Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 239.1

Lee Seonghae is in a very good mood!

‘I helped good people.’

She didn’t care that beyond the steel door lay the strange interior of an underground bunker.

Because she had found the person she was meant to meet inside.

She reached out and pointed toward that figure.

“Mr. Employee’s right over there.”

The Security Team Special Division employee, wrapped in black smoke.

The Golden Mascot.

Even now seeing that ‘employee’ carrying an elderly woman in his arms, perhaps out of care for the weak, only made her heart swell with warmth.

‘As expected, he’s a good employee!’

So then, introducing him to other good people couldn’t possibly be a bad thing.

…Whether the agents she intended to ‘introduce’ him to were actually looking at that employee with the same expression—or feeling the same emotion—was another matter entirely.

She had always been naturally dull to other people’s feelings, and combined with her self-centered streak, her habit of trying to do the right thing sometimes drove her ethics and sense of justice to extremes.

Like now, which had led to this situation.

‘Great.’

Lee Seonghae recalled what had happened a few days earlier, after she captured the ghost story “Man in the Screen” onto a USB drive.

* * *

“Hm-hmm~”

On her way home from work.

She was happily heading back. Today’s exploration had ended safely, and she planned to stop by the annex at dawn to meet ‘Mr. Employee’.

So her steps were light, but then.

Bzzzzt.

Her phone buzzed.

[K.LEE: Hello assistant managerㅋㅋㅋ]

A profile picture and name that felt almost unfamiliar.

But her extraordinary memory caught up.

‘The person who recommended that Salmon Market.’ 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

It was onboarding season at the company, so her associative memory worked faster than usual.

A mysterious KakaoTalk message introducing himself as Assistant Manager Lee Kangheon from C-squad who frequently contacted ‘promising rookies’.

[K.LEE: Long time no talk~ Heard you got promoted?]

Lee Seonghae typed back.

[yupp]

[K.LEE: Khhh congratulations!ㅋㅋ We should meet up i’ll buy you a meal!]

[don’t think you cann]

[K.LEE: Hey i can at least afford to treat a fellow employeeㅋㅋ]

Really? But the thing is…

[you’re not actually a fellow employee tho?]

Because that was a lie.

And Lee Seonghae hates liars.

[there’s never even been anyone named lee kangheon at this company so who are youu?]

This was a conclusion drawn after cross-checking the intranet and office rumors.

A moment’s silence passed.

[K.LEE: You didnt just find that out now did you?]

She stared blankly at the phone screen.

[K.LEE: And thats not what matters is it?]

[K.LEE: What matters is this yeah? I might know the whereabouts of Supervisor Kang Yihak who disappeared recentlyㅎㅎ]

“Eeh.”

Lee Seonghae blinked at the mention of an employee whose disappearance she herself had once neglected.

Truthfully, Kang Yihak had long since slipped her mind. No need to care about a ‘bad person’ who’d already been disposed of.

But the mention itself was meaningful.

Because Kang Yihak hadn’t just disappeared.

[by any chance are you with the Disaster Management Bureauu?]

After all, it was the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau that had taken her away.

[K.LEE: Sure lets go with that?]

“Ooh.”

The other party’s reaction was disarmingly casual, but by the circumstances, it smelled like a bluff. Like a lie told to avoid getting caught.

Which is fine!

If it’s a liar, but with a good enough reason to lie, she could tolerate that!

[soo what do you want in exchange for telling me where kang yihak-ssi is?]

[K.LEE: Wanna meet up and talk in person?]

[okiedokiee!]

If this person wasn’t really an agent, meeting in person just made it easier to handle them.

So an hour later, Lee Seonghae was sitting in the corner of a café chain, waiting to meet ‘Lee Kangheon’.

She was the embodiment of the saying ‘even a bull’s horn can get yanked out in one go’, and everything felt natural to her.

Besides, she was in an especially good mood.

Because she’d just had a really marvelous idea.

And here.

“Nice to see youu, Mr. Agents!”

Sitting down now…

Were the very same people she’d met back then!

Two of the agents who’d been involved when she handled ‘Man in the Screen’.

‘Ooooh.’

The one with a scar on his neck, and the weary-looking one who had transported Kang Yihak.

And among them, Lee Kangheon was…

“Eeyaah, hello there, Assistant Manager.”

This man.

The man with the scar on his neck smiled faintly and sat down across from her.

Lee Seonghae immediately picked up on a few signals—that the smile was just a habit, and in reality he was on edge, highly alert.

‘Must be something important.’

“Seems like you’ve got a request for mee?”

“Ohh, and if I make a request, you’ll just accept?”

“Yup. I’ll just help youu!”

“…Whoa, really?”

The man’s smile didn’t crack, but his voice softened.

“Really! But… in return, could you do me one favor later? It’s not a bad thing. It’s a good thing!”

“And what’s your standard for good or bad?”

“Obviously me.”

Lee Seonghae grinned brightly.

“But I don’t do bad things to good people!”

A short silence passed.

“Alright!”

‘Lee Kangheon’ answered cheerfully.

“But only as long as it doesn’t harm the Disaster Management Bureau.”

“Of coursee!”

While the two of them kept smiling brightly at each other, the sturdy, tired-looking agent across the table fixed his gaze on her.

“Lee Seonghae-ssi.”

“Yepp?”

“If you really want to help good people, wouldn’t it be better to start by reconsidering working for a company that harms society?”

Umm.

Lee Seonghae noticed that Lee Kangheon quickly stomped on the other agent’s foot under the table, but she very kindly pretended not to see it.

Despite having a similar question raised to her before.

Lee Kangheon threw in a line that could be taken as either shielding her or probing her.

“Eyy~ maybe she’s got some wish she really wants to fulfill, huh?”

“I do!”

“Knew it. But hey, listen.”

His voice dropped slightly.

“When an employee uses their wish and then quits… do they ever stay in touch? I mean ex-employees who’ve consistently kept contact after cashing in their wish.”

Hmm…

The A-squad’s leader… was still employed, so not that person.

But there were the C-squad’s leader who resigned, and three members from the Field Exploration Team who’d left just last year after claiming their wishes. Of those whose wishes weren’t ‘grand-scale’, two still kept in touch just fine.

“Of coursee! They’re all doing well though?”

“…Really? Then what about the ones who disappeared?”

“Ah, well there are employees who go missingg. But only when they wished for that sort of thing.”

“……”

“……”

A heavy silence sank over the table, but Lee Seonghae’s bright voice cut through it.

“Anyway, what can I help you with?”

“…Ah, it’s nothing difficult, something you’d know already.”

Lee Kangheon said it as if tossing the words out casually.

“You were there last time we met, remember? The black carrier.”

Salt Goblin

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