Chapter 38: Time For Changes

Even if I lived for you, enduring five days a week, the weekend, which used to pass by indifferently, arrived.

Bodam, who had become a stone statue on his warm bed, no longer clung to the weekend.

He could sleep in and play all he wanted even on Monday.

He was even looking forward to the end of the weekend.

He wanted to try starting a lazy day by sleeping in on Monday, just like in the ‘quitting job vlog’ he watched.

He was confident he could be lazier than anyone.

“Brother.”

Bomi, who knocked chillingly and entered the room, came to greet him.

“Did you sleep peacefully last night?”

After the pig party where they ordered all kinds of delivery food, Bomi, now filled with respect for her only brother, incessantly kept up this act every day without tiring.

Last night, when he personally gathered all the cash from his wallet and gave it to Bomi as she was leaving for a date, she immediately knelt down.

She even vigorously pounded her forehead, covered in full makeup, against the floor as an exaggerated display of gratitude.

It was a very Bomi-like greeting.

“Yes, I slept like a baby. What time is it now?”

“It is one o’clock in the afternoon.”

“Oh dear. I woke up too early. Turn off the light and begone.”

“Mother requests your presence for a meal. Please come out.”

Bodam obediently got out of bed and stretched after Bomi’s warning, who had opened the door wide and left.

Living with blackout curtains, he couldn’t distinguish between night and day.

“Hmph….”

A groan escaped him even with a light movement of stretching his arms.

His relaxed body felt heavy, ironically, thanks to his mind being at ease.

The body aches hadn’t subsided, so he was throbbing here and there.

He felt it was a sign to eat a lot today.

The delicious smell of home-cooked food wafted from the kitchen, which was within a stone’s throw.

As soon as Bodam opened his door, the dining table was visible.

He happily got out of bed and rushed to the table.

Today’s menu, oh my goodness.

“Mother. Are you going to keep doing this?”

“My son. Stop sleeping and sit down to eat.”

“Oh, seriously. Are you going to keep moving me like this?”

Bodam, unable to hide his happy smile at the lavish feast filling the table, spoke in a stern voice.

Not only had she taken out all the side dishes from the refrigerator, but there was also a ginseng chicken soup with glutinous rice in the very center.

Judging by the bulked-up size of the chicken, it looked like enough for two families.

With Bodam’s favorite homemade pork ribs, there was more than enough even after many people ate.

“You have to eat a lot when you’re sick. If your fever doesn’t go down next week, let’s go to the hospital. Bomi, please go with your brother.”

Both siblings simultaneously scrunched up their faces as if they had heard something terrible.

Bodam insisted that he could go alone.

“Mom can’t go to the hospital with you because of work, so Bomi, please take him. I’ll give you pocket money.”

Dragging Bodam, who often had minor ailments since childhood, to the hospital was Bomi’s small way of earning pocket money.

Even though he was a grown adult, in his mother’s eyes, he still looked like a snot-nosed baby, so she worried about sending her weak son to the hospital alone.

“Mom, I’m twenty-six. If I can’t go to the hospital alone, I’m at an age where there’s a problem.”

“It’s because you have a fever. A fever is dangerous. It won’t take long, so Bomi, just make some time when you’re not going to school. I’ll buy you chicken.”

“Why aren’t you going to school?”

Bodam, tilting his head, asked.

Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t seen Bomi go to school since he came home.

It couldn’t be vacation.

“No classes on Monday and Friday.”

Bomi, who was mixing protein shake in a water bottle instead of sitting at the table, replied.

Bodam tilted his head even further, bewildered by Bomi’s statement that she only had classes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

“Why are you even attending?”

“Because I’m on a full scholarship, I don’t get nagged.”

“Okay.”

Bodam, accepting it cleanly, immediately tore into a pork rib.

He waved his chopsticks, refusing his mother’s repeated suggestions to go to the hospital with his sister.

In the end, Bomi accepted the pocket money and chicken first, so it was decided they would go together.

Bomi’s part-time job was closed for a month, so she needed to earn money.

The store closed for repair work because an unregistered Esper had trespassed and caused a ruckus.

Like this, the damage to civilians caused by unregistered Espers was not insignificant.

Esper awakeners who refused a life confined to the Center lived in hiding, not fulfilling their obligation to register as ability users.

The damage caused by them was increasing day by day.

“Why aren’t you eating?”

Bodam asked Bomi, who was standing in front of the sink, chugging a shake, instead of sitting at the table.

Now that he looked, there wasn’t even a rice bowl for her.

Bomi only shook her head, indicating she wasn’t eating.

“It’s too much for just Mom and you to eat.”

“Aunt Young-ah’s family was originally supposed to come, but something came up, so they’ll be late. She told us to eat first.”

“Are Yul-ri and Yoon-suk coming too?”

“Of course. They’re all coming together.”

Bodam, picking up a moist piece of chicken breast, tenderly boiled in broth, and waving it, hummed that he hoped they’d come quickly.

