Na Jungwoo looked absolutely miserable as he slurped on a café latte in the coffee shop on the first floor of the guild building. The Hunter sitting across from him only seemed more delighted the more Jungwoo’s face contorted with frustration.
“I’m telling you, every time he teaches, it just clicks. He sets things up so clearly—like, even when your brain’s fried, if you ask him to be honest, he just hits you with it straight. I almost cried, not gonna lie, but he was right on the money.”
“……”
“Have you ever actually thought about your weapon’s center of gravity when holding it? I used to rely on instinct, but he laid out the theory perfectly. Ugh, I bet there’s a whole new waitlist behind me now.”
“Fuck this. I don’t even use a longsword like that cult freak. I use daggers.”
“Come on, haven’t you read wuxia novels? All paths lead to the same origin, you know.”
“All paths my ass.”
Grumbling to himself, Na Jungwoo gnawed on the straw between his teeth. While the rest of the guild was lining up like it was a concert just to train with Kim Sibaek, Jungwoo couldn’t bring himself to approach him—his pride just wouldn’t allow it.
Goddamn it. He could’ve at least skipped the healing part.
Who the hell could understand the sheer humiliation of getting knocked out in one hit, then healed afterward by the same guy? Remembering how he’d mocked him as some cult nut made Jungwoo want to drown in his latte and die.
“How do you know this stuff won’t save your life one day? Cult freak or not, if he’s teaching for free and you’re not taking it, you’re the idiot.”
“……”
And the idiot who wasn’t taking it just sat there grinding his teeth.
His fellow Hunter whistled as he scrolled through their group chat, where people were literally drawing waitlist numbers. Then his eyes lit up.
“Hey, I heard Mentor’s going to an amusement park. Why not apologize there? Keep it casual.”
After sending his teammate off to pick up a repaired weapon from the production department, Na Jungwoo made his way to the smoking booth behind the building. His head was a mess—he needed a cigarette.
Apologize? Should I bow and grovel? Maybe throw in a full-body kowtow while I’m at it? Goddamn it.
The pride that had been shattered by that single hit refused to let him bow before Kim Sibaek. But unfortunately, his ears still worked. Even when he didn’t want to hear it, the other guild members’ testimonials kept slipping in, loud and clear.
Do I suck it up, apologize, and ask for help? Or keep my pride intact and get left behind?
Jungwoo was drowning in indecision.
Embarrassment only lasts a moment. Maybe I should just close my eyes and get it over with, for the sake of my future…
His mental scale had just about tipped in favor of swallowing his pride—when it happened.
Rounding the corner toward the smoking booth, he suddenly came face-to-face with a stranger. Before he could register that it was the foreigner who’d been sitting nearby in the café earlier, the man took off his sunglasses.
The moment Jungwoo locked eyes with him—those eyes, black all the way through, even the whites—darkness swallowed him whole.
***
Ever since returning to Earth, the shadow of his younger brother had visited him more often, shaped now into the form of nightmares. The dreams were always similar—his brother, still a child, asking why he never came for him.
But this one was different.
It started with a memory: a younger version of himself reading a picture book to his little brother, a gift from a teacher who knew their situation. His brother, who never reacted to much of anything, was staring intently at one page—a picture of a baby bear playing joyfully at an amusement park.
“You want to go to an amusement park? Maybe we can go together someday.”
His brother had looked up at him in response—and that gaze chased Kim Sibaek all the way to the end of the dream.
When he jolted awake, gasping for breath, he pressed a hand to his forehead, still trembling. Was it the amusement park outing quest that triggered the dream? Back then, he’d never gotten the chance to take his brother there.
Because his brother had vanished.
“…I’m sorry.”
He knew it would never reach the brother who was already gone. Still, he exhaled a broken breath and covered his face. That unhealed wound in his soul throbbed painfully, oozing rot like blood that would never clot.
Even though he’d tried to shake off the remnants of that nightmare, it seemed the shadow still lingered.
“Hyung, are you okay?”
Tae Woon’s voice came, soft and worried. As he stepped closer, Sibaek suddenly remembered—it had already been two weeks. Yet Tae Woon’s eyes held only concern, not resentment.
The realization made Sibaek feel ashamed of his own defensiveness, and guilty too. He wasn’t the only one who had been counting the days.
Without meaning to, Sibaek found his eyes drifting to Tae Woon’s lips. The warmth he remembered from those lips seemed to flare up again inside him, leaving his throat dry and tight.
“I think I just slept weird. It’s nothing.”
“Really?”
