# Chapter 72
## 7. A Toast to Your Eyes That Hold the Night Sky
The sky was brilliantly clear. Under the bright sunshine, Iyeon stretched languidly. Lying on a pure white sun bed in comfortable clothes, it felt like heaven.
“This is nice…”
“What’s so nice about it?”
Thwack. Along with a fierce rebuke, a jingling sun catcher came flying. The dangling crystals reflected all sorts of light as they hit Iyeon’s body and fell. Picking up the sun catcher with his fingers, Iyeon tilted his head back nonchalantly.
“What’s that for, Jaekyung-ssi? Violence is bad.”
“Violence? Want to see what real violence looks like?”
At the entrance beside the enormous outdoor pool, Jaekyung stood with his arms crossed, long hair tied up in a ponytail. His expression was rather fierce.
“Ah… Why? They’re enjoying themselves too.”
Iyeon puffed his cheeks sullenly and pointed to the other sun beds. Sano and Hyegang were lying in a row next to Iyeon, who had claimed the rightmost spot, and even Mungchi was stretched out with them.
“They just came here. You’re here to work part-time!”
“That’s right, hyung. We’ll wait for you, so get to work.”
Hyegang, enjoying his sunbathing with sunglasses on, muttered leisurely. He’d even ordered a mohito somewhere, inserted a straw, and was sipping it with style.
“Here. Work, Iyeon-ssi.”
Jaekyung held out a uniform with a stern face. It was a Hawaiian shirt covered with red leaves.
Under the continued pressure, Iyeon got up sluggishly with a deadpan expression. As he reluctantly put his arms through the shirt sleeves, Jaekyung was already standing at the pool exit, urging him to hurry up and come. Iyeon’s face darkened even more.
‘My vacation…’
To explain this peculiar gathering, we need to go back a few days.
*
“A short-term part-time job?”
Iyeon opened his eyes wide. Around the bed where he sat were Jaekyung’s mutants.
After keeping in touch with Jaekyung occasionally and visiting his house a few times, the mutants seemed to have lowered their guard, recognizing him as a familiar face. They peered at him with curious, sparkling eyes, and when Iyeon stroked them, they settled down and lay nearby. Huddled together, they looked like a collection of plush toys.
Across from the bed where Iyeon and the mutants sat, Jaekyung sat cross-legged on the floor and nodded.
“Yeah. Someone I know introduced me, saying I’d be perfect for it.”
“Oh, that’s great.”
“Come with me.”
“Excuse me?”
Iyeon’s hand, which had been stroking a mutant’s head, stopped abruptly.
“Jaekyung-ssi, do you know what the basic fee for requests at our office is?”
His expression as he asked was serious. It clearly said: Don’t talk nonsense.
But Jaekyung wasn’t one to back down. He started being difficult.
“Ah, it’s a bit far and I don’t want to go alone. You’re the boss, Iyeon-ssi. Can’t you take a few days off and do the part-time job with me?”
Why would a boss do part-time work? Perhaps because his only work experience was at an illegal research facility, his social skills were extraordinary.
“No, why should I…”
“You promised before.”
“When?”
‘Hang in there. I’ll help with whatever I can.’
As soon as he asked, a blank check he had thoughtlessly written before came to mind at the perfect moment. Jaekyung, not missing how Iyeon momentarily closed his mouth in confusion, spoke triumphantly as if he’d gained the upper hand.
“Are you going back on your word? After all the time we’ve known each other!”
What bond could there be between people connected through illegal means…
“It’ll be fun. Do you know where it is?”
When Iyeon’s reaction wasn’t satisfactory, Jaekyung cleverly changed his approach.
“You know Changju Lake? It’s a place with amazing scenery.”
Changju Lake was one of Chohosi’s main tourist attractions. With its massive lake, lush forest, and even the valley connecting these two natural landscapes looking like a painting, it was a popular vacation spot domestically.
“The hotel where we’ll be working lets you enjoy both the lake and the forest. It’s just getting warm now, but right before peak season, so there’ll be fewer people. Think of it as an early vacation.”
“Vacation?”
Jaekyung nodded with a reassuring face in response to Iyeon’s dubious reply.
