#101
[Team 5 Park Seong-cheol: Emergency. Guild Leader seems to be in the worst mood today. Everyone be careful if you need to get approval for anything.]
In the group chat called “Cha Do-hyeok and the 7 Pillars,” where all the team leaders within Nameless gathered, Team 5 Leader Park Seong-cheol posted a notice using even exclamation point emoticons.
[Team 1 Kang Won-hyeok: Seriously? Why? Wasn’t he in a good mood lately.]
Won-hyeok, who had been so proud of creating the group chat name that he’d even lost sleep over it, had just finished a dungeon raid and was returning to the guild when he replied to the notice. After that, other team leaders began responding one by one.
[Team 3 Won Hye-seong: Ah, you should’ve said something sooner. I went earlier and joked around with him for no reason and got totally chewed out.]
[Team 2 Min Hye-jun: Vice Guild Leader-nim should ask about it.]
Though Cha Do-hyeok was excluded from it, this group chat gathering Nameless’s core personnel served quite a few functions. Information sharing related to dungeons, news about rare weapons or items that appeared on the hunter market, and even finding substitute team leaders when a team leader-level person got injured—all useful positive functions.
But if there was one most beneficial aspect, it would have to be situations exactly like this one.
[Team 1 Kang Won-hyeok: I’m scared of Do-hyeok too.]
It was like a weather forecast function that assessed and reported Cha Do-hyeok’s emotional state—in other words, the Nameless Guild Leader’s mood and behavior. True to being called a crazy bastard, Do-hyeok’s mood changed constantly, and he would casually commit incomprehensible actions, confusing the team leaders more than once or twice.
So at some point, the team leaders in this group chat began sharing information about so-called “Cha Do-hyeok’s mood” and the things he did or his unusual behaviors.
[Team 7 Park Gang-hyeon: I have documents that need approval, so thanks for the intel. I’ll go later.]
But lately, Do-hyeok’s name wasn’t mentioned much in this group chat. The reason was simple. Cha Do-hyeok’s mood suddenly getting bad or him acting impulsively had decreased. In fact, the team leaders hadn’t been aware of it until one day someone casually mentioned “Isn’t Guild Leader-nim acting a bit strange lately?” and they began to realize it one by one.
That Cha Do-hyeok had changed.
Of course, if it were anyone else, that would be considered normal, but as everyone knew, such a “normal state” was actually strange for Do-hyeok.
Since the last time he went to handle Hye-seong’s raid business because he was bored waiting for a meeting to start, there hadn’t been any particular impulsive actions, and his mood swings weren’t significant—it was calm. Usually, he lived with an expression that suggested he didn’t want to work and found everything boring, and on even slightly sensitive days, he would grumble about trivial things, but it had been a long time since they’d seen such behavior.
So apart from respecting and trusting Do-hyeok, the team leaders always tried not to get on his bad side.
“Come to think of it, when did it start? This guy becoming quiet.”
Won-hyeok fell into thought as he left the team office. Before, they used to fight and bicker over trivial things all the time. When Cha Do-hyeok’s thoughtless actions got them warning letters from the Management Bureau, that day would be when Nameless’s back got broken. From the whale fight between the Guild Leader and Vice Guild Leader.
But lately, even that frequency had drastically decreased. To begin with, the time he spent closely with Cha Do-hyeok had considerably reduced, but still, what was certain was that Cha Do-hyeok had changed a bit. Won-hyeok slowly traced back to find when that had started.
“The last trouble he caused was arbitrarily taking Hye-seong’s raid business… so around that time. After that, Ha-seong-ssi joined as a new purifier…”
Hmm, even though Won-hyeok racked his brain hard until he got on the elevator and reached the familiar floor, he couldn’t find a satisfyingly clean answer.
[Team 1 Kang Won-hyeok: I’ll take the lead and go ask.]
Won-hyeok left that message as he got off the elevator. Planning to find out why his mood was bad and why he’d been acting “normally” until now, Won-hyeok intended to go meet Do-hyeok.
“Vice Guild Leader-nim, what brings you here?”
As usual, Shin-woo quickly stood up from his work to greet Won-hyeok.
“I want to see Do-hyeok. Is he inside?”
“Ah, well…”
At that question, Shin-woo scratched his head as if troubled. Right, that bastard was in a bad mood, so he must have definitely given Shin-woo a ton of attitude. Won-hyeok patted Shin-woo’s shoulder with an understanding face.
“Shin-woo, you really have it tough. I’ll go ask that bastard why his mood hit rock bottom and come back. Don’t worry about anything.”
“Huh? Ah, that’s not it. Guild Leader-nim isn’t here right now.”
“Huh?”
But completely unexpected words came out of Shin-woo’s mouth. It was the middle of work hours, and unless there was a raid schedule or other appointments, Cha Do-hyeok rarely left that room. There was no raid business for Do-hyeok this morning… then was there some other important matter?
“Where did he go?”
“He went down to the purifier office.”
