Free Web NovelFired up by Roy’s revenge-lighting, Yeonwoo spent each day burning with the urge to get back at the haters.
His loathing for blood fiends grew worse by the day; it felt a bit excessive, but I let it be. It was proof his will to live had gotten that much stronger.
Then the weekend came.
Yeonwoo went to the Awakeners’ hospital for his regular checkup. The only difference from usual was that today, he wasn’t alone.
“Hyung, are you nervous?”
“M-m-me, nervous my ass. Wh-why would I be nervous. N-not even a little.”
After the successful revenge-lighting, the status ailment above Yeonwoo’s head had completely vanished.
But since he hadn’t officially been declared fully cured, a sliver of anxiety still lingered in his heart.
That’s why I’d forced myself to tag along even though he said he’d go alone—and at last, we heard the news we’d been waiting for.
“Mr. Yeonwoo, all your levels have returned to stable! This is a real miracle!”
Yeonwoo’s awakening addiction had been cured.
“Really? Then I can live? I— I really don’t have to die?”
“Of course. Would you like to take off the eye cover? I think your vision may have returned too.”
When Yeonwoo undid the cloth covering his eyes, glittering golden irises were revealed.
“How is it? Is the light still blinding?”
“No... I can see. It’s not blinding and everything’s... ngh.”
At last, the tears he’d held back burst, and Yeonwoo wept, shoulders shaking.
“You’ve really been through a lot. It was hard on you, wasn’t it? Thank you for trusting and holding on.”
“T-thank... ngh, thank you, doc— hic— I’ll repay this favor even if I die.”
Yeonwoo threw his arms around the man and cried tears of joy.
That man is Baek Eonseong.
I recognized the face too.
Director of the Awakeners’ Hospital and an S-grade healing-type awakener. He was the very one who’d saved me when I was on my last breath.
But right now, I felt a little more annoyed than grateful.
“Trusting and holding on,” my ass. Do you know how hard I had to work to talk down a guy who said he’d stuff himself with yanggaeng until he died.
At first I was high enough to fly at the news of Yeonwoo’s cure.
But the more I thought about it, the more it felt like the bear did the tricks and Mr. Wang took the money.
I was the one who solved all this!
Eonseong hadn’t even figured out what caused Yeonwoo’s awakening addiction in the first place.
How much I went through just to get Park Yeonwoo to give me the time of day... Huh?! How much...!
The humiliations I’d suffered tailing after Yeonwoo flashed past like a lantern of dying memories. Only then did my eyes prickle too. Just a tiny bit.
And honestly, it looked like he wasn’t going to die. We still had to hunt Chaos Evil together—where would he even go.
“See? I told you you wouldn’t die, hyung. Congratulations.”
Apparently, to Eonseong, that looked like I was forcing back tears.
“Mr. Roy, you’ve grown a lot since I last saw you.”
Caught off guard and patted by Eonseong, I grit my teeth.
Is my image really okay like this...
Guess there were basically zero expectations left for me thanks to the circus I pulled during my hospital stay.
After a moment, Eonseong chatted a little more with Yeonwoo. Cases of awakening addiction being cured were so rare that he seemed to be gathering information.
Of course Yeonwoo said he could ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) share, and told him what he’d been doing over the past week.
His week had been yanggaeng and revenge, then more revenge, and then revenge again.
“I didn’t take any special meds or anything—just kinda changed my mindset, you know? There’s that saying, if you try to die you live, and if you try to live you die.”
“......?”
“So I thought, ‘Ah! I guess I’m dead now.’ But then it felt a bit unfair to just go like that, you know? If I’m gonna die anyway, wouldn’t it feel better to flip off the guys who prayed for my downfall before I go.”
“......Pardon?”
“I’m going to smash everything.”
Staring at the man who’d returned from being a lethargy patient as an avatar of vengeance, Eonseong couldn’t hide his discomfiture.
✧
Time passed, and at last the prelims were D-1.
└ How many are they even gonna pick
└ Yeah. It’ll just be by grade anyway~
└ Then they wouldn’t bother holding prelims. You don’t even write your grade on the application, so they don’t know either
└ They’re not coming to prelims. Only from the main rounds
└ How do you know that?
└ Staff acquaintance
└ Uh that’s kinda.....
└ Our guild too—pretty much everyone applied behind the guild master’s back lol off to transfer to the Big 3~!
└ The broadcast is gonna be fun lol when is it?
└ Sangam World Cup Stadium
└ I heard in the second half of the year
Everywhere you went, people were buzzing about .
Roy was busy texting back and forth with Taeeon and Hojin on his phone. Then, suddenly, he noticed Galbi sitting alone.
“Galbi, you didn’t apply, right?”
“......”
“Ghosting me?”
“......”
...What?
I thought we’d gotten pretty close, but it felt like we’d gone back to square one.
“Galbi~ Galbi? Galbi-galbi-gal—”
“Shut up, idiot. You’re bothering my studying. Get lost.”
Huh? Why’s he pissed?
I tilted my head and sat up straighter. The crease deep between his brows made it obvious he was sulking, but I had no idea why.
“Hmmm.”
When I propped my chin in my hand and stared right at him, Galbi’s eyebrow twitched. He was aware of my relentless gaze.
“Move your face. I’ll stab your eyeballs.”
“Galbi. I’ve been thinking this for a while, but you talk way too mean. That’s why you don’t have friends. What is it? Tell me why you’re pissed.”
