By Zephyria 
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“This is, like, a puzzle.”
“What do I do?”
“I’m not entirely sure. But it seems like if you fold it a certain way, some kind of picture appears inside.”
Even as he spoke, Mu-hae unconsciously fidgeted with the back of his head, realizing his explanation was far too vague.
Meanwhile, his gaze remained obsessively fixed on the handkerchief, so he didn’t even notice the expression on Joo-oh’s face.
“……Right! Got it!”
A simple and clear answer came back. When Mu-hae finally looked up, Joo-oh’s face was flushed.
“I’ve never seen a puzzle like this. It’s something new.”
He immediately reached out, seemingly quite intrigued. Joo-oh narrowed his eyes and turned the handkerchief this way and that.
As if searching for a rule, he traced the patterns with his fingertips, trying to connect them.
“This. It’s a diagonal line.”
“What?”
“If you put the blue and purple parts together here, ta-da.”
As if by magic, the unfolded handkerchief returned to the shape Mu-hae had folded it into earlier. Joo-oh stared blankly at the long, extended line and smacked his lips.
Mu-hae quietly ordered a few desserts and a shake topped with plenty of cream, then held a leftover baby choux cream to Joo-oh’s lips.
Nom. He accepted it obediently and licked his lips. A slight smile played at the corners of his elongated eyes.
“Here, purple and pink. Hmm, this one.”
Mu-hae had no idea where these diagonal lines were or what he was discovering to match them, but he was just glad Joo-oh could see them.
Joo-oh began muttering to himself, seemingly figuring out the laws of the puzzle in his own way.
“Sixty…… then over. Not this one. Three. Four. Four? If it’s six, they stick.”
Naturally, it was incomprehensible. Looking like he was chanting a spell, Mu-hae completely gave up on interfering and tended to the served food.
When Mu-hae cut a piece of raspberry mousse cake with a fork and offered it, Joo-oh’s nose twitched before he snapped it up and swallowed.
“Mmm. Mmm.”
He seemed to like it. His cheeks turned a faint shade of red.
“Ta-da.”
Before long, Joo-oh found another line. It was a shape that formed an angle by matching the ends with another line.
And the half-folded handkerchief now clearly took on a circular form.
Even without folding the remaining corner, it was obvious what the finished look would be.
“A circle.”
“I think a triangle will appear inside.”
A square. A circle inside it. And then a triangle.
At the overly familiar sequence, Mu-hae let out a low groan. A pattern that had appeared relentlessly since his father’s study. This belonged to the Return flight.
The suspicion he had hoped wasn’t true had become reality. Olga really was looking for the Return flight.
Through some route, an object from the Return flight had fallen into her hands, and now Mu-hae had to use that clue to track down a member of the Return flight.
Despite the fact that he himself was the head of the haphazardly reconstructed Return flight!
“Done.”
In the meantime, Joo-oh finally folded the square handkerchief this way and that to create a spherical shape.
As expected, a faint triangle was visible. Faced with a truth he could not ignore, Mu-hae’s throat felt dry, and he took a sip of the shake.
“Tsk.”
Naturally, it was disgustingly sweet. He wondered if it was a crime to serve this level of sweetness in a cup of this size, topped with cream.
“Me too. Me too.”
Unaware that the other was recoiling from the sweetness, Joo-oh reached out eagerly.
Then, with a quick flick, he stuck out his tongue slightly and licked the corner of Mu-hae’s mouth.
Startled, Mu-hae looked around. Fortunately, no one was watching them.
“What are you doing right now?”
“Jin Mu-hae had a cream beard, so I wiped it off.”
“Are the tissues just for decoration? Why would you lick it off?”
“Haha.”
He gave a ridiculously mysterious smile and sipped the remaining shake.
Since there was a perfectly good straw, the fact that he pressed his lips to the cup to drink must have been intentional.
For example, the stark white cream now clearly smeared on his own lips.
“……I’m not doing it for you.”
“But I solved the puzzle.”
“I’m grateful for that, but don’t do this kind of thing in public.”
Was he crazy? There was no reason to be pressing lips and smacking in front of everyone.
Mu-hae took photos of the final circular form from various angles to record it, then shook the handkerchief out and unfolded it.
“The pattern is Return flight. The compass is direction. That means all that’s left are -1 and -4.”
“…….”
“Sigh…… When we get home. I’ll do it for you when we’re alone.”
“Hmph. Fine.”
Finally over his disappointment, Joo-oh uncrossed his arms and leaned close to the table. He tilted his head again, wondering about something.
“But this time, I don’t know in advance either.”
“When did you ever know in advance?”
“Hmm. If it’s coordinates, it’s that. The thing that pops up on Jin Mu-hae’s machine.”
Was he talking about the GPS? He was right, but the code written here seemed far removed from the general coordinates verified by a device.
Still, since the involvement of the Return flight was now certain, he would likely find something if he dug through the records he had accumulated.
“That’s it for the outing.”
“We’re leaving already?”
“Yes. Go back, wash up, and get ready for bed.”
