The Villain’s Recipe - Chapter 26.1
Kang Sa-hyeok looked back and shouted.
“I’ll rescue you, so stay right there!”
On the other hand, Baek Seok-gyol was dealing with Kang Sa-hyeok with a face as cold as frost. Unlike Kang Sa-hyeok, who was running wild with anger, Baek Seok-gyol did not look like he was using all that much power. However, chunks of the hillside were carved away due to the impact of the power exerted around the surroundings.
It was not that they vanished. All of those things were compressed by Baek Seok-gyol’s power and turned into a bomb. When that flew over and reached Kang Sa-hyeok, a massive explosion erupted alongside a deafening roar. Yet nothing at all reached Min-ha. Something was blocking the path right in front of him.
Since Kang Sa-hyeok handled fire, it wasn’t his ability. Nor was it the ability of the teleporter, who was barely holding onto his fading consciousness. If so, there was only one person left. Baek Seok-gyol was protecting Min-ha even in a situation like this.
His heart pounded thump-thump. It beat so violently that it felt like it might pop right out of his mouth.
‘I need to think.’
Staying like this forever was not an option either.
‘Let’s choose.’
Whether to accept Kang Sa-hyeok’s help and hold out like this. Or else to choose Baek Seok-gyol and follow along with him.
‘The start was kidnapping.’
It hadn’t been a good beginning. Baek Seok-gyol’s impression wasn’t entirely favorable from the very start, either. Therefore, if he were a rational person, choosing Kang Sa-hyeok right here would be correct. Grandfather used to curse at the Management Bureau often, but anyway, the embodiment of justice in present-day South Korea was them.
However, was that really true?
Min-ha recalled the days he spent at ZERO’s hideout. If he followed Kang Sa-hyeok, it would probably be difficult to see Baek Seok-gyol ever again. Thinking about it that way, somehow he didn’t like it.
Baek Seok-gyol had a habit. He always sat by Min-ha’s side when eating meals. Sometimes he even wanted to seat Min-ha between his legs or on his lap. He usually tended to listen to what Baek Seok-gyol said, but he couldn’t bring himself to do that because he was too embarrassed.
That was because there were always people in the dining room. Perhaps it was because it was the place where food came out, or maybe because they liked the changed atmosphere. The people remaining in the hideout always lingered in the dining room. It wasn’t a bad atmosphere. It was a joyful thing that someone was changing because of him.
In the process, he came to know more about Baek Seok-gyol, too. He hated carrots and cucumbers. On the first day they ate curry, Baek Seok-gyol wore a strange expression while chewing a carrot. At first, Min-ha wondered about the meaning of that expression, but before long he realized it.
“Do you hate carrots?”
At Min-ha’s question, Baek Seok-gyol made a peculiar expression.
“Do I hate them?”
The reason he didn’t answer clearly was something he figured out quickly. Baek Seok-gyol wasn’t fond of the texture and taste of carrots, but he said that didn’t mean he wanted to cut off the supply of carrots because of it. Nor did he feel any desire to go and overturn a carrot field.
How had Min-ha reacted when he first heard that?
“Ahaha. Who goes that far just because they hate something?”
There might actually be someone like that in the world. But at least as far as Min-ha knew, nobody went around destroying carrot farms simply because they claimed to hate carrots. In that way, Baek Seok-gyol’s likes and dislikes were positioned at extreme opposites.
“From now on, I’ll leave the carrots out when I give you some.”
Cooking without carrots wasn’t particularly difficult anyway. He just had to take a portion out of what he made and hand it over. Someone might call it a picky eater’s habit, but so what? Baek Seok-gyol was already an adult, and there were plenty of other vegetables that could replace the nutrients of carrots.
Min-ha didn’t want to stubbornly feed Baek Seok-gyol something he disliked. Perhaps it was because he had heard about Baek Seok-gyol’s painful past. He had spoken fragmentarily about the research facility, but just hearing about that alone made him feel how unhappy and grueling a life he had led. Min-ha’s own life growing up in the angel’s home wasn’t ordinary either, but it couldn’t be compared to Baek Seok-gyol’s misfortunes. Even if he spoke as if he were telling someone else’s story, the feelings he felt at the time didn’t just go away anywhere.
