Chapter 310
After Seok Jiwon left the office to make the report, I headed to the training room, thinking I would eat with Do Yehyun.
As expected of Haeseong Guild, which used one enormous building all to itself, the training room was fairly large in scale. There was a fitness room on the second floor, and from the first basement floor to the third basement floor, there were spaces prepared entirely for Skill training.
Among them, the first basement floor had a testing area for a kind of ability test. Although the test was not mandatory, Haeseong guild members took it at least once a month at the very minimum, and the bastards who did it often even tested once a week.
'Guess they have ambition.'
Were members of Korea’s number one guild different somehow? By my common sense, I could not understand how these bastards worked so hard at their company, so I checked from time to time to see whether Im Haekyung had brainwashed them. Surprisingly, though, all of it was voluntary training. Of course, since joining the company, I had never once taken the test. There was no particular reason. I just did not want to.
When I found Do Yehyun’s location and headed to the first basement training room, I saw a few familiar faces.
“Hello.”
“Oh, hello. Yehyun is in the middle of a test, so I think you’ll have to wait a little.”
“Yes.”
I answered like it was no big deal, then paused for a moment.
'Do they not think I came to train?'
I only did not take tests. I did train quite a lot, in my own way.
Anyway, I had not come to train right now, so I slowly walked around the training room, lightly picked up the shared artifacts, swung them once or twice, and put them back in place.
A Hunter who saw me lightly messing around with the artifacts spoke to me.
“Are you going to keep working at Haeseong?”
“Well, unless something happens, probably. It’s Korea’s number one guild. Ah, are you asking because you’re thinking of changing jobs, Hunter Choi?”
“No, no. I’m going to bury my bones here. It’s been my dream workplace since I was about thirteen.”
“Ah-ha. In what way?”
“The salary and company benefits.”
“You were mature.”
Since thirteen?
I answered sincerely, but as if it had been a joke, laughter burst out a beat late. Just then, maybe because the test had ended, I saw Do Yehyun coming out of the testing room. Do Yehyun was immediately checking the screen where his score was being printed and clicking the buttons here and there. Then, maybe because he felt my gaze, he whipped his head toward me.
“Yehyun is a healer, but he trains really hard, doesn’t he?”
“It’s good to work hard.”
The moment Do Yehyun found me, his expressionless face broke. Do Yehyun smiled like a dog that had received a reward after training hard and almost ran over.
“Oh.... You’re close....”
Do Yehyun gave a rough bow to the Hunter beside me, who had let out a murmur that was not quite a murmur, then stopped right in front of me with a silly smile.
“Jehyun, what is it?”
“Why are you in such a good mood? Guess your test score was good.”
“I’m happy because I saw you.”
“Oh.”
When I turned to look at the Hunter beside me, who had suddenly exclaimed, the Hunter hurriedly waved both hands and added,
“Ah, don’t mind me. Please continue your separated-lovers-reunited thing.”
“Jehyun, are you going into a Dungeon today?”
“Nothing’s decided yet. I was going to ask if you wanted to eat lunch.”
“Outside?”
“We can eat in the building too.”
“Eat whatever you want, Jehyun.”
Maybe because he had just finished training, Do Yehyun’s face was flushed red here and there. When I swept back the hair stuck to his face with sweat, Do Yehyun reflexively closed his eyes. I lightly flicked the bastard’s cheek with my finger and said,
“You sweated a lot.”
“Do I smell?”
“I don’t really know.”
“Ahem....”
The Hunter beside us cleared their throat openly and was watching this situation as if it were interesting. I lightly patted Do Yehyun’s back to mean we should leave, and greeted the Hunter.
“Enjoy your meal, Hunter Choi.”
“Yes....”
While eating at the company cafeteria, I heard from Do Yehyun about training results I was not particularly curious about. Do Yehyun was talking animatedly, then suddenly took off his wrist guard and held his wrist out toward me.
There was a mark left there from the tattoo-machine item I had used a very long time ago. I lightly rubbed the inside of the bastard’s wrist with my thumb.
“You left one?”
“I haven’t found a use for it yet.”
“Really? You’ll find one someday.”
“I think it would be good if I had an attack Skill too. The one left is a defensive Skill, though....”
“What kind?”
“Anything would be good. Fire-type would be good.... Or maybe a Skill that manipulates air, or a water-type Skill that manipulates water like Hunter Tae.”
“I prefer healers, though.”
At my words, Do Yehyun paused for a moment. When I let go of his wrist, Do Yehyun slowly drew his arm back and murmured quietly.
“I want to have healing Skills and an attack-type Skill too.”
“You’re greedy.”
“I think that would help me protect you more.”
“If you put it that way, wouldn’t having a defensive Skill be better?”
“Isn’t the best defense offense?”
I glanced at Do Yehyun, who was spouting nonsense, and laughed softly. Even if Do Yehyun suddenly gained an attack Skill right now, it would be hard for him to produce any meaningful result.
At that moment, a noisy person abruptly sat down beside us.
