Free Web NovelShould I say I expected it? It was closer to him dragging out something raw and visible.
“How do you know what I was thinking... hyung.”
The end of Do Yehyun’s sentence just dropped straight down.
“Wasn’t it because you wanted to sleep with me?”
Were there other options? With adrenaline going wild, I figured it was the most straightforward way to vent arousal. And Do Yehyun already had a record of kissing me and pressing his body up against mine in the dungeon.
Do Yehyun just stared at me without answering. I kept talking, tapping the desk with my fingers.
“Starting in the dungeon, there were a lot of things that could’ve pushed your buttons. You had a lot of ‘fun’ experiences too... must’ve been a pretty big dopamine hit, right? And then it crosses over into arousal, and... then you look for the most straightforward way to relieve it.”
“.......”
“And love got mixed in too, while you were at it.”
I tilted my head and asked again.
“Right?”
“...It wasn’t love ‘mixed in while I was at it.’”
“.......”
“I... like you more than you think I do.”
There was something pretty nakedly affectionate in Do Yehyun’s eyes when he said it.
“I can tell that sometimes you don’t really like me. I might be wrong, but....”
“.......” ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
“But it doesn’t matter. It’s not that I want to have sex... with you. Even just being together like this is fine... I just like you.”
Had I ever not liked Do Yehyun?
‘No way.’
For a moment, it occurred to me that maybe he’d thought that because I hadn’t given him the right response when his affection got pretty blatant.
I stared at Do Yehyun, then asked something else.
“Are you more comfortable calling me hyung now?”
“...What?”
“You used to call me hyungnim every single time.”
“.......”
I pulled his hand over and slowly rubbed my thumb over the back of it. I felt his hand twitch in my grip.
“I heard it’s a title that’s like a trace left by gangster bastards, so every time I heard it, it felt kinda shitty.”
“...Seriously?”
“Well, at first. Once I got used to it, I stopped caring.”
“From now on, I’ll call you hyung.”
The answer came out obediently. I gave a short laugh and squeezed Do Yehyun’s hand hard enough it probably hurt.
“And there’s something you’re mistaken about....”
“.......”
“I actually like your affection a lot. There’s no reason not to. Sometimes it bugs me a little that it acts like a variable... but in the end, it looks like loyalty, so it’s worth factoring in.”
“.......”
“Of course, I think other things too.”
It was kind of funny—Do Yehyun just kept looking at me without even trying to pull his hand away, even though it had to hurt. I watched him for a bit in silence, then started again.
“Back with the Infinite Guild, and this time too... the circumstances made it look like you were dead both times.”
“...Me?”
“Yeah. Especially this time. And in fact, those bastards took you for that exact purpose.”
“.......”
Do Yehyun seemed to think I was in danger of dying every day, but if you actually counted it up, from my point of view Do Yehyun had almost gotten killed plenty of times too.
‘He’s stubborn as hell, too.’
And every time, what I felt was pretty simple.
‘It pissed me the fuck off....’
Because he was someone I’d brought in, did I have a bit of possessiveness......? Anyway, Do Yehyun was proof, just by existing, that I could create unknown variables. If something like that vanished in front of my eyes in an instant, of course I’d be angry. Even setting aside the fact he was a good healer. ƒrēewebnovel.com
“It felt fucking shitty.”
“.......”
“Yehyun. I don’t know what you think of me... but I care about you a lot. More than you think.”
“.......”
“So if you go risking your life because of this, I’m going to feel fucking shitty for real—so keep your self-heal up on your own. You know what I mean, right?”
I loosened my grip and lightly tickled his palm with my fingers. His arm trembled like it was cramping, then settled.
“I’m saying stay alive. /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ And don’t get hurt.”
“.......”
“And be especially careful when you’re with Im Haekyung.”
“...Okay.”
Getting him to answer didn’t guarantee anything that came later, but it was better than him not hearing it at all.
I stood up and patted Do Yehyun’s shoulder.
“Want to go wash up? Not that I’m saying we should sleep.”
“.......”
“Someone’s probably going to show up soon.”
When I jerked my chin toward the door, Do Yehyun nodded again without complaint.
“...I will.”
If he got a little more aggressive, it wasn’t like I couldn’t do it, but Do Yehyun was the type who listened to me really well about things like this. I watched him pretty insistently, then lifted the corner of my mouth a little.
While Do Yehyun washed up, I brought in the clothes and food that had been left outside the door. Since someone else had picked the clothes anyway, and size was the only thing that really mattered, I just tried them on lightly once.
