KEG 23

“Why do you keep putting the same things in the cart?”

As I filled my cart with canned goods while listening to the cheerful music playing in the supermarket, Baek Yejun started nagging me.

“Yellow peaches are delicious.”

“No, I mean, don’t you eat actual meals?”

“I can eat at the hospital.”

“What about your days off?”

I shook the can of yellow peaches in my hand back and forth.

“But I’m off tomorrow too.”

“Does a Hunter even have days off?”

“Because I exceeded the 160-hour gate labor quota this month. Any more than that would be a violation of international law.”

The guy who had told me about the existence of the ‘labor quota system to prevent resource monopolies’ covered ​Read on​his mouth with his hand. He feigned pitifulness and sobbed.

“I’m so proud of myself for working this hard for world peace and the common prosperity of humanity~”

Today was only the 13th, and the fact that he’d already completed 160 hours meant he had been inside gates for at least 12 hours a day without a single break.

“A world sustained by grinding individuals down.”

I wondered if Baek Yejun was crazy or if the world was crazy. What was the point of creating a labor quota system and pretending to look out for them? In the end, if they needed him, they would just screw everything and call him anyway.

“Are you worried about me?”

“Stop the bullshit and go earn me 2 billion won. You could gather that quickly if you just took on separate commissions and ran through dungeons.”

“I can’t accept every commission to maintain market prices~”

So, does that mean he doesn’t just take any job, but picks and chooses which ones?

After all, his popularity had risen to the point where if he didn’t go around covering his face and hair with a scarf and hat like now, people would stop him and demand photos and autographs to the point of being annoying; I figured there would always be work available.

“Anyway, I want home-cooked food.”

Baek Yejun snatched the yellow peaches from my hand and put them back in their place, then picked up an expensive, fresh pineapple with Read onits skin still peeled and put it in the cart.

I looked at it and asked.

“What are you planning to cook with this?”

“Huh? I’m asking you to cook it for me~.”

That crazy bastard. Does he want to eat pineapple stew or something?

“Do you want to die?”

“I need to eat and rest well so I can save money quickly, give you 2 billion won, and get commissions again~”

I see.

I understand.

“Go get some onions.”

I thought that I should start by putting in the onions – a staple in almost any dish – and then consider the menu. But I turned my head to the other side and saw the back of Baek Yejun’s head trembling.

I think his laughter bell is broken.

“I told you twice to get onions.”

“Hmph… Yes~”

While Baek Yejun went to pick up the onions, I filled the cart with things like green onions and soybean paste.

Not long after I did that, he trotted over with two pre-peeled and washed packaged onions in his hands.

“What are you going to make for me?”

Baek Yejun asked about the menu as he put the two onions into the cart, but I wasn’t satisfied with that, so I took them back out.

Then I picked up a 15kg bag of onions. They were relatively cheap because they had successfully grown them hydroponically using magic power.

“Hyung, have you ever seen anyone dying from eating onions?”

“………?”

When I said no, he said he didn’t want to see one either, and offered to pay for everything in the cart if I bought the two-onion pack instead of the 15kg bag.

He didn’t have the 2 billion won to pay me yet, but apparently he had the money to buy onions.

That was fine with me. I was going to fill the cart to my heart’s content with everything I hadn’t been able to eat for so long.

“Is there anything you can’t eat?”

“Hmm… Seafood? Something fishy~”

I picked up a catfish.

“Again?”

“Something spicy, something with a strong flavor.”

I added capsaicin and ginger powder. I decided on spicy fish stew.

“That menu sounds so much like an old man’s.”

I grabbed a bottle of JangXX Makgeolli.

“I like sweet things.”

Feeling sorry for him, I added chestnut Makgeolli as well.

“Pfft, hehe…!”

As if he had found something funny, he clawed at his broken laughter bell, buried his head in the cart, and burst into laughter, “Hahaha!”

With how much he laughed, he’d probably live a long life.

“Put in what you like too, Hyung~ I told you I’d buy it for you!”

I added the canned peaches back.

“Ah, darn it…!!”

In the end, he slumped onto the supermarket floor, laughing so hard that tears streamed down his face.

***

“We should have just ordered it by delivery.”

