“I’m telling you, I’m okay. Really,” Kang Jin-Ho spoke into his phone.

𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

-Are you really okay, oppa? Like, not injured at all? We saw the back of your head on the news, you know?

Kang Jin-Ho sighed at the distrusting voice of his little sister. “That was quite a while ago, though. I’m at the hospital right now.”

-Hospital? Why are you at the hospital! You said you were okay, didn’t you?

“Yes, I did. But I'm not hurt. It's just that the kids got swept up in the water, so we came here to get them checked out, just in case.”

-Kids? Oppa, were you with the Seongsim kids?

“Yeah, I was,” Kang Jin-Ho replied while scratching his cheek.

He did see all the reporters swarming the scene but didn't pay much attention to them as he figured they had nothing to do with each other. Unfortunately, the cameras still captured his image, and it sounded like his family ended up seeing him during the news bulletin.

Kang Jin-Ho could hear his mother saying something in the background as he conversed with his sister on the phone.

‘Sounds like a round of intense nagging is waiting for me at home…’

Kang Jin-Ho didn't think he had done something deserving of a scolding. But his mother sounded furious for some reason. Then again, her son was seen in the location of a large-scale disaster, which was being covered extensively by various news outlets, so maybe Kang Jin-Ho shouldn't be surprised by his mother's anger.

-Then… Are you really okay? Oppa?

“Yes, I’m telling you, I am fine.”

-You better come home today, then. Madam Baek is genuinely furious, you know? Can you hear her right now? My ears might fall off at this rate, oppa!

“Mm… Well, I guess I should go home, but…” Kang Jin-Ho tilted his head in uncertainty. “But, I think I need to stay behind with the kids. To see if they are okay. They are probably in shock right now.”

-Oppa, I get that you care about those kids, but you should worry about your own neck first. The mood at home says you will be grounded for life if you don’t come back here ASAP.

“...I see. I'll be home in a short while.” Kang Jin-Ho sighed and finally raised his white flag. He did promise to come home today anyway, so it seemed he should stick to his original schedule for his own sake.

-You know what? This is what happens when you leave your cute little sister behind and have fun all by yourself!

“I’ve got other matters to attend to. I’m hanging up. I’ll call you later.”

-Oppa! Wait! You’re coming home today, right? Oppa!

Kang Jin-Ho ended the call and sighed at length.

‘I should’ve been more careful…’

He didn’t expect to get captured by the news cameras. If he knew this would happen, he’d have been a lot more careful in avoiding the news crew…

“Mister Jin-Ho?”

Kang Jin-Ho turned his head when someone called his name. Jo Gyu-Min was approaching him while making a slightly pouty face.

“All the kids have received first aid, Mister Jin-Ho.”

“I see. What will happen next?”

“For now, it's literally patching up simple injuries. But doctors still want to examine the kids a bit more closely, just in case. It'll take some time, though.”

“Okay, understood,” Kang Jin-Ho replied while hiding his grin.

The Seongsim kids should've been sent to the designated hospital, but Jo Gyu-Min had them diverted to the nearby Jaegyeong-run hospital instead. It seemed he had come to some kind of agreement with the emergency medical people.

With that, the Seongsim kids didn't have to wait for their turn to receive medical treatment. That was the 'good news' part, but now…

Jo Gyu-Min grumbled. “And they say you can trust nobody…!”

The problem was with Jo Gyu-Min and his sneaky whining. It seemed he had formed a bit of a "grudge" after Kang Jin-Ho didn't bother to rescue him from Lee Hyeon-Su's clutches.

‘Well, at least he’s steadfast…’

Most people would be out of sorts for a while after surviving an ordeal like that. However, not Jo Gyu-Min. He was currently on an unprecedented whining streak, and it didn't look like it'd end any time soon!

Such was Jo Gyu-Min's steadfastness that Kang Jin-Ho was even tempted to applaud him for it!

“Okay, got it. Where’s Lee Hyeon-Su?”

