What’s the Relationship Between You Two?

Tears streamed down Han Suyeon’s cheeks.

Oh Hyeonseong, flustered, asked if she was all right, but she merely nodded silently.

Then she began picking up the potatoes in front of her one by one and eating them.

If she had spent all this time eating nothing but fancy-looking, colorless food at restaurants, then this single baked potato crumbling in her mouth now was rough and unrefined, yet somehow made her feel alive.

Most of the food commonly consumed in cities these days considered it a virtue to cover the taste of the ingredients with strong seasonings.

As long as you carefully selected ingredients that were at least somewhat decent and covered their shortcomings with powerful sauces and seasonings, that was considered the best kind of cooking.

Trying to bring out the natural flavor of ingredients, as people had done in the past, would only get you called crazy.

But the potatoes she was eating now were completely the latter.

Other than being lightly sprinkled with salt, there wasn’t even any sauce.

That was precisely why the experience felt like such a fresh shock.

“Um… Han Suyeon?”

By now, Han Suyeon had even rolled up both sleeves and was enthusiastically stuffing baked potatoes into her mouth.

Every bite filled her mouth with an incredibly rich flavor, and each time, her expression changed dramatically.

Her carefully maintained poker face had long since fallen apart.

And a few minutes later, the two of them were sitting across from each other in front of an empty plate.

“…Did you eat them all?”

“Senior.”

“Hmm?”

“I’m going to sleep here for just one night.”

What on earth is going on all of a sudden?

Standing in the kitchen, Oh Hyeonseong stared at the empty frying pan.

Every single baked potato he had prepared was gone.

He was glad she had enjoyed them so much, but he hadn’t expected this kind of reaction.

To think that Han Suyeon, of all people, had become so distracted by food that she couldn’t even hear what he was saying.

Thump.

Oh Hyeonseong ate the one remaining piece of potato from the pan.

Then he nodded in agreement.

“Damn, this is freaking delicious…”

After standing in the kitchen for a while, savoring the lingering taste of the potato in his mouth, Oh Hyeonseong went outside.

Han Suyeon was sitting on the wooden platform in the yard, looking out at the scenery.

When he approached and stood beside her, the village below was illuminated by scattered lights, while stars had begun to twinkle here and there in the darkening sky.

“It’s already night. When are you planning to head back?”

“It’s fine. I already told my workplace.”

“No, seriously. You really intend to sleep here?”

“…Would that be a problem?”

Han Suyeon looked straight at him as she asked.

Oh Hyeonseong pressed a hand against his forehead.

What a sly woman, suddenly putting the choice in my hands.

Still, he couldn’t exactly kick someone who wasn’t particularly good at driving out into the night.

“Is it really okay for you to do this so suddenly? I heard you’ve been extremely busy with work lately.”

“My schedule tomorrow is packed, but there isn’t anything that absolutely can’t be postponed. So I’ll stay for just one night.”

“Just so you know, there isn’t a bed.”

“There is somewhere I can lie down, right?”

“Look at this house. The problem is that there are way too many places to sleep.”

“See? A big house really is nice. Thank you.”

Han Suyeon smiled brightly.

It was the most excited expression she’d shown since arriving.

Feeling somewhat strange about it, Oh Hyeonseong sat down beside her.

But what followed was silence.

The two of them simply stared blankly at the scenery, an awkward atmosphere hanging between them.

Have we not seen each other for too long? I can’t think of anything to say.

At first, he had only felt happy to see his junior again after such a long time.

But now that he realized they’d be spending an entire day alone together, he couldn’t quite describe how he felt.

Especially after seeing her suddenly shed tears just a short while ago.

Come to think of it, why did she cry earlier?

Had the potatoes really been so delicious that she’d shed tears of emotion?

No.

That made no sense.

No matter how much her personality had changed, she couldn’t possibly have become like that.

Han Suyeon had always been even more indifferent to taste and less interested in food than he was.

