Page 112 of Scarbound

Dr. Kim nodded. “But it was the first time you learned something you carried for years.”

Noeul looked at her.

“That keeping Gong calm might be the price of keeping everyone safe.”

Noeul’s fingers tightened around the ring. He didn’t argue.

CHAPTER 39

The office buzzed with life as the new employees were introduced, Noeul among them. He was one of the three new red teamers hired by Chung-Hee’s company. Since his hands had not fully healed, the plan was for him to start part-time and gradually take on more hours and responsibilities as his recovery progressed.

It was already March, and Seoul was breathtaking beyond the enormous office windows, the skyline glowing beneath a pale blue sky. The air outside was crisp and cold, but inside, sunlight stretched across the polished floors and glass walls.

Noeul hadn’t felt this excited in a long time.

From the moment Chung-Hee suggested he return to work, his stomach had churned with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. He had spent too many weeks trapped inside apartments, hospitals, and his own thoughts. Too many days depending on other people to cook for him, open things for him, even help him dress when his hands had been at their worst.

Today, for the first time in months, he felt almost normal. Useful.

The thought alone made him smile.

He stood beside the other two new employees while their team leader introduced them to the department. Noeul listened carefully, bowing whenever someone greeted him, trying desperately to remember the names being thrown at him. There were far too many. After the sixth introduction, he had already forgotten the second.

A young man sitting near the end of the room raised his coffee cup toward him. “Don’t worry. Nobody remembers everyone on the first day.”

Noeul laughed quietly. “Was it that obvious?”

“Very.”

A few people nearby laughed, and some of the tension left his shoulders.

It felt strange. Normal conversation. Normal people. Someone complaining about a meeting, someone else asking where they were ordering lunch from, two employees arguing over whose turn it was to make coffee.

For once, nobody was asking whether he was all right. Nobody was watching him sleep. Nobody was telling him what he deserved.

Here, he was simply Jung Noeul, the new red teamer. He liked that more than he expected.

His desk had already been prepared for him, positioned near the other members of the security team: two monitors, a company laptop, credentials, documentation, and enough internal material to keep him occupied for the next several days.

Noeul sat down and immediately adjusted the chair. Then again. And once more.

The man beside him glanced over. “Nervous?”

“No. The chair is wrong.”

There was a short silence before the man laughed. Noeul smiled and finally left the chair alone.

His first assignments were deliberately light. His team leader explained that they wanted him to become familiar with the company’s systems, internal security policies, reporting procedures, and testing environment before assigning him anything demanding.

Noeul nodded obediently. Inside, he was slightly disappointed.

He wanted something difficult. Something that would force his brain to work hard enough that there would be no room left for anything else.

Still, when the first testing environment appeared on his screen, excitement moved through him. His fingers settled naturally over the keyboard.

Then came the first reminder that his body had not caught up with his mind.

A sharp ache traveled through his left hand.