At that moment, as if the heavens wanted to help Jeong Taeui, when he began to sink into
silence and dared not utter another word, a child spoke up while fiddling with the gun that
had just been disassembled and reassembled.
"If I pull the trigger here, the bullet will fire, right?"
"That's right. Later, I'll show you how to load the bullets."
Richard replied, shifting his attention to the child. Ilay looked down at the child playing with
the gun and said - "Wait a minute!" - then took the gun from the boy.
Richard had mentioned that it was only a model made exactly like the real one. The external
structure looked identical. Jeong Taeui was very impressed when he saw the gun Ilay was
holding. That model indeed looked very high quality.
Ilay opened and closed the gun a few times while speaking.
"Sure enough, it's much lighter. This toy bullet isn't strong either. But can it actually be
used?"
He lightly tapped the barrel with his fingertip and placed his finger on the trigger. His finger
gently applied some pressure, and a faint sound rang out.
"No matter how long the children practice with this toy, it won't be useful at all."
Ilay spun the gun and pointed the barrel towards Jeong Taeui with a cheerful smile. Jeong
Taeui frowned as he looked at the gun aimed at him.
"Stop it. Even if the model is useless, you holding it is enough to make me feel pressured."
"Haha, no matter what I do, I can't kill anyone with an empty gun...."
At that moment.
The child, who had been watching the two with a somewhat tense face since Ilay aimed the
gun at Jeong Taeui, screamed urgently when he saw Ilay pull the trigger.
But it was too late.
*Pew!*
With a soft sound, Ilay's wrist slightly shook. The distance between the gun barrel and the
sight seemed to have shifted a bit, as it had been clumsily assembled by a child.
At the same time as that short, soft sound, Jeong Taeui let out a shout."AAh!"
Jeong Taeui frowned and bent over.
For a few seconds, silence enveloped the atmosphere.
Richard stood up with a puzzled look, and all the children opened their eyes wide, staring at
Jeong Taeui. Only the boy, fumbling and frowning, looked a bit funny.
"I was curious about how strong it was, so I cut an eraser and stuffed it in....Uncle, are you
okay?"
In the momentarily frozen atmosphere, the child nervously approached Jeong Taeui.
Jeong Taeui, who had been holding his stomach and bending over, finally spoke after a
moment of silence.
"If possible... I also hope I'm okay... but was that really an eraser? Why does it hurt so
much... Damn it."
When Jeong Taeui muttered in a weak voice, the tense atmosphere slightly eased.
"You must be very surprised." Richard sighed and laughed.
"Luckily, it's just a model. If the kids practiced with the real thing, at such a close range, even
if it was just an eraser, it would be very dangerous depending on where you got hit."
"Oh... my side...."
Jeong Taeui slowly stood up, rubbing his side and stomach.
It hurt so much.
The moment the eraser hit him, his back immediately bent from the sudden pain.
Jeong Taeui mumbled to himself while rubbing his side to check for any bruises and suddenly
shot a dagger-like glance at Ilay.
"I only told the truth about your personality, and you shot me like this... ?"
In any case, it wasn't Ilay's fault in this situation. But Jeong Taeui, who had just been
cornered by him, seized the opportunity to use his pain as a weapon to counterattack.
Ilay, holding the gun, stared at Jeong Taeui.
Jeong Taeui fell silent.
His face showed no emotion. As if frozen, he couldn't tell what Ilay was thinking, not even
guessing what was going on in his mind.
"Ila ― ... Riegrow."Jeong Taeui almost called his name.
Then, as if returning from another world, Ilay immediately looked at him with an
uncomfortable expression.
"What can happen to someone hit by a piece of rubber?"
Jeong Taeui glared at him sharply, wondering how the culprit could utter such shameless
words without showing any concern for the victim.
Ilay seemed to lose interest and casually tossed the gun back to the child.
"If a piece of rubber makes the gun barrel shift this much, it's certainly not of sufficient
quality for practice. Your family earns so much money; why not spend it on quality items
instead of wasting it on stuff like this?"
"Hey, if it were of good quality, today would be my death anniversary next year."
Ilay glanced at Jeong Taeui, who was grumbling beside him but didn't respond.
Jeong Taeui met his gaze and clicked his tongue, rubbing his sore side.