Hmm. Maybe I should’ve brought a board game from Seoul.

As the silence continued, Oh Hyeonseong suddenly wondered whether it was appropriate to leave a guest sitting around like this.

But there was genuinely nothing to do for entertainment in this rural house.

Then a brilliant idea struck him.

Oh Hyeonseong went inside and retrieved a deck of hwatu cards from a drawer in the living room.

It was the only form of entertainment left in the house.

“You’re bored, right? Want to play hwatu?”

“Senior, you don’t even know which pictures match.”

“…Let’s just go to sleep.”

“Ahahaha! You’re still funny in the most unexpected situations, just like you were back then. Besides, it’s way too early to sleep.”

Han Suyeon abruptly stood up.

Then she went to the trunk of her car and returned carrying a bottle of liquor.

Judging by its appearance, it was an extremely expensive bottle of whiskey, probably something she’d received as a gift.

“How about a drink with your junior after all these years?”

“I’m up for it.”

When he nodded, Han Suyeon poured him a glass.

They lightly clinked their glasses before taking a drink.

The alcohol was obviously incredibly strong, but since neither of them was an ordinary human anymore, their tolerance was practically superhuman. There was nothing to worry about.

“I should’ve brought you a housewarming gift or something, but I came so suddenly. This was all I had.”

“I am curious, though. What made you suddenly decide to come all the way out to a mountain village like this?”

“I just… suddenly thought of you, Senior.”

Han Suyeon took another drink and let out a deep sigh.

Then, with her cheeks slightly flushed, she spoke.

“I liked the times when I was with you, Senior.”

“You must’ve had plenty of work back then, too. Is the president giving you a hard time?”

“No. He treats me almost too well. Sometimes I wonder if he’s becoming obsessed with me.”

Back when Han Suyeon was part of the Special Operations Unit, she had once rescued civilians who had been kidnapped by Awakeners from a hostile country during a mission.

They had been on the verge of being abandoned after negotiations behind the scenes fell apart, but she had managed to rescue them in what was practically a miracle.

Of course, back then, she never could have imagined that one of the inexperienced politicians she’d rescued would eventually become the ruling party leader—and then the president.

“Then why the sigh?”

“When I first joined the team, you seemed like such a ruthless person, Senior. You never hesitated to sacrifice two people in order to save ten.”

“We even fought over that once.”

“Yeah. Back then, I couldn’t stand the thought of working with a team leader like you. Only later did I realize that it had been the best possible outcome we could have achieved.”

Han Suyeon took another drink.

She was drinking at a fairly fast pace, but Oh Hyeonseong matched her.

“That doesn’t mean it was the right thing to do.”

“I’m not qualified to judge either way. Just as we gradually became accustomed to our comrades dying, I could feel myself becoming more numb the longer I did this job. And… now, human lives look like numbers to me. Numbers written on reports… numbers that will be replaced again tomorrow.”

With a bitter smile, Han Suyeon lowered her head.

Her exhausted, precarious eyes stared straight at him.

“How did you… survive that hellish period, Senior?”

The nights in the countryside came early.

But the conversation that night went on unusually long.

“Ugh… How many bottles did we drink yesterday?”

The next morning.

Oh Hyeonseong woke up while rubbing his cheek.

Apparently, Han Suyeon had brought quite a lot of liquor in the trunk of her car, and what was supposed to be a simple drink had turned into an unexpected drinking session.

Perhaps because of that, it was later than usual, yet Han Suyeon showed no sign of waking up.

When he carefully opened the door, he saw Han Suyeon sleeping as deeply as if she had been knocked unconscious.

He’d heard that she’d recently been working so relentlessly that she could barely get any proper sleep, so he decided to let her sleep as much as she needed this time.

Feeling the unfamiliar sensation of a hangover for the first time in ages, Oh Hyeonseong gulped down some water and went out for a walk.

