86
* * *
Samin, who had said he would only bring necessary items, returned with two large suitcases as big as his torso tucked under each arm. The suitcases covered with colorful stickers clearly showed they belonged to him just from their appearance.
“I hope the magic stone suitcase I ordered arrives soon. It’s so annoying to carry these around.”
Samin said as he set the suitcases down in one corner of the living room.
During the unity competition, he had liked Jang Hyeonseong’s magic stone suitcase and immediately ordered one. His execution ability was truly unmatched. There probably weren’t many people who could stop Samin once he set his mind on doing something.
“You actually bought that thing?”
“Yes. The staff said they had some stock set aside, so I just need to wait a bit for the overseas import time. It should be arriving soon, but I haven’t heard from them yet. I already used the pledge artifact.”
“It’s coming already? Hyeonseong hyung said his took 7 months…”
“That hyung could only make a regular purchase, so that’s why it took so long.”
“What’s different about yours?”
Doun waited for Samin’s answer with curious eyes. How had he managed to get something so quickly that others had to wait months for? It was a question born from pure curiosity, but Samin felt somewhat disappointed for some reason.
‘There are tons of companies wanting to sponsor me with products, and how many major corporations contact me wanting sponsorship deals…’
Although he had rejected them all because it was bothersome and he disliked being restricted in various ways, his position as the 2nd ranked hunter domestically had significant influence. The expensive brand hunter wear that Samin frequently wore would sell out as soon as it was imported domestically, and the stores he frequented also gained substantial promotional benefits.
Even though he acted childishly and spouted nonsense in front of Doun, Samin was undeniably a celebrity in the hunter world.
‘Of course, in front of hyung, I’m nothing.’
Samin felt briefly hurt by Doun’s words but didn’t become gloomy. He knew that Doun’s earlier comment clearly wasn’t born from an inner feeling of looking down on him.
Still, as the only candidate for Doun’s boyfriend, he couldn’t continue to remain as a trivial image. For the sake of image renewal, it would be better to appeal here rather than give unconditional agreement. Samin deliberately pouted and muttered.
“Hyung sometimes looks down on me too much. I may look like this, but I’m ranked 2nd, you know? Just because I always get beaten up by you doesn’t mean I’m not a guild master with money and popularity.”
He pretended to be sulky and slightly turned his body to show his back to Doun. He was opening his suitcase to take out some t-shirts when the effect immediately appeared.
“No, I’m not looking down on you. I just asked because I was curious that there are exceptions like this when buying things. I wasn’t looking down on you. I actually think you’re really amazing inside.”
A flustered Doun poured out words several times faster than usual. Samin, who had been savoring Doun’s voice with a sulky face, twitched his eyebrows.
‘Oh? So hyung has been thinking of me like that normally?’
His lips curved up at the unexpected harvest. He hadn’t said those words to hear this kind of thing from Doun’s mouth. He had just wanted to show off a bit that he was also a hunter who received respect here and there, but to think he’d get to hear Doun’s true feelings directly like this.
There was one thing Samin had learned from constantly hovering around and pestering Doun. That hearing Doun’s true feelings was never an easy task.
Doun usually didn’t easily reveal his state. Even while spitting blood and trembling hands, he would say he was fine and try to carry everything alone. As if it would be terrible if his true feelings were discovered.
Very occasionally, only when he could no longer control himself despite trying to forcibly hide it, would he let slip his truly hidden inner thoughts.
From the pretty lips that usually only scolded him asking if he was sane, crazy, or insane, came words acknowledging him for once. Samin had to forcibly calm his curving lips.
“…Really? Hyung, do you really think of me like that?”
“Of course. Like how you introduced guild members to help me, and you’ve been to the 54th and 55th floors that I’ve never even been to. That’s really amazing. Really. I’ve never looked down on you. I just sometimes thought you were a weird guy.”
Doun, thinking he had misspoken, earnestly chattered while nodding his head. To exaggerate a bit, he was nodding so hard his head might fall off.
‘Hmm. If I push further, our hyung will start digging underground again.’
This was enough since he had filled his selfish desires plenty. Having gained unexpected benefits, Samin decided to reciprocate by filling up Doun’s self-esteem, which seemed ready to drill through the ground.
Even if he showered him with childish and embarrassing levels of praise, Doun’s low self-esteem showed little sign of improvement, but Samin believed that if he kept whispering beside him constantly, it would get better someday.
“I’m grateful if you think that way. Ah, right. Since you told me not to say weird flattering things to you, I wasn’t going to mention this, but when I contacted Lix to buy a suitcase, they said they wanted to send you products too. Did you know?”
“Huh?”
Doun slightly opened his mouth and blinked his big eyes. With a face that seemed to ask what kind of talk that was.
