By Zephyria 
The dark streets were more than deserted; they were eerie. But Mu-hae knew that once dawn broke, countless drunken revelers would be staggering through.
Wasn’t it Director Gil’s Electronic Store wall that had become the victim of those drunks, located in that alley of all places? He didn’t know what they were fixated on, but there would surely be some lunatic among them who would draw dicks on it every time.
Fortunately, his Electronic Store remained clean, just as he had left it.
Beeeeeep!
The piercing doorbell rang, and soon after, the intercom crackled to life.
—Who is it?
“It’s me.”
—Who’s ‘me,’ you little punk?
Even though he had already confirmed who it was, he still acted all prickly for no reason. Soon, Director Gil opened the shutter and appeared.
He was already smoking a cigarette, which meant he probably anticipated Mu-hae’s purpose for visiting.
Unlike the listless figure he had seen a few days ago, he looked like he had regained quite a bit of his health. His pale face even had some color in it. Though, it wasn’t like he looked completely revitalized.
“So. You’re back.”
“Yes.”
“…What did he say?”
Unexpectedly, he asked about the meeting with his own flesh and blood without hesitation. Mu-hae gestured for Joo-oh to sit on the sofa and placed the box of tarts on the table.
Joo-oh had picked them out again when they left Taeul District, and they were topped with so much unidentifiable fruit jam that they looked like they would give you energy just by looking at them.
“He asked what kind of nerve I had. Said he must have raised and sent someone like me.”
“Heh, ha ha.”
Director Gil chuckled briefly and finished his cigarette. There was a lingering trace of emotion in his eyes, though no regret remained.
“Aren’t you going to eat?”
“I don’t know. Isn’t it too late today?”
“Alright, then.”
After exchanging some trivial conversation with Joo-oh while leaving the tarts unopened, Director Gil finally settled down on the sofa.
Did you bring the pad? His dry gaze towards Mu-hae seemed to ask.
“He… took the pad. I guess he thought of it as part of the price.”
“I suppose. He’s always been greedy, one way or another.”
It was a refreshing and clean answer, as if he had finally settled a long-standing debt. Somehow, the abandoned brother seemed more relieved than his sibling.
“Did you find what you were looking for?”
“Yes, mostly. There’s something called the Vegan Society in Goryeo City, too.”
“They even have a name? The world has changed a lot.”
“They seem to be aggressively expanding their influence. I got a lead on them in just one day.”
Director Gil’s eyebrows furrowed slightly. He seemed to think it was impossible. After all, it would be difficult to secretly form a massive organization in Goryeo City while touting Blue Energy, of all things.
“It must have started recently.”
He muttered, rubbing his slightly stubbled chin. He had a look on his face that suggested he had a hunch about something.
“You said they were attacked.”
“…Could it be.”
“It might be an overinterpretation, but I think it’s because of you.”
Dmitri, who infiltrated the NPS. Hawkins, who disappeared after his death. And then, the members who set out to eliminate the cause were all silently annihilated. The Vegan Society in Goryeo City must have noticed the anomaly as well.
“They might have noticed the Return flight.”
“Just because I moved?”
“You caused quite a stir for just one person moving.”
Jin Mu-hae, for one, had gone from a mercenary living in the slums to a resident of a formal residential area, a minor hero of Goryeo City, with a drastically changed environment and reputation.
Moreover, the disappearance of the NPS meant that the research they were conducting had also been dissolved.
If there was a group opposed to the Vegan Society, it would be the now-defunct Return flight…
“If they were people in high positions, they might have tried to dig into your background.”
Jin Mu-hae, the son of Jin Seong-jo. Just discovering that connection would lead to a clear interpretation.
“My exposure has increased since before.”
Joo-oh, who had been playing with a cushion, seized the opportunity to chime in. Only then did Mu-hae realize what he meant by ‘exposure,’ which he had often mentioned.
This guy, he’s been consistently thinking things through behind my back, hasn’t he? Hiding a slight surprise, he stared at him, and the red eyes grinned innocently.
“Then shouldn’t Central have found out first, not the Vegan Society?”
“I don’t know. From their perspective, you haven’t done anything particularly annoying. You have a backer, right? Maybe they’re working hard to keep things under wraps.”
West Wind, who often inserted surprisingly large-scale operations. He didn’t know where that power came from, but it was a plausible story.
“Things are getting more complicated.”
“Isn’t this the burden you took on knowing that?”
“…That’s right.”
Director Gil’s face, which hadn’t reacted to the family story, immediately turned bitter.
He took the joke more seriously than expected. At times, his attitude was mixed not only with expectations for the Return flight and Mu-hae but also with guilt.
Wasn’t it funny? In the end, Mu-hae had wanted to continue the legacy, but Director Gil always acted as if he owed him something.
“Jin Mu-hae is fine. He’ll do what he wants to do.”
The broken clock told the right time twice a day again. Mu-hae quietly nodded, dusted off his legs, and stood up.
