“What...?”
Q Emergency. Detect HBN’s Crisis
Resolve the crisis
Success: -
Failure: -
Compared to a window flashing bright red, this one—so urgent that it did not even have a proper reward prepared—felt far more alarming.
“What is it?!”
I shot to my feet.
What kind of crisis could possibly happen during a break for it to make this much of a fuss?
I started by calling Gowon as I walked down the hall.
“...Damn it.”
The guy always answered his phone without fail, no matter how many times I messed with him, but there was no response.
“Hey, you little bastard... Your life doesn’t belong only to you....”
In the end, I ran around checking every place Gowon might be. Naturally, the practice room was first.
I rushed over, wondering whether Newton had actually ganged up on him, but the lights were already off and the room was dark.
Unlike the chilly corridor, however, heat still lingered inside the practice room.
He could not have gone far. I spun around and took off down the hallway. Just then, my phone vibrated.
...It was Gowon.
Tension shot all the way to the top of my head at the same time relief made my shoulders sag.
—Did you call me?
Thankfully, his voice sounded no different than usual.
“Hey, you—why... didn’t you answer?”
—I didn’t notice because my phone was in my bag.
“Check your phone on time. Got it?”
—I understand.... Did something happen?
“Where are you?”
—...Did you order delivery? I think it’ll be too late if I bring it to your studio now.
“For fuck’s sake, no. I’m asking where you are.”
—I’m on my way back to my accommodations.
I practically ran into the elevator and immediately pressed the button for the first floor.
“Hey, Gowo—”
—......! ......? ......?
The connection was poor inside the elevator. There was a high chance it was because his phone was a piece of junk.
“Damn it....”
—Are you there?
When the doors opened, his voice came through clearly again.
The diligent bastard had not hung up and was still waiting for my reply.
Because he had stopped like that, I spotted his back standing all alone in front of a convenience store near the company.
“Got it.”
—What? Did something happen?
“No.”
Not yet, anyway.
I was going to catch up to him regardless, so I simply hung up.
Gowon stared at his phone with a briefly sullen expression before entering the convenience store.
After circling the aisles and deliberating for ages, he picked up a large, cheap cup of instant noodles.
I opened the convenience-store door and went inside. Gowon happened to be lingering in front of the refrigerated section, adding a chicken-breast sausage to his purchases. The moment he heard the door chime, he pulled his mask up and tugged his cap low over his face.
“Please ring these up.”
What was the point? His voice was exactly the same.
Colorful gummies and chocolates that children would like were displayed beneath the counter. When I approached Gowon from behind, he smoothly shifted sideways to put distance between himself and the unfamiliar stranger.
What was he, a cat...? With his guard this high, it seemed impossible for anything to happen to him.
I dropped several bags of gummies onto the counter, then snatched away Gowon’s cup noodles.
“Leave this out. Just ring up everything before it.”
Only then did Gowon turn around. The instant he saw me, his eyes widened.
“Oh....”
“Even if it’s the off-season, you’re trying to eat pure sin. No.”
“...What about the gummies?”
“Vitamins A, B, C, and D.”
“....”
“Would you like a bag?”
“Yes.”
I held out my card and stood beside Gowon while the payment went through. He did not flee like he had when he thought I was a stranger, but it was a little funny how he kept inching his feet around to maintain a fixed distance.
“You didn’t eat dinner?”
“...No.”
“If you eat in front of a convenience store, someone will take a picture every time you lift your spoon. If you’re too exhausted to make it home, buy an energy bar instead, then go home and eat a proper meal.”
“...I was planning to eat after I got back.”
“If you’re going to eat instant food, you’d be better off eating at a restaurant. At this rate, your body....”
I wanted to threaten him by saying he would ruin everything we had built....
But nearly ten days had passed since his break began, and his shoulders and back still looked no different from when he had been performing onstage. The sight left me at a loss for words.
...Is that the power of being twenty?
Whatever. Kwon Taeyoung’s investment, Cha Yensu’s entire entertainment career, and Baek Hanje’s stats all depended on this guy. It was good that he was maintaining himself so well.
“Come on. I’ll buy you meat.”
