Chapter 19
Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: NicoleTempest
Chapter 19 One Thing Leads to Another
I quickly finished getting ready to follow Oh Yi-jun wherever he was going and left the accommodation first.
As I sat at the cafe across from the entrance of the accommodation, he came out of the building about 30 minutes later.
‘What’s that bag?’
I didn’t care what he looked like when he went out until now. But today, when I looked closely, he was carrying a huge backpack that I couldn’t identify.
It would have been easier to use the replay service if I wanted to be comfortable, but… The replay service only showed short situations of 10 to 20 minutes at most.
If I wanted to check what happened before and after, I had to waste points like water.
‘I’m not desperate for points right now, but… It doesn’t hurt to save them.’
I might have to actively use the fate skill when the real practice or activity starts.
I thought it would be better to suffer a bit now to prepare for that.
As soon as I saw Oh Yi-jun moving, I slowly left the cafe and followed him, keeping a distance of about 50 meters.
‘He’s really good at hiding his face for a celebrity.’
He wore a black mask, a black hat, and sunglasses.
He looked like an armed robber, and he headed to a gloomy redevelopment area.
There were red signs everywhere, announcing the vacancy, drawn in an X shape.
‘Do kids these days meet their friends in places like this?’
The walls of the houses soon to be demolished were covered in graffiti, which seemed to complement the hip-hop vibe, I suppose.
As I looked around carefully and followed Oh Yi-jun, a building without a vacancy sign appeared.
‘He’s probably going in there.’
Maybe his friend was waiting for him in that building. I hid behind an old fence and saw Oh Yi-jun climb up the stairs to the second floor.
Squeak-.
The annoying sound of metal rang out as the iron door opened and closed with a thud.
I thought he would go to a cafe or something if he was meeting his friends.
But if he went into a closed room like that, I wouldn’t be able to see what he was doing inside, would I?
I grumbled to myself and crouched down under the fence.
If it had been Lim Hyun-seong’s body before he died, his ankles would have hurt. Anyway, being young was good for one thing.
It must have been about 10 minutes.
As I waited for Oh Yii-jun to come out without any hope, the unpleasant sound of metal rang out again.
Squeak-.
He came out.
He opened the thick iron door and came out, changing the direction of the bag he had been carrying from the back to the front.
He looked like he was carrying a baby seat or something in front of him… And he had something in his hand that I couldn’t tell what it was for, whether it was a ladle or a bowl or something.
‘What’s with that outfit?’
Anyone would think he was going to do something weird. Now it wasn’t a problem who he was going to meet.
The problem was what he was going to do with that suspicious and ridiculous outfit.
I cautiously straightened up my bent body. In the meantime, Oh Yi-jun walked slowly toward the gloomy alley.
‘I have no idea what he’s trying to do.’
It looked like he could be mistaken for an arsonist if he had oil instead of a ladle in his hand.
“Ha!”
Finally, he went through a gap in a fence and opened his bag and poured something out of the ladle.
Was it liquid? Was he really going to set fire to something?
As I watched with horror, I heard the sound of something like grains pouring out.
‘It doesn’t look like gasoline or anything… What the hell is it…’
He poured the grains he had moved with the ladle into a flat dish-like thing on the ground and left his spot.
I held my breath and followed him.
He came out of the alley and walked for a while, then went into a space that looked like a parking lot.
‘What’s he going to do over there…’
At that moment, a loud cat cry rang out.
“Meow-! Why-! Meow-!”
Not just one, but several cats cried out like sirens at the same time.
“Wait a minute! You have to give me time to open the bag! Haha, ouch, wait a minute!”
“Why-!”
Four cats with long tails raised high in the air surrounded Oh Yi-jun in an instant.
He staggered as he fended off the cats’ body slams, unable to escape.
Soon, I heard the sound of grains pouring out again. The cats rushed to the food bowl in an instant.
“Eat slowly, slowly. You’ll vomit if you do that.”
His hand gently stroked the cats’ backs, one by one. It didn’t look like he was used to it.
I was drawn to the unexpected scene and approached Oh Yi-jun.
“What are you doing here?”
“Huh!?”
He dropped the ladle he was holding in his hand, startled by my sudden appearance.
The cats near Oh Yi-jun’s feet backed away, wary of me, but…
Some of them couldn’t give up eating and kept chewing on the food.
“Why are you here!?”
It was a fair question, but I bravely continued what I had to say.
“You’re the one, I wondered where you were going all the time, and you’re wearing such a suspicious outfit.”
Then he fumbled with his clothes and took off his sunglasses and hat. He had pressed his hat down hard in the heat, and his faintly red hair was sticking out wildly.
“What’s wrong with me!”
“What do you mean, what’s wrong? I thought you were going to set fire to something.”
He looked at me with a look of realization, as if he hadn’t thought of that.
“Huh?”
“Huh? It’s not huh. What are you doing in a place like this?”
