The Way of Life for a Terminal S-Class Hunter - C47
$47
It was a timing where one might ask, “At this hour?” Nevertheless, Halo was confidently waiting for an answer, leaning one shoulder against the wall. His invitation had a power that made it difficult for the listener to refuse. Especially after sharing a mental connection like today, it was even more so. As silence fell, the elevator stopped with a ding, and a hunter living on the same floor but in a different room entered their room.
“Wait a moment.”
“I’ll gladly do so.”
I put the towel in the washing machine and put on light clothes. I was too conscious of Halo waiting outside to look for neat attire or combat clothes.
“Sorry. I just finished showering.”
“I’m the one who came suddenly.”
Even at this hour, Halo looked happy, like someone in high spirits.
“What if I had been sleeping? Why did you come so suddenly at this hour? Or did you know I would come out with you?”
The elevator was still stopped on the floor where I lived. I pressed the button to open the door and asked Halo a question. I was curious if his fearlessness of rejection came from his ability.
“I don’t check every future before I act either. It seems too low to use foresight to peek at whether someone will accept a date request or not.”
I was about to press the first floor button but stopped and looked at Halo. I didn’t have the ability to discern whether the word “date” was a light joke or sincere.
“Such words, if they’re a joke, they’re burdensome, and if they’re sincere, I feel sorry.”
Halo entered and the door slowly closed. He just turned his head to look at me. Despite my expression of refusal, he didn’t waver at all.
“Then feel a little sorry. Not too much.”
The elevator went down slowly, seemingly unaware of my desire to escape this space immediately.
“You know everything.”
I finally raised the white flag.
‘You know I don’t have much life left.’
He would have fully understood the meaning of my words.
“So what?”
However, Halo asked back, as if somewhat incredulous.
“Are you saying I should give up on the budding human affection because you’re going to die soon, Woo-hyun-ssi?”
“Even if that’s not the case…”
Before I could finish speaking, the elevator door opened. Halo didn’t listen to the rest and grabbed my wrist.
“We don’t know what will happen in the future. A meteor could fall on my head tomorrow and I might die first, or I might lose my life in a dungeon. But I don’t want to hold back on what I want to do today worrying about that.”
I couldn’t find an answer and was dragged along. The surroundings changed quickly, and we ended up on a walking path I rarely frequented. The surroundings were quite dark, and the stars had somewhat regained their light.
“I didn’t mean to blame you. I just wanted to say that you don’t have to give up everything just because death is approaching.”
“Thank you. But I don’t want to create more precious relationships or things to do at this point. I want to let go of more before I leave.”
We naturally sat on a bench. It was a place where the stars were more visible than before. It was both embarrassing and funny that someone who hadn’t been in Korea for long knew more good places than I did.
“Still, I’ll try as Halo said.”
As we looked at the sky with the sound of flowing water as our song, a star fell.
“A shooting star.”
And following that, two or three more stars fell. The stars that disappeared leaving only their traces were poignant and beautiful.
“Yes. The news said we could see them around this time today. It’s not such a rare sight these days though.”
Since gates opened, astronomical phenomena have changed a lot, and scenes that were rare before have become common occurrences that can be seen once every few months. But for me, it was my first shooting star.
“Thanks to you, I got to see something nice.”
I turned my head from looking at the sky and met Halo’s eyes. Only the stars, Halo’s hair, and eyes were shining in the darkness.
What a sparkling person.
While I was having this trivial thought, Halo narrowed the distance and came closer to me. I couldn’t move back any further, about to be pushed to the edge of the bench.
“There’s something on your face.”
It was such a close approach that I thought our faces might touch. As I was about to say I’d remove it myself and move away, my waist was grabbed.
“It was just a small piece of dust.”
As he said, there was a small piece of dust on his hand.
“You didn’t need to get so close to remove such a small thing.”
Instead of saying let’s go back now, I stood up from my seat. At that moment,
“Woo-hyun.”
