Disclamer: TOG and it's characters belong to SIU and the Naver Corporation
"You're sure you don't need help? You don't seem like the type of guy to wash dishes on a regular basis. Aren't Boro and Sachi usually on washing the dishes shift, or Bero Bero and Cherry La" Yiwha said, eying the pile of dishes next to the sink. The look of the dishes though cleaned off by the appetite of the team, might track all sorts of pests if left unattended throughout the night.
"It's best you don't worry about it. Think of it as more of a rest break. It wouldn't be good for you or anybody else to spend 30 minutes or so cleaning these dishes. It's important for the team to be well rested before a floor test" Khun rambled, already putting the first plate in the sink filled with hot water and scrubbing off the grime.
Yiwha wasn't too sure of what he was saying. She would like to help, that's what Baam would do but since Khun is insisting, then she'll have to trust him.
"I think it's best if you also get some rest, you are part of the team too." Yiwha left the kitchen, offering him a brief look of sympathy before going through the door that is next to the kitchen.
'Hmm… I wonder if Baam has influenced her to be more caring of people' Khun pondered, now that he's done with the first dish, he took it out of the sink and lay it on the opposite side of the kitchen counter. It'll be the foundation of a mountain of wet dishes to be dried later on.
As Khun continued to scrub plate after plate, he felt the hot water slightly burnt his skin.
'At this rate, it'll be a nightmare for md to scrub the glass cups yet, but at least there's only 14 of them rather then endless amounts of plates thanks to one crocodile who doesn't care one bit about conservation.' Khun was no longer scrubbing the plates with an optimistic energy, but scrubbing while staring past the kitchen and looking at the dinner table where he and his team had dinner an hour ago.
'My teammates' Khun thought of them in his head.
Baam is a big concern, even for someone like Khun. As he grew more and more powerful, there's an underlying suspicion he might not be able to relate or care about the teammates that aren't as powerful as he is. At that point, only Androssi would be able to keep Baam in her sight, however she can't keep up forever and who knows when she'll admit that before anything disastrous happens.
There was Wangnan who was doing his part to motivate his teammates to do better, Ran and Anak are getting along quite nicely, though nicely means they're merely sparring day in and day out. You're supposed to rest every second day or so.
Rak is still the same old crocodile who is training even more then Baam. He wouldn't be surprised if Rak were to defeat the floor test tomorrow with no sweat. Wait, does he even have any sweat glands?
Yiwha is someone to fear now that she has gotten control of the flame inside her, though she isn't allowed to cook for everyone unless she's under strict supervision by Baam.
Speaking of Baam, he needs to stop his training, even for a couple of days. If he's really training to save his friends, then what might happen to his friends when he doesn't spend much time with them anyway.
'Maybe I'm being a bit hard on Baam, I should take Rak along and try to persuade him to hang out with us just like the good old' days.' Khun thought to himself, brief flashbacks flowed through his memory of the times he hanged out with his original teammates.
Those were some good times on the 2nd floor. Getting to witness Baam gaining confidence through his new friendships. Rak transforming from the intimidating beast to a midget who has an odd obsession with bananas and turtles.
As for him, there wasn't any pressure for him to be a leader or to be someone who people looked up to for guidance. He was equal with his teammates, even the two Zahard princesses.
Khun stopped scrubbing the plates.
'What am I doing?! I can't get stuck thinking about this now! If I don't wash and dry these dishes soon, I won't have as much sleep as my teammates. Why didn't I get a partner to help me out?' Khun was caught up in his thought process when he noticed the pile of dishes on the other side of the kitchen counter that were already washed was depleted by half.
Turning over to his right, he saw Hwa Ryun drying the dishes with a tablecloth efficiently with relative ease.
"You can drown your sorrows later, right now I would appreciate it if you can get your work done" said Hwa Ryun.
Khun took his eyes off the dinner table and returned to washing the dishes as well.
'Out of all the people to help me, it has to be a witch like her!' Khun furrowed his eyebrows, keeping one eye on her in case she decided to do something behind his back. He couldn't predict what she would do, but she's not someone who he could trust after all this time of climbing up the tower.
Seeing that Hwa Ryun is almost done with the pile of dishes, he quickens the pace and handed off the rinsed dishes as best as he could.
He managed to clean the rest of the dishes in 10 minutes, though he started to felt Hwa Ryun's impatient stare at the side of his head.
'She probably has better things to do then cleaning the dishes then me. She is probably thinking how she can steal Baam and send him back to FUG for a bargain.' Khun thought. His anxiousness is making it all the more likely for a plate to be broken.
With the dishes all dry and neatly sorted into their compartments, Hwa Ryun was about to leave the kitchen when Khun walked over to her.
"Hey, is Baam responsible for you being here?" Khun asked, it was an easy question to ask plus it's relevant to the current circumstance.
"Indeed my god asked me to, though I could have refused but alas, I couldn't resist his pleading eyes." Hwa Ryun chuckled.
