“Here.”

Won pointed her finger at the spot for the two men to see.

“This must be the secret room.”

“Why did you come to that conclusion?”

“Let’s check it out to see if I’m right or not.”

Instead of answering Black Cat’s question, Won organized the blueprints and placed them on the shelf. There wasn’t enough time for a detailed explanation. Turning off the lights and leading the way out of the storage room, Won reached for the doorknob of the religious room. There was no need to try to pull it open since it already was.

Won turned the knob. A protrusion from the art wall had been pulled away as if it were removable, revealing an entrance in its place.

The group was now gathered there and Target, who she needed to save.

Won exchanged a glance with the two men, then quietly stepped out of the religious room.

“I had no idea it was hiding in there.”

Black Cat muttered, voice shaking with excitement.

“Why didn’t we go right in?”

Top Dog’s voice was relatively calm as he asked about their retreat.

“Because we need to be prepared.”

“What if we’re running and something goes wrong?”

“They’ll be safe until next time. I need to share how I learned this information, so let’s go to my room.”

Won said, looking at Black Cat.

In truth, it was Top Dog who was responsible for finding the secret room. If Top Dog hadn’t pointed to the X and asked about it, Won wouldn’t have thought twice because it’s a space that filters itself out to anyone with a basic understanding of blueprints.

Her brain has already categorized the marked space as nothing of interest, so it was literally a blind spot. Top Dog’s inquisitiveness helped, but she didn’t want to admit it.

“Was his name… Seo Hee-Hyun?”

“You don’t need to know that, do you?”

Won replayed the conversation in her head, feeling the pain.

‘Does he think I’m asking because I’m interested in him?’

She was just curious. Pure curiosity about the connection between Mr. Baek, Seo Hee-Hyun, and him. In life, she can wonder where a passing dog is going, too. It was just that kind of curiosity.

‘I can ask about his private life, it isn’t personal.’

Top Dog suddenly spoke up.

“I’m excited to be invited to my pretty girl’s room at this late hour, except there’s an uninvited guest.”

“You’re the uninvited guest, so don’t give Gyeom a hard time.”

Giving him a stiff reply, Won tugged on the sleeve of Black Cat’s top and urged him on.

“Let’s go.”

Black Cat looked flustered for a moment, but quickly nodded and stood beside her.

She felt a piercing gaze on the back of her head, but she ignored it until they reached her room on the second floor.

After closing the door to her room, Won flipped on the light and pulled out the notice she kept hidden in the compartment of the plastic container. She folded it as small as possible to compress it, and it wrinkled when she unfolded it, but she could still make out the words.

“What’s that?”

“It’s called ‘precautions for the closed ward,’ read it.”

Won held out the paper to Black Cat. He took it, watching as Top Dog took a seat beside him and read it together.

“You know Ms. Yang? The Patient with Alzheimer’s Disease? When she came to her senses…”

Starting with the information from the bathroom, Won briefly listed the events that had occurred with Ms. Yang, including Dr. Hudson and the old man.

“I see.”

Black Cat, listening attentively, voiced his opinion.

“The material that Ms. Yang asked you to smuggle out of the hospital and show to the world, I think it could be useful to me as well. It seems our purposes are aligned in that she wants to expose something about the hospital.”

“Well, maybe.”

It was unlikely that Ms. Yang would have asked Won to take the material hidden in the vault to expose the good deeds of Dr. Madison. Nine times out of ten, the material in the vault is about hospital corruption. There is a good chance it involves the cult.

Black Cat’s eyes lit up at Won’s agreement.

“Let’s go to Dr. Madison’s office. Did I mention it’s in the wall on the side with the bookshelves?”

There was no reason not to go, but Won judged Black Cat to be more impatient than usual. He was more likely to make mistakes when he rushed. She wondered how to get him to take a step back.

“What are you going to do? You don’t even know the combination to the vault.”

Top Dog hadn’t said a word this whole time except for now. In his hand, the notice he’d taken from Black Cat fluttered.

Black Cat’s eyes visibly sharpened as if he had spotted an unwelcome obstacle. Top Dog didn’t avert his gaze but met his gaze without flinching.

Won sighed at the unnecessary tension between the two men.

‘It’s hard enough to calm him down, and then you provoke him.’

It isn’t helpful.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to at least know the exact location?”

“I don’t think so.”

Top Dog answered Black Cat, who was growing more agitated by the second.

Won wiped her forehead thinking about how Top Dog kept throwing more oil on a fire.

Black Cat’s face visibly hardened.

“What are you trying to say?”

“You’ve seen it with your eyes, but why the hell do you expect us to trust you and risk it? We’ve been looking for three months and ten days, but what happens if you’re caught? You’ll be lucky if you manage to escape, but if you don’t, we’re all fucked.”

Won froze at Top Dog’s sour retort. He wasn’t wrong, but his words even hurt her, a third party. She couldn’t imagine how it would feel to be the one on the receiving end of those words.

She nervously looked to Black Cat for his reaction, but to her surprise, he only frowned. In fact, he seemed to have calmed down. It was like he was boiling over and had been doused with cold water.

‘Huh?’

Won was dumbfounded by the unexpected effect.

“… I understand what you mean. I guess I got carried away, so don’t worry. I won’t let anything personal get in the way.”

With that, Black Cat returned to his normal self. Top Dog didn’t seem to care if he did or not. The look on his face made Won wonder.

‘Was that intentional?’

Did he think that would help him regain his composure?

There was no way to know the truth. Maybe she was giving him too much credit for the effect it had.

Won decided not to overthink it, not that she could afford to, anyway.

“Since Gyeom said so, we should go to the office.”

Dr. Madison’s office was open. Ms. Yang had informed Won that the safe was in the wall where the bookshelves were on, so with the lights on, they went straight there.

“Looks like we’ll have to move the bookcase to get a better look at the wall.”

Black Cat grabbed one side of the bookcase first, then nudged Top Dog.  Top Dog went to the other side, and together they moved the bookshelf. Won didn’t bother to help them. Instead, she studied the space revealed by the movements.

The walls were covered in a herringbone pattern. Somewhere within those dizzying patterns was the safe.

Even though the pattern was difficult to follow, it wasn’t too hard to find the safe. Reinforced concrete sounds different with knocks than when there isn’t concrete. The former sounds solid, while the latter sounds more like a wooden table.

Won clenched her fist and knocked on the wall, and the two men mimicked her actions.

“If I knock like that, will the safe open itself?”

Ignoring Top Dog’s tongue-in-cheek joke, Woke focused on the sensation in her fingertips. She could sense that Black Cat was ignoring him as well.

“I found it. You seem impressed with my skills.”

But what followed was impossible to ignore.

Won walked over to where Top Dog was leisurely tapping away. It certainly didn’t sound the same. Black Cat looked at them in disbelief.

“What do you think?”

“I think he’s right.”

This is where the safe is hidden. Won immediately translated the location into coordinates according to her own standards and stored them in her mind.

‘(17,21)’

Meanwhile, Black Cat, who had been feeling around the perimeter, let out an odd gasp when he found something.

“All the others are patterns on the wallpaper, but this one sticks out. It’s just one out of all these patterns.”

He pressed down on it a few times and shook his head when nothing happened. Then, after a long pause, struck it hard with his fist and with a dull thud, there was a noise, like a device being moved within the wall, and the safe was revealed.

Lightly coughing at the dust that flew everywhere, Won swallowed the groan that rose in her throat.

‘So… Strangely smooth.’

Even for three people, everything went too well. Uncomfortably so.

At that moment, the doorknob turned and the door to the room opened.

Kofi