Chapter Text
Who are you protecting for by wielding that sword? All you need is to grow stronger.
Cha Euijae flips the restaurant’s sign to CLOSE right at four p.m.
Today was a riot, even for his standard. He’s very accustomed to chaos – just his everyday bread and butter during his days as a secret agent – but managing a restaurant is a whole different ballpark. Despite all the fiasco, he’s still grateful that nothing broke, and all the chaos was manageable.
“Oppa, I’m heading home!” Yoon Gaeul waves from the side door, pulling on her gloves over her fingers. “See you tomorrow!”
“Be careful on the way back!”
“It’s still four in the afternoon, Oppa,” Gaeul sighs loudly, but she smiles.
Euijae watches her go–Yoon Gaeul is his only part-timer in the restaurant to fill up her spring break–before finishing his usual close-up routines. He can’t help but worry, even if Gaeul always waves off his concerns.
Euijae glances toward the large front windows, his mind filled with preparations for tomorrow’s lunch menu. He likes to switch things up occasionally, especially since he only opens five days a week. He makes mental notes to check his kimchi stock and looks up automatic kimchi dispensers–his customers have been heckling him into buying one for at least three weeks now, and he’s kind of tired of Bae Wonwoo’s whining.
A series of knocks comes from the front door. Euijae frowns. He’s locked the door and drawn the blinds, so he glances at the security camera to see the visitor. To his slight surprise, it’s just Bae Wonwoo–one of his regulars, who always comes and buys a box if he’s not on a business trip. The man beams when Euijae unlocks the front door.
“Euijae-ssi! Sorry for interrupting you, but do you happen to have some dosirak left?”
Euijae blinks up at him. “Well, I have two boxes left.”
“Can I buy them?”
“Sure, just wait here. You can pay tomorrow–I powered off everything already.” Before Euijae turns, he catches sight of the sleek black car idling behind Bae Wonwoo. “Going somewhere, Bae Wonwoo-ssi?”
“Just some business meeting with the boss, but we need to drive down to Ansan for the night.”
Euijae quickly packs up the remaining two boxes of dosirak–he was going to bring them back for Grandma and Haeun, but he can always make them something else later for dinner–along with two bottles of water and hands them to Bae Wonwoo. Bae Wonwoo thanks him profusely and jogs back to the car, promising to settle his bills tomorrow.
Euijae’s eyes catch the figure sitting on the back seat–black hair, sharp features–over the rolled down window. The man is looking at him, expression unreadable and eyes hidden behind a pair of designer sunglasses. Something about the man pricks at Euijae’s mind. Euijae stares back–the man must be the CEO of Pado, Bae Wonwoo’s boss. Lee Sayoung. The window rolls back up, and the car glides away. Eujae watches until it disappears, swallowed by Seoul’s late afternoon traffic.
The next day, Euijae’s routine starts again as usual at nine thirty. He arranges the dosirak boxes on the counter, changes the menu sign to meat, and makes sure the drinks are ready. Yoon Gaeul arrives around ten thirty and immediately works on the side dishes. By eleven, the first stragglers start to arrive, and Euijae opens the restaurant.
He sees his usual customers lining up and taking their seats, and soon enough, the place is bustling with activities and conversations–most of his customers are salary men working in nearby offices. The restaurant is not large by any means, but Grandma has amassed many loyal customers over the twenty years it has been open. Euijae, who had only started more than a year ago, inherited the restaurant and the customers while Grandma enjoys her rest. Since her health had deteriorated last year, Euijae decided to work in the restaurant full-time in place of Grandma, not that he had any more work to do since his days as Agent J ended.
Bae Wonwoo arrives with an apology and payment for yesterday’s dosirak. Cha Euijae accepts it gratefully.
“Today’s menu is galbi,” he says, pointing at the stack of lunch boxes. “Do you want some?”
“I’ll take two to go, Cha Euijae-ssi,” Bae Wonwoo says as he takes out his card. “My boss wants one. Again.”
Taking out two of the disposable lunch boxes, Euijae smiles. “Your boss wants to eat from such a humble place?”
