290 Is This A Joke?

'Something surely happened while no one was looking, But it seems we didn't lose, so it is fine,' Nam-woon was curious about what happened but didn't pursue it since it wouldn't help him in getting stronger.

[Some Constellations are laughing at Incarnation 'Cheol In-Ho'.]

[400 Coins have been sponsored.]

"And you even gave us a gift, so we didn't really lose anything," In-ho said as his signature smile returned.

"It wasn't that big of a deal, so what can I help you with?" Haru spoke cutting to the chase.

"I wanted to buy some food from Haru-ssi," In-ho asked.

"How much?" Haru asked.

"About 10 lunch boxes," In-ho said as Haru nodded giving 10 boxes to the person next to In-ho after he received the coins.

"Is something wrong?" Haru asked In-ho seeing the latter look a bit confused.

"…No, I am quite happy to see that all of you have seemed to make it back without any injury," In-ho looked at the present group members, he got a report from Cheol-soo that everyone was back.

"That is true but we are very tired at the moment, The outside is really dangerous," Haru stretched his arms while sighing.

'Do you think I'll fall for that? You guys don't even look tired, it is like you went out on a picnic,' In-ho didn't his thoughts show.

"I see, looks like I need to tell our team to be more careful," In-ho spoke trying to gauge Haru's reaction.

"In-ho's group is also going out?" Haru asked looking surprised.

"Yes, I talked about it last night, right?" In-ho opened his eyes slightly looking at Haru.

"Oh, come to think of it you did, I forgot about that, So are you leading them yourself?" Haru asked with a very innocent look but as soon as his words fell everyone's ears raised waiting for In-ho's reply.

'This Bastard…..' In-ho calmed down his raising anger and opened his mouth.

"No I won't be, I have some things to do in the station and I am not much of a fighter," In-ho explained.

"I see, then tell the leader of the group to be careful of the wolf's ambushes, tell them to not show the wolves their backs, they won't miss the chance," Haru said with a smile.

'Is he really trying to help them or threatening them?' Nam-woon thought as he felt a chill down his spine and he wasn't alone.

"...I'll keep it in mind," In-ho said as he went away while Haru waved at them with the same smile.

In-ho had a severe look on his face as he made his way back to his base.

"Give one each to the expedition team and keep the rest in the storage we also need more people on duty to patrol the area don't let anyone near the food stash," In-ho said to the guy holding the boxes before he looked at the eight people who would be going outside, five from his group and three from the survivors on the platform. They all had masks on them ready to go outside but first, they would be eating the lunchbox he brought for them.

'There is no way he knows,' In-ho took a note from his pocket which read as follows: You want the masks right? There are 8 in here you can take them, we have spares with us so don't worry, It is a shame that there aren't any crowbars left, But you can have the masks, you have my 'permission' to take them.

This is what they found in the locker when they opened it. This gave In-ho a headache because not only did Haru know he would open the locker it seemed like he made him open it, but he also knew what In-ho would search for. On top of that…

'There is no way he'll know that I will send out eight people outside, no one aside from me knew who I would send out,' In-ho refused to believe it, but he felt something heavy pressing on him as he remembered what Haru told him before.

'That is useless, I shouldn't believe in his bluff, it looks like the outside is far less dangerous than he made it out to be, everyone in his team was perfectly fine,' In-ho shook his head and chuckled as he remembered how even the little kid who went out with Haru's group didn't look tired at all.

''And then he has the nerve to tell me to watch my back, nothing can go wrong,' bet that is what he is thinking,' Haru thought as he sat down on his seat waiting for everyone to gather so that they can talk about what they'll do now.

The crowd in front of the bathroom didn't seem to calm down till now.

'We can rest a little while,' Haru leaned back relaxing a little.

Inside the Woman's Washroom,

"Thank you very much," A woman in her mid-twenties thanked Hee-won while bowing deeply alongside her little sister, who looked like a high school student.

"Thank you unnie," The younger sister was also grateful.

"There is no need to worry about it, you even paid for it when we said it was fine to do pay," Hee-won waved her hand with a smile as she saw the pair of sisters walk out of the bathroom with a relieved look.

"That seems to be the last of them," Queresha didn't look tired in the slightest.

"Phew* That took a while," Hee-won sighed as they folded two plastic bags and kept the remaining items in one since it was for their personal use.

"I didn't know it would turn out like this," Sang-ah looked tired as she remembered how fast they needed to distribute the items, but even then she thought it was ok since it helped so many people.

"It is only natural they all need the sanitary products," Queresha stated flatly.

"I get that, it was definitely a good idea to get these when we had the chance," Hee-won smiled even though it was a lot of work it was worth it.

"Though I don't know what to say to Haru about this, We didn't really charge everyone coins for this, we accepted it if they insisted but most of them didn't so there is that," Hee-won muttered.

"He did leave it to us so there won't be a need to say anything," Queresha stated.

"Wow, it looks like you really know him well," Hee-won said with a teasing smile.

"I know more about Haru than I know about myself," Queresha said while looking at Hee-won catching her off guard.

"Oh god, That…is something," Hee-won thought it was a joke at first but looking at Queresha's eyes she could see the seriousness.

'Maybe she is pulling my leg 'cause I tried to tease her,' Hee-won thought but she didn't know how wrong she was.

"Sang-ah is everything alright? You look tired," Hee-won asked Sang-ah who had barely spoken after coming to the station.

"Uh, I just have been thinking about something," Sang-ah said with a smile like usual, but Hee-won could feel that something was off.

'Maybe she doesn't want to talk about it? Thinking I can help will be quite careless, I might make it worse if I push it,' Hee-won didn't know if she should ask or not since Sang-ah's mood was down in the dumps. She did have a few guesses about what it can be but it only made it harder to talk about.

"Sang-ah are you feeling guilty about your mistake before," Queresha said making Sang-ah halt in her steps.

"Queresha that's….." Hee-won saw that Queresha made the correct guess, but it was still not right to talk about it, since she saw Sang-ah looking down with guilt on her face.

"That is…correct," Sang-ah's small voice reached the two's ears.

'I thought she might try to lie about it like she was trying to before, It might be because she is comfortable around Queresha unlike with me,' Hee-won didn't think that Sang-ah would open up.

"I am sorry I put you in danger because of my actions," Sang-ah said bowing her head.

"Hmm? You also did help me, did you not?" Queresha said.

"T-That...But I made a mistake," Sang-ah spoke a bit of fear on her face as she thought about how things could've ended up if she missed the throw.

"The worst that could've happened was me getting bitten, I can heal that type of wound so don't think too deeply about that, think about how it didn't come to that result, It was avoided by your effort, And are you not happy to see me unharmed?" Queresha spoke with a straight face while raising an eyebrow at the end.

"N-no I didn't mean it that way, I was just…." Sang-ah panicked a little as she stopped talking since it was hard to distinguish if Queresha was joking at the end or not.

.....

Hello again, Give me your thoughts and stones, Let's see you guys continue to fail at making the goal of 650 ps for a bonus chapter.

I have a patre-on if you are interested in reading ahead link is in the synopsis, you can also get some big spoilers there if you ask me about them.

Also, drop by the discord for a chat if you have questions about the fic or what is happening in the fic. you might also get some minor spoilers there.

That is all, Bye...