Red Dot - 114

Chapter 114

“What’s going on?!”

Hearing a familiar scream, Dujae rushed into the lobby, shouting, but quickly relaxed.

The scream came from a patient room they had converted into a break room. Through the wide-open door, he saw people sitting around a table inside the break room.

“Oh, oh no, I’m so sorry! What do I do…?”

A man, awkwardly standing and looking down at his shirt, gave a sheepish smile to Kyungo, who seemed at a loss for what to do.

“It’s okay. I was the one who got startled and yelled so loudly, haha…”

As the man scratched the back of his head, Kyungo grabbed his arm urgently.

“If you leave it like that, it’ll be a disaster! I’ll wash it for you! Uh… wait, that sounds weird. I mean, I’ll clean it for you!”

“It’s really fine—”

“No, hurry! It must feel gross. You can take a shower in the meantime. This way!”

It seemed Kyungo had spilled something on the man’s shirt. After finishing a hurried meal, Kyungo had handed out canned coffee from the nurse’s supply room to the man and woman. However, he accidentally knocked over the man’s can, spilling coffee on his shirt.

The shirt was mostly white, though a little dirty and dusty, so the dark coffee stain stood out clearly.

As the man was dragged off by the bustling Kyungo, Dujae entered the break room and saw Jian chatting with the woman, looking as if they had become fast friends. Neither seemed interested in the commotion caused by Kyungo and the man.

“Really? I thought you two were a couple.”

“Not at all. I met him for the first time at city hall. He’s already got a wife and kids, and besides, who would want such a clueless man…”

The woman, who had already dropped formal speech, took a sip of her canned coffee and laughed.

“I’ve decided to stay single forever with my younger sibling. Neither of us has even the slightest interest in relationships.”

“Your sibling, too?”

The woman grinned as she put down her coffee.

“Our dream is to save up a lump sum of money and hide out in a nice resort for a few years.”

“Wow! Where would you go? Jeju Island?”

“If we’re going, it has to be abroad. Somewhere like the Maldives or Guam!”

“Take me with you, unnie!”

Jian’s bright eyes sparkled as she clung to the woman warmly, making her laugh pleasantly. The woman, clearly charmed by the cheerful high school girl’s affection, ruffled Jian’s hair playfully, her face completely free of tension.

Watching them warmly, Changmin noticed Dujae belatedly and got up to approach him.

“The two of them seem to have gotten close quickly.”

“Indeed. Jian has a knack for connecting with others.”

Seeing how Jian and the woman had become like sisters during the short time he had been away for treatment brought a smile to Dujae’s face.

“How’s your arm?”

Changmin looked at Dujae’s arm as he spoke. Though it was now wrapped in a clean white bandage, the severity of the injury darkened his gaze.

Dujae raised his left arm, the one that had been severed, and waved it as if to reassure him.

“It still hurts, but it’s fine. Hanseo took care of it almost as well as a doctor would…”

Turning to glance back while praising Hanseo, Dujae realized he was no longer there.

“He probably went to Junseong.”

Changmin shrugged, guessing that Hanseo had noticed Junseong wasn’t in the break room and immediately gone to find him.

“He really is like a loyal dog.”

“Haha, true.”

So loyal it almost seemed obsessive.

As Dujae scratched his cheek and chuckled, Changmin gestured for him to follow as he headed out of the break room.

“Come this way. I saw some painkillers in the nurse’s office earlier.”

The painkillers were exactly what Dujae needed, so he followed Changmin willingly.

When they entered the nurse’s office, Changmin lowered his voice, pretending to look around the desk.

“Listen carefully, Kwak Dujae.”

“Among the two people we brought along, one of them might be a spy.”

Dujae’s eyes twitched slightly, but he controlled his expression, glancing toward the break room. Jian and the woman were still chatting happily inside, while Kyungo, holding the wet shirt, darted around nearby, looking for a place to dry it.

“Is that true?”

“It’s better to hear the details from Junseong. For now, it’s just a strong possibility, so I’m keeping an eye on them.”

Changmin picked up the painkillers he had set aside earlier and handed them to Dujae.

“These are all the painkillers, so keep them safe. Junseong was really worried earlier, so if you get a chance, show him how you’re doing.”

Raising his voice slightly, Changmin threw Dujae a subtle look. Matching his tone, Dujae smiled and thanked him, leaving the nurse’s office and heading toward the patient room where he had spoken to Junseong earlier.

“Kyungo, could you bring me some clothes?”

“Ack—! Sorry! Um, I’m not sure if this fits, but…”

On his way, Dujae spotted a man peeking out of the shower room with wet hair, while Kyungo hurriedly ran past with a clean male nurse’s uniform top.

