The battle only ended when night fell, even by the passage of time that flowed only within the dungeon.
“This one was rough.”
Ian stared at the corpse of the beast, eyes wide with exhaustion. It had taken everything just to take the creature down. He started to wipe the sweat off his forehead, but, seeing the mess his hands were in, he dropped them again.
“I’ll leave this and head for guiding…”
Ian had tried to strike up a conversation with Han Ju-oh, intending to thank him for his hard work, but his voice trailed off. There was no Han Ju-oh to respond. No point in looking around to find him either. Ian turned toward the group of Guides.
There had been some collateral damage where the Guides were during the chaos earlier, but he’d been too focused on the fight to notice at the time.
‘My Guide.’
Though it was only temporary, Ian had taken a liking to Moon Roi. He quickly moved toward him. A few other Espers who had been assessing the situation also began heading toward the Guides.
Although quite some time had passed, most of the Guides still hadn’t regained consciousness. Without the kind of superhuman physical prowess that Espers had, it was natural for Guides—who were essentially ordinary humans—to take longer to recover.
A few more had woken up compared to earlier, but they didn’t seem to be in any state to start guiding, too preoccupied with grasping what had happened.
The Espers turned to look in the direction Han Ju-oh had gone. Baek Seo-ha was there—the one person who had remained conscious throughout. The Espers’ gazes instinctively gathered on Baek Seo-ha, their expressions twisting with displeasure.
Baek Seo-ha would only be guiding Han Ju-oh. And even that, only 3% effectiveness at best. Knowing they wouldn’t receive any guidance themselves, they opted to focus on waking the unconscious Guides instead.
“Baek Seo-ha.”
Han Ju-oh didn’t just run—he flew to him. Seo-ha lifted his head, which had been bowed.
“You…”
Han Ju-oh hesitated at the raw emotion on Seo-ha’s face. Seo-ha was suppressing his sorrow with great effort.
“What’s with all the energy, flying all the way over here like that?”
Han Ju-oh dropped to one knee and reached a hand toward Seo-ha’s face. His voice, unlike usual, was faint and worn—trying to joke, but his eyes were clouded with unshed tears. Watching him force a cheerful façade only made Han Ju-oh’s face grow even more rigid.
“What happened?”
“Hm? Well…”
Seo-ha tried to explain but couldn’t quite get the words out. Eventually, he shook his head.
“Guide Jang Jin-young wasn’t in good shape, so I moved him outside the gate. That’s a relief, at least. The medical team outside the gate must’ve gotten to him right away—he should be okay.”
Seo-ha had carried Jang Jin-young out of the gate himself before coming back in.
“It was pure luck that the gate hadn’t closed yet. If we’d been even a little slower, we would’ve been stuck in here until the dungeon was cleared.”
A gate remains open for several hours after activation, allowing monsters to potentially exit—hence the perimeter lockdown and Esper deployment in advance.
But once a gate closes, it only opens again once the dungeon is cleared or if a break occurs. Just a few more moments of delay and Seo-ha would’ve been holding Jang Jin-young’s cold corpse with nothing he could do.
His voice trembled as he said how lucky they were. Seo-ha had personally checked Jang Jin-young’s condition. The sensation of the blood trickling from his head, soaking into Seo-ha’s hands—would remain etched in his memory forever.
Seo-ha shook his head to clear it and stood up, but he stumbled, unable to find his balance.
Thankfully, a hand reached out to steady him before he could fall—but oddly enough, it wasn’t Han Ju-oh’s.
It was strange enough that even the nearby Espers took notice. They were trying to assess why Esper Baek Jong-hoon had caught Seo-ha and where his own Guide was.
“Careful.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Seo-ha looked up and thanked Esper Baek Jong-hoon, who had grabbed his wrist. Seeing the subdued man, Seo-ha could sense how worried he was for Guide Jang Jin-young and chose not to say anything more.
“I’m grateful too, Guide Baek.”
But then, as Baek Jong-hoon bowed his head, the atmosphere changed. It was clear he was about to say something more.
“For helping my Guide…”
His eyes sank even further. He looked like someone being eaten away by anxiety, not knowing how Jang Jin-young was doing.
“I won’t forget that you guided me too. I wouldn’t be alive otherwise.”
Watching him force a smile, Seo-ha instinctively glanced at Han Ju-oh. Not because he was worried about how Han Ju-oh would take the fact that Seo-ha had guided Baek Jong-hoon.
“Did I look that strained too?”
“Yeah.”
