CHAPTER 216: BIRDCAGE

"THE SYSTEM should seriously stop sending you to dangerous places."

Wonhee nodded in agreement with what Yejun said.

She was a bit distracted, though.

After all, it was fun to watch Yejun take off his jacket. For some reason, it was hot seeing a handsome man take off a piece of clothing, exposing his toned body that his black turtleneck shirt emphasized.

[Yejun looks skinny at first glance, but he’s pretty toned.]

"Wonhee-ya, are you listening?" Yejun asked while putting his jacket on Wonhee’s shoulders, the smile in his voice pretty obvious. "I know you enjoy watching me strip, but you can’t get distracted in a place like this."

"Yah," Wonhee complained in a poor attempt to hide her embarrassment. "I don’t enjoy watching you strip. Don’t be ridiculous."

"It’s okay, don’t be shy. I’m pretty open-minded."

She just smacked him in the arm, causing him to laugh.

"Hee-ya?"

Oh.

Wonhee turned around and saw her older sister walk fast towards her. "Unnie."

"What are you doing here?" Semi asked worriedly, cupping Wonhee’s face between her hands. "Did the System send you here and Ahyeon?"

Wonhee nodded. "Yool was also here, but Graham took him home."

Her older sister looked confused at first, but the realization soon dawned opened her face.

[Unnie probably realized that it the System sent me here because of Yool, since the L-Grade Crack wants Yool.]

Her older sister was quick-witted, after all.

"Alright. You did well, Hee-ya," Semi said, letting go of Wonhee’s face. And then she turned to Yejun. "Did you succeed?"

"Unfortunately, the System said it can’t change the description of the L-Grade Crack," Yejun said while shaking his head. "But the System said it will limit the access to the Crack’s Status Window so that only the Big 4 could read the description."

"Does it still include Song Moonho?"

"Sadly, yes."

"The System is useless, huh?"

"Unnie, don’t be too hard on the System," Wonhee said, gently patting Semi’s shoulder. "The System is doing its best to help us."

Both Semi and Yejun didn’t look convinced, and the two even looked like they wanted to shade the System.

But, obviously, Semi and Yejun shut their mouths for her sake.

Then her older sister changed the topic.

"APA is here. Since the Red Code alert was sent, Kwon Jiwoong personally came with Kunwoo," Semi said, glancing at Yejun. "Go and take Wonhee home. I’ll deal with them."

"Okay, Noona," Yejun said, nodding. "But what are you going to say about the Crack?"

"I’ll tell them that the condition to enter the dungeon needs to be prepared first and that you’re already taking care of them in order to buy us some time," Semi said. "I’ll call my Hunters to guard the premise and make sure APA won’t do anything funny. But can you send your people as a backup? My Hunters don’t exactly specialize in combat, unlike yours."

"Minho Hyung and Minki Hyung are already committed to the mission I gave them recently, so I’ll just send Minsu Noona. If Noona isn’t enough, I can send Abeoji. I would love to send more people, but I can only trust the core members of my team when it comes to important stuff like this."

"Minsu-ssi will be enough. If you send your father, APA will get suspicious."

"Got it, Noona."

"Go," Semi urged Yejun, and then she turned to Wonhee. "Let’s talk later, Hee-ya."

Oh.

[She’s probably worried about the question that Unnie and Oppa can’t answer before.]

"Unnie, it’s alright. You and Oppa may take your time— I’ll be waiting patiently," Wonhee said, smiling. "See you at home."

***

EXCEPT WONHEE didn’t find herself at Semi’s house after Yejun used his teleportation skill to bring her "home."

She found herself in an unfamiliar bedroom.

Although she was confused at first, she didn’t panic. That was proof of how much she trusted Yejun, and that was also a bit scary.

[How come Yejun have this much power over me already?]

"Ta-da," Yejun said, opening his arms. "This is my childhood bedroom~"

Wonhee looked around, and Yejun’s childhood photos displayed on the wall immediately caught her attention. "I can see that. But why did you bring me here? Aren’t you afraid of Semi Unnie?"

Yejun shrugged. "I’ll send you home after I give you a house tour."

She just sighed and shook her head, and then she pulled out her phone from the pocket of her dress. Yes, thank heavens for dresses with pockets. "I’ll text Ahyeon first. He might get surprised if he got home and realized we weren’t there."

"Okay," Yejun said, nodding. "Are you hungry?"

"A little. We were in the middle of eating tteokbokki when the System sent us there."

"Aigoo. The System interrupted your meal, huh?"

"It wasn’t the System’s fault," Wonhee said. It wasn’t like she was taking the System’s side openly. She was just telling the truth. "Actually, I already decided to send Yool back to his original world."

"Oh, I see."

