50
Chapter 7. Turning Point
* * *
“To think our guild master is such a spice weakling who struggles after eating tteokbokki.”
“Ahh… Yeoun’s dignity is completely dead. How unfortunate!”
Choi Jiyoon and Kim Chansol giggled as they watched Samin wiping his chin with tissues. Doun, who was confidently sitting among the Yeoun Guild members gathered around eating tteokbokki, slightly raised his headDon’t Look for the S-Class Hunter with Retirement 49 to look at Samin.
‘He said he sweats when eating spicy food, and it was really true…’
At first he thought it was an exaggerated complaint. But seeing him sweating alone under the cool air conditioning, he really seemed weak to spicy flavors.
Even when deliberately serving him on a side plate, he had given him plenty of cheese. Doun poured a drink into Samin’s glass and asked.
“Is it still spicy even with lots of cheese?”
“…Yes.”
His tongue was apparently numb, making his answer quite slurred. They needed to eat a hearty lunch to practice on the training floors. While worrying about Samin, Doun secretly picked up and ate some tteokbokki from his side plate. He was curious if it was spicy enough to make him speak with such a lisp.
‘Hmm. It’s not spicy at all…’
Though he found it a bit puzzling, thinking that people had different spice tolerances, he ate the tteokbokki diligently. Samin, who had been gulping down drinks to neutralize the spicy taste, eventually gave up and put down his chopsticks.
“Later, to help with digestion, we’ll go to the training floors to practice the 50th floor boss patterns. Is that okay with everyone?”
Since it was practice written in the schedule, affirmative sounds came from everyone. Doun also nodded.
’50th floor… But it’s fortunate I can practice and enter with guild members.’
Perhaps because the tens digit had changed, the floor boss patterns were particularly complex. It was a floor where you could get seriously hurt if the conquest team wasn’t well-coordinated. In fact, several hunters in the national first clear video that Doun had checked had lost their lives.
Videos recorded from the moment of tower entry until after defeating the floor boss don’t capture sound. They also weren’t shot in standardized compositions like human filming or directing.
Sometimes people appeared as dots as if viewed from very high up, other times they appeared close as if viewed from right beside them, and it was common for them to be shot from bizarre angles as if filmed from a weed’s perspective.
There were countless such videos, and they could be viewed anytime without any filtering or post-processing – this was the hunter management system Veritas.
In videos he had no choice but to examine for information verification, the naked death scenes of hunters who had already become deceased would often flash by. When that happened, he’d feel like one side of his head was breaking, but then naturally became numb to it.
Other hunters also felt some discomfort watching videos containing actual situations where people died, but didn’t raise issues about such behavior itself.
Looking at this alone, hunters might truly be a group where disregard for life was prevalent, as ordinary people pointed out. Perhaps it was because of their experience of losing colleagues before their eyes multiple times.
“Alright. Let’s finish eating and practice hard.”
Samin left with those words as he stood up. While Doun nodded and reviewed videos of magical beasts appearing on the 50th floor, the Yeoun Guild members were all thinking the same thing.
‘Pretending to be fine while going to drink a potion now.’
All the guild members who had been with Samin for a long time knew. That Samin was particularly weak to spicy food.
His pride was quite strong too, so even though he’d go around saying he couldn’t eat it well, he never failed to take a bite when the group ate the same food together. Then he’d secretly drink a potion afterward.
Whether his tongue was numb and his stomach burned enough to require potion treatment, or whether he just had a lot of money.
‘The only ones who eat spicy food then drink potions might be crazy hunter YouTubers and our guild master…’
Kim Chansol shook his head. When he slightly turned his head, he could see his precious attention totem efficiently demolishing the tteokbokki. As he had felt during the hastily arranged seasoned chicken company dinner, he really ate spicy food well and ate heartily.
“Even though they’re both S-rank, isn’t it funny how different our guild master and Doun-ssi are?”
Kim Minhyeok nodded at Kim Chansol’s words.
“Really. They’re complete opposites, so it’s kind of amazing.”
When his story came up, Doun awkwardly chewed the tteokbokki in his mouth while lightly nodding. Even he could clearly feel that aside from both being S-rank attack-type hunters, their tendencies were completely different. Since they weren’t saying anything bad, this level of agreement seemed fine.
“Doun-ssi eats spicy food just fine, but our delicate guild master is probably secretly drinking a potion right now and converting the empty bottle to points…”
Doun, who had been earnestly listening to the chatter, raised his head. Why would he drink a potion?
“…Potion?”
