VSP 54

Sejun unconsciously looked at him, and his eyes met with Cha Dogyeong’s gaze fixed on him.

He had not expected Cha Dogyeong to be looking at him, so Sejun’s eyes widened. At that moment Cha Dogyeong’s eyes curved gently, and he brought his lips close to Sejun’s ear.

Cha Dogyeong’s breath brushed his ear. Sejun shivered as the fine hairs on his body stood up, and then Cha Dogyeong whispered.

“Do you want me to go beat them up?”

“What?”

Sejun asked, and Cha Dogyeong repeated, Sejun had not misheard.

“Want me to crush them?”

Sejun belatedly realized he meant the hunters sitting in the corner who had just spoken badly of him, and his face froze.

“No, damn. It’s not that I can’t do it…!”

“Of course you could. You’re the great Seo Sejjun.”

Before Sejun could finish his sentence, Cha Dogyeong ended it casually.

Sejun blinked.

Did this bastard just call me Seo Sejjun?

And what he just said…? While Sejun was making a puzzled face, Cha Dogyeong shrugged.

“You and I both just ignore it. There are too many people who know me to respond to every single one.”

“Uh…”

“Guys like that seem especially interested in me.”

Right then, the coffee came out. In the four-slot carrier there were not only the three drinks they ordered, but also small jelly-like snacks as service.

Cha Dogyeong nodded slightly at the cafe owner in greeting, then continued calmly.

“I don’t even know who they are, but they all talk like they know me.”

“Uh…”

“Let’s go.”

Cha Dogyeong walked out of the cafe first. Sejun was bewildered, he stared at his back for a moment, then slowly followed.

‘I don’t even know who they are.’

Cha Dogyeong really acted like he did not care. Of course, unlike Sejun, he was not the type to be cursed at everywhere on the internet. But since he was famous and had such a blunt personality, he did not only hear good things either.

Sejun suddenly turned back. When he looked at the guys who had been talking about him and Cha Dogyeong, they really were faces he did not know. He could not tell what rank they were, or what abilities they had.

Yeah, he didn’t know them. They were people without any value. They knew about the famous Sejun and Cha Dogyeong, but the two of them did not know about them. There was no reason to care about them.

He really did not know them. They were not worth it.

[Based on the wavelength calculation, they’re C-rank.]

Meanwhile the system even measured their ranks through wavelength analysis.

C-rank. Considering hunter ranks went down to F, they were not completely useless, but to put it more plainly, they were hunters who could be easily subdued by Cha Dogyeong, and even just by Seo Sejun’s physical ability.

Of course, they were nobodies.

“Yeah?”

[Yes. To borrow their words, Sejun-nim, they are not a ‘rank’ you need to care about.]

Was it Sejun’s imagination, or did the system’s tone sound slightly amused?

“Yeah.”

Just as the system and Cha Dogyeong said. It was not that Sejun could not deal with them, it was that doing so was troublesome and annoying.

At some point, Sejun had stopped walking, so Cha Dogyeong, walking ahead, tilted his head toward him like he was asking why he was not coming.

“Seo Sejjun~.”

Sejun shouted “I’m coming,” and walked over.

That bastard id really calling me Seo Sejjun.

Mumbling to himself, Sejun walked closer to Cha Dogyeong. Somehow his steps felt lighter than before.

•••

When Sejun and Cha Dogyeong arrived at Ryu Sehyun’s office, he was buried under a mountain of papers as always.

Maybe because of the incident the day before, he was checking more files than usual at high speed. As soon as he saw the two of them, Ryu Sehyun pressed his sore eyes with his hand.

He looked exactly like someone who had stayed up all night at his desk.

They say positions of authority are burdens, and Ryu Sehyun was the perfect example. Outwardly it looked like a respectable post, but if you looked inside, there was no position more heavy and exhausting.

But Cha Dogyeong did not seem to feel any compassion at that sight.

“You said you’d buy food.”

That was the first thing he said when facing Ryu Sehyun. The carrier with three coffees and a bag of jellies was set on Ryu Sehyun’s desk, and he looked back and forth between the coffee, Cha Dogyeong, and Sejun.

“You’re buying mine too, right?”

