Hyun Dowoon avoided my gaze with a sour expression. Right, things must be complicated for you too.
The fact that Hyun Dowoon left the district wasn’t something to take lightly. Knowing his personality, there’s no way he got permission. He definitely ran away in secret.
‘Did Kwon Seoyul... follow Hyun Dowoon?’
He must have returned to the district after being ordered to, then snuck out again with Hyun Dowoon.
No matter how crafty Hyun Dowoon is, getting out of that massive district alone would’ve been tough. But if an S-rank like Kwon Seoyul with heightened senses helped him, it was more than possible.
“Sigh...”
I let out a breath and rubbed my forehead.
I needed to talk to the two of them, but first, I had to sort out this situation.
When I turned around, I saw Kwon Seoyul’s eyes glittering, along with Kwon Taehyuk, Song Jiwoon, Ryu Sunghyun, and Cha Sahyeon all staring at me. Just meeting their eyes made my head throb.
‘What the hell do they expect me to do...’
Originally, the plan was to enter Circle Guild and introduce the fake to Song Jiwoon.
But then Kwon Taehyuk showed up, and the runaway Kwon Seoyul and Hyun Dowoon came chasing after me, completely messing everything up.
“Well, first things first.”
I swatted away Hyun Dowoon’s hands, which were still groping around my body, and walked over to Song Jiwoon.
“Mr. Jiwoon. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can go with you.”
“What?”
“As you can see, I’ve got some guests who came looking for me. I think it’s best if we part ways here.”
Maack.
I forcibly handed over Eunbok, who was squirming in protest, and she let out a pitiful wail like she’d just been betrayed.
“I told you I’d go with you confidently, but honestly, this is as far as I was asked to help. As someone from another guild, following you all the way to the Guildmaster’s office doesn’t really look good, you understand, right?”
“B-but...”
I softened my tone, speaking apologetically, and Song Jiwoon hesitated as he glanced at me, then quickly darted a look toward where Kwon Seoyul and Hyun Dowoon were.
It was so fast I could’ve sworn I imagined it.
Was it that uncomfortable to enter the Guildmaster’s office alone with Ryu Sunghyun? I decided to let it slide—it was kind of cute, in its own way.
“Sahyeon.”
I turned to look at Cha Sahyeon.
He was staring at me, still holding up the hand we’d clasped earlier. What kind of pose is that?
“Come here.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, Sahyeon ran over and grabbed my hand again, and I turned to Ryu Sunghyun and Kwon Taehyuk.
“We’ll be going now. Vice Guildmaster, good luck wrapping things up with Mr. Jiwoon. And as for you, Guildmaster of Yesung... I don’t know why you’re here, but good luck with your business too.”
“Wait, Hunter Cha Seohu.”
Kwon Taehyuk hurriedly stopped me just as I was about to leave without a second thought.
“Where are you planning to go?”
“Just a café nearby. I can’t exactly have a conversation in the middle of the street.”
“Then I’ll come with you. Or better yet, how about coming to the Yesung Guild? I can lend you a reception room.”
His offer came without a second of hesitation, making my eyes narrow.
“Guildmaster, didn’t you come here for something with Circle Guild? And now you want to take us back to Yesung Guild?”
“...I didn’t come for Circle Guild. I came to meet you, Hunter Cha Seohu.”
Oh wow.
I’d only half-meant to bait him, but he really did come here for me?
‘Yeah, what reason would Kwon Taehyuk have to rush all the way to Circle anyway?’
People should really know how free the Guildmaster of Yesung is. I clicked my tongue inwardly, ready to turn him down out of sheer discomfort, but then—
“There’s no need to go all the way to Yesung, is there?”
A calm voice, lower in tone than usual, cut in.
“Circle Guild has reception rooms too.”
It was Ryu Sunghyun.
I hadn’t expected him to get involved in this, so I was genuinely surprised.
“You just need a place to talk, right? Our guild building is right here. No need to go elsewhere. I’ll lend it to you.”
“Uh, well...”
His tone was calm, his words measured, but his expression didn’t look great.
The corners of his lips were slightly lifted, and his tone was smooth and even—it didn’t seem angry... but I knew better.
I knew just how cold those brown eyes could become when something didn’t sit right with him.
‘What do I do now...’
I couldn’t send Kwon Seoyul and Hyun Dowoon away just like that.
I didn’t know what kind of chaos they’d stirred up chasing after me, nor what had happened during the time I couldn’t contact them.
We needed to talk somewhere private—and trustworthy.
In that sense, Circle Guild wasn’t a bad option. Fewer members meant it was safer than Yesung.
More than anything, I just couldn’t bring myself to say no to Ryu Sunghyun when he was pushing that hard. In my experience, if you say no at times like this, he gets... a little sulky.
‘And since we’re not exactly close right now, he might even get seriously disappointed or lose interest.’
Weighing the situation, my relationship with Ryu Sunghyun, and my current circumstances, I had no choice but to accept.
“All right. Then we’ll take you up on that.”
Inside the reception room Ryu Sunghyun had lent us, I sat with Cha Sahyeon, Kwon Taehyuk, Kwon Seoyul, and Hyun Dowoon.
Ryu Sunghyun and Song Jiwoon had gone up to the Guildmaster’s office. After all, the reason Song Jiwoon was here was to meet his twin brother and take his place.
The fake would handle Song Jiwoon. If anything went wrong, he’d call for me.
I left the Song Jiwoon situation to the fake and focused on wrapping up things with Kwon Seoyul and Hyun Dowoon.
