VSP 24

•••

After visiting the Association to see Ryu Sehyun, more time passed idly.

Playing games, reading books, cooking while watching YouTube, reading comics, doing home workouts.

If you listed Sejun’s hobbies, that was about it. They were all far from outdoor activities, but it wasn’t only because of his personality.

For someone who drew stares wherever he went, life was tiring.

It wasn’t like he had a manager like a celebrity. He didn’t want to admit it, but it wasn’t like people looked at him kindly either. In the end, he had to endure it alone. But if he traveled, he was too well-known to go anywhere comfortably in Korea, and as an S-rank hunter, traveling abroad wasn’t easy either, so going overseas was impossible.

Of course, it wasn’t that he couldn’t go at all, but the countries he could enter were extremely limited. More importantly, the timing wasn’t right.

[You’re in the special management period right now. If you bring up leaving the country during this period, they’ll rip you to pieces.]

Because of that.

He thought of trying hiking, but gave up because people gathered there too. Driving to a quieter beach wasn’t bad, but going back and forth alone wasn’t fun, so he gave that up after trying a few times.

He did like the quiet hobby of browsing little shops, but even if he covered himself up tightly, the hunter aura still drew attention somehow, so even that wasn’t easy.

Even cooking, which he liked, was just for himself, so if he went overboard it only wasted ingredients. He couldn’t do it often.

What should I do?

Sejun rolled around with the same old worry. On YouTube there were all kinds of worlds, but not much caught his interest.

[Well, even worrying like that is fine, Sejun-nim.]

The system spoke up, watching Sejun laze around not knowing what to do.

“Hm?”

[Shouldn’t you start thinking about your mission?]

At those words, Sejun looked at the mission window.

<Cha Dogyeong eating 0/1>

Sub-mission: Flirt with Cha Dogyeong (6 days 17 hours remaining)

Ah.

He realized it was already the third sub-mission.

It had already been two weeks since that damned kiss incident.

One week of cooldown, then another two weeks given. Now, with half that time gone, Sejun’s phone had stayed silent with no calls at all.

Because no A-rank dungeon had spawned.

So few dungeons had appeared that calling it special management was embarrassing. In the past, they had blown up several times a day. What was supposed to be the highlight climax of the original novel felt like ancient history.

Now that he thought about it the sub-missions came almost once every three weeks, so the period was actually long. But now that it came, three weeks didn’t feel long at all.

It felt absurdly short. Blink once, and he had to do that damned flirting again.

The last two flirts… no matter how you looked at it, how were those even flirts? Anyway, even those two experiences had been miserable, and now there was only a week left?

“Ah.”

So annoying.

Sejun rolled back and forth on his bed in frustration, then stopped.

It was annoying enough that he had to flirt again, but remembering the past made it worse.

Getting caught with his pants down, losing his first kiss.

My first kiss, ugh.

“There’s still a week left.”

In the end, Sejun chose to postpone what he didn’t want to do.

Who knew, maybe another A-rank dungeon would appear in the meantime? There was no reason to go out of his way to meet that guy.

[It’s your choice, Sejun-nim. Don’t blame me later.]

The system said, but Sejun scoffed.

“I won’t blame you!”

And exactly five days later.

“Dogyeong-ah, it’s been a while. How are you? It’s nothing special, but did you eat yet? If not, I’ll buy, want to have a meal?”

Sejun smiled brightly and spoke smoothly. He had practiced those lines about five times already, so they flowed out of his mouth like water.

Of course, that was only because there was no one listening. Or to be exact, because the only one listening was the system.

[Now you just have to do as well in real life.]

Because it was practice.

Sejun sighed.

Forget an A-rank dungeon appearing. With just over a day left on the timer, there had been no dungeon news at all. Even the weathercaster’s cheerful voice saying the world was peaceful and the weather was good sounded irritating to him.

So, with each passing day of the sub-mission period making him more anxious, Sejun finally gave up with only a full day remaining. He decided to contact Cha Dogyeong first.

