VSP 55

When Sejun thought about it, he realized he had no memory of seeing Cha Dogyeong asleep. He had gone to bed before him, and when he opened his eyes, Cha Dogyeong was already heating bean sprout soup.

“Why couldn’t you sleep?”

“I can’t sleep with someone else.”

“Then you should have woken me up.”

“How was I supposed to wake you when you just crashed onto my bed? Besides, you were drunk.”

Sejun felt a twinge of guilt. He could not say he wasn’t drunk. He made a sulky face.

“You had other rooms.”

“If it’s not my room, I can’t sleep because it’s uncomfortable.”

“So in the end, you’re just sensitive!”

“Ah, so you’re saying it’s my fault?”

Sejun closed his mouth. What Cha Dogyeong said was not wrong. Sejun had received a lot from him last night. Physically, besides that expensive-looking alcohol, nothing seemed that great, but if he thought about it, maybe the least valuable thing Cha Dogyeong had given him was actually the alcohol.

It was Cha Dogyeong who came to get him, who waited for him, and in the end, who was the only one Sejun could find stability next to.

What mattered most to Sejun yesterday was none other than Cha Dogyeong’s presence.

“……”

But for some reason, it was embarrassing to admit it, so Sejun hesitated. Then he quietly pulled the last jelly from the bag he held and offered it to Cha Dogyeong, like a squirrel sharing the last precious acorn it had been holding in its paws.

“?”

Cha Dogyeong looked at him curiously, then realized it was Sejun’s way of saying thank you. He laughed like he found it ridiculous and snatched the jelly straight from Sejun’s hand with his mouth.

“Hey, you got spit on it!”

Sejun shuddered when he felt Cha Dogyeong’s lips brush his hand along with the jelly, but Cha Dogyeong chewed the jelly without a care and washed it down with coffee.

While the two of them were doing that little skit, a cool voice interrupted.

“You two did get closer.”

It was Ryu Sehyun.

His tone sounded a little twisted.

Sejun flinched. Busy bickering with Cha Dogyeong, he had forgotten Ryu Sehyun was there. It was unbelievable that he forgot Ryu Sehyun of all people because he was caught up with Cha Dogyeong. Sejun was shocked, while Sehyun rubbed his face tiredly.

The words Sejun had heard once before. That day at the restaurant, when the three of them, or rather the three plus one woman, had met. Watching Sejun and Dogyeong bicker, Ryu Sehyun had said the same thing. But this time the tone felt harsher. Was that just Sejun’s imagination?

“Maybe I should go into a dungeon too.”

But as if to prove it was his imagination, the way he said it to Sejun sounded the same as usual. Sejun tilted his head.

“Hyung? Aren’t you busy?”

“My busy work is mostly finished. If I go in, we’ll have exactly two for a pair.”

I also can’t afford to lose my field edge. He added that reason. It was true, no matter how great a hunter was, once he lost combat edge, it was not easy to get it back. Especially Ryu Sehyun, who was overshadowed by Cha Dogyeong’s brilliance, was still famous for combat ability strong enough not to lose even against Na Yookyung.

“Hm.”

Cha Dogyeong quietly drank the rest of his americano, then joined the conversation.

“How are you assigning teams?”

“It’s been random until now.”

“But that was a fake random you decided, right?”

“Do you have a method you prefer?”

“Well. I don’t like the random method at all. Why not just let people go with who they want?”

“That breaks fairness.”

Their words went back and forth like spear and shield. Both men spoke evenly, without hostility or rivalry, but for some reason Sejun felt like they were fighting.

Ryu Sehyun? That hyung who sometimes made him wonder if he was a robot because he lacked so much humanity?

[It is rare, indeed.]

The system agreed.

[Personally, in some ways I think that man seems less human than Hunter Cha Dogyeong.]

Sejun nodded and sipped his iced mocha. The sweet and cool chocolate flavor slid down his throat. By the time the drink was nearly gone, Cha Dogyeong and Ryu Sehyun’s conversation was reaching resolution.