“I said I’m fine. Anyway, let’s get moving. How much time do we have before the appointment?”
That question immediately darkened Tae Woon’s expression. Of all people, it had to be Pi Minhyung who was standing there when the amusement park came up.
“Hyung, if you’re going to the amusement park, wanna go with my crew?”
“What?!”
“Chill. I was asking Hyung, not you.”
Ignoring his friend entirely, Pi Minhyung had gone straight for Kim Sibaek, trying to win him over first. At first, Sibaek had planned to politely decline. He didn’t want his personal life tangled up any further.
“I’ve always felt bad that I don’t have much time to spend with the kids. I don’t know if you knew, but I’m raising them on my own.”
At those unexpectedly sincere words from Pi Minhyung, Kim Sibaek felt something stir in his chest. That baby who’d once been abandoned outside an orphanage—when had he grown up enough to raise children himself?
What was supposed to be a quiet amusement park date for just him and Tae Woon had morphed into a group outing with Minhyung’s family tagging along.
“The kids are Seo-yeon and Seo-jun, right? Seo-yeon’s the older sister.”
When Sibaek first heard that Minhyung had kids despite being unmarried, he was stunned. But once he heard the backstory, it wasn’t what he’d assumed. The children had belonged to a married couple—Hunters who had fought alongside Minhyung since their days at the Seoul Shelter. They had died side by side in battle, and with no close relatives to take in the children, there were no other options.
Minhyung had agonized over the decision but ultimately couldn’t bring himself to send them to an orphanage—he knew what that life was like. That had been three years ago. The older one had just started elementary school. Feeling slightly guilty, Sibaek regretted jumping to conclusions about how the kids came into Minhyung’s life.
Biendeoé narrowed her eyes and gave Sibaek a knowing look. She could read his surface thoughts like an open book. Wasn’t it Tae Woon who threw Minhyung under the bus just to dodge questions about that nightclub? Still, no point saying anything—Sibaek wouldn’t listen anyway. She simply sighed.
“What’s wrong, sir?”
[Your god, Death and Beauty, thanks you for your merciful act.]
“……?”
Only after they’d entered the amusement park and met up with Minhyung’s family did Sibaek finally understand why Minhyung had smiled so slyly when bringing up this outing.
“……”
Tae Woon stared blankly at the signboard.
After the Cataclysm, amusement parks had been slapped with strict safety protocols to prevent Eid Portal outbreaks. One of those included ride restrictions based on height.
Tae Woon, standing at 196 centimeters, was too tall to ride any of the thrill rides—ironically, the exact ones he’d picked out for their date.
Kim Sibaek, at 184 centimeters, barely passed. Minhyung couldn’t ride either, but he was already tasked with watching the kids anyway. Still, he burst out laughing.
“Pffft—HAHAHA! You went through all that effort to plan a date and didn’t even check the ride restrictions? What the hell were you thinking? Want to just ride the carousel with my kids? Oh wait—you’re too jacked to fit on that too!”
“……”
Normally, Tae Woon would’ve tossed Minhyung to the wolves. But today, he just stood there in stunned silence. Even Seo-yeon, who was usually shy around him, gently tugged on his sleeve.
“Uncle, cheer up…”
Sibaek gave Tae Woon a comforting pat on the shoulder.
“Well, can’t be helped. It’s not like we came here for ourselves, right?”
“Hyung…”
Tae Woon managed a weak smile, turning to suggest they go find a ride without height or weight limits. But before he could say anything, Sibaek took little Seo-jun’s hand.
“Woon-ah, just relax and treat it like a sightseeing trip. I’ll go ride a few things with Seo-yeon and Seo-jun.”
“Wait—”
Minhyung quickly interrupted.
“Hyung-nim! Let’s go together! I’ll handle the photos!”
With both kids holding his hands, Sibaek walked ahead, leaving Tae Woon no choice but to trudge after him, glaring daggers at Minhyung.
“Hyung… that one’s got an age restriction.”
He pointed to the sign in front of the flume ride, which clearly stated: No riders over age 60.
“You little punk. Hyung-nim’s not even fifty yet—what kind of nonsense is that? Fifty’s the new youth, haven’t you heard? Isn’t that right, Hyung-nim?”
“Oh, yeah. Totally.”
All Sibaek wanted was to get this quest over with. The 97-year-old stood in line with a poker face, completely unfazed.
***
From a distance, the two men and two women sitting on the bench looked like a typical pair of couples enjoying the amusement park. But the conversation between them said otherwise.
“Today’s the day, right? The quest where we’re supposed to sprout a monster seed inside the park?”
