What's With The Rice?

"Haru, don't you think that you forgot something?" Haru turned his head, and he saw Hae-in standing there.

'Oh shit…' With those words alone, Haru already knew what she was here for.

"No need to act like you are scared," Hae-in just laughed and folded her arms, "I understand what you were doing. So, I'll let it be this time." she wasn't here to fight with him.

She understood what was going on well enough to know, what needed to be done first.

"I am so glad to have you," Haru looked happy that she understood, but he spoke too early.

"But you still broke the promise, so you need to be punished," Hae-in said with a smile and Haru sighed.

'Seems like there is no escaping it,'

"What is it going to be this time?" He wasn't that worried about it since he knew that Hae-in did these things playfully, rather than doing it out of actual anger.

So, it was fun to play along with some of her punishments from time to time.

'Like that one time she had me flirt with Kanae in public,' Haru wouldn't forget it because of how fun that was, Kanae was blushing all the way home thanks to the public show of affection, 'And then she tried to beat me up because of how embarrassed she was, but it was fun before that.' He nodded like he was remembering a good memory.

"That's a secret~." It was just that the good flashbacks ended here.

'Uh-oh,' Because of those words and the tone, Haru knew that he was in big trouble this time. 

'The last time I heard those words, I had to act as a girl on a one-time stream,' Haru's body jolted upright, and he had Goosebumps just thinking about how bad that was.

It wasn't that it went badly with people noticing or making fun of him. No, instead it went well, a little too well.

'Let's not think about the comments and messages on that account….' Haru shook his head quickly to get out of that hellhole, all he could say was…

'Some people are unhinged,' He turned to look at Hae-in who had the sweetest smile on her face, the purpose?

"Hae-in... let's talk about this," Haru tried to reason with her, since the situation was really unavoidable this time, this worked sometimes, but…

"Nope, no pass for you this time," He was shot down instantly; there was no room for negotiations it seemed.

Ding*

"I'll be leaving then~ Bye-bye." And as soon as a text message arrived, Hae-in left happily, "Make sure to prepare yourself~."

'Now I have another thing to worry about,' Haru sighed and his eyes went to the refrigerator.

"I need some ice cream," Thankfully there were some in there, and he ate a full tub once again to drown all of his sorrows.

[The Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon is called you weak.]

[The Constellation Demonic Judge of Fire is asking what happened.]

[The Constellation Secretive Plotter is retelling the situation.]

[The Constellation History's First Loner understands your situation to an extent.]

[The Constellation Ghost Of Tosa is enjoying the show.]

[The Constellation Desserts For Days is pleased to see another Vanilla enjoyer.]

[10,000 coins have been sponsored.]

Haru just didn't notice them since, 'They'd never understand my pain,' he was trying to sound pitiful, but he was just being smug, 'well, one of them is good at least.'

But his little break was short-lived.

Ding* Ding*

It was then that his phone started to give notifications for the messages.

'Looks like it will take some time before I can get a break,' Haru thought and got ready, now that he was back in the base there were things that he needed to do, before the next scenario started.

The next few days were busy for everyone, they all worked hard to clear out the areas and deal with monsters, so that they couldn't come into the group's territory.

They needed to do this to make sure that they could protect the people they had taken in, these people didn't want to fight which is why they joined their group after all.

"So, we have to make sure that they can at least be comfortable," Alea groaned repeating those words, her job was the hardest of all, it wasn't clearing monsters.

Rather it was like clearing the streets…

'This is more time-consuming,' Alea shook her head since she couldn't complain, she wasn't alone who was doing this job after all, 'This is the main job that is keeping many of the working group members up'

That is why it was necessary for someone on her level to be around, not just to quicken up the progress…

[Two monsters broke through the line of defense. They are at your 3 O'clock] A calm voice came from the in-ear, and Alea quickly dealt with the bear and hyena-like monsters, before the working group even noticed.

They were currently expanding the roads to increase the flow of goods, while creating more living space.

On the other hand, Jin-ah and Nam-woon were expanding eastwards with another group along them, they were doing the same thing that Alea was doing, just that…

"Hyahyahya, Bring it on you pieces of sh*ts!!" Nam-woon was fighting on the frontline, while Jin-ah was taking a backseat and helping the group with clearing the area.

[Kim Nam-woon-ssi had left the marked zone…] And whenever Nam-woon went a little overboard…

"Nam-woon, just in case you know, your behavior is being recorded and can be heard by Queresha Unnie," She just reminded him through the Communication devices.

[Fuc—Ahem* I mean, I am awaiting further orders,] She was able to keep him in line with just that.

"Get back to in line,"

[...Yes.]

And she wasn't lying about everything being recorded, the support teams that came with Zenobia were working their asses off.

Cameras were carried by the groups and were installed at certain intervals, in places where they could get good coverage.

These cameras didn't need wiring, and sent the feed back to the headquarters, so that this footage could be used to keep an eye on the surroundings, this was also used to alert the groups that were out there in case monsters were approaching them.

But even if everything seemed to going alright, there were still some concerns.

"Haru, do you think that is a good idea?" Kanae asked Haru, she had happened to catch him having lunch in the kitchen today.

So, she ended up asking him the question.

"What?" He asked, since he couldn't tell what she was talking about.

'She gave me no clues…' Haru sighed, since Kanae just had a weird way of asking questions.

"About allowing them to move west," She crossed her arms while hinting at certain people.

These people were Dok-ja, Gil-young, Hyun-sung and Ji-hye. They formed a group and were currently moving west, way beyond their planned sites.

"Oh, them? It will be fine," Haru didn't put too much thought into it, on the other hand, Kanae frowned.

"I don't really care about Kim Dok-ja, but the other three are good," Kanae saw Hyun-sung and Ji-hye in a good light, "also that child is too young to be sent forward with them, he can work safely from here, can he not?" not to mention that she didn't want Gil-young to be out in danger.

Or more specifically she didn't want that kid to be in a fight, since he had a weird disposition that didn't get affected by many things, even if it meant killing another person.

He could do that without blinking an eye.

'It would be better if we can help him get past that sort of thinking,' Kanae heard that this seemed to have happened because of some circumstances, but she wasn't keen on leaving it as is.

But…

"It is that kid's choice," Haru said and Kanae could only shake her head, indeed Gil-young was too focused on Kim Dok-ja to care about anything else.

And they couldn't change that even if they wanted to, which is why Kanae thought of just watching it from afar for now.

But she was also doing something else at the moment.

"Why are you putting more rice?"