“The whole place is blocked off—how did you even get in?”
Shit. Just as Cha Eui-sung was planning to slip out by tagging along with the Association agent, Go Yeong-won shut that down with a smile.
He spoke in a tone that clearly implied he believed Cha Eui-sung hadn’t come through the proper route but had instead climbed over the wall and snuck in.
Sharp bastard.
Luckily, the Association folks didn’t seem too focused on his words. With all the chaos from the incident, it wouldn’t be surprising if a random civilian had slipped in unnoticed.
And in situations like this, the Association’s top priority would be to protect nearby civilians—and use that protection as an excuse to keep them away from the heart of the incident.
Even if they found something suspicious, their standard procedure would be to get him to safety first.
Knowing that full well, Cha Eui-sung put on a confused, helpless expression and stammered his response.
“S-sorry. I saw the car get wrecked earlier, and I was so shocked I just stayed here. Then… I don’t know, I couldn’t find a way out…”
It wasn’t hard to act like a panicked, trembling wreck. They say experience makes the man—turns out even memories he’d rather forget were coming in handy now.
As he hesitated and slowly moved toward them, the tip of his shoe lightly caught the sewer grate. With a soft thunk, his body lurched sideways, drawing the eyes of the Association agents to the grate.
Not a single bar was bent or broken. The wall he instinctively reached for was untouched, and nothing about how he regained his balance seemed unnatural.
“Ow…”
Instead, he let his ankle buckle limply. As Cha Eui-sung winced and shook his foot like it hurt, one of the Hunters stepped up and automatically offered support.
Judging by the way the agent analyzed the weight leaning on his arm and then signaled to the others, he must’ve decided Cha Eui-sung was safe.
Anyone looking at him would see nothing but an average civilian. And really, who else but someone who’d lived as an F-rank and climbed to S-rank would know all the subtle tells that separate civilians from Hunters?
One of the Association staff moved aside, clearing the path out of the alley. All he had to do now was let them guide him out naturally.
But just as Cha Eui-sung began limping away, Go Yeong-won’s expression twisted into one of amusement.
His eyes gleamed with a disturbing spark.
“…!”
Whoosh—suddenly, Go Yeong-won unleashed his energy like a stab to the gut. It wasn’t overwhelmingly strong, but for a civilian, it would’ve been enough to make their knees buckle.
Startled, Cha Eui-sung clutched the arm supporting him tightly.
“No need to be alarmed. S-ranks tend to have a presence that hits hard, even if we don’t mean to. It often scares civilians without us realizing it.”
Damn, the Association Hunter was smooth—spouting lies without so much as a pause. But even he looked a bit surprised, instinctively pulling the “poor civilian” closer to shield him.
When Cha Eui-sung looked up at the Hunter beside him, trembling fingers brushing the man’s sleeve, a pair of frightened brown eyes peeked out from under a tilted cap.
His pupils were dilated, full-blown panic-mode.
The Hunter hastily waved to his teammates further away.
A whole swarm of staff rushed over and surrounded Go Yeong-won. All of them started chattering—about statements, treatment, whatever they could—to calm the S-rank who was acting out of character.
And during that distraction, Cha Eui-sung, still supported by the Hunter, stepped past the “DO NOT CROSS” tape.
“Hahaha!”
Behind him, Go Yeong-won let out an oddly gleeful laugh.
That’s not like him at all.
Cha had never heard him laugh like that. Go Yeong-won, when dealing with civilians, was always polite and composed—at least, in the way an intelligent creature refrains from tormenting small animals.
Yeah, that kind of “polite.” It always felt vaguely off.
But at the very least, if someone wasn’t an Awakened, he never showed any real interest. His emotional range wasn’t particularly wide, either.
So why’s he acting like this now…?
Not like Cha Eui-sung could just walk over, flash his prettiest smile, and ask, Hey, are you fucking nuts right now?
All he could do was keep playing the part—clinging to the Hunter’s arm and trembling like a true Unawakened, visibly cowed by an S-rank’s presence. Not that it was hard. He’d spent the whole morning curled up under a blanket, shaking like a leaf anyway.
“I’m sorry. That’s actually my car. I couldn’t just leave it, so I was hiding nearby…”
The late confession earned him a trip straight to the police station. When he subtly turned to glance back, Go Yeong-won was still watching him—shrunk down in the distance like a toothpick, but unmistakably staring.
“No worries. You must’ve been terrified. Let’s head inside and sort out the report first.”
Cha Eui-sung nodded and eased up slightly on the limp. There were no visible injuries, so he had to sell it as a mild sprain—just enough to stay consistent.
Crack!
Just then, a sharp noise made him glance down.
His phone had slipped from his pocket and landed screen-down in the middle of the road.
“Ah—damn.”
“Let me get that for you. Oh no…”
The screen was wrecked. A jagged crack stretched across it, the display flickering faint white. When he tapped it a couple of times, it didn’t even pretend to respond.
Fuck me.
Once this mess was over, he was going to have to explain to Moon Tae-young why he’d suddenly cut the call earlier.
He stared at the brightly lit police station ahead and let out a sigh—half frustration, half dread.
***
Vroooom—
Night had fallen over Cheongseri, casting it into deep stillness.
Cha Eui-sung fidgeted with his dead phone as he watched the rear of the departing police car fade into the distance.
