“Give me two.”
Gu Baekyoung, who appeared suddenly like a bolt from the blue, reached his hand toward Yoon Jihyuk.
“Specially.”
As if he was in a good mood, Gu Baekyoung’s voice was mixed with a faint hint of laughter. Since Gu Baekyoung was originally the type to appear and disappear mysteriously, Yoon Jihyuk wasn’t even surprised.
“Geez, who said so?”
“The manager.”
Gu Baekyoung showed the message that had just arrived as if to brag about it as proof.
“Tsk.”
Before Yoon Jihyuk could hand them over, two energy drinks disappeared from the plastic bag. Gu Baekyoung, who was already holding two in one hand, giggled.
“Gu Baekyoung, are you that happy?”
“Our relationship is close enough that he’d set aside two for me. While I’m at it, let me tell you—don’t even think about looking for an opportunity. Even if we’re on the same team, it’s absolutely not allowed.”
Gu Baekyoung still remembered when Yoon Jihyuk had said the other day that he wanted to make Onyul his guide.
“I haven’t been looking for opportunities since you started your lover act, okay? Even today, it’s been a while since we met!”
Yoon Jihyuk was innocent.
Of course, he still wanted to be friendly with the manager, but more than that, he hoped Gu Baekyoung would be happy.
Gu Baekyoung, who had become noticeably brighter after meeting the manager, looked good. Whether it was a lover act or whatever, he just hoped the two would get along well for a long time.
“Hmm.”
Gu Baekyoung didn’t reply and just stared at the aggrieved Yoon Jihyuk.
As he said, he hadn’t been approaching Onyul lately. As if considering Gu Baekyoung.
‘Thinking of me?’
The thought that he’d been determined to properly dunk him someday had faded away before he knew it.
Still, it was quite nice that he looked out for him as a colleague.
……Should I help him out sometime?
In the place where the thought of dunking him disappeared, the mind to help him settled in just a little bit.
Gu Baekyoung and Yoon Jihyuk, who had changed his mind, entered the Alpha Team members’ room side by side.
“Here, here. Have one each. The manager gave them to me.”
Yoon Jihyuk handed drinks to Na Geonwoo and Cha Hyeran, who were already in the team room. Of the two sitting at the table for a meeting, Cha Hyeran gulped down her drink first.
“Wow, what is this? It makes me feel really refreshed.”
Na Geonwoo, who gulped down his drink after her, also had a surprised face.
“…Hm?”
Gu Baekyoung, who sat down, also quickly gulped down his drink. As soon as he did, he unmistakably felt Onyul’s energy imbued in the drink.
Even if others didn’t know, at least Gu Baekyoung noticed at once the energy that comforted body and mind.
‘He said the probability of winning the bid in the bidding competition was one hundred percent.’
Was it because of this drink?
Last night, Onyul had boasted confidently that he would naturally win the bid in the bidding competition. When he asked about the secret, he just told him to watch.
If the judges also drank the beverage Onyul made, Onyul’s confidence would become reality. There was no reason not to choose him after drinking this beverage.
Gu Baekyoung, who gulped down the second drink too, became quite serious.
‘Why does our hyung want to participate in the Management Bureau event?’
Gu Baekyoung knew that Onyul didn’t want to come near the gates.
It was a fact he learned while experiencing broadcast guiding twice.
As if he had trauma, he would tremble and break out in cold sweat every time he came near a gate. It was amazing that he could hold onto his mind even in that state.
While Onyul, who came to guide him while enduring trauma, was admirable, Gu Baekyoung saw that trauma and once again became certain that he was Kang Onyul’s reincarnation.
Because he had memories of being unjustly sacrificed at a gate… That’s why he thought he was afraid of gates.
After that, Gu Baekyoung made sure Kang Onyul didn’t come near the gates. Because he hoped he wouldn’t suffer from trauma, and he had to hide his identity too.
When he subtly lured him with food made with effort and a comfortable bed, Onyul eventually settled into his house.
Since he could see him secretly at home, there was no reason to meet at the gate.
Anyway, he was protecting Onyul for those reasons, but suddenly he says he wants to participate in the gate training event.
No matter how fake it was, its appearance was no different from a real gate. Why was Onyul trying to go near the gate that made him anxious?
Even though he hated standing out to the Management Bureau’s eyes…
Gu Baekyoung speculated on his intentions.
‘Is there something he needs to secretly obtain from the Management Bureau?’
