Chapter 25

The drive into Seoul took nearly three hours thanks to traffic. Joo Seowon was still sleeping with his arms crossed, head lolling like he was headbanging, all the way until we pulled into the hotel parking lot.

I parked, then shook him awake.

“Seowon.”

“...Mm.”

His brows furrowed slightly and he let out a long sigh, head drooping forward.

“Ah, fuck, I’m so tired....”

“Book a room and sleep, then.”

“No. I’ve gotta clean up my place anyway....”

This guy really hadn’t come to his senses yet. I put the back of my hand against Seowon’s cheek. He must’ve been out cold, because his skin was burning hot against my fingers.

“Ah, shit. Fuck, that’s cold!”

“Trying to wake you up.”

“Why the hell is your hand that cold? Is that a skill or something?”

I’d gotten so used to Seowon blaming everything on skills that all I thought was, he’s just talking shit again. Instead, I pressed /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ my ice-cold hand to the back of his hot neck and rubbed.

Nice. Like a free hot pack.

“Argh! Ah, ah. Fuck, that’s freezing... shit.”

“I’m doing this to wake you up. It’s called consideration.”

“Consideration, my ass. Have you seriously never been on the receiving end of it? If you call this consideration, people call the cops. You crazy bastard.”

Well. He was definitely awake now. Without any regret I opened the door and got out. First things first... yeah, I needed sleep. How many hours had I been awake?

By the time we rode the elevator up to the room my head was pounding from the lack of rest. I’d stirred up so much shit over the last week that I’d woken up every day to a mountain of things to deal with.

Card key.

As soon as I unlocked the door, I spotted Do Yehyun hovering near the entrance.

The moment he saw me he gave me this weird look—not happy, not unhappy either.

“Hello.”

“I couldn’t reach you, so....”

Reach me? I flipped my phone over. Sure enough, it was dead. Figures. I’d been out all day; no way the battery survived.

“Sorry. Battery died.”

I showed him the dead phone and brushed past toward the bedroom. Yeah, after crawling around in filth earlier I should at least wash up, but—

I was too drained. Three seconds of internal debate and I came to a quick conclusion.

Fuck it. Housekeeping’ll deal with it.

I didn’t have the strength to shower. I just stripped off my jacket and pants and crawled onto the bed. Do Yehyun followed me in, hesitated a moment, then asked:

“Hyungnim, what happened with the dungeon?”

“I’ll tell you, but not now. After I wake up.”

After that, I was out cold. Nothing else stuck in my memory.

***

When I woke up, it was already pitch dark outside. At first I just sat there blank, unable to get a grip on reality. Had I really slept that long?

I reached for my phone, but since I hadn’t charged it earlier, it was still dead.

There are things I need to check.

Still, the crazy part was that even after all that sleep, if I closed my eyes I felt like I could pass out again. As I got up and ran a hand through my messy hair, I noticed someone standing in the corner of the room.

What the hell’s he doing there?

What is this, a horror movie?

If I were even a little more high-strung I’d have collapsed already.

I called out to the would-be horror prop.

“Why are you standing there?”

“I didn’t know when you’d wake up, so I just....”

He didn’t know when I’d wake up, so he stood there until I did? What kind of bullshit was that. I plugged my phone into the charger and flipped on the light. A little visibility helped.

“Yehyun. What time is it?”

“It’s 7:19 right now.”

“Hm.”

So I’d slept what, nine hours? More than I expected. Which made me wonder what exactly Yehyun had been doing that whole time.

“You stayed like that for all nine hours?”

“......”

He hesitated, dragging it out like he was trying to kill me with suspense, then finally spoke.

“Not exactly....”

“Then what?”

“I checked the news right after. It kept saying the dungeon clear was taking longer than expected....”

What the hell? Sokcho dungeon had taken six hours to clear—longer than I’d thought, sure, but still fast by A-rank standards. And considering it was basically Im Haekyung’s one-man show, the clear time was insane.

As I thought it over, the reality that I was still alive finally hit me. If it had come down to it, I’d been ready to start over again.

But that’s the thing—when you actually make it out alive, even a few days of work feel too precious to throw away. I didn’t want to die.

By that logic, Kwon Taehan was really something. If it were me, no way I could stand dying over and over after achieving so much. Then again, since it was me who killed him, I didn’t have much right to talk.

I stretched, testing my body. Every bone and every muscle fiber felt thoroughly wrecked.

Condition’s not great.

Even as I checked myself over, Yehyun kept talking.

“And I don’t know if it’s true or not, but—Hyungnim, you told me you were F-rank, right? That you needed a healer, or else you might die. That’s why I said I wanted to go with you... but you never replied.”