“Over there, Mister Jin-Ho,” said Jo Gyu-Min. He was noticeably less enthusiastic when Kang Jin-Ho deliberately mentioned Lee Hyeon-Su's name.

Kang Jin-Ho couldn’t hold his chuckle anymore at this sight.

Jo Gyu-Min grumbled again. “You know this is unfair, yes?”

“Mm? What is?”

“Don’t you know how hard it was for me, too?” Jo Gyu-Min pointed at his body while pouting even more.

Jo Gyu-Min was obviously hurt pretty badly, as well. His skin was torn and swollen in various places. His appearance was all the evidence necessary to know how hellish things must've been.

‘...Which shouldn’t be surprising, considering what happened.’

Lives were on the line, after all. Kang Jin-Ho perhaps knew better than anyone how cruel and vicious average people could become when they realized the Grim Reaper was swiftly coming for them. In such a situation, even the folks usually praised for their generosity would go absolutely bonkers trying to secure their own survival.

With hundreds of such people trapped in the cramped space, the horrors too difficult to stomach must’ve ensued.

‘Still, we got lucky this time.’

If the aquarium burst its wall a bit early or Lee Hyeon-Su and Co. had arrived a bit too late, it would've been impossible to rescue everyone with their lives intact. In that sense, Lee Hyeon-Su's arrival was as perfectly timed as it could possibly get.

Kang Jin-Ho chuckled and tried to defend Lee Hyeon-Su. “Don’t be like that. He still saved you, didn’t he?”

Jo Gyu-Min tutted. “He could’ve shown up much sooner, you know? Even though he didn’t even show up on time, he’s being so insufferable right now, you know?!”

But Lee Hyeon-Su did show up on time? It would've been physically impossible to arrive faster than they had, though?

After talking to Jo Gyu-Min on the phone, Lee Hyeon-Su went directly to Wiggins, picked several men, and came here straight away via a mass Teleport. Even the slightest hesitation or a mix-up in that process could have led to the deaths of many.

“Sir, it's not a good thing for the Martial Assembly to interfere in the events of the surface world. Especially using our strength in the middle of the day with plenty of eyewitnesses around... Now that is completely and utterly forbidden. As far as rules go… We shouldn't have come here.”

That was what Lee Hyeon-Su said to Kang Jin-Ho. So, Kang Jin-Ho asked back why they came if that was the rule.

Lee Hyeon-Su's reply was rather refreshingly straightforward.

“The Martial Assembly can't interfere, but I can. I'm not here on behalf of the Assembly but for myself. How can I not step in when my little bro is about to die? Sir Wiggins is my, uh, private tutor, so it's okay to ask for his help. As for the subordinates, I was calling on some friends for a favor, so that's also okay.”

What a nonsensical excuse that was. First of all, Wiggins was more than Lee Hyeon-Su's tutor. He was also the Martial Assembly's director. So, asking for his help using their friendship as a pretext was unacceptable, according to that rule. Besides…

‘Since when did they become your friends?’

Objectively speaking, Lee Hyeon-Su was emphatically not friendly to his subordinates. Simply put, he didn't have any friends! Which regular salarymen would want to befriend their section chief, for instance? They merely did what they were told since that was their job!

Kang Jin-Ho could only chuckle after seeing the sheepish smile on Lee Hyeon-Su’s face.

Besides, Kang Jin-Ho himself never stuck to that rule about the Assembly not interfering in the matters of the outside world, anyway. And he certainly never thought about adhering to such a rule, to begin with. If he was being honest, Kang Jin-Ho thought sticking to that rule forever would be next to impossible.

So, he wasn't going to criticize Lee Hyeon-Su for breaking that rule. All these excuses were simply a way out for Lee Hyeon-Su's conscience, as it were.

Since Kang Jin-Ho held a similar mindset, he was fully prepared to gloss over the gap in Lee Hyeon-Su's logic.

Jo Gyu-Min continued to grumble away. “At least he could’ve allowed me to get treated, too.”

