FLIA 43

What on earth did that mean? Yohan’s eyes widened just as Yoon Seungryong opened a window on the top floor of the building and shouted,

“Cleaning’s all done! You can come up now!”

Leaving behind that cryptic remark, Lee Hyunmook casually opened the building door and went inside. Yohan, snapping out of it belatedly, scrambled in after him, purifying the lingering miasma as he went. What did he mean by a fan’s feelings being disappointing? What does that mean? …So does that mean he likes feelings that aren’t like a fan’s?

Still confused, he diligently continued purifying the building. Judging by the layout and furniture, the place they’d chosen to settle in looked like it had once been a small guesthouse. The three of them cleaned up the corpses that had melted in the poison and threw them outside the building. Then they scrubbed away the stench and cleaned the place up as best they could.

By the time they finished cleaning, they were so hungry their stomachs growled audibly. Hearing the sound, Yoon Seungryong quickly started preparing a meal.

Today’s dish was a mystery stew. Understandably so, he’d chopped up smoked snake meat caught in the jungle, some unknown but edible mushrooms, and dried vegetables, tossed it all in a pot, and boiled it together. Vegetables and mushrooms had softened enticingly in the milky broth. Yoon Seungryong served the food with a solemn air, and Yohan carefully took his portion and had a taste.

“Oh… it tastes like samgyetang broth. Does it suit your taste, Mr. Hyunmook?”

“It’s good.”

Lee Hyunmook gave a short reply and suddenly smiled, which made Yohan gulp down the still-hot soup. He nearly burned his throat. Flustered and coughing, he was handed some water by Hyunmook, who said nothing. Yohan drank it while pretending to stay calm… and cried quietly inside.

“Of course it’s good. I made it.”

While Yoon Seungryong puffed up with pride, the three of them finished their meal in a warm, friendly atmosphere. After enjoying the most relaxed time they’d had in the Abyss, Yoon Seungryong suddenly jumped to his feet.

“Then, how about we go scavenging a bit before resting?”

“Great!”

The two food stockpiling enthusiasts hit it off instantly. They first spotted a well-known chain store and ran to it. As expected, most of the food they salvaged was canned. Still, they were relieved to have secured a good amount of preserved water and food supplies. As Hyunmook rummaged through the area, he handed something to Yohan.

“That should take care of our food needs for a while.”

“Yeah. There’s still quite a bit left. The canned stuff we found in the jungle was less than half full… Huh?”

Yohan had been happily purifying the cans, assuming they were food, but when he accepted the item, it turned out to be a soft plush toy. It had devilish horns, was grimy and faded, and looked like a filthy keychain. After purifying it in confusion, he found it was a surprisingly cute sheep plushie.

“A sheep…?”

Yohan suddenly remembered how the crazed Hyunmook had kept calling him “sheep” and telling him to bleat. Embarrassed, he turned his head away sharply. When he looked back at Hyunmook with a suspicious gaze, the latter spoke with an unreadable expression, as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

“It’s soft and squishy, just like Yang Yohan, right? It’s a squishy.”

“Huh? Me? A squishy what?”

“No, I mean the sheep. The plush.”

“But it sounded like you just called it Yang Yohan?”

“Maybe I got confused. The consonants in ‘Yang Yohan’ and ‘sheep plush’ are the same, after all.”

Yohan stared up at him with wide, bewildered eyes, and Hyunmook smiled playfully.

“I’m joking, Yohan-ah. Actually… lately I’ve been starting to remember things from when I wasn’t in my right mind. Like, calling you Yangyang… Now that I think about it, it’s kind of a cute nickname. Yangyang.”

Well, it wasn’t exactly a nickname, more like the only thing he remembered was Yohan’s surname, so he just made something up. Still, Yohan couldn’t bring himself to correct him because he liked the idea of it being a nickname. No, more than that, he was too flustered to correct anything. He’d been getting a weird feeling since they were cleaning earlier, but now he was almost sure: Lee Hyunmook had been full-on flirting with him…!

“Yohan-ah, would you prefer I call you Yangyang?”

Hyunmook closed the distance far too easily.

“Yangyang? Or Yohan-ah? I’m happy with anything, as long as it’s what you want…”

As he gently called him by the nickname and beamed at him from up close, Yohan finally couldn’t take it anymore and let out a loud scream. The highly sensitive awakener Yoon-something, who had been scavenging food and tools nearby, also screamed from behind a shelf.

“Team Leader, what the hell are you saying?! Have you lost your mind?!”

Ah? Is that it?! …So that’s what it was! He had lost it! Enlightened, Yohan immediately unleashed purification. Bathed directly in the dazzling light, Lee Hyunmook squinted against the glare. He blinked a few times, and the smile that had lingered so brightly on his face slowly faded away.