Bae Wonwoo shrugs sheepishly. “Eh, well, his orders. What can I do but obey? And your food is good!”
Cha Euijae rings his purchases. “See you tomorrow then, Bae Wonwoo-ssi.”
“Thank you, Cha Euijae-ssi.”
“Yah, Bae Wonwoo, you’re not eating here?” Somebody calls out to Bae Wonwoo. Bae Wonwoo sighs forlornly and lifts the plastic bag.
“Can’t. Bossman is being fussy.” Bae Wonwoo turns back to Euijae. “Oh, almost forgot to ask. Euijae-ssi, have you always been living in Seoul?”
Counting out the years he spent working in Europe, yes.
“Why do you ask?”
“My boss wanted to know.”
That’s peculiar. Euijae had never met him personally until last afternoon. Why would someone like Pado’s CEO want to know?
“I’ve been living here my whole life,” Euijae settles for a half-truth. “Now move along. You’re holding the line.”
Bae Wonwoo salutes playfully and moves away, leaving Euijae with the unsettling thought of catching the attention of someone like Bae Wonwoo’s boss.
If he wants to lay low, he needs to avoid any unnecessary attention.
The next few days pass peacefully, if not for the nagging feeling that he’s being observed–or followed. Euijae keeps sticking to his routine and stays vigilant. There is no way someone like Lee Sayoung is interested in someone as dull as Euijae–unless his interest lies in Euijae’s life as Agent J. But then, Euijae also doesn’t know how Lee Sayoung would know him as Agent J. His works in South Korea were always short, and he would definitely remember bumping into Lee Sayoung for the last few years of his career.
As usual, he closes on weekends, so he uses the free Saturday to do chores and take Park Haeun to the bookstore. Haeun skips her way through the aisles, ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the colorful covers. Euijae walks leisurely with her, making sure the girl doesn’t leave his sight.
“Uncle Euijae, can I buy two books?” She holds up two books in English–Euijae has been teaching her English, and her skills have improved greatly. Euijae nods, gratified by Haeun’s bright smile.
While living quietly is not as thrilling as he’s used to, Euijae is glad for this chance to live a somewhat normal life. Being one of the top MI6 agents in their most secret division was not the epitome of a slow-living life, and his youth was dedicated to training and then working through countless missions all over the world–more often than not, in South Korea. Euijae doesn’t really remember how to live a normal life.
They pay and Euijae herds Haeun out of the building. She’s chirping happily about her new books, eager to read them once they get home.
The streets are surprisingly not that busy for a Saturday afternoon. Euijae walks with Haeun to their next destination–the snack shop, to buy Grandma’s favorite snacks–through a maze of alleys.
The hair at the back of his neck stands up, and Euijae surreptitiously scans his surroundings. Carrying firearms is prohibited in this country, so his only weapon is his heavy-duty switchblade, which he keeps under his leather jacket. The instinct he has honed for years never fails him, and something tells him that something dangerous is lurking near him. He pushes Haeun slightly behind him, ready to grab the girl and run if needed.
“Come on, Haeun.”
Likely understanding that something is amiss, Haeun holds onto Euijae’s hand tightly.
A few meters in front of them, at the entrance of a small restaurant, stand three people. Their demeanor is stiff and uncomfortable. They keep glancing around with sharp eyes, and that alone raises Euijae’s suspicions. He tries to recall another route they can take, but comes up empty.
Something shifts in the air. Slowly, Euijae crouches to Haeun’s height, staring into her innocent brown eyes.
“If anything happens, you have to call 119, okay? Don’t hang up until the operator says they have your coordinate.” Euijae hands her his phone. “Remember my PIN?”
Haeun nods, her eyes widening. “Uncle, what’s wrong?”
The three thugs notice them. Euijae stands, blocking Haeun from their sight.
“Hey, you! Get lost!” Thug #1 yells.
Euijae nods, trying to act like a bumbling civilian. “Uh, sorry, is this street closed? We have to get to the store over there, can we pass quickly?”
