Epilogue
Park Siwoo and Lee Sia stepped out of the shop, and the rabbit mask stayed sitting in that spot for a long time without moving.
To be precise, he was staring at the card that Sia had drawn.
Even though the card Sia had held a moment ago had grown cold with time, its shape and color remained exactly the same.
"I'd heard about it in reports already... but it's really fascinating..."
The rabbit mask picked up the changed card and turned it over in his hands, examining every detail.
How much time passed like that?
Ding dong~
A new person entered the shop, walking in with steady steps and stopping right in front of the rabbit mask.
"What happened that had you looking so cheerful, Branch Manager?"
"Oh? You're earlier than I expected, Joseph."
At those words, the man called Joseph sighed deeply and spoke in an irritated tone.
"...You told me to call you Shin Hayun in Korea, remember?"
"But Hayun called me 'Branch Manager,' so that's how it was."
"...What happened that you... Ha Jina, Noona is smiling?"
"Hehe, want to see this?"
"What...?"
The Branch Manager Shin Hayun was holding, the card from Ha Jina, showed no reaction at first. But soon after...
"W-what...?! Is this...?"
"The person you're thinking of is exactly that."
"You're insane! I was sitting quietly, and why did you suddenly contact me?!"
Shin Hayun jumped back in shock, dropping the card.
The rabbit mask caught the falling card with perfect reflexes and spoke with a grievance.
"Wait a second, it's not like I approached first."
"Considering your usual behavior, it's only natural!"
"This time it's not! I came looking for you on my own!"
"...Is it because of the Irregular next to you?"
"Looks like it. We were sitting side by side with the observation target, and from the very beginning you were staring at me suspiciously?"
"...Is that because you're wearing the rabbit mask?"
"No, everyone has been thinking the same thing about this secret service concept, haven't they? The occasional customers have thought so too."
"So what is it?"
"No? I just stood up from my seat, really read the tarot normally, and then wanted to take the observation target with me."
"The observation target?"
"Of course, no reaction at all. But when I said we should leave together, he obediently stood up from his seat?"
"...Is it because he's an Irregular?"
"I don't know exactly either. I can only say it's a matter of intuition."
"Fascinating..."
"Originally, the fact that the succubus charm doesn't work is already fascinating, though."
"But you said he stood up obediently earlier. Then how do you explain the card?"
"Ah... I came back because I wanted to ask one more question. I was too curious back then and stopped..."
"......"
Shin Hayun glared at Ha Jina.
He knew she was full of curiosity and pranks, but he hadn't expected this much.
What she had just done was like poking the sleeping dragon's tail.
But Ha Jina didn't care much about it at all.
"Don't look at me like that. As long as I don't touch the Irregulars, there's no way they'll get hostile or rampage from that side. That's what the report said too, right?"
"...That may be true, but the problem is elsewhere. If the 'Queen' moves, what do you plan to do?"
"Ah... she won't move that much..."
"The agreement conditions since the previous generation haven't been touched at all, haven't they?"
"That's true, but..."
"Moreover, even this generation's Queen failed to completely suppress the observation target's power. We need to avoid friction with our side. Why did you do that?"
Shin Hayun's words were reasonable.
Around ten years ago, powerful abilities had been detected and an emergency alert was issued to the Korean branch.
And it turned out the owner wasn't Kim Jieun, the person of interest at the time, but Kim Jieun's daughter.
After that, the person of interest changed to Lee Sia, Kim Jieun's child. And an observer was assigned during middle school when her powers awakened properly.
Thanks to the safe report from last year, he had sighed in relief, but the Branch Manager doing such a thing made Shin Hayun feel speechless.
He had hoped there was a reason behind Ha Jina's actions... but...
"But... the kids were so pure..."
"Huh?"
"No... they're both in love with each other, and they're not even a couple yet... so I thought I'd relieve my curiosity and... give a little push..."
"Haa..."
As someone who knew Ha Jina well, Shin Hayun couldn't help sighing.
"But don't worry! I didn't say anything that would help the child!"
"...You wouldn't be that thoughtful..."
"Hehe... It felt refreshing to have my heart tickle like this after a while. I wonder why Sebastian uploaded the report like that."
"Haa... I'm going crazy..."
Shin Hayun put his hand to his forehead, his head spinning.
"But don't worry. According to Sebastian, if we help them get together, we'll get benefits instead of drawbacks!"
"Why would you make them fight each other by doing something like that..."
"Ehehe..."
Looking back at the events of the past days, Sia or Kim Jieun could come protest if they were offended.
Sia herself might not know, but if Kim Jieun truly came with teeth bared... the East Asia branch alone might not be enough.
Imagining the worst-case scenario, Shin Hayun's head started to ache, and he decided to just hand everything over to Ha Jina.
