FLIA 107

Why is it sheep?

The next day, Yohan had the same thought as he sat on the hospital bed reading online reactions. He didn’t stop at thinking it, he asked in the group chat.

Why is the guild name Taeyang?

It’s not the sheep I’m thinking of, right?

Yoon Seungryong

Hahaha

Ju Hoyoung

Hahaha

Seo Yakrin

Because our youngest is cuteㅎㅎ

Ju Hoyoung

Because the sun shines bright?

Yoon Seungryong

The mascot should be cute

Seo Yakrin

Yohan-ah, did you have lunch?

Yoon Seungryong

Heat up what’s in the fridge for three minutes in the microwave, Yohan

They all avoided answering properly, laughing and changing the subject, they were clearly in on it together and leaving Yohan out.

Lee Chanha, who hadn’t replied for a while, sent a cute sheep sticker from who-knows-where, and last of all, Lee Hyunmook sent a message.

Lee Hyunmook

Yangyang

Even as he clenched his fist, Yohan took a screenshot of the chat and saved it with satisfaction. A year ago, he couldn’t have imagined chatting with these people. In truth, he liked being called Yangyang, he was a little, no, very proud to be the symbolic figure of the new guild.

He was reading through the cheerful, bustling chat again when there someone knocked at the door. It slid open, and the person who walked in was someone whose face Yohan had never forgotten, not even in dreams.

“Yang Yohan…?”

Holding a fruit basket, Park Seungmin stepped into the room with a worried look. Yohan stared at him coldly for a moment, then quickly smoothed his expression. He greeted him like an old friend he hadn’t seen in a year.

“Park Seungmin! It’s really good to see you after so long. I’m getting discharged soon anyway, so you didn’t have to come all the way here to visit.”

Park Seungmin finally stepped in with a show of confidence after hearing his words, tapping Yohan on the shoulder in reproach.

“Hey, if you’re back, of course you should have contacted me first!”

“Sorry. The Rift Management Bureau wouldn’t let me contact anyone. I only called my parents for the first time yesterday. What’s with the fruit?”

Still watching Yohan’s reaction, Park Seungmin set down the heavy basket, looking awkward.

“Well, I had to bring something if I came to visit.”

Then, after studying Yohan’s unsuspecting face, he asked cautiously,

“You… really don’t remember anything?”

“Oh, my parents told you?”

Yohan, saying he’d been craving mango, rummaged through the fruit basket and spoke as if it were nothing.

“I must’ve hit my head. When I came to, I was in the Abyss. I remember joining a raid party to enter, but after that, nothing. I spent a year in there, and still nothing came back, so it’s probably gone for good.”

“I see… so you really don’t remember.”

Park Seungmin looked relieved for a moment. He hid it quickly, but Yohan saw it clearly.

“What does it matter if you lost some memories. You came back alive, that’s what counts.”

“True. And thanks to that, I awakened.”

Park Seungmin snapped his head toward him, he clearly did not expecting that. He kept his face arranged in a pleased expression, but Yohan could tell he wasn’t happy about it at all. That petty nature was obvious to him now.

“You awakened?”

“It’s nothing special. Just physical strength enhancement. Only low-level, so even if I worked, it would barely be pocket money.”

“Pocket money…”

Park Seungmin muttered blankly. Yohan had deliberately said it to provoke him, but in times like these, the income of a low-level awakener was far from negligible. There were rifts considered relatively safe for exploration, and plenty of demand for awakeners as bodyguards or security, even outside of rift work.

Yohan pressed further.

“Anyway, I’m well-off enough that I don’t have to work. Oh, and just between us, I’m joining the Taeyang Guild.”

“T-Tae…yang Guild? How…?”

Trying to stay calm, Park Seungmin’s eyes widened. With his senses sharpened since becoming a high-level awakener, Yohan could hear him grinding his molars.

“I was really lucky. I met Hyunmook-hyung in the Abyss. Even after he and the others escaped, he said we should stick together. My salary’s huge. It’s basically a job I can coast through. My life’s set now.”

When Yohan boasted so openly, Park Seungmin’s mouth twitched, and he finally blurted it out.

“You’ve… changed a bit.”

“Really? Maybe from the head injury. Or maybe because I went into the Abyss and came out. It was a hellish place. To get out of there, you’d do anything.”

Yohan said it with a straight face, then grinned as if nothing had happened. Park Seungmin, feeling a pang of guilt, looked away without meaning to. But, he shamelessly sat down on the folding bed. He clearly wasn’t done with whatever he’d come to Yohan for.

“What did the doctors say? Do they think your memory will come back?”

“They said in most cases it never does. But maybe it’s better if it doesn’t.”

“Yeah… I think it’s better if it doesn’t.”

Park Seungmin agreed with Yohan without the slightest shame, and shrugged, then he added,

“Actually, you insisted on going into a pharmacy alone to look for medicine, and that’s when you got ambushed and we got separated.”

“Yeah, my parents told me. But I don’t get it. If I’d just asked my dad, he could have gotten any medicine right away. Why would I bother searching a pharmacy alone for something like that?”

Yohan muttered as if he really didn’t understand, tossing the mango in his hand back into the basket and asking,

“Do you know why I did it?”

“Maybe… you were sulking after getting scolded. I don’t know what you were thinking back then. And now you don’t remember, so we’ll never know.”

Park Seungmin dodged the question and finally got to the real reason he had come.

“So, are you close with the Sunrise Team?”

This bastard… how could someone be so shameless?

Yohan stared at him, anger and curiosity mixing. It was Park Seungmin who had pushed him to join that awakening party in the first place, saying he knew some people, that they’d only stick to the outskirts and it would be perfectly safe.

Yohan had seen him act selfishly toward others before, but he’d chalked it up to personality differences. Park Seungmin had treated him well enough, and he got along fine with other friends, so Yohan decided to trust what he saw for himself. That trust had ended in a fall into the Abyss.

Now Yohan thought he understood why Park Seungmin had been so friendly. He had seen Yohan as a useful connection to exploit, while at the same time envying him. After being betrayed, Yohan could now see exactly what lay in his eyes, inferiority, jealousy, and a petty enjoyment of others’ misfortune.

Yohan answered slowly.

“It’s not Sunrise anymore. It’s Taeyang.”

“Right, Taeyang Guild. So are you close with them?”

Growing impatient, Park Seungmin pressed for an answer.

“If I weren’t close, could I have joined Taeyang Guild?”

“Then… can you use one of those Eternal Stones that cure corruption? Maybe… you could use a personal favor for someone?”

As expected, the exact question Yohan had predicted. He was starting to feel like throwing this insufferable traitor out.

“I don’t know. I’d have to ask. But there’s no one corrupted, so what for?”

“Thing is, I think I got a bit corrupted after that awakening party.”

“You’re not corrupted.”

Yohan looked straight at him. Since becoming a purifier, he could sense corruption levels precisely, and Park Seungmin showed no major signs. Looking closely, there was a trace, but so faint that it would be hard to find anyone completely free of it.

“It’s not physical symptoms, it’s mental. I feel like nothing works out, I get angry for no reason, and I keep drinking.”

“So what? You’re always like that. From what I can see, you’re not corrupted.”

“…That’s what you say to a friend? Instead of worrying about me?”

Park Seungmin’s face hardened. It was the first time Yohan had ever talked to him like this. Looking unsettled, he asked seriously,

“You… really don’t remember anything?”

“Maybe hitting my head changed my personality. Or maybe a bit of corruption is still affecting me. But why do you keep bringing up memories I don’t have? Is there something I absolutely have to remember?”

When Yohan smiled sweetly and asked, Park Seungmin hesitated.