.
‘What?’ I thought while counterattacking his gaze, “If you guys had that in mind, you should have told us in advance!’
The reason why I planned to take action only with Yeo Ryung was that I thought those two boys would never agree upon our plan, but surprisingly, they were already acting independently! It would have been better if we united our efforts.
Anyway, then Yoo Chun Young and Eun Jiho might have visited Club Papillon for the same reason as we did. Perhaps the employee of REED partied hard since his identity had been spread all over the town.
Aside from that, I was very relieved that unlike the Four Heavenly Kings in other web novels, those two boys went to the club for something else. Heaving a sigh of relief, I observed the situation again.
As if he finally understood the excuse we made, Eun Hyung looked a little calm down, but he still furrowed one side of his brows. Putting both hands on the table, Eun Hyung asked with a tender voice.
“Then, why didn’t you let me know? You could have asked me to go together.”
“That’s because… it seemed too much to ask you to do such a thing.”
When Eun Jiho replied hesitantly, Eun Hyung perked the corners of his lips upwards to hint a soft smile. Everyone around this table all knew that the look on Eun Hyung’s face right now indicated that he got more upset instead of releasing his anger.
Eun Hyung asked, “Why? You know that I’m not just Mr. Nice.”
Dusting off his hair, Eun Jiho replied, “Geez, I don’t know, but you still have that image of a lighthouse that leads to a good life. I wish you can remain as a light and salt to us… you know?”
Listening to Eun Jiho’s response from across the table, I quietly nodded my head. When I looked beside me, Yeo Ryung and Jooin also seemed to share a similar thought.
That was true. I knew that it was sort of a fantasy, but I also expected Eun Hyung to play the role of a lighthouse-type of person among us. Someone who could be our witness with generosity like a god.
That was why the boys could not involve Eun Hyung into some bad event. Thus, what Eun Jiho just said was very understandable.
At that moment, Eun Hyung blurted out something with a gentle smile, which petrified us immediately.
“Really? Then should I teach you with all my heart that I’m worse than I look?”
What Eun Hyung just said sounded like the gate of hell swing open not only for Eun Jiho but also for all of us. Stepping back from his seat, Eun Jiho replied in a hurry, “Um, my bad. Dude, it’s my fault, so would you please stop that…?”
“I think I’ve behaved as honest as possible, but you still don’t know my true color… so I should show you who I am.”
“No… if you show me more, I think I’m gonna die!”
That was when Eun Jiho’s voice sounded increasingly pathetic. As we heard someone calling us, we all turned our heads toward that direction.
“Hello, sir!”
With a shout, the person bowed deeply at the waist.
I looked at the sight with my eyes wide open. The person’s school uniform looked familiar, which would belong to a high school in our neighborhood. Was it probably Sun Jin High School? Even if I was right, the school was quite far away from ours. Who on earth was he acquainted with among us? Wondering about the question, I lifted my head and directed my eyes toward where the person was looking at.
In that direction, there was Eun Hyung smiling awkwardly. When the person raised his head, Eun Hyung waved his head with a clumsy grin.
“Um, hi… were you Dong Woon?”
The boy named Dong Woon snorted as if he felt very delighted.
“You remembered me, sir! I’m very honored!”
“Yeah… haha…”
“Did the story about your friends that I told you before help you?!”
Listening to his words, Eun Hyung read our countenances with an awkward smile.
‘Hold on, a story about your friends?’ Repeating that part, I narrowed my eyes and took a closer look at Dong Woon’s face.
Once I observed him carefully, I realized that I saw his face in the club. I didn’t have that good memory, but I couldn’t help but remember most of the faces I had seen that night since it was such an unbelievable situation.
‘Oh, lord! The person who gave the information about spotting us in the club… was it him?’ I murmured.
On the other hand, the boy named Dong Woon also observed our table and seemed to grasp the overall situation. He might have found out that we were getting scolded from the information he had provided to Eun Hyung…
Rolling his eyes with an awkward look on his face, he quickly stepped back.
“Then, have a good one, sir!”
“Thanks, but Dong Woon, you and I are the same age…”
Eun Hyung’s response that was dropped with a clumsy smile didn’t seem to reach out to Dong Woon. Without any reply, he left the spot in a hurry.
While we encountered some enigmatic silence around our table, I heard Dong Woon yelling at his friends, who were waiting for him, “Don’t you guys go there and say hello?”
The group of boys looked quite delinquent like Dong Woon. Perhaps, there were some familiar faces that I might have encountered in the club.
One of the boys, who shoved his hands in his pockets, asked, “Why? Who is him?”
“Don’t you know who he is? Weren’t you there at Sun Jin High School’s schoolyard at that time? Didn’t you see him fighting that day?”
“So, who is he?”
The boy tossed the question in slight annoyance. Dong Woon’s following words then made me have a dry cough.
“He is the hidden Number 0 ranked fighter!”
“…”
Even I, who had the most terrible hearing, heard all their conversations, so other people would have definitely listened to what they just said.
While Eun Hyung quickly coughed with his body bent lower, the look in our eyes began to turn strange.
Yoo Chun Young was the first to detach his lips, asking, “When did you become the Number…??”
“No, that’s not what you think. You know me since you have been with me for a long time, Chun Young.”
Following Yoo Chun Young, Eun Jiho blurted naughtily, “A-ha, so the hidden, nationwide Number O planted his secret agents in every club, and was able to know about what we were doing… Ouch, I should be more careful from now on.”
“Oh, come on! That isn’t true at all.”
Replying that way, Eun Hyung lifted his hand and swept down his face. He then continued with a sigh, “Okay, cool. I misunderstood about the club thing. Let’s leave it that way, but you guys must not trust that conversation.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Eun Hyung scowled at Jooin, who replied with a mischievous smile, then continued his remark while switching his gaze to us.
“I only fought just once, but people added some comments, and false rumors spread out… well, but those boys tell me quite useful rumors sometimes…”
Listening to Eun Hyung’s excuse with her chin on her palm, Yeo Ryung asked, “Rumors?”
Nodding his head, Eun Hyung looked like he was choosing the right words to articulate. I could tell that from the mixed feelings he was showing on his face. He then detached his lips with difficulty.
“Um… how should I explain this… I don’t want to act so sensitively, but anyway, no matter how desperate you guys are, please don’t go to clubs or other places like that for a while. Please don’t intervene in anything relevant to the ranked fighters.”
I had in mind that ranking battles or ranked fighters, which sounded very fictional, really existed in this world, but hearing them from Eun Hyung felt more shocking.
I mean, it was a terrible shock in the first place that Eun Hyung turned out to be the nationwide Number 0 or whatever… Since Eun Hyung was flatly denying that way, I should assume that the group of boys was getting him wrong.
However, there was something more important.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Eun Hyung threw a glance at me, at last, and spoke hesitantly, “It’s about the missing, nationwide Number 1. His name is Ban Hwee Hyul…”
