VSP 38

Sejun hurriedly checked the system log.

[Sub-mission complete!]

It wasn’t an error, a notification appeared saying the sub-mission had been completed.

That damned sub-mission about flirting with Cha Dogyeong.

…So, so.

So just now…

Just now, we flirted? That counted? Why?

The sub-mission usually didn’t count anything as flirting unless he exposed his lower half or kissed and was needlessly difficult. But now it cleared here? What was the standard?

But whether Sejun felt wronged or not, the sub-mission was complete, not failed, but successful. So he had no grounds to argue.

He understood that much but he felt strange. Flustered, Sejun called the system.

“Hey, hey, system.”

[What is it?]

“What do you mean what is it! Isn’t this an error?”

[You know if I had an error it would be a disaster.]

“But!”

But, but.

If he just let this go, it meant he and Cha Dogyeong…had just flirted. Admitting it meant that.

[Looks like it was flirting.]

Unlike Sejun, who stumbled for words, the system stamped it as flirting without hesitation. The shock left Sejun’s mouth hanging open.

Flirting?

…Flllirting?

…I just flirted? With Cha Dogyeong? There wasn’t even a kiss, no clothes off, and now I, now I…

…with Cha Dogyeong…

“…….”

Sejun bit his lip.

They had not done anything. Just asked if he liked amusement parks, answered that, said thanks for saving him. The mood was normal. How could that be flirting? Wasn’t this broken?

He thought that but he knew, just like the system had said, it did not break. It never had errors.

It always hit people with facts only.

[Seo Sejun (Rank S Hunter)]

Ability: Summoner

Alias: Pet Hunter

Stats

Health: 95/95

Mana: 160/160

Attack: 80

Defense: 60

Agility: 70

Intelligence: 100

Luck: 30

Skills

Summoning, Spirit Summon, Contract with Summoned Beasts, Combat Tactics, Quick Evasion

Passive

[ Summoning Dependence]

The calculation was precise. Looking at his mana, he had gained another 10, instead of being happy as usual, Sejun rubbed his cheek.

It was maybe the moment when the wall inside him, one he had not even known was there, collapsed.

Collapsed so badly he did not even know what it was. Sejun stood frozen with a blank face.

‘I don’t dislike you.’

‘I mean I don’t dislike you.’

For some reason, Dogyeong’s words came to mind.

Not hate me? Then…

Before he realized it, he thought of the natural words that would follow. He covered his mouth with his hand, afraid he might say something unfiltered.

[Sejun-nim. Your face is red.]

As if to prove it was not human, the system pointed it out flatly. Sejun rubbed his burning cheeks with the back of his hand.

“…Mind your own business.”

•••

The amusement park incident had too many witnesses, so for a while stories and pictures of it spread all over SNS.

In today’s world, witnessing a dungeon was not special. But seeing three S-rank hunters there was different.

People chattered about Lee Dohun, Cha Dogyeong, and Seo Sejun, but Sejun did not bother to check online.

The only thing was, his mother saw it on the TV news first and said, “My Sejun, you get scared even at the word ghost. Are you okay?”

Of course, Sejun put on an act and said, “How could I still be scared at my age.”

–You’ll still be scared even when you’re eighty.

Naturally, that did not work on the woman who had gone through labor to give birth to him.

Sejun felt anxious in his own way.

[Sub-mission complete!]

The log still recorded it. Sub-missions always had a cooldown before a new one was given, so there would be no new task for a while.

[Why are you anxious? You should be happy you completed it so easily.]

The system could not understand Sejun’s mood at all. But Sejun was serious.

How the hell was that flirting?

He still did not get it.

The indirect kiss through the tumbler–the memory of the unbearably sour lemonade made him grimace–was not counted. Falling headfirst into Dogyeong’s crotch was not counted either. The sub-mission, always annoyingly strict, had refused those, yet it accepted this as flirting.

[You did manage to keep your hair, at least.]

“Yeah, I still have my hair…”

In the end, Sejun sighed and rubbed his face with both hands, as if that would change anything. Thinking about it would not change anything either. The fact was, he was still a slave to the missions.

Maybe if he kept clearing these sub-missions, the day would come when he cleared the main mission too.

His eyes naturally went up to the main mission.

<Cha Dogyeong eating 0/1>

Ah.

His insides twisted even more complicatedly. No matter how many times he saw it, that mission never felt less awkward.

He had tried to avoid thinking about it every time since first seeing it, but that “eat” could only mean one thing, right? It had to mean that.

He did not even want to think about what exactly that word meant, but the bigger problem was position.

Sejun did not want to be the one underneath.

But he had a faint hope. The mission said it clearly. He had to “eat” Cha Dogyeong.

“Usually that means I’m on top, right?” Sejun asked the system for confirmation.

[Of course not.]

But the system was colder than him. His faint hope was instantly extinguished, and Sejun shouted in frustration.

“What do you mean of course not?!”

[You know it too.]

“No I don’t! I don’t know!”

[Want me to explain?]

Sejun clamped his mouth shut. He only bit his lips, and maybe that pathetic sight was too much because the system sighed.

[It says ‘eat’, but the one who will be eaten is you, Sejun-nim. With the height difference, size difference, even mentally, you’re destined to be the one under.]

“Hey!”

[But it’s the truth. Honestly, even you know it.]

“Shut up, don’t say another word.”

The system listened for once and went silent. The room filled with stillness. Sejun rolled on the floor in misery.

What kind of bullshit is that, a position being fixed in advance? It says eat! That means I could be the one pushing Cha Dogyeong down, right?

He thought that, but he still could not really imagine himself doing anything with Cha Dogyeong.

He had only kissed twice in his whole life, and every time it had made him shudder.… how could he ever have sex?

Even imagining it made his face flush red.

Of course, Sejun was a man too, not without desires or fantasies. But thanks to the author’s damned meddling, he had never once been in a relationship, so to him, that whole thing was basically fantasy.

And now his first fantasy had to be with Cha Dogyeong? Not him on top, but him on bottom?

Even with his shallow knowledge, Sejun knew men couldn’t just recklessly do it like that without consequences. If he wanted to avoid blood, he would have to study beforehand.

But study with what? Gay sex videos?

“Aaagh.”

Just the words “gay sex” flashing through his mind made him thrash in despair until he lay flat in exhaustion.

Even aside from the position, there was another problem.

How was he even supposed to get to that point with Cha Dogyeong? Honestly, he couldn’t even picture it.

[Well, if you keep flirting like this, maybe someday?]

Honestly, just the idea of you ending up in that kind of mood with Hunter Cha Dogyeong amazes me. The system added. Sejun almost unconsciously nodded, then bit his lip.

It amazed him too. That he was somehow managing to clear sub-missions one after another with that Cha Dogyeong.

Of course, it was only because he had been sweating and groveling desperately just to save his hair.

If the target had been Lee Dohun, or even someone like Choi Hangyeol, he would never have cleared a single one… Dogyeong was not exactly easy either, but he was strangely less difficult. There was some kind of opening.

What if it had been Sehyun-hyung instead? Would it have been different from with Cha Dogyeong?

“Gah.”

Without realizing it, Sejun had started listing men he knew. He slapped his own cheek.

Are you insane, Seo Sejun? Who are you even thinking of while imagining this nonsense! You should be thinking of pretty women, not this!