#44
Early in the morning, Do-hyeok opened his eyes in his bedroom. Even though he hadn’t set an alarm, he always woke up at the same time. There was one reason for this. He couldn’t sleep deeply. It was a kind of insomnia. He seemed to have slept quite well when he was young, but after experiencing that incident, he couldn’t sleep well.
It could be considered a side effect. At first, it was hard to adapt. Since he couldn’t sleep, his nerves became sensitive and he got irritated by everything, but as they say, humans are animals of adaptation. As he gradually got used to not being able to sleep, that daily routine had long since become part of Do-hyeok’s life.
Do-hyeok washed up and leisurely brewed and drank a cup of coffee. Then his gaze suddenly fell on the phone next to him. When he touched the screen, as always, there were no messages. That was normal. He didn’t have that many people to contact.
But perhaps expecting something slightly, Do-hyeok’s brow furrowed very slightly.
“Did he save it, I wonder.”
Taking a sip of coffee, he recalled last night’s phone call with Ha-seong. After finishing a brief meeting with Won-hyeok last night and about to leave work, Do-hyeok stopped by the guild leader’s office just in case. He thought Ha-seong might be waiting or come to say he was leaving work. But when he heard from Shin-woo that he had already left work, he felt a bit deflated.
There was no reason for that at all. And that soon led to an impulsive phone call. Why he called, why he did that to Ha-seong when he’d never even texted him before—Do-hyeok himself still didn’t know. He just wanted to.
Once he actually made the call, he had nothing to say so he ended up babbling nonsense. Moreover, through that call he also discovered the fact that Ha-seong hadn’t even saved his number, so there was some gain.
Do-hyeok finished the rest of his coffee while thinking that as soon as he got to work, he should first check whether his number was saved in Ha-seong’s phone, and if so, what name it was saved under. For the first time in his life, the morning wasn’t boring.
But soon a vibrating sound came to break that mood. On the phone screen he looked at, Woo-bin’s name was displayed.
Do-hyeok answered the phone with a bad premonition.
“Yeah, why.”
– Sorry for calling so early in the morning.
“It’s fine, so tell me.”
– Stop by the Hunter Management Bureau before you come to work. Specifically, my office.
“Why?”
– ……It would be a bit long to explain over the phone, I’ll tell you when you come. Ah. And bring Ha-seong-ssi with you too.
Woo-bin hung up after leaving just those words. He wanted to ask what it was roughly about, but his voice didn’t sound normal, so it seemed to be quite a serious matter. Do-hyeok immediately went to messenger.
[Cha Do-hyeok: Don’t come to the guild today, stay at home. I’ll come pick you up so be ready.]
It was Do-hyeok’s first message to Ha-seong.
* * *
Ha-seong received the text to come out to the front of his house exactly 15 minutes after he finished preparing. When he went outside, a familiar black sedan was parked in front of his house. He thought it was Han Shin-woo’s car, but it was Cha Do-hyeok’s.
Ha-seong now familiarly got into that car.
“It’s a pig.”
As soon as he sat in the passenger seat, that was the first thing Do-hyeok said. Not “hello” or “good morning”—suddenly calling him a pig made Ha-seong glare at him sharply.
“I’m normal weight.”
“No, not that.”
Do-hyeok suddenly pointed his finger toward Ha-seong’s legs. Ha-seong’s head naturally turned downward.
[Het.]
Then the pig suddenly popped out from under his legs. Ha-seong sighed deeply. He’d been careless because lately it had been staying home well without whining to be taken along. It seemed to have attached itself to his leg again.
“Should we leave it behind?”
Do-hyeok asked. He was briefly troubled, but rather than getting out of the car and struggling to leave this guy at home again, it seemed better to just go.
“Let’s just go.”
“Yes.”
Do-hyeok told him to put on his seatbelt and then smoothly started the car. The guild leader with such an unusual personality drove quite smoothly, contrary to expectations. Perhaps because it was rush hour, the roads were packed with cars.
“But where are we going now?”
At the text saying he’d come pick him up so don’t go to work and wait, Ha-seong didn’t ask and just replied that he understood. It clearly didn’t seem like they were going to the guild.
“The Hunter Management Bureau. Yoon Woo-bin contacted me saying he had something to say and to stop by briefly before work.”
“Me too?”
Do-hyeok skillfully changed lanes and nodded. Did he find out something? If he called Ha-seong too, there was a high possibility he’d discovered information.
It seemed like only one section was congested, because once the road opened up, Do-hyeok drove a bit faster. It was his first time going to the Hunter Management Bureau—what would it look like? The Hunter Management Bureau in the world Ha-seong had lived in, that is, the Hunter Association building, felt like a prison, so to speak. Just looking up at the rigid and monotonous building made him feel suffocated.
Having such thoughts, Do-hyeok had soon finished parking and told him to get out. Ha-seong took the pig that had been attached to his leg, put it in his arms, and got out of the car. Following Do-hyeok slowly, the Hunter Management Bureau building gradually came into view.
