# Chapter 40
It had been almost two weeks since they destroyed the research lab, but Dr. Kim seemed to be lying low, not making any movements at all.
Unlike Jaekyung, the place Dr. Kim had teleported to wasn’t Namgu where Iyeon’s neighborhood was located. Setting aside the fact that there was more than one portal, Dr. Kim had headed to Semin Street on the outskirts of Chohosi’s Western District. It was an area closely bordering the back alleys. He seemed to be hiding there, moving between shabby accommodations.
Heesu hadn’t expected this to end quickly either, so there was no criticism about the time it was taking. Considering Dr. Kim’s ambition that they had witnessed, he wouldn’t stay buried forever, and eventually he would make a move. They just had to wait until then.
Coincidentally, one of the things Iyeon was best at was staying quiet and curling up.
“Haven’t you found any other leads besides Dr. Kim?”
“Not yet.”
The club’s research facility had been immediately noticeable to Hyegang because of its size. With so many people coming and going, there were limits to controlling access, no matter how careful they were.
Unfortunately, Dr. Kim seemed to have realized what a stupid move that had been.
“I don’t understand how these things keep popping up when we just did a major clean-up not long ago.”
“I know, right.”
Time had passed and the sense of crisis had probably faded, making them careless enough to crawl out of the shadows. Iyeon shook his head in disapproval.
“By the way, has my injury been taken care of?”
“…”
Faced with Heesu’s sudden pretense of not hearing, Iyeon stared at him blankly. After a long silence, Heesu finally stammered.
“Well, about that…”
“Excuse me.”
I ask you for just one thing, and you can’t even do that? It’s not like I asked you to destroy the Superpower Management Office—I just asked you to let a daughter meet her mother. What? Are you, as a director no less, running off with my commission fee? I could file a complaint, you know. The more Iyeon rambled on with his nagging, the paler Heesu’s face became.
“Mom?”
Mirae suddenly looked up.
“Are we going to see Mom?”
“Yes. Uncle promised to take you.”
“Uncle! Really? When?”
No one except perhaps Je Sano could resist those sparkling child’s eyes. Heesu was no exception.
“We’ll go soon. Very soon. I don’t break my promises. I just need time to prepare mentally…”
“Wow! Uncle is the best!”
“Isn’t he? I’m going to ask Mirae about it later.”
“I understand…”
After winking at Mirae, Iyeon left the office with the triumphant air of a victorious general. Vlog… what should he film?
“What are you doing?”
“Do you know what a vlog is?”
Generally accustomed to having his common sense level disrespected, Sano irritably glared at Iyeon. Undeterred by the fierce gaze, Iyeon pointed the camera at Sano.
“Come on, Je Sano-ssi. Say something.”
“Do you want to die?”
“No, not like that.”
You know, like a self-introduction. But despite the criticism, Sano didn’t respond much, so eventually Iyeon shrugged and spoke.
“Hello, I’m Jung Iyeon, and this is Je Sano.”
His stiff tone was awkwardly captured on camera.
“And this is Mungchi.”
Hearing its name, Mungchi quickly approached Iyeon and nestled into his arms. Iyeon skillfully stroked its black back a couple of times and adjusted the angle so all three of them would fit in the frame.
“This is how the three of us live. I used to live alone, but suddenly I got two roommates.”
Iyeon cleared his throat with a “hmm-hmm” to hide his embarrassment as he rambled on.
“At first I was like, what is this, but now I’ve kind of adapted and it doesn’t bother me. Even though I lost my room and my bed.”
“You brought it on yourself.”
“Speaking of which, what happened to my previous bed? Did you really break it?”
“You saw it.”
“Hey! Do you know how much thought I put into buying that? Do you know how much it cost?”
“324,000 won.”
“…How did you know?”
He even knew down to the thousand won unit. Iyeon scooted away from Sano a bit, but Sano just quietly lifted the corner of his mouth. It was a smile that made him look incredibly mean.
“You’d be better off not knowing.”
Thanks to that ambiguous answer, Iyeon barely managed to suppress the wings of imagination that were about to spread, and awkwardly pressed the stop recording button.
“Oh, that’s the end of today’s vlog~.”
Since uploading it to the internet might result in a lawsuit from Jongchan and Jonghee, he planned to keep it just for personal collection. Putting down his phone, Iyeon held Mungchi and leaned back against the sofa. Sano’s eyebrows raised ever so slightly at his naturally indolent posture.
