You have entered the Dungeon Gate.
Entry count: 1/12
… 4 days 5 hours 34 minutes until Flood …
That familiar yet uncanny sensation—like being crushed by gravity, or else unshackled from it—ran its course, and Cha-hyeon opened his eyes.
A department store. The very same place as moments ago—so unchanged that an ordinary person might’ve doubted they’d actually passed through a Gate.
In the Yeouido department store where the Gate—once shimmering like a mirage—had vanished, everything was perfectly calm. The lighting was gentle on the eyes; the greenery on the first floor looked dewy and fresh.
Aside from the fact that no one was there but Cha-hyeon, nothing felt out of place at all.
But to Cha-hyeon, who sized up the surroundings with only the barest shift of his gaze, that hardly mattered. He mouthed a curse and tipped his head back. With his eyes closed, the Dungeon’s light washed over his face.
“Ah… this is pissing me off.”
He muttered coolly and lifted his lids. The black of his eyes, infused with light, gleamed darkly.
“I walked into a Dungeon of my own accord.”
He’d rattled on about Rift management and Flood response just to avoid coming in here. Who’d have thought he’d end up entering because Se-min had been taken hostage.
Straightening, Cha-hyeon raked back the hair falling over his brow. The mussed strands promptly fell loose again, veiling his forehead.
“Ha….”
A sigh slipped out, steeped in layered annoyance.
For Cha-hyeon, an unscheduled Gate raid was no problem at all. He was an S-rank Esper who’d never once failed. Even back when he’d lived like an idiot with a pair guide stuck to his side and poured down booster ampoules, there wasn’t a single Dungeon he hadn’t cleared. Now that he was overflowing with guiding energy, it went without saying.
What grated on him was that something unplanned—beyond his control—had happened.
“…Hyung… uh, what is this….”
Se-min, drowned in deep-sea blue, asking what was happening to him. The way warmth drained out between his fingers as Se-min seemed to burn away and vanish before his eyes.
Turning over the fact that something of his had been snatched away right in front of him, a dull heat climbed from his chest up the nape of his neck and into his skull. He tried to sort out his emotions with slow breaths, but his insides only bubbled and seethed.
On top of that… the Gate type that forced Cha-hyeon—who’d ended up joining the raid team anyway—into entering alone sparked an uneasy familiarity.
Hadn’t he gone through something like this before? After his first sex guiding with Se-min, the Unclaimed Rewards List had been packed with question marks, as if telling him to go try a Dungeon.
So he’d walked in by himself—and discovered the irritating possibility that Sung Cha-hyeon might return at any time.
This time the pattern was the same. Se-min had been taken hostage, and Cha-hyeon, unable to show anyone the nonsense playing out in Se-min’s dreams, had come into the Dungeon alone.
The leading theory was that clearing a specific Gate would yield fragments of memory. It all felt like some fate he couldn’t refuse.
“Status window.”
Cha-hyeon spoke under his breath. A translucent pane of bluish light only he could see floated up in the air.
~Unclaimed Rewards List~
♦ …Clear Reward… (1/3)
Nothing had changed. Not yet.
But there was still the possibility that clearing a Dungeon under certain conditions would tick up that shitty little number—and it might even happen here, in the Dungeon he’d just entered.
“All that, and you can’t even handle a single Rift….”
Of all things, a pack of dimwits had to be the ones assigned to the raid team.
Cha-hyeon cut off the feeling with a quiet inhale and a long exhale.
“……”
Expressionless, he took a few slow steps. The glossy tiles rang softly under his soles. When he stopped again, silence draped itself over the empty space.
Tok, tok… The only sound was the distant drip of the fountain. Cracking his neck left and right, Cha-hyeon muttered,
“Nothing here.”
Not a single presence. For him, it was an unfamiliar quiet. He usually took on Dungeons where he never stopped moving, carving down monsters as he went—not these Illusion-Type places that forced you to overthink like hell.
It had been a while since he’d had to wonder where to start. He replayed the Illusion-Type Dungeon precautions the On-site Support Team had briefed before entry.
“Be careful when you speak to the hostage. The moment you address him, the hostage will recognize Esper Sung Cha-hyeon, and you must never provoke him. Because it’s a dream, mild incongruities won’t feel strange to him, so provoking him won’t lead to anything good.”
