The Missing Medium

Kang Yujun dragged Park Deokpal out of the room.

“Please rest.

We’ll tighten the security.”

As the others left as well, only Garam and Lee Jaehun remained.

Garam glanced nervously at Jaehun, then stood up cautiously.

“Where are you going?”

“You said I have my own room.”

“You do.”

“Then I’ll sleep in my room.

Just tell me where it is.”

“Go out the door and it’s the room on the left.

But it’s dangerous to sleep alone.

You should sleep here tonight.”

Garam looked at him suspiciously.

“Sleeping with you looks way more dangerous.”

“I won’t touch you.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I haven’t done anything to you so far.”

“Really?

How long have we even been dating?”

He sounded genuinely curious.

“A few months.”

“How far did we go?”

“You know things like that?”

“I learned everything from hyung.

And I’m sixteen.

I know stuff.”

Garam answered proudly.

“So what do you know?”

“When you date someone, first you hold hands.”

“We held hands.”

“And when the mood gets better, you kiss.”

Jaehun’s gaze stopped on Garam’s lips.

They were a little thin but pink and soft-looking—pretty for a man’s lips.

“What are you looking at!”

Garam shouted and covered his lips with his hand.

“Misunderstanding.”

“What misunderstanding!

You really are a pervert!”

“But we’re dating.

Isn’t it normal to look at that much?”

There was no rebuttal to that.

Garam pouted his lips.

The adult Garam never behaved like this, but young Garam apparently used to.

The childish gesture suited him.

“So, what’s after kissing?”

“That…”

Garam started to answer but suddenly stopped, as if remembering something.

“Why am I telling you all this!

You pervert old man!”

“I’m not a pervert.”

“Then why do you always hold a flowerpot?”

“Because it’s precious.”

“More precious than your lover?”

Jaehun said nothing.

“I must have terrible luck in love.”

Garam sighed and plopped into a chair.

Dating someone who valued a flowerpot more than him—apparently his future self had awful taste in people.

“Why do you think that?”

“What, do you seriously believe you’re a decent boyfriend?”

Garam shuddered dramatically.

“Aren’t I?”

“No.”

The firm answer made Jaehun laugh unintentionally.

He disliked that Garam couldn’t remember him, but this childish, clumsy version was amusing.

Especially since he thought he was acting like an adult while showing every bit of sixteen.

“My ideal type wasn’t someone like you.”

“Then who was it?”

Garam shut his mouth.

He seemed unsure whether he should say it.

After a long hesitation, he sighed and confessed.

“Hyung.

My ideal type is hyung.”

The “hyung” Garam referred to now was Choi Gunwoo, but the original was Seo Taeju.

‘That sly fox?’

He was his ideal type?

How low were his standards?

“What about your ideal type?”

Jaehun thought of the person he once loved.

“She had straight, long hair, a slender face, pale skin.

And a pretty smile.”

“Sounds like a real person.

Definitely not me then.

So the dating thing was a lie, right?”

“It wasn’t a lie.”

“Liar.”

Garam declared and walked out the door.

“I’m sleeping in my room.”

And he didn’t return.

He seemed to have fallen asleep in his own bed.

Garam slept, but Jaehun couldn’t.

Since Garam had already been kidnapped once, he had to stay alert.

He sat quietly, focused his mind, and released his mana.

Then he heard soft crying from the next room.

Despite acting fearless earlier, the sixteen-year-old Garam was scared.

The quiet sobbing continued for thirty minutes.

Jaehun waited until Garam’s breathing became even.

Once he was certain Garam was asleep, he entered his room.

Because of the sleepwalking problem, there was no password lock on Garam’s door.

Letting him sleep alone was unsafe.

Jaehun gently picked him up and placed him in his own bed.

Garam tossed once, then settled comfortably and fell asleep again.

Watching him, Jaehun closed his eyes in the chair.

He didn’t want to be called a pervert anymore.

“Ugh…”

In the building with the farm, zombies were wandering early in the morning.

“There’s nothing here!”

“Where is the medium?”

“We’ll never finish searching like this.

Let’s at least take turns eating.”

“Agreed~!”

Ailen immediately raised her hand.

She needed food to function.

Breakfast was a bread mixture of wheat and bran, and a mousse-like lump of meat.

“Ugh.

I want fresh vegetables.

This guild cafeteria sucks.

Most of the meat is monster meat, too.”

“Exactly 70% monster meat, 30% regular meat.

Only Haechi Guild can afford that ratio.”

“Wow, good for you, Kang Yujun.”

Ailen lowered her cheek onto the table and sighed.

She had stared at vegetables all night at the farm, and now she couldn’t eat any.

Tragic.

Well, at least they would take reservations later—she’d reserve first.

She smiled imagining it.

“So the medium isn’t in the farm?”

“If it hasn’t appeared after all that searching, it’s not there.

Our guild mages are extremely competent.”

“Don’t forget the swordsmen.”

A swordsman poking his meat blankly added.

“True.”

“If it’s not in the room or the farm, where else do we search?”

“Good question.

I just had a bad thought.”

“Yes?”

“Can the Farm Card for Farm #2 open other farms?”

“Normally no.

But Garam’s card is a master card, so it can.”

“Oh—oh no!

Why didn’t you say something earlier!

No—wait, maybe I didn’t want to know!”

“I was going to suggest searching the other farms this afternoon anyway.

Don’t suffer.

It was inevitable.”

“Kang Yujun, you’re not human!”

“Thank you.”

He scraped up his food and stood to get more.

“Food tastes better than usual today.”

“Look at him relaxing while he doesn’t have to help search!”

“I have other work as well.”

His shameless evasion was irritating.

Ailen straightened up and shoved food into her mouth.

Fine.

She’d eat well and work harder later.

Late in the morning, sunlight entered through the window.

‘An unfamiliar ceiling.’

The ceiling wasn’t the one from the room he remembered falling asleep in.

Garam peeked out from the blankets and saw a man asleep in a chair.

Lee Jaehun—the man supposedly his official lover.

He still held the flowerpot.

“You’re awake?”

While Garam looked at the flowerpot, Jaehun opened his eyes.

“Yeah.”

“Then let’s eat.

What do you want?”

“I eat anything.”

“Good.

What about pancakes?”

“Pancakes?

What’s that?”

“A cake made of wheat.

The brunch café downstairs sells them.

Served with blueberry jam and salad.”

It already sounded delicious.

“Did I like that?”

“You did.”

“Then let’s go.”

“Good.

Get ready.”

“Okay.

After breakfast, what did I usually do?”

“You went to work at the farm.”

“Farm?”

Jaehun briefly explained the farm system.

“Farm #2 is yours.”

“Wow.”

Garam blinked.

“You gave it to me because we were dating?”

“No.

You were a skilled farmer.”

“Really?

Did I fail to awaken even as an adult?”

Farmer?

He had never done anything like that.

Seeing his confusion, Jaehun added:

“You’re an awakener.”

“You said farmer.”

“A production-type awakener.”

Was farmer even on the list of production awakeners?

“Explaining is slower than showing.

After breakfast, we’ll go together.”

They went to the brunch café and enjoyed pancakes.

The salad, which Garam tasted for the first time, delighted him.

Then they headed to the farm said to belong to him.