By Zephyria 
“I’ll go buy the sandwiches by myself.”
“How many are you planning to buy? Buy them where I can see you.”
“You’re just going to say something.”
“I won’t.”
It wasn’t as if he would vanish into thin air just because he let go of his arm. Even after buying two whole pies, Mu-hae kept a firm grip on him with a resolute expression.
He didn’t quite know the reason himself. He simply wanted to glare at the brat within his line of sight.
Because they looked as if he were practically hauling him away, the gazes of passersby kept drifting toward them. Normally, he would have been very bothered by it, but right now, it didn’t feel important.
Eventually, they reached the fried meat sandwich shop, linked together like a bundled set. In front of the kiosk, Joo-oh stole a glance at him before inputting 30 for the order quantity.
‘You said you wouldn’t say anything, right?’ he asked mischievously with his eyes.
“…….”
To think he had a plan to buy this much food while the atmosphere was in such a state.
Under any other circumstances, Mu-hae would have found it absurd and said something, but whether it was a blessing or a curse, he wasn’t in the mood.
Those damn sandwiches—whether he stuffed thirty or forty of them down his throat, as long as he didn’t get an upset stomach, it wasn’t something to worry about.
Sinking a wasteful amount of money into this was a secondary issue; he was even willing to endure the ominous future where sandwiches might pop up from every corner for over ten days if he was unlucky.
What truly infuriated him was how damn composed the other was in a situation where he might actually disappear.
Even now, Joo-oh was smacking his lips at the savory smell of fried food. He acted as if it were someone else’s problem—not just anyone, but the circumstances of some random Passerby A he had never met in his life.
‘Will all that even fit in the bag?’
He barely managed to swallow the reprimand that had almost burst out instinctively. After a long wait, the pile of sandwiches came out, and Joo-oh packed them away efficiently, still stealing glances.
“I don’t think they’ll all fit….”
“They will.”
The brat spoke with confidence in response to the clerk’s concern. Joo-oh’s convictions were rarely wrong. Surprisingly, the bag continued to swallow the sandwiches even as it bulged.
As soon as he slung the bag over his shoulder, Mu-hae pulled him by the arm. Before leaving the gate, he pulled the hood deep over the other’s wind-swept hair and watched his trudging footsteps with cold eyes.
Only after they finally arrived at Starlight Road and locked the door did he release the hand he had been gripping so tightly that the circulation had stopped.
Though it wasn’t completely airtight, bringing him to a shelter cut off from the outside caused his sharply frayed nerves to settle.
“Sit.”
“Hmph….”
“I said sit, I have something to tell you.”
His stomach was churning. Though the eyes that had flicked away returned, the feeling of displeasure still surged to the top of his head.
Joo-oh set the heavy bag beside him and walked hesitantly into the living room. Following him, Mu-hae gestured for him to sit on the bed.
Stopping the brat who flinched as if trying to make space for him, Mu-hae sat down on the floor facing him.
“…….”
“…….”
“Why aren’t you speaking?”
“Since when?”
The expression on his face, as if he had asked for no reason, was truly irritating. The brat, who surely understood exactly what he was talking about, put on an innocent look, pretending not to know.
Just as he had always felt, the other’s mental state was improving and growing day by day. In some ways, they might even be on the same level now.
Even with the image he had hoped for right before his eyes, he didn’t know whether to be glad or bewildered.
“What is your true identity?”
At the more direct question, the red pupils flinched. His gaze didn’t actually waver, but it felt that way.
“……Joo-oh.”
“I’m asking which side is the original body.”
“I am Joo-oh.”
This stubborn answer remained unchanged, then and now. Having already seen him turn into an Aberrant, he wasn’t trying to interrogate his identity now.
He simply wanted to know. Between the human who burrowed in search of warmth and the three-meter Aberrant—which one was Joo-oh closer to?
“I’m asking if you are also affected by Blue Energy.”
Whether he would have to endure the aftermath when Crystal Blue was erased from the world.
“I am Joo-oh.”
Like a broken robot, he repeated the same words. When Mu-hae’s expression showed no sign of changing, Joo-oh’s eyebrows drooped slightly, and he looked discouraged.
“……I don’t know.”
A proper response came only after a long while. He had finally succeeded in prying open the hidden interior, but he felt neither happy nor satisfied.
Mu-hae closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. When he met his eyes again, a voice that had hardened even further forced its way out.
“Then why are you just staying still?”
“I wasn’t staying still. I ate more snacks and asked Jin Mu-hae to touch me often.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“When Jin Mu-hae was busy, I went to Cheong and asked for dishes I’d never tried.”
“You went to that bastard?”
He had no intention of deviating from the point, but he was reflexively swept away by the other story. Instead of asking why he hadn’t spoken up despite knowing his situation, a reprimand regarding the blue-headed idiot burst out first.
“When?”
“When Jin Mu-hae was checking equipment and talking on the phone with Teacher Jung by himself.”
“That was recently. You said you were going for a walk.”
“I did go for a walk.”
Suddenly, the conversation itself felt distant. Mu-hae pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling his settled stomach begin to bubble again.