Still, the fact that I came to him first made Bi’s mood start to thaw—just a little.
“You’ve been with Park Yeonwoo—”
“Lee Roi.”
“Uh. Hyung!”
Speak of the tiger and he appears: Yeonwoo came in through the back door of the classroom.
And Roy, who’d been right next to me a moment ago, was suddenly wagging his tail in front of Yeonwoo.
That damn bastard...!
For a moment I almost trusted a guy like that—serves me right for being stupid.
Glowering at Roy, Bi started irritably packing his bag. He needed to get out of the classroom fast before his mood got any worse.
He stood in a rush, and someone ran up and grabbed his shoulder.
“Galbi, you’re leaving already? Talk with me.”
“No time.”
“So prickly. What are you doing tomorrow? If you don’t have plans, wanna come to Sangam? I’ve got to go for the Star Hero prelims tomorrow.”
“What’s that got to do with me.”
Even at Bi’s curt reply, Roy seemed unfazed. If anything, he snickered like he was amused and held out his phone.
“Put your number in. Let’s hang out.”
“Hang... out?”
“Yeah.”
A weekend plan with a friend.
Because of his rough personality, Bi had never made a friend before, and he got a little choked up.
Sure, it’d be more beneficial to memorize even one more English word in that time, but just this once, he didn’t want to weigh pros and cons.
Hesitating, Bi reluctantly took the phone and punched in his number like he was doing him a favor.
“Okay. I’ll text you!”
Roy took his phone back, waved, and walked off.
With his first ever “plan” on the books, Galbi watched Roy’s retreating back and muttered under his breath,
“...Do whatever you want.”
✧
Sangam World Cup Stadium.
It was only the prelims for a TV program, but the place looked like a festival.
Food trucks and booths filled the plaza, selling all kinds of food and merch for famous awakeners, and enough guild people had shown up that business cards littered the ground where no one had bothered to pick them up.
“Why are there so many people.”
“It’s chaos, yeah.”
Arriving earlier than the meetup time, Roy and Yeonwoo were waiting for the others.
Hojin’s house was nearby, so he’d be there soon, and Taeeon had messaged that he was almost there.
One person remained.
[Roy: Galbi wya?]
“Here.”
“Ack! Fuck, you scared me!”
“Ah—! What the—! What!”
A gloomy voice suddenly sounded from behind, and Yeonwoo and Roy both jumped out of their skins.
“Sorry. I’ve been here an hour already......”
“No, if you got here you should’ve said so.”
“I—I was going to?”
Bi thought you weren’t supposed to text if there were still thirty minutes left before the meetup time.
First time having a friend, first time having a plan...
“Who’s this? The kid from yesterday. Friend?”
“Yeah. He’s in my class. His name’s Galbi.”
“Galbi? Oh... sounds delicious. Ma— that’s cool! Be confident!”
“It’s not Galbi, it’s Bi—how many times do I have to—”
“Oh? They’re here! Hyuuung!”
Just then Roy spotted Hojin and Taeeon and waved with a bright smile.
“How are you two together?”
“We ran into each other right out front.”
“Roy, you doing okay? Did you grow a bit since I last saw you? Have you eaten? I brought some cookies from home just in case. Want some? What flavor do you like?”
Unlike calm Taeeon, Hojin was busy: patting Roy’s head, pulling out cookies—doing everything at once.
Watching him, Taeeon felt a vague sense of betrayal.
“......Hojin. I think I just heard more from you than I did in the past two weeks.”
He knew Hojin doted on Roy.
Even so, Taeeon had thought they’d gotten closer. Realizing it was all his own delusion, he felt a little hurt.
“Come on~ Hojin hyung’s just really shy with strangers.”
“No? From what I can see, Hojin just hides his face.”
What a cat-person who only dotes on cats.
If you had to sort him, Taeeon was closer to a puppy face. Which is to say, he gets cutoff at the entrance.
To break the awkward mood, Roy hurried to introduce Yeonwoo and Bi.
“This is Park Yeonwoo and Jegal Bi, who go to the same school as me. You all know Yeonwoo hyung, right? Archery prodigy.”
“Of course. I’m Kim Taeeon. It’s an honor to meet you.”
“Aw~ what’s all this, making me blush like it’s some family honor. I’m Park Yeonwoo.”
Hearing what he wanted to hear, Yeonwoo clasped Taeeon’s hand.
“And this is Hojin hyung. He’s your age. Be friendly.”
“Is that so. Nice to meet you, friend! We can talk casual, yeah?”
This time Yeonwoo offered his hand first. Hojin shook it awkwardly and bowed his head instead of speaking.
“I heard a lot about you from Roy. You do art, right? Draw me later too.”
Hojin, who physically cannot lie, averted his eyes and hid behind Roy.
A capital-I introvert, he looked like his energy was being drained in real time just standing amid the newbies Roy had brought.
Smothering a laugh, Roy kept the intros going.
“And this is my classmate.”
Finally his turn, Bi—who’d been stiff this whole time—forgot even how to breathe.
Honestly, he’d thought he was seeing Roy one-on-one today, so the situation had him all out of sorts.
There were three people here who obviously weren’t ordinary just at a glance, and Hojin had been glaring like he wanted to kill him since a moment ago, which was terrifying.
At “same class as Roy,” his look was meant to say “Please take care of our kid,” but because of his cold features, the meaning wasn’t getting across.
“Galbi’s an awakener too. What was your ability again?”
“Psycho—”
“Ah, right. Psychopath!”
