"Have you calmed down now?"
"Yeah. Sorry."
As the storm of emotion subsided, embarrassment came rushing in.
Why had I acted like that?
Being ashamed had always been my share of the burden, but this time it wasn't like we were alone. The Constellations had been watching too, so the humiliation was doubled.
"Ahem. Sorry to you too, Constellations. I showed you something pretty ugly."
'The reaction isn't half bad.'
I knew there were Constellations who hated this kind of thing, so I had been ready to shrug it off even if they got annoyed. Thankfully, it didn't look like I needed to worry about that.
The more you watched Constellations, the more you realized they were oddly human.
"So what should we do with that bastard now?"
The guys from the Cheoldupa had long since stopped being the Cheoldupa thanks to my rampage. They were just Cheolsu now.
In other words, I'd killed all of them except that one bastard, Cheolsu.
"We'll use him as a guide. If you really don't want to die by my oppa's hands, lead us to where your group is."
.
.
.
"The Cheoldupa! That's all?"
"Why is it only Cheolsu?"
The people in the group were suspicious that Cheolsu had come back alone, since I'd killed all the other members.
"Hey, telling your group members won't change anything, so watch yourself, got it?"
Thankfully, we'd done a good enough job shutting him up, so there wasn't much to worry about.
"...Ms. Dokja? Mr. Dokyun?"
A familiar voice called out to us from somewhere.
Dokja and I lifted our heads and looked for the owner of the voice.
"My god... Ms. Dokja! Mr. Dokyun!"
"Gilyoung!"
Squeeze
"You two are safe too! That's such a relief, really...!"
"Ms. Dokja...!"
The people we reunited with at Geumho Station were Hyunsung, Sangah, and Gilyoung, the ones we'd met on the subway.
Then let me teach everyone, starting now, how to handle Gilyoung.
1. Pick Gilyoung up.
.
.
.
200. Put Gilyoung down.
"Oppa, I know you like doting on kids, but put him down already. He's about to suffocate to death."
"Ghk!"
"...Sorry. I forgot to account for my stats."
I must've gotten too intense with my affection, because Gilyoung couldn't even breathe.
So if you're asking what happens in steps 2 through 199!
The answer is obvious!
2. Keep hugging Gilyoung.
3. Keep hugging him.
4. Keep hugging him.
.
.
.
199. Keep hugging him.
In other words, you just keep hugging him.
What the hell were you perverts imagining?
"It's okay. It was nicer than I expected. You were soft."
"I was... soft?"
"Even to me, Mr. Dokyun looks like he'd be firm from all the muscle..."
Even Lee Hyunsung, an actual soldier, had said I looked muscular, hadn't he?
'This is weirdly humiliating.'
"So, Gilyoung, have you thought about becoming our youngest?"
Smack!
"Do you seriously want to say that to a kid?!"
As always, the Constellations were attaching all kinds of meaning to everything I did.
"If it means becoming little brother to hyung and noona, I don't think that sounds bad."
"See? Gilyoung likes it too!"
"You think he really means that?!"
Smack!
Smack!!
"Dokja! My attribute! My attribuuute!! That really hurts!!!"
"I'm hitting you because I want it to hurt!!"
After reenacting what felt like a sitcom scene all over again.
"It's such a relief that what Yoo Joonghyuk said turned out to be true."
"Yoo Joonghyuk?"
Twitch
"Did something happen?"
The moment Yoo Joonghyuk's name came up, my face twisted on reflex. Seeing that, Lee Hyunsung approached me with concern.
The others on the far side of the bridge probably hadn't seen what happened to us, so of course they wouldn't know.
That bitch had the nerve to bring up my little sister and then try to feed her to an ichthyosaur?
'...I lied to oppa a little because I got jealous somehow, but what if Yoo Joonghyuk tells him the truth?'
The only reason Kim Dokyun was furious at Joonghyuk was because she had nearly gotten Kim Dokja killed, so it was a lie that would be exposed far too easily if they met Yoo Joonghyuk.
