Chapter 77
Seo Won tried to ignore the fact that goosebumps had risen on his skin and quickened his pace a bit more. However, making his efforts meaningless, he was quickly caught up with. Baek Rak began matching his speed from beside him.
“Where are you going so eagerly?”
“……”
“There’s nothing if you go that way.”
“……”
“If you want to wash up, it’s to the left from here.”
Seo Won, who had been ignoring Baek Rak and moving his feet quickly, unconsciously turned his body to the left. When he hesitated belatedly, Baek Rak chuckled lightly.
‘…This is driving me crazy.’
This is why the unconscious is scary. Before his head could even recognize it, his body had judged cleanliness as more important and moved. Of course, that was naturally what should happen, but being caught by Baek Rak was embarrassing. He should be able to ignore him…
‘Since it’s come to this, I should wash up quickly and come out.’
Seo Won walked along the corridor as if nothing had happened.
When he had gone some distance, he could see a door marked “Bath House” far away. It was in a position that was easier to find than expected. However, there was one big problem. Countless people were lined up in front of the bath house. No matter how he looked at it, his turn didn’t seem like it would come easily.
Still, he couldn’t give up, so he was about to get in line when.
“…What?”
Suddenly Baek Rak grabbed his arm. When he looked at him sourly, the guy smiled with his eyes and said this.
“Even if you wait, you can’t go in right now. You can’t use it without a reservation.”
“What? Why are you telling me this now?”
Wasn’t the order completely wrong? If he had said it earlier, there would have been no need to come all the way here.
“I really didn’t think you’d come.”
“Wow…, really.”
“Come at night. There won’t be people then and it’ll be quiet.”
“Please tell me things like that in advance. Okay?”
When he shot formal speech at him with irritation, Baek Rak chuckled as if it was amusing. Even in this situation, Baek Rak laughing looked handsome, which was ridiculous. That face is the problem, the problem.
“Stop laughing all the time, I’m getting attached.”
“Seems like you already are.”
“Not yet?”
“Really?”
At that moment, Baek Rak’s face suddenly approached. As his lips brushed past his cheek precariously, almost touching but not quite, his face inevitably flushed hot. It was troublesome knowing how soft those lips were, and how stimulating they could be.
Seo Won hastily pushed Baek Rak away. Only when their eyes met did Baek Rak smile with his eyes as if to show off.
“You are attached, right?”
“What? What… nonsense are you talking about? What kind of attachment is this?”
He had only reflexively blushed because Baek Rak came close, but he didn’t know what this attachment talk was about. Surely attachment wasn’t being used in a different meaning?
While he was thinking such thoughts, Baek Rak stared directly into his eyes and said.
“Physical attachment is still attachment.”
What… attachment?
In an instant, Seo Won’s face blazed so red you’d wonder if it could get any redder. Physical attachment?
“You… crazy bastard.”
He really hadn’t imagined such words would come from Baek Rak’s mouth. Just how far should he accept this guy’s changes? Surely this isn’t his true nature?
The problem was that he felt strangely seduced by something that was quite immoral.
“Wouldn’t it be stranger if you weren’t physically attached? If you count the number of times you and I had sex, it’s no different from doing it almost every day. Plus you openly liked it too…”
“Waah! Stop talking, you bastard!”
“Desperately clinging and eating…”
“Ah! Really!”
Seo Won firmly covered Baek Rak’s mouth with his hand. When he glared at him with all sorts of emotions – whether anger or embarrassment – Baek Rak even laughed with his mouth covered.
“You’re not in your right mind, are you? No, you’re not Baek Rak!”
“If I were the Alpha, you’d already be in my belly.”
Baek Rak removed Seo Won’s hand and spoke in a light tone. He said such terrible things so nonchalantly.
Even during all this, Seo Won’s face remained flushed red.
“Let’s go for now. We’ll wash up at night.”
“Th-this…”
He felt like he should say something, but he couldn’t say anything. This complicated and subtle feeling wasn’t something he could handle.
Seo Won gritted his teeth while looking at the back of Baek Rak who was dragging him along. He had the impure thought that if he gave that small back of his head a good smack, wouldn’t he return to the original Baek Rak, but he pressed it down and endured.
He could only hope that someday he’d be able to have Baek Rak under his thumb.
***
Seo Won, who had just finished washing, walked through the dim corridor while shaking out his wet hair. Then he glanced sideways at Baek Rak walking alongside him.
“Where exactly do you get keys from?”
“Curious?”
“Of course. Last time you brought the power room master key, and this time you brought the bath house key. Why is everything so easy for you?”