Dujae stopped briefly, watching the pair who seemed oddly alike, before continuing toward the room where Junseong should be.

“A spy? For whom?”

The man and woman accompanying him had been with him since the city hall. While most of the time, Dujae’s role was to protect them, they cooperated when collaboration was necessary. He thought they had been of more help than expected during their journey so far.

And yet, they might be spies?

Spies for whom? And for what purpose?

Naturally, Nam Ki-hyuk came to his mind.

“Could it be?”

Dujae knew Nam Ki-hyuk was targeting Junseong. He also knew that Nam Ki-hyuk was aware Dujae would join Junseong and that it was likely the reason for the pre-dawn attack. He’d even heard rumors that Nam Ki-hyuk himself had led the ambush.

But if that were the case, wouldn’t the spy have aimed a weapon at him during the pre-dawn attack? When confronted by the attackers at dawn, the man and woman had each wielded a field shovel and a wooden baseball bat, fighting so fiercely that their weapons were broken in the process.

No matter how hard Dujae thought about it, he couldn’t pinpoint anything suspicious about them. If anything, he trusted them quite a bit.

Believing Junseong might have misunderstood, Dujae raised his hand to knock on the door.

Knock, knock. He opened the door after a light knock.

“Junseong…”

Calling out to Junseong as he entered, Dujae immediately fell silent, feeling the sharp glare aimed at him.

Junseong was sitting on the sofa in the hospital room, and beside him was Do Hanseo, who had disappeared earlier. Hanseo was cradling Junseong, with Junseong’s head resting on his shoulder and Hanseo’s arm wrapped securely around his waist. Just as Hanseo was about to gently stroke Junseong’s head, Dujae walked in at the perfect—or perhaps the worst—moment.

Hanseo shot Dujae a piercing glare, but it was futile as Junseong stirred and opened his eyes.

“Hmm… You’re here?”

Junseong rubbed his eyes, still groggy from a short nap he’d taken without truly resting. Watching Hanseo gaze softly at Junseong, completely different from earlier, Dujae clicked his tongue quietly.

Pushing Hanseo away, who was overly close to him, Junseong sat up straighter and looked at Dujae with clearer eyes before speaking.

“Did Changmin hyung tell you?”

“Yes, roughly.”

As Dujae closed the door behind him, his expression hardened, and he frowned.

“Do you really think there’s a spy?”

“I’d say there’s about a 50% chance.”

“Fifty percent? So, there’s also a chance there isn’t?”

Dujae habitually tried to cross his arms but winced at the throbbing pain from his severed arm, deepening his frown as he defended the two people.

“You’re saying they might be spies planted by Nam Ki-hyuk, right? If that’s the case, I don’t think it’s true. During the dawn attack, they fought hard against his group. Plus, they’re people we coincidentally joined forces with at the city hall on the day of the incident.”

“Whether it was a coincidence or not remains to be seen.”

Junseong replied firmly and continued.

“Hanseo mentioned that both of them had fresh blisters on their hands, which suggests they’d been gripping and wielding something until very recently.”

“That’s true. They used weapons to help fight the attackers.”

“And yet, unlike you, neither of them had any significant injuries.”

“That’s because when their weapons broke, I told them to fall back…”

Junseong shook his head with a sigh.

“There were multiple attackers, weren’t there? From what I heard, you fought Nam Ki-hyuk almost one-on-one. Why were the other attackers just standing by? If they had captured those two unarmed individuals and used them as hostages, the fight could have ended quickly.”

“Well…”

Now that he thought about it, it was strange.

Why hadn’t the attackers tried to capture the two? Instead, they had only destroyed their weapons and then backed off, almost as if they’d been ordered to.

When Dujae couldn’t come up with an answer, Junseong added another point to his argument.

“Those two are people I’ve never encountered even once in the countless dreams I’ve had. Such a noticeable change has always been tied to the ‘variable’ Nam Ki-hyuk.”

Considering Junseong’s past experiences and what Dujae knew about his prophetic dreams, it was hard for Dujae to refute Junseong’s reasoning. After all, the fact that he was alive and standing here now was thanks to Junseong’s dreams.

“Nam Ki-hyuk himself led his subordinates in the attack, yet he let those two live. And not just live—they came out of it without any major injuries.”

Junseong claimed he was only 50% sure, but he sounded almost certain.

“Do you really think this is just a coincidence?”

As Junseong’s cold and sharp gaze locked onto Dujae, he found himself unable to say a word.

At that moment, there was a soft knock on the door, and someone peeked their head in. Seeing the person, Junseong’s lips curled into a slight smile.

“It seems I was right.”

The person who had poked their head into the room nodded stiffly, their face devoid of expression.