“Who gave you those tickets?”

‘His reaction is stronger than I expected…’

Uijae felt a bit flustered. Though the whispering voice sounded gentle, the intensity he sensed was anything but.

Cha Uijae glanced around to see if anyone had come closer after sensing this aura. However, instead of human presence, he was met with a sweet voice that contradicted that notion.

“Stop rolling your eyes.”

“Hey, you’re being rude again.”

Uijae instinctively activated his “old man” demeanor and realized he had better check himself as he caught Sayoung's eyes. The moment he made eye contact with those emotionless purple eyes,

‘Is this guy… insane?’

A chill ran down his spine. Those violet eyes stared at him without a single blink.

[**Trait: Poker Face (B) Activated.**]

‘Shit.’

What was going on? What had triggered this guy's temper? He was the type who got bothered by a lot of things, so Uijae had no clue. Of course, having confessed something that wasn’t really an accident, he didn’t expect things to go smoothly, but this was—

‘He’s good at playing the game.’

‘Does he really want to live quietly?’

He thought he might at least make some sarcastic remarks. He never expected such a sharp reaction.

As Uijae busily wracked his brain, the tie being held in Sayoung’s black hand was pulled a bit tighter. Sayoung gently pressed for an answer.

“Hmm? Who gave it to you?”

Uijae couldn’t fathom what had twisted Sayoung’s mood, but he remained calm in hopes of a peaceful resolution.

“Isn’t the future more important? If that machine reveals that I came here, that’d be troublesome.”

“Troublesome for you, not for me.”

“What do you mean? We’re in this together.”

“In it together?”

Sayoung scoffed.

“Not telling me who gave you the tickets is quite something….”

‘This is getting complicated.’

The sweet scent wafting from Sayoung might actually be the smell of the sugar in the twisted doughnuts. Standing in front of him was the human version of a doughnut, and Uijae bit down on his frustration without letting it show. He was thankful for the Poker Face trait. Should he just tell the truth that Nam Woojin gave them to him?

‘...No.’

His instincts, honed over time and keeping him alive, warned him. If he mentioned Nam Woojin’s name here… it would be bad. Sayoung looked down at Uijae at an angle.

“Are you not going to say anything?”

“Um, Sayoung…”

“Yeah… then I guess I should take a guess. Look up properly.”

“Are you ignoring what I said?”

“Let me tell you something first. This is something you, as a secretary, should know.”

Sayoung’s fingertips nudged Uijae’s chin upward. Uijae's head naturally tilted up, meeting Sayoung’s gaze directly. Sayoung adjusted the loose buttons on his shirt with both hands and lightly straightened Uijae’s collar as he spoke.

“Craftsmen Exhibition tickets are only sold in limited quantities through the Ranker channels. The remaining quantity sold on Channel 1 is then transferred to Channel 2, and if there’s nothing left, they don’t sell them at all… and the overseas quantity is kept separate.”

So that was how it worked. Whether at the tomato market or with regulars at the hangover soup restaurant, if he had mentioned selling tickets, it could have caused serious trouble. He was lucky to have learned something from the magic stone incident.

“Thanks to that, you can’t deceive anyone about who bought the tickets, how many they bought, and so on.”

As Sayoung wrapped the tie around Uijae’s collar, he moved his hand a few times and quickly tied a knot.

“This time I bought four. One for Baewonwoo, one for a guild member, and mine…”

Then he yanked the completed knot tight. Uijae wondered if Sayoung was trying to choke him, but thankfully he stopped at adjusting the length. While fixing Uijae’s collar, Sayoung whispered.

“...And one for you.”

After tidying up Uijae's disheveled suit jacket, Sayoung finally released him. Uijae returned to a perfect appearance as if he had never looked messy.

“I bought enough for the others too. But…”

At this moment, Uijae overlooked two important facts.

“Nam Woojin bought two tickets.”

First, Sayoung was observant.

“I was wondering why someone who never comes out of the library would suddenly come to the Craftsmen Exhibition.”

“…….”

“Do you like to bet?”

Second, Sayoung—

“Shall we make a bet? Whether Nam Woojin is coming here or not.”

He was quite persistent. Uijae pulled his arm back, which had been resting beside Sayoung’s face. He let out a short sigh and ran his fingers through his hair.

“You’re already convinced, so why ask?”

“Ah…”

His low voice turned even more ominous.

“I guess you talked to Nam Woojin about something.”

“No, hey. That’s different from this.”

“What’s different?”

Should he mention what he had heard about Sayoung’s past? No. Bringing that up now would only backfire. Uijae decided to reveal only a very small portion of the truth.

“From the beginning, you said I was the one who got the drugs for Nam Woojin. Right? He gave it to me as a reward. Said it was a big help in his research.”

“…….”

