In the Name of God - vanish into fiction

“Yeah.”

I answered Lee Sunho’s words lightly and headed for the bathroom, but he called out to me again.

“Do-yoon.”

When I looked back, Lee Sunho, wearing that same pleasant smile from before, asked me suggestively.

“Do you remember anything from last night?”

“Last night?”

Instead of answering that I didn’t remember, I tried my best to drag out my final memories.

However, my last memory was of the world going dark the moment I set my glass down after finishing my second shot of soju.

No matter how many times I searched, it was the same, so I had no choice but to ask back.

“Did I… make some kind of mistake?”

“…….”

Ah.

I definitely did something.

I looked away and scratched my cheek.

“Sorry for now. I blacked out, so I don’t remember. If I made a mistake, I’ll apologize now.”

“You didn’t make a mistake. If anything, I was the one who…….”

Lee Sunho faltered for a second, then immediately smiled again with a face that said it was nothing.

“No, go wash up.”

“…Okay.”

I feel like he was about to say something incredibly important and dangerous just now.

Tiling my head in confusion, I entered the bathroom.

“Did I really mess up yesterday?”

-Lee Sunho, who even covers up Master’s mistakes…. As expected, he is the light….

This guy Echo, it’s becoming Lee Sunho’s number one fan.

After washing up and roughly drying my hair, I headed to the kitchen. The smell of a rich broth, now even more intense, pierced my sense of smell.

It was a mix of the crisp scent of bean sprouts, the savory aroma of dried pollack soup, and the umami of soybean paste.

And for good reason.

Half of the dishes laid out across the dining table were hangover soups: bean sprout soup, soybean paste soup, dried pollack soup, and dried radish green soup. Each one looked like a full serving, so seeing them all together, I couldn’t even tell how many people this was supposed to feed.

I felt a wave of tension as I witnessed this scene, which felt like an homage to the luxurious table I had encountered at Lee Sunho’s house. He had gone through the trouble of cooking this himself, yet I already felt sorry because I thought I might get full after just a bite or two again.

“You… your ‘large hands’ are beyond the usual scale.”

“Hmm?”

“Nothing…. Good job.”

I sat down with a dubious expression.

The first thing I reached for was the bean sprout soup.

As soon as I took a spoonful and put it in my mouth, the warm, refreshing broth traveled down my esophagus, making my head feel clear already. It tasted so good that an exclamation escaped me involuntarily.

“How is it?”

For some reason, he looked nervous. His eyes, waiting for a review, sparkled clearly.

“…It’s delicious. Really.”

Honestly, it was better than the dishes made by the chefs I had eaten at his house.

“How are you so good at cooking? At this rate, you don’t even need to call a chef to your house.”

Lee Sunho looked down and smiled softly.

“…I ended up doing it because I hated the idea of someone worrying about me.”

I don’t know who he’s thinking of, but I felt like I shouldn’t ask.

And I, too, was thinking of someone faint in my memory.

‘That kid started cooking because of my nagging.’

Since he was in his growing years and was eating only energy bars or tasteless emergency rations like me, I had nagged him out of worry.

Afterward, I felt relieved because he seemed to cook for himself quite often whenever I logged in.

‘Yeah, there are some kids who only eat properly if someone next to them worries or nags.’

It was the kind of thought that would make Echo sigh at me if it heard, so I didn’t say it out loud.

***

If someone were to look down at me lying on the floor of the training center, they would probably ask why someone had left a corpse there.

My sweat-soaked breath rose raggedly through my throat. My limbs were already trembling, and my lungs felt as heavy as briquettes.

‘Damn this pathetic stamina….’

How does a mere five laps around the training ground make my legs give out?

‘Back in my day, five laps was nothing. I could do twenty easily and then run a relay on my hands.’

Subconsciously invoking the “back in my day” line like an old man, I shook my head and pushed myself up. My legs were trembling so much that I couldn’t stand up completely; I could only manage to sit.

As I gasped for air, Lee Sunho sat down beside me.

Even though this guy had run twice as much as I had because he’s a vanguard, his breathing wasn’t even disturbed.

Taking a seat in front of me, Lee Sunho pulled my legs and naturally placed them over his knees. Then, he began to gently massage my calves with his palms.

Feeling the pressure on my legs, I waved my hand.

“Hey, a little more gently…….”

“Does it hurt?”

“It doesn’t exactly hurt, but it feels like my bones might break.”

“Usually, people call that hurting.”

At least he didn’t call it an exaggeration.