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  "Conditions... Good. We have conditions too."

  Tae-yoon cut in.

  "We'll discuss rules later. Let's look at this first."

  Tae-yoon rolled the USB drive Seo-hui had given him between his fingers. It was disgusting to think that this small piece of plastic held the weight of human lives. He glanced at Seo-hui. She remained motionless, but deep in her eyes lay a sense of 'consumption' rather than fatigue. Not the tiredness from lack of sleep, but the weariness of a soul ground down over years.

  Tae-yoon plugged the USB into the main server.

  Click.

  The monitors flooded with lists. The filenames were camouflaged perfectly. They looked like boring corporate documents: 'Q3 Settlement', 'Meeting Minutes', 'Maintenance Logs'.

  But to Tae-yoon’s eyes, they looked like blood. Traces of blood that had been scrubbed away.

  "Hyung... how is this..."

  Ha-jun muttered, leaning in. He could tell just by looking at the file structure. Someone had deleted only the parts that needed to be deleted. It wasn't just deletion; it was a surgical removal of reality.

  Min-su spoke low from the side.

  "This isn't cleaning. It's 'staging'."

  Tae-yoon didn't answer. Instead, he opened the specific sector Seo-hui had marked.

  The cleanest section. Where documents should have been, only the shadows of files remained. The serial numbers were sequential, but the content was void.

  The Blank Space.

  Tae-yoon’s eyes narrowed.

  "The Transplant Approval Line..."

  As he uttered those words, the air in the hideout grew heavy. Ha-jun swallowed hard.

  "Heart... that line?"

  Seo-hui nodded slowly.

  "Yuri... Since that day, I only watched this line."

  Tae-yoon’s fingers paused over the keyboard.

  The name 'Yuri' dropped the temperature of the room by ten degrees. Min-su lowered his head. Ha-jun averted his eyes. That name wasn't taboo, but it was a word that stole the breath from everyone in the room.

  Tae-yoon scrolled through the data again.

  Intermediary routes, transport logs, approval chains, personnel records... everything was excessively clean. The cleanliness was the filthiest part. Only human intervention could create such sterility in a chaotic system.

  Ha-jun whispered.

  "Someone wiped it... intentionally."

  Min-su ground his teeth.

  "Exactly. This isn't 'accidental omission', it's 'deliberate emptying'. A blank space doesn't mean there's no evidence... it means the evidence was erased."

  Tae-yoon stopped at the final page.

  The end of the 'Strange Blank Space' Seo-hui had mentioned.

  In that sector alone, a different name brushed past, microscopically. Just once. For a fleeting millisecond of a log.

  Choi Seo-hyun.

  Tae-yoon’s finger froze.

  His breath hitched.

  Ha-jun noticed the change in Tae-yoon’s face immediately.

  "Hyung... what's wrong? Do you know that name?"

  Tae-yoon didn't answer.

  The image of the Sungjin Headquarters lobby flashed in his mind.

  The bob cut. The cold eyes. The rhythmic clicking of high heels.

  ‘I hope it’s a coincidence.’

  ‘So we don't meet again.’

  He couldn't yet be sure why her name appeared here, in this graveyard of data.

  But one thing was certain.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  It was not a coincidence.

  Tae-yoon spoke low.

  "Seo-hui."

  "..."

  "Did you find this name?"

  Hwang Seo-hui’s pupils trembled slightly. Tae-yoon read that tremor not as ignorance, but as 'knowing without certainty'.

  "It's not confirmed," she said.

  "But the Line breathes there. Only near that name."

  Min-su wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

  "Breathes... that fits perfectly. Let's summarize. We touched Sungjin. Sungjin called the 'Hounds'. Someone threw bait at Daon Solution to verify us... and the hand that made that bait is likely the same hand that scrubbed this line."

  Ha-jun blinked nervously.

  "So... is this happening inside Sungjin? Or is there an external force shaking them from the inside?"

  Hwang Seo-hui answered.

  "Both."

  One short word.

  And that was the most terrifying answer of all.

  Tae-yoon didn't turn off the monitor. Instead, he left the USB data open and covered it with a standard work screen. He overlaid a generic document window to make it look like a boring office report.

  "Hyung?" Ha-jun asked.

  Tae-yoon said, "If we get caught, it's over."

  "...Caught doing what?"

  "That we looked at this Line."

  Min-su nodded in agreement.

  "Right now, concealment is more important than tracking. The moment our existence is confirmed, Da-yeon, the company... everything explodes."

  Hwang Seo-hui looked at Tae-yoon.

  "That's why you still wear the mask."

  Tae-yoon smiled bitterly.

  "Yeah."

  He added in a whisper.

  "But now, we are at a stage where a mask alone isn't enough."

  Monday Morning. Daon Solution.

  The office was running as usual. Team Leader Park was wandering between desks with a cup of coffee, sprinkling nagging comments like confetti. Assistant Lee Hyun-ah was typing away, occasionally scanning the room. Assistant Han So-hee was quietly organizing logs.

  Tae-yoon was playing the role of 'Manager Kang Jin-woo' again today.

  His tie was slightly crooked. He pretended to button his shirt wrong. He saved files with nonsensical names. To anyone watching, he was just "that clumsy guy."

  But Hyun-ah felt a strange rhythm in his clumsiness.

  It looked like a mistake, but it wasn't random.

  It was funny, but behind the humor, there was a controlled breath.

  "Manager," Hyun-ah said, tapping her finger on his desk.

  "Why are you... even dumber than usual today?"

  Tae-yoon widened his eyes in exaggerated shock.

  "Ah, me? Isn't it growing pains? I heard humans get dumber as they age. It's the cycle of life!"

  Hyun-ah scoffed.