Kang Jin-Ho tilted his head. “What’s stopping you from seeing a doctor?”

“Lee Hyeon-Su said I mustn’t.”

Jo Gyu-Min's pout grew even more. “He says I should wait until the kids are finished first. Apparently, I'm not going to die any time soon, according to his diagnosis! Give me a break, though! He's not even a doctor, so how could he tell! It's not like he's gonna take responsibility if I develop complications later, now is it!”

Kang Jin-Ho couldn’t hold on and began laughing at Jo Gyu-Min’s unending stream of complaints.

‘It feels like Chief Jo has changed after getting tangled up with Lee Hyeon-Su.’

In Kang Jin-Ho’s memories, Jo Gyu-Min was a humorous man with a sincere but serious heart. But when he got acquainted with another dude similar in age, someone whom he could talk to like a brother, Jo Gyu-Min quickly morphed into a serial complainer. And Kang Jin-Ho found this development quite endearing.

The notion of people being subjective about everything was proven right yet again, it seemed.

“Gee whiz, you sure love to talk, don’t you?” Lee Hyeon-Su tutted unhappily from a distance.

Jo Gyu-Min quickly shrunk back and sneakily hid behind Kang Jin-Ho.

Which was pointless since Lee Hyeon-Su could still see him!

Lee Hyeon-Su walked to them and tutted loudly. “You’re supposed to be a grown-ass man, not a little birdy. Stop chirping like one, will ya?”

Jo Gyu-Min pouted. “But I didn't say anything wrong, did I?”

“Will you listen to this guy? Can’t you give it a rest already? Will it kill you to stop running your mouth for just this once?”

“If I stop using my mouth, I’ll die, you know? I gotta breathe, after all.”

“What? Is your nose a decoration stuck to your face?”

“I’ve got chronic rhinitis.”

That was when Kang Jin-Ho finally understood why Lee Hyeon-Su wanted to beat Jo Gyu-Min up. Anyone being subjected to the constant barrage of this level of snarky attitude would automatically veer toward violence. No question about it!

Lee Hyeon-Su helplessly shook his head, then addressed Kang Jin-Ho next. “Assembly Master, sir. We’ve finished dealing with the situation on-site.”

Kang Jin-Ho briefly nodded. “I see. Any issues to worry about?”

“No, sir. I don't think we'll have to worry about anything major. There weren't that many witnesses, you see? Not many people paid attention while we were breaking the wall down. People by the entrance should've realized something was about to happen, but the spot we chose was some distance away from the entrance.”

“Hmm…”

“Also, I made sure our people only used sledgehammers to break the wall down, just in case. Regular people can't see the flow of qi, so… Even if someone saw us, they probably thought a bunch of strapping young lads were breaking the wall down with sledgehammers.”

Considering the thickness of the wall, such an explanation was obviously nonsense. However, who would raise their hand and point that out after what happened? After all, disputing eyewitness testimonies would prove to be a daunting challenge, even if this situation made little sense upon closer inspection.

Kang Jin-Ho rubbed his chin. “I guess shoddy construction will be added to the list of wrongdoings, then?”

“Most likely, yes,” Lee Hyeon-Su shrugged casually, then resumed his report. “Still, I’ve already taken measures to stop the spread of rumors. If I’m being honest, it’s not the police or the relevant government authorities we have to worry about in situations like this. It’s the reporters.”

“Mm…!” Kang Jin-Ho nodded in agreement.

The Martial Assembly could form ties of various natures with other organizations. However, managing each and every reporter in the country was obviously impossible. In the past, the most realistic solution was pressuring the newspapers to prevent articles from being published. But such a measure became untenable in the modern era.

There were far too many 'news' outlets these days to consider, after all!

Lee Hyeon-Su scratched the back of his head. “In any case… Since I'm done organizing things this side, I'll be returning to the Assembly HQ now, sir.”

Kang Jin-Ho cocked an eyebrow. “So soon?”