“Ahem, hem. Hello, Hunter Seo and Yehyun.”
I thought Im Haekyung had beaten them to a pulp, but apparently not.
Do Yehyun stared coldly at Seok Jiwon, who had cleared their throat and inserted themself into the seat. Seok Jiwon’s expression turned strange for a moment, then returned to a smiling face.
“...Hello.”
“I kind of feel bad sitting down when it seems like the two of you are in your own world. But I originally can’t eat alone, so please understand.”
“Have a seat.”
“Yeah. Ah, Hunter Seo. Did you check the message I sent earlier?”
“No.”
I had not even known they had sent a message.
When I answered briefly and resumed eating, Seok Jiwon’s expression turned subtle again.
“Mm, usually in a situation like this, wouldn’t someone check the message...? No, it’s fine! I’ll tell you.”
“What is it?”
“It’s nothing much. You know the thing I mentioned earlier.”
“Ah, that event? Training?”
“Yeah, yeah. The Guild Master okayed it. The date is two weeks from now, and since there’ll be filming and interviews too, let’s prepare whatever needs to be prepared in advance. Anyway, the Guild Master will handle anything troublesome.”
Im Haekyung?
I had no idea what Haekyung was thinking by saying yes, but I figured there was probably some intention behind it and nodded.
“What’s the exact event name?”
“The Republic of Korea Awakened Integrated Competency Enhancement Boosting Camp.”
“That’s intuitive.”
“Shortened to K-HUB. They started seriously reorganizing it last year, and this year, apparently they made a lot of things in collaboration with the Hunter Association.”
“What is this, a drug name or something....”
I was about to brush it off like it was nothing, then paused. Because the name was familiar.
K-HUB. If you broke down the acronym, the event was roughly something like Korea Hunter Association Boosting Camp. In the original work, this event was the point where Kwon Taehan began getting seriously involved with the Hunter Association. The camp itself had no great meaning. That was only natural, since the main purpose of this camp was to siphon off budget money.
Just like the Hunter Association, which was made up of rotten stagnant water doing nothing in particular, government personnel who did their jobs fucking terribly gathered together, used famous domestic Hunters as clowns, and acted like idiots. That was the entirety of this camp. Still, it had meaning in that the rotten water surfaced because of this event.
Naturally, I already knew how it ended. At this event, Kwon Taehan was humiliated, and for some reason, “I” helped him. Later, when a Dungeon erupted, I shoved all that rotten water into it whole. Kwon Taehan was also shaken by this convenient method of replacing personnel, but in the end, like the sucker bastard he was, he saved the people who remained and imposed legal sanctions outside the Dungeon. Of course, it was not as if only one hundred percent legal things took place.
It also had meaning in another way. Not for any other reason, but simply because the major characters appeared in this episode in a lump.
Kwon Taehan was the protagonist, so of course he appeared. But I, Joo Seowon, Im Haekyung, and the supporting character Ryu Taeyoung, and even Sung Uijae got involved. The bad blood Sung Uijae had with the Hunter Association was also resolved in this episode. Naturally, since it was an episode related to the government, it had a fairly large impact on later developments too.
'Will there be a few variables?'
The fact that I was affiliated with Haeseong rather than being a freelance Hunter was already a fairly big change.
'I thought it was just useless nonsense.'
I had almost passed over a major flow. I glanced at Seok Jiwon and answered calmly.
“Sounds fun.”
“Uh, well.... First of all, all the major Hunters will be there.”
Meanwhile, Do Yehyun’s gaze as he looked at me was quite intense, so I raised one eyebrow and said to him,
“I’ll explain later.”
“Yes.”
Do Yehyun obediently nodded and continued eating. Watching that, Seok Jiwon started speaking in an openly awkward way.
“But what exactly are you two? Just younger-and-older acquaintances? For that, Yehyun seems to like Hunter Seo ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) a lot.”
“That’s right.”
“...Haha, I thought maybe you two were brothers because Yehyun follows Hunter Seo so much. Your family names are different, but the two of you have a similar vibe. You both look kind of cold.”
Was that so? I quietly studied Do Yehyun’s face.
'He looks fucking different.'
Do Yehyun glanced at Seok Jiwon, then seemed to think something over carefully.
“I do think it would be nice if Jehyun and I were real brothers.”
What kind of bullshit was this?
'Does he not remember that we had sex?'
Do Yehyun and I had done far too many things real brothers could never, ever do.
Seok Jiwon also laughed awkwardly in broken bursts at Do Yehyun’s answer and said,
“Haha, ha.... ...But if you were really brothers, you wouldn’t be this affectionate, right? If he were your real brother, you couldn’t cling to Hunter Seo like this either.”
“Why?”
“...Huh? Because... you’d be brothers?”
“If we were real brothers, we could live together for life.”
“Uh.... I don’t think that’s right...?”
While I was roughly letting their conversation pass by me, my phone notification rang.
[Im Haekyung]
The message from Im Haekyung was concise.
Aren’t you coming?