48
While Doun took out his phone to take landscape photos and spent quite a while looking outside, Samin stared only at Doun with his face turning bright red. It was quite an intense gaze, but since it wasn’t a one or two-day occurrence, Doun could let it slide.
Afterward, Doun came out to the hallway saying he wanted to look around the pension a bit and ran into Do Hyeonwoo.
“Hyung! How’s the room over there?”
“The view is amazing.”
“Can you see the tower from the window there too?”
“Yeah. Hyeonwoo, which room are you going to use?”
“Ah, Minhyeok, Jiwon, and I are planning to use that room together.”
Do Hyeonwoo pointed to the large room in the center of the second floor. When Doun stuck his head out to peek inside the room, a guild member who was unpacking greeted him.
“Oh. Magnetic hyung-nim, you’re here?”
A round-faced man who looked somewhat like a monk due to his extremely short haircut warmly welcomed Doun.
“Yeah. Hi, Jiwon.”
Doun returned the greeting with a slightly flushed face.
The unity competition would continue for 2 nights and 3 days starting today. Although Kim Siwon was unavoidably absent due to overseas travel, three more people had joined besides the guild members who had been helping with Doun’s backlogged tower conquests.
Choi Jiyoon, Yeoun’s sub-guild master who was acquainted with Doun, and two guild members Doun would see for the first time today. Namely, Jang Hyeonseong and Dong Jiwon, who used the nicknames ‘Barnabas’ and ‘Wing Light’ respectively in the Veritas System.
Dong Jiwon, who was the same age as Kim Minhyeok and in the same collection position, was very gentle. According to what Samin had quietly mentioned, he liked mountains and meditation and disliked gossip.
‘Do you remember when I told you that not all our guild members like hyung?’
‘…Yeah.’
‘I said that because of Jiwon. He’s really not interested in other people’s business. I had occasion to visit his house before, and he didn’t even have a TV. To like or dislike someone, you need to have interest in the first place, but he only knew hyung’s nickname. Even when all that chaos happened before…’
Actually, Doun was worried about how Dong Jiwon might change if he learned about what happened in the past. However, Doun wanted to believe Samin’s words.
‘Our guild absolutely doesn’t accept people with bad character. Even if they act their way in during recruitment, after going through towers together a few times, it becomes obvious and we cut them all. Trust Samin’s eye for people, hyung.’
He was a scheming guy constantly aiming for the roommate position, but it seemed safe to trust the abilities of a guild master leading such an exceptional guild that they attempted solo conquest of the highest floors.
“Oh. Doun hyung. I brought snacks, would you like one?”
Kim Minhyeok, who spotted Doun greeting Dong Jiwon, quickly opened his suitcase. Doun, quietly watching Kim Minhyeok, muttered.
“Minhyeok.”
“Yes?”
It was when Kim Minhyeok was sitting on the floor looking up at Doun.
“Isn’t this dog treats?”
“…Huh?”
Kim Minhyeok’s puzzled gaze turned toward one side of the suitcase that Doun was pointing at.
[Happy Puppy Dog Companion Soft Jerky 500g]
The illustration of a brightly smiling dog was clear.
“Why is this here? This is our Ppomi’s treats.”
“Did you mistake it because the packaging looks similar to human snacks?”
Doun nodded as if agreeing with Do Hyeonwoo’s guess. It certainly was a design that looked like companion dog treats if you looked closely. It was when Kim Minhyeok was tearing at his hair, saying that since he brought the only one left at home, Ppomi would be short on treats.
“Hyung, we’re going to the mart to buy stuff for cooking. You’re coming, right?”
Samin, who had been watching from behind, quietly interjected. He had followed Doun from the moment he left the room, but he had no intention of interfering with his conversations with other guild members.
The purpose of this unity competition from the beginning was ‘building friendship between existing guild members and Doun.’
While he wanted to stick close and monopolize him, he wanted to show how nice Yeoun Guild, hunter Magnetic’s new home, was. However, seeing Doun, who he thought would be shy, conversing without much difficulty made him feel unnecessarily disappointed.
“Of course we have to go.”
Doun stood up along with his answer.
There was a large mart just a short drive from the pension located halfway up the mountain. He had heard that campfires and barbecues were the charm of pension trips. It absolutely couldn’t be missed.
“Let’s take a few porters with us to shop together.”
Samin, who had roughly figured out how to gently coax Doun, casually brought up the word ‘together.’
“Yeah.”
Sure enough, Doun quickly answered with a much softer expression, his cheeks slightly flushed.
‘Ah. Fuck. Should I change rooms even now?’
Samin fell into intense contemplation. If they ended up using the same room, what he might do at night… Along with the guild master’s anguish, Yeoun Guild’s unity competition was beginning.
* * *
Doun and Samin, along with Kim Minhyeok, Do Hyeonwoo, and Hong Chan who volunteered as porters, returned to the pension from the mart with an incredibly long receipt.
“Ah. Hyeonseong hyung says he’s almost here now.”
Samin, looking at his phone, handed Doun a banana while speaking.
A total of ten people were participating in the unity competition lasting 2 nights and 3 days.
Including guild master Kyung Samin and sub-guild master Choi Jiyoon, Kim Chansol, Do Hyeonwoo, Seong Suyeon, Kim Minhyeok, and Hong Chan, who had fought bloody rock-paper-scissors battles for Doun’s tower conquest, participated.
Except for Dong Jiwon, whom he had just greeted, among the people Doun was meeting for the first time today, he still hadn’t seen Jang Hyeonseong, an attack-type hunter in the main dealer position. The reason was his oversleeping.
