#75
After seeing Dal-pyeong off, Do-hyeok slowly entered the residential area. Walking directly through the streets he usually only drove through by car, it was quite far.
He knew well why Ha-seong had told him to see Dal-pyeong off and slipped inside alone. In this world, Dal-pyeong was the only person Do-hyeok could call family. He knew that too, so he had definitely tried to create some time for just the two of them.
Because Do Ha-seong is kind. Because he’s a good person.
‘Forget about revenge and old dreams and all that, and live by growing attached to Ha-seong.’
He slowly recalled the words Dal-pyeong had said earlier. Growing attached to Ha-seong and living – he might already be doing that. He had caught Do Ha-seong, who said he was going back home, and made him settle back into his house. It was only temporary, but when Do Ha-seong was back in his house again, his heart couldn’t have been more at peace.
Perhaps he had unknowingly been giving his affection to the human called Do Ha-seong since some point. But even so, he couldn’t forget revenge and live. For Do-hyeok, that was everything and all he had.
That day, Do-hyeok had felt the emotion of losing everything for the first time. A boy who was just over ten years old had experienced the world collapsing that day. So he couldn’t forget and live. If he had never experienced it, it would be different, but having experienced it, he had to see it through to the end.
When he arrived in front of his house, he could see a lit window. Do-hyeok smiled faintly and went inside.
“Really.”
What he saw as soon as he entered was Do Ha-seong sleeping on the living room sofa. He had definitely changed clothes and come straight to the living room to lounge around before falling asleep.
Do-hyeok slowly approached Ha-seong. He had been dozing off in the car earlier too, so he must have been quite tired today. And he could see a laptop turned on the living room table in front of him. Ha-seong must have been doing something on the laptop before falling asleep.
[Search: Cherry slang]
That was exactly what appeared in the search bar. He seemed to have been really fixated on “cherry” since earlier. Do-hyeok barely held back the laughter that was about to burst out.
“What else would cherry be.”
Do-hyeok closed the window and shut the laptop in Ha-seong’s place. His gaze turned back to Ha-seong, who was sleeping soundly. Looking at his clear face, he slowly reached out his hand and lightly brushed Ha-seong’s lips.
“This is what I’m talking about.”
Do-hyeok muttered quietly and then gently lifted Ha-seong and moved him to the bedroom bed. He was sleeping so soundly that he really wouldn’t know even if someone carried him away. After laying him on the bed and carefully covering him with a blanket, Do-hyeok slowly closed the bedroom door.
Then he opened the door slightly again and whispered softly.
“Sleep well. Hyung.”
It was a small voice but a sincere greeting.
* * *
Lee Seung-woo, age twenty. A promising prospect who passed the Nameless interview as soon as he became an adult and became part of the number one hunter guild.
…That’s what he had thought. Until he entered the guild, that is. Befitting the nation’s leading number one guild, Nameless was a place where all the outstanding hunters had gathered. Seung-woo, who had joined with big dreams, still found even adapting to dungeons overwhelming.
Of course, his team seniors were good. They treated the youngest member well and tried to help him grow somehow. But that alone couldn’t make all the pressure disappear. After all, they were hunter seniors and people to whom he had to prove his growth through effort.
It would have been nice if there were colleagues who joined at the same time, but in the year Seung-woo joined Nameless, there was only one successful applicant. Being the number one guild, the standards for selecting hunters were incredibly demanding. So he had thought it would be nice to have someone in the guild he could comfortably open up and talk to.
“Ha-seong-ssi!”
It seemed God had taken pity on him and heard his earnest prayers.
Seung-woo waved his hand at Ha-seong approaching in the first-floor lobby.
“Am I too late?”
“No. Lunch time is just starting now. Ah, let’s hurry. That place is famous, so if we go late, we’ll have to wait in line.”
“Yes. Let’s go.”
Ha-seong and Seung-woo, who had recently become acquainted quite by chance, were continuing their relationship in their own way. The two had naturally become close when Ha-seong first helped him carry boxes and then gave him a ride home.
Moreover, since Ha-seong wasn’t a hunter, Seung-woo also felt less psychological distance. He had literally gained a colleague with whom he could easily share his worries and feelings.
“So I made another mistake then, right? I should have deployed the shield right away, but I hesitated and…”
The restaurant district near the Nameless building. This place, which specialized in neat Korean meals, was really famous as Seung-woo had said – even though lunch time had just started, it was crowded with people.
Having barely secured seats and started eating, Seung-woo just stirred his spicy pork stir-fry aimlessly while lamenting to Ha-seong.
From what he heard, Seung-woo had almost been hit in the dungeon he went to this morning because he couldn’t make a split-second decision whether to respond to a monster’s attack in kind or deploy a shield for defense, and he felt like he had caused trouble for his team seniors again.
“Hmm, this is something I heard somewhere.”
Ha-seong cleared his throat awkwardly and spoke.
“They say when you can’t immediately decide whether to attack or defend, one method is to retreat once and buy time to think.”
“Oh.”
Before he knew it, Seung-woo was completely absorbed in Ha-seong’s words.