“I won’t have anything to do even if I stay, sir. I’ve already done everything I could.” Lee Hyeon-Su bowed toward Kang Jin-Ho. “Then, I’ll see you later, sir.”

“Okay. See you back at the Assembly.”

“Take care of yourself, sir.”

Lee Hyeon-Su turned around to leave, but Jo Gyu-Min sneakily stepped forward and cautiously raised his voice first. “Uhm… Hyung-nim?”

“Yeah?”

Jo Gyu-Min deeply bowed his head toward Lee Hyeon-Su. “Thank you.”

“Gimme a freaking break,” Lee Hyeon-Su growled unhappily, although his face still blushed slightly. “I'm not interested in your verbal gratitude. If you want to thank me, buy me a good meal later, okay? And I want something expensive!”

“Huh? But, hyung-nim? Your salary is higher than mine, so why do you wish to extort your little bro like this?”

That was when a strange silence suddenly descended between the three men. The once-warm atmosphere quickly cooled.

Eventually, Lee Hyeon-Su broke this uncomfortable silence with his slightly emotional voice. “...I'm quite confident that my salary isn't any higher than yours.”

Lee Hyeon-Su’s depressed-sounding voice prompted Jo Gyu-Min to wordlessly stare accusingly at Kang Jin-Ho.

“...Kuh-hum.” Kang Jin-Ho sneakily turned his head away and avoided meeting Jo Gyu-Min’s questioning gaze.

Jo Gyu-Min quietly muttered. “Really? Despite all the years of experience, plus his position within the organization?”

Kang Jin-Ho coughed to clear his throat. “...Well, I didn’t know. We’ll adjust it accordingly.”

“Of course you should.”

The two men smiled like a couple of crafty raccoons after their combined assault successfully resulted in a salary increase.

“Hyung-nim, I’ve repaid my debt now with this,” said Jo Gyu-Min.

“Yup, and I’ve got no complaints with the payment. Then, later.” Lee Hyeon-Su coolly waved his hand while walking away.

After Lee Hyeon-Su’s figure disappeared beyond the hospital’s exit, Kang Jin-Ho let out a grand sigh. “Uh-whew. That was a storm and a half, wasn’t it?”

“Mister Jin-Ho?”

“Mm? Yes?”

“It’s still too early to relax, unfortunately. The real storm is about to start, after all.”

“I’m sorry?” Kang Jin-Ho blinked his eyes, then quickly turned his head to look at the hospital’s entrance again when Jo Gyu-Min wordlessly pointed to it. “...Oh.”

The automatic sliding doors parted to reveal a large contingent of people flooding inside. At the lead were Park Yu-Min and other Seongsim kids. They were followed by the caregivers, their faces flushed red with anger and anxiety.

Kang Jin-Ho couldn’t help but sigh even louder than before. “...I see. So, it’s only just begun.”

“Indeed. The toughest part of any job is dealing with the aftermath, Mister Jin-Ho. Then, good luck to you.”

“Huh? Where are you going?” Kang Jin-Ho urgently looked at Jo Gyu-Min as the latter leisurely walked away.

“I’m going to handle the treatment fees and… Well, other important stuff. I’m busy as a bee, you see?”

“…!”

Kang Jin-Ho helplessly reached out, but Jo Gyu-Min coldly ignored the outstretched hand and walked away. As a matter of fact, Jo Gyu-Min's steps taking him to the hospital's admissions office seemed cheery than ever for some reason!

‘...And they say you can’t trust anyone in this world!’

Kang Jin-Ho was cruelly reminded of how a man had to walk alone in this cold, unforgiving world. Before he could stew in this emotion of betrayal, though, the Seongsim kids swarmed around him first.

While subjected to the bombardment of ear-shredding, high-pitched voices demanding answers, Kang Jin-Ho sighed again in resignation.

‘I'm gonna shoot myself in the head first before I accompany someone to another aquarium. I swear it…!’