“I felt like I was just using your name everywhere, so I said I’d ask you first. You don’t know your own position too well. It’s not to burden you, it’s just that you’re more popular than you think.”
“…Yeah.”
Doun agreed more readily than expected. He often met people asking for autographs saying they were fans in front of the tower, and he frequently heard encouragement telling him to keep it up. No matter how low his self-esteem was, he didn’t want to diminish the goodwill he actually encountered.
“Hyung, if they offer to give you gifts, would you consider accepting them?”
While he had nodded to the statement about being popular, Doun immediately shook his head at the question about accepting gifts.
“No. If I carelessly accept such things, I don’t know what people might say later…”
“What kind of things?”
“Just, well, like why would some bastard who makes a lot of money accept such things like a beggar, that kind of malicious talk.”
Samin’s cheek twitched at the much more specific words than expected. These definitely didn’t seem like statements Doun had come up with himself. The words were so malicious they made him feel bad just hearing them, and they sounded quite familiar to Samin too.
‘He must have seen posts like that before…’
It was the kind of low-quality malicious talk easily found on Veritas, the toxic community with poor self-regulation. In places abandoned with absent administrators and virtually no legal jurisdiction, various groups were mixed together, making it chaos every day, every hour.
“Hmm. I can’t guarantee such posts won’t be uploaded. But hyung, don’t you think the bastards who write such posts are just jealous because they want to buy the gifts you receive for free but can’t afford them?”
“Still, it’s not nice to see.”
“That’s true. Well, if you say so, then that’s that. Then I’ll politely decline for you. I’ll say you’ll buy what you need directly. Is that okay?”
Samin didn’t force his opinion further. It wasn’t like something terrible would happen just because he didn’t receive some gifts, and rather, they should be paying Doun to use their products.
“I’d appreciate that. But are there other people who want to contact me?”
“What exactly do you think of yourself?”
“No, it’s not… I’m not trying to say something depressing, it’s just that I feel like I’m making you work for me. I can check the contacts myself.”
Seeing Doun being considerate of him made Samin’s heart ache for no reason. The main reason Hunter Magnetic had been criticized was precisely the talk about using the guild master like a manager.
Doun had learned that the misdeeds of Timer and other former Chronos Guild members had been somewhat exposed. Because Samin had told him. However, regardless of his awareness, the harsh words he had heard back then were still deeply embedded in his heart.
The human heart was both stronger and weaker than it appeared, and wounds to the heart didn’t heal easily. Even when wounds healed, faint scars remained, making him occasionally think, ‘That’s how it was back then.’
“From now on, if contacts looking for me come to you, let me know. I’ll handle it.”
“I’m not making you work for me. I wish you would make me work for you a bit. Don’t you remember that I gave you thirty free usage tickets to make me work for you? When exactly are you going to use those?”
“I can really use those?”
“Did you think I gave them to you to use fake ones? There are only thirty-two Kyung Samin free usage tickets in the world. You can make me work as a driver or send me on errands.”
Samin gave a thumbs up and grinned. He figured even with these examples, Doun probably wouldn’t use a single ticket. Maybe he’d use one or two to tell him to shut up occasionally.
“Thirty-two tickets? Are there two more besides the ones you gave me?”
“Ah. I gave one each to my parents for Parents’ Day this year. That’s included in the count.”
“How old are you to give free usage tickets for Parents’ Day…”
Doun laughed as if dumbfounded. Looking at this, he seemed like a kid who was just big in size but had aged carelessly.
“Well, to my parents, I’m still a child. Maybe because I’m the youngest? They really liked it.”
“You’re the youngest?”
“Yes. I have an older brother and sister. Seven and six years apart.”
He had thought Doun was an only child who grew up monopolizing love. After hearing he was the youngest, it somehow fit him in its own way.
“So which room should I use?”
Doun hesitated for a moment. His conscience pricked at the thought of making this precious son sleep in a small room, and on the bare floor at that. He also thought it wasn’t proper. Doun swallowed his saliva and spoke with a quite determined expression.
“Sleep in my room with me until the bed arrives.”
“…What?”
“I don’t know when the bed will arrive, and you can’t keep sleeping on the floor until then. There’s no bedding either.”
“Would you be okay with that? Sleeping in the same bed with me for a while?”
Samin asked carefully while suppressing his pleased expression, and Doun slowly nodded.
“Yeah. You’re okay.”
“Hyung…”
Samin hugged Doun with a moved expression. Suddenly embraced, Doun chuckled as he listened to the loudly beating heart.
‘Do you like me that much? Like an idiot.’
Thinking this, Doun had an intuition. It seemed like the time to make a decision wasn’t far off.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
