‘...Ria has a firearm trauma.’

Which meant that in a culture where keeping a gun in every household was normal, she spent every day flinching in fear.

Would a child carrying such an enormous fear in her heart be afraid of nothing other than the trauma she had failed to overcome?

For example, the fear of constantly being watched as an agent.

Investigating people and digging up information satisfied Im Ria’s curiosity while simultaneously filling her with fear.

‘She must have become an Interpol agent under the natural assumption that she herself was being watched as well.’

The puzzle pieces slowly began falling into place.

‘Alright, then let’s go back. The key is figuring out exactly what kind of moment she encounters in Russia...’

A world where electronic devices are avoided.

An intelligence agent living with her past buried away.

And a newly assigned operation.

‘Does she realize she’s being monitored and smash the device?’

It was certainly the sort of scene that could happen.

Spy stories used that trope all the time.

That chilling shock when you discover that nowhere was ever truly safe.

It was exactly the sort of blindsiding twist Galdaeguk and Ma Eungyo loved.

‘...But all the way in Russia?’

It felt weak as a reason to use Russia specifically.

They could have filmed that in Korea.

And what they were asking of me wasn’t a scene that would naturally exist in the story.

‘Im Ria’s essence.’

I had to understand that.

I reread the storyboards one by one.

Taeo leaping fearlessly from a great height.

Ria recoiling in horror.

Taeo offering her cocoa topped with marshmallows.

Ria grumbling at the man who had somehow guessed her tastes immediately.

Taeo teaching her how to use a firearm again.

Ria stubbornly refusing.

The moments that absolutely had to exist between them.

“Figure out what kind of moment you think Im Ria would encounter in Russia if you were her.”

Gorky Park.

Vegas Crocus City.

Oktyabrskaya.

Moscow State University.

What was hidden within the places drawn across the storyboard, places where Taeo and Ria were meant to live and breathe?

What kind of love did they share in the cold, barren winter of Russia?

I squeezed my brain dry searching for clues.

I had to reach the scene only I could see, the one Do Gyeoul never could.

Electronic devices kept invading my thoughts.

Standing inside a world where electronic devices could not be freely used, I looked around.

What would be there?

A tapped phone.

A missing USB drive.

An intelligence database whose password kept failing.

A hacking virus planted on a laptop screen.

Earphones in a passing agent’s ears that turned out to be recording devices.

Electronic devices.

Things that acted as conduits for connection and proof of truth.

But also conduits for isolation and surveillance.

‘It feels connected to that...’

My head insisted it was.

Countless scenes from countless stories I had watched flashed vividly before my eyes.

‘But no.’

My instincts told me otherwise.

You’re heading in the wrong direction.

Who am I?

Im Ria.

An elite Interpol agent.

An adopted child living with firearm trauma.

A devout believer living a fairly happy life.

What was it that I absolutely had to confront?

The moment that only became visible once I understood my foundation.

Romance.

A genre where one becomes the protagonist by existing through love.

Then what is love?

I continued chasing the question marks inside myself.

‘...Ah.’

Something began to make sense.

Looking at the Im Ria drawn across the storyboard, I realized the answer had been hidden inside Ma Eungyo’s words all along.

“Figure out what kind of moment you think Im Ria would encounter in Russia if you were her.”

To encounter something meant to face it directly.

To stand before it and look it in the eye.

‘Or...’

To confront an event or an object personally.

Without running away.

Without avoiding it.

Without pretending not to know.

There was something I absolutely had to do in Russia.

I remembered the example Hong Suryeon had given me.

The greatness of love.

Its ability to make impossible assumptions become reality.

A loyal subject betraying their lord.

Someone risking their life for a stranger.

Someone devoting their entire life to a person no longer by their side.

Emotions so impossible to explain that they could only be summarized with a single word.

Love.

I could see Ria on the storyboard.

I picked up the script lying beside it.

‘The exact same scene.’

Ria | (She makes the sign of the cross.) Do not worry. Do not be anxious. Do not lose heart. Do not be afraid.

Was that something that existed only between people?

Ria loved God.

Because He had given her her adoptive parents.

Because she had grown up believing her present happiness had been granted by Him.

‘If I were Im Ria, I would believe my current life had been guided by God’s will.’

And so it had been alright not to know.

The life of an agent.

Constant surveillance.

Constant suspicion.

The need to kill people.

For her, God was not religion.

He was the only refuge untouched by surveillance.

Most people believed seeking the past was truth.

But Ma Eungyo deepened the character by using the paradox that not seeking it was faith.

‘...Ah.’

I thought of every story involving God and religion.

Short ones.

Long ones.

There was a line they all said at least once.

The Lamb of God.

An instrument of Jesus Christ.

‘Wouldn’t I naturally think of God whenever I experienced success, big or small?’

To me, God would be a far greater existence than anyone could imagine.

Perhaps even greater than my adoptive parents.

