“Sihyun!!!”
Haa.
But Sihyun, catching himself at the few pairs of eyes gathering on him, hesitated—then slowly turned his head and looked at Sa Cheongrin.
And along with Sa Cheongrin, two other people approached in outfits from that era like they were actual martial artists, clasped their fists, and greeted him.
“Y-yeah…. Hello.”
“Hahahaha!!! I was worried you were gonna pretend you didn’t know us and just walk off, Great Hero!!”
Sa Cheongrin laughed boisterously like he was a completely different person from yesterday, then thumped Sihyun’s shoulder hard a few times. Sihyun wasn’t about to stagger from something like this, but he played along like he was getting pushed back and shot him a look that said get to the point.
“Ah, right! Great Hero! If you don’t already have a guild decided, how about coming to ours?!”
“Huh?”
Fuck, what are you talking about? Can’t you see I was trying to quietly run away?
Sihyun forced down the rough words trying to burst out and made himself pull the corners of his mouth up.
“But why am I ‘Great Hero.’ Just call me comfortably.”
“Huuuuh!! Aren’t you my benefactor? Benefactor!! Senior Brother, please tell him! Tell him how devoted our guild is in treating our benefactor!”
Sihyun had lived normally for decades and had only been an awakened person for three years at most, so it was honestly fascinating how hard they were overcommitting, acting like they were real righteous-sect types.
“That’s right! Our Hundred Flowers Guild values chivalry and righteousness, never forgets favors and grudges, and—”
{Master. If you’re uncomfortable, should I handle it? If I press a blood point, quietly—.}
“Wait a second!”
“Yes?”
Sihyun cut off the “senior brother” guy’s words at Taewoon’s sudden voice-transmission. He wasn’t planning to go with them anyway, but he remembered what Gyumin had said a month ago and opened his mouth.
“I already have somewhere that made me an offer, so I don’t think I can.”
“Ah…. Is that so. Still, a benefactor is a benefactor!! Please drop by our guild sometime!”
Sa Cheongrin answered brightly without being discouraged at all by Sihyun’s refusal, then lightly reddened his cheeks and started fidgeting awkwardly.
Just then, he felt the end of his hoodie get tugged a little from behind. Sihyun quickly gave a greeting, then whipped around and started walking out of the auditorium.
Maybe because his disciple had gone through something hard, he seemed like he needed a lot of attention.
As he walked, Sihyun recalled the explanation video from a child behavior-correction specialist on MeTube that Taewoon had secretly binge-watched after falling asleep—so much that Sihyun had stayed up last night.
—Usually, this is called insecure attachment. The causes vary, but it can also be due to post-traumatic stress….
So it might be because of PTSD caused by Sihyun’s death. His mouth turned bitter. Everything had been for Taewoon, so where had it started going wrong like this…?
He probably needed to get home quickly, watch the next part of the video he’d been watching, and thoroughly read even the solutions.
{Taewoon, I’ll lead. Let’s hurry home.}
{Okay. Hurry. Our home.}
Hearing that gentle voice immediately in his head, Sihyun smiled contentedly, ran his true energy through his legs, stomped down on the hard asphalt, and sprang up.
But a little while later.
“Th-this, fuck…. What the hell is this.”
When Sihyun arrived home, he could only curse as he stared at the state of his house—half-destroyed, reeking of something burnt—forgetting every plan he’d made just moments ago. Normally, he would’ve tried his best to never swear in front of Taewoon, but right now he couldn’t see anything else.
Around the building, yellow police line was strung up in places, and he didn’t know when it had happened, but some people were still gathered around the building, whispering.
Sihyun pushed through the concrete debris and hesitantly walked closer to the scene.
Then, in the middle of that noisy place, he stood there blankly, staring at his seventh-floor unit in the worst shape of all—its entire balcony torn off.
“Huh?! Student in 704!!! No, what in the world happened?!!”
That’s what I want to ask….
At that moment, the landlord’s sharp voice slammed into his ear. Sihyun slowly turned his head and met her eyes.
And seeing her raging like she’d turned into some yaksha, snorting through her nose, he couldn’t bring himself to speak.
Then suddenly, a drawer inside the room came to mind. He’d been so shocked he’d forgotten for a moment.
Ignoring the landlord yelling beside him, Sihyun used lightness skill whether people watched or not, climbed the exterior wall in one go, and jumped into the blackened, burnt-out interior.
Bang.
He ruthlessly flung the smashed furniture and fixtures aside and moved toward the bedroom.
Maybe the incident had happened in the living room, because the bedroom wall looked relatively intact, but when he saw the door hanging loose with only a third of it left, a sense of dread started filling him more and more.
Sihyun raised his increasingly trembling hand, shoved the debris away, and stepped into the room. Inside were half-burned bedding, cracked walls, and a dresser left there alone—ruined like it had melted.
“…No.”
And beneath it.
The photo that should have been enshrined in the very top drawer lay on the floor, stuck together with ash.
Sihyun slowly walked over and lifted the half-remaining scrap of paper.
It was scorching, like a lump of fire had been jammed into his throat, and his vision burned hot.