“I was going to throw it away since it’s useless to me, but I couldn’t burn it or get rid of it anywhere, so I just brought it here. If I had known Hong Yesung would go off like that, I would have left it at the hangover soup restaurant.”

Even after finishing his explanation, Sayoung’s head remained tilted. The sharpness of his aura had lessened compared to before.

But this guy was still looking at him suspiciously. Did he think he was the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Uijae suddenly reached out to grab the gas mask. However, Sayoung also swiftly grabbed the gas mask with both hands.

The tense atmosphere that had been present until now dissipated, and they began to wrestle over the gas mask. As Sayoung pried Uijae’s fingers off one by one, he muttered in a low voice.

“You’re doing this because you have nothing else to say now.”

“Isn’t that you? Just hold on for a second.”

“Let go of me. I’m leaving.”

“Sayoung, take this off.”

“No.”

“Take it off, hurry.”

“I said no.”

Sayoung retorted irritably.

“Why didn’t you just come with Nam Woojin?”

“No, I really didn’t plan to come here at all. You forced me to come.”

“Force? Hah.”

Sayoung scoffed again.

“You’re the only one who would think a date worth tens of billions was a threat.”

“If I don’t go to Songdo, it’s like saying we should die together. That’s a threat. And I was going to sell the ticket Nam Woojin gave me at the tomato market!”

“Shit, you haven’t deleted that app yet?”

“I deleted it, you idiot! I left as soon as those messages flooded in!”

Uijae, who had shouted angrily, suddenly paused.

This was Songdo. If what Sayoung said about the ticket sales structure was true… then more people from Channel 1 than Uijae had expected would be attending the Craftsmen Exhibition. Uijae reminded himself that he was currently in the position of a secretary for the Wave Guild.

And, of course, in this situation, it would be difficult to respond to any emergencies. A regular secretary couldn’t pull off physical memory-erasing techniques on a Ranker!

Earlier, Sayoung had cleverly played along, making it seem effortless, but now, with Sayoung in a bad mood, if he pretended to report as a secretary, it was highly likely he would be ignored. He might even act like a complete stranger. As he had experienced several times before, Sayoung was exceptionally vindictive.

In this minefield of danger in Songdo, Sayoung's cooperation was essential. Therefore, Uijae needed to unravel the tightly wound emotions of Sayoung, like a doughnut.

‘First, I need to calm him down.’

But how? Uijae had never been good at soothing or appeasing others. It felt like long ago, he could solve conflicts with friends, but those memories were all from before the Rift, so they were too distant to recall.

When he was active as J, he didn’t have time to worry about appeasing others since they usually came at him with their tails between their legs, and most conflicts were resolved with fists, so this was even more challenging. The only people he had ever soothed were that kid and Haeun.

‘Haeun?’

A light bulb lit up in his mind. Right, he could soothe him like he did Haeun! Sayoung was just a little less fickle than a child. Thinking this way, a glimmer of hope appeared.

Uijae steadied his voice and withdrew his hands from the gas mask. Sayoung looked at him suspiciously, but with the Poker Face trait activated, Uijae felt almost invincible. He carefully grasped Sayoung’s arm.

“Sayoung.”

“What?”

Sayoung responded coldly, adding in a blunt tone.

“I guess you have something else you haven’t said?”

‘Does he always pick up on

 these things…?’

Fortunately, while Sayoung was being sarcastic, he didn’t shove Uijae’s hand away. Uijae gently patted Sayoung’s solid arm and firmly stated his request.

“Take off the gas mask.”

This was the first step in communication: eye contact and talking. Uijae tried to use the skill he had learned from soothing Haeun. However, Sayoung was resolute.

“I don’t want to.”

“I just want to talk while looking at your face. Take it off.”

“Why should I show you my face?”

“Can I be honest?”

“…….”

“I’m a bit frustrated too, but I think we need to see each other’s faces to talk.”

“...Oh.”

Sayoung narrowed his eyes. With a short gasp laced with mischief, it seemed the idea of taking the mask off had entirely evaporated. Uijae squeezed his eyes shut.

‘Phase one is already failing.’

Uijae was reminded that being honest wasn’t always the best approach. It was a lesson learned, and now he had returned to square one. There was no helping it. One couldn’t expect to be satisfied with the first step. Given the circumstances, he didn’t want to use this method, but it was time to employ his last resort.

Uijae quickly reached out, his hands moving so fast that Sayoung couldn’t react, and pulled him into an embrace.

“……!”

Sayoung’s solid body filled his arms and froze like a statue. Uijae rested his chin on Sayoung’s shoulder, biting down on his trembling lips to keep himself composed. The sweet scent tickled his nose. Thankfully, Sayoung wasn’t struggling against him; Uijae was also barely holding back the urge to squirm.

Uijae tightened his trembling hands and slowly began to pat Sayoung’s broad back.

“…Yeah, I’m sorry.”

The last resort: to apologize unconditionally.