By Zephyria 204
The Awakened Management Bureau was unusually bustling, owing to the upcoming General Assembly. And there was a person who seemed to cleave the complex Management Bureau in half.
Tap, tap, tap…. A cane struck the floor, and leather shoes crossed the hallway. It was Ham Seok-jeong and Jung-bin. People hastily bowed their heads, but Ham Seok-jeong nodded and quickly passed by. Her pace was fast, so much so that one wouldn’t notice her slight limp unless they looked closely. Upon entering a slightly quieter hallway, she asked Jung-bin, who was following a step behind,
“How are the preparations for the General Assembly?”
“We’re in the final stages. Most have expressed their intention to attend, and J has also said he will be present. Hong Ye-seong also wants to come… we’re planning to go and fetch him soon.”
“Hmph, he’d do anything to escape the mountain. Of course, he’d want to come to the General Assembly. Even though he was the one who requested to be confined.”
“Haha, isn’t it human nature to yearn for freedom?”
“Anything else? Any special occurrences?”
“Ah, we received a message from Wave Guild.”
“What is it?”
“Honeybee… reportedly annihilated the entire… laboratory. Yes. Lee Sa-young warned that tracing her movements will become even more difficult in the future.”
Jung-bin handed over a file. Ham Seok-jeong frowned slightly as she received the file and flipped through it quickly.
“Honeybee? Was there a Hunter from HB Guild who became a Mutant?”
“Not according to the reports. Wave Guild didn’t provide a reason either. However…”
“…Come to think of it.”
“Yes.”
Ham Seok-jeong stopped walking.
“Matthew hasn’t been in touch lately.”
“……”
“He’s usually punctual with his weekly greetings.”
“……”
“There were even days when you were flushed red.”
Ham Seok-jeong smiled, raising the corner of her lips.
“How long are you going to pretend you don’t know?”
“That’s not it. I was going to tell you. However…”
Director… Jung-bin swallowed the words that were about to follow.
Ham Seok-jeong. A person who maintained her position as Director with her ability and composure alone. After the Day of Change, when J revealed himself to the public, Ham Seok-jeong seemed somewhat anxious. She reacted particularly sensitively to stories related to J and the West Sea Rift, occasionally stared blankly into space as if lost in thought, and sometimes showed signs of being unable to control her emotions. Enough for the busy Jung-bin to notice immediately.
And from the day J came to visit Ham Seok-jeong, she regained her former self. Or perhaps she had become detached.
Jung-bin lowered his head.
“I apologize. I was trying to be considerate of your feelings, Director, and my report was delayed.”
“Report immediately from now on. Even if I’m not in my right mind, I still have the sense to listen.”
“…Yes, I understand.”
“Tell me now, even if it’s late. What happened?”
“Yes. Matthew has become addicted to Poison. Fortunately, his body hasn’t undergone Mutation, but he has lost his reason… I used my ability to isolate him in the basement of Seowon Guild.”
“What’s the current situation?”
“It’s the same. Nam Woo-jin is attempting to detoxify him, but it’s only maintaining the status quo. Honeybee seems to be going around the laboratories to find data.”
“When did he become addicted?”
“Well, Honeybee suspects Song Jo-heon. She said Matthew’s condition worsened after he cooperated with Samra Guild… but there’s no clear evidence, so it’s just a suspicion.”
“…Song Jo-heon, huh.”
Ham Seok-jeong stroked the handle of her cane. Jung-bin patiently waited for her to speak. She lowered her gaze and muttered.
“He’s not the type to do that.”
Was it trust in Song Jo-heon? Well, the two had been early Awakened who had worked together since the establishment of the Awakened Management Bureau. He must know many aspects that Jung-bin didn’t. He rolled his eyes silently. However, the words that followed were,
“He’s not big enough to pull off something like that.”
Jung-bin unconsciously erased the smile that was rising on his face. Ham Seok-jeong wore a serious expression as she tapped the handle of her cane with her fingers.
“Song Jo-heon has ambition, but he lacks the drive to act. Preserving his own safety is the most important thing to him. There’s no way a guy like that would have the dangerous idea of poisoning the third-ranked Hunter. Something’s up…”
“……”
“He’s definitely not alone. Someone else must have breathed into him.”
“…Are they cooperating with Prometheus?”
“…Ah, I wish that were the case.”
Ham Seok-jeong smiled coldly.
“We should deal with troublesome bastards all at once, don’t you think?”
It was the moment Ham Seok-jeong handed the file back to Jung-bin and started walking again. Beeeep, a vibration sound rang out. Ham Seok-jeong took out her phone from her pocket and checked it. She looked at the name on the screen with a puzzled expression.
