The Villain’s Recipe - Chapter 22.1
That was the hat Min-ha had made to cover Baek Seok-gyol’s bangs.
“That, I definitely threw it away, so why do you have it?”
“Because it’s mine?”
“No, you can’t. Absolutely not. Throw it away again!”
With a tearful expression, Min-ha tried to snatch the rag-like hat away from Baek Seok-gyol, but he didn’t succeed. First of all, Baek Seok-gyol was taller than Min-ha by a head, and Min-ha was appallingly bad at using his physical body. After hanging onto Baek Seok-gyol and floundering a few times, he eventually buried his face in the other’s chest.
Feeling a chill for a moment, Seorang stood up with a start. If Baek Seok-gyol were to try and dispose of the newly arrived guide, he had intended to stop him, but such a thing did not happen.
“Hahaha.”
Baek Seok-gyol laughed out loud. Seorang doubted his own eyes and ears for a moment. Yet even after closing his eyes and opening them again, what he saw did not change. When he stealthily looked to the side, Seong Mi-na, who had just been drinking water, was coughing up what she had swallowed.
“Cough, cough!”
Ryu Seo-ho patted Seong Mi-na on the back. However, perhaps because he himself had witnessed something unfamiliar, his eyes weren’t properly focused either. Amidst all that, the only one calmly eating his porridge was Woo Eun-yul, who was considered the most timid.
Seorang quietly sat back down.
“I, I saw. Cough!”
“No, you saw it right. I saw the same thing too. So stop coughing first.”
Ryu Seo-ho stopped Seong Mi-na from trying to speak while coughing. It seemed that some sort of change was occurring within ZERO’s hideout.
Usually, when people talk about change, worry follows right behind. That was because the changes that had come to ZERO until now were far from positive. But this time felt different. Ryu Seo-ho smiled warmly as he watched the two people still bickering over an unknown scrap of cloth.
“I’ll make the hat again! I told you that last time, too.”
At Min-ha’s exclamation, Baek Seok-gyol nodded.
“Okay.”
“I’ll make it even better. So please give that back.”
Despite the resolute words, Baek Seok-gyol simply could not let go of what he held in his hand. At that point, even Min-ha, who had always acted as soft and yielding as water mixed in water, grew angry.
“Why, why are you like this? Are you teasing me?”
Min-ha raised his voice with a tearful sniff.
“I’m telling you not to do that!”
Then, before long, he began to cry silently. He had seen countless people crying up until now, but strangely, seeing him cry made his feelings feel odd. It felt as if his heart was sinking heavily. Faced with a sensation he was feeling for the very first time in his life, Baek Seok-gyol groped his chest with his hand.
Watching Min-ha huff and puff in a fit of anger made him suffer from new emotions rushing in like waves. He wanted to make Min-ha’s tears stop no matter what. Perhaps that was why those words slipped out of Baek Seok-gyol’s mouth.
“Don’t cry. If you don’t cry, I’ll grant you one wish.”
It was something that would shock anyone who heard it. In fact, the state of the others who eavesdropped on those words was much the same. The leader of ZERO, of all people, said he would grant whatever they wanted. If it was Baek Seok-gyol, he had the ability to fulfill anything Min-ha desired.
‘What is this?’
‘What could it be?’
The gazes of Ryu Seo-ho and Seong Mi-na brushed past each other. In that situation, the only one slowly scooping up his porridge with an attitude no different from usual was Woo Eun-yul.
‘Everything is going to flow just as ordained anyway.’
Right now, what mattered to Woo Eun-yul wasn’t the fight between Min-ha and the leader, but the porridge that was still more than half left.
“Really, really?”
“I don’t lie.”
That was the truth as well. When he was at the research facility, he saw no need to bother lying. And even after breaking away from that place, his circumstances hadn’t particularly changed. Gazing blankly up at Baek Seok-gyol, Min-ha finally opened his mouth.
“I want to leave.”
