The sweet weekend passed and, as always, hellish Monday arrived. On his way to work, James received a message from his superior. Since Evil usually used phone calls, when James received a message from him, he thought he was still dreaming. Fortunately, before slapping himself on the cheek, he realized it was reality and looked at the message, which read, “Buy cold medicine.” So James became convinced it was a dream and ended up slapping his cheek.
James didn’t ask why someone who wouldn’t catch a cold even if they walked around naked in the middle of winter was telling him to buy cold medicine, and Evil didn’t offer a reason. When James, with his swollen face, bought all kinds of cold medicine by type and arrived at Evil’s office a little late, around nine o’clock, Evil was sitting facing the wall with a terribly frowning, frightening face.
“Good morning, Director…”
Without even glancing at James, Evil held out his hand. James quickly handed over the cold medicine and pinched his own eventful cheek. It wasn’t a dream. This young devil had come to work on time today, following last week.
“What the hell. Why are there so many?”
“Just in case, I bought them by type. Different medicines are taken depending on symptoms—whether there’s a high fever, coughing, or sore throat.”
“For just a cold, it’s damn complicated. You take medicine with water, right?”
“Yes, after meals. Who’s going to take it?”
“The refugee.”
“I see. Cheche-ssi is taking it…”
James didn’t know Cheche had caught a cold, and even if it was a cold, he couldn’t understand why Evil was preparing medicine. If Cheche had a cold medicine allergy and Evil was trying to torment him by making him take it, that would be understandable.
“Does it have to be taken after meals?”
“Preferably. He should have had breakfast, so if he takes it now, it should be fine.”
“No, he didn’t. That bastard skipped breakfast.”
His tone was strangely firm. Evil glared at the wall while clutching the medicine bag.
“Damn it, he coughed again. That’s the third cough since coming to work.”
Whether Cheche coughed again or not, that wasn’t the problem right now.
There was still a protesting citizen group in front of the main gate, and the Center was in a frenzy asking them to handle it quickly. There were movements from the Endem family to sue the citizen group. James found it impossible to understand how they could think of suing the insulted bereaved families.
The Endem family was a very noble and moral group and more sensible compared to Evil, but that was only “compared to Evil.” People lamented how a devil like Evil could be born from the Endem family, but James thought Evil was born precisely because it was the Endem family.
It was the same now. James had a headache worrying about how to respond to the citizen group, but Evil was fixated on counting the coughs of his refugee-born secretary.
But… this might be better. It might be better that he’s completely forgotten about the protest.
“The cough sounds different from last week. It seems to have gotten worse after the weekend.”
“Is that so…”
“It’s definitely the flu. At this rate, he’ll catch body aches too.”
“Then shall we give him medicine for now? It’s not a big problem to take it on an empty stomach.”
“It’s just two hours until lunch, so forget it. Take the refugee along then too.”
Today, lunch with So&So was scheduled, and while Cheche wasn’t originally supposed to accompany them, he could be brought along under the secretary pretext. While James called the restaurant to prepare one more meal, Evil crumpled the medicine bag and glared at the wall.
For the next two hours, Evil’s concentration didn’t return. He could hardly focus on work and kept looking at the clock, then when it was time to leave, he told James to call the refugee.
Cheche, who no longer had phone-answering duties and was just diligently practicing typing, stood up at James’s call. Evil gave James a look to leave Cheche and go, just like yesterday.
Looking at Cheche standing alone after the office door closed, Evil frowned.
“Don’t stand, sit down.”
“Yes.”
Cheche sat on the sofa Evil pointed to. Evil was about to tell him to lean back because his upright posture looked very uncomfortable, but stopped.
Cheche was dressed in a shirt layered with a knit sweater. Both were clothes he’d seen on the hanger. Evil approached with a face full of resentment. He bent his upper body in front of Cheche and lifted the shirt collar with his fingers. The wound from the strangling had now disappeared.