“Cha Dogyeong.”

When Ryu Sehyun spoke his name, his tone slightly stern.

There was a gap that could not be crossed between the two hunters with an eight-year age gap. Even though they had survived battlefields together and acknowledged each other’s abilities, there was a line they could not cross, a closeness they could never reach.

But Cha Dogyeong did not care at all about that stern voice. He casually pulled out his iced americano, the jelly, and the iced mocha that Sejun was going to drink from the carrier.

“Seo Sejjun, open the straw.”

He handed Sejun the iced mocha and even gave him the straw, telling him to unwrap it. Sejun reflexively took them and tore open the wrapper, but he made a dumbfounded face at that damned nickname.

“Are you going to keep calling me that?”

“What’s wrong with it.”

“Do you want people to start calling you Cha Ttogyung?”

“Cha Ttogyung? Not bad.”

Sejun handed the straw, and Cha Dogyeong bit it with his lips without a care, then drank the iced americano in one go.

Of course Sejun was stunned. He thought if he called him Cha Ttogyung he would be disgusted, but what was that smile, like he actually liked it?

[Hunter Cha Dogyeong seems insane.]

The system judged with a firm voice. Sejun thought so too. Today, no, recently, Cha Dogyeong really did seem insane.

“Here.”

On top of that, Cha Dogyeong opened the small jelly bag, pulled out only one bear-shaped jelly for himself, and handed the rest to Sejun.

Sejun, who unconsciously accepted the bag, stared at it blankly. Thinking the jelly itself had done no wrong, he put one in his mouth. It had a refreshing fruit flavor.

“……”

Ryu Sehyun had been watching, his expression had subtly darkened.

Cha Dogyeong asked casually.

“Sehyun-hyung, why did you only buy for Seo Sejun? Buy for me too.”

“I bought it for Sejun because he went through a hard time this time.”

“And you never bought for me when I went through hard times.”

“You’re already rich, so why are you whining.”

“Then Seo Sejun isn’t rich? He earns a lot too.”

If you only listened to the words, they sounded like they were close. But their tone was so dry.

It was a desert. A desert of conversation was right there. For words to be so cracked and dry.

Sejun tried to enjoy the sight while eating popcorn, except it was jelly. But unfortunately the number of jellies was small, as the size of the bag suggested, so there was no such luxury.

Ryu Sehyun, who found it tiring to deal with Cha Dogyeong any further, turned his gaze to Sejun instead.

“Sejun-ah, I heard you had a tough time yesterday.”

“Uh? Ah.”

Sejun responded late to the question. A tough time. Come to think of it, something serious had happened yesterday, but he had spent the day almost forgetting it.

If he had gone home alone like usual, he would have drowned in gloom and eaten himself up over and over. Strangely, that had not happened.

And when he looked at Cha Dogyeong, who might have been the cause or the savior, calmly sipping his coffee, Sejun felt complicated.

It was thanks to Cha Dogyeong.

Thanks to him, Sejun was able to stay more or less okay even after Hoya was hurt because of him. Because that guy had dragged him off and comforted him.

Though he did not usually like alcohol, the taste of the drink Cha Dogyeong had poured still seemed to linger in his mouth, so Sejun licked his lips. Then Ryu Sehyun continued.

“I wasn’t at the Association yesterday because I was busy, but what timing.”

“Ah, it’s fine…”

“I comforted him well yesterday, so he’s fine.”

Sejun’s words were cut off by Cha Dogyeong. Sejun blinked. It wasn’t wrong, but admitting it was…

Sejun’s face immediately scrunched.

“What’s so great about what you did?”

“I comforted you with expensive alcohol.”

Cheese, hangover cure, chocolate too.

Cha Dogyeong listed off what he had done for him one by one.

“I even made sure you didn’t sleep alone.”

That was the last thing he added. Sejun blinked. It was true, but didn’t it sound way too strange when he put it like that?

“Because of you, I couldn’t sleep.”

That’s why I’m sleepy. Cha Dogyeong muttered that and kept sipping his coffee. Sejun blinked.

So that was why he kept saying he was sleepy, and why he was drinking americano instead of lemonade. He really hadn’t been able to sleep?