VSP 116

As Dogyeong entered the department store’s underground parking lot, he resisted the urge to just smash everything and chose the quickest route down to the sixth basement level. The first thing he saw was Hoya biting the core of the tree.

-Kkiaaaaak!

The sound of a dying being’s final struggle echoed throughout the entire underground parking lot, and at that moment, Dogyeong felt his heart sink when he saw Sejun vomiting blood and barely conscious.

It was a sensation Dogyeong was experiencing for the first time in his life.

Sejun had already vomited a torrent of blood due to excessive mana consumption, and if mana dropped to extreme levels, even an S-rank hunter couldn’t avoid death. Anyone could see that Sejun was at his limit.

It’s not too late yet.

Dogyeong had to repeat that to himself several times before the fuse in his head blew.

Clinging to that one fact, he barely calmed his racing heart and was just about to approach Sejun.

However, the tree root flew toward Sejun in a final desperate attack, and in that instant, Dogyeong moved faster than he ever had since awakening as a hunter. If anything, it was closer to instinct than conscious action.

Though he trusted his own abilities, he had always calculated everything in his head before moving, this was the first time he acted purely on impulse.

He didn’t even think to use his abilities to block it. The probability was low, but what if it failed? The terror brought by that “what if” was indescribable.

His split-second decision was swift, and instead of entrusting Sejun’s life to an unknown chance of failure, Dogyeong chose to offer his own body.

Thud! A pain so intense that it was unbearable even for an EX-rank hunter hit Dogyeong’s body.

With that final blow, the tree lost its power, and Dogyeong burned it. Even if left alone, the tree, already dead, would have simply turned to ash, but he wanted to eliminate even the slightest chance.

‘Ugh.’

Blood poured like a waterfall through the gap where the tree root had vanished. Dogyeong wasn’t one to flinch at ordinary pain, but in that moment, his vision blurred.

As Dogyeong grimaced, he heard Sejun, nestled in his arms muttering with a dazed expression.

‘Why are you so late, you bastard…’

Sejun, somehow sensing Dogyeong’s arrival, complained before passing out.

The moment his body limped into Dogyeong’s embrace, his heart dropped, and he leaned close to Sejun’s chest. Fortunately, his heart was beating.

‘…Sorry.’

Dogyeong quietly murmured an apology that wouldn’t be heard, and pulled Sejun tightly into his arms.

‘Hey, Cha Dogyeong!’

‘What about Sejun-hyung?’

Almost simultaneously, but a bit later than Dogyeong, Lee Dohun and Choi Hangyeol rushed in, followed even later by Na Yookyung and people who had entered to rescue survivors after the dungeon cleared. The inside of the department store quickly turned into chaos.

‘Wait, you crazy bastard Cha Dogyeong, why didn’t you say you were hurt?’

Choi Yerin, who had arrived in Seoul late along with Ryu Sehyun, was treating Sejun first when she belatedly noticed the gaping hole in Cha Dogyeong’s side and gasped in horror. She lifted the blood-soaked hem of his clothes with her fingertips, grimaced with an “ugh,” and hurriedly began healing him.

‘You know, if the angle had been even slightly off, you’d be dead instantly, EX-rank or not?’

Dogyeong himself didn’t think much of it. After all, he had survived, and so had Sejun.

What mattered was Sejun’s condition. He was unconscious, sleeping like the dead, to the point where Dogyeong had to check several times if he was still breathing.

‘Enough, what about Seo Sejun?’

‘…Sejun-oppa is fine. His insides are a bit messed up, but externally it’s just bruises, so I healed everything. The rest is exhaustion from mana depletion, so he’ll be okay with some good rest.’

Only after confirming twice more from her that Sejun was alright did Dogyeong stand up.

‘You’re taking him?’

‘Who else would?’

‘Sehyun-oppa said he wanted to check on Sejun-oppa for a bit.’

Dogyeong paused. His gaze naturally turned toward the crowd of people.

With Ryu Sehyun’s arrival, he was now in charge of the scene. Buried under a swarm of Association employees and reporters, Ryu Sehyun was nowhere in sight.

