#66
Do-hyeok came home later than usual today. The sight of another pair of shoes that weren’t his at the entrance was now a familiar scene. As he passed through the long corridor and went inside, he could hear somewhat noisy sounds from the living room.
“Oh my, I lost again.”
Dal-pyeong’s sighing voice burst out. At that lament, Do-hyeok’s footsteps quickened a bit, unable to overcome his curiosity.
“I won this round too.”
Following that was Ha-seong’s triumphant voice. Puzzled, Do-hyeok strode toward the two people sitting facing each other in the living room.
“Why are you so good at gambling, you young brat!”
“Hey, what gambling is this? It’s just a game.”
On the thick blanket spread on the floor, several small cards with splendid pictures were laid out. Do-hyeok wasn’t unaware that the cards with flashy oriental pictures were hwatu cards. Where did those even come from?
In short, these two unemployed people were brazenly playing cards in Do-hyeok’s living room. Seeing that scene, an incredulous chuckle burst from Do-hyeok’s mouth. Perhaps hearing that sound, both people’s gazes turned to Do-hyeok standing there dumbfounded.
“When did you come?”
When Ha-seong asked, Do-hyeok answered wearily that he had just arrived and plopped down next to him. Ha-seong, perhaps feeling guilty, rattled off that since Do-hyeok was so late coming home, he had eaten dinner first and had nothing to do, so he was playing hwatu with grandfather.
“Is this fun?”
Dal-pyeong looked at Do-hyeok, who was leaning close to Ha-seong to peek at the cards, as if it was strange.
“Yeah. Do you want to try?”
Ha-seong showed him the cards and started explaining this and that. The sight of this big guy sticking close to Ha-seong’s side and obediently listening to the explanation was truly an incredible scene in Dal-pyeong’s eyes.
There was a reason Dal-pyeong made such an expression. When Do-hyeok was young and lived with Dal-pyeong, Dal-pyeong had given up his life of running around like a social butterfly because of Do-hyeok and settled down in one neighborhood. To endure the boring daily life, he often played hwatu with the neighborhood friends, and when Do-hyeok saw that, he would scrunch up his face and click his tongue.
He would shake his head saying gambling and such was criminal, that young brat! But now he was sitting calmly next to Ha-seong, listening attentively. That scene was truly unpleasant in Dal-pyeong’s eyes.
‘Look at that guy.’
Dal-pyeong crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. Come to think of it, Do-hyeok’s attitude toward Ha-seong was strangely interesting. Cha Do-hyeok was the type who wouldn’t show respect even to elders. But to Ha-seong, he not only used formal speech but even called him hyung.
It was honestly a bit surprising that a guy who didn’t keep people around him had even brought someone else into his house. Dal-pyeong had actually realized from the first time he saw Ha-seong that Ha-seong was the ‘person who would help achieve revenge’ that Do-hyeok had mentioned.
There wasn’t any grand reason he could figure it out. It was just thanks to intuition that had naturally solidified from living long. It was the same context as immediately recognizing that Ha-seong was definitely not an ordinary person when he shook his hand.
He wasn’t the type to come asking to remake a broken measuring device just to score points with someone who would help him.
‘Smile more as you go around.’
The words he had casually said to Do-hyeok came to mind. At the same time, he saw Do-hyeok sitting next to Ha-seong without even changing clothes, listening well to his words. Dal-pyeong smiled softly. Perhaps the day when smiles would be prevalent on that face would come soon, he thought.
* * *
I had channeled a star instructor and explained the rules of hwatu more enthusiastically than anyone else. But Do-hyeok gave weary answers like “Yes” and “I see,” then shook his head when asked if he wanted to try.
Really, if he was going to do that, why did he stick right next to me and ask? Do-hyeok’s steps toward his room to change clothes paused for a moment. And he stared at Ha-seong, who was grumbling while quickly cleaning up the hwatu game with his left hand.
“Hyung.”
“What.”
“……What perfume do you use?”
Then Ha-seong, who had been bending down holding the blanket, turned around. Suddenly asking about perfume. Cha Do-hyeok sometimes said really random things that didn’t fit the context. Like right now.
“What perfume? I don’t wear any.”
Then there was no response from Do-hyeok. He doesn’t wear perfume…… But there was definitely some kind of cozy fragrance coming from him. When they rode the elevator together at the Management Bureau last time, and when he stuck close pretending to be curious about hwatu earlier, that scent was there. It wasn’t the body wash scent used in his house.
Ha-seong insisted he didn’t spray anything and finished cleaning up the hwatu game. Ha-seong wasn’t very interested in perfume or dressing up. He had lived in a world where such things were considered luxury, and even coming here, his goal was just to be a rich unemployed person.
“Just tell grandfather to clean up. My arm hurts too.”
“Hey, don’t you know respect for elders?”
How heartless to make an elderly grandfather do the cleanup. Ha-seong shook his head saying that was a bad habit.
“I don’t think hyung, who extorted money from grandfather, should be saying that.”
Then right on cue, a jingling sound came from Ha-seong’s pants pocket. The coins he had won from beating Dal-pyeong at hwatu were excitedly showing off their existence.