“Ah, you didn’t know, Doun-ssi? That Min bastard drinks grade 7 potions when he eats spicy food, saying his tongue hurts and his stomach burns. He’s a spice weakling with terrible dramatics.”
Choi Jiyoon, who held a grudge against Samin for revealing her Veritas System nickname, quickly exposed Samin’s weakness that wasn’t really a weakness.
He only thought Samin sweated a lot, but didn’t know he was weak enough to need potions. His constitution didn’t get scratched by most attacks, but parts like the tongue seemed to be an exception.
‘There are no hunters who attack with tongues…’
Blinking his large eyes a couple times while coming to a strange understanding, Doun suddenly recalled a text message.
[Kyung Samin: Today’s lunch menu! The charcoal jjamppong I wanted to eat with hyung yesterday. The fire flavor is amazing and looks delicious, right? ( ᵘ ᵕ ᵘ ⁎) I ordered it because hyung said he likes spicy food, but it was so spicy I used a whole pack of tissues ㅠㅠ If you come near our guild, I’ll really treat you (photo)]
The guy who couldn’t eat spicy food and drank potions after eating had shown the sincerity of eating charcoal jjamppong just because of one comment that he simply liked spicy food. Doun felt inexplicably troubled. It wasn’t something anyone asked for, and thinking about it, it wasn’t really a big deal, but why did it weigh on his mind?
‘So stupid.’
He looked fierce but acted incredibly cute. After efficiently finishing the tteokbokki on his side plate, Doun looked around before quietly standing up.
Strangely, he suddenly wanted to see Samin. He also had something he wanted to ask him. When Doun, who had been quietly eating tteokbokki, stood up, Choi Jiyoon sitting across from him asked.
“Oh? Doun-ssi, are you finished eating?”
“…Yes.”
Choi Jiyoon grinned and said the remaining people would handle the dishes through rock-paper-scissors. Since everyone seemed to agree, Doun also nodded and headed to the second floor where Samin had disappeared.
Walking stealthily toward the room at the end of the second floor while muffling his footsteps, his eyes met directly with Samin, who was sitting on the bed drinking a potion.
“…Huh?”
Not expecting Doun to appear, Samin’s eyes widened along with a strange sound. Seeing him coughing as the potion got stuck in his throat, Doun ran over and patted his back.
“Were you startled?”
“Cough, no, ahem, hyung appeared without any sound. Whew, does hyung have stealth skills too?”
Only after clearing his throat and wiping his mouth did the coughing finally subside. While quickly putting away the potion bottle and catching his breath, Doun was still gently stroking Samin’s back. His gestures were much more affectionate than usual.
“What stealth skills? I just came because I was curious what you were doing. Are you okay? Stupidly choking while drinking a potion.”
Even his voice was excessively gentle. Samin felt Doun’s touch completely while racking his brain.
‘Ah, why did our hyung suddenly become soft again?’
Lee Doun looked like soft tofu, but after exchanging a few words, he was actually quite resolute. At most, he’d glare while telling him to come to his house, claiming to take initiative, but even that seemed like something.
Usually gentle and soft, there were times when he became particularly mushy. When he used ‘us’ to give him a sense of belonging, or when he acted cutely, he could clearly feel Doun’s clumsily erected guard melting away like snow.
But now wasn’t a timing when he should be acting so gently.
‘I haven’t acted cute yet, and I haven’t said “us” either. Does spitting while drinking a potion count as being cute? What is this? I don’t know, let me hug hyung first then think about it.’
Samin wasn’t one to miss an opportunity to sneakily get into Doun’s arms. After a slightly exaggerated fake cough, he rubbed his head against Doun’s chest.
“Ahem, hmm. I’m coughing so much my head is dizzy… Cough, cough.”
Doun silently and gently stroked the head of Samin who had sneakily nestled into his arms.
‘…He’s really bad at acting.’
Even though he wanted to scold him not to mess around, as he touched the curly hair, it was quite fun, so his hand unconsciously moved on its own.
“Since hyung is stroking my head, it seems to be getting better…”
Even though it was an obvious lie, it wasn’t unpleasant. Doun silently stroked Samin’s hair. The countless text messages and one-sided actions Samin had sent so far might have been a little annoying, but he had never disliked them.
“Don’t force yourself to eat spicy food anymore. Especially things like charcoal jjamppong.”
When Doun blurted it out, Samin quickly responded.
“Ah, that was because I wanted to check if it was delicious before suggesting we eat it together, hyung.”
“So what if it’s not delicious?”
Everything would probably be fine as long as I eat it with you. Doun couldn’t bring himself to say the rest out loud. He had an intuition that if he did, it wouldn’t end with just a kiss.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
