By Zephyria “Jin Mu-hae. Are you still mad?”
“……”
“You even hit my head. And I exchanged the Fruit Tornado for a less tasty one.”
“……”
“Yesterday was fun though… We ate cake and bought weird stuff.”
“Shut up.”
Joo-oh shut his mouth tight at the words Jin Mu-hae almost spat out.
Jin Mu-hae had been like that ever since he confessed his petty lie.
Thanks to that, Joo-oh had to sit quietly on the sofa even after returning from the grocery store.
It was true that he was at fault for trying to deceive him and getting caught, but he didn’t expect him to be this angry.
It wasn’t like he was interfering with his work. Was it a sin to choose colorful and sweet cereal because he didn’t like the taste of the feed-like cereal?
‘He even hit my head.’
It didn’t hurt, but he didn’t feel good, so it should be considered a tie. His grudge was longer than he thought.
It wasn’t like the Mu-hae he knew. To put it nicely, he was neat and cold, and to put it badly, he just didn’t care about Joo-oh.
It was his daily routine to ignore whatever he did next to him as long as it didn’t harm him. For some reason, he wasn’t even making eye contact with Joo-oh now.
He felt a little sense of crisis that something… was wrong.
‘Shouldn’t I have gone to exchange the cereal by myself?’
Maybe he made a mistake somewhere. Was it suspicious that he gave him hints a few times because he was frustrated with Jin Mu-hae wandering around without a game guide?
But he had to guide him properly to see the ending he wanted…
He was a little annoyed that he kept probing whenever he had a chance without knowing his deep intentions, but,
‘What can I do? Still.’
Joo-oh basically had lenient standards when it came to Jin Mu-hae.
How many years had he waited to meet him? He was satisfied enough just to have the opportunity to interfere with the game’s story.
Right now, he was just a little, very little, resentful of his ruthlessness of hitting him and not even petting him.
Because he was actually expecting it a little when his hand flew at him.
He thought Jin Mu-hae would calm down and touch his head.
“Jin Mu-hae. Should I go into the room?”
It was funny. Even though he still didn’t remember his life before falling into the game, Joo-oh felt that someone’s touch on his head was very unfamiliar.
But soon he realized that unfamiliarity wasn’t a bad thing. His always gray insides suddenly turned soft and gentle, tickling somewhere in his windpipe.
As the dazed feeling faded, he began to wait for his touch. It always felt good to be in contact with him.
Especially touching his head. Thinking about the warmth that came so close, he wanted him to touch his head, his ears, and his cheeks.
‘But he’s just angry.’
He knew very well that he was being too presumptuous for a human who had settled down on his own.
Apart from pretending to be stupid, the fact that even everyday conversations were clumsy and childish was also a problem.
He was trying not to, but whenever his instincts grew stronger, the jet-black other side of his consciousness kept surging and interfering with Joo-oh.
That was why his thoughts didn’t flow in a more advanced direction.
Testing the waters little by little and expanding the realm of reason was the best Joo-oh could do right now.
“Am I really going?”
Even if he got up from his seat, Jin Mu-hae was still checking the pad and didn’t even look at him.
Even if he rubbed the head he had been hit on as if to show off, he didn’t even open his mouth, even though it was clearly in a position to be seen out of the corner of his eye.
Looking at his stiff face, a sad feeling welled up. Joo-oh himself wasn’t sure if this was what it meant to be sad, but he thought it was something like that.
‘I’m going to pretend I don’t know anything from now on.’
Muttering inwardly, Joo-oh trudged to the study. He thought he had closed the door slightly, but there was a bang behind him.
For some reason, he was tempted to shout that it wasn’t intentional because he was a little scared, but he didn’t want to, so he flopped down on the mattress.
‘I’m really not going to tell him.’
That he was going to go get leather directly soon to make a new good-quality jacket, and that he could get hidden leather if he caught an Aberrant instead of a Beast.
He wouldn’t tell him for the time being while keeping a low profile. It wouldn’t greatly affect the main story without it.
It was true. He was a little angry when he thought about the colorful cereal that had turned into something like animal feed.
…But you never know. Maybe he’ll tell him if Mu-hae apologizes first.
Anyway, Joo-oh would continue to stick with him and help Jin Mu-hae.
‘Of course, I’m doing it to survive too, but.’
Even if there were other intentions, there were no lies in his heart to help him.
“Little by little, I’ll change it.”
And in fact, Joo-oh was vaguely aware. The reason Jin Mu-hae kept distancing himself from him was probably because Joo-oh hadn’t properly joined the group of main characters.
Now that he had proven that he could be helpful to him, it was time to be recognized as a proper colleague.