“Hmm, this is what I won fair and square in the game.”
Ha-seong grabbed his pants pocket for no reason.
“And I think my arm is getting better now.”
Ha-seong carefully swung his right arm. Ha-seong’s incredible recovery ability and the ointment Seo Ha-jun had given seemed to have worked quite well. They said it was strong and potent ointment, and it certainly seemed to live up to its reputation.
“Really?”
“Yeah. So, today is ointment application day.”
Ha-seong slowly approached Do-hyeok and held out the ointment. At first, he thought he didn’t need to apply such things and that everything would heal on its own with time. Even in his previous world, when he got injured, he didn’t bother looking for ointment to apply. The human body would heal naturally with time, and besides, even if he treated it carefully, he’d get hurt again anyway.
But modern civilization was indeed good – this ointment definitely seemed to have excellent performance. So he planned to consistently apply it well as Ha-jun had said.
When Do-hyeok didn’t answer immediately, Ha-seong waved the ointment in front of his eyes.
“……Yes. Let’s go to the room.”
* * *
“Hey, won’t you apply it properly?”
Ha-seong finally complained as he kept feeling the ointment being applied to other skin instead of the wound.
“I’m trying.”
What effort, it’s just applying ointment. Wondering how he was applying it, Ha-seong turned his head to look slightly, and what do you know – Cha Do-hyeok was moving his hands while keeping his gaze elsewhere, not even looking at his back.
“……What are you doing?”
“What do you mean?”
Seeing that state, Ha-seong thought he was doing pretty well considering. With those blue eyes and awakening, could he see everything even while doing that?
“It’s done.”
He wanted to know if it was really done, if it had been carefully applied to the wound, but unless he had eyes on the back of his head, he couldn’t see.
“You really applied it properly?”
“Yes.”
Ha-seong put on his clothes with a dubious expression. It wasn’t even an unseemly sight, just a back, so why was he looking elsewhere? But before he could ask anything, Do-hyeok just left the room.
When he was explaining hwatu rules earlier, he stuck next to me like a magnet, but now why was he running away like someone who didn’t want to be together? He really was an unpredictable guy.
“……Maybe because there are too many scars.”
Ha-seong touched his back for no reason. Well, if someone whose identity he didn’t properly know had this many scars on their body, it might be a bit unsightly. But what could he do? Ha-seong didn’t particularly consider the scars on his body shameful.
After all, they were also proof that he had fought fiercely and lived more earnestly than anyone. But it did hurt his feelings a bit that Cha Do-hyeok acted like that.
“How clean is his body supposed to be?”
Ha-seong was childishly grumbling to pass time when, after dinner at a little past 8 o’clock, Cha Do-hyeok knocked on the door asking if he could come in.
“What.”
He spoke in a somewhat sulky voice due to the earlier resentment, but whether he didn’t notice or not, Do-hyeok entered the room without hesitation. Do-hyeok in a white short-sleeved t-shirt came in holding a phone in his right hand. It made him think the world was really unfair. If you had such good looks and physique, even just throwing on a simple t-shirt like that made you look dignified.
“Sit here for a moment.”
Do-hyeok pointed to the front of the desk attached to the guest room.
“What for?”
Do-hyeok dragged a small chair from one side and the two sat side by side in front of the desk.
“I met Baek Han-bit in the dungeon during the day and heard quite an important clue.”
“That Myeongwol guild leader?”
Do-hyeok nodded. Then Do-hyeok explained that one of Myeongwol’s guild members had obtained a video related to the case by chance while acting privately. Do-hyeok had asked Han-bit to send him that video under the pretext of helping solve the case.
“Look.”
When Do-hyeok touched his phone a few times, the dashcam video that Han-bit had shown earlier appeared. Forwarding a few seconds, a familiar figure came into view.
The man who appeared behind the victim Kang Seong-hyeon wearing a cloak was someone Ha-seong had seen before.
“The guy you chased that day was also this bastard, right?”
“Yeah. I’m sure.”
He got shot by this guy’s accomplice because he let his guard down while trying to subdue this bastard. Ha-seong didn’t take his eyes off the video. It was a dark night and the video only showed the circumstances of the perpetrator mercilessly murdering Kang Seong-hyeon, but there might be something that could be a clue.
What he felt while watching the video was that this perpetrator was indeed no ordinary guy. The victim Kang Seong-hyeon’s movements were also quite good. He showed reasonably fast movements even using skills. But despite the perpetrator being bigger than Kang Seong-hyeon, he showed agile body movements that were never inferior to that speed.
The way he avoided skills and swiftly swung his knife was, how to put it, without any unnecessary movements. After watching the video several times like that – once, twice, about three times – something caught Ha-seong’s eye.
“Cha Do-hyeok, wait, rewind it a bit.”
Do-hyeok moved his hand and started replaying from the part Ha-seong mentioned. Ha-seong’s face, who had been repeatedly watching that part as if sensing something strange, twisted with puzzlement.
“Why?”
Do-hyeok, unable to watch anymore, asked.
“……This thing. I’ve seen it before.”
Ha-seong paused at one scene and pointed at something with his hand.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
