The Civil Servant Who Concealed Their True Strength Turns Out to be a Master of Possession - Chapter 103
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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A Civil Servant Who Hides His Strength Is Exceptionally Good at Possession – Episode 103
“Right. We need to finish what we were talking about yesterday, don’t we?”
“…Memory? I don’t recall anything?”
My voice comes out strained.
Sweat trickles down the back of my neck, but I force my expression to remain as harmless as possible.
“What exactly did I say to you?”
“Oh~ You said I’m a psychopath. You asked if the real reason I carry that gun around isn’t because of criminals, but because I’m planning to shoot you.”
Damn it.
Another fragmented memory from last night flashes through my mind.
The scene of me reaching toward an empty revolver.
And Pee So-won, reacting instinctively to keep the revolver from being taken, grabbing it and immediately pointing it at me.
The moment I saw that, what did I say?
‘Look at this. This. I carry it around to shoot myself. You saw it, didn’t you, Team Leader?’
Team Leader?
Only then do I remember there was someone else in that hazy memory.
Who was that?
Was it Baek Sang-jin? Or could it have been Kwon Ik-seong?
Either way, I’m screwed.
Truly.
‘Go ahead, shoot! This head is bulletproof! I’ve trained for twenty years to build this thick skull, you psychopath!’
‘…Ugh.’
Somehow, I find myself kneeling on the bed.
“Team Leader.”
“What. Bulletproof head.”
“….”
This person is going to milk this for at least ten years.
And I can’t keep pretending I don’t remember anymore—there’s a limit to that!
“I’ve truly committed an unforgivable sin! Just once!”
“Once? From what I remember, it wasn’t just once? You called me a psychopath, told me to shoot and test my bulletproof head. And—”
Pee So-won stops mid-sentence and quietly closes her mouth.
Then she suddenly stands up, bending her body this way and that as if her back hurts.
“…And you made me carry you all the way here.”
“Me?”
Not remembering that part, I lower my head with a deeply contorted expression.
Now I have nothing left to say.
I’m genuinely sorry.
I naturally have a lot of muscle mass, so I have a strong tolerance for alcohol, but I’m weak when it comes to drinking socially.
The reason is that during my training period, I never touched a single drop of alcohol, let alone attended drinking gatherings.
In short, even though I have a strong tolerance, I’m not good at gauging my actual capacity.
On top of that, I have a habit of stubbornly pushing through with sheer willpower, so I’m the type who breaks rather than bends.
I’d blacked out from drinking alone before, even after I quit taekwondo.
I should have remembered that, but that damned Choi Woo-jin made me forget.
“Did I… throw up…?”
“You did.”
“I’m sorry. About the cleaning bill…”
“You should pay that to her, not me, right?”
Pee So-won rubbed the back of her neck as if her throat was sore and gestured toward the door.
“…?”
No way.
I watched Pee So-won walk toward the door with an ominous feeling in my chest.
Please. Please…!
And when Pee So-won opened the door and said this, I realized that the adage about ill omens never being wrong had proven true once again.
“Team Leader Kwon. He’s awake. Did the dried pollack soup delivery arrive?”
“It’s not delivery—I made it myself. Come eat.”
‘I’m not taking a taxi… I’ll take the subway instead… I need to save money… I need to save it to buy food for my cat… My cat eats so much…’
‘I apologize, but if you resist any further, I’ll carry you in myself. Thank you for your understanding.’
‘I won’t… I won’t… Uweeeek…!’
…That’s a lie.
That I threw up in front of my favorite person.
* * *
Lee Yu-ji sat with a gloomy expression in front of the steaming dried pollack soup.
As if this were her own memorial table.
The expression was so similar to Ruru’s that Kwon Ik-seong paused for a moment.
But Pee So-won, sitting beside him, didn’t seem to mind at all.
She was eating the dried pollack soup and speaking like this.
“…You cook well?”
Pee So-won said this as if taken aback.
“I just measure everything according to the recipe.”
“Like a chemistry experiment.”
Even as she said that, Pee So-won had already begun mixing rice into the dried pollack soup and eating it.
But Lee Yu-ji couldn’t pick up her spoon, watching Kwon Ik-seong’s expression.
‘This place is… Ik-seong’s house.’
Lee Yu-ji looked at the house that resembled a model home.
Mid-century modern lighting, minimalist bookshelves, and a black sofa.
