Chapter 74

What do I do? Am I seriously already kicked?

The screen was full of desperate messages that reeked of alcohol, but they were entirely one-sided. There was no answer coming back. Unable to hide his panic, Mo Yeonhoo hurriedly tapped his own character, and thankfully, his affiliated alliance was still displayed properly as <47>.

“I asked who called you.”

Just as he felt relieved at that sight, Kwon Mieon was making a fuss beside him. Startled by the tone, which had grown far sharper than before, Mo Yeonhoo opened and closed his mouth.

“That’s....”

There was no real need to tell Kwon Mieon, but in this urgent situation, he was also the grateful person personally driving him home.

I should answer with something.

But if he honestly said he was rushing home because a game acquaintance had called him, Kwon Mieon would probably think it was strange.

“Juuust... someone I know.”

“Someone you know calls you home at this hour, and that means you have to rush back?”

“Yeah.”

“Who the hell....”

“Oh. We’re here! Thanks for driving me!”

They had arrived right when he was stuck. Perfect timing. It had only been possible because the meeting place was not far from Mo Yeonhoo’s home to begin with.

“Yeonhoo!”

“See you next time!”

Mo Yeonhoo got out of the car with impressive speed. When things were awkward, running away was best. Of course, his mind was clearer now, but apparently his body had not fully sobered up, because his steps were still unsteady.

“You’re going to fall! Wait!”

Kwon Mieon called desperately from behind him, but Mo Yeonhoo ran while looking straight ahead.

(CH03) 0momo0: im going now

The moment he entered the building, he pressed the elevator button and sent the message, but there was still no answer.

I need to get in before Miu logs on.

If he logged in first, it would be awkward for Miu to ask him whether he had violated the clause. While he anxiously watched the floor indicator, the elevator finally arrived. Mo Yeonhoo quickly got in, pressed the top floor, and hit the close button.

Clunk. The elevator doors began to close, then stopped. Confused, Mo Yeonhoo widened his eyes when the doors opened again.

“Yeonhoo.”

It was Kwon Mieon. Why had he followed him all the way here? As Mo Yeonhoo wondered, Kwon Mieon held something out.

“Your hat. You left your hat.”

“Right....”

His hat was in Kwon Mieon’s hand.

“Thanks.”

Mo Yeonhoo accepted the hat in a daze, and the doors began to close again with perfect timing. Seeing Kwon Mieon gradually disappear beyond the closing doors made Mo Yeonhoo feel sorry.

“I’ll contact you later—! Huh?”

But the doors between them began to open again. When he lowered his eyes, Kwon Mieon’s foot was planted squarely in the middle of the elevator, though Mo Yeonhoo had no idea when he had slipped it in.

And Kwon Mieon, one hand braced against the elevator doors, lowered his head slightly.

“When is later?”

“Just later....”

“You’re not going to contact me again.”

He had nothing to say to that. After all, it was not as if he had ignored Kwon Mieon’s DMs for only a day or two.

“I really will this time. I’ll do it once I’m home. I’ll do it tomorrow too.”

But he had no time to soothe him any further.

Please, just let go already. A rabbit-like demon is waiting for me in Zombie Village....

When Mo Yeonhoo looked at him as if making a firm promise, Kwon Mieon stared back, then rolled his eyes. It seemed he had not expected Mo Yeonhoo to answer so obediently. Mo Yeonhoo’s conscience pricked a little.

“Good enough? I’m leaving now, so hurry up and let go.”

Mo Yeonhoo jerked his chin toward the hand blocking the door. Kwon Mieon slowly let go. Only then did the elevator doors try to close.

Clunk. How nice it would have been if they had closed properly to the end.

“Why now...!”

Kwon Mieon had grabbed the doors again and stuck his head in!

Mo Yeonhoo was growing more and more frantic. He needed to hurry home and, before Miu logged in, act as normal as possible, like he had come in quickly. But Kwon Mieon kept holding him back, and it was driving him insane.

“But, Yeonhoo. I came all the way here, and you won’t even give me a glass of water? I gave you medicine because you had a headache and felt sick, and I drove you all the way here....”

Mo Yeonhoo flinched at Kwon Mieon’s words.

“How can you just say thanks and disappear right away?”

Mo Yeonhoo wanted to argue that he had never asked Kwon Mieon to drive him, that Kwon Mieon had offered to do it himself, but—

“I’m a little hurt....”

Look at that expression. Kwon Mieon tilted his head slightly and looked at him as though he truly were disappointed, and Mo Yeonhoo faltered.

He sometimes thought this, but Kwon Mieon really did have a thousand faces. With drooping eyes and a gaze like an abandoned puppy, he looked at Mo Yeonhoo, and Yeonhoo simply could not bring himself to tell him to move.

“...Then do you want to come in and drink some water?”

In the end, Mo Yeonhoo gave up on everything and jerked his chin for him to come inside.

“Yes.”

Kwon Mieon immediately slipped into the elevator before he could take it back.

“This is the first time you’ve invited me to your place.”

“How is this an invitation?”

Ridiculous. His gloomy face had brightened in an instant, and Mo Yeonhoo felt as though he had been tricked, but it was already too late.

“Seriously, just drink water and go... no. Do you want to take something with you? Take whatever you want. I have a lot of things I don’t use.”

“Take something?”

“Yeah. I have a lot of unopened diffusers too. Do you like fruit? Take a few baskets. They rot every day anyway... or side dishes? I also have a lot of side dishes I haven’t touched. Ah, right. I have alcohol too. Do you like alcohol?”