“I just got it from one of our people. It’s not that difficult.”
“…Huh?”
Baek Rak casually dropped a meaningful statement. One of our people? It didn’t seem like he meant he got it from Han Seong Hyeon…
Could it be?
“Don’t tell me there are… Yeongdeungpo Station people here too?”
“There are some here, and at Seoul Station too.”
“It’s a proper three-way battle.”
Yeongdeungpo Station, Seoul Station, and Gangnam Station shelters seemed to actively use spies to be wary of each other.
“Usually when there are spies, don’t you filter them out?”
“No, we just leave them alone.”
“Why?”
“Because the losses are greater than the gains. Other shelters won’t leave our spies alone either.”
Was it like an implicit rule? It seemed like they all knew but allowed it to some extent for mutual benefit. Come to think of it, Han Seong Hyeon also only tried to prevent information from leaking to spies, but didn’t try to root them out.
“I feel like I’m seeing political dealings happening underwater.”
“It’s no different.”
“…It’s all the same wherever people live.”
Even though creatures had appeared and the world had turned to ruins, people remained the same. So it was familiar yet also disappointing. Being the same humans but having to distinguish between enemies and allies.
Anyway, if that was the way things worked here, there was no need for him to cause confusion. Rather, it was natural for him to adapt to this world.
Seo Won organized his thoughts and shook his hair out again.
“But how much time is left until morning?”
“About 30 minutes.”
“Then should we go wait there?”
After getting a good night’s sleep, washing up, and coming out, his eyes were wide awake. Anyway, to meet Jody, he had to go to the place where they had been staying.
After walking through the dark corridor with Baek Rak for a while, he finally arrived at the place where he first met Jody. It was also where he had fought with Baek Rak, and where he had first encountered the strange Baek Rak.
Seo Won quietly stared at the bench where he and Baek Rak had sat.
Strangely, it felt like something that had happened a very long time ago. Even though it hadn’t been long since he came to this world, it felt like several months had already passed.
Was it because something happened every single day without fail? Thinking about it, he had lived quite eventfully. Just how many times had he crossed the line between life and death? Even the people living in this place probably hadn’t lived as dynamically as him. Could it be that his fate was turbulent?
“Yoon Seo Won.”
Seo Won, who had been seriously contemplating his fortune, returned to reality at Baek Rak’s call. When he came to his senses and looked at Baek Rak, the guy had called him but was looking elsewhere.
Was something there? Curious, he turned his head following Baek Rak’s gaze.
“……”
“……”
Someone was standing in the dark corridor. It was the fire-type hunter they had been looking for, Jody.
Though he had expected him to come looking, he hadn’t known they would meet this quickly. Since he had seen him exhausted, he was checking if his body was okay, but the guy was looking at Baek Rak with an expressionless face.
Startled by the chilly atmosphere for a moment, Jody returned to his usual appearance as soon as he made eye contact with Seo Won and let out a long sigh.
“…I knew you’d be here today.”
Had he really been searching for them all this time? He didn’t know what he was thinking. Seo Won frowned in frustration.
“You must be tired, why did you come out at this hour?”
“Because I thought you’d be looking for me.”
“…How did you know?”
“Because you must have realized I’m a hunter.”
Seo Won slowly raised his head. He must have realized? Did that mean he had deliberately revealed his identity?
But why?
“…What does you being a hunter have to do with me?”
“I thought you’d need me.”
He did need Jody, but the fact that the guy knew this was a different problem.
Perhaps because of that, fatigue suddenly washed over him.
“Don’t beat around the bush, just say it.”
When Seo Won was wary of him unlike before, Jody smiled vaguely. Then he looked at Baek Rak and slowly opened his mouth.
“You need to awaken as a Guardian.”
In an instant, Seo Won’s body trembled slightly. Jody, who lived in a different district, knew a fact that even Yu Sol and Park Haru didn’t know? He couldn’t not know what this meant. Where and how had the information leaked?
Seo Won urgently tried to recall the conversations he’d had with Jody one by one. But no matter how much he thought about it, they had never once talked about hunters or awakening.
Then it meant a spy at Yeongdeungpo Station had found out… Things were turning out more seriously than expected.
When he was wondering what to do, Jody slowly approached and said.
“Don’t worry. Other people don’t know. I just figured it out because I’m quick to catch on.”
“…What?”
Could it be that he hadn’t heard the information from a spy but deduced it from his actions?
Just as Seo Won’s stiff face was turning pale, Baek Rak stepped forward and said to Jody.
“You, you were a guide.”
“…There was another person who’s quick to catch on.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