I hung the coat up, then ate the fully cooled meal with Do Yehyun after he came out.
Around the time I’d even finished brushing my teeth, there was a knock at the door.
“Hello.”
When I opened it, a man with a businesslike look was standing there. He greeted me the moment he saw me, handed me a business card, and kept going with his introduction.
“I was sent by the Guild Master. I’m Lee Gyuhyeok from Haeseong’s Awakened Management Department.”
“Haeseong has a separate Awakened Management Department? It’s a more legitimate company than I thought.”
“Ah... haha. Haeseong is bigger than you’d think.”
I gave the guy who laughed it off a glance, then let him into the room.
“Come in.”
“Yes.”
He hurried inside, swept his eyes around the room—there wasn’t much to see—then opened the bag he’d brought and pulled out some paperwork.
“What’s this?”
“Before we do the re-test you requested, I thought it would be better to draft a separate confidentiality clause and have you sign a contract, so I prepared one.”
I hadn’t thought of that.
‘He even prepared a muzzle on his own.’
I took the documents and quickly skimmed the overall contents.
‘A textbook NDA.’
Setting the papers down on the table, I asked,
“Was this Guild Master Im’s instruction?”
“No, I prepared this at my own discretion. Please read it, and if you have any questions or feel anything should be added, let me know.”
“I think it’s fine as is.”
“Then if you sign, we’ll move to the next step right away. Um, you must be tired, so I don’t intend to take up too much of your time.”
After saying that, he forced out a cheerful haha, then glanced at me awkwardly, watching my reaction.
Even if it was done as a quick-and-dirty job, I knew a re-test still took a decent amount of time, so I followed what he said.
After skimming the confidentiality clause one more time, I signed and moved straight into the re-test.
I’d seen he didn’t have much luggage and figured it wouldn’t be a big deal, but the re-test was more serious than I expected. He pulled something out of a space-saving box, assembled it by himself, then ran a meticulous re-test, smoothly asking me for this and that.
“Looks like you’ve done this a lot?”
“When you’re in Haeseong, work like this comes up sometimes....”
He trailed off and focused on reading the data again.
‘There are situations in Haeseong where they do re-tests?’
It made me curious whether Im Haekyung gave special instructions.
‘And before that, I’m curious if Haeseong even has other hunters who need re-tests.’
Not that knowing would really let me do anything, but still.
I sat quietly and waited, and the results came out fast. On the spot, the guy printed out papers and even marked them up carefully with a pen as he started explaining.
“Since I don’t have prior data, I can only judge based on your current condition, but your mana appears unstable and keeps fluctuating. So it’s hard to estimate your exact rank, and if we look at it like this.... Yes, if you look here, you can see the approximate rank. It’s being measured around C-rank or B-rank, and now the singular point is—do you see below?”
“Yes.”
“Yes, here the direction of the mana splits into two... yes. I’m sure you understand what that means... you need to be cautious.”
He deliberately didn’t spell it out. The evidence of the beast in the data was pretty fascinating.
“Yes.”
“...If you have prior data, it’ll help more to compare. For now... all I can really tell you is that you need to be cautious. Waiting to see if it stabilizes might be one option, but if you wait enough time and it still won’t stabilize, then you’ll need to find another method.”
“Another method?”
“That would be... something you need to discuss with other people besides me and decide.”
As he said it, he intentionally let the sentence trail off. I didn’t know how Im Haekyung trained him, but he looked like a perfectly acceptable guy—no ego, works hard.
After I heard the rest of his explanation, I asked him to re-test Do Yehyun too.
After waiting a bit, the obvious information I already knew got listed out as data again.
“To explain—”
“Ah, the explanation’s fine. Just hand me the documents.”
I’d already confirmed Do Yehyun’s stuff with my own eyes, so there was no need to hear it. I took the papers from him and skimmed them.
‘I should keep this.’
There would definitely be a time later when it would be useful.
The guy nodded obediently. When he asked if I needed anything else and I said no, he dismantled the device again and withdrew quickly.
“If you have any questions, feel free to contact the number on the card. Then I’ll be going.”
“Yes. Get back safely.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
After he left, silence settled into the room again.
I roughly organized the documents, put them into the file the Haeseong employee had left, then sat down on the bed.
“Yehyun.”
Do Yehyun’s gaze fell on me. I met his eyes and continued.
“Come here.”
