The Trash Wants to Live

Be happy, Hyun Joo.

I took my phone out of my pocket. Even though I had accidentally stepped on it previously, it still hadn’t cracked. As expected, Sungwoon’s products were the best in the world. I turned on the phone with admiration. The time on the screen was 4 a.m, and since I entered the gate at around noon, so it’s been about 16 hours.

“It’s already dawn…”

Jang Eui Yeol said as he looked at my phone. I entered the pattern and unlocked my phone.

“You’re not dating someone, right?” I asked.

“…Hmm? Uh, there isn’t…”

Jang Eui Yeol’s face turned red, perhaps embarrassed because he was not dating anyone. But, there was a little anticipation in his eyes…

He must have noticed that I was going to introduce him to someone.

I smiled happily as I opened my phone’s gallery. Ki Yoon Jae wasn’t a selfiegenic or a landscape photographer, so the gallery was fairly plain.

Among the few photos, I tapped open a photo of Ki Hyun Joo’s face and showed it to him.

“She’s my sixth cousin-Noona. Isn’t she pretty? Want me to introduce you?”

“Hmm…”

Jang Eui Yeol’s expression was subtle. The way he looked at me seemed strangely disappointed… Why? Was Ki Hyun Joo not his taste? I didn’t think so? Even I thought Ki Hyun Joo was pretty.

If I had to pick one face that was of my taste, it was Ki Hyun Joo’s face. As I wondered why Jang Eui Yeol’s expression was so subtle, he chuckled vaguely and said,

“You’re prettier.”

“Huh?”

“I like you more than this person.”

“Huh?”

What does this mean? If I didn’t know this world’s genre wasn’t a men’s harem fantasy, I would have been fooled.

I can’t believe he’s using such a roundabout way in saying that he doesn’t want the introduction.

Jang Eui Yeol seemed to have higher standards than I thought. How could he refuse a beauty like Ki Hyun Joo? I nodded at the fact I didn’t know his taste. Try harder, Ki Hyun Joo!

“Ah, by the way.”

“Yeah?”

“Can I sign a contract?”

“…Contract?”

“Yes. I’m a gifted person now. I want to sign a contract with you, Yoon Jae.”

Jang Eui Yeol smiled and leaned in close. Eh? Wait a minute. This… Could it be that I crossed the line?

Because… Jang Eui Yeol didn’t even sell his pet Cookie to Ki Yoon Jae, and he himself refused to join the guild…

Isn’t this too estranged from the original story? Confused, I shrugged my shoulders. Jang Eui Yeol smiled as he leaned in closer to me.

“I want to be yours too!”

Jang Eui Yeol begged for the contract while smiling so broadly it was hard to refuse. I had no choice but to nod as I pondered why he was acting like this.

That’s right, Ki Yoon Jae hasn’t done anything bad yet.

I wasn’t the villain yet because I was still young. So in the eyes of Jang Eui Yeol, I was not a bad person.

And now the guild, which was ridiculed for pouring water into the bottomless jar1, was probably a good thing for Jang Eui Yeol.

A contract that will later be called a Lifetime Slave Contract, although right now it just looks like we’re distributing free money to feed strange mutants.

The conditions wouldn’t be considered so good in the future, but for now, the conditions were desirable, because the guild members who had signed the contract were receiving an annual salary comparable to employees of a major company.

Given this, it was understandable why Jang Eui Yeol wanted to sign the contract.

Hmm, what should I do? I think it’d be better to recruit the main character…

What if I refuse and then become a villain…

I thought it would be sad if I became a villain and he cut my head off after we had become so close. I asked him again.

“Do you really want to sign a contract with me?”

“Yes! I want to be Yoon Jae’s person too.”

I could see a strange excitement in Jang Eui Yeol’s eyes as he said this. Hmm… it was embarrassing for me to keep refusing when the main character so desperately wanted the large salary of a big company employee.

“Okay… Good. Then let’s sign a contract if we get out of here.”

Jang Eui Yeol smiled really brightly at my approval. He must be really happy to have a good salary… For some reason, I was happy and unconsciously smiled back.

At that time, the sky was flashing, and the falling raindrops made it look as if a curtain was drawn across the entrance of the cave.

“By the way.”

Jang Eui Yeol carefully opened his mouth as I was staring blankly at the rain.

“Yoon Jae, what kind of ability do you have?”