But Dokyun was a terminal siscon.
He firmly believed Yoo Joonghyuk had tried to kill his younger sister, and since he knew she was exactly the kind of person who could do that, the chance of him believing Joonghyuk was zero.
'Well, whatever. Oppa would never believe Yoo Joonghyuk over me anyway, so it doesn't matter! Rival eliminated!... But why am I jealous of Yoo Joonghyuk, and why am I thinking of her as a rival?'
Dokja knew Dokyun far too well, yet understood nothing at all about herself.
"Where is that Yoo Joonghyuk right now?"
Dokyun glared at Hyunsung as if he wanted to kill Joonghyuk this instant.
"Th-that is! She's not here right now. Ms. Yoo Joonghyuk left the station yesterday."
Overwhelmed by his pressure, Hyunsung even stammered as he answered.
"Don't pressure Mr. Hyunsung so much. It isn't his fault."
"...Right. I was too sensitive. Sorry. We didn't exactly go through anything pleasant on the bridge."
"No, it's all right. I understand."
As a soldier, Hyunsung seemed used to this kind of situation, and he just smiled and let my reaction pass.
"Still, she's the type to at least clean up the basics before leaving."
"Pardon?"
"It's one of Dokja's old habits. You don't need to worry about it."
"Come to think of it, there's one more person missing."
"Ah, Manager Han is..."
Was it Han Myeongoh?
It was almost impressive that Sangah still called him 'Manager Han' and used honorifics for him even in a situation like this.
That old-fashioned bastard was the worst kind of old-fashioned bastard, and the sort of man who acted like he could get away with anything because he was a parachute hire.
And yet she still treated him with respect.
I really thought Yoo Sangah was an incredible person.
"Everyone, move!!"
Thud thud thud thud
No sooner had the words left her mouth than the group members came rushing over and surrounded us.
"Y-you...!"
"Why's that bastard so flustered just from seeing you?"
"When the bridge collapsed, he left me there and ran off with Ms. Sangah slung over his shoulder."
"..."
The Constellations who had watched me smash the Cheoldupa to pieces earlier seemed worried that I was about to go wild here too.
To begin with, the reason I'd gone half out of my mind and rampaged back there was because that Cheolsu bastard had declared, right in front of me, that he was going to lay hands on Dokja.
I'm not some thug who goes berserk whenever the mood strikes.
Of course, that's assuming Dokja has nothing to do with it.
"Nice to meet you. You two must be the newcomers who arrived today. May I ask your names? My name is Cheon Inho."
"I'm Kim Dokja."
"And I'm Kim Dokyun."
That gaze was unpleasant, and familiar in a way that made my skin crawl.
As I searched my memory for where I'd seen it before.
'Ah. I remember. It's the same look the convenience store owner used to give me when he tried every cheap trick in the book to cut my pay, saying this should be enough for a student.'
The kind of look that looked down on you, thought only about using you, and saw you not as a person but as a tool.
"I heard the story from Mr. Cheolsu, who came with you. He said you fought monsters and saved our group members."
Was he talking about the woman we'd rescued and Cheolsu?
If he was the one leading this place, then he probably had a rough idea of what was happening outside... which only made me dislike him more.
"Everyone, gather around! These brave new group members personally brought back food for all of us!"
'This bastard dares try to swoop in and claim credit? Did he think I'd care about reading the room in front of all these people?'
.
.
.
"There are currently 86 people in Geumho Station. Ah, including you two, that makes 88."
"That's fewer than I expected."
Well, there had probably been plenty of cases like that woman—people abandoned, or worse.
And this Cheon Inho bastard had known and chosen to overlook it.
Did he think we wouldn't notice?
'That bastard's dead soon.'
As if she'd understood my intentions from the very beginning, Dokja smiled and spoke to me through the [Unbroken Red Thread] skill.
Then all I had to do now was wait for the stage Dokja was about to prepare.