“No. You better fuck off!” Thug #1 yells again.
Thug #2 scoffs. “They’re just civilians. Let them pass.”
“But what if–”
“Hey, Ahjussi, better run if you really need to pass through!” Thug #2 says again. “Come quick.”
“Come on, Haeun, let’s walk quickly, okay?” Euijae firmly guides Haeun forward, eyeing the thugs with hawk eyes. “Let’s go.”
Haeun grabs Euijae’s jacket tightly in her fingers and almost runs to match Euijae’s stride. Euijae makes a show to bow, which they ignore. And just as Euijae walks past the restaurant, he glimpses Bae Wonwoo of all people, suddenly standing up with his hand raised–and gun poised at someone in the restaurant. Sensing an impending fight, Euijae pushes Haeun forward.
“Run!”
The thugs, likely noticing the scuffle from inside the restaurant, whirl around. Thug #2 glances back at Euijae, frowning.
“Shit, now I gotta kill you and the kid.”
What kind of reasoning is that?!
The thug reaches into his jacket and pulls his gun out. Haeun gasps faintly–she’s at a distance away, thank God. Faster than the man can blink, Euijae’s already throwing his switchblade with deadly accuracy, hitting the thug right in his right eye. Thug #2 sways with a choked scream, and before he drops, Euijae already moves to grapple the gun from the dead man’s hands. A muffled gunshot rings through the air, coming from inside the restaurant. And then the second, and third. Euijae doesn’t think–he needs to disarm these thugs to get Haeun to safety. With ease, he pulls the trigger twice–one at Thug #1’s head, and one to Thug #3’s hand. Thug #3 swears and drops his gun. Euijae swiftly kicks him in the abdomen, causing the man to double over. He slams the butt of his weapon into Thug #3's head, finishing the job.
The restaurant door bursts open. Euijae changes his stance, takes two steps back, and aims the gun in his hand at the people coming out of the restaurant, adrenaline rushing through his veins.
He really, really needs to get away fast, and if he has to fight his way out of this mess–
Bae Wonwoo, gun also raised, swears. “What the hell? Euijae-ssi?”
Ah, damn. Now, how does he explain the three dead thugs between them?
Behind Bae Wonwoo’s towering heights, three other people emerge.
One of them is Bae Wonwoo’s boss.
Lee Sayoung.
Sharp violet eyes pierce through Euijae, and for a second, a wave of strange familiarity washes over Euijae.
Something in those gleaming violet eyes reminds Euijae of someone in his past.
Shaking it off, Euijae takes another two steps back, but Bae Wonwoo swears again, and the two guys behind Bae Wonwoo and Lee Sayoung train their guns at Euijae.
Euijae calculates his odds. He knows Bae Wonwoo–maybe it will be better for him to ask them to let him and Haeun go. Pretend he doesn’t see anything. But he’s very sure that Lee Sayoung and Bae Wonwoo will do everything in their power to shut him up anyway. It’s not looking good for him.
Lee Sayoung is still assessing him, not saying anything, his hands stuffed in his coat pockets–Euijae is one hundred percent sure he’s holding his own gun, ready to shoot within a second. With the five of them in a standstill, Euijae knows his odds are bad. He slowly drops his gun and raises his left hand in surrender.
“I will pretend I saw nothing,” Euijae says. “I’m innocent in all of this.”
Lee Sayoung scoffs. “From where I see it, you’ve killed these three guys.”
Well. “Yes. I heard the gunshots. I was trying to defend myself.”
“No ordinary civilian is as adept with firearms as you are,” Lee Sayoung says, eyebrows raised sarcastically. “Either you were a special ops in the military, or you are a cop.”
Dammit. “I’m not a cop.”
“Of course you’re not. The cops in this country are abysmally incompetent,” Lee Sayoung sighs. “We’ll clean this up. But you will have to come with me.”
Euijae glances toward Haeun, who’s still half-hiding behind a wooden fence. “I need to get my niece home.”
Bae Wonwoo takes a step forward with his hand outstretched. “Give me the gun, please.”
