MIT 59

“Three people.”

Joo-oh, as if hearing the footsteps, perked up his ears and informed him.

It was something he saw all the time, but it was still amazing every time. Can the tip of a person’s ear twitch like that?

Soon, Mu-hae also faintly picked up the murmuring voices. Before long, the tightly closed door burst open unexpectedly.

Stepping into the narrow waiting room were two armed guards and a man with blue hair.

“Blueberry cinnamon roll.”

Joo-oh muttered quietly. The man in the center’s round man bun was dyed all the way to the roots in an artificial color that anyone could see.

“Wow. I thought you’d be fighting for at least 10 minutes.”

“……”

“You finished too quickly. I didn’t even get to watch the fight.”

Unlike his flamboyant hair color and cheerful tone, the man’s voice was calm and serious.

Perhaps because of his strikingly unbalanced appearance, his already intense presence felt deeply etched into his mind.

It was by no means a welcome feeling. Jin Mu-hae, buttoning up his loosened shirt one button at a time, silently looked up at the stranger who had suddenly appeared.

…Somehow, he felt like he knew who he was.

“Stalker?”

At the question, the man’s eyebrows twitched.

“Your idea is so boring.”

“What else would it be other than a rich stalker who assigns people to follow me every time I come here?”

He had a bad feeling. No matter how famous, Sakdal was just a pleasure district outside the residential area.

Nevertheless, the tingling sensation he felt was unusual. The thought that the person in front of him was the power of Sakdal, and that his power was not limited to just one organization in the slums, flashed through Mu-hae’s mind.

Come to think of it, Gu-reum also sent him here. Apparently, the Central was condoning the smuggling.

It was only illegal on the surface, but in reality, it was a proper ‘deal’ that pursued mutual interests.

“Well. Isn’t that my freedom?”

The man chuckled and sat down at the tea table. Facing Mu-hae, who was sitting on the sofa, his black eyes held pure interest.

Mu-hae felt it again. The power he had predicted a moment ago might be bigger and grander than he thought.

“I don’t think a visitor has any right to complain about who I’m watching in the area I manage.”

The ‘manager’ who held Sakdal, narrow and deep, in his hands and controlled it at will, revealed himself to Mu-hae in that way.

The ominous prediction came true. Jin Mu-hae swallowed a deep sigh inwardly.

“…So, what’s your purpose?”

“Hmm? Why are you asking that? Aren’t you the one who made this mess?”

Knowing full well that he had people following him from before, it was a truly brazen answer.

He wasn’t someone who would give a proper answer. Mu-hae gave up replying and quietly glared at the blue-haired guy.

His mind began to race. Why this man, whom he had never met in his life, had been targeting him, and why he had focused his attention on a single mercenary in a pleasure district full of things to play and enjoy.

He needed to figure out the other person’s intentions, but all that flashed through his mind were Mu-hae’s own weaknesses.

Jin Mu-hae had been pushed out of a normal life due to his father’s criminal record, and now he had inherited that crime himself and carried it on his shoulders.

Return flight. The name came to mind, and his heart sank. Mu-hae tried to hide his inner thoughts and avoid Cheong’s eyes.

What does he know? How much has he figured out? Is he just testing the waters without knowing anything?

If the connection that Gu-reum sent as help was this person, does that mean he is also one of the accomplices?

No. No. His father’s reform was over 20 years ago, and all the accomplices are old people.

Cheong seemed too young to be among them. He was older than Mu-hae, but even if you gave him the benefit of the doubt, he would have been a teenager at the time.

“Ahahaha. Aren’t you a bit delusional?”

Cheong laughed, breaking the silence. He didn’t know what was so funny, but it was an unpleasant way of speaking.

He tapped the glass on the tea table with his hand, then leaned forward.

Jin Mu-hae’s expression contorted at the face that came too close.

Cheong smelled of violets that had fermented. If it wasn’t a perfume with an incomprehensible taste, it would be the lingering scent of the drugs he was taking.

“Jin Mu-hae. Twenty-four years old. Lives in the western slum outside the Janggae area, mercenary work for 7 years. It’s true that I assigned people to you, but.”

The man who had been talking about delusions just before shamelessly brought up someone else’s personal information.

But soon his head turned to the side. Mu-hae, who inadvertently followed his gaze, stared at Cheong with a chilling expression.

“It was because that interesting thing was always sticking to you.”

Joo-oh was sitting next to the sofa. He had a knack for reading the atmosphere like a ghost, but it seemed to have disappeared somewhere again, and he was smiling and chewing on a piece of jerky.

As Cheong’s eyes met Joo-oh’s exactly, Joo-oh tilted his head to one side, then turned to Mu-hae and looked back at Cheong.

Tilting again. Turning, turning.

“Me?”

Joo-oh, who had been excitedly watching the situation as if he were an audience member at a play, belatedly erased his smile.

It wasn’t common for his smile to disappear so quickly from his face, so Mu-hae’s temples also throbbed.