“There’s no law saying you have to make decisions only at that exact moment. Anyway, there’s no right answer in a battlefield. You just need to not get hurt and win.”
Seeing that a book called <Victory! Efficient Combat Methods in Dungeons> was a bestseller in this world, Ha-seong had almost fallen backward with exaggeration. How could such a useless book gain so much popularity? Ha-seong thought that at least in situations where you had to fight and win, efficiency and such things were the most useless things in the world.
Winning stylishly, winning easily. Honestly, none of that was necessary. Not getting hurt and winning. Not dying and coming out safely alive. That was all hunters should pursue.
“Hearing it that way, it’s definitely true.”
Seung-woo nodded.
“But Ha-seong-ssi, where did you hear such things?”
Seung-woo asked brightly. Ha-seong cleared his throat briefly to buy thinking time. Had he shown off too much? He should have just given a similar nuance and left it at that. While he was pondering what would be a good answer.
“Ah! I got it!”
Seung-woo suddenly clapped his hands.
“You heard it from the guild leader-nim!”
“What? Ah, yes. That’s right.”
Haha, Ha-seong performed the world’s most awkward acting. During his days making a living from purification business, lies and acting used to flow smoothly, but lately this acting was incredibly difficult.
“As expected of the guild leader-nim, even his thinking is extraordinary.”
Ha-seong, who had inadvertently made Do-hyeok look cool, smiled reluctantly and continued eating his rice.
“But what do you mainly do after work, Seung-woo-ssi?”
Ha-seong asked naturally while taking a spoonful of soup.
“Uh… um… well…”
Seung-woo put down his spoon and started thinking for a long time.
“I don’t think I really do anything in particular. Usually when I get off work, I’m really tired so I go straight home and rest. Come to think of it, my range of activity is just home and the guild. Haha.”
“Well, if you’re tired, that can happen.”
Ha-seong empathized with Seung-woo’s statement in his own way, saying that he also went home and did nothing after work. Like that, the two chatted warmly while eating.
“Ah, I’m full.”
The two who had finished lunch took two cups of instant coffee from the store and came outside. By nature, nothing could match the taste of this instant coffee eaten after meals.
“When I open up and complain to Ha-seong-ssi like this, I feel so much better.”
The two walked slowly on the path toward the guild.
“That’s good to hear.”
“I’m sorry to Ha-seong-ssi. Hunter stories probably aren’t interesting for you to hear.”
It was true that they weren’t interesting. Having spent half his life rolling around in the hunter world, how could they be interesting? But watching young, inexperienced hunters like Seung-woo wasn’t so bad.
“It doesn’t matter. Rather, maybe because it’s talk about different work, it’s actually interesting.”
Then Seung-woo smiled brightly, saying that was a relief. Chatting warmly as they walked, the guild building was now right in front of them. Seung-woo clenched his fist saying to work hard today too and entered the guild building.
“Ah, Seung-woo-ssi.”
Just as they were about to part, Ha-seong called him back.
“Nothing unusual lately, right?”
“Unusual?”
“Well, like seeing strange guys around your house…”
“Hmm, well. I haven’t really had anything like that. But why?”
“Ah, it’s nothing. There’s been a thief in our neighborhood lately causing a commotion. I wanted to tell Seung-woo-ssi to be careful too.”
Then Seung-woo marveled at how thoughtful Ha-seong was and even made a resolution to work hard on locking his doors. Like that, the two parted in the lobby.
Ha-seong smiled faintly at Seung-woo, who was waving his hands vigorously. At the same time as his figure disappeared into the elevator, the smile completely vanished from Ha-seong’s face, leaving only a strange expression.
* * *
“Yeah. Mom, I’m on my way home after finishing night duty now. I didn’t get hurt today either. Are you going to ask every time you call?”
Seung-woo entered the alley where his studio apartment building was located after work. He moved slowly while talking with his mother. Through the phone, his mother’s nagging poured out like bombs, saying how could she not ask when her son was doing dangerous work.
“I understand. But don’t send too much. I can’t eat all those side dishes.”
For Seung-woo, ending the day with a phone call to his mother had somehow become routine. His only son had come up to Seoul to do hunter work and was living alone, so she seemed extremely worried.
He couldn’t tell such parents that he felt like he was endlessly inadequate and that it was hard.
“Yeah. I’ll come down this week if I have time. Sleep well, Mom. I love you too.”
Seung-woo, who had just entered the alley, ended the call with those words. He looked at the disconnected screen and then smiled softly as he walked toward the studio apartment building. He wanted to hurry inside, wash up, and lie down. Like that, Seung-woo arrived in front of the building with quick steps, entered the communal entrance password, and disappeared into the building.
Quiet settled over the neighborhood again. In the alley where only stray cats roamed, someone quietly revealed themselves.
The man wrapped in thick, long clothes quietly looked up at the studio apartment building Seung-woo had just entered.
“……”
Then the man reached inside his jacket and pulled out a photograph. Written on the back was “Nameless affiliation” – it was none other than Lee Seung-woo’s ID photo.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
