By Zephyria “That ticket… which crazy brat gave it to you?”
‘The reaction is… stronger than I thought?’
Eui-jae was a little taken aback. The whispering voice itself sounded gentle, but the energy he felt on his skin was unusual.
Cha Eui-jae rolled his eyes, subtly checking to see if anyone who sensed this energy was coming nearby. However, instead of the presence of people, a kind voice returned with unkind words.
“Don’t roll your eyes.”
“Hey, you’re being rude again.Eui-jae, instinctively displaying his old-fashioned tendencies, realized his mistake and glanced at Sa-young. And the moment he met those lightless eyes.
‘Is this crazy brat… out of his mind?’
A chill ran down his spine. The purple eyes were staring at Eui-jae without a single blink.
[The trait Poker Face (B) is activated.]
‘Shit.’
What is it? What exactly did I do to upset him so much? He’s annoyed by so many things that I have no idea. Of course, I didn’t expect to get away with confessing to an accident without any repercussions, but at most…
‘You’re really something.’
‘Do you really want to live quietly?’
I thought he would just make sarcastic remarks like that. I didn’t expect such a sharp reaction.
While Eui-jae was busy racking his brain, the tie held by the black hand was pulled a little tighter. Sa-young gently urged.
“Huh? I’m asking which crazy brat gave it to you.”
He couldn’t figure out what was making him so twisted, but Eui-jae calmly replied for a peaceful ending.
“Isn’t the future more important than that? It would be troublesome if they found out I came here because of that machine.”
“It’s Hyung who would be in trouble, not me.”
“What are you talking about? We’re in this together.”
“In this together?”
Lee Sa-young scoffed.
“You won’t even tell me who gave you the ticket. Yeah, right….”
‘He’s so twisted.’
The sweet scent coming from Lee Sa-young might actually be the sugar from a twisted doughnut. Eui-jae gritted his teeth inwardly in front of the human twisted doughnut Lee Sa-young. It was a relief he had the Poker Face trait. Should I just tell him the truth that Nam Woo-jin gave it to me?
‘…No.’
He knew it instinctively. The keen instinct that had been responsible for Eui-jae’s survival until now was sounding the alarm. If I mention Nam Woo-jin’s name here… I’m screwed. Sa-young looked down at Eui-jae askance.
“You’re not going to tell me?”
“Um, Sa-young.”
“Okay… then I’ll have to guess again. Look up properly.”
“You’re not ignoring me, are you?”
“Listen to my story first. The secretary needs to know this too.”
Sa-young’s fingertips gently pushed Eui-jae’s chin up. His head naturally lifted, and their eyes met head-on. Sa-young properly buttoned up the unbuttoned shirt with both hands, then slightly raised Eui-jae’s collar and said.
“The Artisan Exhibition tickets are sold in limited quantities on the Ranker Channel. They sell the remaining quantity from Channel 1 to Channel 2, and if there’s nothing left, they don’t sell it at all…. They set aside a separate quantity for overseas.”
So that was the structure. If I had mentioned selling them at the Tomato Market or to the regular Hunters at the Hanover Soup Restaurant, something really bad could have happened. It was fortunate that I learned something from the Mana Stone incident.
“Thanks to that, there’s no way to hide which Ranker bought them, how many tickets that Ranker bought.”
The black glove wrapped the tie under the shirt collar. After a few movements, a knot was quickly tied.
“This time, I bought four. Bae Won-woo and the Guild members, mine…”
And he pulls the completed knot tight. I thought he was going to strangle me, but thankfully he stopped at adjusting the length. Sa-young whispered as he adjusted Eui-jae’s collar.
“And Hyung’s.”
The black glove fell away only after smoothing out the disheveled suit jacket. Eui-jae was back to his perfect appearance, as if he had never been a mess.
“The other guys bought as many as they needed too. But….”
At this moment, there were two facts that Eui-jae overlooked.
“Nam Woo-jin bought two.”
First, Lee Sa-young is quick-witted.
“I wondered why that guy who never leaves the library… was coming to the Artisan Exhibition.”
“……”
“Hyung, do you like betting?”
Second, Lee Sa-young is….
“Shall we bet? Whether Nam Woo-jin comes here or not.”
Very persistent. Eui-jae withdrew the arm that had been supporting Sa-young’s face. And he took a short breath and swept his hair back.
“You… you’ve already made up your mind, so what’s the point of asking?”
“Ah….”
The low voice became even more sinister.
“You must have talked to Nam Woo-jin about something.”
“No, hey. That’s different.”
“What’s different?”
Should I tell him about Lee Sa-young’s past? No. Telling that story now would only backfire. Eui-jae decided to reveal only a small part of it cleverly.
“In the first place, you told Nam Woo-jin that I was the one who got him the drugs, right? He gave it to me as a reward for that. He said it was a big help to his research.”
“……”
“It was useless to me, so I tried to throw it away, but it wouldn’t burn and I couldn’t dispose of it anywhere, so I just kept it and brought it here. If I had known Hong Ye-seong would act like that, I would have just left it at the Hanover Soup Restaurant.”