Ignoring the dry response, Joo-oh clung tightly to his arm.
Jin Mu-hae stayed awake all night. Since he was in his prime, he didn’t suffer from exhaustion or the pain of collapsing into sleep, but he had agonized so much that his head was throbbing.
Still, sitting at his father’s desk and reviewing the records of the Return flight gave him a very strange feeling.
Joo-oh had lain on the mattress watching him for a while before eventually closing his eyes and falling asleep.
Fortunately, he didn’t seem to be having nightmares, as his face looked perfectly peaceful. As if the scent of Jin Mu-hae was infused into the blanket that already smelled sweet, he had been hugging it and rolling around, and now he was wrapped up in it.
‘There’s nothing new popping up in the index system.’
Sighing, he habitually looked down at his wrist: 7:00 AM. Soon, Joo-oh would stir awake and smack his lips.
He carefully left the study and searched the cupboard, where he saw a can of beans with a large Company mark on it.
Since Mu-hae had infiltrated the Company, all their food products had designs completely devoid of aesthetic sense.
They had been made roughly with the idea that they would be refined once the immediate crisis was over, but even now, not a single thing had changed, not even the tacky colors.
“Good grief. They really put their hands into everything.”
It wasn’t just food. The fire response systems in each residential area had undergone simple changes, and new security measures had been added to the sewage tunnels and waste disposal facilities.
Significant improvements were also visible in the defense force’s accident records. Though not apparent on the surface, the vegan society group must also be struggling. After all, three quite influential old men had vanished in an instant.
Throughout Goryeo City, which always maintained the same appearance, the traces of one person remained surprisingly abundant.
Recalling the events he had passed through, Mu-hae naturally ruminated on the ‘mission’ that lay ahead of him.
Finding the West Wind, verifying the completed research, and the final stage of rooting out Crystal Blue……
‘I’m happy when I’m with Jin Mu-hae.’
Why did the voice of the sleeping fellow echo in his ears like an auditory hallucination?
At the same time, the chest that had been slightly swelling with emotion suddenly settled and calmed down.
As expected, he wanted to postpone it. For the first time in his life, he wanted to look away from the work assigned to him and play the fool.
Exterminating Aberrants and the liberation of humanity—weren’t those sounds too grandiose and idealistic for a mere mercenary to handle?
He still felt a flicker of excitement at the word ‘change,’ but since when had he moved according to emotion instead of reality?
As he suppressed the creeping urge for challenge, he suddenly heard the sound of a doorknob clicking in the distance.
It was obviously Joo-oh. Thump, thump—the fellow who usually walked silently was now making his presence known, walking over to wrap his arms tightly around Mu-hae’s back.
“Jin Mu-haee.”
A voice that was limp and lingering from sleep. The sweet, cozy scent made his heart flutter.
“Aren’t we going to Jaegang District?”
“Why there?”
“I think I left Tetelong. I put it on the armrest of the basement sofa, but I forgot it and just left.”
He had managed to recall something from nearly two months ago. He was making a fuss about going back to the Return flight hideout that had been left abandoned without knowing how Mu-hae felt.
“Just get a new one. Besides, you eat that cereal every day anyway.”
“That one is the prettiest. Handsome ones don’t come out easily.”
……Actually, while reviewing his father’s documents all night, he had wanted to check the records in Jaegang District as well.
While he hesitated on whether to answer, he felt the sensation of a head rubbing against his back.
“Jin Mu-hae.”
“What.”
“The Return flight. Are you not doing it anymore?”
Suddenly, he asked something unexpected. Mu-hae flinched as if he had been stabbed in the gut and looked away.
“It keeps trying to load and then stopping. I kept wondering why, and it’s because Jin Mu-hae isn’t moving.”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“You said it would help. If you find the Return flight people.”
Another rambling story that only he understood. To make matters worse, he pressed his lips firmly against the other’s body and muttered, and Mu-hae could feel the vibration with every mumble.
Mu-hae reached back and lightly gripped the soft hair.
Such useless interference. No matter how much he had drawn Joo-oh into the Return flight, in the end, this was entirely Mu-hae’s burden.
As he tried to ignore it and just stroke the hair, ironically, Olga’s words began to scratch at his brain.
‘Sometimes, there are things that cannot be shared even for the sake of the greater good. It is a shameful thing to say, but it makes one ignore a greater value just to cover the flaws of a loved one……’
In all his life, he had never thought this much, nor had he ever been this indecisive.
Feeling inexplicably irritated, he gave the clinging fellow a few pats to push him away.
Right, even if it wasn’t because of the Return flight, the secret contained in the handkerchief had to be solved anyway. It wouldn’t be too late to worry about his future after that.
Mu-hae brushed his hair back and revised his planned schedule for the day.
“Just eat. I’ll stop by Jaegang District before lunch.”
He had to go to Jaegang District. Once he granted Olga’s request and secured the T-47, he would be able to distance himself from all matters for a while.
Thinking of Cheong’s smug face, Mu-hae grit his teeth with an audible grind.
199 – Became an aberration in a failed game