“Yeah. Vacation. The manager said they’ll even provide food and lodging! You just work a few hours a day, and rest at the hotel for the remainder. Did you know they have a spa? An infinity pool, sauna… The walking trail near the forest is supposed to be really beautiful too.”
Spa, infinity pool, sauna, walking trail. With each of Jaekyung’s explanations, bubble-like expectations popped up in Iyeon’s mind.
Right, he had been pushing himself lately. He’d been threatened by Jesano, dealt with Cheongho, been attacked by the smoke fox, gotten stabbed while on a request, used his superpower, and even caught a scammer. He’d almost finished the quarterly mission, and there were no urgent requests… Taking a break for a change of pace didn’t seem like a bad idea.
Iyeon hadn’t taken a vacation not only this year but throughout his entire time running Chageum. Even when he did take time off, he just lay around at home, which wasn’t much different from lying around at the office. Why hadn’t he thought of going somewhere? That thought suddenly occurred to him.
Jaekyung somehow sensed that Iyeon’s heart was almost swayed. His whispers began to tempt him like a devil.
“Wake up to the sunrise over the lake, drink while watching the sunset. The place isn’t very developed, so you haven’t seen how amazing the night sky full of stars is? The hotel does fireworks once a week. It’ll be incredibly beautiful.”
The final blow worked smoothly. Iyeon nodded as if entranced.
“I’m going to use my vacation days.”
“Huh? What vacation?”
Hyegang looked at Iyeon with puzzlement. It was a natural reaction, given that someone who only took sick leave at most had hastily come to his desk as soon as Hyegang arrived at work and made this solemn declaration.
Sano, sitting on the sofa, also looked toward Hyegang with an expression of hearing this for the first time. Taking a vacation alone, out of nowhere? Suspicions multiplied.
“I’m going to a hotel.”
“Which hotel?”
Iyeon rattled off details about the hotel’s facilities, services, and scenery that Jaekyung had so passionately brainwashed him with. After listening to this explanation and searching for the hotel, Hyegang confirmed that the information Iyeon shared wasn’t a scam.
“How long?”
“A week.”
Hyegang thought for a moment, then replied cheerfully.
“I want to go too.”
“What?”
“Why? Don’t you want me to?”
“No, it’s just that you don’t like going places, do you?”
All of Hyegang’s hobbies were in the cyber world, so he hardly ever went out normally. He didn’t particularly like wandering around or meeting people… He was the perfect example of an introverted person.
“Aren’t you going to rest? There’s nothing around there.”
“Well, that…”
Since he’d have to work part-time with Jaekyung the whole time, it would be difficult to go out for long periods anyway. As Hyegang said, there wasn’t much around except for restaurants…
But even for a vacation, is it okay to go with a work colleague? As Iyeon tilted his head, unable to make up his mind, Hyegang turned his head toward the monitor screen and muttered primly.
“You didn’t even invite me to the party.”
“…”
“I know how to dress up nicely and enjoy good food too.”
Bringing that up now. Though he seemed fine with it at the time, it seemed he’d been quite curious despite pretending otherwise.
“No, that wasn’t a trip, I was cooperating with Sua-ssi to catch the bracelet seller…”
“Didn’t you eat anything while you were there?”
He ate a ton.
“And you said you couldn’t take me because you needed someone to accompany you. You said we couldn’t communicate because it would be noticeable.”
“…That…”
“I researched the bracelets hard too, but you didn’t include me after a while.”
Hyegang lowered his gaze dejectedly and pouted.
“And now you don’t want to go on vacation together.”
“…”
“You keep excluding me.”
From the beginning, there was no way Iyeon could win against Hyegang. Shortly after, Hyegang reserved the hotel with an excited face.
On the first day of the long-awaited vacation, as Iyeon was leaving his room pulling a carrier suitcase, Sano naturally followed behind.
“Where are you going?”
“Vacation.”
The lowest-ranking employee, forced to take a mandatory vacation because two out of the only three employees in the business were resting, answered dryly. Behind him, Mungchi was wagging its tail.
“…Where to?”
While Iyeon himself was going on vacation so he couldn’t really criticize Sano for taking one too, the situation seemed ominously strange. Meeting Iyeon’s wavering gaze, Sano pulled up one corner of his mouth.
“I’m heading to the hotel.”
No wonder he had been so quiet all along. The party grew from two to four.
