Namgung Gyuyeon and Hong Gyubin.
Although they’re of different genders, they actually look quite similar.
I thought about the possibility that they were cousins instead of real siblings, but I confirmed it now.
‘Hong Gyubin mentioned Namgung Gyuyeon as his own younger sister.’
It’s rare to call a cousin “younger sister”.
Also, Hong Gyubin and Hwang Jiho had a conversation about it in the past.
— The service company called Namgung Group threatened Eungwang High students.
— Did you say Namgung Group?
— Yes.
— I’ll look into it.
I was suspicious about it when they had that conversation that day at the airport.
It seems like Hwang Jiho said those words with the pretext that Hong Gyubin has a connection with Namgung Group.
‘Don’t tell me…’
My hypothesis seems easy to confirm.
For verification, I opened a portal search on my device.
[Search: Namgung Gyubin]
There weren’t many search results as it was a unique name.
I found what I wanted on the not-so-long results page.
The latest update was the Namgung Group’s family tree posted a few years ago on a neglected blog.
Adults had photos of them taken from newspapers, while pictures of younger ones were taken from school events or their social media pages.
‘He’s here…!’
Unlike now when he’s always tired from working overtime, the site had Hong Gyubin’s face looking very young,
He wore a coat on top of his school uniform, and even though he was not on the same level as Yeom Junyeol, he looked like a young master who grew up beautifully.
And below the photo, the name Namgung Gyubin was written.
Looking at the name, I remember the time when I visited the April Clan’s mansion during the summer vacation.
Oh Hyejung said something that I couldn’t tell if it was a proposal or a diss at the four major groups.
— On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to be married to Namgung Group’s crazy son who was dug up by the Tiger Clan.
Except for being pathetic when he’s clingy to Jegal, Hong Gyubin was actually an excellent man and is considerably in a proper headspace.
But that’s Hong Gyubin, not Namgung Gyubin.
‘So Hong Gyubin is a son of Namgung Group.’
Then what does she mean by “dug up by the Tiger Clan”?
I can’t figure out the details, but I can only guess.
Hwang Jiho once mentioned that Hong Gyubin should be treated well, and he told me this;
— People who experienced the dark ages were reluctant to let their precious children practice skills or magic. Times have changed a lot now, but there are people who still have that mindset. That’s what happened with Hong Gyubin’s family. Jegal helped Hong Gyubin in his dream of being a skilled player… And Jegal lost a lot of things because of that.
— For that, I gave Jegal a job at Eungwang High. There were some people who were bothered about it, but they can’t go against my decision.
I can infer things from those words.
Hong Gyubin hid his abilities from Namgung Group, and he even changed his name and left his house and family to become a player.
Jegal, who was his tutor at that time, helped with that process.
As a result, Jegal lost a lot of things and was only able to work under Hwang Jiho in Eungwang High, and Hong Gyubin finally became a player.
‘Then how did his real sister get permission to enter the Player Military Academy?’
There were still a lot of questions, but there’s no problem with that.
Rather, it seems that some of the problems that I had been agonizing over were finally resolved.
‘If Hong Gyubin is from Namgung Group, he’s another piece I can use when the conflict between the four major groups erupts.’
Jegal went through a lot to make Hong Gyubin’s dream come true, and his employer, Hwang Jiho, even takes care of Hong Gyubin.
There’s enough justification to make Hong Gyubin do his best.
Time went by quickly as I thought of how I can utilize this new piece.
***
Hwangmyeong Mansion.
After dinner, Kim Shinrok prepared a drinking table on his own.
At the drinking party, Red Tiger told old stories to his son and the other descendants.
White Tiger listened to his stories silently, and Yellow Tiger sometimes intervened to correct some details.
“Hahaha! Pungbaek and Usa didn’t respond to your request for a meeting. Didn’t they provoke you by saying ‘if you want us to come, then pick us up’, Red Tiger?”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“Do you really think so? Perhaps it’s just their tone that you changed in your story.”
“Red Tiger-nim! Tell us the next story!”
The young descendants listened to Red Tiger’s story about Pungbaek, Usa, and Unsa, but as the night went on and the stories became longer, they couldn’t help but fall asleep.
When the young descendants were moved to their rooms, the tigers continued to drink.
As the empty bottles increased, their topic of conversation became darker.
“Making it snow on Eungwang High? Breaking through Eungwang High’s boundary?”
“When that day comes, the long tail will come they will break through the boundary.”
With the mention of ‘long tail’, Kim Shinrok looked nervous, but he soon recovered his fighting spirit.
“Understood. If that day comes, let me fight too.”
Red Tiger nodded, very satisfied with his son’s attitude.
Of course, he began to brag about his son again.
Red Tiger described what happened with the torture of the nursing officer at the association today.
Kim Shinrok looked shy, and he seems like he wants Yellow Tiger or Red Tiger to stop his father from talking.
However, White Tiger hasn’t said a word since earlier, when a dried persimmon hidden in a cabbage roll entered his mouth.
Yellow Tiger only smiled and observed Kim Shinrok’s face.
