Chapter 11

11. Fragments of the Truth (1)

Jiseul was completely caught off guard.

The unexpected question drained all color from her face.

The cup of water she had been holding slipped from her hand and fell onto the table with a dull thud.

Her chest tightened painfully, and her heart pounded wildly.

Fear surged through her at the thought that another panic attack might be coming.

“So… you heard the phone call.”

Struggling to remain calm, Jiseul barely managed to speak.

The shock refused to fade.

Her hand trembled anxiously as she set the fallen cup upright.

She had always known she might face a question like this someday.

But now that the moment had arrived, the words wouldn’t come easily.

Woohyun, who had been watching her with a hardened expression, answered quietly.

“Yes. The apartment was so quiet that I could hear everything. And once my brother’s death was brought up, don’t you think I deserve to know what’s going on?”

His heavy words settled low in the air.

The meaning behind them was obvious.

He was telling her not to hide anything anymore.

Jiseul parted her lips several times.

But no words came.

Her mind went blank, and her mouth felt completely dry.

“CEO…”

“Tell me honestly. Don’t hide anything.”

Woohyun’s gaze was unwavering.

His determination to learn the truth about his brother’s death was unmistakable.

“…It’s classified information, so I can’t talk about it here. After we finish eating, let’s go to my officetel. I’ll tell you everything there.”

In the end, Jiseul decided to tell him the truth.

Since this man already suspected that Prosecutor Shin Junghyeon’s death was suspicious, it seemed better for him to know the facts.

What he chose to do afterward would be his own decision.

“Fine. Let’s do that.”

Woohyun nodded.

His expression remained unreadable.

Jiseul bit down on her trembling lip and tried to steady herself.

The moment of truth had only been delayed.

The burden in her heart hadn’t become any lighter.

She hurriedly ate her rice bowl while organizing her thoughts.

Normally, it was one of her favorite foods.

Today, she couldn’t taste a thing.

Her chest pounded relentlessly with tension.

* * *

“Please have a seat here for a moment.”

Jiseul guided Woohyun to the sofa before hurrying into the kitchen.

After finishing their meal at the restaurant, they had come straight to her apartment.

While Jiseul prepared tea, Woohyun quietly sat on the sofa and looked around.

The space was practical and free of unnecessary decorations.

As expected of a developer’s home, one side of the living room was occupied by three large monitors and a high-performance workstation.

The opposite wall was lined with books.

The neatly organized interior looked less like the home of a young woman and more like something from an interior design magazine.

“It’s rooibos tea. It’s blended with fruit and herbs, so it should be pleasant to drink.”

Jiseul soon returned with the tea.

Setting the steaming cup on the table, she sat across from him.

Woohyun nodded slowly.

“It smells nice. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

For a while, they drank in silence.

The quiet apartment was filled with a heavy tension.

“Go ahead. I’m listening.”

After taking several sips, Woohyun spoke calmly.

Jiseul clasped both hands together and drew in a deep breath.

Then, gathering her resolve, she carefully began.

“Crow is my partner’s codename. And I… used to work for the National Intelligence Service.”

The confession emerged quietly.

Woohyun’s expression stiffened slightly.

It was something he had never expected.

“If you worked for the NIS, does that mean you were an official agent?”

“Yes. It’s classified information, so I’m trusting you to keep it secret.”

“I will. I won’t tell anyone.”

Only after hearing that did Jiseul relax a little.

She took a moment to steady her breathing before continuing.

“I was a covert agent in the National Intelligence Service Cyber Security Bureau. From the time I entered university until three months ago, I spent nine years working as an NIS agent.”

Woohyun listened quietly.

The fact that she had brought up the NIS didn’t sound insignificant.

It almost felt as though she was implying that his brother’s death was connected to them.

“I was recruited as soon as I entered university. The NIS had already been keeping an eye on me back when I was active as the hacker Black Wing in high school. So…”

“Then my brother’s decision to grant you a suspension of indictment must have been connected to that.”

“Yes. It was partly because of Prosecutor Shin’s kindness and partly because it aligned with the NIS’s intentions.”

Jiseul’s voice trembled as she spoke about Junghyeon.

Longing and guilt seemed to well up inside her.

