The night sky enveloped the city in a suffocating silence. In her hidden safe house on the outskirts of town, Rina stood on the balcony, staring out into the town illuminated only by faint lights. The night breeze carried with it an unease that was hard to describe. In her hands, a tablet was open, displaying Min's profile—but there were gaps, sections of data that should have been there, missing.
"Who deleted this information?" she muttered under her breath. Her fingers quickly accessed the internal system, but every attempt to trace the original files led to a dead end. Someone was playing in the dark—and not just anyone.
In a different location, Jung Joon walked into a small café that was closed to the public for the night. At the far end of the room, Hae Jin was already waiting. The man who had once been Hwang's spy handed a yellow envelope to Jung Joon.
"I got all this from the old archives. There are names, pictures. But one file is especially suspicious... that symbol."
Jung Joon flipped through the papers until he came across an old photo—an image of the strange symbol etched into a concrete wall. The same symbol Jung Kok had found earlier.
"This is connected to the 'shadow project' Hwang tried to erase from history," Hae Jin said softly. "And if I'm right... Min was part of that project."
By the time dawn was approaching, Jung Kok and Tae arrived at an old building on the edge of the river, a location mentioned in the old note salvaged from the dojo's files. The building looked like an abandoned factory, but underneath, there was a hidden basement.
They found dusty metal shelves, file boxes, and old video tapes that were still intact. Tae inserted one of the tapes into an old recorder. The blurry footage showed children undergoing intense physical training, with the camera occasionally focusing on their small faces—including one that resembled Min.
"Min… he's one of them," Jung Kok whispered.
Meanwhile, at the dojo, Min sat cross-legged in front of a low table. On top of it lay an old book belonging to Hwang. In the middle of the pages, a hand-drawn symbol was clearly visible. Min stared at it for a long time. The silence was profound, only interrupted by the ticking of the clock.
"I'm just a creation... or am I more than that?" he muttered. Part of him still wanted to believe that he was free to choose his own path. Yet, the shadow of the past continued to cling to him.
In a dark room filled with secret communication equipment, Hwang leaned back, holding a silent phone. He dialed a number that had not been touched in a long time.
"Orchid. I need your eyes and ears. Watch Min. Don't involve my children. Not yet."
The call ended with a woman's voice responding: "I've been waiting for you to say that."
And that same night, an explosion rocked the building that served as Rina's headquarters. Fire erupted on the second floor, and the security system began locking down the entire area. Rina ran to the control center, her face flushed with anger.
"Who leaked our location?!" she shouted.
On the security screen, only one recording remained—a shadowy figure placing a small device on the data rack.
"If he's not the enemy, why does his shadow grow clearer beside us?" Rina muttered, her eyes not blinking.
The sky was silent once more. But within that silence, plans in the shadows continued to unfold, slow and quiet—as deadly as venom waiting for the moment to strike at the enemy's heart.