Since Kwon Mieon had gone to the trouble of driving him home, Mo Yeonhoo rambled on, telling him to take whatever he wanted. It was true that he was sorry and grateful.

“And also nutritional supplements, and what else... I have some shake packets and perfume samples too. Anyway, if you need anything, take all of it!”

“If you give everything away like that, how are you going to live?”

“Well, I....”

“Then can I take you too?”

Kwon Mieon, watching Mo Yeonhoo chatter away even with his face flushed because the alcohol had not left him, tossed the words out casually.

“Why would you take me...?”

“You told me to take whatever I wanted.”

“Wow, you really.”

Mo Yeonhoo finally burst into a helpless laugh. Between his disheveled strands of hair, his reddened pale face looked even rounder.

“You really say the funniest things....”

Leaning against the wall, drained of strength, Mo Yeonhoo laughed quietly, and his body swayed lightly. Kwon Mieon did not take his eyes off him until they got off.

“Come in.”

When the elevator doors opened, a high ceiling filled their view. There was only one residence on the entire floor. They passed through the connected entryway and walked down a smooth marble corridor toward the kitchen.

“Drink this and rest a bit before you go, at least.”

Mo Yeonhoo gave him a glass of water and suggested he sit on the living room sofa, but Kwon Mieon did not seem inclined to do that at all.

His eyes were fixed on the framed photos, as if the vast, sprawling living room and the night view beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows did not matter in the slightest.

On one side of the living room, frames densely covered the wall like a gallery. From the composition, they looked at first glance like ordinary family photos, but upon closer inspection, they were strange. The people standing beside each of the two men and women kept changing.

“Ah, those are my family photos.”

Mo Yeonhoo said it calmly. Well, it was obvious just from looking at them.

“My parents’ history is a little flashy.”

The fact that Mo Yeonhoo’s parents had remarried many times.

In the frames, his father had changed tuxedos four times and was smiling beside different women, while his mother had also smiled brightly three times while holding the hands of different men. And in between them stood Mo Yeonhoo. Each time Mo Yeonhoo grew by about a handspan, the faces of the parents standing beside him had changed.

I should have organized them ages ago.

Still, they were photos with his face in them, so it felt awkward to throw them away, and he had simply kept hanging them in sequence. Part of him had also wanted to see how far it would go.

As a result, in the middle of Mo Yeonhoo’s living room, his parents’ splendid marriage histories hung like medals.

What is he going to say?

Mo Yeonhoo glanced sideways at Kwon Mieon.

People usually had a variety of reactions when they saw those photos. That must have been hard, remarriage isn’t a flaw these days, and....

Wow, look at that lineup. So that’s why you had so much money?

There were also types who crossed the line in various ways.

“You were so cute when you were little.”

Kwon Mieon was different. He was staring intently at five-year-old Mo Yeonhoo in the very first wedding photo, taken before the two of them remarried.

“Are there more photos from this age? You’re so cute.”

Instead, the one flustered by his attitude of demanding more childhood photos was Mo Yeonhoo.

Why isn’t he saying anything?

There were even famous people who often appeared on TV in those pictures.

“Is this when you were a student? Why don’t you age?”

“.......”

“Yeonhoo?”

Kwon Mieon’s eyes were directed solely at young Mo Yeonhoo.

“That one... is from when I was a student, yeah.”

“Cute.”

Kwon Mieon admired the photo as though it were unbearably adorable. And because he kept asking, “How old were you in this one? What about this one?” Mo Yeonhoo answered each question one by one, then somehow started to feel embarrassed.

“Ahem. Mm.”

It felt strange. Mo Yeonhoo, clearing his throat for no reason, fiddled awkwardly with his hair, then checked the clock and stood up.

“...Anyway, drink some water and rest before you go!”

Mo Yeonhoo hurried toward the computer room. But then—

“Why are you following me?”

Kwon Mieon had not drunk the water he was told to drink and was instead trailing after him, so Mo Yeonhoo asked in confusion. Kwon Mieon, however, kept looking around.

“Where is he?”

“What?”

“The person who called you at this hour.”

Mo Yeonhoo wondered what the hell he was talking about, then belatedly realized.

Ah, he thought someone was at my place.

Because Yeonhoo had glossed over it so Kwon Mieon would not think it was strange, Kwon Mieon had apparently misunderstood completely.

“Where is that weird person?”

“Yeah, the thing is... that person isn’t weird.”

“Then?”

“It’s just because I promised.”

“A promise?”

“Yeah. I agreed to help with something, and I got an urgent request today too.”

“Huh? Then he always calls you out like this using a promise as an excuse?”

“Not that often....”

“How many times a day?”

Mo Yeonhoo had never counted, so he closed his mouth.

“So many you can’t even count?”

Kwon Mieon looked dumbfounded.

“Is that why you lost weight? Because every time that person calls, you have to run over like you’re on five-minute standby?”

“.......”

“Wow. He’s not family and he’s not a friend. If someone you just know is living here, that means he’s relying on you. But you have to come running every time he calls? I’d really like to see what kind of cra— person he is.”

“.......”

“Did that person never learn how to do anything alone? He’s an adult, right? Then he must be old enough to know better, so why is he calling you out at dawn? If you came here looking this pale, did he threaten you or something? Then he’s seriously the lowest kind of human being.”

As if deliberately trying to make himself heard, Kwon Mieon spoke loudly while looking around every corner of the house.