It was obvious how painful this was for her.

But Woohyun didn’t stop her.

Learning the truth mattered more than anything else.

“Their proposal was to let me work for the country instead of turning me into a criminal. Prosecutor Shin believed joining the NIS would be a huge opportunity for me. And honestly, he was right.”

“I see.”

Woohyun nodded thoughtfully.

People like his brother were rare, but they existed.

People who couldn’t ignore injustice.

People who couldn’t walk past someone in need.

Junghyeon had always been like that.

He couldn’t rest until he had corrected what was wrong or helped someone who needed it.

Even without the NIS’s involvement, he probably would have wanted to give a young girl a second chance instead of letting her life be ruined.

That was simply the kind of person he was.

Jiseul continued.

“The organization I belonged to was called Ghost Bird.”

“Ghost Bird.”

“Yes. It was a team made up of Ghost Agents. Officially, we didn’t exist within the NIS. There were no records of us anywhere. We didn’t even know one another. We didn’t know each other’s faces or real names. We communicated only through phone calls and email. All we knew about each other were our codenames, email addresses, and voices.”

“Then Crow was a Ghost Agent too. Crow wasn’t his real name.”

“That’s right. Crow was my partner for three and a half years. My codename was Flamingo.”

Jiseul paused briefly before continuing.

“Ghost Bird primarily handled international cyber espionage. We infiltrated foreign intelligence networks, extracted classified information, and when necessary, disrupted or destroyed enemy systems. We also dismantled international hacking organizations.”

Woohyun listened silently.

As she spoke about the past, Jiseul looked pale and pained.

She seemed as though she might collapse at any moment.

Yet despite her fragile appearance, she continued speaking without stopping.

There was a stubborn strength hidden inside her.

“And during that time…”

“Yes.”

“There was a program I poured everything into creating as part of an operation. Its codename was Phoenix. Like the immortal bird.”

“Phoenix.”

“Yes. It’s an extremely powerful hacking program capable of penetrating any firewall. PCs, smartphones, vehicles, medical devices, industrial facilities… it can take control of anything connected to a network. It can extract information, manipulate systems, or even destroy them.”

“Are you saying you built something that massive by yourself?”

“Yes. Secrecy was essential, so I worked alone. It took six full months. That was four years ago. At the time, I believed it would only be used for international intelligence operations.”

Her voice was filled with self-reproach whenever she spoke about the program.

Woohyun instinctively felt that Phoenix was at the center of everything.

“At first, I was proud of it. I believed I’d created the ultimate weapon for my country and its national security. I thought it would give us an overwhelming advantage in international intelligence warfare. I couldn’t have been prouder of myself.”

Her eyes trembled violently.

Deep despair filled them.

“But… Phoenix wasn’t used only for the purpose I intended. I didn’t find out until much later. A certain faction within the NIS was using Phoenix inside the country for improper purposes.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean they abused Phoenix to do things that never should have been done.”

“And what exactly were they using it for?”

“Illegal intelligence gathering, threats against innocent people, staged accidents, and…”

“And?”

“Murder.”

The word came out with absolute certainty.

Woohyun’s expression froze.

Jiseul, pale as a ghost, forced herself to continue.

“For example, if someone hacked a person’s car using Phoenix, they could disable the brakes, control the steering wheel, or even take over the engine. It would be possible to disguise murder as a traffic accident.”

“…”

“Implantable medical devices like pacemakers and insulin pumps can be controlled wirelessly these days. Phoenix can hack them and cause malfunctions. It can stop a pacemaker, force an insulin overdose… things like that can be used to kill someone. And of course, it can hack phones and computers to uncover private information for blackmail.”

Tears began gathering in Jiseul’s eyes.

Her vision blurred.

But she didn’t stop speaking.

“That way… people died. A lot of people. Every case was ruled a natural death, an accident, or a suicide.”

“How many?”

“I don’t know the exact number. But the deaths Crow and I personally confirmed… exceeded ten.”

Woohyun listened quietly.

Inside, however, his emotions were in turmoil.

What he was hearing was horrifying.

To think something this massive lay behind his brother’s death.

The more he listened, the more convinced he became.

There was no way Shin Junghyeon had taken his own life.