This time, Choi Yoon-seok asked him to retrieve a “thing” and bring it back to Korea. The item was to be put on the black market through an auction with a strictly limited number of attendees, and Teacher wanted to steal it before the auction ended and the item was in the hands of the winning bidder.
Lee Young-jin took a quick look at the website of the Shanghai Transportation Bureau. Chinese government sites generally boasted impenetrable security, with a few exceptions, but the Shanghai Transportation Bureau didn’t seem to fall under that category.
It wasn’t possible to look into the server itself, but it wasn’t difficult to obtain administrative privileges from the traffic police.
Getting access to the CCTVs installed throughout the city was quick work. Lee Young-jin looked around the CCTV screens installed in landmarks such as Shanghai Tower, the Bund, Yu Garden, and Shanghai Disneyland as a test. The picture quality wasn’t that great. It wasn’t a problem with the line or delivery process, it just seemed like the CCTV model itself was old. In any case, there was no great difficulty in grasping things, so Lee Young-jin decided to be satisfied with that.
He placed the CCTV at the entrance of the safe house building on one side of the monitor and put the earphones he had put next to the ESC key on the keyboard into his ears.
“Are you guys okay?”
[Yes.]
[Yes.]
The answer came back at the same time.
Lee Young-jin asked again.
“Can I have a beer in the fridge?”
[Okay.]
[No.]
Again, the answer came back together.
[I’m going to buy cola when I go back, so don’t drink beer, kid.]
“Don’t call me that.”
Lee Young-jin pulled out his earphones and grumbled like that. He was surprised to hear that his voice echoing in the quiet space was unexpectedly loud. After a while, he was able to straighten his neck and get up from his seat.
When he opened the refrigerator, there were several bottles of beer with unfamiliar labels in the bottom compartment. He pulled out a bottle with a blue label. The surface of the cold bottle clung to his palm, and his fingertips burned red. He searched everywhere for a bottle opener but couldn’t find it. It seemed that neither of the extraordinary species, who could blow off bottle caps with their bare hands, had thought of preparing a bottle opener when buying beer. Lee Young-jin looked around in embarrassment and eventually found a metal spoon in the sink drawer and shoved it under the lid of the bottle.
He sipped his beer and sent an email to Teacher. There was no particular content. Arrived safely. Joined other team members. The preparations are roughly finished and I’ll proceed with work as it is. After sending the email, he looked at some satellite images and stored the old and complicated geography of the city in his head.
Ji Jung-hoon and Park Eun-young returned about three hours later.
In the meantime, Lee Young-jin stole some new information about their mission from the ocean of information.
On the table of the living room, Ji Jung-hoon laid out thick sandwiches, large baguettes, greasy fried rice in plastic bowls, and several types of canned food. Park Eun-young, who was sitting at one end of the three person sofa, took out a smooth black Glauca B1 from her bosom and opened a can of caviar. Then she cut the baguette with the anti-terrorist army knife.
They sat down and started eating while watching TV.
“I just found out a few new things.”
Lee Young-jin slowly opened his mouth.
Park Eun-young, who was opening the lid of Sorghum liquor, glanced at Lee Young-jin.
“For now, the auction will start at 9:30 PM in two days.”
Cheddar cheese, melted between the sandwich bread, flowed down Lee Young-jin’s pale knuckles. He continued his explanation slowly, pulling the thick turkey and ham out of the gap between the layers of bread.
“The place has also changed. I’ll give you the detailed address later.”
“Why did the auction date change? Do you think they noticed our movements?”
Ji Jung-hoon, holding a bottle of beer, asked crudely. Lee Young-jin shook his head.
“I don’t think so. It seems like the change was made in a hurry because a new participant was added…”
“There’s a new participant now?”
Ji Jung-hoon’s thick eyebrows twitched. A look of uneasiness appeared on his boulder-like face.
“That’s strange.”
“Yeah.”
Park Eun-young also agreed.
“Does Teacher know this?”
Lee Young-jin expressed his opinion that the Teacher didn’t know by blinking his eyes, and then took a bite of the sandwich. Because of the cheap butter and oil, the whole bread was too soft and soggy. The cheese was squeezed out.
Ji Jung-hoon looked at Lee Young-jin again.
“Then what about the item?”
“It’s now in the HSBC basement vault. It will be handed over to the successful bidder the night the auction ends.”
“There again? The bank is not involved in this kind of business.”
Park Eun-young, holding a glass of Sorghum liquor in one hand, interrupted as if she was fed up. Ji Jung-hoon shrugged as he took a bowl of fried rice and pushed it to his mouth. Then, the two talked among themselves about HSBC, gangsters, and the mafia in South America. Lee Young-jin waited for a while for their conversation to subside before speaking again.
“For now, wait until the auction…”
“Then, will we attack the successful bidder when they move the item?”
“No. At that time, the security would be rather strict so it’ll be more difficult. I don’t know who the winning bidder will be so I can’t even guess how it will turn out.”
“Then?”
“We have to break into the bank vault and get the item before the auction ends.”
“Hmm.”
Park Eun-young turned the bottle in her hand to her lips. The neck was shaken once.
“It won’t be easy.”
“I have a plan.”
“Let’s listen.”
“Uncle and Miss Eun-young…”
Suddenly, Park Eun-young burst into laughter.
