By Zephyria “Hey, shall we eat?!”
At Yohan’s words, Yoon Seung-ryong, who had been lying down listlessly, jumped up and quickly began preparing the meal. Looking at the table, which was all set, to his surprise, vegetables and meat were fried and served. He had been fiddling with some ingredients for a while lately, but fried food…! Yohan’s eyes and mouth widened.
“How did you make the oil?!”
“Anything can yield oil if you squeeze it hard enough. Here, our Yohan.”
Yoon Seung-ryong said with a grin, carefully placing the freshly fried tempura onto Yohan’s rice bowl. For the others, it was a take-it-or-leave-it gesture of putting food on their plates. Feeling embarrassed, Yohan said thank you and took a bite of the tempura. It crunched. He was happy…. And naturally, it seemed Yohan wasn’t the only one who was happy.
“Thanks to you, Yohan, I can eat such a delicious meal.”
Lee Chan-ha thanked him again and marveled, making Yohan reply with embarrassment.
“No, Hyung Seung-ryong prepared the meal…. Hyung Seung-ryong also provided the ingredients….”
Lee Chan-ha seemed not to have heard Yohan’s words. Or perhaps she was pretending not to hear them.
“You’ve given me not only food but also clothes and weapons….”
“Hyung Seung-ryong also gave us clothes, and Yakrin Noona made the weapon after gathering Eternal Stones….”
Unlike the other team members, Lee Chan-ha was completely empty-handed, having left her weapon somewhere. So, Seo Yakrin had trimmed an Eternal Stone and made a spear for her. All Yohan had done was a few minor, simple purifications; the rest was done by the other two.
“I am simply grateful….”
“Aargh!”
Unable to bear it any longer, Yohan grabbed his rice bowl and fled behind Lee Hyun-muk. Lee Hyun-muk chuckled lowly and moved his body to block Yohan’s view. It was when his lover was deliciously receiving side dishes and dessert, personally placed by him. After finishing his meal, Lee Chan-ha suddenly burst into dissatisfaction.
“But why is the Team Leader monopolizing Yohan? That’s unfair.”
“Right, right!”
Seo Yakrin, who had been eating quietly, suddenly chimed in. Then, she slammed her fist on the floor with a bang and said,
“I can control my strength well now too! Only clinging to the Team Leader is an abuse of power! You know that?!”
She didn’t seem to be controlling her strength well at all. As the two criticized Lee Hyun-muk, Yohan pleaded in a voice barely above a whisper,
“No, please don’t…. And I wasn’t clinging to him….”
“Honestly, Yohan, you’re not helping either. You’re next to the Team Leader when we eat, you sleep next to the Team Leader! You’re only next to the Team Leader when we rest! Noonaaa! Do you know how disappointed I am?! You can’t show such favoritism!”
Seo Yakrin let out a lion’s roar. Lee Hyun-muk put down his rice bowl and stopped her, saying, “Enough,” and she immediately stopped and focused on her meal again, but that was just the beginning. Lee Chan-ha and Seo Yakrin began lurking nearby, looking at Yohan with eyes that coveted him.
“Yohan, what do you need? Money? Strength? Power? Just come, and Noona will give you everything.”
“Yohan, don’t you need a self-healing tanker?”
Seo Yakrin and Lee Chan-ha, finally dropping all pretense of caring about appearances, knelt down and began to woo Yohan with pleas bordering on begging. Yohan, experiencing such a situation for the first time, was flustered and at a loss. Lee Hyun-muk, who had been watching the two with his chin in his hand, spoke slowly.
“Why is everyone so dense? Can’t you tell Yohan doesn’t want to be close to you?”
“No! When did I ever say I didn’t want to be close to you!”
Yohan jumped up. If you say it like that! But on the other hand, he was relieved that Lee Hyun-muk seemed much brighter than before.
Since all the team members had gathered, Lee Hyun-muk seemed to be in a much better mood. That’s not to say he became more talkative or laughed more often. However, the way he looked at Yoon Seung-ryong and Joo Ho-young, who were usually obedient, as well as Lee Chan-ha, who had once gone mad and betrayed the team by pushing them into the Flood, and Seo Yakrin, who occasionally lost control of her anger and tried to rebel, was simply gentle, and sometimes dazed, as if seeing something unreal.
Seeing that, Yohan felt pity and sympathy for Lee Hyun-muk, but at the same time, he started to worry about Seo Yakrin and Lee Chan-ha, who were grinding their teeth at the Team Leader out of annoyance. Yohan clenched and unclenched his fists, took deep breaths, and fidgeted. Finally, unable to resist the impulse, he shouted.
“We’re… we’re lovers!”
Hearing Lee Hyun-muk’s low chuckle, Yohan’s face turned bright red. As soon as he dropped the bomb, regret flooded him. Should he say it was a joke now? Seo Yakrin jumped up as if she had been burned by something hot and exclaimed,
“What?! What are you talking about, Yohan!”
Her voice sounded like someone who had heard that their beloved niece or cousin was dating a scoundrel.
“I like Hyung Hyun-mook! We’re dating! Th-that’s why! We’re always together!”
Seo Yakrin, mouth agape, looked at Lee Hyun-muk, then at the other team members. Yoon Seung-ryong, who was savoring his post-meal dessert without any surprise at Yohan’s confession, scoffed.
“As expected, an old fogey, dense.”
