Ciphertext – Chapter 34: Next Steps

As Luciel pushed down the door handle the front entrance of his house, a strong smell pervaded his nostrils. He winced as it coursed through his nasal passages. It was notably different and unfamiliar. Certainly not a bad smell, but rather a refreshing change to the way things usually were. In his hurry to get to Eun-ji, tidying his house had certainly not been his main priority. But as they walked in, he noticed that his shoes were now stacked carefully in rows near the door and all the clothes that had been strewn around were neatly folded up. The kitchen was spotless - sparkling even, and the place no longer reeked of leftover curry.

This made very little sense to Luciel. "What … the hell … is going-?"

The couple turned the corner to see someone sitting in the swivel chair by Luciel's desk. The person was facing the opposite direction and their brown hair draped loosely over the back of the head support. The collection of monitors that loomed above had all been switched off and they seemed to be relaxing whilst rocking the chair backwards and forwards contentedly.

It didn't take Luciel long to guess who the intruder was.

He coughed loudly. "Vanderwood!"

Eun-ji looked confused. "Vander … wood? You mean the one you set up the security system against?"

"Yeah, that's the one." Luciel approached the chair and spun it around briskly. "How the fuck did you get in?"

"I'm pleased to see you too, Luciel. Welcome back!" he said, sarcastically. "I manged to get in once before didn't I? So you really shouldn't be surprised."

"I only altered the algorithm remotely from Rika's apartment yesterday. I don't get how you'd be able to figure it out so fast!"

Vanderwood smiled, knowingly. "Well, you have obviously underestimated me and my fantastic Arabic abilities. Like I said to you before, I wasn't employed by the organisation for nothing."

Rather than feeling surprised by Vanderwood's actions, Luciel was more frustrated that the man had decided to invade his personal space for the umpteenth time. "You just don't know when to stop hacking into my shit do you? There are lines that I've redrawn again and again, and you should definitely should not be crossing them!"

Unfettered, Vanderwood felt the need to state the obvious. "You're saying that even after I tidied and cleaned the entire place for you? Did you really want to bring your new … or rather your first girlfriend back to a total mess? Not to mention that I put away all your … ahem … embarrassing items."

Luciel felt himself blushing despite the naturally rebellious rage that was welling up inside. "Y-YOU! Why would you do something like that?"

"Maybe I just wanted to do something nice, without you having to ask me?" Vanderwood let out a prolonged, slightly disturbing laugh that wouldn't have gone amiss if he was actively trying to portray a villain. "Now that we're free."

"But this isn't you. The Vanderwood I know doesn't just be nice to me."

Vanderwood rolled his eyes. "Hey, there's no need to get angry! I mean, I get it … your collection of questionable figurines is precious to you, and well … some of those are definitely not designed to be seen by a young lady."

"Not … designed to be seen by-? Gah! It's not like I ever asked you to come and play the role of house maid to begin with!" Luciel asserted.

"No. At least not in this universe you didn't." Vanderwood remarked casually.

Luciel narrowed his eyes. "Not in this universe?" He parroted. "What are you even trying to say? You're not making any sense right now. Are we suddenly in some kind of sci-fi movie?"

Vanderwood shrugged and brushed the last comment aside, not certain of what he had actually meant. The words had just slipped out. He looked over at Eun-ji, carefully studying her slender figure. He directed his next question at her. "I just can't help thinking … don't I know you from somewhere?"

Eun-ji bit her lip and fidgeted with the bottom of her top a little nervously. "Um …"

He continued. "This might sound weird but … you remind me of one of my family members." No sooner had he said this than he just laughed and waved his hands around in the air as if to dismiss the possibility completely. "Of course, that's a ridiculous thing to say since the person you remind me of is my cousin, who is a guy."

Eun-ji cast her eyes downwards, still tugging at her top as though trying to cover up something that wasn't even exposed. It was clear she felt uncomfortable with the comment.

Seeing this, Luciel stepped in. "Look, Vanderwood. I don't know what you're trying to prove here but-" By now, he understood exactly what this kind of facial expression meant. It was clear she was trying to hide something.

She shook her head defiantly. "No. We definitely don't know each other. You must be mistaken." Her answer was too quick to be believable, but she stuck with that strategy nevertheless.

Luciel scratched his temples, unsure of how he should be reacting in this situation. Knowing that Eun-ji used to be male made no difference to him and it wasn't any of Vanderwood's business. So he tried his best to support her. "Eun-ji is female. She is def-in-ite-ly female!"

Eun-ji shot Luciel a look of utter disdain.

Oops. I might have overdone the emphasis on that one!

Vanderwood coughed as he checked her over once more. "Yeah, um … I can see that quite clearly. I promise I wasn't doubting that fact. I'm sure you know about that in more ways than one! I just can't shake the idea that she looks exactly like the spitting image of Ji-ho."

"J-Ji … ho?" stammered Luciel, trying to subtly make eye contact with Eun-ji to get her input. "Are you sure … that is his name?"

"What are you talking about? Of course I'm sure of my own cousin's name. It's true that I haven't seen him in quite a few years, but I'd still recognise his face if I saw him."

"When was the last time?" Luciel was being purposefully inquisitive now.

Letting out a deep sigh, Vanderwood pondered this for a second before answering. "I don't know … maybe four years ago." He eyed Luciel suspiciously. "Why?"

"Ah! No reason. I'm just curious because you've never mentioned your family to me before." This development was more than a little unexpected, but he knew it was in his best interests to keep Eun-ji's secret to himself.

Vanderwood remained silent for a few seconds and just glared at Luciel, who, deep down felt like shitting a thousand bricks. He picked up his Starbucks coffee from the side and took a long sip of it before holding the cup between his legs.