Even after the explanation, Lee Sa-young’s head was still tilted. The sharp energy had decreased from before, though.
No, but why is this crazy brat still looking at me crookedly? Does he think he’s the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Eui-jae suddenly reached out and grabbed the Gas mask. However, Lee Sa-young also quickly grabbed the Gas mask with both hands.
The sharp atmosphere from just before disappeared somewhere, and the two began to struggle over the Gas mask. Sa-young pried off Eui-jae’s fingers one by one while holding the Gas mask, muttering in a low voice.
“You’re doing this because you have nothing more to say, right?”
“Don’t you have anything to say? Stay still.”
“Let go. I’m leaving.”
“Sa-young, take this off.”
“No.”
“Take it off, quickly.”
“I said no.”
Sa-young retorted irritably.
“You should have come with that crazy brat Nam Woo-jin.”
“No, I didn’t even plan to come here in the first place. You threatened me to come.”
“Threatened? Ha.”
Lee Sa-young scoffed again.
“You’re the only one who would hear a multi-billion-dollar date proposal as a threat.”
“Saying we’ll die together if I don’t go to Songdo is a threat. And I was going to sell the ticket Nam Woo-jin gave me at the Tomato Market, you know?”
“Shit, you still haven’t deleted that app?”
“I deleted it, you crazy brat! I immediately unsubscribed and deleted it when a hundred messages came!”
Eui-jae, who had been shouting, suddenly stopped.
This is Songdo. If what Lee Sa-young said about the ticket sales method is true… there will be more guys from Channel 1 at the Artisan Exhibition than Eui-jae expected. Eui-jae reminded himself that he was currently the secretary of the Wave Guild.
And of course, it’s difficult to deal with unexpected situations in this state. An ordinary secretary can’t use Physical Memory Erasure on a Ranker!
Earlier, Lee Sa-young had matched his rhythm and helped him get through it, but if Lee Sa-young is in a bad mood like now, there’s a high possibility that he’ll ignore him even if he says he’ll report as a secretary. He might even pretend he doesn’t know him at all. As I’ve experienced several times, this crazy brat holds grudges for a very long time.
In Songdo, where enemies are everywhere and it’s a minefield, Lee Sa-young’s cooperation was essential. To do that, it was necessary to appease Lee Sa-young, who was as twisted as a twisted doughnut.
‘I have to appease him first.’
But how? Eui-jae had never been good at appeasing or catering to anyone. He used to resolve fights with his friends well, but that was all before the Day of the Rift, so it was such a distant past that he couldn’t remember.
When he was active as J, the other party took a low posture before he could even try to appease them, and most conflicts were resolved with fists, so it was even more difficult. The only people he had ever appeased were that kid and Ha-eun….
‘Ha-eun?’
A light bulb went on in his head. That’s right, I can appease him like I appease Ha-eun! Lee Sa-young is a slightly less fickle child than Ha-eun, isn’t he? Thinking like this, he seemed to see a glimmer of hope.
Eui-jae cleared his throat and took his hand off the Gas mask. Sa-young was looking at Eui-jae with suspicious eyes, but Cha Eui-jae, with the Poker Face trait activated, was nearly invincible. He carefully grabbed Sa-young’s arm.
“Sa-young.”
“What.”
Sa-young, who answered coldly, added in a sulky voice.
“There’s something else you haven’t told me, right?”
‘He’s quick-witted even at times like this….’
Fortunately, Lee Sa-young didn’t push his hand away, even though he was being sarcastic. Eui-jae patted his firm arm and stubbornly made his request.
“Take off the Gas mask.”
The first step in communication, making eye contact and talking. Eui-jae was trying to use the skills he had acquired while appeasing Ha-eun. However, Sa-young was steadfast.
“I don’t want to.”
“I want to talk while looking at your face. Take it off.”
“Why my face?”
“Can I be honest?”
“……”
“I’m a little pissed too, but I think we should at least look at each other’s faces and talk.”
“…Ah.”
Sa-young narrowed his eyes. Seeing the malice plastered on his short exclamation, it seemed that the thought of taking it off had completely evaporated. Eui-jae squeezed his eyes shut.
‘It’s a complete failure from step 1.’
Eui-jae had returned to square one, having forgotten the lesson that honesty isn’t always a good thing. There’s no helping it. You can’t expect to be full on the first bite. In this case, it was time to use the last resort, even though he didn’t want to use it on Lee Sa-young….
Eui-jae reached out his arms so quickly that Sa-young couldn’t react,
And pulled Sa-young into his arms.
“……!”
The firm body that filled his arms tightly stiffened as if it had frozen. Eui-jae rested his chin on Sa-young’s shoulder and bit his twisting lips, trying hard to endure. The sweet scent tickled the tip of his nose. It was fortunate that this crazy brat wasn’t struggling. Of course, Eui-jae was barely holding back from twisting his whole body as well.
Eui-jae clenched and unclenched his trembling hand once, and slowly began to pat his broad back.
“…Okay, Hyung is sorry.”
The last resort, unconditionally apologizing.