I smacked Gowon firmly on the back. It was still chilly because it was only March, but his clothes were thinner than I had expected.
Young. So young.
Q Emergency. Detect HBN’s Crisis
Resolve the crisis
Success: ■■■■■
Failure: Quest Scenario progression suspended
The crisis window was gradually updating.
That meant the situation was not over yet, so it would probably be better to stay with him a little longer.
“Follow me. Hurry up.”
“...Yes....”
Gowon followed perfectly well while maintaining a distance of about three steps, then hesitated in front of the barbecue restaurant.
“Isn’t this place too expensive?”
“Am I going to appear in the business section of tomorrow’s newspaper?”
“...What?”
“For me to consider the cost of dinner for two expensive, I’d have to get scammed or lose everything in the stock market.”
“......”
“Tell me in advance if you know something. I need time to prepare myself.”
“...Why do you always say things like that...?”
Well, look at him. He had finally learned how to grumble and add a word of protest.
“If you wanted to criticize the way I talk, you should’ve debuted twelve years earlier. What were you doing when you were eight?”
“......”
An employee approached, set down the side dishes and the meat we had ordered, then placed it directly on the grill. Gowon quietly arranged the utensils and poured water into the cups.
“Oh, the senior artist who’s bought you the most meals never taught you to do that. Who did you learn it from?”
“...I was already good at it. You always summoned me to your studio in weird ways, so I never got the chance....”
After hesitating, Gowon picked up the tongs and scissors the employee had left behind. Then he tried to cut the slab of meat on the grill. Of course, since it was still practically raw, the scissors did less cutting than mangling it into shreds.
He’s tearing it apart with brute force again....
The employee saw him from a distance and hurried over in alarm.
“Sir, we’ll grill it for you. Please just leave it alone.”
Apparently worried that Gowon might touch the grill again, the employee flipped the meat and stood guard for a while. Then they cut it into pieces far neater than anything Gowon could have managed.
The meat cooked deliciously with the long scratch Gowon had made still running through the middle. Deprived of the tongs, Gowon stared at the grill and muttered quietly.
“If you knew I was doing it wrong, you should’ve stopped me....”
“Hm? I thought you were trying to turn it into a hamburger steak because you were worried your elderly senior’s teeth might be weak.”
“You’re not even that old. You keep....”
Gowon looked as though he had decided not to bother, but he ate the cooked meat readily enough. I kept ordering in silence to see how much he could eat, and the meat disappeared endlessly into his mouth. I ordered stew, rice, and cold noodles without even asking, and he ate them all without complaint.
“You’re going to get growing pains again tonight.”
“What? Why?”
“Nothing... I was just making conversation.”
“......?”
It was a peaceful evening.
So peaceful that I could not imagine where a crisis was supposed to come from.
Even after we finished an amount of food no one would believe had been eaten by only two people and paid the bill, the emergency quest was still floating there.
“Thank you for the meal. I’ll be going now.”
“Want me to drive you?”
“It’s only a ten-minute walk from here.”
“It got late because I bought you dinner, and all the lights on the way to the parking garage have gone out. I’m scared to go alone. Come with me.”
“......?”
Gowon seemed genuinely curious whether I had lost my mind, but eventually gave up trying to understand and trudged toward the parking garage.
No matter how I looked at him, Gowon himself did not seem likely to cause any trouble.
Was this bastard going to get hit by a motorcycle with a blind driver?
Or was some passing drunk going to pick a fight with him?
...I have no idea, so should I escort him all the way to his accommodations?
What a precious lord he had become.
“Gowon.”
He had no idea what was going on, of course.
“Yes?”
“Is something bothering you?”
“...N-no.”
Right. I understood perfectly well that meant yes.
How delicate and complicated he was.
“You little—”
“Ah.”
“Ah? Aah? Did my junior just lose his temper with me?”
“...No.”
The mouth saying that was sticking out as far as it had when he had been slurping down the cold noodles earlier.
Judging by his reaction, it did not seem to be something so urgent that it needed to be resolved immediately.
After he dutifully walked me all the way to the parking garage, I forced him into the car despite his insistence that he would simply walk, then drove through the night streets.
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