#72
Ha-seong safely brought the boxes to the supply storage room together with Lee Seung-woo. As soon as they put down the load, Seung-woo kept expressing his gratitude, saying it would have taken much longer if he had moved them alone.
“I’ll treat you to coffee next time!”
A bright smile. Seung-woo showed signs of being a hunter who had just entered society, and there was an untainted purity about him. A smile naturally spread across Ha-seong’s lips as well. Seeing such a junior naturally reminded him of colleagues he had worked with in the past.
Among them, especially the hunters who were still young and students. The young hunters who used to call him “sunbae, sunbae” and followed Ha-seong well. They had been worked to death and died from overwork at a young age due to the country’s call and orders, but their cheerful smiling faces still remained vivid in Ha-seong’s mind.
“I’d be grateful if you did. But I…”
Ha-seong scratched his head as he began to speak.
“I heard briefly before that Team 7 had a major accident a while back.”
“Ah…”
Seung-woo’s smile became a bit awkward. As Ha-seong mentioned that dungeon he had intruded into, his expression gradually darkened as expected.
“Ah, I don’t mean anything by it. I was just wondering if you were okay.”
After Ha-seong successfully conquered that dungeon and returned to reality, he had only heard from Do-hyeok that the team was fortunately safe. Though he was curious, he had been too busy with other matters at the time and had missed asking about it, but since he coincidentally met him like this, he wanted to ask.
“Yes, of course. I was really scared then, thinking I was going to die. To be honest, I really wanted to quit being a hunter. I kept thinking about what happened then.”
As expected, he had thought so. To encounter such a monster in a dungeon when the ink on his hunter registration card hadn’t even dried yet.
“But the team leader and other senior team members took really good care of me, and the Guild Leader also paid a lot of attention to me, so I’m completely fine now!”
“The Guild Leader?”
Ha-seong asked with a somewhat puzzled expression. That guy wasn’t the type to casually care about someone like that.
“Yes! He said I could file for leave and rest if things got tough… He said that young guys who work hard will just die faster anyway, so I don’t need to try too hard.”
At Seung-woo’s words, Ha-seong had to hold back his laughter. The advice was very much like Cha Do-hyeok. Besides, he was young himself, so who was he to talk to whom. In Ha-seong’s mind, he imagined Do-hyeok saying with an indifferent expression, “Young guys who work hard will just die faster.”
“That’s a relief.”
At those words, Seung-woo’s smile had returned to how it was before. And then Seung-woo’s phone rang loudly.
“Yes. This is Lee Seung-woo from Team 7.”
After busily answering the phone with “yes, yes,” Seung-woo ended the call saying he would come right away.
“I should go first.”
“Yes. You must be busy, so go quickly.”
“Thank you so much for helping!”
“Ah, wait a moment.”
As Seung-woo turned to leave, Ha-seong stopped him.
“I’m really planning to get that coffee from you, so please give me your number.”
Then Seung-woo burst into laughter and entered his number into Ha-seong’s phone. He cheerfully waved his hand saying to contact him anytime and disappeared. Ha-seong watched his retreating figure with a subtle expression before leaving the spot.
After that, Ha-seong’s day passed by frantically. Since he had rested for quite a long period, the purifier members seemed quite worried and asked him various things. From what he could roughly infer, Cha Do-hyeok seemed to have explained that he had taken sick leave, and Ha-seong also went along with that story, answering vaguely.
After finishing several purification jobs in the morning and eating a late lunch, Ha-seong headed to the break room for the first time in a while. He had been thinking about the instant coffee from the vending machine there during his break. But as he got a cup and sat down in a suitable spot to rest, someone was waving their hand greatly from far away and approaching.
“Ha-seong-ssi!”
It was Kang Won-hyeok, whom he often encountered here. Like a dog meeting someone he was happy to see, he excitedly rushed over to where Ha-seong was sitting.
“Hello, Vice Guild Leader-nim.”
“Oh my, it’s been so long. I heard from Do-hyeok that you were returning to work. Is your body okay?”
“Yes. Well. Maybe because I rested well, I’m fine now.”
Ha-seong nodded with an awkward smile. Come to think of it, it was good that he had made up the story about sick leave. But what exactly had he said was wrong with him? He should have asked Cha Do-hyeok about that.
“That’s a relief. I know because I’ve experienced it too, but when you get it severely, it’s really no joke.”
Won-hyeok shook his head as if he was fed up. Ha-seong just laughed and said, “Haha, that’s right.” Because he didn’t know anything. That was the only reaction he could show. From what he could infer, it seemed like they had made up a story about a cold. Or was it the flu?
“But what on earth did you eat to get such a bad case?”
“Pardon?”
“I mean, if you got gastroenteritis that badly, you must have eaten something really wrong.”
At the word gastroenteritis, Ha-seong’s lips, which had been curved up all along, froze right there.
“Haha, did Cha Do… I mean, did the Guild Leader say that? That I had gastroenteritis?”
