After parting ways with Secretary Kim and retrieving her bike, Linda decided to take a quiet route home. The sun had already began to set, casting a golden glow over the city. The alleyways near the park were silent. The evening had grown quieter as Linda coasted down the narrow road leading toward the river bend.
But then…she noticed the continuous tail of another bike behind her.
Her instincts sharpened. She kept her eyes forward, but every sense told her she was being followed.
"Was someone following me?" She thought.
She decided not to speed up. She didn't glance back. Instead, she pressed the breaks.
She casually swung one leg over and stepped down from her bike, lowering herself to crouch beside the frame. She bent her head and reached toward her shoe, pretending to adjust her laces.
She quickly shot a glance under the truck's undercarriage. A pair of long legs step down from a bike.
Got you. Linda murmured.
She straightened slowly, brushing off her hands.
"You've got five seconds to step out," she command with a cold tone without turning around . "Or I scream."
With a soft sigh. Jae Min rounded the corner sheepishly, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his hoodie. "Okay, okay… calm down. It's just me." He said casually.
"Jae-min!. " She exclaimed as she recognized the voice.
"Girl... you're way too sharp," he said with a crooked grin, walking toward her slowly.
Linda stood up and spun on her heel to face him as she folded her arms. "Were you planning to follow me all the way home, or just until I caught you?"
Jae Min shrugged with unreadable expression. "Caught me? No way. I was just… coincidentally driving the same route."
Linda narrowed her eyes. "Coincidentally hiding behind garbage bins?"
He gave a small laugh. "Okay, maybe I was… mildly invested in your safety."
She raised a brow. "You've been acting weird ever since Sofia's apartment."
"Define weird," he said, flashing a grin. "Is it weird to care about where a friend goes after dark?"
"You were watching me like a hawk."
"I prefer the term... protective observer."
She roll her eyes at him.
He rubbed the back of his neck, dropping his gaze. When he looked at her again his expression had changed, he was wearing a warm expression, soft enough to blur the line between teasing and something else.
"You know," he murmured, "it's kind of hard not to notice you."
Linda blinked, slightly taken aback. "…What?"
Jae Min quickly added, "I mean, not like that. Just, you're different. People notice."
There was a pause. The way he said it was casual enough, but something in his tone, just beneath the surface, suggested more. Or maybe he wanted her to think that.
Linda frowned, her gaze fit on him as she tried to study him.
"Are you trying to confuse me?" she asked bluntly.
Jae Min gave a half-smile. "Is it working?"
Linda scoffed and shook her head, "Don't flatter yourself."
"Would it help if I said I was just bored?"
"Jae Min," she warned. Throwing a dagger stare at him.
"Alright, alright." He raised his hands in surrender. "No more shadowing you. I just got... curious. That's all."
She glanced at him. "Next time you want to hang out, try using words like a normal person."
He smirked. "And miss all this drama? Never." He dramatize.
Linda gave him a glance and then said.
"But seriously, stop acting shady. Or I'll really start asking questions."
"Deal," he said smoothly. "As long as you don't start answering mine."
She smiled and then climbed her bike again and rode off after saying a brief good bye. Jae min frowned and exhaled before adjusted the small device in his ear. He was about to turn when some movement him made him freeze.
Two men stood in the shadows too close to him. They wore dark windbreakers and had the quiet, calculated stance of trained watchers. Jae Min recognized them instantly and slowly turn with an annoyed expression.
" What are you guys doing here?!." he muttered under his breath.
One of the men stepped forward. "Just making sure you're doing your job. Orders from the boss."
"I told him not to send anyone to follow me." Jae Min's voice was low but sharp.
"Yeah? He doesn't care."
Jae Min didn't respond. Instead, he walked past them, heading toward the main road. With each step, his hands curled tighter into fists. He walked for a mile through the quiet streets, his hood pulled low. Night had fully fallen now, and the city's neon lights flickered across his path.
Then his phone rang.
The screen showed a number he knew too well.
He hesitated, his jaw clenched as he answered answered the call.
The voice on the other end was calm but cold.
"Have you noticed anything?"
Jae Min replied plainly, "No."
There was a pause. Then the voice grew sharper.
"Don't lie to me. You just left her side and you're telling me you didn't notice anything?"
Jae Min's grip tightened. "Are you watching me?!"
"I told you not to!" he shouted before catching himself. He looked around. A few pedestrians glanced his way, then quickly moved on.
The man on the other end didn't raise his voice, but his tone turned ice-cold. "Who's the boss here, you ungrateful brat?"
Silence followed. Then the voice mellowed again, in a way that was almost more unsettling.
"If you say you didn't notice anything, fine. I believe you. But don't forget… You're my best agent. I'm counting on you."
Jae Min closed his eyes, breathing heavily.
"And also…" the man continued. "I am watching you.... Xin Ling"
The line went dead.
Jae Min, no, Xin Ling stared at the phone for several seconds, stunned. No one had called her real name in weeks. Not since the mission began.
A name like that, a name tied to a past filled with blood, discipline, and secrets, cut through her like glass. A name that always reminded her that she was still a girl!.
"Xin Ling," she whispered. As the name sounded distance to her.
She clenched her jaw and threw her hand out in frustration. The phone almost flew from her grasp, but she quickly cought it just in time. She shoved it into her hoodie pocket and got into her bike and drove away with both frustration and furiousness.
She was growing increasingly fustrated with this. The watching. The manipulation. The shadow she could never shake. She've never felt tired of a mission before. She was always her boss' favorite girl ever since he had picked her from the streets and trained her to be his best agent. He had sent her on different missions where she'd disguise to be different personalities.
She'd infiltrated gangs before. Posed as a dealer. An heiress. A pickpocket, a mad man, Even a waitress in a karaoke club for three weeks straight. But this mission…this one was different.
She was undercover in a high school and also she was to be a boy!.
And her target wasn't a fellow kingpin that her master needed to get rid off or a person that once worked for her master that knew his secrets and needed to be eliminated.
It was a girl. Though, tough and fearless, she was still a young adult girl.
And so far, Linda had shown no signs of being anything but a normal. Yet, something about her was strange. The way those street thugs had gone from mocking to kneeling at her feet after the strange man arrived. That wasn't normal.
Something was off.
Xin Ling knew it, that she was growing fold of her.
And it seemed her boss had seen it too.