There were casualties, and Bacheon Guild was involved. This incident would heat up South Korea for at least a week, maybe longer. During that time, Ryu Sehyun would inevitably be busy.

Normally, he wouldn’t have the leeway to look after even one hunter today, yet he was saying he’d check on Seo Sejun.

The corners of Dogyeong’s mouth twisted.

‘What is there to check? Who knows when that guy’s work will end.’

‘He seemed like he was thinking of taking him to the hospital or something.’

‘As if. If we wait until he’s done, we’ll end up sleeping rough here.’

Choi Yerin, seemingly uninterested in getting involved in their conflict, shrugged. It meant “do as you like.”

But the interruptions didn’t end there.

‘Hey, Dogyeong, where are you taking Sejun-hyung?’

Though not the site commander, Choi Hangyeol, who had been the first hunter to enter and was being hounded from all sides, grabbed Dogyeong as he tried to leave with Sejun on his back.

‘Seo Sejun’s house.’

‘…You know Sejun-hyung’s house?’

‘I’ve been there a few times.’

‘You went to his house?’

The one who asked that last question was Lee Dohun. Like Choi Hangyeol, he had been dealing with people everywhere and came straight to check on Sejun as soon as he had a moment.

Ha, these guys, every last one of them.

Just as Dogyeong was about to lose his temper, Choi Yerin quickly intervened between the three men.

‘Sejun-oppa is tired, so yeah, better get him home quick!’

She said that with a bright smile. Pretending to be oblivious, but more perceptive than anyone, Choi Yerin seemed to realize the solution was for Dogyeong, who had Sejun, to disappear fast, and she pushed Dogyeong’s back.

‘Oh, and healing isn’t a cure-all, you know? You’re exhausted too, so go home and rest well.’

Dogyeong nodded, not bothering to refuse her support, and headed straight out.

After that, he took Sejun home, pestered an Association employee for Sejun’s mother’s number, and called her. That was two days ago, bringing us to today.

The weather had been lousy since morning, mirroring Dogyeong’s mood.

Even though it was broad daylight, the inside of the house was dark thanks to the cloudy sky without a single ray of sunlight, but Dogyeong didn’t think of turning on the light.

He was sprawled on the sofa like it was his snail shell, doing nothing but breathing like a person devoid of any will.

He lay there with his mind blank, occasionally checking his phone, which never buzzed with notifications. That was all he’d done for the past two days.

Naturally, over those two days, Dogyeong hadn’t been in a particularly good mood. If anything, it leaned toward bad.

Because there had been no contact from Sejun.

“……”

He absentmindedly checked the messenger app, then the missed calls. As expected, there were no calls, let alone messages.

He’d turned the notification sound up to max, so it was impossible to miss one, but Dogyeong checked his phone every time he thought of it.

With Sejun’s personality, there was no way he’d know Dogyeong had come that day and not contact him. It was really strange.

There were many times when he suddenly worried that something might be wrong, but he pushed those worries aside with the thought that if that was the case, it wouldn’t be this quiet.

He’d sent a message in case calling might wake him while he was resting comfortably, but Sejun hadn’t even read it.

By then, he started thinking that maybe Sejun was deliberately avoiding his contact. They’d been messaging fine right up until before the incident started, so that couldn’t be it, but then he’d recall Sejun’s resolute face when rejecting the ring, and it didn’t seem entirely impossible.

He considered calling Sejun’s mother’s number, which he’d learned by chance, but if Sejun was avoiding him on purpose, he probably wouldn’t like that, so he passed on the idea for now.

He laughed hollowly as he mulled it over. He’d never been this mindful of someone else’s feelings in his life, yet here he was, tiptoeing around Sejun’s.

Getting rejected on the ring must have been quite the shock, Cha Dogyeong.

In many ways, he felt lousy. Even to himself, he couldn’t understand why he was feeling so down. For Dogyeong, who had always kept even his emotions under control, this was unusual.

Na Yookyung’s warning, the S-rank dungeon that appeared as if on cue, the new final dungeon whose emergence was already a foregone conclusion, the fact that if he participated there, Sejun’s life would be threatened again, and Seo Sejun rejecting the ring.

Among them, the one who made Dogyeong’s heart complicate the most was none other than Seo Sejun.