The hidden scene finally began to reveal itself.

The moment a person’s foundation is shaken.

The moment love makes it impossible for me to remain myself.

The day I realize a life different from everything before is about to begin.

‘The avoidance of electronic devices...’

A phone could do an unbelievable number of things.

Take pictures.

Write messages.

Call people.

A tiny device capable of hiding secrets.

Capable of sharing secrets.

Electronic devices connected people.

Ja Sokhwan, Ma Eungyo, and Galdaeguk removed that connection.

By doing so, they isolated the protagonist.

And from that absence, the protagonist gained depth.

But Ria never appeared deprived.

Bright.

Honest.

Clearly loved.

Im Ria probably would have been fine without deep conversations with friends, seniors, acquaintances, or lovers.

Ria was never isolated.

Because she had always been with God.

‘My foundation began here.’

Im Ria, growing up in her adoptive parents’ home while suffering from lost memories and constant anxiety.

No matter how young a child might be, they do not reveal everything.

Everyone has secrets.

‘Could it be that Im Ria became even more devout because she found it difficult to tell her kind and loving parents about her fear and uncertainty? And...’

I closed my eyes tightly.

‘For a child, parents are the world.’

Children read atmospheres far better than adults imagine.

When children dance or sing in front of parents who constantly fight, is it really because they simply want to?

‘No.’

It’s because they remember their parents smiling when they danced and sang.

‘If Im Ria’s entire world consisted of her adoptive parents, what else could she do?’

Subconsciously, she would understand.

If faithfully believing in the one her parents believed in could fill the household with laughter, then naturally she would listen to everything they said.

And so faith would seep into her.

Becoming the roots of her life.

The foundation of her existence.

A faith born from not wanting to fall out of favor with the adoptive parents who loved her eventually became her entire life.

You came to this family through God’s grace.

Losing your memories was His will.

Therefore follow Him.

Follow without question.

Your beautiful life remains intact because you believed.

The fear and uncertainty that existed when she first began believing eventually disappeared into the subconscious.

Her faith only grew stronger.

She blossomed like sunlight because she believed she was loved by a God beyond human comprehension.

Because she trusted that she was communicating with Him.

‘The faith the Bible speaks of.’

That was why she never looked back.

The one flaw.

The one crack.

That 〈Code Name: Time Seven〉 could possess.

Writer Ma had transformed the reason an elite Interpol agent with amnesia showed no interest in her past into the very essence of the character.

‘Discovering the past is a kind of forbidden fruit.’

The moment she eats it, she instinctively knows she will be expelled from the paradise God created.

She will never be able to return to what came before.

She can always lean on God.

Confess her fears.

Before Him, she can be weak.

She can be incompetent.

Because before an omnipotent God, all humans are small and foolish.

I could finally see Im Ria.

Living in the world Ma Eungyo created.

A world where avoiding electronic devices felt inevitable.

She wasn’t connected to anyone.

She didn’t have deep conversations.

Instead of revealing her heart, she clasped her small hands together and prayed to someone.

That had become her daily life.

She smiled.

She was happy.

The sense of fulfillment she gained from believing she was succeeding as God’s instrument pushed her forward.

Without looking back.

Only forward.

‘It wasn’t electronic devices.’

For Im Ria, religion had replaced the role of a phone.

Not something she had to avoid.

Something she simply didn’t need.

The feeling of belonging.

Connection.

Unity.

Stability.

Kinship.

Bonds.

All of it came from God.

And if she had spent years believing that her life would be blessed according to His will and His design—

‘Right. I’m not curious about my past.’

Every gear finally clicked into place.

I could see the ceiling of a church crowned by a cross.

I opened the heavy doors and stepped inside.

The statue of Jesus Christ stood in the silent sanctuary.

Light poured through brilliant stained-glass windows.

Rows of wooden pews sat empty.

The church was quiet.

I walked somewhere.

Opened another door.

A narrow space barely large enough for one person appeared before me.

No windows.

No sunlight.

At last, I understood.

By loving, I become someone other than myself.

‘But now I have to know.’

I had to confront that moment.

Only now did I understand the place I was meant to reach.

For so long, I had been able to remain myself because of my roots.

But now I had to be shaken from the very essence that had supported me.

“The hidden scene...”

And so Im Ria would speak to God.

Using the habit she had practiced all her life.

The method most familiar to her.

“Is it confession?”

A believer dares to betray God.

She rebels against Him.

Though she has nowhere to confess and nowhere left to lean, she raises her head proudly.

Declaring that she will no longer follow His will.

That she will abandon her faith.

That she must know the truth no matter what.

Because of love.

Because of the emotion that not only shakes the very foundation of a person but exposes even their pitiful roots.

“...”

Without a word, Ma Eungyo held out a single sheet of paper.

On it was Im Ria entering a church to make a confession.

As though confirming that my prediction had been correct.