Chapter 118: The Time Between Dog and Wolf

When there’s nothing to do, I find myself wishing for any kind of work to appear.

But once things actually get busy, I start getting irritated in a different way.

In the end, it really is better to be bored with nothing to do than exhausted with too much work.

My eyes felt like they were going to pop out as I went through an endless list of special agents, one by one.

Still, there was no helping it.

We were rebuilding the utterly tattered Special Team One, so this wasn’t something I could half-ass.

“Do we really have to work this hard to find people?

Why not just throw everyone into a huge arena and let them fight.

We take whoever wins.”

It wasn’t just me.

All the team members were scanning through lists as well.

Despite the fact that three positions had opened up under very unpleasant circumstances, applicants were overflowing.

It seemed our short but impressive track record outweighed concerns about internal discord.

“If we recruit carelessly and something bad happens again, what then.

Just hurry up and choose.”

Me, Jaeyul, Park Bomyeong, and Yu Eden.

Out of a team that once had seven people, only four remained.

Eden’s words pretty much summed up how everyone felt.

The atmosphere was still unsettled.

First the Irihyeon murder case, then the sudden disappearance of the Support Agency Director.

The Agency and the Centers, having lost their head, were thrown into chaos.

At the same time, a silent power struggle began over the now-vacant director position.

Even the Second Center’s branch director entered the race.

In the past he wouldn’t have stood a chance, but now, with Special Team One as a powerful asset, he was being treated as a serious contender.

Personally, I had zero interest in political maneuvering, so I didn’t care who was ahead.

“Here.”

While I was buried in the list, Jaeyul passed by and casually dropped something onto my desk.

Before I could ask what now, he was already gone.

Honestly, I didn’t even need to ask.

Lately, Jaeyul had been like this nonstop.

I never said I was tired or hungry, yet he kept trying to feed me something.

Supplements, health foods, whatever.

This time, I knew what it was just from the packaging.

A drug that had recently become popular among office workers and special ability users alike.

It was marketed like some miracle pill that erased fatigue and pain while boosting focus.

It wasn’t that amazing, but it did contain high-grade herbs collected from Gates, so it worked decently for quick fatigue recovery and short bursts of concentration.

Why he was giving this to me, though, was a mystery.

[They say it’s fine to take since it only uses verified ingredients.
Don’t give it to anyone else, just take it.]

A message came through the internal messenger.

It’s fine to take.

Why was he stating the obvious like that?

[You don’t need to give me this! (angry)
I already take more supplements than actual meals!]

[Why?
Have you not been eating enough lately?
Wait, I’ll go buy some snacks.]

I almost shouted across the room at Jaeyul.

Why was he so bad at listening.

Maybe because I’d been eating nothing but restorative foods lately, but my weight had jumped up three kilos in no time.

With fruits and snacks on top of that, I was never hungry.

[No!
I’m not hungry!!
Please don’t buy anything.]

[Really?
Then I won’t.]

Thank god.

For once, Jaeyul listened.

Right.

Days like this should exist.

Just as I finished the fatigue pill, Jaeyul appeared again, walking toward me with a paper bag.

Was he heading outside?

Didn’t he just say he wouldn’t buy anything?

I looked at him questioningly, but he simply passed my desk, placed the paper bag down, and kept walking.

Inside were chocolates, snacks, nuts—everything.

There was also a note.

[I didn’t buy them.
They were in my drawer.]

…Is he regressing into a grade-schooler or something.

He didn’t even snack as a kid, so why did he have this stuff lying around.

Lately, it honestly felt like I was being raised.

“Want to eat out for dinner tonight?”

“Again…?

We’ve been eating out for days now….”

Didn’t he used to say my cooking was his favorite.

Sure, home food can get boring, but this felt like more than that.

“Cooking is tiring.

You look like you’ve lost some weight lately.”

You know how grandmothers always say their grandkids look skinny.

Was he seeing me through that same filter.

I gain weight in my face first—my cheeks were practically bursting.

I had no idea what he was talking about.

“Should we get eel?

They say they finally got some in.”

“Eel…?

You can still get that these days?”

Yesterday it was pheasant brought in from outside the residential zone.

The day before that, beef and octopus hot pot.

Before that, samgyetang made with chicken raised on Petra.

Individually, they might not sound that special.

But lately, all of those ingredients were extremely hard to come by.

As habitable zones shrank and no one ate monster meat anymore, meat prices had skyrocketed.

Money aside, getting high-quality ingredients every single day was absurdly difficult.

“I know the owner there.

He contacted me.

Said it was the first batch in a year.”

“Since when do you know this many people…?

You said the samgyetang place was the same.

And isn’t this too much?

Isn’t this like… nutritional overload?”

I said it nicely, but what I meant was let’s calm down already.

Even good things get tiring if you have them too often.

Daily restorative meals, supplements, Petra on top of that—

It was honestly exhausting.

The bigger problem was that every time he treated me this well,

my resolve not to develop feelings for him kept crumbling.

His concern was pure.

And that made it worse.

I felt like I’d assign meanings to it that suited me.

“We’re going, right?”

Jaeyul hugged me from behind and playfully demanded an answer.

Hey, heart, read the room.

This was no different from usual, so why were you acting up.

No—this was all Seon Jaeyul’s fault for getting more affectionate by the day.

“…Let’s go.

I did want eel.”

How was I supposed to refuse that.

Bastard.

“Hyung, want to look at this?”

What now.

I was so full I felt like I’d die.

After demolishing grilled eel, we moved to a nearby place for a glass of wine.

Honestly, the main reason was that I was too full to go straight home.

While I was practically chugging wine, Jaeyul slid a few documents across the table.

“What is it.”

“The first shortlist.

There were way too many applicants.

If we try to fill all the vacancies at once, it’ll take forever.

There were some decent ones in the lists everyone submitted, so I narrowed them down.”

“Oh, really?

I was curious.”

I wanted to see if my eye for people was still sharp.

Last time we built Team One, not a single person Jaeyul or I picked made it in.

This time would be different.

The Second Center director was too busy competing for the Agency head position to care.

Director Na Dongchan was too busy deciding who to align with to worry about recruitment.

“Of course.

Who do you think looks best?”

I scanned the resumes.

“Huh?

An A-rank fire Esper could directly replace Jiyu’s slot, right?”

I wondered if prison food suited her taste.

The trial seemed to be dragging on forever.

Hope she’s doing well…

No, that’s not the point.

Jiyu had been a B-rank fire Esper.

Despite the lower rank, her fire attribute gave her attack power on par with the others.

If a B-rank was that strong, how strong would an A-rank be.

“Yeah, I thought so too.

But he has a criminal record, so I think we should meet him first.”

None of the candidates on my list were this good.

Mostly… leftovers.

No—anyone and everyone.

Which meant way more time reviewing them.

“B-rank ice… and another A-rank?

Why are there so many A-ranks?”

They weren’t S-rank, but A-rank was still top tier.

Most strike teams were led by A-ranks.

People who should be team leaders elsewhere were applying as regular members.

That wasn’t normal.

“You’ll be more surprised later.”

Jaeyul laughed lightly, like this was only the beginning.

More surprising than this many A-ranks?

“Hah.

There’s no way I’ll be surprised.”

Jaeyul.

Your hyung is not easily shocked.

“We’ll see.”

I reached the very last resume.

Under Rank, it said S.

There were so few S-ranks that I knew every single one by name and face.

I quickly moved my eyes to confirm which lunatic had applied.

“…Song Jihan?”

What.

Why was Song Jihan’s name here.