Then Jin Mu-hae’s sharp attitude would calm down a little. From then on, he wouldn’t have to pretend not to know everything at all.
Bang. Joo-oh rolled his legs on the mattress and then rubbed his face on the bedding, which now had completely lost Jin Mu-hae’s scent.
Fortunately, Jin Mu-hae returned to normal around evening.
It’s not like he became friendly. He had never been friendly in the first place.
It was just that his face, which had been almost murderous, relaxed and he started to ignore Joo-oh again.
It was a great improvement compared to the afternoon when he didn’t even turn his head this way.
“Did you find what you were looking for?”
Joo-oh flinched and shut his mouth after asking casually. For Joo-oh, going to Sakdal the day before should have just been a fun day.
The vague companion doesn’t know that Jin Mu-hae was looking for information related to the signal device, and that he found it in Sakdal.
Did he make a mistake because his head was getting dizzy? He rolled his eyes to see how he was doing, but he didn’t seem to notice anything strange yet.
“I want to eat cake.”
So he talked about food like Joo-oh he knew.
Rather, Jin Mu-hae’s brow furrowed slightly at those words. He couldn’t figure out what he had missed.
Of course, that expression was quickly erased, but there was no way Joo-oh couldn’t catch the fleeting movement.
Come to think of it, was he talking about playing in Sakdal when Jin Mu-hae was serious earlier?
‘Should I just not talk about Sakdal?’
Joo-oh, who vaguely grasped the core with his last remaining reason, smacked his lips a few times and then flopped down on the table.
Oh well. I don’t know. There’s no way Jin Mu-hae would kick him out now.
If he gets angry, just ignore him, and if he hits him, it doesn’t hurt, so just take it. It was a little difficult for Joo-oh to think any more than this.
Even now, after thinking a little, he felt empty as if a hole had been drilled in his stomach, and his mouth was full of saliva…
“Eat an egg.”
“Fake egg.”
“Don’t talk so rudely again.”
But it’s true that it’s fake. Joo-oh watched Jin Mu-hae blankly, suppressing the thoughts that came to his mind at will.
He was shaking yellow powder in a bottle with water. When he poured it into the pan, there was a sizzling sound, and something similar to egg water quickly cooked from the edges.
The movement of casually digging up the half-cooked egg to make scrambled eggs looked good. Mu-hae propped one hand on his waist, making his already thick chest and slender waist stand out.
He had watched Jin Mu-hae for so long outside the monitor. He saw him cooking for the first time since he possessed him.
Joo-oh smiled blankly, satisfied with the details of reality that were different from the game.
Okay, it was bearable that he was feeling down.
Ding-!
[Quest]
Main Quest
Tutorial (Completed)
Chapter 1
☞ The Heretic of the City (Completed)
The Wolf That Lays Gold √
200,000 Deal Relics √
☞ Unquenched Embers (Completed)
Intangible Heritage √
Beginning of the Journey √
A Pair of Wedding Rings √
Kingfisher √
☞ Mayday, Mayday (In Progress)
Missing Blueprint √
Secret Deal
Come to think of it, it’s about time the game’s difficulty increases.
Some industrial products in Goryeo City require difficult purchase conditions for citizens outside the formal residential areas.
Director Gil, an Electronic Store CEO with a criminal record and handling dangerous weapons, can only trade a limited amount of goods that have been reported in advance.
As a result, near the end of Chapter 1, Jin Mu-hae obtains the parts for the signal device through illegal trading, and from this point on, ‘Exposure’ is added to the game system.
‘I used to do the MAX Exposure challenge.’
Exposure is a kind of handicap. It gradually increases as you progress through the main quest, and it rises even faster if you repeatedly perform the same side quest.
Depending on the choices given in the middle, it can soar to the highest level. This makes the game difficulty difficult.
In the setting of 「La Vida Blue」, ‘Jin Mu-hae’ is already strong from the start of the game, so it’s a hindrance.
Once the player gets used to the game while playing Chapter 1, the security forces and various surveillance systems become rampant as if beginner care is over.
‘I can manage Exposure as much as I want.’
Joo-oh had played this game countless times. He had adjusted the Exposure as he wanted and done all sorts of things.
The problem is that the game and reality are a little different, and that Jin Mu-hae, who has become real, doesn’t move as he thinks.
Somehow it will work out. No matter how ruined it is, there’s no way there’s anything worse than falling 15 years before the start of the game.
“The real Jin Mu-hae doesn’t know.”
How much I think about Jin Mu-hae.
Muttering the unspoken words to himself, Joo-oh watched the back of the man standing without answering for a long, long time.