  "Then you must be going through a massive growth spurt right now."

  Beside him, So-hee quietly placed a hangover relief drink on his desk. It was her routine. But today, her fingertips trembled slightly. She looked at Tae-yoon’s hands resting on the keyboard.

  They weren't the hands of a tired man. They were the hands of a man coiled with tension.

  So-hee whispered, her voice barely audible.

  "Manager... have you... slept lately?"

  Tae-yoon grinned.

  "Sleep? If I sleep, who protects the country?"

  He added quickly, "Just kidding. Don't worry."

  But So-hee didn't smile. Her face showed not just worry, but a growing certainty.

  1:00 PM. Lunch Break.

  The office was at its most lethargic.

  Tae-yoon’s monitor showed a standard work window. But beneath it, in a hidden command prompt, he was lightly touching the deep internal network of the company.

  He didn't delete the Bait File. He didn't block it. Just as Hwang Seo-hui had suggested.

  ‘Touch it and get caught. Ignore it and get sucked dry.’

  Tae-yoon had already chosen the third option.

  ‘Make it invisible.’

  He recalled the sensation of trapping the Bait File in a 'Digital Vacuum' yesterday. Today, he added another layer. A membrane so thin and quiet it was imperceptible.

  A filter designed to read only the 'breath' of the receiver who tried to connect to the bait.

  Tae-yoon pressed his lips together.

  ‘The Line Seo-hui gave me... and this Bait File. They have the same taste.’

  His certainty was nearing 100%.

  Then, it happened.

  In the bottom right corner of his hidden window, a microscopic blip appeared.

  It looked like a system glitch, but to Tae-yoon’s eyes, it was a signal.

  [ CONNECTION VERIFIED ]

  Tae-yoon’s hand froze for a nanosecond.

  Someone had 'checked' the status of the bait.

  Someone was watching Daon Solution right now.

  He didn't close the window immediately. Closing it would be a reaction.

  Instead, he acted even clumsier.

  He double-clicked on empty space. He opened and closed an Excel sheet randomly. He dragged a document file to the wrong folder.

  Outwardly: Office incompetence.

  Reality: Active Camouflage.

  At that moment, Hyun-ah stood up to go to the break room and stopped in front of Tae-yoon’s desk.

  Her gaze swept over his monitor. Once.

  Then she looked at his hands.

  Once.

  Her eyes changed minutely.

  ‘That hand... just now. That wasn't the movement of a mistake.’

  She spoke, pretending nothing was wrong.

  "Manager, did you delete something again?"

  Tae-yoon smiled, his goofy mask perfectly in place.

  "No! Fortunately, I didn't delete anything this time. My growing pains are better today."

  Hyun-ah shook her head and walked past him.

  But as she passed, she glanced at his desk drawer one more time.

  That look wasn't suspicion anymore. It was confirmation.

  The moment you get caught is always this quiet.

  Late Night. The Hideout.

  Tae-yoon, Min-su, Ha-jun, and Hwang Seo-hui gathered again.

  Tae-yoon spoke briefly.

  "The bait breathed."

  Ha-jun’s face went pale.

  "You mean... they checked us?"

  Tae-yoon nodded.

  "It's just a 'check' for now. But this is the start."

  Min-su clenched his jaw.

  "So what do we do now?"

  Tae-yoon looked at Hwang Seo-hui.

  "Like you said. They want to separate people."

  Then he looked at Min-su.

  "Before they separate us, we need to bind ourselves together."

  Seo-hui spoke low.

  "Your weakness. You mentioned it earlier."

  Tae-yoon nodded slowly.

  "People."

  "..."

  "So from now on, we make a rule. A rule we all keep."

  Min-su grinned, a savage glint in his eyes.

  "I like rules. But before we make new ones, let's enforce the first one."

  He looked at Seo-hui.

  "You follow the 'Do Not Move Alone' rule. That is Rule Number One."

  Seo-hui’s eyes turned cold.

  "Why should I listen to you?"

  Min-su shrugged.

  "You listened to Tae-yoon to get here. Now you listen to the three of us. We are a team."

  Seo-hui looked at Tae-yoon. Tae-yoon was firm.

  "He's right."

  He drove the point home.

  "If you want to fight alone, leave now."

  "..."

  "If you want to fight together, stay by my side."

  Seo-hui’s lips trembled slightly. Whether it was annoyance, amusement, or sorrow, it was hard to tell.

  Finally, she nodded.

  "Fine."

  She said.

  "But one more thing."

  Her eyes became sharp as knives.

  "The name 'Yuri'... don't bring it up easily again."

  Tae-yoon’s face hardened.

  "Understood."

  A brief silence.

  Breaking the silence, Ha-jun spoke with a trembling voice.

  "Hyung... so now... are we going after Sungjin and 'That Line' at the same time?"

  Tae-yoon turned on the main monitor.

  The blue light cast shadows over his face again.

  He spoke low.

  "Both."

  He looked at Seo-hui and added.

  "But this time... there's one more target."

  "What?"

  "Choi Seo-hyun."

  Tae-yoon’s eyes narrowed.

  "That woman... is the Key."

  Hwang Seo-hui’s gaze wavered for a split second.

  Tae-yoon didn't miss it.

  "You... know that name too."

  Hwang Seo-hui didn't answer.

  Instead, she exhaled a long, slow breath.

  That breath said everything.

  ‘Now, there really is no going back.’

  And at that moment—

  In the corner of the hideout's monitor, another short message appeared from the bait tracking program.

  [ CONFIRMATION COMPLETE ]

  Tae-yoon’s lips curled up slowly.

  It wasn't a smile of joy.

  It was the expression of a hunter inhaling the scent of his prey.

  "Good."

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