Eating his mother’s cooking, which was so amazing she could open a restaurant, made him want to sing.

Except for the first day he returned home, he had eaten homemade meals three times a day, which was gradually filling out Bodam’s cheeks.

Bomi, glaring spitefully at Bodam, who was eating as much as he wanted, picked up her bowl and sat at the table.

Unbelievably, the bowl contained leafy green vegetables without any dressing.

“What’s wrong? Are you sick?”

Bodam was surprised by his sister’s unfamiliar behavior of eating plain water as a side dish.

Next to him, Geun Young answered for her.

“She says she’ll only eat greens on days she doesn’t have plans. Where does she even have fat to lose?”

Geun Young chewed on lettuce and subtly pushed a rolled omelet in front of her daughter, who had turned fierce.

It was Bomi’s favorite side dish.

Surprisingly, Bomi didn’t budge.

“This beauty isn’t just given for free.”

“Mom, your pork ribs are so good.”

“It tastes a bit sweet, is that okay?”

Bomi, whose words were ignored, squawked and started an unfounded story about being the department’s goddess representative.

When she said she received a goddess award at the festival, Bodam raised a serious question mark and asked if she was the only girl there.

Bodam, whose sideburns were grabbed by Bomi for the first time in a long while, called for his mother, and Geun Young was too busy laughing.

Even with just three family members, the dining table was lively, filled with warm food and laughter that never ceased.

***

Only silence hung in the waiting room of Attack Team 3, vacated by its owners.

With Bodam, who had used the waiting room the most, gone, not even the faint sound of footsteps or the barely audible TV could be heard.

It was simply quiet, and then even quieter.

Click.

The one who broke that silence and entered was Han Seung Ho.

Even on the weekend, he was dressed in his uniform and had come to the Center.

He didn’t glance at the empty living room and headed straight for the kitchen.

He had just come from an unscheduled emergency meeting he’d been summoned to since morning.

Normally, Seung Ho would have returned to his private office, but he came to the waiting room.

He went to the kitchen and started the coffee machine.

It was the same coffee he had in his office.

While the beans were grinding, he checked his wavelength readings on his watch.

56, 57, 56, 57….

He indifferently looked down at the relatively stable fluctuating numbers and then drank his coffee.

The aroma of concentrated espresso in the small cup stimulated his sense of smell.

He didn’t sit at the table as usual, nor did he check his watch.

Outwardly, he looked the same as always, but his subtle actions were uncharacteristic of him.

Just setting foot in the waiting room without any specific purpose was uncharacteristic of Han Seung Ho.

The strangest thing was that he didn’t even recognize this change in himself.

Not stopping there, he suddenly raised his arm and even opened the kitchen shelf.

On the rarely used shelf, there was an unexpected large box of instant coffee mix.

The word ‘Premium’ was stamped in large letters on the outside of the box, which showed no signs of being diminished.

‘Coffee… would you like some?’

On his first day of work, Yoon Bodam, carrying a heavy box of coffee, approached with a wide smile, wearing a worn-out eco-bag.

It was a product often bought by Espers who purchased everything in bulk.

Espers with abnormally large appetites typically drank five cups of coffee a day.

Han Seung Ho, who enjoyed coffee, drank a whopping eight cups a day.

And that was after cutting back.

‘This is delicious.’

The new Guide kept repeating eye contact and then looking away while speaking to him.

He rambled on about things he wasn’t asked.

Seung Ho thought he had an annoying personality.

That was Seung Ho’s first impression of Bodam.

A talkative Guide with a remarkably pale face.

And he was small.

He looked even smaller than his profile indicated.

He babbled on incessantly, like someone selling coffee.

He smiled, saying it contained stevia instead of regular sugar, so there was no worry about sugar and it was less sweet.

Seung Ho only stared with an indifferent gaze.

Under that cold demeanor, the Guide’s voice gradually grew smaller, eventually reaching a mumbling level.

The conclusion, anyway, was to try it.

Click.

Instead of saying he wouldn’t eat it, Seung Ho pressed the coffee machine button.

The Guide, who hadn’t seen the coffee machine hidden by his large body, moved his lips and then quietly closed his noisy mouth.

After that first day, the Guide was never noisy.

He never chattered, blushing, about things he wasn’t asked.

It was the first and last time.

As expected, he was a Guide who knew how to act appropriately.

‘I hope the Team Leader gets really sick.’

Seung Ho, who had been staring at the shelf with an expressionless face, put down his coffee cup.

He took out the coffee box that no one had bothered to look at.

‘When you feel like you’re sick to death,’

The heavy box was as it was initially, without any signs of being opened.

‘Without medicine or anyone to heal you.’

He stuffed the coffee box into the empty trash can.

It was noisy.

Zzzzing.

Seung Ho’s phone rang in the quiet of the waiting room.

A subtle crack appeared in Seung Ho’s expression as he checked the name on the screen.

Again, uncharacteristic of him.