It suited Ik-seong, yet somehow felt oddly mismatched.
I could roughly guess the reason.
‘He basically just moved into a place where furniture and lighting were already installed.’
As evidence of that, the bookshelf was packed with books on criminal investigation, but there was no TV above the TV stand, and the desk held only a clock and a tie pin—nothing else, completely empty.
He was basically using the house as a storage unit.
I just came here to sleep, wash up, and leave.
There was no way Kwon Ik-seong had personally bought all these well-crafted furnishings for such a place.
Seeing my favorite character’s house in person—something never described in the novel—should have been thrilling as a fan, but Lee Yu-ji found herself reluctant to even look around properly.
“Don’t you like the dried pollack soup?”
At Kwon Ik-seong’s question, Lee Yu-ji shook her head.
“No! I love it!”
Warm broth the day after drinking? There’s no way I’d dislike that.
Especially when it’s food given by my favorite character.
The problem was that this favorite character was her superior, and she’d gotten drunk and thrown up in front of him last night.
‘Damn it….’
“It’s absolutely delicious!”
Lee Yu-ji took a spoonful and gave an exaggerated thumbs-up like a scene from a commercial.
“…I’m glad.”
Kwon Ik-seong looked slightly flustered before responding with his usual expressionless face.
Watching him, Lee Yu-ji became dejected again.
She spoke quietly to Kwon Ik-seong.
“I’ll pay for the laundry….”
“Most of it was liquid, so running it through the washing machine was fine.”
“…So it was liquid….”
Kwon Ik-seong had meant it considerately, but his words only made Lee Yu-ji more dejected.
Again, that feeling of an invisible tail drooping.
I never know what to do in moments like these.
Kwon Ik-seong simply pushed a warm cup of honey water toward Lee Yu-ji.
“Have some.”
“Yes.”
It wasn’t forceful at all, but Lee Yu-ji obeyed his words even while dejected.
As the warm honey water went down, the burning sensation in her stomach seemed to settle a bit.
The scorching thirst also faded slightly.
“Haa….”
“Are you feeling better?”
At Kwon Ik-seong’s question, Lee Yu-ji nodded slightly.
A glimmer returned to her eyes.
How can a person be so transparent like that.
“But why am I here—”
“Your memories are coming back in fragments, huh? I thought you were just making excuses about not remembering?”
“Yes….”
Lee Yu-ji answered, becoming dejected again.
Then Pee So-won set down the empty soup bowl and spoke.
“You wouldn’t tell us your home address, and when we tried to dig through your resume, you screamed about personal information leaks, and when we suggested checking your wallet, you yelled that if a psychopath emptied your wallet too. Our place was closer than yours anyway. And honestly, it just felt wrong leaving a woman alone at a man’s house.”
So she slept here with him?
“It’s hard to trust Team Leader Kwon, isn’t it?”
“Pardon? If you can’t trust me—”
Lee Yu-ji said that, but Pee So-won merely murmured “I don’t know…” while staring at Kwon Ik-seong.
To Pee So-won, Kwon Ik-seong remained an enigmatic figure.
He’d answered “yes” when asked if he liked Lee Yu-ji, yet in the taxi yesterday—
“When you said that back then, did you mean you like Lee Yu-ji romantically?”
“I haven’t given it much thought.”
“If you were to think about it now?”
After a brief silence, he answered this way.
“I intend not to think about it. Because Investigator Lee Yu-ji is an excellent investigator, and she is my colleague.”
It meant he didn’t want personal feelings to compromise their professional relationship.
Yet hadn’t he already compromised their professional relationship for personal reasons?
For instance, by unilaterally launching a helicopter to rescue Investigator Lee Yu-ji, only to face disciplinary action.
And the fact that he already knew Lee Yu-ji’s address, yet deliberately had her sleep at his place was problematic from the start.
That was right.
In fact, he’d already seen her address when he pulled out her ID from her wallet.
If Lee Yu-ji hadn’t said what she did then, the taxi would have gone straight to her apartment.
“I can’t go home drunk like this…”
“Why not? Will your parents scold you?”
“My parents have passed away… I have a younger sibling now…”
“So what? Is your sibling a nag?”
“They worry about me…”
Lee Yu-ji leaned against Pee So-won’s shoulder, gazing up at her with unfocused eyes.
“Like you do, Team Leader. That I might… die. That it might happen again.”
Pee So-won found those eyes difficult to forget.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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