He asked yesterday too, but Onyul subtly changed the subject and didn’t tell him the real reason for participating in the event.
He talked about his own activities at the event, but unless one was a fool, one could tell that wasn’t the real reason.
Onyul thought of him like a child, but in fact, he was much more sensitive and clever than he thought.
He even remembered and compared each and every one of Onyul’s actions.
Then who was the person who caused the reason for him to suddenly have to enter the Management Bureau?
This too wasn’t difficult to guess.
Gu Baekyoung recalled the scene he saw on the convenience store CCTV screen not long ago.
Onyul was greatly angered by some woman’s appearance and burst the juice pack he was ringing up.
It was a reaction hard to believe he, who was far from anger and violence, would do.
Gu Baekyoung, who was watching in real-time, was startled and texted him.
<I’d be happy if you closed the convenience store lol But just in case, I’m asking… was there anyone who bothered you today?>
<There’s no such person, so don’t worry and you be careful>
But Onyul didn’t tell him the truth and seemed to have suppressed that incident alone.
Gu Baekyoung didn’t resent Onyul for not saying anything. He thought it was better to find out the identity of the woman who disturbed Onyul in that time.
Surprisingly, the woman was Onyul’s aunt.
The woman who claimed to be his guardian and took everything he left behind.
Was Kang Onyul just angry because he coincidentally ran into his aunt?
Or perhaps there was a reason he had no choice but to be angry?
Gu Baekyoung wanted to ask Onyul directly. If he told him the reason that was troubling him, he would have helped Onyul even if it meant giving everything.
But when he asked in a roundabout way whether he had anything difficult lately, whether there was anyone bothering him, he ultimately didn’t tell him his worries.
He only said out of the blue that he would participate in the gate event.
Gu Baekyoung expected there was some connection between the aunt’s appearance and the gate event.
After that, he continued tracking the aunt’s movements.
The aunt was visiting the Management Bureau to claim the wages that should have been paid to Onyul.
While doing so, she even caused a disturbance… and he found out that a ‘confidentiality agreement’ was entangled in it.
This is it.
Only then did the pieces of seemingly unrelated matters fit together.
It seemed Onyul wanted to know why a confidentiality agreement was attached to the gate accident that drove him to death.
So it seemed like he was trying to secretly enter the Management Bureau using this event as an opportunity.
Gu Baekyoung also didn’t know why a confidentiality agreement was attached to that gate incident.
After the gate accident, only the cleanup team investigated, and he couldn’t find out what kind of deal the Management Bureau made with the bereaved families.
‘Did something come out of the body?’
For instance, something others shouldn’t see…
Gu Baekyoung rampaged and couldn’t properly see Onyul’s body.
He didn’t even remember that day well. Because the moment he heard Onyul was dead, his mind went blank and he lost his reason.
If he’d known this would happen, instead of rampaging, he should have entered the gate directly and investigated…
He regretted it now, but past time couldn’t be turned back. Just like how he only realized how great his true feelings for him were after Onyul died.
This time, absolutely… he absolutely wouldn’t create anything to regret. Gu Baekyoung didn’t want to lose Onyul again.
But Onyul would be different.
Even if they pretended to be lovers, slept embracing together, sat at the same table and ate… he wouldn’t be anxious about losing him.
That’s why he kept this matter secret too and didn’t even ask for help.
If he’d just said one word asking for help, he would have investigated the actual situation so Onyul wouldn’t have to risk entering the Management Bureau directly.
He couldn’t understand Onyul, who went around the difficult path leaving the easy path alone.
Was it because he treated him too carefully to avoid being hated by Onyul, whom he’d met again? Is that why he couldn’t completely lean on him?
Then, Na Geonwoo called out to Gu Baekyoung, who had suddenly become serious.
“Baekyoung-ah, what happened with what you said you’d look into last time?”
At Na Geonwoo’s words, Gu Baekyoung’s downcast gaze lifted. He had a stiff face even though he’d consumed two energy drinks.
“I was actually going to tell you, Team Leader, because I found something strange.”
Gu Baekyoung was investigating the connection between the successive gate rampages that brought out the cat helmet and the gate rampage that drove Onyul to death.
Naturally, he expected both cases would be related to the Anti-Management Bureau.
However, in the gate rampage case that drove Onyul to death, he discovered something rather unexpected.
“Tell me.”
Instead of answering, Gu Baekyoung took something out of his jacket.
What he soon placed on the table was an emblem engraved with a coiled snake.