Due to his high expectations for the pension trip, he had stayed up all night with insomnia and briefly fell asleep, only to wake up when it was time to arrive at the pension.
Hearing that it was almost time for him to arrive after hastily driving off, Doun slightly nodded.
“When Hyeonseong-ssi arrives, it’ll be perfect timing for lunch.”
It was awkward to eat first while leaving him out alone, so he was filling his stomach with a banana when Samin sprawled on the sofa.
“Hmm… What should we make for lunch?”
“Min-ah. Did you buy what I asked you to get?”
Choi Jiyoon, who had unpacked on the first floor, came out to the living room and asked.
“I did buy it, but you didn’t say how many, so I just bought however many I wanted.”
“How many did you buy?”
“Seven? Because it’s my favorite number.”
“Crazy.”
Choi Jiyoon was horrified and opened the refrigerator. What she took out was none other than tteokbokki meal kits. Seven 4-serving packages. Combined, it was enough to make 28 servings of tteokbokki.
No matter how much they ate, there was no way ten people could eat 28 servings of tteokbokki.
“Min-i, do you wear your head as a fashion accessory?”
“Yes. I’m truly sorry that you’ve only now realized my head is decorative… ‘Sekwon-dong Fallen Angel Hunter-nim.'”
“Y-you crazy bastard…!”
Samin, who had been teasing, blurted out the cringeworthy nickname.
“Sekwon-dong… Fallen Angel?”
Doun unconsciously repeated it once and glanced at Choi Jiyoon. From the context, it seemed to refer to Choi Jiyoon.
Come to think of it, Choi Jiyoon had never mentioned her hunter nickname even in Yeoun Guild’s group message room.
Even when Doun was invited to Yeoun Guild’s group message room and everyone was busy introducing their names and nicknames, Choi Jiyoon only introduced herself as ‘sub-guild master Choi Jiyoon who met and talked with you at the office.’
‘Is Jiyoon-ssi’s hunter nickname that…?’
Doun still hadn’t even glanced at the Veritas System community tab. Except for the popups automatically displayed upon conquest success, he only used the hunter shop to purchase consumables needed for conquests and never intentionally called up the system.
It was an almost obsessive disconnection. As a result, he was in a situation where he didn’t even know the nickname used by the sub-guild master of the guild he currently belonged to.
“Is Sekwon-dong Fallen Angel the sub-guild master’s nickname?”
Doun asked back without much thought. It felt surreal to hear such a cringeworthy nickname flowing from between his pretty lips. Choi Jiyoon’s face twitched with shame before she gave up.
“Yes, that’s right. ‘Sekwon-dong Fallen Angel’ is me, Doun-ssi.”
Twenty-seven-year-old Choi Jiyoon belonged to Yeoun Guild’s eldest members along with Jang Hyeonseong. Since guild master Kyung Samin lived quite freely, sub-guild master Choi Jiyoon relatively had to act mature. But she was repeatedly blocked by the wall of nicknames she had created.
[Chat┃Is Yeoun sub-guild master’s nickname real?; (14)]
[Chat┃All Sekwon-dong residents support ‘Fallen Angel’ Hunter-nim’s Yeoun sub-guild master activities^^ (21)]
[Chat┃Hunter world’s 7 great chuunibyou nicknames (349)]
[Chat┃3rd Ilbe No-Style Nickname World Cup Results (453)]
[Chat┃Please sell me nickname change rights, Tower Lord-nim, please please (136)]
I made my hunter nick without thinking and I’m seriously fucking embarrassed ㅅㅂㅅㅂ
(36 comments)
-Are you by any chance Sekwon-dong Fallen Angel?
└(Author): No
└└Then Supreme Hunter Demon King?
└└└(Author): I said no ㅡㅡ
-Dark Lord Kaizen welcome
└(Author): I said no, you crazy
Whenever she could forget, posts listing chuunibyou nicknames and cringeworthy nicknames would mention her, and this banner was even hung at the main gate of the high school she graduated from.
[(Congratulations) Hunter Choi Jiyoon (Sekwon-dong Fallen Angel) Veritas Tower “54th Floor” Conquest Success -Sekwon High School Alumni Association-(Lower)]
Every time that happened, Choi Jiyoon shed tears of blood.
‘If I had known this would happen, I should have thought carefully about the nickname.’
Until before awakening, she had never even thought about becoming a hunter. So she took the instruction to set a nickname lightly. She believed she could change her nickname anytime, but such a thing didn’t exist in reality.
If she had known that the nickname she created playfully and lightheartedly would be permanent, she would never have made it like that. She didn’t know that Yeoun Guild, created after accepting Samin’s scouting offer, would grow this big.
She earned a lot of money, but to gain the dignity of a sub-guild master of an elite small guild, she had to work harder than others.
Doun smiled slightly at Choi Jiyoon’s reaction, trembling with shame. Rather than laughing to tease, it was an expression that seemed somehow pleased.
“Do you know Sekwon Elementary School?”
“Huh?”
“I graduated from Sekwon Elementary School.”
“Ah, but I moved there when I was in 8th grade.”
“Ah… I see.”
It was when Doun was scratching near his eyes with disappointment. Loud noises could be heard from the pension entrance.
“Nobody comes out even though I’m late? Huh, is this okay for a unity competition?”
At the rough voice that seemed to be finding fault, Doun momentarily stiffened. It was similar to someone’s voice that was hard to forget.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