Whack! Cheong threw back Joo-oh’s hood. Jin Mu-hae quickly reached out his arm, but the guard next to Cheong grabbed him and blocked him.

His neatly arranged hair was a little disheveled, but Joo-oh was still in good shape.

Fzzzt- Sss.

“Huuuuuu….”

Cheong, who smoked and exhaled smoke while sucking on something like a glass rod, smiled long enough to show his fangs.

This was the identity of the scent that had been coming from him. He hid the glass rod with the blue light slowly flickering in his hand, and moved the seat he was sitting on, turning his body towards Joo-oh.

“You look like this. I like it.”

“Me? Why me?”

Joo-oh, who showed not only an incomprehensible expression but even embarrassment, gropingly reached out to Mu-hae.

His red eyes were repeatedly moving back and forth between Mu-hae and Cheong. His hand tapped Mu-hae’s leg as if to say, ‘Do something.’

“Joo-oh. Right? That’s what it said on the documents.”

“Why me?”

Another meaningless question flowed out. Was it just his imagination that it sounded more like ‘Why are you interested in me instead of Jin Mu-hae?’ rather than ‘Why are you interested in me?’

Tap. Cheong grabbed Joo-oh’s chin and lifted it up. His attitude of examining other people’s faces was rude and arrogant.

He took the jerky in Joo-oh’s hand and threw it into his own mouth.

“Jin Mu-hae….”

His clear face was filled with confusion and he looked like he was about to cry. The moment he saw that, Jin Mu-hae reflexively kicked out.

Bang! With a painful impact that could be heard, the guard who was holding Mu-hae lost his balance and staggered.

“Ah. Of course, there are things I need to check with our Jin Mu-haeee… so wait a bit.”

As if he believed that the other guard would protect him right away, Cheong didn’t even pretend to avoid it and imitated Joo-oh’s tone.

“What your dad did, you’re doing it too, right?”

At the words that followed, Mu-hae’s fist froze as if it had been thrown.

He tried not to show it and hardened his expression, but he couldn’t hide the feeling that the blood in his whole body was chilling.

“Ah. This is really fun. Why did you only come out now, kids?”

Cheong smiled again, raising the corners of his mouth as much as possible. Unlike his slightly crazy expression, his eyes were very clear.

The narrow, moldy room was suddenly filled with a pungent, cool smell.

A clean cloth was laid over the sofa that was torn here and there, and fragrant liquor was placed on the tea table where someone had been sitting.

Cheong, who was sitting on something like silk, wiggled his crossed legs and bit on a transparent stick.

Now that he looked at it, there was a colorless liquid inside, and bubbles were forming whenever he sucked on it.

“I was really bored.”

“Why don’t you answer what I’m asking?”

“Even if I tell you, would you believe everything I say?”

“My jerky.”

Cheong gestured at the table as if to say, ‘Have a drink and catch your breath first.’ Feeling that he wouldn’t get an answer by being stubborn here, Mu-hae maintained his murderous gaze and picked up the glass.

Clink. The clear ice slowly melted in the amber-colored drink. The liquor, which he only tasted for formality’s sake, was full of a smooth peat scent.

It was a taste that felt quite luxurious even to Mu-hae, who thought all liquor was the same.

‘I found it. Smuggled goods.’

He was so dumbfounded that he almost laughed. He felt like throwing the cup he was holding away.

Next to him, Joo-oh took a sip of the whiskey, put it on the tip of his tongue, made a disgusted face, and put it back down, looking for jerky.

Cheong had only taken one piece, but it was as if he was protesting by constantly demanding that he put it out. If you looked closely, his face was a bit dazed, and it seemed like he was just saying anything because his mentality was shattered.

“When you work here, you hear all sorts of things. There are usually a lot of garbage-like words, but a lot of useful information is also released.”

Cheong untied his neatly tied hair and carefully rewrapped it.

Joo-oh, who was muttering to himself, moved his mouth, this time looking for something other than jerky.

“Blueberry cinnamon roll.”

“No.”

“Cinnamon roll.”

“I said no.”

Judging from the circumstances, it seemed like he was talking nonsense after seeing Cheong’s hairstyle, but Cheong was refuting every word that Mu-hae would have ignored.

“Anyway, mercenaries never say anything good about themselves, but they talk a lot about other people. They’re so talkative.”

“……”

“From one day, the same name kept popping up in the data? Jin Mu-hae ate it all up by himself. Jin Mu-hae caught all the Thorn Wolves in one day.”

“……”

“Jin Mu-hae did this too. Jin Mu-hae did that too. Jin Mu-hae is dating someone. Ever since Jin Mu-hae started dating someone, everything he does has been a jackpot.”

“So?”

“I was curious. So I looked it up and something was really strange.”

Cheong’s eyes slowly turned to Joo-oh. His eyes were so intensely different that Mu-hae had a hallucination that his eyes were flashing for a moment.