“……”
Cheche’s face was right in front of him. The ashen hair had a better texture than expected, and a pleasant fragrance seemed to come from the dark brown skin. The moment his own face was reflected in those golden eyes, Evil took a few steps back. He hurriedly retreated and nearly tripped over the table, but corrected his posture with Motioner-like reflexes.
“……”
Evil glared sharply at Cheche. Was he laughing at that almost embarrassing moment?
He glared menacingly, thinking he’d kill him if he laughed, but no expression appeared on Cheche’s face.
“…Let’s go eat.”
“Yes.”
Cheche had no questions. He didn’t ask why he was called or why they were suddenly having an unscheduled meal together.
Like a dry desert.
At the quiet heartbeat, Evil felt somehow deflated for some reason.
***
The lunch party totaled twelve people. From So&So’s side, the executive director, managing director, and five other executives accompanied them, and from the User Center, Evil, two secretaries, and two Aura Users in charge of practical work came.
‘So&So’ was a Luzem processing company directly under the Alcity Republic government, and in terms of business scale, it was a conglomerate no different from a single nation. For lunch with such a So&So, the User Center sent out Evil Endem, the one and only SSS Multi User.
There was a separate practical team, and Evil was practically just filling a slot to raise the prestige of this meeting.
The oil-brushed grilled octopus and fish flesh topped with gold powder served as the main dish looked quite appetizing. Evil stabbed an entire octopus leg with one fork stroke, chewed it slowly, and observed Cheche. Cheche hadn’t even finished one octopus leg and was just nibbling at the side salad.
“You eat like shit. Doesn’t it taste good?”
“It’s extremely delicious.”
“Then why aren’t you eating.”
“I’m going to pack it to go.”
It was something he’d heard before. Back then too, Cheche had left food and packed it to go. But Evil could only snort. How was he going to store and eat it in that cramped room with no microwave or refrigerator, no pots or dishes? Was he going to stop by the refugee facility and share it bite by bite?
“I’ll pack you one more, so just eat it all now. I don’t want to see you nibbling.”
“I’m full, so I can’t eat it all right now.”
“What did you eat to be full?”
Evil frowned. The So&So executives sitting at the same table but excluded were the same. What Cheche had eaten was only the apple soup and tomato eggplant stir-fry served as appetizers, and one-third of a piece of grilled octopus leg.
“Cheche-ssi seems to eat small portions…”
“But try eating more. There’s still a lot of food left…”
The executives each added with hospitable smiles, but those words scattered into the air.
“You’re actually saying it doesn’t taste good but lying, right?”
“No, I’m full.”
“Don’t bullshit me. Who gets full on something like that? Even a child would eat more than that.”
“You really don’t trust people. You won’t even believe something as simple as being full—it must be hard for you to live in this world.”
Cheche criticized Evil’s distrust in a dry tone. Not only the So&So executives but even the accompanying Aura Users gasped and dropped their forks or knives.
“I went to the trouble of bringing a refugee bastard to eat good food…”
Everyone shifted their buttocks to evacuate, but Evil didn’t flip the table or set fires. He suppressed his bubbling anger and lowered his voice.
“I know you’re hungry right now. Someone at my level can sense the emotion of satiety, but I don’t sense it from you. You’re lying.”
“What’s satiety?”
“You ignorant…”
Evil was about to snap at him but stopped, realizing. It was true that not knowing Alcity language, used at a common language level worldwide, meant ignorance, so he didn’t know the exact reason why he didn’t finish pronouncing “ignorant bastard” and closed his mouth. However, it was certain that he failed to finish his words because he was thinking about the Alcity language dictionary in the corner of that cramped room. The thick book with folded corners—the folded pages had words like “real estate,” “lease,” and “registry copy.” While not knowing the word satiety.
“…The feeling of being full. Being so full you don’t want to eat more.”
“Does satiety mean being full?”
No, fuck. Why ask twice? He understood well enough, so why make me say it twice, going to all that trouble?
Evil gathered his patience and suppressed his anger.
“Yes, that’s what it means.”
“I don’t want to eat more.”
“So why? You were eating deliciously too.”
“Yes, because it was delicious.”
“……”
“……”
“……”
