NOVEL NEXT Episode 167 - Tailing
The plane that departed from LA arrived at Incheon Airport, and unlike when they left, the airport was quiet.
The arrival schedule was in the early morning, and anticipating that everyone would be tired from the overseas trip, the company kept the return schedule private to prevent reporters from gathering unnecessarily.
The members and staff, exhausted from the journey, collected their luggage and boarded their respective prepared vehicles.
“Yeon-woo, get in!”
“Oppa! Please make sure to give my autograph and letter to So-hyeon unnie!”
“Alright. I’m sure your sister will like it.”
Yeon-woo also said goodbye to the members and got into the car prepared in the parking lot with Kim Min-soo and Lee Ye-eun.
“Whew, it’s cold.”
Ye-eun’s breath was visible as she exhaled.
“You’re right. After spending a few days in mild weather, coming back to Korea feels like severe cold already.”
In response to Yeon-woo’s comment, Kim Min-soo quickly started the engine and turned on the heater.
The plane that left LA late at night flew for 13 hours and arrived in Korea at 5 AM local time due to the time difference.
“You must be tired. I’ll start driving now.”
Kim Min-soo drove the car out of Incheon Airport and sped along the quiet roads towards Yeon-woo’s house.
When they arrived at the house, Yeon-woo got out, and Kim Min-soo followed to help unload the luggage from the trunk.
“You’ve worked hard, Yeon-woo. Thanks to you, I got to travel to America too.”
“It’s nothing. Min-soo hyung, you’ve worked hard driving from this early morning. Go in and get some rest!”
“Yes! I’ll head in now!”
Kim Min-soo bowed and got back into the car.
As Yeon-woo turned to walk towards the house, he took out his smartphone from his pocket and put it to his ear.
“Hae-woon. Let’s begin.”
– Yes, understood.
Han Hae-woon’s voice, already connected on the call, came through the receiver.
Yeon-woo went into the house, set up his smartphone on the table, and took out his laptop.
At that moment, Han Hae-woon was tailing the car carrying the staff from Incheon Airport.
They had planned to tail James Choi immediately upon returning to the country.
“It looks like they’re all getting off at LN Entertainment headquarters and then going to their respective homes.”
– Yes. We’ve just entered Gangnam. The direction is indeed towards the LN office.
Meanwhile, Yeon-woo turned on his laptop and manipulated a program.
“I’m ready. Let’s switch to video.”
– Yes, understood.
As the sound of Han Hae-woon manipulating buttons was heard, a quad-split video appeared on Yeon-woo’s laptop screen.
It showed the rear camera of Han Hae-woon’s smartphone, the front and rear dashcam footage of the car, and the camera on the pen tucked next to the handkerchief in his jacket.
“Hmm, it’s coming through well.”
– This is the reverse of how it used to be, isn’t it?
Yeon-woo chuckled at Han Hae-woon’s comment.
“Now that you mention it, you’re right.”
In his previous life, Han Hae-woon, then known as Baek Yuhyeon, used to work with Yeon-woo mainly in the Middle East.
Back then, Yeon-woo was the field agent, while Han Hae-woon provided support and information from the office.
But today, those roles were reversed.
On the monitor, Hae-woon’s car could be seen following the bus provided by LN Entertainment at a distance.
“You might as well overtake them and wait in front of LN’s office. I know all the staff cars, so any unfamiliar car will likely be James’.”
– Yes, understood.
With that, Hae-woon’s car sped up, overtaking the bus in front and heading towards LN’s office building.
After waiting for a while, employees who had gotten off the bus started leaving the office parking lot in their own cars.
‘That car belongs to the external makeup team, and that black van is for the production team.’
Yeon-woo checked off each vehicle as it came out.
Then, an unfamiliar vehicle emerged from the parking lot entrance.
‘The only ones left are Team Leader Yoon Mi-yeon and that guy James Choi.’
Team Leader Yoon Mi-yeon drives a black SUV.
And the car that just came out was a dark blue sports sedan, unfamiliar to the company.
