By Zephyria 
From that moment on, he couldn’t tell if the food was going into his mouth or his nose.
He was clearly having a conversation and dining with Park Tae-sun, but he couldn’t taste a thing; his hearing and his entire focus were concentrated on the maintenance area where the unwelcome guest was hiding.
At the same time, he had to concentrate on the flow of the conversation, so while his expression remained calm, he felt like he was dying inside.
He couldn’t understand what on earth possessed the other to crawl into the ceiling, but then he recalled how the boy had been desperate to come along, and he felt his strength drain, wondering if it had really been that important to him.
He was annoyed, but since his anger wasn’t surging like it had before, it actually made him more irritated. Specifically, he hated that Park Tae-sun was trying to set him up with his daughter.
That was why he had filled the boy’s account with money and sent him to a paradise of food, yet the boy had ignored all of that and rushed over here in a panic.
Clunk.
While slicing the main course with a knife, the topic of the second daughter—whose name he still didn’t know—came up again, and a faint sign of protest was heard from the side.
Once was fine, but if it kept happening, it would arouse suspicion. Mu-hae stealthily moved one hand toward his fork. He was ready to drop his cutlery at any moment if he heard a strange noise.
Damn it. He felt like it was his karma that he had to do this while eating.
It was his fault for educating that crazy bastard poorly. It was his fault for ignoring the fact that the boy had started pulling absurd stunts on his own and leaving him alone at a cafe.
He concluded that there was no benefit to dragging this out any longer. To end it, he would have to bring up a topic that would make Joo-oh throw a fit, which made him a bit nervous.
At first, he had been tense about delivering the main point without revealing his true intentions to Park Tae-sun, but now he didn’t even have the leisure to care about that. A sense of self-loathing left a bitter taste on the tip of his tongue, making him wonder if this was the right way to go.
“Then, has your daughter taken on a position as a Councilor?”
“I have no such ambition. I simply assist the appropriate talents for the development of the city.”
No ambition, my foot. Since the structure of the Council is such that a vacancy must open up to be filled, it seemed she was building her position by clinging to some old man who intended to retire.
Since Park Tae-sun held the purse strings of the Council Faction, it was obvious to anyone that she was aiming for that gap. She wanted to secure a better position as a reward for her devotion, so she wouldn’t be swept away by any sudden storm.
Clunk.
Clatter!
As expected, when an uncomfortable noise was heard, Mu-hae dropped the fork he had been eyeing, pretending it was an accident.
His reaction speed was so incredible that the sounds overlapped almost simultaneously. If he had shown this ability while fighting Beasts or Aberrants outside, he would have been proud and boastful, but using it for something like this felt hollow.
“It’s alright. I was just thinking I wanted to use chopsticks, haha.”
He immediately blocked the gesture to call a staff member. Then, he pushed the others away and leaned his upper body forward as if he had something to say.
“I’ve never had much interest in these things in my life… but after meeting various people over a short period, I found that there are some who strangely pique my interest.”
“Interest, you say?”
“There was someone who changed their clothes once during the medal ceremony.”
“Was there… Ah. CEO Han’s daughter. You have great observational skills, considering you must have been busy with your own affairs.”
Hardly. That information relied entirely on Joo-oh’s memory. There was no way Mu-hae would have noticed who spilled what on their pants or changed clothes in such an uncomfortable setting.
“I wouldn’t say we’re close, but I have some acquaintance with that family. Do you perhaps wish to meet her?”
“No. The person who was at the same table as her…”
“Ah. Indeed. The other one is the nephew of a Councilor’s house.”
Park Tae-sun’s gaze became subtle. He looked as if he had found the ambition he desired within a product that had seemed somewhat disappointing.
“I’ve benefited a lot from my youngest child’s affairs, so there’s no reason I can’t provide that much of a reward. However, seeing how you’re hesitating, it seems there isn’t just one or two people you’re interested in?”
Faced with such eerily sharp intuition, Mu-hae played dumb and let it slide.
Even if he was the money line for the Council Faction, he probably couldn’t arrange meetings with every single suspicious candidate, but he could provide the opportunity to observe from up close people who would be hard to encounter even if one searched all of central.
* * *
“…did.”
“I can’t hear you.”
“I’ll never… Jin Mu-hae… hmm… I’ll follow whatever he tells me to, hmph.”
“You’re not saying it properly, are you?”
“I won’t. I’m going to follow Jin Mu-hae!”
The boy, whose collar was gripped at the nape of his neck, struggled and protested crookedly.
Mu-hae tossed Joo-oh onto the sofa, despite the fact that the boy could have escaped at any time if he wanted to, but instead chose to flop around like a live fish.
“Jin Mu-hae gets mad when I talk to Cheong. But only me.”
“Is that the same thing? That’s work.”
“I work too!”
Despite having crawled through the ventilation ducts to intrude on the meeting with Park Tae-sun, there wasn’t a hint of remorse to be found.
Before leaving the room, Mu-hae had been anxious about getting him out of the maintenance area where his coat was; not knowing that, the boy was being utterly insolent.
Furthermore, the fact that he kept mentioning Cheong—didn’t that mean he had been giggling and flirting with that man, knowing full well that Mu-hae felt disgusted whenever he met him?
Mu-hae finished taking off his suit jacket and hanging it up, then rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt.
