There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 335

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."