Baek Yejun grumbled as he walked down the night street clutching a bulky winter blanket.

“You’re the one who broke the car, so just bear with it.”

The car I usually drove had been damaged due to one of Baek Yejun’s requests and was unusable; however, taking crowded public transportation with this load would have been a nuisance, so we had decided to walk home.

I was shouldering groceries in both hands, yet he grumbled while carrying only a blanket, which was much lighter than that. I wanted to smack him.

“What should we play tomorrow?”

I rolled my eyes and glared at him, dumbfounded by the way he naturally included me in his holiday plans. Despite that, he looked at me with an innocent face, so I gently stepped on his foot.

“Ouch–”

“Play by yourself.”

I let his sulky grumbling go in one ear and out the other.

Then, I stopped walking when I saw a gukhwa-ppang¹ cart. I was delighted to see something that was hard to come by even before the Dungeon Break for the first time in a long while.

“Do you like gukhwa-ppang?”

Maybe he noticed where I was looking, because Baek Yejun asked.

“Yes.”

I answered honestly.

I do like gukhwa-ppang bread. But the nun at the orphanage who was so fond of me especially loved it. When I finally had managed to buy a bag by saving up my occasional allowance just to share with the nun, I felt like I had everything in the world.

I chuckled as I recalled my childhood, when I would run with the pastries bag tucked inside my clothes to keep it from getting cold.

“Give me a bag, please~.”

“Thank you!”

Before I could even say a word, he bought a bag and brought it to me.

“Try one while it’s still warm. Ah~”

I hesitated while looking at the warm pastry held out in front of me. I was in a difficult situation because my hands were full of bags.

“Ah, right.”

As if he had suddenly remembered something he had completely forgotten, Baek Yejun put the blanket bag he had bought down on the ground, raised one hand to tap my forehead, and traced a line across my chest from shoulder to shoulder.

“Hyung, you should say a prayer before eating.”

I was about to get slightly annoyed at him acting like he knew everything just because we’d eaten together a few times, but I couldn’t resist the temptation of the gukhwa-ppang shoved right under my nose, so I took a big bite.

“Hot….”

It had been so long since I’d eaten it that I had forgotten it was supposed to be this hot.

Unable to chew or swallow, I waited for the winter wind to cool the bread down, leaving it in an awkward bite. My lips hurt.

“So you can’t handle hot food?”

Baek Yejun giggled and blew on the bread to cool it down.

Do Espers really have no trouble grabbing a pot of boiling lava with their bare hands and drinking it?

At this level of heat, it was an attempted assassination.

Was he aiming for this? Because he didn’t want to pay the 2 billion?

“So, what are you going to do tomorrow?”

Baek Yejun asked me as I chewed on the gukhwa-ppang bun that had barely cooled down.

“Um, cleaning… mmph….”

After getting me to talk, he took out another bun, split it in half to blow on it, and pressed one half against my lips.

As I took it, he grinned and put the other half into his own mouth.

“Cleaning?”

“Laundry, meals, nap, movie, sleep.”

Afraid he’d stuff my mouth again, I said only the necessary words as quickly as possible.

“Okay.”

The guy, who had picked up his blanket bag again and said, “Let’s go,” requested to be allowed to choose the menu for dinner tonight. I replied, “Do as you please.”

I thought that I would have to prepare a separate meal for him, as he had a childish palate and only ate things like meat or snacks.

“You’re such a picky eater, how did you manage to eat inside gates?”

I suddenly remembered eating some tasteless preserved food when visit our site we entered the gate together, so I asked.

“That’s why I don’t eat ~ I can’t eat anything if I want to look good on screen~”

Upon careful reflection, I don’t recall him eating meals.

“Do you want to succeed so badly that you would go to such lengths?”

“Hmm~ Rather than success…”

I wondered just how big of a success he wanted to achieve to maintain himself to this extent, but he gave an unexpected answer.

“I shouldn’t look like a human.”

Suddenly, his face caught my eye.

In the biting winter wind, the fingertips, ears, and nose of the guy, dressed thinly, did not turn red, unlike mine.

“I must be noble, perfect, kind, and sublime.”

None of the various words he said produced a warm breath from his mouth.

“Because I am a symbol.”

He looked alive, yet not truly alive.