Chapter 86

In truth, calling out Joo Seowon’s attitude didn’t mean much. Acting distant didn’t make him the type to slack on work. His own little sister was involved, after all.

'Coldly speaking, that’s true.'

Even so, after telling him so much, watching him put distance between us wasn’t exactly pleasant. In short, his attitude was starting to get on my nerves. In more ways than one.

Joo Seowon asked like he didn’t get what I meant.

"Me, what?"

He couldn’t actually not know; he was pretending not to.

"You’re acting like you’re dying to keep your distance. It’s like you’re begging me to notice."

"I never—"

"Don’t start with the ‘when did I ever’ crap. I’m about to get annoyed."

"..."

"I thought about why you’re doing this. Is your trust in me at absolute zero?"

From his end, all I heard was a noncommittal mm. Too stubbornly silent to call it a reaction, but not inclined to answer either.

I kept going.

"I think it’s possible. You were born suspicious. Every little thing I do rubs you the wrong way... I can see that."

"Suspicious— Hey, what?"

"Not that it’s really my problem. I’ve told you everything I can."

"It’s not like that. What are you even saying?"

Yeah. I know it’s not that. Which leaves only one other possibility, doesn’t it?

"Then what is it? Are you hung up on that thing where you rubbed your lips on me?"

"..."

"To get ahead of ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) it—I’m perfectly fine."

He stayed quiet for a long time, and just when I was about to prod him, he finally spoke.

"You don’t... have to talk about that. I messed up. Sorry."

Well, hell.

If he’d cussed me out and snapped, I could’ve let it go. The honest reaction was the problem.

'Should I just drop it?'

But this suffocating act wasn’t new, and thinking it might continue, I wanted to meddle in everything out of sheer spite.

'Or I just push harder until he says something. It’s not like a little lip contact wears anything down.'

Still, digging any further wouldn’t get me the reaction I wanted. Not that I knew exactly what reaction I wanted.

While I hesitated, Seowon moved first.

"Did you talk with Guildmaster Song Hwayoung?"

"Yeah, over dinner. Nothing much. We let it slide."

"Doesn’t she seem suspicious?"

"She used a truth-revealing item. Which worked out. I didn’t lie anyway."

The topic had shifted before I knew it, but I let it pass. He seemed satisfied enough with my answer.

Even if Song Hwayoung got suspicious now, she’d look at Seowon. He’d slip out of it fine; I wasn’t worried.

Anyway, I should start poking at his personal issues too.

"Is the dungeon trauma recovery project going well?"

"What... Hey, I haven’t entered a dungeon since that day. How am I supposed to ‘progress’ it?"

"Get over it faster. You’ll be going into dungeons regardless. It’s easier once you push through."

"Listen to this guy, seriously."

His voice, which had been subdued, regained a little spark. Christ, getting attached to someone’s bitching—my head must be screwed up too.

I clicked my tongue and ignored his grumbling.

"What’s with that reaction? Annoying... If it were anyone else, I’d be cussing them out. But you—what am I supposed to do? You’re a son of a bitch by default."

"You just did cuss."

"God, this is so fuck—"

I chuckled at his reaction and answered.

"Look... I’m not saying fix it tomorrow. Do something else. Find Cheonmyeonggyo’s base..."

I trailed off. Would asking him about Sung Uijae shake something loose?

I thought about it seriously, then dropped it. Handle the urgent things first.

'I’ll deal with Sung Uijae on my end.'

"Yeah. Do that."

"Okay. I’ll call when I find it."

That should do. I was about to wrap up, so I kept it short.

"Good night."

"Are you coming by tomorrow?"

"Depends... on how fast you find Cheonmyeonggyo’s location."

"..."

"Then sleep well."

I hung up and tossed the phone onto the bed. Plan was to turn in early. When my to-do list looks fuzzy, building stamina is the answer.

I showered and lay down early, before midnight, and tried to sleep.

***

Around that time, in Seoul.

Joo Seowon grabbed his head and hurled his poor phone aside.

'I’m seriously losing it...'

He was usually good at looking at his own behavior objectively—except in a few special situations.

So he knew his behavior would look strange to Seo Jehyun.

'Goddamn it, I can’t even look him in the face.'