“Yes! Well, when I asked, he said you had it really severely, going to the bathroom every 5 minutes, so you absolutely couldn’t come to work.”
That bastard Cha Do-hyeok. He made me into someone who lives in the bathroom. If he was going to make an excuse, there were plenty of good cover stories like the flu or a cold, so why gastroenteritis of all things? Ha-seong was smiling on the outside while continuously cursing Cha Do-hyeok in his mind.
“I really empathized when I heard that story. Ah, I had a really bad case of gastroenteritis last year and suffered so much. It happened to be when I was in a dungeon, and the signal came…”
Won-hyeok, who had no way of knowing his inner thoughts, was busy enthusiastically sharing his own gastroenteritis experience.
“Oh my, look at the time. Come to think of it, I had a conquest schedule this afternoon.”
Only after talking by himself for about 30 minutes did Won-hyeok check the time for the first time. Ha-seong was finally able to escape from Won-hyeok’s chatter hell.
“Strangely, when I talk with Ha-seong-ssi, words just flow out. Haha.”
Won-hyeok laughed awkwardly. Ha-seong had just been thinking that Won-hyeok was quite leisurely and had nothing to do for a Vice Guild Leader, but when he said that, he felt a bit sorry.
When Ha-seong first came to this place, he had lived almost abandoning human relationships. His goal was to be a rich unemployed person, and his past as a hunter couldn’t be discovered, so he was reluctant to easily form relationships with anyone. He thought it was unavoidable, and since life was lived alone anyway, it wouldn’t be a big problem, but Ha-seong was human after all, so there were times when he felt a bit lonely very occasionally.
“…That’s fortunate. Let’s talk again when we meet next time.”
These were all relationships that would be cut off once things with Cha Do-hyeok ended, but still, Ha-seong vaguely thought that good things had come from accepting Do-hyeok’s proposal.
* * *
[Cha Do-hyeok: Let’s leave work together.]
Around quitting time, Ha-seong’s phone briefly rang and Do-hyeok’s text appeared on the screen. He was just preparing to leave work right on time, but he wondered how Do-hyeok knew to contact him with such perfect timing again.
[Do we have to?]
Ha-seong hesitated for a moment before sending that. While they could commute to work together since they both arrived on time, he wondered if there was a need to do the same for leaving work. That’s because Ha-seong was a purifier who didn’t have much work, while Cha Do-hyeok was the Guild Leader of this guild. The amount of work would be on different levels, so he thought it might be a bit much for Do-hyeok to match his schedule and leave work on time.
[Cha Do-hyeok: I’ll wait in the parking garage. Or come up to the Guild Leader’s office.]
But the next text cleanly ignored Ha-seong’s question. Ha-seong was now too tired to pick at and go over such things one by one.
[I’ll be in the parking garage.]
Ha-seong sent that reply and got up from his seat. After exchanging greetings with Yu-han, who said he would finish his report work before leaving, Ha-seong immediately left the office. Perhaps because not many people left work on time due to the nature of the guild, the corridor was quiet even at this time. The elevator was the same.
Ha-seong leisurely got off on the first basement level. As he walked toward the parking garage, the training room door happened to open and a familiar face came out.
“Oh? Ha-seong-ssi! We meet again.”
It was none other than Lee Seung-woo. Ha-seong also recognized him and greeted him.
“Are you coming out after training?”
“Yes. I’m still lacking so much.”
Seung-woo in comfortable training clothes smiled awkwardly. His short sports hair was wet, perhaps from showering inside, and he had a large bandage on his forehead, apparently having injured it during training.
“Ah, this happened during the morning conquest, I got scratched a bit.”
Perhaps feeling Ha-seong’s gaze, Seung-woo unnecessarily touched his wound.
“This time I got injured and held back the sunbaes again.”
The bright appearance from just before disappeared completely, leaving only a thoroughly dejected chick. Seeing Seung-woo sigh deeply and let his shoulders droop, Ha-seong felt both sorry for him and found him cute.
“Still, it’s fortunate you weren’t seriously injured. Are you going back to the office now?”
“Ah, no. Our team was on duty yesterday, so today we’re leaving right on time! I’m just leaving now because I was training a bit.”
“I see.”
Still, it was admirable that he was training and making efforts on his own to improve his skills. Even if it looked easy, it was actually difficult to put into practice.
“Are you leaving work, Ha-seong-ssi?”
“Yes. Well.”
“Then get home safely! I should get going too.”
Seung-woo smiled brightly and pressed the elevator button. It seemed he was planning to go out through the first floor. Ha-seong walked slowly toward the parking garage, to the area where Do-hyeok had parked his car. But strangely, his eyes kept going to Seung-woo’s retreating figure.
He had pretended to be bright from the front, but Seung-woo was definitely dejected. It was probably a feeling arising from his desire to quickly improve his skills as a hunter.
“…”
Ha-seong turned around and went back into the space where the elevator was. Fortunately, Seung-woo hadn’t left the basement yet.
“Um, Seung-woo-ssi.”
And Ha-seong quietly called out to the dejected rookie hunter.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