“That’s the car. Follow it.”
– Confirmed.
Hae-woon’s car soon set off, maintaining a certain distance while continuously tailing.
“That guy’s current residence was definitely on Nonhyeon-ro in Gangnam-gu, right?”
– Yes, in Yeoksam-dong.
However, the car that left the Sinsa-dong office was crossing Dongho Bridge.
It was certainly unusual for him to be heading somewhere other than home at this early hour, especially when he should be quite tired from the overseas trip that lasted several days.
Han Hae-woon seemed to think the same as he spoke while pursuing the guy’s car.
– Considering he’s going straight somewhere without even stopping by home right after returning, he must have an important purpose.
“There’s a possibility that his actual residence is different from what we investigated, but we’ll find out as we follow him.”
As Han Hae-woon and Yeon-woo continued their conversation, the car kept driving towards the vicinity of Seodaemun Station.
Then it suddenly entered the parking lot of an officetel.
– Should I follow him in, Team Leader?
Yeon-woo stroked his chin and shook his head.
“No, wait. There’s no need to rush. We don’t need to take unnecessary risks by following him in.”
– Then should we withdraw from here?
At Han Hae-woon’s words, Yeon-woo stared intently at the officetel on the screen, and as if something occurred to him, he gave an instruction.
“Try quickly going around to the back of the building.”
Han Hae-woon immediately drove the car into the alley behind the building.
“Look up. Can you see the elevator line in the center of the building?”
– Hmm, it’s difficult to distinguish since the lights are off except for the first floor.
As Han Hae-woon said this, he held up his smartphone to show Yeon-woo the screen through the rear camera.
“Just keep watching for now. See if you can spot any floors where lights turn on through the windows.”
– Yes, understood.
Most high-rise buildings turn off the lights in common areas with no movement after midnight to reduce standby power waste.
Yeon-woo watched Han Hae-woon’s screen while opening an internet window to search for something.
Then Han Hae-woon’s voice was heard.
– The lights just came on in the central part of the 7th floor.
“Keep watching. See when it turns off.”
After exactly 10 minutes, the lights went off again.
It had automatically turned off when there was no movement detected by the sensors.
“It hasn’t even been 10 minutes since the guy went in and we moved to the back of the building. The fact that no lights were on when we arrived means he hadn’t gone up from the parking lot yet.”
Han Hae-woon agreed with Yeon-woo’s words.
– That means there’s a high probability the guy got off on the 7th floor, right?
“Because no other floor’s lights came on while the 7th floor’s lights were automatically turning off.”
Unless he was just sitting in the underground parking lot for dozens of minutes, it was certain he had gotten off on the 7th floor.
Yeon-woo looked at the monitor.
There was only one company occupying the 7th floor of the building where Hae-woon was standing now.
“I just found out there’s a company called Skullcap Corporation on the 7th floor. It’s not publicly listed and there’s hardly any information available, so I’ve only learned one thing so far.”
– What’s that one thing?
Yeon-woo said with an intrigued smile.
“Skullcap is the English name for the wildflower ‘Hwanggeum (黃芩)’.”
– …Hwanggeum was the codename of the agent who handed over the drugs to Jeon Ki-hoon back then, wasn’t it?
Jeon Ki-hoon, originally cast as Dipangdal, was a trap set by Baek Sol who tried to harm “White Blood” with the drug incident.
The codename ‘Hwanggeum’ belongs to the key suspect who provided drugs to actor Jeon Ki-hoon, who is now under arrest and investigation, and who is believed to have orchestrated that scheme.
When Yeon-woo heard that the agent’s codename was Hwanggeum, he recalled a National Intelligence Service agent in charge of northwestern China, because he remembered hearing about a peculiar agent who mainly used wildflower names as codenames.
“I thought we’d have to start searching from the Uyghur region, but it seems he was hiding in Seoul?”
– We should start our investigation centered on this place, Team Leader.
“Let’s wrap up for today and withdraw. Good work.”
– I’m glad we made some progress at least.
Yeon-woo looked at the screen and spoke as if something had occurred to him.