“Now that I’m trying to capture daily life, there’s nothing to do.”
It had seemed easy when he heard about it from Mirae, but it was harder than expected. Isn’t everyday life always the same and mundane? It’s not like he was handling glamorous cases or living a luxurious life.
“What a boring life.”
Iyeon muttered with a faint smile. Glancing at his constantly drained, blank face, Sano stood up.
“Get dressed.”
“Huh?”
“You said you wanted to capture daily life.”
Striding across the living room without hesitation, Sano entered the small room briefly. When he emerged shortly after, he was in simple athletic wear.
“If there’s nothing, make something.”
“…Hey, do you know what ‘daily life’ means?”
“Come on.”
Sano tilted his head. This was the first time he’d pulled Iyeon out like this. Feeling an inexplicable fear, Iyeon unconsciously hugged Mungchi and took a defensive posture.
“W-what are you going to do?”
The back heading briskly toward the entrance didn’t even turn around as it answered.
“Walking Mungchi.”
This was Iyeon’s second time visiting this park. His first memory wasn’t great, and it looked like the second one wouldn’t be any better. As he lagged behind while reluctantly following Sano, something from the ground pulled Iyeon and placed him beside Sano.
At this sudden teleportation, Mungchi, who had been walking near Iyeon, came running frantically. Seriously, he could have just waited… Iyeon grumbled to himself, giving Sano a sidelong glance.
It was just getting to dusk. The weather was pleasantly cool. Excited by this uncommon experience, Mungchi wandered here and there on the path, sniffing around. Iyeon had thought walks would be meaningless for something that wasn’t really an animal, but apparently that wasn’t the case.
“Mungchi, do you like it?”
When Iyeon bent down and asked, Mungchi wagged its tail as if answering. Though he had been pushed to come out, seeing how happy Mungchi was made Iyeon feel it was worth it. He smiled.
Up to this point, everything was perfect.
The tragedy began when Mungchi, who had been wandering around, suddenly picked up speed and far outpaced Sano and Iyeon.
“Huh, Mungchi?”
Iyeon called out in confusion, but Mungchi instead jumped up and down in the distance as if telling them to follow. It clearly wanted to run freely. Alright, go ahead and run… With that thought, he waved his hand, but beside him Sano muttered.
“Are you planning to leave a Level 2 mutant loose in a park where ordinary people go?”
“…But Mungchi is fine.”
Though he objected timidly, Sano tilted his head as if it were out of the question.
“It’s your duty as the owner to run along.”
This bastard, did he plan this from the beginning…? Iyeon’s face was clouded with betrayal, but Sano remained firm.
His eyes shone with the determination to increase Iyeon’s muscle mass.
“Huff…”
Exactly three minutes later, Iyeon collapsed onto a bench.
Mungchi, who had been running in the distance, quickly returned and put its two front paws on the bench, examining Iyeon from different angles. It showed no signs of fatigue at all.
A bit later, Sano could be seen walking leisurely as if just taking a stroll. His face was full of contempt.
“Is that your best?”
“Huff, you, really, huff, quiet, don’t, huff…”
The pointing finger of someone with such pitiful stamina had no impact on Sano whatsoever. Meanwhile, trying to speak only made Iyeon lose more energy, and he ended up swallowing his saliva wrong, causing him to choke. The sound of his coughing was quite loud.
When Iyeon followed, Mungchi thought they were playing tag and maintained a speed that ensured it would never be caught. After running about two laps around the park with a mutant pacemaker, it didn’t take long to reach a near-death state.
“Huff, ha…”
Sano sat down beside the head of Iyeon, who had collapsed on the bench and was breathing heavily. Mungchi also jumped up lightly and rubbed its face against Iyeon’s cheek.
But it was unfair. Iyeon admitted his stamina was below average, but wasn’t it wrong for a Mugunghwa Tier 5 and a Level 2 mutant to treat others like paper dolls while thinking they were the standard? Shouldn’t they take their own monstrous stamina into account? Having had not only his energy but also his personality drained, Iyeon glared at the two with a rebellious look.
Noticing that gaze, Sano bent down and reached out to Iyeon.
“What…”
Startled, Iyeon tried to move away, but Mungchi was inadvertently blocking him. With an indifferent expression, Sano rummaged through Iyeon’s pocket and pulled out his phone.
And pointed the camera lens at him.
“Walking Day 1.”
“…”
“Vlog.”
Iyeon firmly resolved never to mention even the ‘V’ of vlog in front of Je Sano again.
