“Peep!”
Mephisto climbed onto Gru’s head and chirped.
But Gru was too busy portioning out his Vienna sausages for Uju.
He spread his wings and even stamped his feet in an attempt to get Gru’s attention, but Gru was completely absorbed in his conversation with Uju.
Mephisto folded his wings and stared at his own feathers.
He tried mimicking the way a human hand held chopsticks, but they barely moved the way he wanted them to.
Mephisto let out a tiny cry, almost like a sigh, and lowered his sunset-red golden eyes.
“Piiiii…….”
Veilak, who had poked his head out through the open part of the bag, yawned.
He gave the dejected Mephisto a strange look before hiding back inside the bag.
Just as they were nearly finished with their meal—
“Oh, right.”
Gru, holding his phone, grinned and turned on the camera.
“You’re going to send that to Jenya, aren’t you?! Don’t take pictures, seriously!”
But Gru took a picture of Lee Taemin and Gidan clinging to Serhi’s pant legs and sent it straight to Jin Siwon.
“Ah, damn it! I’m getting a text!”
While Serhi, his face gone pale, replied to the message from Jin Siwon, Uju and Gru laughed as they cleaned up the lunchboxes they had eaten from.
Just then, Gidan suddenly approached Lee Taemin and whispered in his ear.
“Friend, I think you should take out those earrings.”
Then he gave a sly smile, waved his hand lightly, and scooped Gru up into his arms.
“We’ll take care of things. Gru, go on ahead with Uju.”
“Mm.”
As Gru was carried away dangling in Gidan’s arms, he stared intently at Taemin, who had lowered his gaze to the floor.
*
The strong afternoon sunlight shone fresh and bright over the green crops in the forsythia garden.
[Gru & Uju]
Gru went to the spot where the sign was planted, checked the potatoes growing vigorously, and smiled brightly.
“Gru’s potatoes are growing super well.”
“Peep!”
Mephisto nodded over and over.
Looking at the healthy potatoes, Gru fell deep into thought.
Puffy clouds gathered in his mind, and potatoes growing in abundance on a single stem hung down in clusters.
‘So many potatoes can grow on one stem.’
What if magic stones grew like potatoes……?
Imagining a stem laden with magic stones, Gru opened his mouth in a silly grin.
It would be incredible.
Magic stones were extremely expensive because they could only be obtained by defeating terrifying monsters in dungeons.
But what if magic stones could be grown like potatoes?
Magic stones dangling from a single stem! An incredible cost-to-benefit ratio!
When the black wolf marveled at the potato-like magic stones, the baby lamb puffed out its chest and went, Ahem, ahem, feeling proud.
‘Mm, Gru really is still hungry for praise.’
But the important question was……
‘Can I make them?’
Gru was crouched down, glaring fixedly at the potatoes, when—
His phone began to ring. It was a call from the school shuttle sitter waiting in the parking lot.
“Ah! It’s time to go now.”
He had only come by to check whether the potatoes were growing well before leaving for the day, so it was time to head back.
Ping!
Ping!
The sound of Serhi’s affection thermometer filling up rang out in succession.
‘Oh?!’
Someone somewhere definitely liked Serhi!
Patapatapata.
Gru ran around here and there until he spotted a group playing basketball, then cautiously poked his face out beside the fence.
This was the source of the affection!
“Serhi! Over here!”
Serhi subtly twisted away from the friend guarding him and quickly passed the ball.
Taemin caught it and threw it from beyond the three-point line.
Thump!
Clang!
The ball bounced off the backboard and slipped neatly through the basket’s rim.
“Nice!”
“Waaaah!”
“Whoa! Lee Taemin, you crazy bastard! You actually made that!”
Cheers and jeers erupted together.
Taemin burst out laughing and slung an arm around Serhi’s shoulder. Unlike the other kids, who were drenched in sweat, Serhi was perfectly fine.
“How are you still so fresh?”
“I’m just naturally like this.”
“This guy could probably skip showering.”
Taemin snickered, and the group began to surround Serhi.
“What the hell? Serhi speaks Korean insanely well.”
“Why haven’t you spoken Korean all this time? Are you shy or something?”
Serhi squeezed his eyes shut at the dizzying situation that was about to unfold.
As expected, the group began cheering him on and patting him repeatedly.
Serhi now hated kind, overly meddlesome people more than anything in the world.
Ping! Ping! Ping!
Even then, Serhi’s affection thermometer continued to climb without pause.
Gru looked fondly at the annoyed Serhi and took a picture.
Click!
He might look unhappy, but simply hanging out with classmates whose abilities didn’t match his own would become the starting point of a relationship.
In fact, his affection was rising tremendously.
‘I should send this to Uncle Hungsam.’
That was when—
Click!
‘Mm?’
Gru had only taken one picture.
Click! Click!
Somewhere, a camera was taking pictures in rapid succession!
He looked around and searched for the source of the shutter sounds—
“Peep!”
Mephisto flew over and landed on his shoulder, pointing toward one place with his wing.
Behind the building, Kang Je-i was repeatedly pressing the shutter while holding a large camera.
Reflected in the lens was Serhi, looking horrified as he wiped off the sweat Taemin had gotten on him.
“Ah……”
No wonder the affection had been rising so abnormally fast.
It all made sense if someone somewhere was continuously increasing Serhi’s affection.
It seemed that Underling No. 2 (not really) had been raising Serhi’s temperature.
What should he do?
Gru had heard about things like this in passing on crime programs and such.
Gru whispered softly to Mephisto.
“Mephi. Big Brother Ser is being stalked.”
“Peep?”
Mephisto tilted his head in confusion, clearly having no idea what that meant. After thinking for a moment, Gru explained,
“Stalking is…… when someone sticks to another person like stockings stuck to your legs.”
“Peep?!”
Mephisto covered his mouth with his wings, looking shocked.
Even at that moment—
Ping!
Ping!
As Serhi began taking off his shirt, the affection reacted even more violently.
Accordingly, Gru’s conviction that Serhi was being victimized by a crime grew stronger and stronger.
‘But…….’
Gru suddenly opened the quest window.
Affection = Filial Points.
Just in case, he opened the piggy bank and found that the Filial Points had been deposited in abundance in proportion to the affection.
Gru opened his mouth in a grin.
[Filial Points: 41,000]
‘Th-that’s a lot…….’
That would be enough to make four more Chick Drones.
For an instant, the thought ‘Would it really be so bad?’ flashed through his mind.
Serhi was S-rank. It wasn’t as though he didn’t know that someone was following him around like that.
He was probably just pretending not to notice because it was bothersome.
‘Mm.’
Gru narrowed his eyes.
‘Is there any harm in it?’
Ping!
Kang Je-i’s affection was rising nearly by the minute.
It was an amount of affection—and Filial Points—too enormous to resist.
‘……Hmm.’
It didn’t seem as though Serhi would be harmed, and it was helpful to Gru, too, so he would just leave it alone.
Having reached his conclusion with refreshing ease, Gru picked up his hand hoe and turned his gaze away as though he hadn’t seen anything.
It was time to go home now, and the school shuttle sitter had been calling him repeatedly.
Just as he hurried toward the parking lot so they wouldn’t worry—
Gru suddenly stopped walking.
The face of the person getting out of the van was extremely familiar. Gru raised his eyebrows sharply.
‘That bad uncle!’
Had he come to bully Big Brother Taemin again?
If so—
Gru opened his inventory.
‘Today, I might have to show him the taste of a fork……!’