When Sihyun was seven, a drunk driver crashed into the car he was riding in with his parents, and his parents—sitting in the front—died on the spot. And since neither of them had any relatives, Sihyun had been forced to live alone from then on, like he was constantly being chased.
The only thing that had let him endure was this one photo and his memories of the two-story house he’d lived in as a kid.
But now, the only photo he had left with his parents was so badly damaged that he couldn’t even properly make out their faces.
He’d worried about it fading in sunlight, sure—but he’d never even considered this kind of accident.
“H-huk, huk!! No, student—were you a Hunter?!”
Then that metallic, ringing voice smashed into his ear again.
After carefully tucking the scrap in his hand into his pocket, Sihyun spat the words out like he was grinding his teeth.
“How did this happen.”
His voice, which had already been a little low, dropped even further and rang out gloomily all the way down below. The landlord, who had run up the stairs and was still gasping, started explaining what had happened with a suspicious look on her face.
The incident had happened, coincidentally, yesterday—when Sihyun had come out of the Gate.
Close to midnight, there had been a loud bang, the building had trembled slightly, and the landlord on the top floor had jolted awake and come running out—only to witness a fight that had happened in Sihyun’s unit.
Fights in the city weren’t common, but they weren’t unheard of either, so the landlord sighed and reported it to the Hunter Association’s civil complaints department.
But unlike what she usually saw on the news or online, the fight escalated severely, and soon cracks spread and holes started forming—not just in Sihyun’s home, but across the entire apartment building.
In other words, it looked like all the fighting and damage were connected to Sihyun.
The landlord finished her explanation and started pressing Sihyun about compensation and insurance, but Sihyun couldn’t hear any of it.
‘Ha.’
And a small spark latched onto the nerve in Sihyun’s mind that had been telling him, as much as possible, stop caring about outside things—live quietly.
All this time, to keep his sudden surges of loss and alienation and his wavering mental state in check, he’d survived by strictly turning his eyes away from everything around him, barely hanging on. But now he had a kid he was responsible for, and he couldn’t keep living like this—getting pushed around and taking it as it came.
“Now that I look at you, it seems like you’re a Hunter too! Don’t you have some kind of grudge or something?!! What are we supposed to do about all this?!”
“…I’m not running. For now, go inside first….”
As Sihyun struggled to speak, pressing down the anger that felt like it was about to spill over, the landlord read the room for a moment—then fled like she was running away.
In his head, anger, absurdity, grief—every kind of negative emotion mixed together and stormed through him. It wasn’t some gas explosion. It was from a fight.
‘Fuck…. Fine, great. I don’t know who you are, but I’m gonna find every one of you and tear you apart and kill you.’
Either way, Sihyun had spent ten years in the murim—and he’d been a demonic person whose nickname had been pretty well-known, too. There was a limit to how much he would endure, and this was an incident that crossed that line in one go.
Energy erupted in all directions, black ash scattering and billowing, and the killing intent pouring out weighed down the surrounding air.
“Master….”
Just then, Taewoon pushed into that space where the energy was whipping around so violently that, if you’d been a normal person, even a touch would’ve torn your flesh—and he wrapped Sihyun up from the side without leaving any gaps.
Only then did Sihyun snap back to his senses and, over and over, take deep breaths, trying for a long time to calm himself down.
He had to be okay. That way he could quickly catch these bastards and kill them or whatever—and getting worked up would only slow things down.
Soon, Sihyun grabbed the arm of the kid he was responsible for. At that, the cold, settled look in his eyes vanished in an instant into those warm brown irises.
“Haa…. What do we do. With the house like this.”
“As long as I have you, Master, anywhere is fine. It might not be bad to sleep rough for the first time in a while.”
At Taewoon’s softly spoken voice, Sihyun finally let out a short laugh like he couldn’t help it.
He felt Taewoon’s forehead rub lightly against his head. Honestly, Taewoon must’ve been completely confused too, but it was touching—and admirable—how he comforted him first without even knowing the details.
“Sleeping rough, my ass. There are plenty of places to stay just a little ways from here. You’ll be able to sleep comfortably.”
“Yes. Anywhere. Master, please don’t be too discouraged. I will find them and make sure they cannot die comfortably.”
“Uh…. That’s—no, yeah, sure. Let’s do that.”
Sihyun hesitated at Taewoon’s slightly intense words, but thought, If he tries to be cruel with his hands, I’ll stop him appropriately then, and glanced at Taewoon, then gently patted and stroked his head.
He’d rather handle it himself than let this kid handle it. And besides, the photo was one thing, but having his first time showing Taewoon his home turn into this—it felt like it put a crack in his pride as a master.
Then, like he didn’t care about the house at all, Taewoon looked only at Sihyun and smiled so brightly his ruby-colored eyes nearly disappeared.
‘Ugh…’
Sihyun, who’d been staring at squid-looking bastards all this time, felt his rotten eyes get purified again, and blankly stared at that shining-white face.
But soon, realizing his own disgrace, he shook his head side to side and stepped out of the building.