you’re the masked woman, Miss Kang.”
The masked woman had become a famous figure in the political world due to Kim Han-Gyo’s first testimony.
The corners of Ra-Eun’s thin lips curled up again.
“And what if I say that I’m not?”
“What reason is there for you to do something like this if you aren’t?”
“Because you’re suspecting me so much, Reporter Ahn,” Ra-Eun claimed.
However, there was no way Su-Jin would believe that.
“You just asked if I would like to know more about you, didn’t you?”
Su-Jin had not been able to answer at first due to the bewilderment, but after having come this far, she wanted to put an end to her suspicions toward Ra-Eun.
“I do. I want to know everything about you, Miss Kang.”
Ra-Eun could feel strong determination from Su-Jin’s face. She could instinctively tell from how Su-Jin was looking at her. Ra-Eun had thought that she was simply an oddball reporter at first, but Ra-Eun could feel that this person was different from other trashy reporters.
Su-Jin spoke first. “What I want is the truth. The whole unfabricated truth.”
“Does that mean you’re prepared for that truth to possibly put you in grave danger?”
“Yes.”
Ra-Eun could feel a powerful spirit in Su-Jin’s answer. She had thought Su-Jin was a woman who was driven purely by curiosity, but she possessed a nature far beyond that.
Ra-Eun softly sighed. “Let’s go somewhere else. There might be eyes on us.”
Weird rumors could spread if anyone saw what they were doing.
***
They took their seats in the cafe while their coffees were being prepared. They had ordered so many that it was taking a while for them to be made, which was actually good for Ra-Eun and Su-Jin. They just happened to have things to sort out.
Ra-Eun leaned on her chair and asked Su-Jin, “Do you have any evidence that proves I am the masked woman?”
“No, I only have my gut feeling. That’s why I want to hear you say it yourself, Miss Kang.”
“Why go so far to meet the masked woman?”
“Because I feel like she knows a considerable amount of things.”
And most of... no, everything that the masked woman had told Su-Jin had turned out to be true.
Su-Jin asked this time, “Do you know why I decided to become a reporter, Miss Kang?”
“No, I don’t.”
Even if Ra-Eun knew what would happen in the future, she did not know everything about everyone in the world. Su-Jin’s face momentarily reflected sorrow.
“It’s because of my father.”
One of Ra-Eun’s eyebrows flinched at the mention of the word ‘father’. She wanted to say something, but decided to hear her out for the time being.
“My father was also a reporter. We covered the same field.”
“Politics?”
“Yes. He used to focus on injustices committed by politicians, and because of that...”
“He must have had many enemies.”
It was exactly what Ra-Eun had expected.
“Yes, and the internet hadn’t been as developed at the time,” Su-Jin replied.
In other words, it was easier to cover up anything bad that happened to a person. Exposing politicians for corruption in an era when ostracism was far easier than in the current era required a considerable amount of courage.
‘Things like that were commonplace back then.’
Ra-Eun had not been active in that era, but she had worked close to the political world for so long that she had heard many things about what had happened in those days. She could more or less predict what Su-Jin was going to say. Like she had expected, Su-Jin’s father had not met a happy ending.
“One day, the police came to me and my mother, saying he had committed suicide.”
Ra-Eun had thought as much. She lightly clicked her tongue.
“And of course, I still don’t believe that for a second. His will to live was stronger than anyone else’s, so there’s no way that he had made such a decision,” Su-Jin said.
She believed that the decision had been forced on her father, which had ended up being the trigger for her choice of occupation.
“I absolutely despise our country’s political world. That’s why I want to tear apart the curtains covering all the filth and expose it to the public in its entirety.”
Su-Jin was driven by revenge. This was the first time that Ra-Eun had taken a liking to Su-Jin, since her favorite word was revenge.
“That’s why if you’re the masked woman, I will help you in any way that I can, Miss Kang.”
Su-Jin still did not know why Ra-Eun had done everything that she had so far, but now that she had found out their motives were similar, she was more than willing to help her.
Ra-Eun answered, “I’m sure the masked woman would have taken a liking to you very much if she were here.”
She did not reveal the fact that she was the masked woman to the very end, but Su-Jin felt like she had gotten the answer that she had wanted from her.
***
Kim Han-Gyo’s stress levels have been off the charts lately. His son’s imprisonment aside, the masked woman who knew many of his weaknesses was still out there. Even after interrogating every single one of his close associates, he had still not been able to get the answer that he had wanted.
Today, Han-Gyo called over a congresswoman that he had worked with for a very long time.
“So... Leaving all that aside, you’re saying you haven’t been to my house lately, right?” he asked.
“Are you suspecting me, Congressman Kim?”
“No, that’s not it.”
The masked woman had been far younger than this congresswoman. She had concealed her face, voice, and many other things, but Han-Gyo could infer her general age range. She couldn’t be any older than her late twenties.
However, Han-Gyo also took into account that the masked woman might have only been a stand-in, hence the reason why it sounded like he was suspecting the congresswoman.
The congresswoman sighed deeply and asked Han-Gyo seriously, “Congressman Kim. Could it be that you were seeing things from the accumulated stress over your son’s case? Maybe you should take a bit of a break. The others are also very worried about you.”
It was more than possible to see or hear things that weren’t there due to excessive stress. The members of congress were guessing that Han-Gyo had been talking nonsense due to extreme stress. Han-Gyo was on the verge of flipping out. What he had seen was real, but no one believed him.
“...Okay. You can go now,” Han-Gyo stated.
Before leaving Han-Gyo’s study, the congresswoman emphasized to him again that he should rest. Han-Gyo was left alone. He gently pressed on his temple.
‘Who could it be?’
The culprit would be someone who knew an excessive amount of information on him. However, even after feeling out every single one of his close associates, he had not been able to find a single person who could be the culprit.
‘It’s like I’m playing an endless game of hide and seek.’
There was no worse hell than this.
***
Ra-Eun came to a decision after finding out something new about Reporter Ahn Su-Jin.
‘I’ll be able to use Reporter Ahn more actively from now on.’
At first, Ra-Eun did not want to give Su-Jin too much information since she had little trust in her, but she changed her mind after finding out about her past. Su-Jin had turned out to be the same as Ra-Eun; they were both driven by revenge. Although the targets of their revenge were different, the link that was revenge had strengthened the relationship between them.
‘I was just thinking of executing my plan to defeat the last boss.’
It had been just in time. Ra-Eun would poke around with jabs to see how the staggering Han-Gyo would react, and then land a right hook when the time was right. She was planning on working hard to set the stage for that exact moment.
‘First, I have to get Kim Han-Gyo into the ring.’
Ra-Eun possessed many different ways to attack Han-Gyo. As she was pondering over which would be the most effective, Seo Yi-Seo came to her room.
“You have a call, Ra-Eun,” Yi-Seo expressed.
She had brought Ra-Eun’s smartphone that she had left in the living room.
“Thanks.”
It was her older brother Kang Ra-Hyuk. She reluctantly accepted the call after wondering if she should just reject it.
“Why’d you call me?”
An unfamiliar woman’s voice answered her.
- Hello. Are you Mr. Kang Ra-Hyuk’s little sister?
“Huh? Oh, yes... I am.”
Ra-Eun wondered if Ra-Hyuk had lost his phone, but it had been something much more serious.
- Your brother got into a car accident and has been admitted to the hospital. We need a guardian, but we haven’t been able to get hold of his father. That’s why we called you instead.
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