EP.20 Going Home -2
EP.20 Going Home -2
For a reason I never saw coming, my parents found out I was an agent.
Fortunately, it didn't seem like it would blow up into a major issue.
It was safe to say that except for my parents, nobody would've been able to look at the footage and identify me.
And even though my agent status was blown, whether I had companion animals or not still hadn't been exposed.
The agent stuff was something I could smooth over one way or another, but the matter of my companion Divine Beasts was an inescapable headache.
In that sense, I'd been feeling relieved, thinking things were still okay.
However...
"So yummy! Sikhye! Give me more!!"
"Oh my? You finished it already? I'll go buy some right away!"
"No! I'll go buy it, so please rest, Mother!"
"Father? If it's all right, shall I pour you a cup of tea...?"
"Yes. Thank you!"
"..."
How had this situation even happened?
All the circumstances had flowed by like water, and an impossible scene was unfolding before my eyes.
I didn't know anymore.
The things I didn't want always blew up anyway. I'd also reached the point of letting go of everything and accepting it.
I'd given up on thinking. Giving up was easier...
***
Exactly two hours earlier.
Unable to hide the fact that I was an agent, I'd explained everything to my parents with some dramatic embellishments, minus the part about my companion Divine Beasts.
I'd been targeted by terrorists due to a certain incident, and had no choice but to rely on the government. They'd given me an agent position on the condition that they would protect me.
However, the fact that I'd been given an agent position must never be known to society, so I'd been working unofficially up until now.
And finally, for everyone's safety, I'd been forcibly relocated to Central City.
Once I'd revealed everything, my parents each accepted it and understood.
Of course, I did get a major scolding once they realized I'd been shouldering everything alone, but I didn't feel too bad about it.
I actually kind of liked it, since I was feeling the warmth of family for the first time in a long while.
On top of that, I was even feeling relieved after unburdening secrets I hadn't been able to tell anyone.
Anyway, as I recalled, I'd still been feeling satisfied up to that point, and the situation had been flowing perfectly.
The real problem occurred after that.
"What are you planning to do right now? Kor?"
"Ah, well, since the three of you have been talking so long, I thought your throats might be parched... I was thinking of preparing some tea...!"
"I see, not a bad thought. Do you mind if I help?"
"Of course...!!"
"I want snacks! I wanna eat snacks!!"
"Then shall we check and see if there are any snacks?"
"Okay!"
Even though I hadn't asked them, the fox and the wolf made their way to the kitchen, saying they would prepare tea.
The baby dragon was toddling along behind those two Divine Beasts.
A sight that was nothing short of nerve-racking.
I'd been on edge, feeling like something was bound to happen, but I had to focus on my conversation with my parents at the time and couldn't stop the three of them.
In the middle of our long talk, interrupting to go stop those three would have been suspicious behavior.
Because of that, I'd had no choice but to keep a cursory eye on the three of them from a distance.
"The tea leaves are right here."
"Then I'll boil the water right away...!"
"Snacks~♪ Snacks~♪"
The Divine Beasts who'd entered the kitchen started opening up the cupboards one by one as if they owned the place, and my anxiety reached its peak.
Since the dining table I'd been sitting at was connected to the kitchen, I could see everything that was happening there just by turning my head a little.
In other words, if my parents so much as turned their attention toward the kitchen, it would be a major catastrophe.
With the Divine Beasts invisible, it would be a supernatural phenomenon: cupboards opening and closing by themselves, the gas range turning on by itself.
I'd absolutely had to keep my parents' attention fixed on me.
So I'd tried raising my voice on purpose and doing all kinds of things like fake coughing, but...
"It's snacks!!"
"Ah! Tia! That's not a snack...!!"
Tia had mistaken a flour bag with a cookie design printed on it for a biscuit bag, and had tried to yank the bag out of the cupboard.
Kor had stepped in to stop her, but in too much of a hurry, she'd tripped, and Tia and Kor had collided.
And so a commotion had erupted where white flour fell over the two of them, making it impossible for me and my parents to avoid looking toward the kitchen.
"Wh-What in the world happened?!"
"Huh?! Why is there flour...?"
Miho's illusions worked by causing sensory confusion so a target's appearance, smell, and sound couldn't be perceived.
So it was safe to say they didn't erase the actual body, but simply made them into a colorless, odorless, and soundless transparent state.
That meant that the two who'd been in a transparent state had now been unmistakably covered in flour.
To other people's eyes, the flour clinging to them would appear to be floating in midair.
And in a humanoid shape at that.
"Oh my...?!"
"Oh, good heavens!!"
My parents had ended up witnessing that spectacle.
Seeing this, I smacked my forehead and let out a hollow laugh.
"I think my mind's about to leave me."
***
Returning to the present.
