KEG 113

“Really? Do you guys have a stash of cigarettes in your office?”

I asked the two deliverymen who were kneeling on the ground with a bundle of six 2-liter bottles of water as punishment.

“Yes… We’re sending supplies to a frontline military camp to help secure the gate first, so could you just…”

“You’re even stealing military supplies?”

They were weaker than I expected, so I restrained them easily, but I was a little surprised to learn they’d committed such a heinous crime. They must be either desperate scumbags risking their lives for a quick buck or had some hidden background, it was one or the other.

“We’re just low-level workers… there are our bosses…”

“I thought you were just delivery guys, but you’re actually looters.”

It seemed there was a connection between the deliverymen and the gang of robbers. Actually, it would’ve been stranger if they weren’t in cahoots.

“The gang robs independent operators, and the deliverymen use that protection to monopolize the supply routes on their own?”

“Yes, yes, that’s right. Hehehe…”

When I laid out the situation, the delivery guy gave a sheepish laugh and nodded.

There really were scumbags preying on others in every field. Then again, expecting integrity in a society like this was just stupid these days.

“Um….”

Just as I was giving the deliverymen a hard time in the corner of the convenience store, the clerk approached me.

“Have this while you’re at it! Hang in there!”

I was handed a can of an energy drink.

Getting cheered on while I was trying to rip people off made me feel like I was some guy who came to fix an air conditioner at someone’s house.

“…This is past its expiration date.”

“Whoa…! I’m so sorry! Please don’t drink that, just wait a moment!”

It had been ages since I’d seen a canned drink past its expiration date.

That just showed how abnormal the supply chain in this neighborhood had become. All because of the horde of “deliverymen” right in front of me. After making sure the clerk had disappeared into the back storage room to get a new drink, I opened the can.

“Yejun.”

“Yeah~”

“Want to hit that guy who slapped you?”

“Hmm~ I think it’d be a big problem if I did it~”

That was probably true.

It must be really frustrating for him not to be able to vent his anger the way I did.

Splash!

“Ugh…!”

I poured the drink over the head of the big guy who’d slapped Baek Yejun. Then I looked at Baek Yejun and said,

“I’ll take care of him, so don’t mess with ordinary people.”

It would be a disaster if a transcendent being developed a mental illness. A high-class Esper indiscriminately attacking humans would be a monster-level catastrophe.

If Baek Yejun started attacking people, I would be in danger too. I had to keep him on a tight leash if I wanted to stay alive.

“If I listen to you, will you give me a pat on the head?”

He gave me an expectant look, so I ruffled his white hair a few times. If petting his head a little could stop him from causing trouble, it was a small price to pay.

“I haven’t gotten my three minutes yet today.”

“Haa…”

As soon as Baek Yejun mentioned “three minutes,” a sigh escaped from my lips.

Shit, the hell I’d created for myself. It was true that if I could just endure those three minutes, the teasing for the rest of the day would be a little lighter. When I thought of it that way, it felt bearable, but every time he acted up, it gave me a headache.

Like right now, when he was hugging my waist from behind and rubbing my lower stomach.

“Anyone here~?”

With the deliverymen in front and Baek Yejun trailing behind me, someone walked into the convenience store.

It was a student wearing the Esper Academy uniform, the same as the one that I’d once received from Baek Yejun. His vibe felt familiar.

“Oh… the employee here… where’s Minjeong?”

“Ah! Yukchil!”

The clerk came out to greet the Esper Academy student.

Judging by their conversation, it seemed this student was the Esper who had supplied the energy to keep the electricity running in this store.

“Hasn’t Auntie come back yet? We were supposed to watch dramas together tonight.”

“Oh, she went out pulling a cart, but she hasn’t come back yet.”

“It’s weird that she’s so late… she should’ve been back by now.”

The high school students’ expressions grew increasingly serious as they exchanged words. I stopped listening and lightly kicked one of the deliverymen.

“Show me where the office is. I’m going to get some cigarettes.”

“Uh, well, um… it’s just a little ways from here…”

“Huh? Who are those guys?”

The student from the Esper Academy began to take an interest in the conversation between me and the deliveryman. The convenience store clerk briefly explained what had happened so far.

Upon hearing this, the Esper Academy student glanced at me before saying,

“If you’re going to the office, take me with you. What if the convenience store boss’s been taken hostage!”

“I’m just going to beg for some cigarettes. I’m not going to fight.”

“I’m not going to fight either, I’m going to rescue the boss!”

The situation was getting really messy.

Maybe I should just try to make the pack of cigarettes I got today last for a few days. Supplies would probably start arriving soon.

