Casino War: Episode 1

Seoul, 2014

Kang Mu Yeong can’t hide his happiness. Through vigorous training and tests he finally passes as a junior member of secret service, National Intelligence Service (NIS). He’s excited that finally his dream comes true but he tries to hide it and shows his cold demeanor. It’s his dream to be a secret agent, when he’s child he’s fascinated by Stasi and KGB story and grows up watching spy movies.

“Officer Kang Mu Yeong, please come forward,” the MC calls his name.

He comes up front and is greeted by his supervisor, level-five manager Kim Jeong Hak. He shakes hand and receives placard. Now he’s officially a level-one agent. Jeong Hak smiles at him and tells him to do the best.

Pyongyang, 2014

Meanwhile on the other side of Korea, General Joo asks the junior officers who will do a super-secret difficult task. No one dares to answer but they point out one obvious name, Kim Hang Ah. No one will be better than her, super scary man-killer. General Joo tells her it’s up for her to decide, but her father already agreed. Kim Hang Ah can’t believe that her father herself approves her for that mission, stating that it’s really dangerous plan. But no one has the abilities as good as her. The general begs her and states he will grant her request, whatever it is. Kim Hang Ah is frustrated. General Joo tells her to just think about it once again. 

Macau, 2014

Busy day as usual in Macau where Golden Dragon Casino is located. People come and go and even though the room is spacious, one can only see people roam around the room at different tables. One man gambles poker at a VIP table. He has his friend Jin Sung who gives him signals at other people’s cards. He can consider himself lucky, but he’s already won something close to 2 million dollars. He wears poker face before he shows his cards, Two Poker. He wins again and gets off the place with Jin Sung while other players are angry and cursing him. He doesn’t care, as long as he has reason to live and his passion is on poker and gambling table. At least for now. 

Pyongyang, 2014

Kim Hang Ah goes to meet her superior, General Joo. She doesn’t have any big dream, but she’s close to 30 now and has to find a man soon before she’s too old to marry. She argues that going on mission will makes her life difficult and who knows if she can come back to the country. If her cover blows up, the South government won't let her live. She hesitates to tell the real reason to General Joo but can’t help it because it’s what mattered to her the most. But she actually is surprised when the general just grants her wish easily.

“Comrade Kim Hang Ah, so as long as I can find the man, you’ll do the mission? Okay, I’ll do it.” 
“But I have standard too.”
“No problem, leave it to me and the party will select suitable man for you.” General Joo says confidently. 

Kim Hang Ah puts smile on her face and leaves the room with happier state. She will leave it to the party, but she wonders who will they choose.

Flash forward two months later

Seoul, 2014

Kim Hang Ah trains with Kang Mu Yeong at NIS headquarter. Mu Yeong can’t hide his admiration to her as she learns martial arts skills. Mu Yeong asks her if she’s ready for her field assignment but Hang Ah brushes it off because they should ready anytime. They don’t know the new assignment but their superior will tell them today.  

Kim Jeong Hak comes and tells them the assignment: infiltrate to a Macau’s Casino and catch habitual overseas gamblers as they suspected to have transnational organized crime network. The list is on him. The prize? A promotion up to level-two staff and 2 weeks holiday for them. Mu Yeong can’t hide the excitement at the ‘holiday’ and ‘promotion’ words and grins to Hang Ah, but she remains silent.

“Be careful, don’t blow away your cover and your real identity. Once you entered the outside world, you can’t show people your identity. Understand?” Jeong Hak tells them.
“Yes.” They answers.
“Okay. I’ll give you the list of suspects. They’re habitual gamblers, but there’s speculation they also do some money laundering business but we can’t be so sure. Don’t be rash, but if you have enough evidence catch them all.”
“Yes.”

Before Jeong Hak leaves, he tells Mu Yeong to take care Hang Ah, she’s still a woman anyway. Hang Ah says she maybe will take care Mu Yeong later and he protests because it totally untrue. She tells the boss that he basically always loses to her, even in today’s training. Jeong Hak sneers at Mu Yeong, saying even North woman is stronger than him. 

Mu Yeong gets upset and grabs the list from Jeong Hak, saying he will be better in this task so no one can underestimate him. Mu Yeong reads the suspects’ profiles and other information in one document. carefully. It’s his first field assignment, so he wants to do his best. Hang Ah takes a peek to the documents and memorize two names quickly, Lee Gun and Oh Soo. She’s used to learn everything quickly, while Mu Yeong reads it very carefully lines by lines, their habits and their estimated height and weight. 

Mu Yeong rattles off the info of the casino he just got.

“There are 137 slots, 123 gaming machines and 85 gaming tables, and 15 VIP rooms. If we go to them one by one it must be inefficient, therefore we must look at VIP rooms first.”
“How would you know the right room?”
“I don’t know. Leave it to good luck!” Mu Yeong smiles.

Macau, 2014

Mu Yeong and Hang Ah have succesfully gone to Macau and infiltrate Golden Dragon Hotel which has a casino in it. Mu Yeong says they should play their part well and go undercover. Hang Ah tells him not to worry because it’s a given. They act as married couple now and Mu Yeong registers them on hotel’s receptionist as “Mr.and Mrs. Kim”. He signals the bell boy to bring their luggage. They come to a luxurious suite which have two beds.