He wanted to grab himself by the collar. Or rip the whole memory out—both his side and Seo Jehyun’s.

But he did feel wronged in his own way.

Wasn’t it Seo Jehyun who started the problem? The one who crashed into his quiet life like a lunatic?

There had been more than a few suspicious things from the beginning, but whether to take his hand wasn’t a decision Seowon got to make. The guy claimed to know Joo Minha’s whereabouts; Seowon had no choice but to believe him.

A single family member with that kind of age gap was, by existence alone, a kind of trauma for Seowon.

He remembered the day two years ago when he lost Joo Minha.

He’d been caught up in dungeon incidents a few times, but actually dropping into the middle of one—that was a first.

By situation alone, you couldn’t say he was disadvantaged. He was a support-type Awakened with a tracking skill, and it was a labyrinth-type dungeon where that ability shined.

Which is why the failure stung. Or was it even a failure?

His memories from inside the dungeon were blurred like they’d been run through a filter, and he trusted himself less and less. ...Did he really do everything he could?

Then how the hell did he fail to find his little sister? He wasn’t some clumsy low-rank Awakened; he was classified as a high-rank, B-rank.

To be honest, he hadn’t been especially close with her. After the accident, with just the two of them left and a decent age gap, he watched out for her out of obligation—nothing more.

How close can siblings nine years apart really be? He figured he was born too light to take care of his sister like a father would. At least, that’s what he thought of himself. Meanwhile, she grew up filling in the gaps he couldn’t cover, so what remained was a slightly guilty, awkward sibling relationship—nothing more.

Maybe that was why he obsessed over her disappearance in the dungeon. It wasn’t just because she was his only family.

Guilt piled up over the years, doubt in his own ability, regret... all of it stacked together.

The Special Response Team hunters who cleared the dungeon heard his report and did one more sweep before the Gate closed, but Minha wasn’t there.

If there’d been a corpse, he could’ve lived—or died—with the guilt. But with no trace, he was forced to keep going, carrying that vague, lingering duty.

More and more he wondered if there was any point... and still, he kept at it. Because out of all the goals he had left, the only one that truly counted as a goal was that.

Two years passed like that.

Nothing progressed, and paradoxically, his life settled into something stable. Sure, his reputation took a tiny hit, but that was a daily occurrence anyway.

The important part is that then he met the bastard named Seo Jehyun.

The guy who showed up out of nowhere spouting bullshit about knowing his sister’s location, about coming from where she’d been—and then demanded a contract.

What he felt then was more anger than relief. Even though a fact he’d written off as hopeless had resurfaced as a possibility.

Was it because a stranger acted like he knew too much? Because Seo Jehyun’s approach was too violent? Or because on the very first day they met, the bastard told him to vacate his place and move into his house?

'Probably all of the above.'

But as time passed, the anger faded.

For an employer who’d pierced his ear in the name of tracking, Seo Jehyun showed less interest in him than expected. Living together for months and watching him closely, Seowon realized that. They lived under the same roof, talked about this and that, even shared a common goal, and yet Jehyun didn’t share much. He seemed like someone with hard lines of his own.

It was ridiculous that Seowon even cared about a guy like that...

The funniest part was that without understanding Seo Jehyun at all, he kept finding himself pitying the man’s life.

He thought of Jehyun’s background, almost disturbingly clean.

No family, no close acquaintances. Like someone who’d dropped into this place overnight.

He didn’t live a daily life so much as run toward a goal step by step, like a game character. Maybe because nothing else seemed to interest him. Every part of his life was goal-oriented. At a glance, he looked like an impulsive human who only chased what excited him, but—

On top of that, he kept tossing out bits of information that even Seowon didn’t know, and that was bizarre too.

'The world’s going to end?'

He still didn’t fully understand that. Why would an individual stop it? What was in it for Seo Jehyun? How did invisible covenants threaten someone’s life? He didn’t know any of it.

If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be better if everything were shared? He found himself thinking that and then feeling ridiculous.

There was no reason for Seo Jehyun to act that way.

Even knowing that, he kept wanting it and...

'I think I’m in real trouble.'

Right then, Joo Seowon just wanted to bite his tongue and drop dead.