"Well?" pressed Luciel. "It's just such a personal thing for you to bring up. So why bother saying anything now?"

Sighing, Vanderwood played with the white plastic lid. "Honestly, I neither needed or wanted to talk about my family whilst we were working under Tom's watchful eye. Even though it's true that he could have accessed any information he wanted, handing the details over to him on a plate would have just been too risky. Anyway, as far as he was concerned I was so loyal to him. Why would he ever doubt my integrity?" A natural smirk spread across his face and he gulped down the last few drops of his coffee before setting the cup back onto the desk.

"What do you mean 'as far as he was concerned'? You were nothing if not loyal to him – almost like a dog barking at every order he gave you." The number of times Vanderwood had dismissed Luciel's requests because of something Tom had put in place was uncountable. "It made me sick the way you two were so inseparable!"

Vanderwood laughed. "You must be joking? You're making it sound like we were a married couple! Hell no, that whole thing was just an act. Of course I knew better than to actually cater Mr. P's every whim and fancy. I'm glad the guy is no longer with us. He was about to put the entire country in jeopardy – the lives of millions of people. I would never forgive myself if I'd played a part in his scheme. The moment I found out about it, I knew we needed to upset the system. Things had to change." He stood up and walked over to Luciel with his arms folded, seemingly justified.

"So … you were planning to do something about it?"

"Yeah, actually I was. But in order to see it through to the end, everything needed to be one hundred percent clean. I couldn't afford to leave any traces of my activities behind. That meant not talking with you about it either. And trust me, I wanted to. You would have been my greatest ally in getting the guy detained. But unfortunately, Tom's experiments were getting out of hand quicker than I could deflect the results. More and more of those students were being roped into his hideout and force-fed that awful blue poison day in and day out. I felt exhausted keeping things under wraps."

Luciel's heart sank. "Vanderwood. Exactly how long had you known about all of this?"

"Far too long." There was a tinge of regret in his voice. "I shouldn't have waited until it was too late."

"No. It wasn't too late," Luciel tried. "We stopped Tom before he could gain complete control of the situation. Don't blame yourself for trying to be the better guy. We were both being used by him, that's all there is to it. There's no point in dwelling on what we could have achieved. It's all over now, but then again … so are our jobs."

"Heh. But think about it. Besides the pay, we had no job security whatsoever. You've got to reflect on the kind of lifestyle we've had over the past few years. We were bribed little by little and ended up with too much money but not enough time to enjoy it. I mean, really, who wants to keep living a life like that?"

"What are you going to do for work?"

"My brother is in charge of the family business, so he's offered me a job there. It's just a mid-size Korean BBQ place in the centre of Gangnam, but the fried chicken is superb and customers love it. I kept insisting that he shouldn't take the risk by employing an ex-agent like me, but he says he doesn't care." Vanderwood smiled as he reminisced. It looked so natural and unforced that Luciel found it strange to encounter. "He's a good guy after all. It just reminds me that these are the times when family counts the most."

Exhaling deeply, Luciel contemplated his enviable situation. "I only wish I could say the same." He had been so focused on the events that had unravelled over the past few days, that he hadn't even considered what his next move would be. He was lucky he could afford to take a little time to think things through.

Eun-ji took Luciel's hand, sensing the mild melancholy that had started to creep up inside him again. "Hey, Saeyoung. Why don't we try and think of a plan? Just relax, brainstorm and have a discussion over some pizza?"

"Oh? Do you guys want to have some pizza with me?" Vanderwood responded. "I ordered some around thirty minutes ago. It should be here soon."

"Sure. That would be great. Thanks!" responded Eun-ji, cheerfully.

Luciel didn't seem so enthusiastic about eating pizza anymore, but felt obligated to go along with Eun-ji's attempt to liven up the atmosphere a bit. "Yeah … okay."

Vanderwood clicked his tongue disapprovingly. "Tch! Come on, Luciel … why're you looking so downbeat when you've got such a beautiful woman standing right next to you?"

This guy … he doesn't even know that he really is talking about his cousin Ji-ho! It's laughable. It really is.

Luciel let out a small chuckle as he revelled in keeping her true identity a secret. "It's true. I'm really lucky to have met Eun-ji … properly, face-to-face. It's just so … bizarre how everything worked out and despite the obstacles we've faced recently, there's no-one I'd rather be with."

"You do know that Tom was instrumental in your meeting through the RFA?" asked Vanderwood, assuming that this was already common knowledge.

"Wh-what? You mean …"

"He had someone drug her and take her to Rika's apartment. Apparently, he had spent a long time watching you, even outside of work. He was monitoring your every move and knew where you were twenty-four-seven. If you think you had any moments to yourself, you'd be mistaken. Your meeting Eun-ji was no accident. It wasn't fate, or destiny or anything like that. It was all completely pre-meditated."

Luciel narrowed his eyes. "So?" he began. "Even if that's the case, I still feel the same way. If he was watching closely enough, then I'm sure Tom would have understood that my watching Eun-ji endlessly at Starbucks was not flippant. So he used her as bait? Well, I could have guessed as much. Deep down I knew a fateful meeting was just too good to be true."

Eun-ji took Luciel's arm and squeezed it tightly. "I see … but if anything, Tom's unsavoury intentions have only made our connection stronger. I mean, to be honest I don't know if I would have had the courage to approach Saeyoung on my own. I guess … knowing that … makes me feel complicated, like I'm almost thanking the enemy for what we're managing to build together right now. But it's true. I'm more than grateful that it's turned out this way." She looked up at Luciel, hoping that this was all reaching him.

He squeezed her arm back and simply smiled. "Don't worry, we can figure out the next steps. I don't know what kind of work I can realistically do, considering my employment record. But I'll find something that suits me, something I can relax with, something that can push us forward."