“Sit.”
As I slumped down onto the couch, the four who had been standing awkwardly moved in unison.
Hyun Dowoon sat directly across from me, followed by Kwon Seoyul, who approached intending to take the seat next to me—but frowned as he noticed someone beat him to it.
“What the hell, who’s this brat? Hey, move it.”
Cha Sahyeon, who was stuck to my side like glue, glanced up at Kwon Seoyul with a bored expression.
Sahyeon, who used to spend half the day in a daze, had regained some of his older memories after that synchronization or whatever, and he didn’t so much as twitch at childish provocation like that.
“Quit whining and sit down.”
“Pfft.”
Kwon Seoyul stuck out his lower lip and reluctantly sat beside Hyun Dowoon, opposite me. Now Hyun Dowoon’s face twisted in displeasure.
Kwon Taehyuk, who’d been watching quietly, chose to sit next to Cha Sahyeon. Since he and Kwon Seoyul weren’t exactly on good terms, it was the obvious choice.
I pressed my eyes shut, fatigue washing over me.
‘I have to talk about the district in front of Kwon Taehyuk and Cha Sahyeon...’
Honestly, it was awkward.
Especially since Kwon Taehyuk thought Sahyeon and I were real brothers, so I had to be careful not to slip.
Maybe I should’ve declined Ryu Sunghyun’s offer and gone elsewhere. Regret came too late—it was already done.
“All right, talk. What the hell happened? Why are you here?”
Hyun Dowoon, wearing thick-rimmed glasses, scratched his forehead.
“What do you mean why? I just ran away.”
“Hey, don’t give me that. Are you seriously trying to lecture me right now?”
“What?”
Hyun Dowoon pulled something from his pocket and slammed it onto the table. A pitch-black rectangular object—his phone.
“Do you even know how many times I tried calling you?”
“How would I know? My phone’s broken.”
“Shut the hell up! I couldn’t reach you, then Father says he’s assigning Kang Haeil to monitor you, then that bastard gets all excited and charges out of the district—what the hell was I supposed to do?”
“Kang Haeil? That bastard moved?”
Now that was new information.
As I asked again, Hyun Dowoon let out a frustrated yell.
“Shit, you think I wanted to do this?! No matter how good I am at hiding, they’d find out eventually, and then it’d all go to hell!”
“You know that. So you should’ve stayed put like always. I’ve been doing reckless shit for ages and nothing ever happened—why the panic now?”
He thought my reaction was ridiculous, but honestly, I felt the same.
We’d been more or less like brothers since we were kids, but three days without contact wasn’t enough reason to chase me down like this.
“If you were that worried, you could’ve just used your skill like earlier.”
“...”
“Why are you acting out of character? Or is there something you can’t tell me?”
“...”
I called him again as he chewed on his lip.
“Hey, Hyun Dowoon.”
He let out a deep sigh and hung his head. I narrowed my eyes at the ominous shift in mood. His voice came out strained.
“...I did use it.”
“What?”
“I said I used it. After the order came down to Kang Haeil... I agonized over it. I’m not a dumbass like Kwon Seoyul. You think I just ran out right away?”
“Why am I getting insulted out of nowhere...”
Ignoring Kwon Seoyul’s muttering, Hyun Dowoon continued.
“I tried to find an escape route that wouldn’t get me caught, but I was torn the whole time. And then... I used the skill. Figured if you were still in Seoul, I’d get a lock.”
“Wait, you used it today too. You used it twice?”
“Yeah.”
I knew it.
It struck me as odd that he kept wearing those glasses to suppress his energy.
The skill that read the code in the chip implanted in my body put a huge strain on him, even for someone like Hyun Dowoon.
Using it always ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) brought nasty side effects, and he wore the glasses to suppress them.
Normally, he used it once every six months. But using it twice in just a few days—he had to be in bad shape.
While I wrestled with mixed feelings, Hyun Dowoon kept explaining.
“I was ready to take the hit and used the skill... but your location didn’t show up. Even when I pushed it to the limit, nothing.”
His range was massive, but even he couldn’t scan beyond Seoul.
And I had just gotten back from visiting Song Jiwoon on Mount Taebaek. The timing couldn’t have been worse.
“No signal from the skill, no answer to my calls, Seoyul raising hell... I couldn’t take it anymore. That’s why I left, all right?!”
“...That wasn’t like you. Seoyul being a lunatic is one thing, but you?”
“What else was I supposed to do?!”
Hyun Dowoon cut me off with a growl, cursing.
“Shit, you were kidnapped for three fucking months when you went off the radar!”
“...”
“They ran fucked-up human experiments on you! After all that shit, how do you think I’d react if something similar happened again?!”
His unexpected outburst shut me right up.
I stared blankly at Hyun Dowoon, who was now flushed with emotion and glaring daggers at me.
“You think Kang Haeil would actually help you? He was ordered to monitor you—he’d literally just stand there and watch while you died! Kwon Seoyul might lose his mind and jump in to help, but you were unlucky this time—it was Kang Haeil!”
“...Hmm.”
I listened to his panting voice, stunned, and finally snapped back to reality.
So... he was worried I might end up kidnapped and tortured like last time. Worried enough to risk everything and come to me directly?
Now that I saw it, his red face wasn’t from anger—it was embarrassment over telling me all this honestly.
Feeling a little choked up, I said:
“You’re the only one who cares about me, babe.”
“This is exactly why I didn’t want to say anything, fuck!!”
Realizing I was teasing him, Hyun Dowoon cursed and exploded again.

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