Look at him, thinking things through like that. Compared to Seowon, this kid was a hundred times more admirable.

“...Hyungnim, are you really F-rank?”

Still doubting me, huh. I rubbed my face with my hands and gave the simplest answer.

“Yeah. I just get buffs because my skills are good.”

“...But even then, you could’ve died, right?”

“Didn’t you see me go with Haeseong’s guildmaster? He’s S-rank.”

“I did. But that doesn’t mean it’s safe.”

Fair point. But sticking next to an S-rank still raised your survival odds a hell of a lot. It was just that hanging around that S-rank made me feel like he’d be the one to kill me.

Still, I got what Yehyun was worried about. I’d dragged him out here with promises of profit, and if I keeled over he’d just get hauled back to Infinite Guild.

Not much I could say to that, really.

I needed to hit Infinite Guild soon and clear his debt. Saying I’d pay it back but then running off every day to do other shit—no wonder Yehyun didn’t trust me.

Anyway. I tossed him a short apology.

“Yeah. Sorry.”

“...You don’t need to apologize to me.”

“I said I’d clear your debt, but if I’d died this time you’d have been fucked. I wasn’t thinking straight.”

“......”

I needed to shower and get some food. Or should I order food first and then shower?

While I was weighing that very serious dilemma, Yehyun suddenly dropped some out-of-nowhere crap.

“When I look at you... I think about a lot of things.”

What the fuck? What kind of line was that.

Hearing it while still in nothing but a shirt and underwear after just rolling out of bed felt downright filthy. I didn’t even get the context. I should’ve just nodded and headed to the bathroom, but—

“You a pervert?”

“...What?”

Shit. That was supposed to stay in my head.

Guess I was too tired; my thoughts kept slipping right out of my mouth.

“No, I misspoke.”

“......”

Should I ask what he meant by “a lot of things”? Before I could, Yehyun lowered his eyes to the floor and continued on his own.

“Next time, let’s go in together.”

“Yeah.”

“...Really?”

“I don’t lie to you.”

It wasn’t even a promise—I literally couldn’t afford to enter without him. Still, he didn’t look convinced. Damn, it stung a little being doubted even when I was honest.

Going into that dungeon with Im Haekyung had taught me how much energy it actually took. One wrong move and you really could die.

Which meant Yehyun needed to shape up as a healer fast. And when it came to SH Guild... slipping in two extra members wouldn’t be too much, right? I’d brought five people out already—if they had any conscience, they’d accept them.

But first, there was something else we had to do.

“And we’re visiting Infinite Guild soon.”

“......”

“Need to clear that debt.”

I’d considered going alone, but all things considered it was better if Yehyun was there.

Strictly speaking, I didn’t care about the debt itself—it was about making sure I didn’t have to deal with annoying crap later. If I paid it off and he still froze up every time Infinite Guild showed up, that was a problem.

Wasn’t there some saying about a lion throwing its cub off a cliff? Same idea. Throw him off, beat the shit out of him with reality, and in the end his odds of surviving go up. That’s rational kindness.

Watching Yehyun, I smiled faintly. He seemed lost in thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement. See? He looked nice when he listened.

***

After a shower and a change into clean clothes, Yehyun and I headed down to the hotel restaurant for dinner.

“What’s the difference between these two?”

“I’ve got no idea. Want to just order both?”

He asked about the difference between some overpriced fish-egg sauces, but instead of answering I just ordered everything. Learning through experience is the best.

“Taste good?”

“...Yeah.”

“Eat up.”

I watched him chew politely, then turned back to my own plate.

For the record, one reason I lent Yehyun my card was that he didn’t have money in his own name. The other was to track where he went while I was gone. Knowing his movements made it easier to catch on if he tried any funny business.

But the kid rarely went out alone anyway.

So when I told him to at least buy some clothes, he took my card and went off to do the dumbest shit.

Since he hadn’t brought any clothes with him, he’d been wearing mine. Which left him looking like some broke car junkie who bought a sports car and ate dirt, stomping around in a Britney-casual look and spending money in the most ridiculous ways.

Inerflow Co., Ltd.

₩131,400 Approved

Seo hyun Vision Card (31*)

Single payment, 10/11 14:21

Cumulative: ₩98,204,610

By the way, of that cumulative amount, Yehyun had spent less than ₩140,000.

When I asked what the hell he’d bought, he said six outfits. At that point I gave up. Wherever he found them, it was some next-level shit. At this rate, I figured if I left him alone he’d probably manage to buy a house for fifty thousand won.