By Zephyria “Are you only going until today?”
“Yeah. Two days.”
“It’s a shame we couldn’t go to the Gamna factory yet.”
“We’re not going there to play.”
Mu-hae retorted bluntly, trimming Joo-oh’s hair.
With his forehead completely exposed, he looked like he could be dropped off in Central right away.
He was a man who looked just as good in a loose zip-up jacket as he did in a shirt. His frame was good, but his body wasn’t too thick, so he seemed to look good in anything he wore.
“I can do it myself.”
“I don’t have time to let you play around making horns with your hair.”
“Okay. That’s my fault.”
He pushed Joo-oh out of the bathroom as if doing him a favor. The guy who would have just been pushed around or stared back with a bewildered expression in the past now glanced over Mu-hae and nodded, walking out.
“Now I have to get ready, so wait quietly.”
“Jin Mu-hae has short hair, though. Are you going to wear glasses?”
“No. If you want, you can take them and put them on your nose.”
He didn’t want to admit it, but as his condition improved, Mu-hae was starting to enjoy talking to him.
Being alone quietly wasn’t bad either. Still, it wasn’t boring to have a pleasant voice chattering away, and it was fun to listen to.
“Don’t use that weird formal language like you did yesterday. Understand?”
“Of course. I’ll only follow Sunbae.”
“You don’t need to use it from here on out.”
“But Jin Mu-hae liked it, though.”
That was because he was surprisingly good at acting, so I was impressed. Mu-hae brushed away the words that came up like an excuse.
He’d been feeling lately that he kept getting caught up in Joo-oh’s words. He wasn’t that great of a speaker, but he’d end up getting worked up and immersed instead of just brushing it off.
“I’m going out in the morning tomorrow, too.”
“Where are you going? To catch a Beast? To see Crystal Blue?”
“No. I’m going somewhere else.”
“To Sakdal?”
Slowly. Mu-hae’s eyes turned to Joo-oh, who was standing in the bathroom doorway.
He was smiling nonchalantly. As if he was always capable of that level of deduction.
“…Yeah.”
He had talked to Gu-reum in front of him, and Joo-oh had heard everything Gu-reum had said, as well as Mu-hae’s replies.
He had also gone with him to find the smuggled goods and saw that suspicious people were in Sakdal.
Now that a conclusion he could easily have reached was coming out of his mouth, he didn’t know why it felt so awkward.
It wasn’t like there were any secrets about the Return flight that Joo-oh shouldn’t find out about anymore.
‘You’re keeping an interesting companion.’
Gu-reum’s assessment floated around in Mu-hae’s head. When he thought about it, Joo-oh was partly responsible for changing her attitude.
‘…….’
However, his suspicious gaze soon quietly faded away. What’s good is good.
Whether he caught a rat by walking backward or found a gold nugget by falling forward, Mu-hae had no reason to refuse as long as he was helpful.
“Meat that hasn’t been properly trimmed is prohibited.”
“Sunbae said so.”
“There was only one that got in by mistake, but sending the whole thing back is a bit…”
“Any food that has come into contact with contaminated meat cannot be brought in.”
“Sunbae said so.”
As Mu-hae attached images to the items on the checklist, sighs erupted from among the watching employees.
It wasn’t that he was rejecting them because he didn’t like the orange label. He was just doing his job properly according to the principles he had memorized in advance.
This was the third shipment that had been rejected due to his bloodless, tearless, and inflexible decision.
The reason why there weren’t any major conflicts, even though there must have been losses, was because Jin Mu-hae was a strange logistics inspector who had suddenly appeared for a short period of time.
Rumor had it that he was a guy sent from Central to crack down on discipline since his cool time was almost up.
There was a reason why the inspectors from the adjacent districts didn’t even come near this place. Whatever the reason, it was a good thing for Mu-hae.
“Is there anything strange today?”
“Not really. It’s that thing that came in yesterday that’s the problem.”
“I properly remembered where I saw that person.”
“…Where?”
As he was finishing up his work and getting ready to leave, Joo-oh came running up to him and started talking.
Mu-hae reflexively asked, then covered his mouth with a thud.
“Not here. Tell me when we get out.”
Nod. His red eyes curved gently, as if he had suddenly become happy.
Even after Mu-hae took his hand away, he pretended to cover his mouth with his own hand, and then, after getting out of the warehouse area, he stamped his feet and started talking again.
“Hey. I didn’t tell Jin Mu-hae, but there were a few more people watching us at night.”
“Maybe they just saw us. We looked like that.”
“It felt different.”
If anyone else had said that, he would have ignored it completely, but now, to Mu-hae, Joo-oh’s ‘feeling’ was more than just a simple delusion; it was a well-founded guess.
