Before the incident broke out.
The Cha family’s home in a rural village had finally regained its peace after weathering, in rapid succession, ordeals most people would be hard-pressed to experience even once—terrorist attacks, kidnappings, and the like.
“Flower Pig.”
Cha Eunhyuk looked at his younger sister, Cha Ara, who had gone into the kitchen.
“What’s with the meat?”
“Oh, this.”
“Why is there so much stuff?”
Apparently planning to cook, she had laid out all sorts of ingredients they rarely ever saw. There were thin slices of tender meat that could never have come from anything they hunted, perfectly ripe, round pears in the dead of winter, and more….
“Holy shit, there are even kiwis.”
“I’m going to make bulgogi with this.”
“Where did you get the money?”
“I got compensation from the Collectors.”
“…….”
At Cha Ara’s answer, Cha Eunhyuk regarded his sister with a peculiar look.
“…Did they have anything to compensate us for…? Weren’t we the ones who should have been paying them?”
“Umm….”
“No matter how I think about it, all they did was save our family when we were caught among Monsters and about to die.”
“Uh….”
“So this is what they mean when they say you save someone from drowning and they demand their baggage, too. Look at you, extorting money from a major corporation. You’ve become surprisingly worldly.”
“Hey, I didn’t extort them. They just gave it to me.”
Faced with her Oppa’s reasonable questions, Cha Ara stammered on.
“No, I mean, I didn’t really understand either… But anyway, they said Black Cloak and the mermaid…