By Zephyria 
The Choice Between the End and the Beginning
Goryeo City is a modern city employing a popularized Comfort Zone System, which internally implements simple meteorological phenomena.
However, for various reasons such as efficiency and safety, the seasons follow the outside world; thus, if one had to pick the best times of the year, there are only two.
Times when it is neither too hot nor too cold, and the city weather is frequently fixed to ‘clear.’ Autumn, when the entire park turns yellow, or spring, when the disinfection of trees that had entered dormancy begins.
Among them, Jin Mu-hae preferred autumn. It was a period when movement was easy without suffering from harsh temperature changes while performing requests outside.
If he didn’t have to go outside, spring wasn’t bad either. No, in truth, there was no season within the city that made things difficult for Mu-hae.
Compared to the outside, where rain poured at random, biting winds blew, or sizzling heat scorched the earth, the inside of Goryeo City was closer to a greenhouse.
“Ta-da. I’m wearing a short-sleeve underneath.”
Claiming the weather had gotten warmer, Joo-oh boasted while wearing clothes bought with his own allowance—clothes that belonged to someone else.
Even just hearing about it was confusing; this time too, it was ‘clothes purchased under the pretext of being Jin Mu-hae’s clothes, but worn by Joo-oh.’
Mu-hae wore a look of absurdity at the scrap of fabric whose name had been stolen at will and which had never once been his own property.
“I’m wearing a short-sleeve underneath.”
Regardless, Joo-oh pointedly pulled down a black t-shirt printed with colorful characters.
Only after Mu-hae reluctantly replied, “It looks fine,” did the boy’s boasting stop. It was annoying, but well, even a trivial piece of clothing suited him damn well.
“I’m going to meet an important person today. So I wore something I like.”
It wasn’t attire suited for the TPO. That person looked like they would prefer a crisp shirt or a suit over clothes like these.
However, he didn’t bother to mention it. West Wind was, after all, merely a traitor of the Return flight and a biological relative he had no memory of. There was absolutely no need for Joo-oh to get on her good side.
“We’re heading in soon, so stop fluttering around.”
“Hmph.”
He walked, barely managing to stop the movements that seemed likely to draw the attention of those around them. It was an utterly ordinary commute to start a day that would be far from ordinary.
“Are you Instructor Jin?”
As soon as he turned on the lights in his private room, someone visited. With a generally slender frame and clean hands, he was clearly an office worker.
He didn’t look familiar enough to be an administrative staff member supporting education and training, and above all, his strangely rigid posture was bothersome.
“Oh. Hello.”
Unexpectedly, Joo-oh greeted him warmly, as if they were acquaintances. When Mu-hae sent a look asking if they knew each other, the employee quickly shook his head.
“I came to call Jin Mu-hae last time, too.”
“When?”
“Ummm… when I was getting snacks from the vending machine.”
“You eat those every day.”
“Maybe when I forgot to tell you for 40 minutes?”
Ah. He remembered belatedly. The time when the command center had called for Jin Mu-hae, but Joo-oh had snatched the message as if he would deliver it instead, only to inform him much later.
Because of that, Mu-hae had ended up rushing there as if he had spent 40 minutes taking a massive dump in the restroom, despite being perfectly available inside.
Since the person he met then was Bugam, it seemed this was his summons again.
As soon as they made eye contact, the employee asked for his available time as if he had been waiting.
“You have a free slot this morning. If it’s alright, could you spare a moment before training begins?”
“Yes. That’s no problem. Is it the command center?”
He thought for a moment if there had been any reason for the higher-ups to call him recently. He hadn’t done anything particularly conspicuous…
The only thing that came to mind was when he had run wild in the Yeonneul Path and used the Defense Force’s name.
If the cleanup for that day hadn’t been handled properly, Jin Mu-hae would be seen as quite a lunatic, but there was no way West Wind couldn’t resolve such a trivial problem.
Furthermore, he had an appointment with her this afternoon. If she didn’t want her schedule interrupted, she would have smoothed things over even if the grandfather of the security company in charge of Yeonneul Path had come to complain.
‘Is it just a courtesy visit?’
He figured he should go up alone. Even if Joo-oh didn’t do anything, bringing him along seemed problematic.
For once, the boy obediently nodded at the signal to wait. He was almost admirable, even waving his hand as if telling him to go on.
“I haven’t warmed up my body yet, so I’d like to hurry. Is it possible right now?”
“Huh? Ah, yes. It’s a bit early, but he should be prepared.”
The situation became more confusing by the second. For Bugam to actually ‘prepare’ just to meet a mere instructor.
After pressing a drink bottle into Joo-oh’s hand, Jin Mu-hae left the office, conscious of his furrowed brow.
Knock, knock.
The upper corridor. An immediate answer to enter followed the knock. The command center always had a heavy atmosphere starting from its entrance.
As soon as he opened the door, a man in similar attire to before received Mu-hae’s greeting. His sturdy build for his age still gave a hint of his past.
