Chapter 280: Conspiracy (1)

Kang Ra-Eun returned Ma Yeong-Jun's missed call.

As soon as he pressed the answer button, she asked, “Is it important?”

- I guess you figure things out before I even say anything now.

In other words, he was saying yes. Ra-Eun said to Shin Yu-Bin that she would be taking a quick call and was about to go somewhere else.

“How long will it take?” Yu-Bin asked.

Ra-Eun stopped in her tracks and turned around to answer, “Probably not long.”

She wasn’t sure, but she had a feeling that it would be the case.

***

Like Ra-Eun had expected, Yeong-Jun had called her because of Kim Han-Gyo.

- That geezer is planning something.

“What now?”

At this point, there was nothing that he could do. He was abandoned by Chairman Jang Yun-Jik, and his fellow congresspersons who had trusted and followed him were also leaving his side one by one. He had truly become alone. Ra-Eun couldn’t think of anything that he could possibly do to turn this situation around.

- I don’t know the details either, but his head of security Park Eun-Soo, his chauffeur and a few secretaries have been visiting his home very often lately. From what I’ve heard from my men, they’re visiting Kim Han-Gyo’s home while being cautious of something.

“Cautious...”

Yeong-Jun’s men had assumed from their attitudes that Han-Gyo was planning something. Han-Gyo had not yet done anything; he was only in the preparation stage. However, Ra-Eun had no intention of waiting for him. If the enemy was trying to do something, there was no better offensive move than to figure it out and stop it in its tracks before it even had a chance to take off.

“Okay. Add more men to the surveillance for now and try to get more information. We’re almost there, so work hard for just a bit longer.”

- Got it.

Ra-Eun ended the call and fell into thought.

‘If I were Kim Han-Gyo, what would I do to turn this situation around?’

Ra-Eun had been by Han-Gyo’s side for a very long time. However, even with those years of experience...

‘It’s no use. I’m drawing a complete blank.’

In the end, Ra-Eun and Han-Gyo were two completely different people; she couldn’t become him. No matter how hard she racked her brain, she couldn’t think of anything. There was only one thing that she could do at this very moment.

‘I’ll just have to sit tight and wait until I get more reports of his actions.’

While she was organizing her thoughts, Je-Woon called out to her.

“Oh, Ra-Eun. You still haven’t gone home?”

“Ah, yes. I just had something on my mind.”

“You did? About what? The shoot went without a hitch, didn’t it?”

Like usual, Ra-Eun had finished the shoot without any NG cuts, but her expression was far too dark for that. Now that Je-Woon had seen that kind of face on her, he couldn’t just ignore it.

.

“Did something bad happen?”

No, but it possibly might. However, Ra-Eun couldn’t tell Je-Woon that in detail. She smiled awkwardly and acted like everything was fine.

“It’s nothing, sunbae. You don’t have to worry about it.”

“...Really?”

He thought for a moment and then took out something from his pocket.

“Are you free this weekend? Why don’t we go see a musical for a change of pace?”

“A musical?”

“Tae-Chan has been practicing acting a ton lately because he wants to become an actor like me. He was given a part in a musical, so he gave me tickets to come watch with either the other Bex members or someone else.”

Je-Woon had asked his group members first, but they unfortunately had other plans. While thinking that he had to find someone else, he happened to see Ra-Eun in a complicated mood, and then the tickets to Tae-Chan’s musical came to mind.

However, Ra-Eun could not waste her precious time watching a musical. A musical was the last thing on her mind when it was already full with thoughts about Han-Gyo.

“I’m so sorry, sunbae. I don’t think I’ll have time this week.”

“It can’t be helped, then. Sorry for bringing it up.”

“Not at all. Maybe some other time.”

“Really?”

Je-Woon’s expression brightened back up. However, he didn’t know that Ra-Eun’s promise had been similar to what one said to their acquaintances that they should ‘hang out sometime’.

***

Thursday evening, Ra-Eun finished the day’s workout quota at the fitness center and returned home in the car driven by Team Leader So Ha-Jin.

“I will get going then, Chairwoman,” Ha-Jin expressed.

“Have a safe trip home. Oh, and since Kim Han-Gyo might have ordered his men to monitor everyone around me, make sure you watch out for the time being.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Ra-Eun always kept the fact in mind that Han-Gyo still suspected her to be the masked woman. One always needed to be vigilant. Her revenge was so close to being complete, so she didn’t want to let it all go down the drain due to a momentary drop in her guard.

Ra-Eun came back home and caught the attention of Seo Yi-Seo, who had just finished getting dinner ready.

“Dinner’s ready, so go get changed.”

“Okay. Where’s Yi-Jun?”

“Probably gaming with friends.”

Seo Yi-Jun was still at an age where he would be engrossed in video games, so Ra-Eun decided to just let it slide. She changed into something comfortable and came back out into the living room. She was impressed by the feast that Yi-Seo had set on the dining table.