Yohan was surprised by this remark. You already knew?! Seo Yakrin and Yohan’s gazes shifted from Joo Ho-young, engrossed in his game, to Lee Chan-ha, who looked dejected. None of them seemed surprised at all. That he was dating Lee Hyun-muk, and even though he was a man! Seo Yakrin trembled, perhaps from anger or shock, and pointed her finger alternately at Lee Hyun-muk and Lee Chan-ha.
“Me? Only I didn’t know? Really? Even the Vice Team Leader, who only joined recently, knew?”
“Why wouldn’t we know? It was so obvious…. The Team Leader was clinging to him whenever he had the chance.”
“I wasn’t clinging to him!”
Yohan, his face flushed red, vehemently denied Yoon Seung-ryong’s words, but no one seemed to be listening. He hadn’t even kissed in front of others, so he couldn’t understand why they kept saying he was clinging to him…. But Lee Chan-ha, for some reason, said with an even more reverent expression,
“Yohan, whether you’re a lover or anything else, it doesn’t matter to me. If you would just take me as a servant….”
“Huh?”
“Or even as a doormat….”
Seo Yakrin, who had been spacing out, quickly interjected, not to be outdone.
“I’ll be a hand-towel holder….”
“Aargh! Both of you, really, stop it! No more talking like that! It’s all forbidden!”
After the boisterous commotion subsided, Yohan hid behind Lee Hyun-muk’s back again. This time, it was because he couldn’t bear his embarrassment. He didn’t even need to reveal they were lovers! Everyone already knew…. Was it that obvious? Really…? He couldn’t bring himself to look up. Seo Yakrin grumbled in a tone of resignation,
“Well, if he’s your lover, then I guess there’s nothing to be done.”
Yohan’s face turned even redder. Hearing that made him feel even more embarrassed. Lee Hyun-muk, who had been hiding Yohan as he wished, opened his mouth.
“Chan-ha.”
Lee Chan-ha, who had been blindly staring only at Yohan, flinched. When Lee Hyun-muk called her name again, she reluctantly turned her head slightly, looking at the base of Lee Hyun-muk’s feet.
The emotions shown by the others after regaining their senses through purification were very clear. However, Lee Chan-ha’s inner thoughts were impossible to discern. She hadn’t had a proper conversation with anyone else. She only spoke to Yohan, as if he were the only one she saw and heard. But now, looking back, the reason she had been ignoring everyone else was….
“How did you end up in the Salt Lake?”
In that moment, a deep sense of guilt flashed in his eyes. Lee Chan-ha couldn’t pretend not to hear Lee Hyun-muk’s question and hesitated. Yohan wondered if she hadn’t been able to speak to the other team members because she felt too sorry for the mistakes she had made in the past.
“I was drawn here recently. That’s all.”
Only then did Yohan understand why Lee Chan-ha had appeared in the lake at such a perfectly opportune moment. Lee Hyun-muk specifically rephrased what she vaguely referred to as ‘that’.
“You were drawn by the Flood, weren’t you?”
Lee Chan-ha bit her lip so hard her handsome face contorted, then replied,
“…Yes.”
Yohan’s heart grew heavy. He was happy to have met Lee Chan-ha like this, but the fact that the Flood still hadn’t given up its pursuit of her felt quite ominous.
“Do you think it will happen again in the future?”
“No, there’s no room for confusion anymore. After seeing this… how could I be confused?”
After sighing deeply, as if lamenting and regretting, upon seeing the cluster of light Yohan had created, Lee Chan-ha lowered her head. A determined vow followed.
“It will never happen again.”
“Well, if it won’t, then it’s fine! If it happens again, I’ll beat the Vice Team Leader into shape to snap out of it. I haven’t forgotten the debt I owe you for falling into the Flood! Don’t worry!”
Seo Yakrin shouted heartily, slapping Lee Chan-ha’s back with her palm, making a thudding sound. Lee Chan-ha reacted with a somewhat exaggerated wince and managed a clumsy, very awkward smile as she replied,
“Uh, Yakrin… I’m counting on you.”
Is it my imagination? Did I just see blood on Lee Chan-ha’s lips? Surely she wasn’t internally injured from that back-smack just now, was she? While Yohan was confused, Yoon Seung-ryong, who had been the most opposed to Lee Chan-ha’s joining, shrugged.
“Well, I’ve had my share of falling in before too…. I’m in no position to say anything.”
…Had their share of falling in? Yohan’s pupils trembled as Joo Ho-young, who had been holding his Game Console the entire time, replied indifferently.
“For me, it’s fine. I’ve never fallen into the Flood anyway.”
Lee Hyun-muk had already received the team’s consent for Lee Chan-ha’s inclusion. Nevertheless, the fact that they were all confirming it again was likely meant for Lee Chan-ha to hear. Yohan, overwhelmed, emerged from behind Lee Hyun-muk, where he had been hiding, and shouted.
“Me, me too! I’m so happy that the Sunrise Team is reunited like this!”
“Sunrise Team….”
Lee Chan-ha murmured, as if hearing the words for the first time in a long while. The other team members also had complex expressions. Lee Hyun-muk slowly surveyed the team members, and finally, with Yohan, whose eyes were sparkling, being the last, he spoke.
“Since Chan-ha has joined, shall we try to conquer it again?”
“Conquer, where?”
Unlike Lee Chan-ha, who looked bewildered, everyone’s gaze turned towards the cave entrance leading to the center of the Abyss.