By Zephyria “I don’t eat stuff like this.”
“Hmph.”
“I’ll keep it, so if you get hungry later, you can take it out and eat it.”
“Hmph… Okay.”
Despite the curt tone, Joo-oh somehow understood the meaning. The lips that had been pouting out suddenly returned to their original position.
It’s troublesome if he acts annoying and cute on such an important day. Mu-hae lowered his hand, which had been reaching for his ear, patted his shoulder a couple of times, and put the candy from his pants pocket into his arms.
Only then did the eyes of the one who had been acting crazy calm down. Joo-oh gestured for him to come closer, so he bent down a little, and a small, clear voice whispered in his ear.
“Mating is, you have to do it only with me.”
“I told you not to say stuff like that outside.”
“You can’t ask to be touched either. You can’t sit between other people’s legs.”
It’s absurd who’s telling whom to be careful. In the first place, there’s no one here trying to touch him, and he’s not big enough to squeeze into someone else’s lap.
“Why.”
When he asked crookedly for no reason, Joo-oh pondered for a long time before whispering.
“Um… um.”
“……”
“Because I don’t like it.”
At the same time, he made a face as if he had suddenly realized something, like an alchemist who had discovered the truth of the world.
“…Jin Mu-hae likes me too. He likes me.”
Joo-oh, who had arbitrarily come to a conclusion, smiled softly and brightly. Mu-hae had warned him not to get involved in strange crimes, but it seemed he had created a satisfactory answer to his liking.
Joo-oh’s complexion improved in an instant, and he looked like he was about to jump up and down. But he still had a shred of reason left, so he didn’t do anything that would attract attention like before.
“I want to hang a picture of Jin Mu-hae receiving the medal at home.”
“I don’t want to see stuff like that.”
“I’ll hang it in the study. Then only I can see it.”
The study had been an abandoned space even before Joo-oh came. It wasn’t to protect the traces of his father, who had passed away a long time ago.
It’s just that he didn’t need such a large area to use as a study… To be honest, he had hardly ever entered it even when his father was alive.
The same is true now that Joo-oh has made his nest there, so except for occasionally picking out Joo-oh’s clothes, he has no business seeing what he’s doing there.
However, his spiteful nature remained, so Mu-hae grumbled again for no reason.
“If I see it, I’ll replace it with your picture.”
“My picture?”
Joo-oh, who asked back, stared blankly at the air. After a while, his eyes curved strangely, as if he were plotting something.
“I worked hard.”
“What?”
“So this much, even a picture that’s different from usual would be okay.”
He repeated his unknown determination to himself. It was unsettling.
Still, it was a hundred or a thousand times better than when he threatened to drool. Mu-hae nodded, telling him to do as he pleased, and turned his gaze to where Park Tae-sun was waiting.
‘Oh dear.’
The old man, having finished talking with his son, was tapping his left wrist. It seemed it was time for the main ceremony to begin.
The once deserted hall was slowly filling with people. Mu-hae gave them a short nod and slowly walked to his assigned seat.
The feeling of being stared at by those around him wasn’t new, but it was quite unfamiliar that the targets were not mercenaries and the poor……
The medal ceremony proceeded splendidly. An orchestra in uniform played a fanfare, and the hologram ceiling created a bright blue sky.
In the banquet hall, where even the passing smells were fragrant, Mu-hae sat neatly dressed next to the platform. The long opening remarks, which had been going on for 20 minutes already, were slowly showing signs of coming to an end.
It was a glorious and nerve-wracking occasion even for Park Young-chan, who was from Central. For Mu-hae, it was a position he would never have been able to reach even if he had died and been resurrected four or five times if he hadn’t grabbed the string called Gu-reum.
As such, he had to look even more thorough and perfect. Everyone here was focusing on the unique and interesting subject of a medal holder who was a former mercenary.
‘You won’t be able to see the Mayor.’
Before the ceremony began, Park Young-chan had added that. Originally, it was customary for the Mayor to personally award even the smallest medal, but perhaps one of the representatives would attend in his place.
That had been the case for the past few years. There were rumors that the Mayor had health problems.
Well, considering the picture found by the researchers in Central, his estimated age was well over eighty.
No matter how much medicine develops, people who are going to die will die. There was no way that humanity, which had not been able to cut off Crystal Blue and Aberrants, had conquered death.
“Since the Great Cataclysm, human life has always been exposed to external dangers. We work tirelessly in unseen places to protect our home, Goryeo City, and our families, friends, and loved ones. Scholars who study Blue Energy, members who defend the city from aggressive creatures, Councilors who mediate internal disputes and survival issues… We call those who faithfully guard their given positions and especially benefit the entire community heroes. All citizens of the city live in debt to heroes for their safety and peace. The Goryeo Hwangbong Foundation was launched three years after the city’s establishment to encourage these heroes and set an example for others, and has delivered eighty-five medals by the first half of this year to brighten society……”
It was almost time. Following the guidance of the staff, the two men went up onto the platform. Along with various words of encouragement, medals were pinned on their chests, and deafening applause poured in from all directions.
He wasn’t flustered, but he was disoriented. As he said, a person who was completely different from the Mayor in the dirty picture shook his hand, and Mu-hae followed each of the prescribed steps without making a single mistake.
The group gathered on one side to take pictures was definitely reporters. He had to be aware of them to make the image in the article look good, but somehow Mu-hae’s gaze kept turning to the other side.