Another unfamiliar statement. The Guild Leader went to the purifier office?
Since this guild was created, the number of times Cha Do-hyeok had visited the purifier office could be counted on one hand. Not because he looked down on non-hunters, but because Do-hyeok himself was a lone wolf one-man team without any affiliated purifiers.
But for such a guy to suddenly go down to the purifier office for no reason…
“Did he go to meet Ha-seong-ssi?”
“I don’t really know either.”
At Won-hyeok’s pointed question, Shin-woo shrugged his shoulders in response. Recalling Do-hyeok, whose nerves had suddenly become frayed because of Ha-seong not showing up to work without notice since this morning, Shin-woo could only smile awkwardly.
* * *
After the unexpected encounter with Han-bit, Ha-seong immediately got on a bus heading straight home. Since it was a copy of a top-secret document, he couldn’t just leave it anywhere and planned to take it home. He was thinking that if he hid it somewhere the pig wouldn’t chew it up and then headed to the guild, he could get there before lunchtime.
He sat in a fortunately discovered empty seat and took out his phone that he’d carelessly stuffed in his pocket, and lo and behold, there were dozens of missed calls from one person.
<Cha Do-hyeok>
“What, is something wrong?”
Since the purifier position was just a façade anyway, it didn’t seem like he’d contacted him this much because he needed a purifier. Had something else happened related to the artificial gates? Ha-seong felt guilty about having his phone on silent mode while happily chatting with Han-bit and called Do-hyeok.
<The customer you are calling is not answering…>
This time Do-hyeok didn’t answer the phone. While getting off the bus and walking, he called several more times. But Do-hyeok’s voice didn’t come through the phone.
[Hey, sorry. I forgot to say I was stopping by the Management Bureau before coming to work. I was supposed to get documents from Woo-bin-ssi. I’ll stop by home now and then come to work.]
After briefly texting about the current situation, he looked up. His house was visible in the distance. As he got closer and closer to home, something else caught his eye.
“Huh?”
A familiar car was parked brazenly in front of his house like it owned the place. Why is that bastard there? Ha-seong approached the black car with a puzzled expression.
“Cha Do-hyeok.”
And the man standing against that car like a faithful wife waiting for her husband’s return. Ha-seong called out to him in a strange voice.
“…”
Do-hyeok quickly turned around and stared at Ha-seong approaching him. Ha-seong, who had been walking over carelessly, suddenly stopped in his tracks.
Do-hyeok’s gaze staring intently at Ha-seong. How should he put it—something was different from usual. Something rippling in those obsidian-like pupils, what Ha-seong read there was anger. Anger that was refined within and quietly rippling as if measuring the opportunity to explode at any moment.
“What are you doing here? I just sent you a text though.”
But it was anger with a slightly different texture from simple or everyday anger. Faced with an emotion that seemed familiar yet was hard to see through, Ha-seong cleared his throat unnecessarily and spoke casually as usual.
“…Hyung.”
Do-hyeok strode closer to Ha-seong. At Do-hyeok’s distinctive scent carried on the wind, Ha-seong’s breath caught for a moment.
“What you said back then, what was that about?”
What he said back then? Ha-seong stared at Do-hyeok with a completely clueless expression.
“You said to think about the contract again, you said that.”
“Ah.”
After meeting Baek Sa-jin last time, on the way Do-hyeok was giving him a ride home, Ha-seong had said that. Since they’d caught the main suspect who caused the artificial gate incident, let’s think about the contract again.
Coincidentally, there hadn’t been time to discuss that since then, but Ha-seong had been thinking they should gradually discuss the continuation of the contract. Moreover, after meeting Han-bit today, Ha-seong had even more to tell Do-hyeok about that.
“About that…”
“You were going to say let’s end the contract, right?”
“Uh… huh? What?”
Cutting off Ha-seong’s words, Do-hyeok pressed his body even closer. Wondering why such a big guy was approaching so threateningly, he glared at him, but seeing his suddenly serious expression, Ha-seong felt more bewildered than angry.
“Since we caught Baek Sa-jin. Hyung also thinks there’s no need to continue this contract anymore, right?”
Ha-seong, who had been opening and closing his mouth, shut it tight.
Right, honestly, it wasn’t that he hadn’t had such thoughts at first. Baek Sa-jin was a prime suspect and was eventually caught. Since artificial gates weren’t appearing anymore either, hadn’t his role as an informant ended? Then wasn’t this contract based on their mutual “interests” no longer necessary?
“Well, it’s not like I didn’t think about it.”
“…”
Do-hyeok flinched slightly at the nonchalant remark.
“But that’s not it…”
“I don’t want to.”
Why does he keep interrupting? Ha-seong was about to say something, telling him to let him speak. Do-hyeok slowly reached out and grasped Ha-seong’s right thumb. It was a touch that seemed somehow uncertain.
“I don’t want to end the contract. I don’t.”
Ha-seong stared blankly at the hand that felt completely different warmth than before.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
