RTN 24

chapter 24

Seol Ah-yeon was silent for a long while.

Kim Do-woon quietly watched her face, tightly closed lips deep in thought.

He became curious. What kind of person was that friend to Seol Ah-yeon? How important must they have been for her to chew over a single question from someone else so deeply?

Suddenly, he wondered if he had someone like that. His thoughts drifted to his hometown—family, friends. Now, messages that couldn’t even reach him, left unanswered.

“Why are you asking a question like that?”

Kim Do-woon blinked. Seol Ah-yeon was looking at him now. He leaned his shoulder casually against the bench and replied lightly.

“Just… how can a person ever fully know another person? Isn’t that right?”

“So, the meaning of your question is that Baek Yi-hyeon here is my friend, but I just don’t recognize it?”

“Just leaving multiple possibilities open.”

“She’s not my friend. I’m sure of it.”

With that, Seol Ah-yeon handed him her lunchbox.

Kim Do-woon took it, picked up a piece of meatball with his fork, added a bit of stir-fried vegetables on top, and was about to take a bite when Seol Ah-yeon spoke.

“If it were my friend, they’d never have done that.”

Kim Do-woon paused, lowering his fork.

“That was a choice made to protect you.”

“You mean using my feelings? You deliberately did it, thinking I’d act if the kid was in danger. Cowardly.”

“I just wanted to finish it quickly, worried you might get hurt since you push your body to its limits.”

“I have to be okay to be useful, that’s why.”

“Anyway, the kid didn’t get hurt. They only copied the appearance. They don’t even realize their image was implemented. They just entered the control room, cut off vision and hearing, and attached sensors to the body. That’s all.”

He put the meatball in his mouth. Seeing him chew, Seol Ah-yeon cut a larger piece with her spoon and ate it, leaning back against the bench with her eyes closed. She finally looked like she could breathe again.

“Are you going to eat like this from now on?”

“For a while, yes. I have to survive too. Didn’t you see earlier? Almost went to the afterlife after eating dog food.”

Seol Ah-yeon was careful, cautious. Whoever would be responsible for her training would have a headache. She wouldn’t follow instructions blindly. Every part of the training would require explanation and convincing. Just imagining it was exhausting.

Whoever took the job would deserve condolences, Kim Do-woon thought, as he poked at the salad with his fork.

He tried to pick up fresh vegetables but dropped them. Even proper chopsticks weren’t provided here.

He felt irritated. Damn military food. Today it tasted worse than usual. It wasn’t his fault for being raised in a region famous for fine cuisine.

The food here was seriously bad. He wanted to wrap the noodles from the rich meat broth with chopsticks and shove them into his mouth. It had been far too long since he had tasted noodles soaked in warm, rich soup.

“No chopsticks here?”

Seol Ah-yeon struggled to scoop the salad with her spoon and asked.

“Nope.”

“Annoying.”

Kim Do-woon straightened up from the chair.

“In my hometown, we use them, but here, no one else does, so they aren’t supplied. You use chopsticks?”

Seol Ah-yeon scooped some vegetables onto rice with her spoon and nodded. Makes sense. Her world had been closely connected to this one.

As she muttered while scooping vegetables over her rice:

“Still, the food is tasty.”

“Not many people like that,” he said, pointing to the stir-fried vegetables.

Seol Ah-yeon widened her eyes. Kim Do-woon couldn’t help but smile a little at her expression of disbelief.

“The people here have no taste,” she said seriously.

“Yeah, I think so too.”

Kim Do-woon ate a bit of everything from the lunchbox. Following his lead, Seol Ah-yeon’s spoon moved steadily. Watching her eat diligently until her cheeks puffed made him unexpectedly hungry. He unwrapped an extra lunchbox he had brought, just in case.

“I should eat too.”

“Eat plenty. Earlier, you almost left it all.”

She had been watching his tray as well. Seol Ah-yeon seemed completely at ease. Clearly, after consuming an S-rank item, she had become overconfident.

Annoying, but if she weren’t that audacious, she wouldn’t have escaped the lab and sneaked into the security room in the first place.

They sat silently side by side eating.

When Seol Ah-yeon finished all her vegetables, Kim Do-woon deliberately transferred all of his remaining vegetables into her lunchbox.

“Eat it all.”

“Thank you,” she said, piling them over the leftover rice and scraping the tray clean. Then, closing the empty lunchbox lid, she suddenly asked:

“Why don’t you fight with people?”

“Huh?”

“They teased you earlier, about where you’re from. Colony, this, that.”

Kim Do-woon pushed his empty lunchbox aside.

“Why bother? Just ignore it.”

“You’re so calm. Is it because you’re strong?”

Their eyes met. Her unusually clear pupils glistened.

At that moment, Kim Do-woon realized. She didn’t just call him here to eat. He responded lightly, hiding his realization.

“Being told that by an S-rank weapon feels weird, but everyone here is strong.”

“You seem especially strong here. You have Baek Yi-hyeon’s trust too.”

“There are only 180 members here. I’m just one of them.”

“You weren’t punished even though you were negligent earlier.”

True. His mistake almost got Seol Ah-yeon killed. Baek Yi-hyeon had only lightly scolded him—a surprisingly lenient response.

“They just let it slide. No one was watching anyway.”

“When we first encountered the gate, you were holding the jewel. You treated it lightly, even though it was a valuable resource. No one stopped you.”

Seol Ah-yeon spoke firmly, with confidence. Kim Do-woon watched silently.

“And in the dining hall, you mentioned a ‘link’ or something. I don’t know what it is, but you declared to stop, and everyone followed your lead.”

She continued smoothly:

“Some underestimated you because you were from a colony, but that’s probably your only weakness. A few laughed, but most stayed quiet. They seemed careful not to provoke you.”

Kim Do-woon let out a small, curious laugh.

“What are you trying to say?”

“I’m a core asset of the military. Being close to me is beneficial.”

“So you and I…?”

Kim Do-woon pointed at her and then himself.

“Are you saying we become a team?”

“We help each other.”

“Help with what?”

“Even if the military manages me as a core asset, they can’t control every minor internal conflict. I don’t know this situation well, so I can’t handle it smoothly. For example, those guys making dirty jokes earlier.”

He knew. It was uncomfortable, but Kim Do-woon hid it.

“The more allies I have, the better. And you seem the strongest here. If you care about my comfort, I’ll prioritize protecting you in every situation.”

“You? Protect me?”

Teasingly, he asked, but Kim Do-woon understood. This little negotiation was extremely advantageous for both.

“You’re planning something with the S-rank you swallowed, right? Seems like an important operation. Won’t you be involved too?”

Not just that operation. Many battles lay ahead with Seol Ah-yeon. In all of them, her explosive influence could affect outcomes, and if she kept his life in mind, it would only be safer.

It was indeed an attractive proposal. Perhaps Seol Ah-yeon had observed his tendencies more carefully than any other information in the dining hall.

That he prioritized his own life above all else, openly. Otherwise, such an offer wouldn’t exist.

Kim Do-woon met Seol Ah-yeon’s gaze steadily. Lightly, he asked:

“What if I refuse?”

“Then… I guess there’s nothing you can do…”

Her pupils glinted. In that instant, Kim Do-woon saw Baek Yi-hyeon in her.

Eyes that seemed to declare there could be no choice but him, a force that instantly drew in whoever looked.

With an almost identical aura to Baek Yi-hyeon, Seol Ah-yeon concluded:

“Wouldn’t that be a loss for you?”