“Anyway, that’s how it is. Thanks to your help, I’m learning quite useful things.”
Whatever they were hiding, he didn’t think it would harm him. Even West Wind, who had pulled Mu-hae up from Starlight Road, couldn’t have shown as much interest as they did. So it was okay.
Jin Mu-hae checked the time and left the Electronic Store. Joo-oh followed closely behind, chattering about things he hadn’t even asked about.
“Jin Mu-hae. I saw him?”
“Saw what?”
“The guy who draws on Director Gil’s wall.”
“…Who is it?”
He kept going out for walks and whatnot, and it seemed he had witnessed the protagonist of the dick drawings. Pretending to be uninterested, Mu-hae gestured for him to continue, as if to say, “Tell me more.”
“He lives in the next neighborhood over. He said Director Gil didn’t give him a discount on something.”
“How do you know that?”
“Teacher Jung hit him and I heard it.”
“What?”
The story he heard on the way home was so absurd that his mouth fell open. He had gone to the grocery store early in the morning and saw Teacher Jung, and then he secretly followed him?
Then, in front of Director Gil’s Electronic Store, he encountered the drunkard who was spraying lacquer. After a brief scuffle, the vandal threw the first punch…
“Teacher Jung kicked him. Like this.”
“Don’t lie.”
“I’m not!”
Teacher Jung, of all people, fighting. It was hard to believe. If anything, he was more likely to stop conflicts than start them.
It was true that the Electronic Store shutter was clean, but there was no need to take the words of a mentally unstable guy at face value.
“Go back and wash up and go to sleep. It looks like we’ll have work again soon.”
If he told West Wind about the Vegan Society, she would surely demand a trade and issue new instructions.
He might receive a simple task like going to work at the Company, or he might have to handle a troublesome and arduous schedule like the cleaning job.
Jin Mu-hae recalled the power structure of Goryeo City that he had heard from Teacher Jung before.
The ‘Mayor’ and ‘Councilors’ who were not publicly known. The structure of checks and balances and conflicts between similar guys had begun to change little by little over the past decade.
Currently, the Mayor’s faction was overwhelmingly strong. But even as a mere cog in the city, he couldn’t feel the difference.
Now, questions arose. If Kang Ju-seo had really entered the political arena, which side would she belong to now?
Dawn. Several hours before daybreak, Mu-hae suddenly woke up.
He felt the emptiness next to him. Even though he had given him the study, the guy who always squeezed into his bed was gone for once.
He thought he had even brought his pillow and laid down before going to sleep. Had he gone to the bathroom?
No, Mu-hae still rarely saw him going in and out of the bathroom. Above all, not a single ray of light seeped through the tightly closed bathroom door.
He could just ignore it and go back to sleep, but he stubbornly got up. Rubbing the back of his head, he walked towards the study and faintly heard singing from somewhere.
It wasn’t the study. Someone was humming outside the front door.
A pleasant tenor. A slightly dazed mumble. It was definitely Joo-oh.
What is he doing, seriously.*
He was about to burst open the door and scold him for putting on a performance from dawn, but Mu-hae slowly lowered his raised hand.
An inexplicably mysterious feeling calmed his tense nerves and touched his breath.
“Hmm… hmm. In finem…”
He didn’t know why he was doing that in the middle of the night, but his skills weren’t unbearable.
Mu-hae sat on the edge of the shoe rack and watched how long he would continue this nonsense.
Whether he didn’t remember the lyrics, or whether there were no lyrics other than the words he mumbled here and there, the melody, mostly humming, had an exotic feel.
“Jin Mu-hae?”
Without even moving his lips, the man outside the door noticed the audience.
Only then did Mu-hae open the front door and face Joo-oh, who was sprawled out in a ridiculous pose.
“What?”
“I’m lying down.”
“Why are you lying on the stairs?”
“It’s cool.”
There was no other bullshit like this. Mu-hae frowned and carried him into the house.
He didn’t have anything dirty on him, but he didn’t intend to put him on the bed like that. He pushed him into the study to change his clothes, then suddenly had a thought and casually said,
“Did you dream again?”
“…”
“What kind of dream? Don’t you remember now?”
The person who had been staring at Mu-hae quietly hummed, as if contemplating. Contrary to his expectation that he would pretend not to hear again, Joo-oh tiptoed and whispered.
“We ran out of food.”
“What?”
“So I was waiting. To die.”
As if that was some kind of funny story, he laughed loudly. Then he slipped into the study and began rummaging through the cabinet where he stuffed his clothes.
A moment later, Joo-oh, who had found his own T-shirt and pants after a long time, grabbed Mu-hae’s hand, who was standing there as if nailed to the spot.
After lying down on the same bed, he fell fast asleep as if he had never sung with bright eyes. But Mu-hae was overwhelmed by a strange feeling and couldn’t fall asleep for a long time.