When Han Ju-oh had arrived, Seo-ha had joked—what kind of energy do you have, flying over here like that?—trying to lighten the mood. But it hadn’t worked.
Now, watching Baek Jong-hoon, Seo-ha realized just how strained he had seemed.
Seo-ha looked at the man struggling to hold himself together. It was like someone had forcibly plastered a smiling mask onto his face—like a person who’d been told he absolutely must not cry while searching for Jang Jin-young.
That’s why Seo-ha had tried to pull Han Ju-oh into the moment, too, to help ease the tension. But it had been no use.
It was better to say it as it was rather than offering empty words.
“You don’t need to remember it. I accepted a bribe for the guiding, that’s all… and besides, you helped me before, too.”
Seo-ha didn’t bother avoiding words that might remind Baek Jong-hoon of Guide Jang Jin-young. There had been no point in dancing around it earlier—it hadn’t worked then, either.
‘Even I’m this shaken…’
Seo-ha himself still hadn’t recovered from the shock. How could Baek Jong-hoon possibly be okay?
“Once the dungeon’s cleared, you’ll be able to see him again. For now, let’s focus on what’s in front of us. Roi and I will take care of the guiding.”
Esper Baek Jong-hoon gave a slow nod and turned away. His slumped shoulders betrayed exactly how he felt.
Seo-ha watched him walk off, then took Han Ju-oh’s hand in his own.
“This really isn’t the kind of job you do for long, is it?”
He felt a twinge of guilt toward Baek Jong-hoon, but the truth was, he was standing here, completely intact, holding Han Ju-oh’s hand. Maybe it was selfish, but he was grateful that neither of them had been seriously hurt in the fight.
The very fact he was having these thoughts unsettled him.
“Sorry… I spaced out for a second. Let me focus on your guiding…”
Just as Seo-ha was channeling energy into Han Ju-oh’s body, his eyes flew wide open.
Oh no.
What the hell had he been thinking just now?
Had he really been standing here, perfectly fine, thinking he could just handle Han Ju-oh like that?
How could he possibly have assumed Han Ju-oh was okay—when he’d been out front the whole time, taking down monsters nonstop?
“Why didn’t you say anything… when you were in this condition?”
There was no need to explain every detail of what he felt inside Han Ju-oh’s body. In short—it was a complete disaster.
“If you were this bad off, you should’ve asked me to guide you right away.”
Seo-ha pushed his energy in more forcefully now, working to calm the swollen organs inside Han Ju-oh. He was in worse shape than even Baek Jong-hoon. It wouldn’t have been surprising if something had already ruptured, and yet Seo-ha had foolishly judged by appearances alone.
Pumping in all the energy he could muster, Seo-ha finally pulled Han Ju-oh closer and dragged him into his makeshift tent.
Though it was barely holding up since the monster attack, with its flimsy structure that could collapse at any moment, there was no better place to hide from prying eyes. There wasn’t even a single tree around to provide cover.
“If it collapses, so be it.”
As the rustling of plastic from the tent walls scraped against his ears, Seo-ha murmured under his breath and refocused. Right now, Han Ju-oh came first.
“For now, just focus on accepting it.”
He guided Han Ju-oh down by the shoulders to sit and then climbed on top of him.
Realizing Seo-ha was about to increase the intensity of the guiding, Han Ju-oh wrapped his arms around Seo-ha’s back.
Seo-ha took that as agreement and was just about to slip his hand beneath Han Ju-oh’s clothes—
“I’m not going to die.”
“……”
Seo-ha froze, staring down at him, unsure if he’d heard right.
“I won’t ever give you a reason to make that face again.”
He wasn’t sure if Han Ju-oh was talking to him—or just saying it to himself.
“I won’t make you sad. That’s become my goal now.”
Han Ju-oh gently stroked Seo-ha’s face, brushing over the blood-stained skin.
“What am I even supposed to do with that…”
Suddenly declaring he had a goal now—what was he supposed to say? ‘Well, good luck with that’?
Letting out a helpless laugh, Seo-ha wrapped his arms tightly around Han Ju-oh.
Only now, holding him close, did Seo-ha realize the state he was truly in.
The shock of flipping Jang Jin-young over and thinking he was dead hadn’t faded.
He hadn’t forgotten the way his heart had nearly stopped from fear.
He’d moved on autopilot, doing what needed to be done, but after the chaos, he’d been left drained, blank—
And what he’d wanted then was this warmth.
“…Yeah. Don’t you ever make me sad.”
He found himself wanting to stay with Han Ju-oh for a very, very long time.