A black-haired man sitting in his seat and smiling. The moment he made eye contact with Joo-oh, who had a full face even though he wasn’t the one receiving the medal, he unknowingly raised the corners of his stiff lips a little.
His arm went up and down a little. He must have taken a picture. Mu-hae had the ridiculous thought that he wouldn’t mind if the picture he took was published in the article.
Even though he would grab and shake Joo-oh’s head so hard that he wouldn’t know whether he was hitting or messing it up if he mentioned ‘a sound young man’ tomorrow.
―At the time, the direction the Class 1 Aberrant Hansugui was heading was exactly the site of Goryeo City. So if the first suppression had failed that day, there would have been unavoidable casualties or damages.
―It’s a chilling story even when I hear it again! If such accidents are repeated, won’t the city’s safety rating be negatively affected?
―That’s right. If the safety rating drops, a hazard allowance will be added to the supplies coming into Goryeo City. Our Goryeo City is one of the few cities that self-supplies a significant amount of food, but we won’t be able to prevent the price of various manufactured goods such as cloth and metal from rising.
―It’s amazing that a few people were able to stop a Class 1 Aberrant in advance, but from my point of view, the price part is more grateful and desperately touching. Haha!
―Everyone must feel the same way. In particular, one of the honorees has already shown heroic behavior several times. Not many people know about the terrorist incident that occurred during the last festival. This was also suppressed in advance…….
“Turn it off.”
“Hehe.”
Joo-oh sprawled on the sofa in a strange position, grinning. He should either lie on top or go down completely, but he was sticking his lower body to the sofa and lowering his upper body so that the crown of his head touched the ground, watching TV upside down.
And the content was about Mu-hae. Even if he tried not to care, his face was burning for no reason.
Even this morning, when he went out for a run in the park, he was greeted by strangers. Everyone seemed to know Joo-oh better than him, and they all acted friendly as if they had been neighbors who had been interacting for years, doing whatever they wanted.
He hadn’t checked it himself, but his face must have been in the article again. At this point, he could assume that the infiltration mission that Gu-reum was ordering him to do couldn’t be done in Goryeo City.
Still, he was able to continue his position as an instructor in the defense force, which he had entered under his original identity. What had been a temporary position in the form of an invitation was changed to a formal workplace.
When the two-month special training is over, Jin Mu-hae plans to go to the defense force twice a week to teach new recruits.
Even with that alone, his pockets were now full, but he decided to take on requests from the Company in his remaining time.
Because he had to travel around for Return flight, just like before.
“I have a good record now. Right.”
Joo-oh shook his head back and forth while hanging upside down, enjoying himself. His heart kept pounding, and he didn’t know if he liked that appearance or if he was annoyed by it.
Certainly, he now had a status that would not be oppressed anywhere in Goryeo City. Perhaps, as Park Tae-sun had guessed, he could use this as a stepping stone to leap to a better position.
But Mu-hae’s goal was Return flight to the end. It was to realize the ideal his father had left behind and face a completely different future.
He wasn’t entirely happy with the attention of others. He somewhat understood why the Mayor and Councilors of this city were hiding like ghosts.
―Crunch♪ Sweet and sour fun in your mouth!
―Tinkle Fruit Tornado♪♩ Find Tinkle Friends in the box!
The TV program that had been playing loudly ended, and a familiar CF began to play.
Jin Mu-hae glared at the bouncing mascot character and thought of Park Young-chan. More precisely, the pink toy figure that was going up in his hand.
‘Tinkle Friends are for friends you want to do well.’
Park Young-chan was a person who lacked nothing. He had a job as a member of the defense force, a wealthy and prestigious family as his background, and now he was a talented person who had received a medal, even if it was the lowest grade, like Mu-hae.
Did such a person need the help of a colorful, stupid lump of plastic? It was impossible to know why Tinkle Friends had moved to him.
While Joo-oh was engrossed in the morning bread CF, Jin Mu-hae clicked his tongue and headed to the study. It was because the T-shirt he had been wearing at home since the other day was nowhere to be seen.
He didn’t remember throwing his clothes anywhere, so Joo-oh must have secretly taken them and piled them up next to the Tinkle Friends figure.
Sighing, he opened the tightly closed door of the study, and among the familiar scenery, there was an object he had never seen before in the middle of the desk.
He didn’t know where it came from, but it was a tabletop photo frame. A cheap plywood frame that could display the desired image.
As he had guessed, it contained a picture from the medal ceremony. However, it wasn’t a moment when his medal was pinned on his chest or a scene of him greeting someone, but a slightly shaky two-shot that someone had taken roughly.
“……”
It was a picture of Jin Mu-hae and Joo-oh. Joo-oh was smiling faintly next to Mu-hae, who had a medal on.
Red eyes were gesturing at the camera. As if telling him to take it quickly. With a face that said, ‘Take it secretly now.’
‘Even a picture that’s different from usual would be okay.’
Seriously. Mu-hae didn’t know what that ‘usual’ was, but he knew that Joo-oh had always taken a step back when he was shining.
He felt strange that he had even made a decision about something like this. Mu-hae stared intently at the frame before turning around and heading to the side of the mattress.
“I knew it.”
The clothes Joo-oh had stolen were neatly inside the blanket. Mu-hae shook the crumpled cloth with a bang, and then smelled the faint scent of another person that remained at the tip of his nose.
It was strange. Since when had he been in his life, and the sweet scent in the study felt so natural.