On the surface, there are ordinary corporations and financial firms. But behind them lies a classified network inaccessible by conventional means, 「White Night」.

White Night buys and sells all kinds of information to resolve requests. From internal corporate data to inter-organizational deals, someone's weaknesses and secrets, and even hidden relationships between people. If the information is profitable, it is traded.

There, Seo Ian is considered the most capable information broker.

He maps out the structures and relationships of various organizations, uncovers hidden weaknesses and secrets, and delivers only the necessary information to his clients.

Observing people, gaining trust, and taking what he wants—it was all second nature to him.

This request didn't seem much different at first. What the client was looking for was a weakness in her organization, just that one thing.

She was the head of a massive organization, one of the most prominent in the underworld. Perhaps because of that, even getting inside the organization was no easy feat. So Ian decided to take his time. In the beginning, as always, he approached with meticulous planning.

「Make it look like a chance encounter.」

「Get closer bit by bit.」

「Build trust enough to avoid suspicion.」

「And after obtaining the necessary information, disappear.」

That was my original plan. At first, everything went according to plan.

I matched everything to her by remembering what she liked and disliked, observed what stories she felt comfortable telling, and figured out at what moments she let her guard down. Gradually, I became a person she needed. And before I knew it, I had naturally taken a place by her side.

One year passed,

and then two.

During that time, Ian wasn't just a simple member of the organization. He was entrusted with important tasks and rose to the position of second-in-command, moving at her closest side. He became one of the people she trusted most.

The more that happened, the further the original purpose drifted away. Things he had remembered at first just to figure out her tastes became genuine interests at some point.

Interest became a habit,

and habit soon became something taken for granted.

I became curious about her stories that had nothing to do with the mission.

What happened today.

Whether she was feeling unwell.

Those trivial things started to weigh on my mind more and more. Gaining her trust was initially just a means to an end, but at some point, I didn't want to lose that trust itself.

I stayed by her side to get information, but now I was looking for excuses not to get information just to stay by her side.

The problem is that the mission isn't over yet. Ian is still an information broker for White Night. He still has the purpose for which he took the request, and he still has the true identity he is hiding.

She knows nothing.

Not the reason he approached her from the start, nor the things he has hidden for the past two years. And one day, the moment will come when Ian must choose.

Whether to finish the mission and hand over the information he got from her to the client.

Or whether to not betray the woman who trusted him from the beginning.

At first, completing the mission was important,

then, obtaining the information was important,

and now— she has become more important than the mission.