There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 335 - 327. Clue

Chapter 335: Chapter 327. Clue

Zein and Bassena immediately dashed to the top floor, telling Radia to not go home first--or to anywhere he meant to work next. Fortunately, they managed to call him right before he left for Mortix.

"What is it? You sound so urgent," Radia tilted his head, leaning against his desk. The casual sweater he wore earlier had changed into a suit.

"It’s about Joon," Bassena wasted no time to get to the point. "Did you not ask Shin about him?"

"He said there’s no text or call from Jo--"

"No, but there are ’packages’," Zein shook his head. "He left a box of material periodically in Shin’s room. The last one was Friday night."

The reaction was instant, and it was as if Radia’s time had been suspended. The crimson eyes stopped moving, unblinking, and it went for almost a minute before they started shaking.

With relief, with dread, they had no idea. Perhaps both.

Slowly, Radia clutched his lower face, fingers pressed onto his lips as brows furrowed deeply in confusion. "But why...didn’t he come to me?"

The man sounded like a pained lover feeling half betrayed and half concerned. But it was Radia Mallarc, so he quickly overcame it. What he needed right now was the ability to think clearly, so he shoved his feelings down to enable his mind to think rationally.

"It’s not just that; his commlink is dead--that’s the main reason why he’s presumed missing," Radia started to tap his lower face, thinking deeply.

"Perhaps he’s running from something?" Bassena offered a conjecture, turning to look at Zein.

But the guide shook his head, the blue eyes glancing at the slightly shaking fingers of the summoner. If they told Radia that Joon might be in trouble to protect him, Zein thought it would just make things worse. He knew what guilt felt like, how crippling it was. Besides, it was only a conjecture.

"Running..." Radia muttered, eyes narrowing. "Let’s say he’s running. So he hides from anyone else but Shin?"

"Maybe so Shin wouldn’t get worried?" Bassena said carefully. "You know he’ll make a lot of fuss if he knows Joon is missing."

"And what about me?"

"...you won’t make a fuss?" Bassena grimaced as Radia glared at him.

Zein wanted to argue that Shin was Joon’s blood brother, but then, based on the soldier’s core in his mental image, no one is more important to Joon than Radia. So there must be another reason as to why he was only showing his trace to Han Shin.

"Perhaps he can’t get close to you?" Zein said, thinking about Joon’s personal mission of protecting Radia from someone--or something--else. When the crimson eyes flicked toward him suspiciously, however, he immediately offered another idea. "Or perhaps there’s another reason? Something particular with Shin, perhaps?"

Zein only threw the words to distract the point, but the moment he ended his sentence, they met each other’s eyes; the three of them, and they knew they were thinking of the same thing.

"The boxes of material," Bassena and Radia spoke at the same time.

Immediately, Radia tapped on his commlink, before recalling that Han Shin was in the research room, which was designed to block the link’s signal. He swiftly turned around to face his desk and call the R&D Department through the intercom.

"Right...he didn’t even wake Shin up, and constantly left behind a box," Bassena walked toward the mini-fridge to fetch some water for him and Zein. "The fact that he could sneak unnoticed in Althrea but didn’t do anything to revive his link meant it was intentional."

"And if he’s in the run, there’s no need for him to risk getting caught in the green-zone with all the CCTV just to not make Shin worry," Zein responded. "So there should be a more fundamental reason for his visit...right?’

"Uh-huh," Bassena nodded and unscrewed the water bottle before giving it to Zein. "It might be nothing, but...knowing how meticulous Joon is, I won’t be surprised if there really is a deeper meaning behind those materials."

As he drank his water, Zein pondered about what Joon might be doing by making himself disappear to the point that not even the military could find him. Or could it be that he was actually running from the military itself? The man was truly shrouded in too much mystery.

But the one thinking about it the hardest must be Radia.

Zein watched the man, the ever-calm and collected Radia Mallarc, start to bite his nail. Even though they actually found proof that Joon was alive, for some reason, it only added more to their worry. The fact that the soldier decided to disappear like that told them that Joon was running away from something big, something that he believed no one could help him with.

As each of them fell into their own thought, the door opened and Shin peeked his head in curiosity. "Why did you call me?"

The healer stepped inside, and immediately flinched when he received three pairs of intense stares. "W-what?" he scooted closer to Zein, who felt like the safest option.

"Shin, was Joon always giving you a box of material on all his visits?" Radia asked without wasting any time or bothering to explain.

"Not really..." Shin blinked in surprise, feeling confused and curious at the same time. Zein and Bassena had just asked him about Joon earlier and now this? He wondered what exactly happened. "He usually gave me something I requested, or, if I told him about my current research, he’d give me what I needed without me even needing to ask," he explained. "But no, it’s not all the time."

"But he’s been giving you one each time he visited lately, right?" Bassena asked.

"Yeah..." the healer nodded, and then closed his mouth as a cold sensation started to crawl across his nape. He looked at the men who looked even more serious than the time they had a meeting about the reclamation project.

"I thought it was because he couldn’t spend time with me, so he was compensating me for that with random stuff that would excite me," Han Shin said, sweeping his gaze to his older friends. Creases started to form on his forehead, and the ever-cheerful lips tightened. "But looking at your reaction, it doesn’t seem to be the case."

Zein glanced at Radia. He knew the summoner still contemplating relaying the news to Shin. Radia had probably wanted to keep it to himself at first, waiting until he had more concise information rather than simple conjecture formed by situational clues.

But now, they couldn’t do it anymore. Right now, Han Shin was the only link they had to the missing soldier--than anyone had. So far, the healer had no idea how crucial the traces that Joon left to him were, and might blurt it to someone unknowingly. If this information leaked, it wouldn’t be only Joon who got in trouble, but also Shin.

Especially if it was his father who found out.

"What happened?" the healer’s brow furrowed deeper, and Han Shin tugged on Zein’s sleeve. "Tell me."

With a sigh, Zein started to tell the healer about what happened; about how Radia lost contact with Han Joon. And then Radia followed with the information he got from the members of the Mobius squad, and Bassena finished it with their conjecture about the boxes of material Shin had been receiving.

Normally, Han Shin would first question why Radia kept tabs on his brother, but this time, his mind focused on a more pressing matter. "So...you think that the random material he gave me might bear a clue to where he is and what he’s doing?"

All three of them nodded. "Do you have them with you?" Radia asked.

"Of course," the healer swiped his storage ring, and a treasure box appeared in his hands.

It was the kind of box one would find in a ruin within the fallen civilization-type dungeon, where treasures could be found inside. Han Shin opened the lid, and the other three came closer to see the contents of the box. Inside, they could see dozens of smaller boxes the size of a palm, stacked neatly.

"The ones at the topmost are the ones hyung left this year," Han Shin explained. "You want to know where exactly these materials came from, right?"

"Yeah," Radia reached out his hands to fetch one of the boxes, but Han Shin stepped back, bringing the box with him.

As three pairs of eyes looked at him in surprise, Han Shin spoke dryly. "I’ll be the one to examine this," he said, with a frown on his brow and stiffened lips. "I’m not going to have you hide things about him from me again."

They looked at the healer apologetically, fully understanding the irritation the younger man had.

"...yeah, I’m sorry," Radia closed his eyes for a second, taking a deep breath as he retracted his hands.

Han Shin pressed his lips and returned the box inside his storage ring, turning around to leave the room. Before he stepped out the door, however, he turned his head to look at Radia.

"But I guess I’m glad you actually still care about my brother."