“Then how about a rotation, in order.”

“Fine.”

As if that was enough, they ended the talk just like that.

Ryu Sehyun stood, he was tall as Cha Dogyeong, he looked neat in his three-piece suit. He looked more like a successful finance man than an S-rank hunter.

Of course, unless someone lived a very intense life, it was hard for a busy finance man to keep a body that muscular.

“Then shall we go eat? Sejun, what do you want to eat?”

“Uh…”

It was morning, so the choices were few. Sejun, who had no particular thought, struggled to think of something fit for breakfast. Then Cha Dogyeong handed the drink from the carrier to Ryu Sehyun.

“Here, it’s yours. Drink.”

Ryu Sehyun frowned at the word “Va” written on the lid. Obviously short for “vanilla latte.”

“No, I don’t…”

“Seo Sejun bought it.”

“……”

He had been about to refuse, but froze at those words.

The sweet coffee aroma that seeped through the lid was stronger than mix coffee. Hunters had sharp senses, there was no way anyone in that room could miss it.

“……”

Ryu Sehyun stared at the drink, then lifted the plastic cup.

“Thanks.”

Ryu Sehyun did the same as last time, he accepted the coffee without saying anything and drank it all in one go. The regular size cup was emptied in an instant, and he placed the empty takeout cup on the table.

“Hm.”

Cha Dogyeong looked at that like it was amusing, then he snorted and lifted the three empty drink cups into the air and crushed them flat. The crushed remains shrank down to the size of a speck, and he flicked them straight into the trash can.

It was like that one move ended the strange standoff between the two of them, the tense air disappeared right then.

“Seo Sejun, I’m hungry. Since that hyung is buying, pick something expensive.”

Ryu Sehyun sighed.

“I never said I would buy yours too.”

“Petty.”

The three of them left the office together. Without realizing, Sejun was walking between Dogyeong and Sehyun, and for some reason he felt like a toy stuck between two kids fighting at each other over it.

But even thinking that himself, it was so ridiculous that Sejun laughed. Me? A toy between those two? Not funny at all. “Really useless,” he mumbled, then told himself to just think about breakfast.

[That’s probably not just a feeling.]

While Sejun decided on a sandwich for the menu, the system muttered quietly, but he didn’t hear it.

It was a fairly peaceful morning.

A morning when he didn’t yet know a storm was coming.

•••

[Sub-mission success!]

“Exactly when…?”

Sejun finally came home and collapsed straight onto the living room sofa, when a congratulatory message popped above his head with a bang, like a fanfare had gone off.

“Huh?”

A sub-mission? It said he had completed a sub-mission he didn’t even know he had. Of course, he had thought earlier that the cooldown time for sub-missions was almost over, but this wasn’t just assignment, it was marked as success.

The system explained right away as it saw his confusion m.

[Actually, it popped up earlier.]

“When?”

[When you were eating your sandwich.]

Sejun blinked. He suddenly sat up from where he had been sprawled across the sofa.

The system stayed silent for a moment, like its attempt to gloss over had failed, then it explained.

[When Hunter Cha Dogyeong wiped the sauce off your mouth with his hand.]

“Oh…”

That had happened.

No, not just “that happened,” that was exactly what made his waist lose strength right now.

It was when Seo Sejun, Cha Dogyeong, and Ryu Sehyun had gone to a nearby franchise sandwich shop together. Breakfast menu choices were limited, and since none of them wanted something heavy so early, the unanimous choice had been sandwiches.

[Lucky Love Mode activated!]

While Sejun was happily eating a chipotle sauce sandwich, Lucky Love Mode suddenly activated.

‘Huh?’

The restaurant wasn’t empty, and since there had been a few bad incidents in the past when Lucky Love Mode activated in public, Sejun froze on the spot.

‘You have something here.’

The moment he froze, Dogyeong reached his hand out.