To get to the conclusion first, everything had been completely exposed.
My agent job, of course, and absolutely everything about my companion Divine Beasts.
Not only would it have been hard to explain away the levitating flour or the yulmu tea that seemed to have been prepared by ghosts,
but I couldn't exactly just leave the two covered in flour alone, so I'd raised the white flag and decided to come clean about everything.
And that was how the current spectacle—of my parents doting on my companion Divine Beasts—had unfolded.
"Seon-ju."
"Yes?"
"Raise your hands up higher."
"Yes..."
On the other hand, I, who'd been trying to hide this, had been found guilty of the crime of being detestable, and was being punished by having to kneel.
It felt unfair. The one being punished was me, when the ones who'd caused the trouble weren't even me...
Still, I should take comfort and be happy that my parents were doting on my companion Divine Beasts not as Divine Beasts, but as part of the family.
Just as I was trying to console myself with that thought, the sound of the front door unlocking came, and someone entered the house.
It was probably my annoying little sister Seon-a, returning home after school.
Sure enough, the familiar middle school girl approaching the living room saw me with my hands raised and let out a snicker.
"What? It's you, Seon-ju? Long time no see! But anyway, why are you raising your hands the moment I see you?"
"Can't you tell by looking? I'm being punished."
"Pfft! What kind of crime did you commit to get that?"
"Who knows..."
Seon-a shifted her gaze from me toward the dining table.
Seon-a's eyes went wide, and my little sister began to yell in a voice filled with shock.
"Wh-What the?! Who are those people? Why does she have wolf ears and a tail?! And even that little girl is dressed weirdly...!"
"Oh my? Seon-a, you're home?"
"Welcome back."
"Welcome home...!!"
"I-I'm back... No, more importantly, Dad! Mom! Who on earth are those people...? Ah!!"
Mid-sentence, Seon-a suddenly turned her eyes back to me, as if realizing something.
And then she started glaring at me with eyes full of disgust...
"You brought these people here, right, brother? I know you're lonely because you don't have a companion animal, but still! Making even a little girl wear that kind of cosplay and bringing her into the house?! Are you out of your mind?"
"No, that's not..."
"What do you mean that's not it? Ugh! So gross!! I never thought my brother would turn into such a disgusting pervert...! It's still not too late, so hurry up and give them money and send them back!!"
Without even trying to learn the details of the situation, Seon-a was hurling all sorts of harsh words right to my face.
'Excellent. That's my little sister alright!! At least you never change, and never betray my expectations!'
Even though I was getting cursed out by my sister, I was actually satisfied.
My parents' reactions had been very different from what I'd imagined, which had been disappointing in a lot of ways, but my prediction about my sister had been perfectly spot-on.
You could say it was easier to deal with someone predictable than someone unpredictable.
In fact, my sister's conclusion was also easy to predict.
"Seon-a."
"Yes?"
"You raise your hands next to your brother too."
"...Huh?"
"Moron."
Seon-a had been under the mistaken impression that my companion animals were people I'd hired for money.
Treating my companion animals—whom my parents had been doting on—like that was a surefire way to get on their bad side.
She knew one thing, but not the other... No, she was a foolish little sister who hadn't even tried to know the details.
I sincerely felt sorry for her. If she'd at least stayed quiet, she would've gotten off with half the trouble, but she couldn't even do that and ended up self-destructing.
'Still, she's got good luck.'
The timing happened to be when Miho was away to buy sikhye for Tia.
If she'd said what she just said in front of Miho, it definitely wouldn't have ended with just raising her hands.
I was truly glad it ended without incident...
"Huh...?"
A sharp gaze suddenly stung me, and when I turned my head toward it, I saw Miho standing in the backyard. I had no idea when she'd arrived.
Miho was holding sikhye in her right hand and her cell phone in her left hand, and I wondered why she was standing still and smiling in the backyard like that.
Just as I was looking at Miho with puzzlement, Miho, aware of my gaze, pressed her phone against the window from outside as if to say, 'Look at this.'
I stared at the fox's phone screen, and as a certain suspicion arose, I immediately turned my head.
The far-right corner of the living room.
In that slightly shadowed and dim spot, the lens of some small, pitch-black object was blatantly reflecting light.
"What the hell..."
The identity of the object was none other than a surveillance camera.
I wondered who, when, and even why they'd installed a surveillance camera in a place like this.
But the direction of the lens and the composition of the video playing on Miho's phone matched perfectly.
And I realized there was only one person who would install something like this. My suspicion quickly turned to certainty.
"What is it, brother? Why are you suddenly trembling?"
"Hey."
"Huh?"
"If you want to live, run away right now."
It was the only advice I could give as her older brother to my little sister, whose luck had been utterly rotten.