By Zephyria 
The Starpath, which would exist unchangingly in the world, whether as matter or as a document.
The people waiting for the changes it would bring.
The vanished Gu-reum and the big shot who was still biding his time.
Elements that would not disappear simply by ignoring them cluttered his mind.
Mu-hae could not fall asleep easily and stared at the ceiling. In times like this, a field of vision where not even a stain was visible in the darkness felt more comforting.
He felt as though he hadn’t had any particular worries when he first started this work. But as time went on, he had to worry, agonize, contemplate, and make choices more and more.
Sometimes, he felt that the days when he cared for nothing but survival without a single thought were better. In those days, if he was given a proper place to sleep, he could get very efficient sleep in a short amount of time.
But…
“Mmm… hng.”
After smacking his lips a few more times, Joo-oh suddenly let out a silly giggle. Then, he soon drifted into a deeper sleep.
Even just from the silhouette, his fast-asleep face looked so peaceful and happy that Mu-hae felt as if the knots within his own heart were melting away.
As expected, he did not regret stepping into the Return flight. It was the first direction given to a life without a goal, and it was also the inflection point that marked the beginning of his life with Joo-oh.
It only bothered him that he hadn’t brought it to a proper conclusion. If the price for that was gaining Joo-oh’s presence, it was something he could sufficiently endure and gladly accept.
‘Central’s core district…’
It seemed the big shot was indeed the person he had vaguely suspected.
If so, the reason that man consistently guided him with these kinds of tricks became understandable. If he had to guess, Gu-reum was likely connected to that man as well.
It was just like the puzzle problems Joo-oh liked. The kind of pastime games where you fill each cell with numbers or color them to complete a picture.
If you slip up just once, all subsequent solutions go astray, but if you grasp a single clue correctly, the entire structure that follows is explained in succession.
[Thank you for confirming. I’ll treat you to the meal I missed last time when you have a moment.]
While replying to Hwang-jae’s message, Teacher Jung suddenly came to mind. There had been no contact or visits from him since that day.
He was a man who rarely reached out first unless there was something special. Still, since he had left after seeing such a gruesome sight, Mu-hae was damn worried.
From the moment that insane monstrosity—the cursed lubricant—was discovered, he must have guessed a part of this messy relationship.
And of all times, he was called there just as that side of things was revealed…
The troubled look on his face kept flickering before his eyes. Had he told Director Gil about that day?
No, Director Gil’s condition had been poor all along, so he might have brushed it off to avoid causing concern.
After all, it wouldn’t be pleasant for the party involved to hear that the fellow Jin Mu-hae is staying with is actually an Aberrant, and that a cure is currently being made using that thing’s blood.
It was even more so now that there was hope for a cure. Even when he had lost his reason due to Joo-oh’s problem, those words alone had pierced his ears clearly.
Despite being confused himself, the fact that he had calmly delivered the progress report before leaving was a kind of thoughtfulness typical of Teacher Jung.
“Jin Mu-hae…”
A slow, pleasant voice was heard. Thinking it was just sleep-talking again, he only lowered his gaze slightly, but unexpectedly, the fellow who had blearily opened his eyes was calling him.
After searching through the memories of the previous day in a daze for a moment, Joo-oh smiled deeply, his eyes folding long.
“I like Jin Mu-hae.”
The words he always uttered felt exceptionally special. Mu-hae quietly stroked his hair before pressing it down firmly.
“Sleep more.”
“I’m done sleeping.”
“It’s still night.”
“It’s 4 o’clock.”
He talked back after quickly checking the time with the recovered Link Watch.
Mu-hae just lay there without responding. Joo-oh fidgeted and pulled the blanket down a bit.
“Why isn’t Jin Mu-hae sleeping?”
“I just woke up for a bit. I’m going back to sleep.”
It was a lie. Lately, Mu-hae woke up every dawn and could not fall back asleep until daybreak.
Since he had given up on the Return flight, there should have been no more troublesome problems, but instead, his thoughts grew more numerous and rest became uncomfortable.
If Joo-oh hadn’t taken him to bed and burrowed into his arms every night, he wouldn’t have been able to get even a few hours of sleep.
Fortunately, his healthy body did not break down or drain easily despite the harsh schedule. Then again, he had often experienced even worse schedules when taking mercenary requests.
“…Are you curious?”
He asked again without context in a voice laced with sleepiness. He was now exhaustingly familiar with questions that lacked both a subject and an object.
He couldn’t scold him for missing the important elements of the sentence. Regrettably, he understood.
He was curious. He was curious about Joo-oh’s circumstances, which the other seemed to have no intention of revealing, and honestly, he was curious about the future of the Return flight that had been covered up.
Among those, what he was most curious about at this moment was the person who had called him to Central. Not only about the identity he suspected, but he felt an inevitable curiosity about what purpose that man had in orchestrating things this far.
“No.”
“Liar.”
“I’m more curious about how you’ll react when you find out the Fruit Tornadoes are all gone.”
“…They’re gone?”
“Not that either. Just an example.”
He would leave that as a mystery never to be unearthed. Even in his original life, all he knew was how to eat, sleep, fight, and survive.
“Jin Mu-hae, you dummy.” The fellow, grumbling because he had been tricked, sniffed habitually. Then, with his mouth buried in the other’s arm, he murmured barely audibly.
“I’m curious. Because I worked hard.”
“About what.”
“Yeonneul Path.”
“…You knew.”
His fingertips stiffened slightly. The guess he had made in an instant on the day he disappeared was correct.
For some reason, as someone damnably good at puzzles, he had figured out the answer upon seeing the jumbled six letters.