"You don’t look surprised, Yejun-ah."

"Well, you can say I already see this coming. I know that you care about your friend very much, Wonhee-ya. But I also know that you’re too kind to ignore the rest of the world."

Ah.

Honestly, Wonhee was starting to get annoyed with herself.

But, to be fair, she never considered herself a kind person. She just wanted to live a decent life in return for being born with everything. However, after realizing how tremendous her luck was, she felt more obligated to do good things to show her gratitude.

[Is it still kindness if I feel obligated to do good things, though?]

Suddenly, her shoulders felt heavy because of those thoughts.

"Wonhee-ya, don’t think too much," Yejun said, cupping her face between his hands. "As I said before, just do what you want to do. I’ll take care of the consequences."

Ah.

Just like that, her shoulders lightened.

[So, this is what it means to have people who are willing to lessen your burden. To think that my pride almost made me break my shoulders from the weight of responsibilities I thought I could carry on my own.]

"Thank you, Yejun-ah," Wonhee said, smiling. "I mean it."

Yejun’s face beamed. "Would you like to sleep here tonight?"

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"I will only hold your hand when we sleep, I promise."

To be honest, she kind of didn’t want to part ways with Yejun tonight.

[I still want to talk to him about my decision to send Yool to the other world, and I want him to explain the L-Grade Crack to me.]

And, perhaps, Wonhee just missed being with Yejun.

[When did I become clingy to him?]

Anyways, a sudden sleep over wouldn’t be a problem since she had personal stuff stored in her Inventory in case of an emergency.

"What do you think, Wonhee-ya?"

"Are you ready to face my older siblings’ wrath later?"

Yejun grinned, his eyes turning into little crescent moons. "Of course, I am. You’re worth it, Wonhee-ya."

"Don’t regret it later," Wonhee warned Yejun. "Let me call Ahyeon first."

***

YOOL realized that he was inside a dream again.

After all, he could see his older self locked up inside a giant golden bird cage.

[Why the fuck am I caged like an animal?]

Fortunately, the older Yool was dressed neatly. However, the older Yool had a chain around his neck.

[What kind of kinky play is that?]

"Didn’t I tell you that Han Graham and Ahn Kisoo would abandon you?"

Woah?

Yool was surprised to see Song Moonho, dressed to the nines.

Obviously, Song Moonho was much older now. He still looked good for his age, though.

[Is he the one who locked me up?]

"Yool-ssi, I’m dying soon."

The older Yool chuckled. "So what?"

The older Song Moonho smiled. "Would you like to die with me?"

And the ’dream’ suddenly ended like that.

"What the fuck was that, Moonho-ssi?"

"It doesn’t feel good to hear you say another man’s name first thing in the morning, Yool-ah."

Huh?

Yool opened his eyes abruptly, but had to close them right away when the sunlight coming through the window hurt.

But it didn’t take long.

It seemed like Graham put on the blinds.

"You can open your eyes now, Yool-ah."

And he did.

Yool’s eyes adjusted slowly to the dim light in the bedroom as he got up.

[This isn’t the guest room.]

"Did you have a nightmare?" Graham asked, pouting. And then he sat next to Yool. "You mentioned the old man’s name."

Ah, the bird cage.

[What I saw was probably a fragment of the past.]

"Did you remember something from the previous world?"

Yool raised an eyebrow at Graham. "Graham-ssi, are you having dreams from the previous world, too?"

Graham’s face beamed. "I do!"

[As expected.]

"What did you dream about?"

"It’s about you, Kisoo, and me," Graham said excitely. "We were in a happy relationship— the three of us!"

[He looks genuinely happy.]

Graham probably hadn’t reached the part yet where he and Ahn Kisoo abandoned Yool.

[What an ignorant fool.]

"Graham-ssi."

"Yes?"

"I’m going back to my original world," Yool said bluntly. "And you can’t stop me."

***

NOTE: Hi! I posted three extra stories with chibi fanarts on my k/o-fi page (ko-fi. com/sola_cola). It’s my birth month (no one asked, but my birthday is on May 23rd, lol), so I prepared these extra stories for you. :

First story: ’Ahjuicy’ (featuring Yool and Song Moonho).

Second story: Ideal Type (featuring the golden trio: Wonhee, Yool, and Ahyeon).

Third story: First Love (featuring Yejun and Wonhee).

You may donate ’coffee’ if you can. I set up a goal on my kofi page for my birthday. Hehe. You may check it out on my page. If the link doesn’t work, you can just search for/g00gle ’kofi sola_cola. See you there. 3

***

Please ADD MY LIFE AS THE FIRST S-CLASS GUIDE to your LIBRARY to be notified when an update is posted. Thank you! :