“The association also had a player in charge of the interrogation, but he’s no match to my son’s skills. Visitors were all amazed by his skill, stimulating nerve fibers at the fingertips with a single tack and destroying them accurately as he pleased.”
The torture inflicted by Kim Shinrok was brutal, but the tigers just admired their descendant’s performance.
Only after Red Tiger downed five more bottles of alcohol did he finish bragging about his son.
“… So, with a single tack, my son got a clue on how to erase one faction of the TC Group.”
Yellow Tiger’s smile disappeared at the mention of TC Group.
“TC Group. Those who don’t know their place caused trouble again this time. And it was a student within my territory. What a profanity.”
“Yellow Tiger-nim has hated the TC Group since a long time ago. I remember you taking action with what happened with TC Group before.”
Kim Shinrok took the opportunity to change the subject.
White Tiger also said a word.
“Yellow Tiger, what did you do?”
Although he thought that White Tiger’s question was unexpected, Yellow Tiger answered smoothly.
“Right. When the couple who founded TC Group filed for divorce, I didn’t intervene except when they wanted to pressure the woman to cooperate to change the name of the company.”
Yellow Tiger answered casually as if he knew the TC Group, especially the Do side well.
“I moved under Yellow Tiger’s orders, so I remember what happened then. We didn’t know whether White Tiger was dead or alive that time, so he wouldn’t know what happened.”
“…”
White Tiger did not contradict Red Tiger’s harsh words.
“What Yellow Tiger didn’t like was TC Group’s old name. The meaning was different in terms of Chinese characters since the surnames of the couple were combined, but when it’s said in Korean, the meaning of the name was awful.”
“An old name?”
White Tiger asked further, to which Red Tiger answered immediately.
“TC Group’s old name was Docheon Group.”
When the word ‘Docheon’ was mentioned, Yellow Tiger couldn’t hide his displeased feelings.
Yellow Tiger emptied his full glass before he spoke.
“Huh. ‘Docheon’. It is nothing short of contempt for the Heavenly God. Do they not know the meaning of the word? It means two things; to be filled with a great amount of water, and to despise the sky and heaven without fear.”
***
The last day of the sports exchange exhibition with the military academy soon came.
So far, the only two games left unsettled were the basketball game and the ice hockey game.
After these two matches, the closing ceremony will be held at sunset.
For now, our class will be divided into two to attend both sports games and then reunite in the afternoon.
In our class, Kim Yuri, Hani, Maeng Hyodon, and I will watch the basketball game.
We sat in the stands quite early, and Di Sihoo didn’t miss waving his hand toward me.
Do Sihoo also pretended to be close to Maeng Hyodon, probably because of their connection during the Kimopolea incident.
“So despite everything that Daesok said, that guy’s a friend of Euishin.”
“Hey, he said his defensive game is something else.”
Thanks to Song Daesok’s outraged remarks after watching the game yesterday, Do Sihoo became quite the celebrity in our class.
Hani and Maeng Hyodon analyzed Do SIhoo’s defensive play after watching a video of yesterday’s game.
“Hmm…”
Meanwhile, Kim Yuri has become less talkative after we saw Do SIhoo.
I felt like she was lost in thought, but it also seems like she was holding back something.
‘What’s wrong?’
Looking at her from the side, it seems like a small amount of energy wave was burning inside her.
Before I used a glare skill to observe her, I decided to use my words first.
“Are you okay?”
“Euishin, about that Sihoo guy, I don’t think he should go anywhere near water.”
That was a fact about Do Sihoo that anyone remotely close to him would know.
He has severe seasickness and he can’t swim.
There’s no way that Kim Yuri knows that, but perhaps the higher beings have told her.
“I can’t hear what the higher beings are saying all at once, but I think it’s about not messing with him.”
For some reason, the higher beings stuck to Kim Yuri had said the right thing.
‘Is there something inside Do Sihoo aside from the seeds?’
Kim Yuri might find out something if she comes into contact with Do Sihoo.
However, it’s too risky to bring her near Do Sihoo seeing that her unstable energy wave is still not under full control.
As advised by the higher beings, Kim Yuri and Do Sihoo should not come into contact with each other.
“I think it’s starting soon.”
“Oh, the referee came out with the ball.”
Players finished warming up and gathered around the center as the tip-off came closer.
The starting members today included Yoo Sanghoon and Do Sihoo again.
Whistle!
The referee threw the ball up high and the clock on the display began to move.
Unlike the first two games where the scores piled up at a crazy speed, the third game was somewhat paced.
The two teams seem to have taken new strategies by studying each other’s habits and techniques.
The score went up much slower than in the first two games, but the game itself was very fierce.
At the end of the third quarter, both teams only scored barely half of their total scores from the past two games.
“I think it’s going to overtime at this right.”
“Don’t tell me it ends in a tie?”
“There’s no tie. According to the rules, the game will continue in overtime with 5-minute intervals until the winner comes out.”
The break ended while I explained the rules of overtime to the other kids.
Before Yoo Sanghoon stepped out on the court, he looked around the audience once and somehow I felt like our eyes met.
The fourth quarter began with everyone holding their breath.