Since they couldn’t communicate rationally, he had no confidence in persuading him. Teacher Jung had said the boy was certainly brilliant, but he couldn’t tell if he just didn’t understand or chose not to.
“I paid for the meal as a reward for staying quiet, so I’m taking it back.”
“No you didn’t. Jin Mu-hae gave it to me instead of leaving me behind.”
“I couldn’t leave you behind, could I?”
“….”
Fortunately, he still hadn’t lost a verbal battle to this brat. If that day ever came, he’d rather hook a grappling wire to his own skull and jump.
Mu-hae barely lowered his arched eyebrows and proceeded to recover the transferred amount in full.
Or rather, he tried to recover it. Until the insufficient funds warning popped up, he truly believed this was a justified punishment.
“…Where is it.”
“….”
“I asked where the money is.”
“I spent it. Jin Mu-hae told me to spend it.”
“You said you rushed straight into the ventilation duct.”
Again. The amount of white in his eyes increased as his eyelashes fluttered. When Mu-hae stared at him with a stern face, the boy squirmed on the sofa before slowly straightening his back.
“It’s not a lie. I just didn’t say it.”
He didn’t even want to ask what that meant. He felt a headache coming on because he already had a feeling.
He had given him a substantial amount of money so he could eat slowly for a couple of hours. If he had spent it all, it was obvious that several desserts at the cafe where he had stayed briefly would be sold out.
“No!”
Why did his intuition only sharpen at times like this? As soon as Mu-hae turned his head, the damn brat dashed forward and claimed the bag.
The bag didn’t even look that bulging; he had no idea how the boy had stuffed so much in there. Perhaps he was even better at storage than Mu-hae himself.
Since he had a talent for that, he probably kept pulling out hoarded snacks from all sorts of places and munching away.
“Do you want me to flip it over, or will you take them out?”
“…I will.”
Perhaps imagining the fate of his long-awaited treats, Joo-oh’s previously brazen eyebrows drooped sorrowfully.
He plopped down on the floor and listlessly rummaged through the bag. Following his hand, cookies, nameless small breads, and desserts were pulled out one by one in their packaging.
It was so absurd that he wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him; it felt as if more was coming out than the bag’s size should allow.
At least it was a relief that he wasn’t lying and was showing everything. Thinking that, Mu-hae suddenly let out a hollow laugh, wondering what this brat took him for.
The way he muttered the prices while pulling out the snacks made it look as if he was worried Mu-hae would scold him if the calculation was even slightly off from the amount spent.
Who would do something so unproductive and childish? Mu-hae barely suppressed the words that almost burst out.
It was because he felt a strange prickle of guilt. Strangely, when he was with him, there were times when he himself became childish to a pathetic degree.
“…Pick some.”
“Huh?”
Mu-hae, who had been viciously sorting the cookie wrappers with his foot, nudged the sulking Joo-oh’s leg and spoke.
In his heart, he wanted to just pour the cereal he ate for two days over the boy’s head, but it was true that he had left him behind for a while.
If there was no compensation for that, the boy wouldn’t even try to deceive him next time and would just stick to him like glue. Having cleverly caught the meaning, Joo-oh’s face brightened slightly.
“You said you’d touch me too.”
As soon as Mu-hae backed off a bit, the boy immediately stretched out his foot. He thought he was stupid, but he was actually quite cunning.
“Then include that in your choice.”
At the flat notification, the smile that had been forming on the boy’s lips vanished again. Joo-oh looked back and forth between Mu-hae, Mu-hae’s hand, and the snacks on the floor several times in disbelief.
“…Touch me.”
It was a voice that sounded neither happy nor sad. The Hungry Ghost brat had passed up the food and chosen this.
Even though it was a result he had already anticipated, he felt a strange sense of satisfaction. Mu-hae cleared his throat for no reason and nudged him with his toe once more.
“Just take three.”
“…!”
“Your hair is a mess, yet you went around feeling proud of it.”
From the moment he was pulled out of the hiding spot until now, Joo-oh’s hair had been sticking out in all directions.
It smelled fragrant, as if he had been hit by the fabric-blowing air inside; since Mu-hae had a stiff face and wouldn’t even look at him, he had come all the way home looking like that.
As Mu-hae stroked and rubbed his hair as if pressing it down with his entire palm, the boy’s round eyes narrowed.
Hehe. Making a foolishly happy sound, Joo-oh rubbed his head back and forth. He pressed his cheek against the hand and sniffed the scent.
He looked completely absorbed, as if someone else’s hand were his own. It made Mu-hae wonder if there was anyone else in the world who could be this desperate for his affection.
An expression that said he didn’t care about a Return flight, a residence, or money—as long as he had Jin Mu-hae, it was enough.
“I heard there’s another donation event in a while. We have to go together, so if you cause trouble, I won’t be able to handle it.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“And I’ve never thought about something like a damn marriage, so if you annoy me one more time, know that I’ll tie you to a chair and go around alone.”
“Okay!”
When he thought about telling the boy he’d never take him to Sakdal again if he babbled about Cheong one more time, he got goosebumps at his own childishness.
It was irritating because he felt like he became a bothersome and petty man whenever he was involved with Joo-oh. To show off, Mu-hae pulled all the remaining snacks toward himself with his hand.
223 – I Became an Anomaly in a Dead Game