When he stepped through the gate, vast stretches of land came into view.

All of it consisted of fields and private land that had come with the house.

Walking without any particular thoughts and simply taking in the surrounding scenery, Oh Hyeonseong noticed an empty field that had been dug up here and there by moles.

“Come to think of it, I should probably start working on this too.”

The field had been left unattended for a long time.

Naturally, without proper maintenance, it was in no condition to serve its original purpose as farmland.

Unlike the small vegetable garden attached to the yard, this plot was much larger.

It was precisely because of its size that Oh Hyeonseong hadn’t even considered touching it.

Since I’ve thought of it, should I just take care of it now?

Oh Hyeonseong stopped walking and slowly looked around.

After all, he had more than enough free time.

Besides, he’d already been thinking that he needed to expand his vegetable garden.

I can’t live on nothing but potatoes forever.

The reason he’d been eating nothing but potatoes wasn’t because he was too lazy to cook.

It was because adding anything other than basic seasonings like salt or sugar was a serious disadvantage.

Even the simplest dishes required basic vegetables such as onions or garlic.

Whether they were naturally grown or factory-produced, adding ingredients like those would ruin everything.

But no matter how quickly the spirits could make crops grow within a single day, the tiny vegetable garden attached to the house wasn’t large enough to grow multiple kinds of crops.

In other words, he needed to expand it.

Oh Hyeonseong went back inside the house and brought out a hand hoe.

It’s going to be a long road… but I’ll just take it slowly and expand it little by little.

Whack!

He removed the overgrown weeds and picked out the stones that might interfere with the growth of the crops.

After searching the internet, he’d learned that he was supposed to spread compost in advance and neutralize the soil, but he decided those steps weren’t necessary.

The previous two rounds of what could barely be called farming had already proven that.

Once the basic preparations were complete, he created raised rows where the crops would grow and furrows where the water could drain.

They were clumsy-looking, as you’d expect from a complete farming novice, but they were good enough.

As the repetitive work gradually became familiar, Oh Hyeonseong began thinking about what crops he should grow next.

An hour or two passed.

As he continued reorganizing the field, he noticed that his once-clumsy hands were becoming more practiced.

Then a voice came from a distance.

“Hyung, what are you doing over there?”

Wondering who it was, Oh Hyeonseong turned his head.

It was Yoo Seungsu and Yoo Eunha.

The siblings had their arms full of various things.

“Me? Farming.”

“…Farming? Why are you suddenly farming?”

“More importantly, why are you two here?”

“Because we thought you’d be lonely eating alone, so we came to have lunch with you.”

Yoo Eunha lifted one of the bundles slightly.

It turned out to contain lunch boxes.

The siblings approached and asked Oh Hyeonseong what had suddenly prompted him to start farming.

After hearing the general circumstances—excluding the details about the spirits—they understood what was going on.

“Ah, I see. So you want to try doing proper farming?”

“That’s great. We’ll help you out as your farming seniors.”

“No, it’s fine. Everything you brought will get cold. Let’s eat lunch first.”

They had even brought lunch, so there was no way he could put them to work for free.

Oh Hyeonseong put down his hoe and returned to the house with the siblings.

As Yoo Seungsu followed him into the yard, he glanced back.

“There’s a car here that I haven’t seen before. Isn’t that thing really expensive?”

“Ah, that’s not my car.”

“Huh? Then whose is it?”

Yoo Seungsu asked in confusion.

But before he could even finish speaking—

“Ah, Senior. You’re back.”

At the alluring voice, they turned their heads.

Han Suyeon was standing on the wooden veranda.

Apparently she’d already woken up.

She had just washed up and was drying her hair with a towel.

She was wearing the loose men’s T-shirt she’d borrowed from Hyeonseong the night before.

The siblings stood there frozen stiff, their mouths hanging open.

And exactly three seconds later, they shouted simultaneously.

“H-H-Han Suyeon!”