Going a few days without cigarettes…

If that were possible, I would’ve quit smoking a long time ago.

I was going to have to go eventually, but dragging that high school kid along was a bit of a burden.

“I’m an A-class Esper!”

Too bad.

The brat clinging to my back right now was stronger than an A-class. No matter how strong he was, he was weaker than this guy.

Wait, more than that. The way he talked sounded way too much like someone else.

“If you take me with you, you won’t regret it!”

.…?

Now that I heard it, the intonation sounded out of place. And I had heard this intonation before.

“If you don’t take me, I’ll go on my own, so just know that!”

The student seemed a little excited and started using an increasingly strange tone of voice.

Come to think of it, he said his name was Yukchil.

No way.

“Student, are you from the North?”

I looked at the student’s neck.

He didn’t have a collar like Lee Yuksam’s, but there were characters written there that looked like a tattoo.

“Pull your collar down a bit.”

“Huh…?! Why, why…?!”

“I’m Lee Yuksam’s best friend.”

“Huh…?”

The student stared at me with sparkling eyes.

Then, he pulled his turtleneck wide open and gave a goofy, wide-mouthed grin just like Lee Yuksam’s.

“Do you know my hyung?”

DEF-667-A.

Written on the student’s neck was the number immediately following Lee Yuksam’s 666.

***

The student introduced himself as Lee Yukchil.

“So you’re ‘Ho-hyung’! Nice to meet you!”

Lee Yukchil offered to treat us to dinner and led Baek Yejun and me along. There was no reason to turn down a free meal. It was also convenient not having to worry about what to eat when we got home.

“If the convenience store boss isn’t back by tomorrow morning, let’s go to the office together. If we go now, Minjeong will worry too much, and the boss might still come back later.”

We decided to postpone storming the delivery office for a bit.

We hadn’t yet assessed the scale of the operation to go in right away, and it was already late and dark, putting us at a significant disadvantage. Since I had enough cigarettes to last about a day, I agreed.

“If I run out of cigarettes, I’ll go alone.”

“Save your cigarettes~! Let’s go together!”

Lee Yukchil was after the convenience store boss, and I was after the cigarettes.

We formed a strange team with different goals but the same destination.

“Oh, right, there’s a patient at home right now, so we have to be quiet, okay? They’re a bit sensitive.”

Lee Yuksam had mentioned having a sick family member. I guess he wasn’t referring [Read on]to Lee Yukchil after all.

Lee Yukchil chatted about this and that as we climbed the stairs of the old apartment building.

“We’re not biological brothers; we met at Hanawon.”

“Hanawon?”

“It’s an educational facility for defectors from the North. It’s called the ‘Special Hanawon under the Administration Bureau.’”

“So is the critically ill patient lying there also from Hanawon?”

Lee Yukchil stared at my face for a moment before speaking.

“No. If you’re just talking about where they’re from, they’re from South Korea.”

They were not even fellow North Korean defectors, yet they’d become family? And they were caring for that person at home?

The relationship was just too strange.

“I guess Yuksam-hyung really didn’t tell you anything at all.”

Come to think of it, while there were things I hadn’t asked about, Yuksam himself didn’t talk much about his family. He’d spout nonsense as naturally as breathing, but he never talked about his family.

I wondered if there was something he didn’t want to reveal, or if he just felt awkward talking about his family to others.

“Anyway, thanks to Ho-hyung, I got a name too.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You gave Yuksam-hyung his name. I happened to need a name since I had to go to school, so when I saw the name you gave Yuksam, I named myself Yukchil!”

I met Lee Yuksam at the end of January.

It was now mid-March.

Does that mean all the Espers who came from the North didn’t have names until then?

“Is there a reason you don’t have names?”

“We didn’t need to be called by a name~ In the North, Espers are at the very bottom of the social [stolen content]hierarchy, unlike here.”

Can an Awakener with powers be at the bottom of the social hierarchy?

Maybe Espers capable of brainwashing held political power there.

“We only realized something was wrong there after we escaped. Over there, it was so normal for us to be discriminated against that no one dared to speak out.”

Lee Yuksam was obsessed with following orders.

It looked as if some strange ideology had been instilled deep within him. Even before Dungeon Break, that kind of indoctrination wasn’t difficult to accomplish.

It was possible he would have ended up that way naturally, even without any extraordinary abilities.

“I really don’t know why it was like that~”

After all, even Awakeners are human.

If you corner them and force them, they’ll obey and submit.

“Anyway! What’s the point of talking more about a place I’ve already left behind~”

Lee Yukchil smiled brightly as we reached the fifth floor of the apartment building and pulled out his house key in front of Apartment 503.