“You’ve come quite quickly this time.”
“I happened to be at my desk…”
“It’s a joke, so there’s no need to explain with such a stiff face. Have there been any inconveniences while working under the Defense Force?”
Was he asking for a wellness check again? It would be a good thing if a powerful person favored him, but since this was the first time he’d been called up since receiving the medal, the awkwardness was inevitable.
At the short and simple answer that there were no such things, a satisfied smile spread across Bugam’s face. He searched his pocket and handed over an object about the size of a finger joint.
“I was asked to deliver this, so I called you even though you must be busy.”
“…This?”
“There are some refreshments that came in as gifts, so take those as well. At my age, eating too many sweets makes the body ache.”
He intentionally omitted what the object was and whose request it was.
Mu-hae tried to hide his suspicious gaze as he scanned the item. It was a simple storage device without any fastening parts.
As he put the plain object, which had no identifiable markings, into his pocket, a few seconds later—vrrr.
His left wrist, brushing against his waist, vibrated shallowly. He snapped awake and swallowed hard.
Bugam gestured and called someone. While Bugam’s gaze was turned away, Mu-hae checked his Link Watch.
An unknown address and a Key Code had just been transmitted. The only place he was visiting today was the rendezvous point with West Wind, for which he hadn’t yet received contact.
“As always, if there is anything you need, feel free to ask.”
Receiving a handful of ivory-colored boxes, he stealthily looked around.
The room was clean as if no one had ever visited, but for some reason, the ‘traces’ he had seen in the past overlapped in his mind.
In front of the table where a visitor seemed to have sat. A damp tabletop. The faint remaining warmth of a drink.
The memory of assuming he hadn’t encountered the person who visited the command center first because he arrived late now circled his head, emitting a suspicious aura.
“Thank you. I will see you again.”
Walking down the upper corridor, Jin Mu-hae let out a hollow laugh several times.
It was clearly data sent by West Wind, but what kind of trick was it to insert someone else’s boss in the middle?
Was she warning him that she was always watching? Or was she marking her territory, claiming this place was her own backyard?
Would it be too paranoid to think that the traces he saw in the command center before were also from West Wind’s visitor?
Because so many different speculations occurred to him, he was only able to control his twisted facial muscles after returning to the annex.
“I picked this up on the way, so eat it or whatever.”
As soon as he opened the door, he threw what was in his hand, and a surprisingly fast figure snatched the box.
“Wow, cookies!” Joo-oh, who guessed the identity by smell without even opening the packaging, smacked his lips.
It was pathetic to see him simply happy without knowing the situation, but it was a good sight. With the boy in the background, quickly taking out the contents and crunching away, Mu-hae calmly operated the Link Watch.
Beep—.
An address he had never heard of… was being searched. The map of the central core, which would normally only show the location regardless of the neighborhood, opened in detail as if he had received a security clearance several levels higher.
Ha. Clicking his tongue in disbelief, he looked up to find Joo-oh peeking over, holding a cookie.
“Do you want some too, Jin Mu-hae?”
“No.”
“Did you find out where to meet West Wind?”
“…Yeah.”
He didn’t even ask how he knew. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen the boy act clueless every chance he got, only to have his deductive reasoning become brilliant at specific moments.
Since he insisted, Mu-hae pretended to give in and took a bite of the cookie pushed toward his mouth; a cheap artificial fruit scent intervened between the sweet cookie crumbs.
“What is this?”
“I tucked a jelly in there. Tasty, right?”
“You eat all the tasty stuff yourself.”
He really shouldn’t have accepted it. Mu-hae rinsed his mouth with bottled water and checked the route to the appointment location.
If he fed Joo-oh until he was full all day and took a taxi to a certain area as soon as he clocked out, he would be able to arrive at the destination with time to spare.
Watching the boy humming a song, Mu-hae unbuttoned the top button of his shirt. As he could breathe and his body relaxed, the wondrous ‘trash compression show’ of the boy tearing open jelly wrappers and stuffing them endlessly into his pocket came fully into view.
At the same time, the absurd and ridiculous incidents he had shared with him flashed through his mind. The heart that pounded when he first learned about the Return flight, and the traces of those buried in time—every single one had been new and exciting.
No matter how many times he looked back, it was a pretty decent experience. Even if he hadn’t gained a respectable reputation like he had now, it would have remained in his memory for a long time.
“Here. This one doesn’t have jelly.”
Then, the Aberrant who had crushed all those thoughts blinked its red eyes and offered another cookie.
Whether he took a bite because it looked delicious or gave it because it tasted good while eating, one side was gouged out.
Hehe. He smiled foolishly. The way he cutely brushed back his hair was definitely intentional.
Jin Mu-hae pretended to give in, took the remaining cookie, and chewed. The faint lingering regret seemed to dissolve and disappear into the sweet and savory taste.
259 – I Became an Aberration in a Dead Game