"Thanks, but it worries me that I don't know what you do half of the time. You leave and enter a few dozen times. I wouldn't have noticed this if I didn't hear Androssi rant about it time after time again. I don't want to force you out from the group since you have history with Baam, I want you to be more honest with me and tell me what's on your mind." Khun said, however Hwa Ryun doesn't look worried at all, in fact she was even smirking.
"Did it really take that long for you to realise? And here I thought you were the smart one…" Hwa Ryun joked at Khun's expense.
"So are you going to tell me or not?" Khun grumbled. Honestly did Hwa Ryun expect him to rise to her taunting. There's only so many times he could get outwitted by her before he catches on.
"Hmmm, what do I get in return?" Hwa Ryun said, smirking all the while as she drummed her fingers onto the kitchen counter.
'At least she's not walking away, but what can I actually offer a guide?' Khun crossed his arms in annoyance to the sound of Hwa Ryun's fingers tapping the kitchen counter.
"Since… I'm asking you to reveal what you're thinking; why don't I reveal what I'm thinking in return."
"I already know what you're thinking." Hwa Ryun stopped drumming her fingers, no longer smirking or looking pleased with herself.
"Guides don't have mind reading powers!" Khun slammed the kitchen top, temporally forgetting about Hwa Ryun's pattern of speech.
"No, but I can easily tell you were unsettled by my appearance, and knowing your close emotional connection to Viole, I concluded that you are afraid of me being around my god, is this line of reasoning close enough?" Hwa Ryun asked.
"Close enough" Khun muttered, however Hwa Ryun heard him.
"Pity, I was hoping for you to be stubborn a bit longer, oh well, that's how it is. Look, I'm happy you were able to show my god the good side of humanity."
'Happy? What would she look like with a genuine smile' Khun tried to imagine what Hwa Ryun would look like, but it's like imagining himself without earrings or Baam not thinking about Rachel every now and again. Even imagining himself with a genuine smile is kind of hard, he simply didn't have a reason to nowadays.
"Although I already knew about your emotional attachment to Viole, you don't need to worry, I can't force my god to go down his destined path. He'll kill the king when he's ready. Besides, he's already so powerful now I won't be able to restrain him without Jinsung's help, and you know how much Jinsung views Viole like the son he never had." Hwa Ryun rambled knowing she had achieved the forward momentum in the conversation and so continued drumming her fingers on the kitchen counter.
"That doesn't convince me at all. You know how Baam is too easy to trust others, even now that we're at the higher floors. I'm sure if you were to lie to Baam, saying that me or Rak, even someone like Boro were to be hold up somewhere in one of FUG's strongholds, Baam would be willing to do anything to bring them back, even at the cost of his life." Khun felt his facial features strained by Hwa Ryun's lack of tension towards him and the annoying sounds of her drumming.
"It seems we can agree on what Baam is most likely going to do already, so how about we agree to disagree and move on." Hwa Ryun said.
"Hold on a sec, I'm not done yet. I just think you are a danger to the team, and I want you to understand you can't just pop in and out without prior notice. Understand?" Khun leaned towards Hwa Ryun.
"This is low, threatening a guide like that… I couldn't care less about you or anyone else on this team. I'm only here to keep an eye on Viole." Hwa Ryun said, halting her drumming in the process.
"I knew you would have said that! Drat, it makes me so upset, why are you like this?! Honestly, the things I would do to you if Baam wasn't here!" Khun shouted, unable to restrain himself from lashing out against Hwa Ryun and her lack of respect towards him.
The door next to the kitchen burst open and a drowsy Boro came in.
"Hey, can you two shut up…. I'm… I'm trying to get some sleep here. Honestly, do you want me to get a full night's sleep or not? I swear…." Boro said, then he closed the door and yawned his way back to his room.
"Ahem" Khun and Hwa Ryun simultaneously said.
"We'll continue this discussion at a more appropriate time" Khun left the kitchen, not wanting to waste his time with Hwa Ryun any longer. He might as well get some extra sleep instead of completing his usual round of paperwork.
"Good luck with that" Hwa Ryun waved, wearing a fake smile that delivered a frown to Khun's face before he walked through the door that Boro came from earlier.
'That red haired witch! There's no telling what she could do next.' Khun's frustrated thoughts translated through his frantic stomps down the hallway. You could even compare him to a steam train chugging through a tunnel, stream rising out of his burning ears.
'I'm the only one who can tell how Hwa Ryun talks but I'm helpless as Androssi when it comes to dealing with her' Khun arrived at his room, grabbing the doorknob and pushed his way through. Lucky for him, the door was more then capable of not getting destroyed by his rare amount of annoyance.
Khun caught himself in a mirror as he stormed into his room.
'Why am I like this?' The thought was like rain to an already burnt forest, his frown and burnt ears eased themselves to a melancholic state.
Khun sat on the edge of his bed, his hands holding his head in light of the battle he fought in the kitchen.
'I shouldn't had let her mention of Baam get to me. I should had attacked her connection to FUG and there I could have had new information on any of her plans.' Thinking back to her fake smile mixed in with her smirk, not to mention a remix of her drumming fingers over the kitchen top.
As Khun's mind begin to spur with the recent memories of how he messed up, he could only come to one conclusion.
'I need to figure out a way to understand Hwa Ryun.'