“Choi Goyo, you come with Cha Euijae-ssi back to his house, and bring him back to the headquarters,” Lee Sayoung orders. “You too, Seo Mingi.”
Now unarmed, Euijae lets out a huge breath. “You’re persistent, aren’t you? I won’t run. You know where I live.”
“I’m still not taking any chances.”
Euijae steps toward Haeun and lifts her into his arms. The girl immediately buries her face into Euijae’s hoodie, shaking. “Sorry, did I scare you?” He really tried not to show his dangerous side to Haeun and Grandma, but after today’s incident, Haeun might get scared of him. “Don’t say anything yet, okay? Uncle is hiding from bad people.”
Haeun gasps and nods. “Got it, Uncle!”
He turns back to the men behind him. “Let’s go, then.”
After dropping Haeun back at her house and greeting Grandma, Euijae follows Choi Goyo and Seo Mingi to their headquarters. A car waits for them on the street, and Euijae silently takes the back seat. He managed to grab his own gun from where he had hidden it in Grandma’s spare room. His chances of actually getting it inside their building are slim, but there is no way he’s going in without any kind of protection–and he lost his switchblade, so he needs his gun until he can replace it.
The car ride is silent and tense, and both Lee Sayoung’s underlings are saying nothing as the car glides smoothly toward downtown Seoul, a distance away from Grandma’s house–he moved them to a quieter neighborhood while he remains on the second floor of the restaurant. The Pado headquarters is located merely three blocks from Euijae’s restaurant. The car slides into the basement parking of the tall building.
He can’t help but think that he’s entered the lion’s den.
The elevator ride to the top floors is as silent as the drive over. Euijae feels his body tensing and his awareness kicking into overdrive. He doesn’t like being cornered, but if meeting Lee Sayoung is the only way for him to keep his identity hidden and his life relatively uneventful, then he would jump headfirst into the lion’s den.
The elevator stops at the top floor without pausing at all–probably executive access. The two men flank him–they both act professional and very well-trained, and Euijae wonders where in the world Lee Sayoung recruited these men. They all look significantly older than Lee Sayoung, at least. He must have paid them so well.
Euijae is familiar with the concept of private security companies, as they will almost always cross paths on their various jobs. Pado is a security company, but he can also see that they deal with private matters as well.
The office is a large expanse of open space that takes the entire top floor, and immediately after exiting the elevator, Euijae is greeted by the view of Seoul’s skyscrapers and Lee Sayoung sitting behind a large oak desk. He’s on the phone with Bae Wonwoo sitting on the couch in front of the desk, scrolling through his own tablet. Lee Sayoung’s eyes flick toward Euijae–gaze so piercing that Euijae feels it even across the room.
“Director Lee. We’re back,” Choi Goyo bows and steps aside, completely exposing Euijae to Lee Sayoung’s gaze.
Lee Sayoung nods, then says to his phone, “I’ll call you later, Director.”
Cha Euijae is outnumbered–four of them and one him–but strangely, he feels calm. Lee Sayoung stands up from his chair and gestures for him to sit on the couch, across from Bae Wonwoo.
“Cha Euijae-ssi, isn’t it?” Lee Sayoung says in a pleasant tone, but he’s not smiling. “Please sit down.”
“I’d rather stand.”
Lee Sayoung studies him. He’s surprisingly open with his expressions, and Euijae can see the curiosity in his eyes. “You’re trained.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying,” Euijae tries to evade, poker face firmly in place.
Lee Sayoung sits down on an armchair and crosses his legs. “Please don’t be so wary. I’m not here to hurt or intimidate you.” He leans forward. “I do wonder how you managed to disarm three people without a scratch, though.”
Euijae says nothing. Lee Sayoung sighs. “Let’s cut to the chase, then.”
“Please do.”
“You unfortunately stumbled into something you shouldn’t have seen.” Lee Sayoung’s words are heavy with implications.
That’s putting it mildly. Euijae nods briskly. “It was self-defense. I had my niece with me, and she was a civilian and still a kid. I couldn’t put her in harm’s way.”