“Oh, right. Should we buy some equipment? Professional gear. I’m making some money now, you know.”
At Yeon-woo’s words, a soft chuckle could be heard from Han Hae-woon over the receiver.
– Haha. I saw in the news that you’re earning a lot. But is the screen quality that bad?
“Yeah. It’s hard to make out details at night. We need to prepare various things besides this.”
The money that had gone through multiple layers would be transferred to Baek No-ya through Han Hae-woon, then laundered through complex routes again to become funds that could be used without surveillance.
Since it had already been laundered once through Han Hae-woon before being handed over to Baek No-ya, there was no way to trace that it had come from Yeon-woo’s hands.
After all, Yeon-woo and Han Hae-woon were quite experts in that field, even if not to the extent of Baek No-ya.
– If you want, I can process some of it as donations. You’ll be paying a lot in taxes too. You should do some tax planning.
“It’s fine. Well, it’s only natural to pay more when you earn more. I’m managing my taxes meticulously.”
– In the end, isn’t this all money being used for the country?
Yeon-woo chuckled at Han Hae-woon’s quip.
“We need to maintain a state where not even a speck of dust can be found if we’re investigated. Especially in our country, we need to be excessively thorough with things like taxes.”
– The life of a celebrity sure is tough.
Since “White Blood” was contracted with a running guarantee, the revenue would be on a different scale compared to what he had earned from his previous works.
‘As public interest will naturally focus on income, I need to manage financial aspects even more thoroughly.’
Money can always be earned again, but once you lose your image, it’s irreversible.
Knowing this all too well, Yeon-woo wouldn’t have any problems in that area going forward.
“Anyway, what are we going to do about the equipment? Want me to introduce you to a supplier?”
– Ah, I’ve been around the block in this field before I died too. I might be a novice compared to you, Team Leader, but I can hold my own.
“Oh ho. Alright. Let me know if you hit any snags while proceeding.”
– Yes, sir!
Yeon-woo stretched after ending the call.
“Phew, I need to sleep too. The sun’s rising already.”
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**
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Yeon-woo fell asleep watching the morning sun rise and woke up only in the afternoon after a deep sleep.
“Ugh, my head feels like it’s going to split.”
He felt dizzy due to jet lag.
As he picked up his smartphone to check messages that had come while he was sleeping, his hand stopped at one message.
– Kim Joo-hyung: Yeon-woo! I finally finished the script!
Attachment: Mirror(working title)_script_complete_revision2_final1a_final.txt
“What kind of file name is this…”
It was a filename that conveyed the intense struggle of an aspiring playwright.
Tok tok─.
Yeon-woo wrote a message in the “New Star Theater Company” group chat.
– Ryu Yeon-woo: I came back to Korea early this morning. We should gather our theater company soon. The script is out too.
– Woo Seong-sik: Oh! Awesome! You’re back already? How was America?
– Kim Junsoo: You should rest a bit. Coming back from work just to jump into more work?
Yeon-woo smiled at his friends’ messages that came flying in immediately.
Of course, the matter concerning Baek Sol was important, but his main focus was his life as Ryu Yeon-woo.
Having worked all night without sleep right after returning to Korea, he should maintain some work-life balance, shouldn’t he?
Though if someone were to look, it might be ambiguous which side was work and which was life.
What’s certain is that he had never once thought of acting as work.
For Yeon-woo, acting was life.
Tok tok─.
– Ryu Yeon-woo: What are you talking about? Even in America, I was itching to act with our theater company. Let’s meet at the hideout at 9 PM tonight. How about it?
As soon as he sent the message, replies came flying in.
– Woo Seong-sik: Absolutely possible!
– Kim Junsoo: Okay.
– Kim Joo-hyung: But actually, the three of us are already at the hideout.
– Jin Yu-han: I just saw this. I’ll come right after my evening performance ends.
Yeon-woo got out of bed and headed to the shower while looking at his smartphone.
“I’ll go out after washing up. It’s finally starting. ‘New Star Theater Company’.”