"Anyway, if you're writing a confession, do it yourself. I don't know anything."
"Cruel... So what brought you here?"
"Ah... I came to report my return."
"Aha! Good, you made it back safely. Sebastian already knows you returned, right?"
"...I know. We already discussed it during this dispatch."
"I see. So how long do you plan to stay?"
"Well... if there's no command from headquarters, I have to wait."
"Hmm... I see..."
Watching Ha Jina's teasing tone, Shin Hayun took one step back.
Whenever she had used that teasing tone before, she always assigned annoying tasks and he would quickly escape.
"It's an easy task, so don't worry. It's a medium to long-term mission, so you can recover comfortably."
"...How can a medium to long-term mission allow for recovery?"
"Because this time it's staying in Korea. If you don't like that, go to the desert..."
"So what is this medium to long-term mission?"
Shin Hayun, who hated heat, quickly replied to Ha Jina's words.
Seeing that, she smiled faintly and said,
"It's just like protecting a VIP."
"Protecting a VIP...?"
"Yeah, something like that."
"Suddenly did the president get hit by something?"
"No, it's something that could sink the entire country at once if done wrong. You have to be careful."
"......I just want to go to the desert."
"I already recorded it, so there's no way."
"......"
Shin Hayun thought he had escaped, but there was no way out.
※※※※※※
The next day after the field trip experience.
I was with Seonghun and Donghyeok, talking about what happened in the field trip experience.
Surprisingly, Seonghun's class went to the Science Museum and Donghyeok's class went to Chinatown.
"Damn, after eating this age, you actually went to the Science Museum?"
"But it looked fun."
"It's fun, you get to see things flashing at the Tesla coil, or pretend to experience a typhoon and get hit by 30 meters per second wind right in the face."
"Lucky."
"But there's an elementary school student next to you."
"Ah......"
"Whew..."
"Hey, don't exaggerate. Want to stand in the subway for two hours?"
"Eh?"
"I stood in the subway for four hours straight."
"Still, the jjajangmyeon would have tasted good, wouldn't it?"
"That cheap jjajangmyeon is all the same, dude."
"Then you ate only jjajangmyeon there?"
"No? What was that... tteokbokki? I ate tteokbokki and came back."
"What is that?"
"I was hearing it for the first time."
"Right? I tasted it because it was interesting too. It's coated with sugar on fruit."
"What? Sweet potato tteokbokki?"
"That's how it feels. But it was pretty tasty. It would sell well to kids."
"Maybe open a tteokbokki shop?"
"Maybe?"
"Damn it, stop the mothers from eating it with their mouths open."
"Maybe... But how about you, Siwoo? Since you went to Gyeongbokgung Palace, it must have been nice."
The topic of conversation shifted to me, so I told my own story.
"Ah, yeah. We came back and went to Hongdae to play."
"What?! Really?"
"Eh? Why?"
"You went playing with Sia and those cheerful noonas?"
"What?"
"Are you betraying Sia?!"
Donghyeok suddenly pushed the conversation in a weird direction and I got flustered.
"Drop it. It's because of Halloween now. They're jealous of couples like us."
"Aha..."
If that's the case, I understood.
Donghyeok said he had a crush on a girl during vacation, but it turned out she was wearing similar underwear to another boy's from a different school, so he had been tricked without knowing.
"Oh man..."
"Learn from that."
Seeing me and Seonghun look pitiful, Donghyeok got fired up.
"Hey, Park Siwoo! You still haven't dated yet! What's with that 'understood' face!"
"But Siwoo is already a couple, right? Why are you acting like you're understanding?"
"......Damn..."
Donghyeok was protesting, but he was hit without fail by Seonghun.
Thinking about it, since Halloween came up...
"Hey, isn't Halloween Friday this time?"
"Right?"
"I see... It's nothing special."
"You bastard! You're lying right now! You're planning to send Sia on a happy Halloween first, and then mess around with us! Trying to climb the adult stairs first..."
"That's nonsense! Sia and I aren't like that yet!"
"Oh... If that's still the case, then maybe it can become like that in the future?"
"Why are you saying that too?"
"I'm also jealous."
"Bad guys..."
"Bad guys are you. You lying bastard!"
"I don't know, I'm going."
I quickly left the place, but the more I thought about Halloween, and the fact that Sia had said she would seduce me before the year ended... if I was going to take the opportunity, wouldn't this be it?
"No way..."
After going to Hongdae this time, I had one new goal.
Until now I had been too embarrassed to tell Sia that I liked her and also wanted to see her trying to seduce me... but now I had a reason to hold out until Christmas.
So now I had to endure any seduction Sia threw at me.
But... if I was asked if I could endure Sia's Halloween cosplay...
Honestly, I didn't think I could.