Bae Wonwoo, who’s been uncharacteristically silent, speaks. “Normal people would have run away instead of staying.”
Euijae squares his shoulders and looks Lee Sayoung straight in the eyes. Those violet eyes practically pin Euijae in place, but he’s faced worse things than simply an angry CEO. “I made the decision to stay instead of running. I decided to kill those three men because they were going to shoot us.” Euijae shrugs. “I couldn’t outrun a bullet, might as well disarm them.”
“So you killed them instead,” Lee Sayoung snorts. “That’s a messier solution, Hyung.”
Euijae bristles. “Yah, who are you calling hyung so familiarly like that? Where’s the respect, you brat?”
Lee Sayoung ignores his complaint. “What’s done is done. We should clean up the mess you made.”
“You made a mess too,” Euijae points out. “You shot people inside the restaurant.”
“Yeah, but it was a calculated mess. I was prepared for that. Your involvement, on the other hand…” Lee Sayoung trails off. “I wonder if you’re hiding from the authorities, Hyung. Why else would a highly trained man like you work at a restaurant selling dosirak?”
Lee Sayoung leans back and smirks.
“You’re a civilian now, so it makes no sense for you to kill three gangsters on your own with barely a weapon. The cops will come sniffing for such cases, especially in broad daylight like today.” Euijae stiffens. He knows some streets are now equipped with CCTV cameras, and while he didn’t see any visible ones in the vicinity, that doesn’t mean there isn't any footage of him doing something out of any ordinary civilian’s skillset–something criminal, at that. “I will take care of their bodies–after all, we also had our share of bodies inside that restaurant.”
Does Lee Sayoung want Euijae to thank him? Euijae just nods, lips still pressed thinly. Lee Sayoung is basically radiating smugness, and Euijae has a vague feeling that whatever Lee Sayoung is going to say, he’s not going to like it.
“Where’s my thanks?”
Euijae grunts. “Where is my respect? I’m older than you; you should be talking with me properly.” Lee Sayoung laughs out loud at that. “... Thank you, Lee Sayoung-ssi.”
Lee Sayoung tilts his head. “I can’t hear you.”
Euijae sighs loudly. “Thank you. For getting rid of the bodies.”
“Of course, Hyung,” the other man drawls. “That didn’t come free, by the way.”
Fuck. Of course.
“How much do I have to pay you?”
A snort from behind him. During their conversation, Bae Wonwoo and the other two behind him are silent.
Euijae scowls.
“Look, I am grateful that you took care of their bodies for me, but I could have done it myself,” Euijae gives Lee Sayoung a haughty nod. “I’m capable of doing that much.”
“Calm down.” Lee Sayoung stands slowly and approaches Euijae. “I find it interesting that a man like you, who’s highly trained and capable of hand-to-hand combat, is only working at a restaurant. Are you on the run from something?”
Lee Sayoung is now barely five steps away from where Euijae is standing. “No, I’m not.”
“Who are you, Cha Euijae-ssi?” Lee Sayoung tilts his head again in mock seriousness. “You’re clearly no ordinary military personnel. Were you special ops with a foreign intelligence or something?”
Euijae stiffens. He’s made sure his background was sufficiently covered up–he’s paid handsomely for basically a brand new life–and his records are wiped clean from the MI6 database before he resigned. The only people who know about him are the people still in MI6 and his old handler, Park Hyekyung, who’s also retired and living in Busan now.
“Hmm, Hyung?”
“You’re imagining things, Lee Sayoung-ssi,” Euijae says levelly. “There is no way I’m part of a foreign intelligence agency.” He was. He no longer is. Semantics.
“Well, if you don’t want to say, that’s okay.” Lee Sayoung takes the tablet that Bae Wonwoo hands out. “I’m calling you here because I need you to do something for me.”
“Huh?”
“Think of it as paying me back for today’s cleanup,” Lee Sayoung hands the tablet to Euijae. “Because I need someone like you, Hyung.”