“I’ve already signed you up,” Bobby said with a proud grin.
“Yay!” Jace exclaimed, dancing inside the room like he had won the lottery. It seemed his obsession with Gear of Guardians was more severe than Zeno had thought.
“There was no time to waste,” Bobby continued. “I heard the slots were running out fast, and they accepted us straight away once I added Zeno’s name.”
Well, it appeared like Zeno had no choice. His mission was also to win this tournament.
“When is this thing again?” he asked.
“There’s no set date,” Bobby said casually. “But tomorrow, you have the preliminary livestream. It’s going to happen at Daebak Entertainment. Sorry, I couldn’t give you more time, but the schedule’s tight. Still, this is a great opportunity, Zeno, and your fans are screaming for more content.”
“They’re sad that you don’t upload often on your account.”
Zeno ignored his last statement.
“I’ve never played this game in my entire life,” Zeno muttered under his breath.
“That’s fine,” Moby said, slapping a hand on his shoulder. “They’re doing an orientation tomorrow morning. Not everyone knows the mechanics, so they’re teaching the rules. You’ll be fine.”
“Great!” Jace beamed, already scrolling through outfit ideas on his phone. “This is going to be sick.”
“Go home early,” Bobby added. “You all need your rest. It’s going to be a packed week.”
The rest of the conversation became white noise as Zeno and Jace left the agency. It was still pretty early, but he had already decided to go home.
Once he approached the top of the stairs, however, he heard Minji’s exasperated voice.
“You can’t keep doing this,” she said.
Zeno stopped a few steps away from the top, where he saw Minji and a woman arguing in front of their units.
“Come on, just give me the money,” the other woman said. He took another cautious step up to get a clearer view of the stranger.
There stood a woman with weathered skin and deep-set wrinkles. Her hair was bleached and tangled, and she wore flashy, revealing clothes that made her look out of place in the simple background. A cigarette dangled from her fingers, smoke flowing through her mouth.
“I already gave you everything for this month,” Minji muttered.
The woman scoffed. “Yeah, and it’s all gone. You want me to live in the dark, without water? You want me to starve?”
Zeno’s eyes narrowed.
“I’ve been scraping by,” Minji said. “I’ll give you money again by next month. So, please, just leave.”
She laughed bitterly. “You got promoted, right? But you’re still stingy about money.”
Minji appeared to be on the verge of tears.
“Oh, so now you’re crying? Great! I see that you haven’t changed at all. Grow up, Minji.”
Minji swallowed the lump in her throat. Then, in a quiet voice, she responded, “Maybe, you should be the one to learn to grow up.”
The other woman’s expression darkened. Without warning, she raised her hand and struck Minji across the cheek with the back of her hand.
Zeno stepped forward.
“That’s enough.”
His voice cut through the tension.
Both women turned sharply. Minji’s eyes widened. “Zeno?”
The older woman blinked in surprise, cigarette trembling between her fingers. “Zeno?” she repeated, softer this time. “Zeno… It’s really you?”
Minji’s lips parted, stunned. Zeno stepped between them, his eyes locked on the older woman’s face.
“I don’t care who you are. You’re disrupting the peace in this unit. Please leave.”
The woman smirked. “You’ve gotten more handsome. Honestly, I don’t know where you got your good looks from—it’s definitely not from your mother.” She let out an obnoxious laugh. “Must be your foreign father’s genes, huh?”
“Mom,” Minji whispered through gritted teeth.
That one word was all it took for the truth to hit him.
Zeno’s brows lifted slightly. This woman was Minji’s mother?
“Do we have a problem here?” Zeno asked, stepping subtly in front of Minji, shielding her from the older woman’s sharp stare.
The woman waved her hand lazily. “Just family matters,” she said, rolling her eyes. “This young lady can’t help her own mother. After I raised her all by myself. Ungrateful, really. I even sent her to Seoul to live a good life, and now that she has some fancy office job, she thinks she’s better than me.”
Minji’s hands balled into fists behind Zeno.
Zeno tilted his head. “Didn’t she already send you money?”
“It’s not enough!” her mother snapped. “You know about inflation? It’s eating us alive. You can’t expect someone to live off scraps.”
Zeno glanced at the cigarette in her hand. “Maybe if you didn’t spend it on smokes, you’d have more left to get by.”
The woman stiffened. Her eyes narrowed in offense before she smiled. “I see you on TV sometimes. You must have a lot of money, huh? Do you live in a fancy apartment now? Maybe, you’ve got money to spare—”
Minji stepped forward quickly, fumbling into her bag. “Here,” she said breathlessly, shoving some money into her mother’s hands. “Please. Just take it.”
Her mother scoffed, grabbing onto it without hesitation. “About time. You can dish this out anyway. You should have sent this to me days ago.”
The older woman tucked the cash into her bra, turned on her heel, and stomped down the stairs. Before leaving, she tossed her cigarette butt onto the concrete and ground it beneath her heel.
“Don’t make me come here again, child,” she snapped over her shoulder.
Then, she was gone. The sound of her heels faded as she went down the flight of stairs.
Minji stood there, her hands trembling at her sides. Her cheek was still red from the slap, her lips pressed into a tight, pained line.
Zeno bent down, picked up the stomped-out cigarette, and tossed it into the trash.
“She always liked that?” he asked softly.
Minji didn’t answer right away. She looked down at her now-empty wallet and gave a small, bitter laugh. “Only when she’s sober.”
Zeno frowned. “You didn’t have to give her what she wanted.”
“She wasn’t going to leave. She’s also going to ask you for some money.”
“This way, maybe I get two days of peace.”
Zeno stared at her for a long moment, then pulled out a handkerchief and reached up gently to touch her cheek. She flinched, but didn’t pull away.
“You shouldn’t have to live like this,” he said.
Minji met his eyes. He saw how fearful and exhausted she looked.
But she smiled anyway.
“I’ve lived like this my whole life,” she said. “I just have to live with it.”
“Otherwise, I’m going to lose my mind even more.”