I didn’t miss the opportunity and pushed him.
“I was feeding the cats.”
He answered so reasonably and naturally that I twitched my eyebrows.
“Why are you feeding the cats?”
“Uh…”
He scratched his cheek, speechless. His red hair, sticking out in all directions, fluttered in the wind.
Sweat trickled down my temples, and my eyebrows stretched out rebelliously.
Indeed, compared to that guy who was either Kang Yugeon or Kang Yugwon, the image of an ‘adorable troublemaker’, our kid was better.
“I have a situation…”
“What situation?”
Our conversation sounded like an interrogation. In the meantime, the cats that had filled their stomachs to satisfaction meowed and gathered under Yi-jun’s feet.
“Meow!”
“Haha, wait a minute!”
One of the cats bumped its bulky body into Yi-jun’s leg. His black jeans were covered with fur, but Yi-jun didn’t care.
“That’s for later! I have to hurry and go around. The kids are starving and waiting.”
“What?”
I asked in a raised voice, but Yi-jun ignored me and dragged me along.
“Since you’re here, help me out a bit!”
I was pulled by Yi-jun’s hand and stumbled to the next place.
There, three more cats were waiting for Yi-jun to come.
“Only four places left!”
The redevelopment area looked quite small from the outside, but it was very spacious as we went around and put food everywhere.
Every time we moved to a different place, new cats were waiting for Yi-jun and meowing.
Sure, I get that he’s doing a good thing. But is it okay to feed them like this in a neighborhood that’s not even his own? I wondered when Yi-jun stopped walking.
“I’m done. Phew…”
“It’s not phew. What are you thinking, doing this?”
He was the most popular one in this failed group. It would be a big deal if he got into a fight with the locals.
Yi-jun looked unconcerned and picked up a cat with a flash. He held it out to me.
“Hyung, do you want to hold a cat?”
“Don’t change the subject.”
I reached out my hand and brushed the fluffy fur. The short and soft fur touched my fingertips with warmth.
“What’s the situation?”
“My grandmother is sick and hospitalized. She used to come here and do neutering, rescuing, adopting, feeding, and all that.”
“Grandmother?”
As I touched it, it felt… not bad. I asked with a still-unruffled expression.
“Yeah, she’s having knee surgery and staying in the hospital until next week. From next week, she said she’s okay with a volunteer coming temporarily. She’s been worried about the kids starving this week.”
Well… I’m glad he’s not causing trouble with those people who are trying to take him away.
“Are you sure it’s only until this week?”
“Yeah. I’m going to leave the remaining food and keep my grandmother company for a while. Then I’ll go home.”
That’s why he said he’d pass on dinner. He was waiting until his grandmother had dinner.
While I was lost in thought, Yi-jun suddenly grabbed me.
“Ah. As a price for following me today, hyung, come and see my grandmother. She keeps nagging me to show her the faces of my friends who sing. It worked out well.”
“Suddenly? With empty hands?”
“What are you talking about empty hands? She’ll be happy just to see a new face!”
He dragged me to the building he had gone in and out of earlier.
I was surprised by the neat interior.
“This is my grandmother’s building. She used to run a studio, the first floor was a practice room, and the second floor was a house for three people. As you can see, no one else is using it now that everything around here is gone.”
His grandmother… seemed to be well-off financially.
Do grandsons usually get along with their grandmothers like this? Or is he just close with his grandmother?
I didn’t know, since I grew up without any contact with my relatives.
As I looked around the inside, I could tell that someone had taken care of it.
The practice room, which must have been full of people practicing choreography, had nothing but bags of cat food.
“I sometimes come here to work in the studio. They said it would take a year before the demolition started.”
He talked so much. Yi-jun sounded like the cats that had rushed at us earlier.
“Hyung, you can use it if you need a place to practice. My grandmother just left it for me anyway.”
He put the food back in its place and grinned, pulling his mouth up to his ears.
“What, I don’t need it.”
I reflexively said something rude.
Why? I wasn’t used to hearing this kind of talk.
‘Hyun-seong, you’re… so inhuman. I don’t even know what you like. I don’t know what to say when I’m in front of you…’
I had been dumped by the woman I thought I loved, who said that to me.
It felt weird to be invited by a kid who I wouldn’t have talked to if I hadn’t been a thousand years old.
“Well, hyung, you can find a practice room anywhere. Anyway, keep this a secret from the other members.”
“Why?”
“If Kyunghwa hyung finds out, he’ll nag me to death. Asking me if I have any plans or not.”
That was true. I didn’t answer and turned my head lightly. And when I opened the door and left, I opened my mouth.
“If you bring a cat to the dorm, I’ll kick you out with it.”
Then Yi-jun laughed out loud, loving it.
Was he crazy? Or just a stupid kid.
I pulled my hat down and turned my head away.
I had to go to the hospital as a price for following him.