“I think your cooking skills are getting better by the day.”

“Oh, really?”

Ra-Eun and Yi-Jun were away from home so often that Yi-Seo mainly took care of the housework. Hence, Ra-Eun could feel that her skills had grown massively.

“What in the world is that guy doing, not snatching away a woman as great as you?”

“That guy? ...Oh, you mean Ra-Hyuk oppa.”

Kang Ra-Hyuk’s affection for Yi-Seo had not yet subsided. He saw her as a great woman, but there was something that needed to be taken care of before they got together, and that was the relationship between Ra-Eun and Yi-Jun. Knowing this very well, Ra-Eun sighed.

“I’ve told him countless times that there’s nothing between me and Yi-Jun. Is that damn oppa of mine still ignoring me?”

“He’s not ignoring you. He just wants to wait a little longer.”

“What’s there to wait?”

There was no compromise for Ra-Hyuk for anything that involved his little sister, although Ra-Eun herself found that tendency of his to be nothing but a nuisance. Speaking of the devil, Yi-Jun came down into the living room.

“Huh? Ra-Eun noona. When did you get back?”

“About ten minutes ago. What game have you been playing so much with your friends lately?”

“Oh, a game called Legend of Legends. It’s a MOBA game that has been super popular lately, but you don’t know much about games, do you?”

“Why wouldn’t I know? I may not look like it, but I’ve reached Platinum once.”

“Huh? Really? If that’s true, then you’re better than any of my friends...”

However, that only applied to her past life. She had no time at all to play games in this life, so she had not been able to get that high. Yi-Jun looked at Ra-Eun with respect. Seeing that, Ra-Eun smirked.

“So? Did your game go well?”

“Not at all. We lost our last game because the jungler kept trolling.”

“What did they do?”

“He was out of his mind. He was telling us to watch the news right now about Kim Han-Gyo announcing the conspiracy surrounding himself, and that the game developers conspired with the government to make this game popular, and stuff like that.”

“...Whaaat???”

Ra-Eun had never expected Han-Gyo to come up in this kind of conversation. Meanwhile, Yi-Seo took out her smartphone and searched Han-Gyo’s name on the internet.

“Oh, he’s right. Kim Han-Gyo has spread some weird news.”

“Show me.”

Yi-Seo handed her phone to Ra-Eun, who then locked her gaze onto the screen. Her expression distorted the moment that she saw the article titles.

[Could the ‘masked woman’ that had been a false rumor actually exist?]

[Congressman Kim Han-Gyo presents proof that uncovers the existence of the ‘masked woman’!]

[The ‘masked woman’ conspiracy. Could Congressman Kim Han-Gyo truly be nothing but a victim? What is the truth...?]

‘Damn sly fox.’

Like Ra-Eun had thought, Han-Gyo was by no means easy to deal with.

***

Han-Gyo had decided to focus his final efforts on the ‘masked woman’. He began by claiming that the ‘masked woman,’ whom he had talked about for a long time, actually existed, and that she had made up all sorts of lies to slander him.

But of course, for the public to actually believe his claims, he would first need to prove that the ‘masked woman’ actually existed. Hence, Han-Gyo had pretended to be recuperating his health in the countryside while focusing on finding any piece of evidence that could prove that the masked woman existed.

As a result, he had succeeded in securing a three-second CCTV footage and pictures that had captured someone who was suspected to be the masked woman.

Ra-Eun reclined in her chair while checking the pictures and footage attached to the article. She had an idea of where they had been taken; for the pictures, it was when Ra-Eun had first met Kim Han-Gyo as the masked woman, and as for the CCTV footage, it was when she had gone to rescue the kidnapped Reporter Ahn Su-Jin.

‘I thought I’d gotten rid of all the evidence.’

Ra-Eun had never expected there to still be some left. But fortunately for her, it had been nighttime in both occurrences, and the resolution was so bad that they could barely make out the masked woman.

A portion of the public thought that Han-Gyo must have forged these himself. It was also such an unrealistic conspiracy that the public was skeptical of it. Ra-Eun could not stand by as the news about the masked woman grew bigger.

‘If that happens, everything that I’ve done might be exposed.’

It was easy to get caught by the tail if it was too long. The best thing that Ra-Eun could do now was to hide her tail again so that there was no way that people would ever find it. There were a few ways in which she could go about it.

‘Stuff like this is usually easily buried with even bigger news.’

Just as she was thinking about that, Ra-Eun quickly took out her smartphone and searched for someone’s number.

- Hello?

“Hello? It’s me, sunbae.”

Ra-Eun refined her voice as much as possible as soon as she heard Je-Woon on the other end.

“Does your offer to go see the musical this week still stand?”

A certain scenario was drawn up inside her head.