“Uh…”

I had the ability to borrow and use other people’s abilities, but in fact, it wasn’t an awakened ability. God gave me the ability using the system, but the power wouldn’t show up on an ability checker.

Maybe it’s a different type of power.

So where did this power come from? I was curious about that, but there was no way to know. 

Anyway, Jang Eui Yeol, who was not familiar with this ability, mistook me for suddenly awakening an ability. However, it was ambiguous to explain that I was not awakened, and because it was not possible to talk about God who gave me this ability, I decided to act as if I had awakened.

“It just… I can borrow someone’s ability through contact.”

“I see. So… that’s why you do that?”

“Huh?”

“The thing you did with Yi Joon… Kiss.”

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Kiss. At those words, Jang Eui Yeol’s face turned red, and so did mine. It was because the soft touch between our lips I felt when I had sexually harassed the unconscious Jung Yi Joon came to mind.

Silence settled between us. As the sound of rain calmly buried the awkward silence, Jang Eui Yeol again opened his mouth.

“How about my ability?”

“Huh?”

“My ability… Aren’t you curious? How to use it, how it feels…”

Jang Eui Yeol looked straight at me. Whether he was nervous or because of something else, he wasn’t wearing a smile on his usually smiling face. When he said that, I became nervous and stiff.

“My ability… Don’t you need it?”

I didn’t answer the question. There was a strange atmosphere between us. Actually, I was curious about Jang Eui Yeol’s ability… but I couldn’t answer easily since I needed a kiss to borrow it.

It’s not that I hate it, though.

I wouldn’t even think about it if it was more than just our lips touching, but it’s just a quick peck. The price for borrowing this ability was cheap.

However, the fact that I had to covet other people’s lips, even those of the same sex, made it difficult to answer easily.

Jang Eui Yeol’s face gradually grew closer as he realized that my silence was not a rejection. My heart thumped. Was it because I was embarrassed? When our noses came close to brushing against each other, my heart beat loudly, as if someone was hitting a drum in my ear. I reflexively closed my eyes to his gradually approaching face.

It was then when a beast’s shriek came from outside in the rain. When I opened my eyes at the sound of the shriek, Jang Eui Yeol was staring outside the cave with a wary expression.

“What’s going on?”

“Let’s go further inside.”

Jang Eui Yeol said as he covered me and hid me behind him. As if obeying an unspoken order, the bull that had been lying on its back stood up and blocked the cave entrance.

I could no longer hear the beast’s shriek. There was only the quiet sound of rain hitting the wet ground. We stared out of the cave, holding our breath nervously.

What should I do? Should I borrow Jung Yi Joon’s ability again?

While I was agonizing, I spotted something through the trees outside. I gradually became more nervous as I saw it coming towards us.

But it’s a little small, eh?

The rhinoceros, deer, and dinosaur I’ve seen so far were huge, as well as the bull lying in the cave with us. Standing on four legs, the bull was bigger than I was. However, given its size, the figure approaching seemed like a person.

“Huh?”

The person who popped out of the trees was someone I knew well. It was Kwon Jae Hyuk.

“Hyung?”

“Someone you know, Yoon Jae-ya?”

It was so dark, I had no idea what expression he had on his face. The sky lit up for a moment like a camera flash, and for a split second, I could see his figure dripping rain mixed with a red liquid. It was as if he was covered in blood.

Is that Kwon Jae Hyuk?

Could it have been an illusion that the gate is showing us? The atmosphere around Kwon Jae Hyuk seemed so unsettling. He had a violent energy, as if he were about to smash everything around him.

“Hyung?”

I poked my head out from behind the bull covering the entrance and called out for Kwon Jae Hyuk. At my call, Kwon Jae Hyuk’s face looked back at me, and the dangerous mood disappeared.

“Yoon Jae.”

Emotion returned to his expressionless face, and Kwon Jae Hyuk smiled as gently as he usually did. It was as if I had misjudged his appearance earlier. I looked carefully at Kwon Jae Hyuk as he approached. There was a blood-like flow that was diluted with rain, but he didn’t seem to have been hurt. But what Kwon Jae Hyuk had in his hand….

The dimension stone?

T/N: Aiyoo, KJH just ruined the mood  I was waiting the moment… 

Footnotes

An expression that indicates that no matter how much effort or time you spend, no matter how much water you pour into the bottomless jar, it is not worthwhile.