He didn’t think he had starved the brat enough to make him go to that crazy entertainment district manager of his own accord just to get a meal.
No. No, that’s not it. He hadn’t set the mood just to have this kind of argument. Barely calming himself again, he glared at his huddled housemate.
“Why didn’t you even give me a hint that you wanted to stop the Return flight, that you were scared?”
“Because I’m not scared.”
This time, the melodic voice rang out without a hint of hesitation. His two pupils shone without a lie.
“Not scared? You’re not scared even though you might die?”
“We don’t know yet. And…….”
“After helping so hard, you’re on the verge of disappearing because of it?”
“It’s a shame. I want to keep being with Jin Mu-hae. But I want to see it.”
“If you want to see it……!”
“I’m curious about the ending Jin Mu-hae creates.”
The core point that finally emerged was something he could not, and did not want to, understand.
Is that what’s important right now? It felt more unfamiliar and alien than when he had seen the other’s transformation.
Moreover, for someone who still confused what he should and shouldn’t do in front of people, how dare he have that look in his eyes, as if saying ‘you don’t know.’
It was a phenomenon more abstruse and incomprehensible than the thesis Teacher Jung had shown him, but it wasn’t hard to deal with.
A regular Aberrant sage had appeared. Jin Mu-hae quickly gave up on understanding.
“Because originally, Jin Mu-hae should have it all.”
“Where the hell does that logic come from?”
“I stopped wanting to steal Jin Mu-hae’s share.”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
Joo-oh’s mental instability wasn’t a new thing. Of course, after seeing his identity, he realized some of it wasn’t a lie, but still…….
What mattered to Mu-hae wasn’t all of Joo-oh’s secrets or the way the world worked. Even if he was damn curious and concerned, he had no desire to dig deep and tear it all apart.
It wasn’t that he ignored it because he lacked interest; that was just how he was as a person. Even if countless questions arose, he didn’t bother digging into them unless they were an essential core.
That was why he had been able to let a strange man into his house and live with him until this day. He only learned the identity after they had become close enough that he couldn’t give him up, and he experienced the stories of the Return flight that deepened as he got to know him.
“What makes you think you’re in a position to act so proud?”
Naturally, even now, he was only curious about one thing.
Whether the other might suddenly vanish from this house one day without a sound. Whether he could just evaporate as soon as his interest waned after living here for his own convenience.
“You’ve been nibbling away at someone else’s money for snack expenses, and now you’re talking bullshit about ‘not wanting to steal Jin Mu-hae’s share.’”
“I’m not. You gave me allowance, so it’s mine.”
“’You gave me allowance, so it’s mine.’”
“Don’t mimic me!”
Joo-oh, who had been serious for once, twitched his eyes with an aggrieved expression. Mu-hae frowned at the brat who had returned to his usual self, as if he had never had those profound eyes, and stood up from where he had been sitting.
The circumstances of the crazy brat had become even harder to grasp, but he had roughly obtained the answer he wanted.
“The Return flight ends here. No more playing secret society.”
“……But I found everything?”
“And you’re grounded. You can’t even go out to buy snacks.”
Perhaps it was an unexpected reaction, as the round eyes grew even rounder.
Go get food from whom? Not only did he wander around like a fool, but he even took a train to Sakdal alone?
Even to himself, it sounded absurd, but that fact was just as infuriating as the current situation.
“You’d better eat them sparingly. It’ll be a shame if they run out quickly.”
Mu-hae warned in a grim voice, gesturing behind him. The bulging bag tipped over onto the floor with a thud, as if it had a will of its own.
“Why aren’t you doing it?”
“…….”
“Why aren’t you?”
“Shut up.”
If he was going to pretend to talk to himself, he should at least mutter quietly. Mu-hae waved him off as if telling him to get lost, while intently reading a monthly equipment magazine he usually never looked at.
Joo-oh, who was savoring the fried meat sandwiches bite by bite, kept scanning the air with a confused face.
“It hasn’t disappeared yet.”
“It’ll disappear soon. You’ve already eaten four.”
“Not this…… hm, no. Then, aren’t we going to buy more?”
“Do you not know what ‘grounded’ means?”
“Jin Mu-hae can just go.”
“I’m not going.”
The attempts to send him to the Jaegang District every chance he got until the sun set were pathetic. Perhaps he thought Mu-hae was a pushover because he had played along a few times just for another piece of crazy-person jerky.
Even though he knew that if Joo-oh used a bit of strength, a steel door would crumple and fall like a piece of paper, he had gone back to double-check the lock.
After doing that, his irritated mood felt much better. Even while the idiot was preoccupied with the empty space in front of him, moving his mouth munch-munch without dropping a single crumb, Mu-hae glared at him.
He was the one who had stepped into the Return flight knowing the possibilities, and the fact that he was even angrier at the other for it was an emotion he himself didn’t understand.
If the other hadn’t been sitting quietly in front of him, he might have actually smashed the wall he always imagined destroying and grabbed his Taser by now.
243 – I Became an Anomaly in a Dead Game