#64
‘What’s your name?’
‘……I don’t tell personal information to strangers.’
‘Smart kid. Right. If you don’t want to tell me, don’t. I won’t tell you mine either.’
Like playing an old video, faint voices came to mind, cutting off here and there.
‘Anyway, little one, good job. You endured well getting this far. You’re okay now. Because I’m here.’
What kind of feeling did those words give him? Right. He had definitely felt relieved. If his memory was correct, he seemed to have cried hard. Those words saying he did well, that he endured well and survived well – he couldn’t have been happier. Do-hyeok, who had moved from orphanage to orphanage, couldn’t receive the attention he should have naturally received from adults and couldn’t even learn the emotions he should have learned one by one.
That was also the reason why he was a bit more emotionally numb than others. But that day, the day he heard that he was okay now, Do-hyeok learned what relief was for the first time. It was the first positive emotion felt by him who had been full of distrust toward adults and narrow-minded feelings toward this damn society where there wasn’t even a place to stand as a child with nothing.
“Hey…… Hey!”
Then a sharp voice broke Do-hyeok’s reverie. When he looked up, Ha-seong was looking at him with furrowed brows.
“What are you doing? My arm hurts.”
Ah, Do-hyeok made a low sound in his throat and released the strength in his hand. It seemed he had gripped too hard without realizing it. Ha-seong rubbed his wrist and tilted his head as if it was strange.
“What’s wrong with you.”
No matter how hard Do-hyeok had gripped, it wasn’t at a level that Ha-seong couldn’t break free from with his strength. The reason he didn’t was because he didn’t think Do-hyeok was suddenly acting like this for no reason.
“……It’s nothing.”
Do-hyeok crumpled the empty beer can and stood up from his seat. He carelessly threw the can toward the huge trash bin next to him. A dull sound was heard and the can disappeared in an instant.
“Let’s go in. Now.”
At Do-hyeok’s suddenly changed atmosphere, Ha-seong didn’t say anything more and stood up from his seat. Looking at his back that seemed somehow heavy, Ha-seong wondered if he had really made a mistake, if it would have been better not to mention parents after all, and moved his steps with such thoughts.
* * *
That night, Do-hyeok had trouble sleeping. He wasn’t originally one to sleep soundly anyway. Sleep time was just time when no noise, nothing could be heard for Do-hyeok. While others all had common dreams, Do-hyeok would sleep lightly without even dreaming.
But today was different. He had a dream after quite a long time. It was a dream from that time. It was a dream from that era that had simultaneously given heaven and hell to Do-hyeok’s life. When he opened his eyes, everywhere was an unknown space and strange monsters were wandering around making threats.
He ran and ran again. After wandering for days in a place with no night or day, just when he was about to collapse, someone reached out their hand to him.
‘You’re okay now. Because I’m here.’
Gentle hands stroked his hair. It was the moment when comfort was about to dominate his body. Suddenly the scene switched like a movie and the surroundings turned completely bloody. When he slowly turned his gaze, those hands that had reached out to him, those white long fingers that had gently stroked his hair were soaked with blood.
“……Ha.”
And his vision went black. Do-hyeok slowly opened his eyes. As his sense of reality returned, he dry-washed his face. Seeing the sweat beaded on his forehead, the dream that came after a long time still had excellent effects.
After going through that incident, for a while he was tormented by dreams like this every night. Nightmares disguised as reality always tormented Do-hyeok and made him into a human with no greed for sleep. But the saying that time heals wasn’t created for nothing – as he grew up, the frequency of dreaming decreased. Then he stopped dreaming altogether……
“……”
Do-hyeok wasn’t unaware. Why such a nightmare had come to him today.
‘Good job. Getting this far. You endured well.’
It was because of Do Ha-seong. From those words and the hand stroking his hair, Do-hyeok naturally brought out faded memories. It was the same as last time. When he heard Ha-seong say ‘don’t place priorities and such,’ he also recalled a familiar voice.
Why do conversations with Ha-seong suddenly bring up incidents with that person? Do-hyeok slowly turned his head and stared beyond the window. Tonight’s moonlight felt particularly bright.
Moonlight slowly settled in his black pupils. Then Do-hyeok soon closed his eyes. At times like this, it was better not to think about anything.
Because thinking about dead people wouldn’t benefit him at all.
* * *
The next morning, a gate suddenly burst open near Gangdong-gu. Since it was an unexpected gate that opened in a densely populated area, Do-hyeok stepped forward from Nameless, which received a support request from the Management Bureau. He wondered if it might be an artificially opened gate.
Do-hyeok’s informant was currently recuperating because of his arm, so he had no choice but to move directly even if it meant taking risks. But this dungeon was utterly ordinary. He couldn’t see the ‘two masters’ that Ha-seong had mentioned last time.