A familiar voice was heard from afar. Three silhouettes were approaching, pushing away the darkness.
Seo-heon, holding a phone, and beside him were Juhong-ssi and Hyeju-ssi. The two slightly bowed their heads towards us and quickly left. Seo-heon didn’t particularly stop them and turned off the phone he had been talking on.
“Kang Seo-heon…?”
Seo-heon, as expected, didn’t leave after just greeting but approached us. It was a continuation of what happened earlier today. However, Ihan wasn’t there, and Seo-heon’s expression became more unreadable.
“We meet often.”
A clear voice broke through the awkward atmosphere.
“What were you two doing?”
Seo-heon interrogated me without even looking at Halo who spoke first.
“A night walk.”
While I hesitated, the answer came from Halo who was grinning. I could be certain. This was a situation he had orchestrated.
“Woo-hyun-ssi, it seems like you two have something to talk about, so I’ll leave you alone.”
Halo left without any lingering, and I was confused about what he was thinking and what I should talk about with the remaining Seo-heon.
“You seem very busy.”
Seo-heon was still wearing a suit even at this late hour. I couldn’t understand what kind of work he was doing to be so busy, and as the vice guild master, I had less information than others. Seo-heon turned his head away for a moment at my words and took a deep breath.
“Not as much as you?”
Seo-heon, staring at me again, was clearly being sarcastic.
He’s never been this openly sarcastic towards me before.
I had seen how he spoke to other people, but he had never spoken to me in such a sarcastic manner, so I was a bit surprised.
“What kind of work are you doing to be this busy?”
I tried to obviously steer the conversation in a different direction, but it was futile. Seo-heon acted like someone who had decided not to consider my circumstances.
“I thought you were only close with Ihan, but you seem quite intimate with the new guy too.”
“We might get close since we have to work together. He’s a better person than you think.”
The stars that had stopped started pouring down on us again. I found Seo-heon, whom I couldn’t understand these days, quite burdensome and strange. He sometimes looked anxious, impatient, and angry. He didn’t seem like the person who considered maintaining composure to the end a virtue no matter what happened.
“If you’re defending him to that extent, you must have become quite comfortable with each other?”
Seo-heon grabbed my shoulder without a hint of a smile. There was a faint but definite force in that hand, and I could feel his emotions. It seemed that the careful words I had spoken last time hadn’t reached him.
Some catalyst was needed to end this lukewarm relationship. I already had one, and it would be good for both of us to create some reason for him too.
“Seo-heon.”
When I brushed off the hand holding me, Seo-heon’s eyes wavered. It was a very subtle movement, but not so slight that I couldn’t notice.
“Do you remember what I said last time?”
His answer to my question came slowly.
“What did you say.”
From the speed of his response, I could feel that he was pretending not to know, and Seo-heon probably knew that too.
“I said I would be careful, but you told me not to.”
“Woo-hyun.”
It was a call telling me not to say any more. I ignored that call and continued speaking.
“But now I want to become someone who maintains boundaries with you. You know we were too close to just be friends.”
We were in a relationship that was hard to define. So I knew it would take more time to sort things out. It wasn’t a relationship that would end just because I ran away, I needed to make Seo-heon understand, but I was too focused on sorting out my own feelings to think about that.
“I’ve found someone precious to me too, and if you act like this, I think that person would dislike it.”
It was a flimsy lie, but I thought it was the best method for now. At those words, Seo-heon’s body stiffened and a low laugh escaped. He looked like someone who had heard a very funny story.
“A precious person?”
It was a cold question that made his laughter from just a moment ago seem like a lie.
“Yes. Like Hojun-ssi is to you.”
“Ha, I wondered what you were saying. Is that all?”
A faint trembling could be felt in Seo-heon’s voice. I, who had drawn a future where he would send me off well despite being flustered by my sudden change, stepped back. This was not a reaction friends could have.
“What?”
“If you’re going to lie, at least try not to show it. Don’t avoid my eyes like this.”