A large, tall building. It wasn’t rigid and had a distinctly modern architectural feel. He thought that if someone didn’t know what it was, they might think it looked like a large-scale art museum.
“What are you looking at like that?”
Do-hyeok asked, seeing Ha-seong’s significantly slowed pace.
“Just. This place seems very different.”
Do-hyeok stopped walking and looked intently at Ha-seong, who was still opening his mouth. Come to think of it, he’d said something similar before.
‘So that’s why hunters are so popular here. This place……’
Words he’d uttered as if he was someone who didn’t know this place. At the time, even hearing such words, he hadn’t thought anything of it, but now that he was saying something like that again, it suddenly came to mind.
“What are you doing? Let’s go in. I don’t know the way.”
“Yes.”
But there was no point in pondering it. From the beginning, what Do-hyeok wanted from Ha-seong was his ability—everything else was irrelevant. While going to the building elevator, he could hear Ha-seong making the terrifying statement to the pig in his arms that if it didn’t stay still, he’d make it starve for three days.
After getting on the elevator like that, Do-hyeok familiarly pressed the 5th floor. It was the floor with Yoon Woo-bin’s personal office. There were only two people in the elevator, but while going from the 1st to 5th floor, it stopped at every floor and people began getting on. One or two, two or three, sometimes as many as five people got on, and the inside became packed in an instant.
The Hunter Management Bureau employees flinched when they saw Do-hyeok on the elevator. It wasn’t just some of them—all the employees getting on did this, which was a bit funny. When one or two more people got on at the last floor, the two who had gotten on first were pushed even further inside.
Do-hyeok, who had been on the outside of Ha-seong, was gradually pushed back and could be seen putting strength into his body. It seemed like behavior to avoid touching Ha-seong.
“……Hey.”
Ha-seong whispered quietly to such Do-hyeok and swiftly grabbed his right wrist.
“Don’t pointlessly tense up, just lean to the side.”
Ha-seong pulled Do-hyeok toward himself. The gap between the two instantly narrowed.
“……”
Do-hyeok lowered his gaze slightly. Ha-seong’s neat hair came into view. A subtle body scent wafted over. Do-hyeok looked ahead again. Strangely enough, the packed elevator didn’t feel stuffy.
The two who got off the elevator walked to the room at the very end of the corridor. When Do-hyeok knocked on the door without hesitation, a voice immediately came from inside saying it was okay to enter.
“What’s going on?”
Do-hyeok said as soon as he entered. Ha-seong followed behind him while carefully looking around the interior. They said he was a team leader of a department, and the room was quite spacious and large. But it wasn’t much different from any ordinary office worker’s office.
“Sit down first. It seems like the story will be a bit long.”
While saying this, Woo-bin also greeted Ha-seong who was standing behind. Woo-bin’s room had a separate conference room made of glass panels on the side. Woo-bin guided the two there and closed the door.
Even though this room was also Woo-bin’s personal office and there was no one but them, the fact that he deliberately went into the conference room further inside also meant that what they were about to discuss was by no means a light topic.
“Sorry for suddenly calling you before work. It’s such an important matter.”
Woo-bin looked at Ha-seong and smiled awkwardly.
“No, it’s fine.”
Anyway, Ha-seong’s work was playing informant under the guise of going to work, so there was no need to be so attached to purifier work.
“So? Hurry up and talk about the main point.”
At Do-hyeok’s words as a signal, Woo-bin pulled over a file folder that was placed beside him. Opening the file, he pushed it toward the two. Inside the file were three photos, all of which were far from ordinary.
“……”
Photos of someone brutally murdered. In other words, these were case file photos. Looking at the photo of a man collapsed in a narrow alley bleeding, Do-hyeok and Ha-seong fell silent as if on cue.
“Around 11:45 yesterday, someone died in an alley near Gangnam. As you can see, they were murdered. The cause of death was excessive bleeding from stab wounds. It seems the abdomen was deeply stabbed with a knife or sharp object—I got contact from the police side this morning.”
“A hunter?”
Ha-seong, who had been pondering something deeply, suddenly asked. It wasn’t without reason that he concluded the victim was a hunter. If this had been an incident involving a civilian, the police would have handled it. But the fact that it didn’t stop there and was passed on to Yoon Woo-bin, who belonged to the Hunter Management Bureau, meant there was one possibility that could be inferred.
“That’s right. Ha-seong-ssi, you’re quick to catch on.”
“The perpetrator?”
If there was a victim, there must be a perpetrator. But at Do-hyeok’s question, Woo-bin’s expression became a bit grim.
“We haven’t been able to identify them yet. I also received this from the police side this morning. It seems the police also couldn’t find clear evidence.”
At those words, Ha-seong and Do-hyeok didn’t ask further and waited for Woo-bin’s next words. In any case, he had called the two of them here. There must surely be a reason for that.
“And this.”
Woo-bin placed one more photo on top of the three photos.
“It was found together with the victim.”
The photo showed a blood-stained piece of paper. A paper with just one sentence written on it.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