If it were Joo-oh, he might have even properly arranged the sequence of numbers that followed. But until asked, or even if asked, he probably wouldn’t give a straight answer.
Looking back, he had always been like that. Whether intentional or not, while serving as a decisive clue for the solution, he only took the stance of watching without interfering in the detailed process.
‘I don’t know. He’s probably smarter than you. He seems to have a good sense of judgment, too.’
The words he had wanted to refute so badly became a firmer wall, echoing in his head once more.
Damn it. The sudden discomfort in his stomach wasn’t because the other’s level didn’t stop at that of a hamster.
It was the fact that he wasn’t the first to notice it. Teacher Jung had seen through it in advance, and perhaps someone else had quietly realized it, yet he—who lived with him day and night—had remained oblivious.
‘So it’s my fault.’
He had known early on that Joo-oh was useful and had involved him in various tasks. Yet, the truth he couldn’t accept until the end was now piling up like karma, pressing down on his head.
Click. When he turned on the nightlight, a dim light illuminated the two of them.
“That’s why I want to go.”
“No.”
“I’m not trying to find something. I just want to go.”
The languid feeling vanished instantly, and it felt as if the blood in his entire body had cooled. Seeing the sudden change in expression, Joo-oh quickly rubbed his cheek against the arm he was holding.
The act, which seemed like he was acting cute, was trivial yet adorable, causing the stiff muscles in Mu-hae’s back to relax.
“I want to see it. The success reward. Because I worked hard.”
The absurd explanation overlapped with the excuses he had repeated to himself in the past. Jin Mu-hae had thought so too—that even if he witnessed the hidden truth, the change ultimately depended on his own hands, so couldn’t he stop whenever he wanted?
He hadn’t expected to hear the same words from Joo-oh’s mouth. It seemed it wasn’t just his own rationalization.
He could have easily ignored him and turned away, telling him not to talk nonsense, but he couldn’t bring himself to push away the fellow in his arms.
Because he had just realized the result of having looked away.
Mu-hae rolled the unfamiliar place name in his mouth and slowly closed and opened his eyes. There was no Beast lunging for his neck in the quiet house, yet he didn’t know why he felt so unsettled and tense.
In the end, unable to endure it, he changed the subject. To another topic he had been very curious about but hadn’t pressed further.
“You. What did you say when you went to the hospital that day?”
As the arrow suddenly flew toward him, the amount of white in Joo-oh’s eyes increased.
“I just said it was strange. Really.”
“Strange how?”
“Like, when I lock the door and say I’m leaving, they look at me like this, and, um, also… they take my Watch…”
If he had only said things like that, his brazen attitude wouldn’t have diminished this much.
When Mu-hae tapped his back and urged him to keep talking, Joo-oh’s body curled up in a defensive ball.
“I won’t say anything, so spill it properly.”
“…Really?”
“Tell me within 5 seconds. 5. 4. 3—”
“Originally, after hitting me, you’d touch me here and there, but now you don’t hit me and you don’t touch me either…”
Oh boy. No wonder it felt strange. The look in Teacher Jung’s eyes when he saw him had been beyond suspicious.
Mu-hae clutched his head and let out a groan. A headache didn’t rush in like when he heard the melody in the attic of the abandoned building, but he felt it would be better to be in pain.
“But Jin Mu-hae told me not to say it, so I told them to pretend they didn’t hear.”
“…”
“We promised to keep it a secret, and if he finds out, Jin Mu-hae will get angry. I said I don’t like it when Jin Mu-hae gets angry…”
“Stop. Stop talking.”
‘Didn’t say much,’ my ass. You fucking picked only the most cringeworthy things to say.
He took a deep breath, forcing down the shout that almost burst out. It felt as if the sleepiness he didn’t have in the first place had been completely uprooted and blown away.
While engraving the true meaning of the proverb ‘ignorance is bliss’ into his bones, the pitch-black window was faintly brightening.
“Yeonneul Path… so you’re saying let’s go there.”
It was miserable that this topic felt more comfortable by comparison. Mu-hae pushed the rest of the blanket aside and stood up.
He could breathe a bit easier since Joo-oh tactfully kept his mouth shut and only nodded. Just in time, Hwang-jae, whose work must have been winding down, sent an energetic reply.
Vrrr—
[This helped a bit too, right? I told you I’d get it done if I said I would. But I’ve never been to a neighborhood like that either; I’ve only heard of it. If it’s inside Central, there will be guards from the entrance, so what are you planning to do?]
Well, I’ll evade the guards and infiltrate as usual. Even if not, there must be a way to get in.
The puzzle-setter who left the code wouldn’t want the test subject to be blocked at the entrance and turn back.
While hesitating for a moment, his eyes met Joo-oh’s. The gaze shimmering with longing was quite persistent and desperate.
He had intended to take a step back and think about it again. But it seemed the situation was flowing in that direction once more, inevitably.
“This time, I’ll really, really be quiet. I’ll just hold Jin Mu-hae’s arm tightly until we go home.”
“As if.”
“I’ll stay by your side. Because Jin Mu-hae likes me.”
After finishing his sentence, he rolled himself up in the blanket and hid. Unlike other times, not even the top of his head was visible, so Mu-hae poked him with his foot for no reason.
Since there was no movement, he searched through the bundle of blankets, but Joo-oh showed no sign of coming out.
Only after a long while did he poke just his hand out and grab Mu-hae. Through the touching skin, the unusually fast heartbeat was felt vividly.
248 – I Became an Anomaly in a Dead Game