After taking a bath, both of them goes to the casino. Mu Yeong wonders whether they should just go separately and text each other or go around the casino first to familiarize the place. But not too long he spots the first target, Lee Gun, linking arms with a woman. 

“Honey, shouldn’t we link arms too?” Mu Yeong tells Hang Ah.
“What are you saying? Have you gone crazy?” Hang Ah whispers back, clearly taken aback.
“What are you saying, Honey? You don’t want to do it with your husband?”

Hang Ah gives him confused look because it’s not part of their plot. Mu Yeong pinch her left arm and tells her to see at Lee Gun’s direction. Mu Yeong thinks Lee Gun is familiar but can’t remember him.

“Hmm, he looks familiar. I think I know about him, I really know him but can’t remember it,” Mu Yeong tries to recall his memory.
“He’s the first on the list right?”
“Ah, that I think about it, he’s Yoo Gun!! Yes, NSS’ Yoo Gun. Is he retired from NSS and be professional gambler? Or he goes undercover?”
“NSS?”
“You don’t know Yoo Gun? NSS? IRIS and NSS?” 

Hang Ah just has blank face when Mu Yeong tries to explain NSS to her. If NIS is the army, then NSS is the Special Forces, while IRIS is their common enemy. He wonders why she didn’t know about it. He thinks to himself that she’s just low-ranking official in North so probably wouldn’t know about top secret agents. Why would North Korean defector know about it anyway. He tells her to be as natural as possible, he thinks it will be better if they just follow Lee Gun first.

They notice Lee Gun walks away in light steps with his lady. Lee Gun probably doesn’t know anything about them. Gun enters a VIP room on the corner, a dimly lit room. Probably half of them are Chinese, but the operator quickly closes the door before Mu Yeong and Hang Ah can see their faces clearly. They want to stay near the room to observe the situation. Mu Yeong takes few steps closer to Hang Ah and they now face each other closely. They act out as if they have intimate conversation but they are always aware of the surrounding. 

A while later, a cocky man and his friend walks up to the same room. Hang Ah side-eyes them and recognizes one of them is Oh Soo, another man on their list. He looks really calm and she thinks to herself that he’s really tall and good looking. If he’s not a gambler and criminal, then he’s perfect husband material for her. And if they’re married maybe they can go to Bali for honeymoon. 

Her eyes are on him, until Mu Yeong asks if he’s the suspect. She’s startled at the sudden interruption on her fantasy and stomps over his feet in annoyance. He yelps in pain, while she’s still annoyed. She can only see his back, but Oh Soo clearly enters the same room as Lee Gun. Their hunt is on! She tells Mu Yeong to stay alert, now they have to wait until the suspects leave the room.

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Mu Yeong wakes up when his phone alarm rings and he can’t stop it. He feels dizzy and nausea. He feels cold that he pulls the blanket, but then a noise comes from his side. He opens his eyes and sees a woman lying beside him and he automatically screams. Hang Ah also wakes up at his sudden scream but she screams louder at the top of her lungs. They’re almost naked and don’t know what happened to them. Mu Yeong jumps from the bed and covers his naked chest with his arms, but Hang Ah is already upset and she punches him right at his temple. 

“Waa.. What.. what are you doing?” Hang Ah is ready to punch him once again.
“What? I don’t know. Why did I suddenly end up in this bed? Where is my bed?”
“Shouldn’t I ask you the question? Why are you here? Are you a pervert? What are you doing to me?”
“You... and I... Perhaps? Ahh... I don’t know. I swear I don’t remember it!”

They fight against each other that Hang Ah is tired to argue. She storms off the room saying she should report it to their superior that he raped her, or at the very least sexually harassed her. He can’t hold her back because his head feels so heavy. He looks for his shirt and wears it while his eyes are too heavy to open. He yawns and now looks for a glass of water to wake him up. 

He goes to small cabinet and fills up the glass with cold water from dispenser. A note hastily written laid out on the table. He reads it “미안하다” (I’m sorry). It’s Hang Ah’s writing. His eyes widen and he suddenly stays alert and wakes up completely. He goes to search for their passport but all he can find is his passport, hers is missing. He tries to call her, but her phone is off. He searches through the suite, looks up at the beds and even small cabinet and drawers. He doesn’t find anything amiss, except that it’s cleaner and tidier than before. He spends a few minutes to think what else goes missing and what happened last night.

Suddenly his boss Kim Jeong Hak calls, his angry voice can’t be hidden.

“Hey, kid! What are you doing now? Quickly go and catch Kim Hang Ah!!” Jeong Hak orders him.
“What? Boss, why Kim Hang Ah?”
“Are you stupid or just pretending? Don’t you sense her as North Korean spy?” Jeong Hak tries hard not to go crazy because of his staff.
“Spy? Why do you tell me now?” Mu Yeong asks.

At the sudden thought of her as spy, reality hits Mu Yeong. He just remembers what happened last night. More than the fact that she’s actually a spy, he’s more frightened at something else.

***

To be continued...

Writer: kanz
Pictures credit: as tagged, to owner