He tapped his once-injured foot on the ground a few times, and with each step he took down the road, the sound of chirping insects abruptly ceased around him.
Too late.
By the time he’d heard them out about the compensation and been forced into silence, it was already past ten. If it were any other day, he would’ve gone home straight from hanging out with Moon Tae-young.
Would he still be able to see him now? Sure, if he showed up, Moon Tae-young wouldn’t kick him out—but for some reason, the thought of knocking on that door felt like too much.
“Mmmgh…”
Maybe this was the cost of peeking into the underbelly of the world. Cha Eui-sung was utterly spent for the first time in a while.
His entire body ached like he was coming down with the flu from everything he’d gone through earlier in the day. And the encounter with Go Yeong-won had been the final push over the edge—mental exhaustion at its peak.
Damn it. Everything had hit him all at once. Each incident would’ve been enough to drain him on its own, but they’d come at him like a pack of wild dogs swarming a chunk of meat.
Back in his first life, he’d felt this kind of crushing fatigue pretty often—but somehow now, it all felt foreign. People really were fickle. Just because he’d gotten used to life as an S-rank, this sort of thing suddenly felt painful.
Guess he really was the type who needed to be whipped into staying focused.
With a bitter laugh, Cha Eui-sung raised the phone he’d been fiddling with to his face.
The screen, which had been flickering pale white, was now half-dead and barely showing any sign of life.
He’d thought it was just a busted screen—but nope, the whole thing was toast.
This is some bullshit.
He hadn’t even thrown it—just dropped it on asphalt. And it completely died? What, were phone manufacturers making their devices out of sugar now instead of modern materials?
Crack. Just as he finished the thought, a shard of broken glass snagged his thumb. He pressed down, crushing it to dust, and felt the injustice even more keenly.
Come to think of it, it’d been a while since he felt this way. Up until a few months ago, he’d always carried around this bitter, unplaceable sense of injustice. Has he been too busy lately to even feel that?
“Hah… This isn’t good.”
With a wry smile, he blew the fine glass powder off his hand.
It wasn’t exactly a flattering thought, but that raw, gnawing negativity toward life and death had once served as fuel for him.
He’d long since hacked off the worst memories and buried them miles below—but the emotions that remained had kept releasing their slow-burning poison.
But now, with unpredictable events piling up, his sense of self slipping, and even his emotional fuel running out… what exactly was left of him?
Kicking at a pebble as he walked, Cha Eui-sung’s thoughts drifted to his final death. The one at the end of ten years of waiting, where he’d lost everything.
Unfortunately, the memory didn’t feel unfair anymore. It was just terrifying now. It felt like those icy-blue pupils from his hallucination were calling him from that violet sky.
Yeah… First life was the most unfair one.
The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like that first death—when he’d had absolutely nothing—was actually the most painful. That memory was always drenched in bottomless, pitch-black despair.
There had to be more to it than just “I awakened to S-rank and still died.” There had to be some more direct reason behind the overwhelming resentment…
Crunch.
He halted his steps, licking his lips.
Even though he hadn’t decided yet, his feet had already brought him to Moon Tae-young’s house.
Raking his fingers through his hair in frustration, he gave up and slumped down against the wall.
His skin still prickled with the aftershocks of everything that had happened in the vacant lot.
Figures I’d end up back here.
Only now, completely drained and unable to defend himself, did he realize he’d spent the entire day thinking about Moon Tae-young.
He’d had a Cthulhu god grab him by the neck, witnessed some incomprehensible event, and even ran into Go Yeong-won—and the person he kept thinking about at the end of it all was the damn Demon King.
Honestly, at this point, he could probably blame about thirty percent of his emotional instability on Moon Tae-young. Even a fake relationship required an exhausting amount of mental energy.
He let out sigh after sigh as he stared up at the stars glittering across the sky.
Clack—swish.
A door creaked open beyond the wall. Footsteps approached slowly.
Then the gate opened with a drawn-out groan—and as Cha Eui-sung looked up, a man with black hair came into view.
“…What are you doing here?”
“Oh.”
“‘Oh’? That’s it?”
“Moon Tae-young.”
“…Are you drunk?”
Drunk, my ass. He didn’t even get to touch a glass before his ride got wrecked and he got chased halfway across town.
“Nah, just… I came to tell you this.”
He held up his equally wrecked phone, and Moon Tae-young’s expression turned complicated.
For the first time since he’d lost his nerve back in the lot, Cha Eui-sung met his gaze head-on.
Was he angry? No.
Wary? Not that either.
Did he know something? …That part was hard to say.
But one thing was certain—his eyes didn’t show any intention of shutting him out. That sudden wave of relief that washed over him was so overwhelming, it made Cha Eui-sung let out a raspy little groan.
Goddamn. I should’ve just come earlier.
What the hell had he been so scared of?
It’s not like the damn Demon King was going to destroy the planet just because he got a little pissed. Who did this guy think he was?
“You’ve seen me, so that’s good enough.”
With a slow breath, he got to his feet. Moon Tae-young’s expression only grew more unreadable.
Cha Eui-sung gave him a faint smile, feeling just a bit lighter, and turned to leave—only for Moon Tae-young to suddenly grab his arm.
“You’re just leaving?”