And his excuse was, Hi, it’s been a while, want to have a meal?

Of course, if someone asked whether Seo Sejun and Cha Dogyeong were the kind to eat together alone, Sejun was ready to shout back, would we?

It would have been easier if the flirt target had been Ryu Sehyun instead. That hyung would eat if asked, go to a cafe if invited. It would have been ridiculously easy.

That day too, in the end Sejun had ordered only the Western food he liked, cream and tomato dishes, and eaten. With the kind of consideration someone like Ryu Sehyun showed, even this damned mission would have been really easy.

Sejun grumbled. Of course, grumbling didn’t change anything, so he went back to staring at his phone screen.

He had gotten the number by chance, so it was saved, but he had never called. He stared for a long time at the clean call log under that name, then took a deep breath.

“Alright, I’ll call.”

[Fighting!]

But despite his determination, Sejun never spoke with Cha Dogyeong. Twice he waited nervously as the signal rang, only to hear the sound that the other didn’t pick up. The third time, expression blank, he tried again, but when the guy didn’t answer either, Sejun irritably threw his phone onto the bed.

“Argh!”

But soon Sejun picked up the phone again, opened the chat window with Cha Dogyeong, and sat on his knees with a solemn face.

If he didn’t answer the call, then it would be chat this time.

But did he really have to go this far? Even if the guy read it and replied, would he actually agree to eat together? Did he really have to do this?

[Hair vs. Cha Dogyeong.]

The system’s words brought him back to reality, Sejun obediently pressed on Cha Dogyeong’s profile picture.

“Shut up, seriously.”

With an annoyed mumble, he hesitated, then opened the chat window. It was clean, no messages at all, proving they had never had a private conversation before.

Back in school, even with the few people he had some flings with, he had never felt this nervous or had his heart race this much over a message.

Of course, even those few flings had been so insignificant they hardly counted. Probably the author’s doing. Thinking of it now felt unfair.

But this wasn’t the time to complain about that. Sejun closed his eyes and thought hard.

What should I send, what should I write?

Dogyeong-ah, long time no see. How are you? It’s nothing special, but did you eat yet? If not, I’ll buy, want to have a meal?

He had prepared that line for a call, so maybe he could send something similar. But after his fingers hovered over the keyboard for a long time, what he actually sent was,

“Hey”

“Are you asleep?”

A message that looked exactly like something a clingy ex-boyfriend would send.

•••

[Seo Sejjun: Hey]

[Seo Sejjun: Are you asleep?]

Dogyeong, who lying on the sofa with his eyes closed, opened them at the sudden messages.

He never answered unknown numbers. Just now, three persistent calls had come in, and he had wondered what kind of idiot it was and ignored them. But now that a chat had arrived, it seemed that number have been Seo Sejun’s.

The profile picture was a confident selfie of Seo Sejun wearing sunglasses, unmistakable.

[Seo Sejjun]

Even the name was set like that.

They had never contacted each other privately before, so he couldn’t be sure it was real, but since Sejun was a celebrity, fake accounts must be everywhere. But Dogyeong had a gut feeling this was the real Seo Sejun.

“Why?”

He sent back a reply, and the ‘1’ disappeared right away. But instead of replying quickly, the guy who had started the chat stayed silent for a while, then suddenly sent something completely random.

[Seo Sejjun: Aren’t you hungry?]

“……?”

Dogyeong froze for a moment at the nonsense message.

“What?”

[Seo Sejjun: If you’re hungry, let’s eat.]

Dogyeong frowned. What kind of bullshit was this?

“Are you insane?”

[Seo Sejjun: I’m not insane! If you haven’t eaten, let’s just eat together!]

“What are you scheming? Why would I eat with you?”

[Seo Sejjun: We can eat together sometimes!]

“You and me?”

[Seo Sejjun: Yeah]

“Why would I eat with another guy.”

There was no reply for a long time after that.