Reaction and Matchmaking Attempts

A Cowardly King and Toonka's Time to Shine (280/281)

"And this is why I can't have nice things."

The tone of voice Lee Soo Hyuk used was a mixture of exasperated and utterly done with about everything. He even clutched the sword in his hands like a grandma would do with her purse while sensing some mischief around her.

The mischief in question in this scenario would be Choi Jung Soo, the main culprit, and Kim Rok Soo, who got dragged into it. Technically.

Both were covered in purple goo. The substance was sticky enough that Rok Soo had to abandon one of his shoes while Choi Jung Soo's jacket also became a casualty. While the former looked somewhat regretful, Jung Soo was beaming happily.

The left brow of Lee Soo Hyuk started twitching.

"Feeling proud, dear Jung Soo?"

The sugary emphasis didn't fool anyone.

Correction, it didn't fool Kim Rok Soo.

Choi Jung Soon nodded, still happily.

"Oh my."

Lee Soo Hyuk grabbed his sword, the unsheathed metal gleaming dangerously.

"I am happy to know you survived. However, it seems we have some casualties. Poor Jung Soo, having lost your last functioning brain cell. Maybe some emergency head-wracking could generate new ones? I am not even picky. Just one, or even half, would be enough to increase your intelligence exponentially."

Sensing his impending doom, Choi Jung Soo inched a bit closer to Rok Soo, which didn't sit well with the unfortunate victim.

"It wasn't that bad?" The sword-fanatic of their team tried to decrease the hostility of their leader.

Lee Soo Hyuk tilted his head to the side.

He asked with a curious and innocent tone of voice, "Not that bad? It seems I got a different report than what actually happened. So, you didn't run off without permission into a very dangerous building that, may I add, has a big, red sign telling you how dangerous it is? And you didn't run head-first into two ranked monsters and didn't call for backup? Also, when rescue came, one of you prioritized a big pile of shiny items instead of getting rescued. The other wrestled with one of the monsters even though the person in question had a perfectly working sword with him?"

Kim Rok Soo looked to the side, unrepentantly.

At least the other troublesome dongsaeng had the decency to flinch.

"What should I do with you?" Lee Soo Hyuk asked, sufferingly, with the experience of a leader who had a rowdy group and knew that they would do it again anyway.

Choi Jung Soo was the one who would smash head-first in any kind of battle with a maniacal grin on his face and somehow looking both innocent as well as deranged. The women of other departments called him 'roguish handsome' but this just made Lee Soo Hyuk question their eyesight.

The youngest of the group, Kim Rok Soo, was like a magpie.

Soo Hyuk was sure that the grumpy-looking man had been a magpie in his previous life. There was simply no other way. If he saw something shiny, he would dive for it. Be it gold, metal, or jewels. There had been one instance where Rok Soo went missing for about ten minutes and came back with a gaudily bedazzled book that gave Lee Soo Hyuk eye pain just looking at it, yet Rok Soo clutched it in his hands as if it was the greatest treasure ever.

Honestly...

"...what should I do with you two?"

Twin answers came that couldn't be more different.