“You need to approach in a way that fits the hostage’s disposition—meaning Guide Ji Se-min’s. Within the Dungeon, Guide Ji Se-min is like a god. Like playing house, everything inside will move according to Guide Ji Se-min’s will. Because it’s a dream, Guide Ji Se-min may even use abilities he normally can’t. The most important thing is getting Guide Ji Se-min to realize on his own that this is a dream. And…”
The whites shone under his pupils. Long-winded, even in hindsight.
When his stare told the Support Team to boil it down to three lines, they’d resigned themselves and condensed the strategy. So, fine—he knew how to proceed.
“A world where everything unfolds according to Guide Ji Se-min’s dream. Just remember that.”
One way or another, he just had to clear it.
Ji Se-min’s Mindscape. How would his pair guide’s most ardent wishes take shape? Before he peeked at the secret appetites of his guide, who dripped blind, guileless affection…
“Not coming out even if I do this, huh?”
Might as well clear away the clutter—and find out where Ji Se-min, not so much as a single hair in sight, was hiding.
Hard as it is to believe, Cha-hyeon had almost never raised his voice in anger his whole life. Why shred your throat yelling and swearing when you can just smash things?
His mouth stretched into a long grin. Black mist wound tight around his clenched fist, then whipped up to sheath his entire right arm.
Thoom! A blade-like sweep of darkness ripped a long gash through the air.
***
—!
A muffled detonation sounded from somewhere.
At a table in a rooftop bar, Se-min—tense to the limit as he stared at the menu—lifted his head. It had sounded like something collapsing….
Did I imagine that?
Gentle classical music, tastefully warm lighting, buildings glowing bright, the dark-blue Han River beyond. It was the kind of bar you’d visit with someone you liked on a special night, and it was perfectly peaceful.
“What’s wrong?”
While he strained to listen, the hyung across from him asked. Jumpy from nerves, Se-min flapped his hand quickly.
“Ah, it’s nothing. Um…”
He pretended to refocus on the menu. Lines of text crammed with food and drinks swam before his eyes without sinking in.
He and hyung had gone all over, but a bar with this kind of vibe was a first. It made them feel like a real couple. His heart thumped so hard he worried hyung might hear it.
“Can’t decide?”
As always, in that gentle voice, hyung dipped his head as if to look at the menu with him. Se-min turned the stack of pages so he could see more easily, but what hyung actually took was Se-min’s hand resting on the table.
“Hup!”
Se-min startled and sucked in a thin breath before he knew it. The hand covering the back of his was big and warm. With their heads bowed together over the menu, his Adam’s apple bobbed.
He worried the sound of his swallow might’ve been audible, but fortunately hyung didn’t seem to notice.
“Mm…”
Still cupping the back of Se-min’s hand, Hyung pondered. Slightly rough fingertips traced ticklish lines over Se-min’s fingers. It was only a small bit of touch, but the sensation was like a feather skimming his heart; Se-min bit lightly at his lower lip.
“What looks good? Are you really hungry?”
Hyung asked as if he hadn’t noticed how much he was making Se-min tremble. Eyes and mouth softened with kindness, a gaze brimming with warmth. Under the sparkle of the fairy lights, his black eyes gleamed with life.
How lucky that hyung had gotten that vitality back in his gaze. Pressing his lips into a smile, Se-min swallowed down the swell of emotion.
Deciding to date hyung had been the right choice. It felt like just yesterday that, insisting he was practically family, hyung wouldn’t let even his pair guide so much as touch him. Now, hyung accepted him—and guiding—without hesitation…
…Then why was it again that hyung had come to accept my guiding so easily?
……
…Because hyung actually liked me too.
Ah, right. That was it. At some point, he’d said, Se-min had started to look different—this dongsaeng who once felt like real family had begun to look like someone he could date.
Once a small catalyst confirmed their feelings, the relationship took off in an instant. Like a precarious riverbank giving way, the line they’d drawn was swept off helplessly by love.
Se-min looked at hyung’s hand wrapped over his own. When their eyes met, hyung flashed the smile Se-min loved most, same as ever. The moment their hearts had aligned sent a thrill through him even in memory. A smile tugged at Se-min’s mouth on its own.
Yeah. Se-min was really, truly happy.