“They disappeared quickly, though. It was the person who was there at that time.”
When he went to Sakdal, two thugs had bothered him at the behest of someone.
At this point, it really meant that there was someone in Sakdal watching Mu-hae. There were so many people following him without him noticing.
He hadn’t done anything noticeable or caused any accidents there… He felt troubled.
“Instead of going tomorrow…”
“Huh?”
“It’d be better to go at night than to attract attention in broad daylight.”
He was wrong. If he went to Sakdal tomorrow morning, he would just be followed again like last time.
It would be better to strike when the sun had set and the floating population had increased, at a time when he could hide in the darkness.
Mu-hae, who had been silently pondering with his hands in his pockets, suddenly took off his jacket and turned it inside out.
Clatter. His glasses fell to the ground. Mu-hae stuffed the clothes with the Goryeo City pattern removed into his bag and picked up his glasses, putting them on his face.
“You said you wanted to eat cake again.”
“……Yeah!”
“Let’s go. Let’s eat our fill for dinner. And drink that Kurukuru Witch thing.”
“It’s Happy Coco Full Moon Drink and Joy Berry Witch Drink.”
“That or that.”
Shee-ing— As the car that would take them arrived, Mu-hae pushed Joo-oh, who was grumbling that they were completely different names, into the car.
He didn’t want to go near Sakdal after what happened last time.
Somehow, he was about to get on the Sakdal-bound train again. Mu-hae clicked his tongue softly and sat next to Joo-oh, who was still memorizing the names of the lavender cake and whatnot.
The reason why Sakdal, located outside the formal residential area, became such a famous neighborhood was thanks to the stage system that only those in the know knew about.
Sakdal provided services that could be revealed and services that had to be hidden inside according to clear standards.
Whether bloodied people were illegally gambling somewhere in the basement of a dark building or not, the flashy and sparkling stores on the ground displayed light entertainment and amusements.
Guys who went bankrupt from gambling, losing their homes, cars, and families, and just pressed buttons. Guys who smoked narcotic water pipes in rooms as hazy as raccoon dens. Those things existed in places that couldn’t be entered without going through certain stages.
While providing enough of the kind of things that were fitting for a slum, especially a red-light district, Sakdal outwardly appeared to be just a glamorous entertainment district.
Because the pennies of 2,000 ordinary people were a considerable income, as much as the entire fortune of twenty crazy people.
Sakdal was accommodating people who lived normal lives with a light and burden-free image.
“There. That’s the cafe.”
“Don’t run. Go naturally and buy that damn Happy Coco Full Moon Drink set and Joy Berry Witch Drink set and eat them.”
Joo-oh’s heart pounded.
He liked Jin Mu-hae so, so much for only saying pleasant things.
The thought of cutting a large piece of soft, tender, sweet, and melt-in-your-mouth cake and savoring it made him feel even more buoyant than he already was.
“Are there any guys following us today?”
“No. Not yet. But I think there are people who recognize Jin Mu-hae.”
“Damn it… Why me of all people.”
Jin Mu-hae frowned, but maybe because he was wearing glasses, he looked smart rather than scary.
The main character always attracts attention from those around him, but he still hadn’t realized that simple fact.
‘Suddenly, the progress seems to be a bit faster.’
Joo-oh muttered to himself, counting the days as he strode into the cafe.
The cafe, which had become a bar at night, had a rather strange atmosphere.
‘One day? Is it just one day?’
Jin Mu-hae going back to Sakdal was a flow that had already existed.
If you completed the mini-game in the warehouse area at Gu-reum’s request, you could find a hint about Sakdal.
Then, after the screen flickered, a directive would appear, implying that two days had passed and telling you to take the Sakdal-bound train…
He had visited this place exactly one day earlier than in the game. Subtle differences had begun to appear here and there in the story since Joo-oh had joined the quest.
What was fortunate about this change was that the big picture was proceeding without any problems.
‘No… Is it fortunate?’
When he thought about it, Jin Mu-hae eliminating Crystal Blue was a huge and important final goal that ran through the entire game.
From the perspective of someone who had to twist that to survive, the difficulty of the mission felt quite significant.
However, this fact brought Joo-oh both joy and a spirit of challenge.
He knew the whole game inside and out, so he wasn’t worried yet.
He was just a little excited about what new events would be added.
“From here to here. Give me everything.”
With the 300 Deal that Jin Mu-hae had newly filled up, he could taste three times more than what he had eaten last time.
Of course, Joo-oh was now a Joo-oh who thought, so he wouldn’t really eat all of it non-stop, but he felt good.
Even if there was no difference in the amount that went into his mouth, not being able to eat it and not eating it were clearly different.