“Why is this troublemaker contacting me first for once?”
“Who is it?”
“Who else would call me out of the blue like this?”
Ham Seok-jeong showed the phone screen as if to say, ‘look’. Jung-bin, who confirmed the name, smiled awkwardly.
[Troublemaker 1]
Ham Seok-jeong put the phone to her ear. And instead of a greeting, she threw a joke.
“The sun must be rising in the west tomorrow. You’re calling me first.”
A low, subdued voice replied without a greeting. He sounded somewhat sulky.
—Where’s J?
“J…”
Ham Seok-jeong turned to the side and asked with her lips. Did J say he would visit? Jung-bin, who carefully watched her lip movements, shook his head. She looked at the floor and raised the corner of her lips.
“Ah, J. Yes. Why J?”
—I heard he was going to meet you.
Jung-bin, who was listening intently, rolled his eyes. J hadn’t shown his face at all today. There was no way anything could have happened to J, so he must have made up an excuse and suddenly left somewhere.
Jung-bin unconsciously shuddered. His colleague was too daring. To be double-timing the Director and Lee Sa-young with lies, what would he do when he got caught!
Ham Seok-jeong raised the corner of her lips.
“What I mean is, why did you contact me instead of J?”
—Ha… It’s because he wasn’t answering, so I called you.
“I should tell J not to answer your calls anymore. I like getting calls like this.”
—Shut up.
Lee Sa-young growled sharply. Ham Seok-jeong continued without paying attention.
“Don’t be too suspicious. You have to know how to let go sometimes.”
—…….
“I’ll be sure to send him back, so wait. We haven’t seen each other in a while, so we have a lot to talk about.”
Click.
The call ended without even saying goodbye. Ham Seok-jeong looked at her phone and smiled brightly.
“I should thank J. He’s finally fun to tease. He used to be as unresponsive as a wooden stick, so it wasn’t interesting.”
“Haha…”
Jung-bin laughed awkwardly. When he barely managed to teach him how to control his ability and brought him to the Awakened Management Bureau, Lee Sa-young was extremely taciturn. Even if someone spoke to him, he wouldn’t even look at them, let alone answer, and Jung-bin or Bae Won-woo had to talk to him for him to barely answer a word or two. It was the same even when the Director, Ham Seok-jeong, spoke to him. Instead of expressing his intentions with words, Lee Sa-young would only nod his head in response. Bae Won-woo and Jung-bin waved their hands behind Lee Sa-young’s back, flustered.
Whether he was wary, not socialized enough, or, as someone said, rude, was unknown….
“Well, we should keep the fact that J didn’t come here a secret. I’ll leave it to you to coordinate our stories.”
“Yes.”
Ham Seok-jeong slowly started walking again. Jung-bin followed, matching her slightly slower pace.
“That way, he’ll keep coming to me in the future.”
Meanwhile, back in the truck. The two were still unable to escape from the shock. Ga-eul was leaning against the window, scrubbing her head vigorously, and Eui-jae was gripping the steering wheel, looking dazed. Both the driver and the passenger were out of their minds, but even so, the car was driving along just fine on its own. The goldfish fluttered its red tail. Eui-jae, who was blankly following the tail, suddenly thought.
‘Wait a minute.’
He was just trying to find out how he knew about the watch, but instead of the source of the watch, he had heard a meaningful message. From Nam Woo-jin. What should he do now? Should he go find Nam Woo-jin? But Nam Woo-jin wouldn’t have an ability like Student Ga-eul, so does he even know anything…? His consciousness was hazy, as if floating in the air. At that moment, the phone he had put in his pocket rang briefly. Eui-jae took out his phone, and
“……”
was horrified to see 12 missed calls.
Moreover, all the callers were….
[Sa-young]
Fucking crazy brat, isn’t he? Eui-jae rubbed his arms, feeling goosebumps. The time he spent searching Student Ga-eul’s memories was about 20 minutes. He couldn’t wait those 20 minutes and called 12 times!
However, he soon started to feel goosebumps in a different way. Wait, at this rate, didn’t he contact the Director too? What if the Director said, ‘J? He didn’t come?’ Of course, he didn’t think she would, but. Eui-jae’s mind started to move quickly. At that moment, another phone rang. It was the phone that Min-gi Seo had opened for him.
[The Director covered for you well. I don’t know what’s going on, but I hope it gets resolved smoothly.]
It was a text from Jung-bin.
Eui-jae sighed and slammed his forehead against the steering wheel.
“……”
And thought.
Thanks to that, he had some time, so shouldn’t he go to Seowon Guild?