“What Miss Eun-young? Call me Sister Eun-young. How old are you anyway?”
Lee Young-jin hesitated for a few seconds, then nodded his head.
“…Uncle and Sister Eun-young…I need you guys to go into the safe and get the item.”
“How do we get in?”
“The bank’s own security system isn’t bad, but the security personnel are poor. It won’t be too difficult to get to the safe if I adjust the access rights a little.”
“The safe door?”
“Backed by a separate security system. I will handle it separately. For now, the two of you just have to go into the safe.”
“Alright. I already saw your skills in Yokohama.”
Park Eun-young responded in a cheerful tone and put a hefty layer of caviar and sour cream on her baguette then put it in her mouth.
The meal resumed.
Ji Jung-hoon poured six bowls of fried rice into his mouth and drank a bottle of beer all at once. Park Eun-young topped two baguettes the size of an adult’s forearms with caviar and sour cream and finished them all. She kept pushing food toward Lee Young-jin, asking why he’s not eating.
Instead of replying, Lee Young-jin just smiled embarrassingly.
Yes, if he were an ordinary extraordinary species, he would have eaten several sandwiches or dumplings in an instant like Ji Jung-hoon or Park Eun-young. However, Lee Young-jin was a variant closer to the normal species, if he had to insist, he sometimes felt embarrassed to even label himself as an omega.
“Young-jin has naturally been sickly. We can’t think of him by our standards.”
Ji Jung-hoon interrupted and explained instead.
“Do you feel sick?”
Park Eun-young tilted her head as if hearing a very strange thing.
“Yes. I’m naturally sickly.”
In response to Ji Jung-hoon’s blunt response, Park Eun-young tilted her head from side to side three or four more times, then just shrugged her shoulders. Who doesn’t have a story? There may always be a “weak extraordinary species”. (This sounded very contradictory to Park Eun-young, like ‘stupid genius’ or ‘pretty ugly’.)
Ji Jung-hoon twitched his tainted lips and smiled. He stretched out his arm and stroked the top of Lee Young-jin’s head. Lee Young-jin lowered his eyes. Plump cheeks flushed brightly. Ji Jung-hoon patted his cheek and pulled his ear painfully, like a father playing with their child. Lee Young-jin couldn’t escape the mischievous prank, and just gasped while breathing heavily.
“Stop harassing the sick child.”
Park Eun-young threw down the empty bottle of Sorghum liqour. A large, thief-like hand snatched it in midair with a snap and set it down on the table with a bang.
The two then started bickering.
Lee Young-jin took advantage of the gap and quickly gulped down the Sorghum liquor.
“This kid! I told you not to drink!”
Ji Jung-hoon shouted. Lee Young-jin pretended not to hear and drank another sip. Only then did Ji Jung-hoon snatch the bottle from his hand.
“What? Is he really underage?”
Lee Young-jin shook his head wildly with alcohol in his throat. Ji Jung-hoon’s eyes widened.
“He’s not good at drinking and has a bad drinking habit.”
“Are you such an innocent kid?”
Park Eun-young snorted as if it was nonsense.
The two quarreled again.
Meanwhile, Lee Young-jin imitated Park Eun-young, smeared caviar on the baguette, scooped a spoonful of sour cream, and put it in his mouth. It was salty, sour and savory. It tasted a bit odd, but it was okay.
Something in Chinese was playing on the TV. Lee Young-jin’s gaze wandered over the TV screen for a while before returning to the table.
Meanwhile, Ji Jung-hoon and Park Eun-young talked about different things. It was 10 percent about work and 90 percent private.
As he listened to the chatter, a little bit of fatigue came over Lee Young-jin. The moment he became aware of it, the tension, worry, and everything else from the moment he got off the plane combined to become a very powerful wave. He left the two of them to chatter and headed to the bathroom. He finished his shower slowly. It would have been nice if there was a bathtub, but unfortunately, there was none.
Lee Young-jin put on a comfortable T-shirt and elastic pants then burrowed into bed. He habitually pulled the blanket over his head. Shanghai has wet winters. The familiar sound of a computer engine vibrating softly like a newborn was mixed with the sound of a steam heater squirming and blowing out hot steam.
The heat in his lower abdomen presented itself from the two sips of Sorghum liquor he hastily swallowed and the lengthy bath. Lee Young-jin inhaled and exhaled several hot breaths while curled up under the blanket. He thought that he missed the breathing and body temperature of others. It didn’t matter if it’s Choi Yoon-seok’s, which Ji Jung-hoon hated so much. After all, isn’t he a simpleton, an ambiguous mutant labeled as an extraordinary species, even ridiculously classified into a gender? Someone, regardless of species or gender, who should be grateful just for having someone to share their body temperature with.
Lee Young-jin listened to the sound coming from outside the bedroom. The sound of Ji Jung-hoon and Park Eun-young talking in a low voice could be heard very faintly. He thought of running there and clinging to Ji Jung-hoon’s heavy shoulders. But instead, he drove out those thoughts and focused on the exhaustion of his whole body.
A part-time worker at a chicken shop, a small stray cat that looked like a cotton ball, a gas valve, a boiler turned outside, a water pipe that froze in the middle of winter, a rusty security window that rattled when pulled with a little force…thinking about those things made his eyelids feel heavy.
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