“…Ah.”

With a low sigh, Hyunmook covered his face with one hand. He seemed a bit sheepish, reflecting on what he’d just done. As his usual calm, slightly dazed expression returned, Yohan finally let out a breath of relief. Thank goodness. So it wasn’t that Mr. Hyunmook was in his right mind…

…Wait. Is that really a good thing? Feeling strangely disappointed, Yohan hesitantly asked,

“Are you okay?”

“Mm. Sorry… That must’ve been uncomfortable, right?”

Lee Hyunmook, now back to his senses, stepped away, putting some distance between them again. Finally, he felt like the Hyunmook Yohan knew. Come to think of it, during the meal earlier, he’d been smiling and saying embarrassing things like how it was okay to have personal feelings.

“I’m fine! Honestly, it’s way better than when we couldn’t communicate at all!”

“…Well, that’s true.”

He gave a slightly bitter smile, then, perhaps feeling embarrassed, said he’d go look around and walked off. Yohan, trying to calm his wildly pounding heart, suddenly began rummaging through the shelves. Even so, he quietly slipped the worn-out sheep keychain into his bag.

After wrapping up a decent haul, the group moved on to explore another building. While they were scouting around, something caught Yohan’s eye.

“Ice?”

Gray ice was thickly spread across the cracked concrete road, which was littered with abandoned and damaged cars and bikes. Yoon Seungryong quickly moved in close to Yohan and said,

“Well, would you look at that, Hoyoung’s alive and kicking.”

“Gasp! That’s Mr. Ju Hoyoung’s ability?!”

Seeing traces of Hoyoung’s power activated, Yohan grew a bit excited. He gripped the stone-tipped spear-like weapon Hyunmook had crafted for him. Just then, Hyunmook returned from his patrol. He noticed how closely Yoon Seungryong had sidled up to Yohan and, rather than interfering, kept his distance and slowly scanned the surroundings. Yohan tensed up too, but whether it was good or bad luck, Ju Hoyoung never showed up as they walked across the icy path.

Peering down at the frozen ground with a serious look, Yoon Seungryong suddenly started breaking the ice with his spear. Thinking it might be some kind of defense tactic against Ju Hoyoung, Yohan asked nervously,

“Should I help you?”

“Yeah, sure. Let’s just break about this much.”

Yohan eagerly joined in breaking the ice with Seungryong. His stone weapon was even more effective than the spear for the task. With a high-level awakener and a mid-level nearing high-level working together, a large pile of ice quickly formed. As he continued hammering away at the ice, Yohan asked,

“But… why are we breaking this again?”

“How about we make patbingsu (red bean shaved ice) with it?”

“…Excuse me?”

Yohan’s hands froze mid-swing from the sheer absurdity. Yoon Seungryong gulped and replied with a deadly serious face,

“There were some canned fruits and sweet red beans among the supplies we found earlier. Let’s use those to make patbingsu. Or mix the fruit with sugar water and make a slushie or ice cream. I even found a shaved ice machine earlier and stored it.”

“…What the…”

This guy didn’t seem to care one bit about Ju Hoyoung, who could attack at any moment… But the idea of a slushie or ice cream was admittedly tempting, so Yohan let out a deep sigh and resumed helping Seungryong shovel up ice.

And then—

Crackle! …Kaaaaah!

“Ah, ow!”

Seungryong jumped as he was singed by the edge of a sudden burst of electricity from Hyunmook. A shrill, pained screech echoed at the same time. Startled, Yohan gripped his stone-tipped spear tightly and unleashed a burst of light.

“What was that just now?!”

“That bastard Hoyoung’s fast. I didn’t even sense him until it was too late.”

Rubbing his scorched arm, Seungryong glared in the direction of the attack, but Hyunmook didn’t even twitch an eyebrow. As Yohan looked around wide-eyed, Hyunmook, who had been keeping his distance to stay outside the attack radius, lowered his spear and approached.

“He’s already gone. He’s probably not in the area anymore. We should return to the base.”

“Seriously, even if it’s Hoyoung, is this the best we can do?”

Annoyed at getting singed, Seungryong muttered bitterly, but Hyunmook admitted it without resistance.

“As you saw.”

Seungryong had tried to provoke his pride, but when it didn’t land, he sighed.

“…Tch. This is a pain. Let’s just head back for now.”

“Yeah, that’s probably best.”

Hyunmook agreed with Seungryong’s suggestion. On alert after the sudden ambush, the three of them quickly returned to base. Hyunmook had only managed to stop the approach, Seungryong had barely sensed anything, and Yohan hadn’t seen a thing. When an opponent is fast enough to render both offense and defense useless, the smartest move is to stay within a fortified area.

Yohan checked outside just in case, then closed the door and let out a breath of relief. But that relief didn’t last long.