Chapter 67: Leading through another dungeon
As if, with just those few words, Yoon Seoyul would turn, unfasten Cheon Areum’s jacket from his shoulders, and drape it around hers instead. And more than that, she was wearing at least three layers more than anyone here—how could she be colder than them?
"Do you want my jacket?"
Cheon Areum offered saintlily. Yoon Seoyul and he moved at an unhurried pace, their steps slightly awkward as they stayed close, arms still wrapped around each other in a loose embrace. Walking together like that wasn’t the most practical, but Lee Nari matched their pace with heels tapping the pavement as she walked just beside Cheon Areum, never more than a step away, like a shadow that refused to fall behind.
"That would be nice. But wouldn’t you be cold then?"
"I wasn’t planning on giving it to you anyway. I was just asking."
Cheon Areum replied, running in small steps to the black gate almost hidden in the trees, but it was taller than the trees too. It was quiet with only the wind blowing. Even though it was getting late, there had been a line of reporters waiting, but the airport security was pretty tight, and they couldn’t even get close to the entrance where the gate was on the grass surrounding the airport. So they just passed them in cars. But if he remembered right, after that high-class hunters meeting in the original plot, it had been Lee Nari and Yoon Seoyul who appeared together before a gate—standing side by side in the public eye.
Lee Nari used to tag along with her brother to every dungeon raid, press briefing, and guild event—anywhere there might be cameras pointed her way. It wasn’t subtle either. She had a habit of inserting herself just enough into the frame to be noticed but never enough to be questioned. It was all calculated, like everything else she did.
He remembered clearly the first time she had appeared alongside her brother and Yoon Seoyul. That one appearance had been enough to send the internet into a frenzy. Fans, netizens, and gossip channels all latched onto it immediately, shipping the two as if fate had personally delivered the pairing.
That was when he knew—Lee Nari had to be the female lead. There was no other reason to stir up a fandom like that if it wasn’t to push a central couple. All signs pointed to her.