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“You want to do what?” Jo Euishin asked to clarify, thinking that he had heard the descendant siblings that the Tiger tribe had recently rescued from an assassination attempt wrong.
Surely, Jo Euishin did not hear such an idea from the cute descendant siblings’ mouths.
But as if to prove him wrong, Eunho’s young descendant siblings all happily repeated what he had thought that he had heard wrong.
“We want to pretend to be dead to play a prank on Hwangho-nim and the others!”
Jo Euishin blinked.
And he thought over the idea carefully.
But no matter how much Jo Euishin thought about it, he could not see the Tigers reacting so well to the idea.
After all, the three young descendant siblings not even so long ago had nearly died from an assassination attempt.
The Jin people also loved their descendants. And these descendants were special in that they were the descendants of Eunho, their first head of the Tiger tribe who was ‘dead’. And the Tigers were all from an era where they had seen many of their tribe members and close friends die. Even if 5,000 years had passed since then, Jo Euishin didn’t think that time would make the Tigers forget.
After all, Hwang Jiho was still missing his friends Cheongho and Sinin.
(And Jo Euishin couldn’t imagine time helping himself forget about his own family.)
Jo Euishin carefully did not show his frown to the eager and young descendant siblings who were excitedly waiting for his approval and praise.
Instead, Jo Euishin carefully thought about what to do.
While Jo Euishin wanted to let the innocent and young descendant siblings do whatever they want like always…
If the three descendant siblings did this after receiving his approval and the Tigers found out, wouldn’t that make Jo Euishin responsible, and wouldn’t the Tigers want to exact revenge on him for letting their descendants think that it was such a good idea?
Jo Euishin might lose all the tolerance and what little trust and favorability that he had just barely managed to earn from the mythical Tigers if he let the descendant siblings play dead in front of them.
Jo Euishin mentally nodded.
He couldn’t just let the descendant siblings do this.
…But he also didn’t want to make the descendant siblings feel dejected.
So instead, Jo Euishin made a compromise.
“I have a suggestion.” Jo Euishin said, making the descendants perk up and distracting them from how Jo Euishin hadn’t said anything about how he himself felt about the idea of cute young descendants pretending to be dead.
“Really?!” Eun Seoho asked excitedly.
“I want to hear Euishin oppa’s suggestion!!” Yiho also eagerly said.
Eun Jaeho, the youngest, also looked up with wide, bright eyes.
Satisfied that his plan seemed doable, Jo Euishin suggested that he try this prank first. As a test experiment so that they can improve their own version, Jo Euishin claimed, but really Jo Euishin thought that if the Tigers had a boring or unpleasant reaction to his fake death, then the young descendant siblings would lose interest in this prank. After all, boring reactions made boring pranks and kids were always quick to drop what they found boring.
And Jo Euishin was certain that the Tigers would have barely any reaction to his death. After all, they were Jin people and he was just an ordinary human student. With how they had probably seen countless humans die over thousands of years, Jo Euishin would just be one of many.
And it wasn’t like Jo Euishin and the Tigers were close. Even if Hwang Jiho was his classmate, Hwang Jiho had never seemed to care about any of his classmates or school’s students’ deaths in PMH.
Hwang Jiho would probably just order some random subordinate to remove his corpse from the property and the young descendant siblings would see that reaction, think that it would apply to them too (even if Jo Euishin and the Tiger descendants were far different), and think that the prank wasn’t that ‘fun’ and interesting.
Jo Euishin was glad and relieved when the descendants all jumped on the idea, excited to see Jo Euishin’s ‘corpse play’.
After they see how the Tigers would react to his death, they would give up on the idea of the prank.
-
The descendant siblings gave up for another reason.
Sniff. “I-I thought, Eui- Euishin hyung was so good that I thought-” Eun Seoho hiccupped and then wailed as if the hiccup had broken a dam of tears in him.
Eun Yiho and Eun Jaeho didn’t even say anything as they clung to his bloody shirt, crying loudly.
“Y-you…” Hwang Jiho said, looking not as unaffected as Jo Euishin thought.
Jeokho also surprised Jo Euishin by crying on his knees next to his ‘corpse’.
But Jo Euishin paid more attention to the descendants that he was comforting, surprised that the kids had forgotten that it was a prank, and Baek Hogun who also seemed to be staring down at him with distant eyes and a pale face.
Was Baek Hogun more affected by the deaths of his fellow Tigers in the Gaecheon Myth than Jo Euishin had thought? How inconsiderate of Jo Euishin! Of course, his last main playable character would care! Even if Jo Euishin and Baek Hogun hadn’t spent as much time together as Baek Hogun had with the amazing title hero and heroine Ju Suhyeok and An Dain in PMH, Baek Hogun was still a very good person who would care about the deaths of the students that he was acquainted with!
Baek Hogun’s lips slightly parted as if to say something, but instead, Baek Hogun closed his mouth and extended a hand to help him up.
“Baekho is right. Get inside and take a shower.” Hwang Jiho finally said. “What even possessed you to think…” Hwang Jiho looked at the descendant siblings who had babbled some of their plans while crying and hugging Jo Euishin, and then shook his head. Hwang Jiho had a complicated expression as he opened his mouth to say something, but then shook his head. “Quickly.” Hwang Jiho said before he sniffed and then furrowed his brows. “Wait. Is that real blood?”
Well, Jo Euishin wasn’t sure what the descendants were going to use as fake blood, and the descendants probably didn’t even need to think about because just the sight of them on the ground would probably make the Tigers go crazy with fright, but Jo Euishin was not the descendants and Jo Euishin knew that the Tigers had sharp senses of smell-
Baek Hogun’s hand clenched around Jo Euishin’s as he pulled Jo Euishin up quickly and then almost dragged him into the mansion.