As soon as Do-hyeok escaped the collapsing dungeon, he was caught by a Management Bureau employee.
“Um…… I need to get signatures and such for post-processing……”
It was a face he had seen somewhere before. Looking at the Management Bureau ID, it said ‘Kim Min-su.’ But since he couldn’t remember exactly when and where he had seen the face, Do-hyeok gave up thinking about it.
“I’d like to get this done quickly. I’m a bit tired.”
His mind was a bit heavy since he hadn’t slept a wink yesterday. When Do-hyeok said this while rubbing his stiff shoulders, Kim Min-su answered that he understood and drawled his words weakly.
“Ugh, look at that attitude, still the same.”
Following behind, Baek Han-bit crossed over from the gate, clicked her tongue in disgust, and approached Do-hyeok and Kim Min-su who was struggling in front of him. When the emergency gate burst, support requests went first to Myeongwol, the closest guild in the vicinity, and she was dispatched. This was also the reason this dungeon was conquered quickly. The guild leaders of Myeongwol and Nameless had cooperated.
“People who lead guilds should, Do-hyeok. Get along well with Management Bureau employees. Got it?”
Baek Han-bit shook her head and casually put her arm on Do-hyeok’s shoulder.
“Since you didn’t do anything inside, you have energy to spare, right?”
Do-hyeok irritably knocked off the arm that had been placed on his shoulder. It looked like he was shooing away a bug that had landed on his body.
“What do you mean I didn’t do anything! If I hadn’t drawn that guy’s attention at the end, you couldn’t have killed him!”
“Well. I don’t think so at all. I would have been fine even alone.”
The sight of Myeongwol’s guild leader and Nameless’s guild leader growling at each other and engaging in a war of nerves was quite familiar to their guild members. Nameless’s guild members and Myeongwol’s guild members exchanged glances and silently consoled each other that they must have a lot of hardships too.
“Just because you’re ranked #1, you think you’re so great.”
“If being ranked #1 isn’t great, then what is?”
In the middle of this, only Kim Min-su, the Management Bureau employee caught between them, was getting torn apart.
“Ugh, forget it. What are you doing, being so childish? But it seems Heukcheon didn’t come out?”
Baek Han-bit waved her hand at Do-hyeok and naturally asked Kim Min-su. Usually when emergency gates, especially gates that open in densely populated areas, the Management Bureau first requests support from the top three guilds.
Nameless, Myeongwol, Heukcheon. They request support from the three most capable guilds, though of course receiving a request didn’t mean they were required to dispatch.
“Ah, Heukcheon contacted us saying they had no available personnel for dispatch.”
“Anyway, why do they operate on such a small scale when their ranking is high? I don’t understand.”
Myeongwol was the guild with the most affiliated hunters among existing guilds, while conversely Heukcheon was the guild with the fewest. It was natural that Baek Han-bit didn’t understand Heukcheon.
“Don’t you think Myeongwol has too many?”
Then Do-hyeok excitedly challenged Baek Han-bit’s words from the side. When it looked like the two were about to growl at each other again, Kim Min-su turned pale and stepped forward.
“Um, sorry to interrupt, but which guild will do the purification? I need to file a report on that too…… And it’s almost time for purification……”
When Kim Min-su spoke timidly, everyone’s gaze turned to the gate. The energy was gradually fading.
“Ah, we’ll do it at Myeongwol.”
Han-bit smiled broadly. Whether Myeongwol had prepared a purifier from the time of dispatch, purification work was done quickly.
“But your purifier didn’t come with you today?”
When Kim Min-su was busy checking the situation with his tablet, Baek Han-bit approached Do-hyeok again.
“Mind your own purifier.”
Then Do-hyeok reacted a bit sensitively. It was just mentioning one purifier, but at his quite aggressive appearance, Han-bit’s mouth itched. She held back her urge to curse and cleared her throat.
The more she mulled over the moment she encountered Ha-seong at the Management Bureau that day, the more vivid the moment Ha-seong grabbed her hand remained in her mind. That grip strength strangely remained in her memory. She had been thinking of suggesting arm wrestling if he came today, but it seemed he didn’t come along.
“But about the hunter murder case.”
The topic had naturally shifted at some point.
“Haven’t you heard anything from Yoon Woo-bin? About investigation progress or something.”
“If you’re curious, ask him directly yourself.”
Once again Han-bit’s face crumpled. If only her guild members weren’t around, she would have let out all kinds of curses.
“I was thinking of visiting him anyway.”
Han-bit smugly flipped her long hair back.
“Because I think I discovered new evidence.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
