Eating in silence was harder than he had expected.
For the first time, Cha Seohu experienced that eating porridge could be this difficult.
'I [N O V E L I G H T] can’t even imagine how much worse the atmosphere will get if I leave any behind......'
Swallowing down tears, he scraped up every last spoonful and finished all the porridge. Only then did Ryu Sunghyun, who had been standing and looking out the window, turn around immediately.
“How does your stomach feel?”
“It’s fine.”
The answer that shot out of him was so tense that even Cha Seohu himself could tell.
It wasn’t as if he were answering a senior officer in the military. At the sudden wave of embarrassment, Cha Seohu’s cheeks reddened slightly.
Ryu Sunghyun himself paid it no mind and began clearing away the containers one by one.
At the sight, Cha Seohu’s guilt and discomfort doubled.
It was enough to be grateful that he had come all the way to Sector T-27 and saved him. But now he had bought him porridge without asking anything, and was even going to clean up after him.
No matter how shamelessly and recklessly Cha Seohu had lived, receiving this much without doing anything in return could only make him feel sorry.
Especially when the other person was none other than Ryu Sunghyun.
“I’ll do it.”
Cha Seohu spoke with enthusiasm and sprang to his feet, reaching out.
He picked up the small container that had held the side dish before Ryu Sunghyun could. But perhaps because there was too much strength in his hand, it tilted slightly to one side, and the leftover seasoning splattered across the table.
Startled by that, he reached with his other hand toward the wet wipes placed to one side, only to knock against the bottle of water and topple it over. The cap, which had been left loosely closed, popped off from the impact, and water spilled out.
At the mess that had unfolded in three seconds, both of them fell silent.
Cha Seohu pressed his lips tightly together. Frozen in an awkward posture and only glancing at Ryu Sunghyun’s expression, he heard Ryu Sunghyun speak calmly after a brief pause.
“...I’ll do it, Hunter Cha Seohu.”
“......Yes.”
Even if he had ten mouths, he would have had nothing to say.
Cha Seohu obediently lowered both hands and sat back down.
As he waited in the most demure and well-behaved posture he was capable of in his entire life, Ryu Sunghyun quickly cleared the containers and wiped the table clean with practiced, efficient hands.
After setting the paper bag full of empty containers to one side, Ryu Sunghyun returned. Sitting across from Cha Seohu, he took something out of his pocket and held it out.
“Eat it.”
“Yes.”
Cha Seohu, who was willing to do a forward roll on the sickroom floor right then and there if Ryu Sunghyun told him to, accepted it first without even knowing what it was.
Once he had it in his hand, he felt a smooth wrapper. It was a round candy.
'All of a sudden?'
Cha Seohu blinked as he looked at the single candy sitting alone on his palm, then raised his eyes to Ryu Sunghyun.
At that questioning gaze, Ryu Sunghyun gave a short, embarrassed cough. The tips of his ears were slightly red.
“There was a convenience store on the way back from buying the porridge. I bought sports drinks and chocolate too, not just candy. But for now, start with the candy.”
“Ah... thank you?”
Still confused, Cha Seohu thanked him first, peeled off the wrapper, and put it in his mouth.
The small, hard candy struck against his teeth with a clacking sound.
“I feel like it’s been a while since I had candy. It’s good.”
Feeling strangely ticklish inside, Cha Seohu said something pointless.
Because of the red wrapper, he had thought it would taste like strawberry, but once he actually ate it, it was cherry, with a stronger tartness.
He was grateful, and also found it cute, that Ryu Sunghyun had gone out to buy porridge while thinking of him, then stopped by a convenience store on the way and bought all kinds of snacks.
With the round candy rolling around in his mouth and the sweet-and-sour flavor spreading, Cha Seohu’s expression relaxed without him realizing it.
Ryu Sunghyun, sitting in front of him and watching that change, only then regained a faint smile.
Resting his lightly crossed arms on the table, Ryu Sunghyun said,
“I debated between candy and chocolate, then chose candy. I’m glad you like it.”
After speaking gently, Ryu Sunghyun looked at Cha Seohu for a moment before continuing.
“Hunter Cha Seohu. Once you’re more or less ready, let’s talk a little about what happened this time.”
It had come.
Cha Seohu swallowed hard and nodded.
“Um, yes. I’ll explain.”
“No.”
Ryu Sunghyun shook his head.
“I’ll hear the full explanation later, once it’s light out and the others are here too. Not only I, but all of us have the right to hear it.”
Uncrossing his arms, Ryu Sunghyun clasped his hands together and continued.
“Instead, I’ll tell you what happened before we found you. It seems you need to hear about Hunter Yoon Jeha in particular beforehand. That way, when we all talk later, our side of the story won’t make the explanation drag on.”
Ryu Sunghyun continued speaking calmly.
He explained from the moment he, Kwon Taehyuk, and Eun Woojeong entered the old church in Sector T-27 together, to how they met J and subdued him, went down underground, found Yoon Jeha, woke her, and moved together, and finally how they crossed the yellow room and rescued Cha Seohu.
“The inside was collapsing rapidly, so we had no choice but to carry you, injured, and run out. Because of that, we don’t know what end the man presumed to be the cult leader met.”
Cha Seohu answered firmly to Ryu Sunghyun, who sounded bitter.
“It was the right decision. He probably ended along with that black tree... but even if he survived, it’s fine. What’s certain is that he’ll be weaker than before.”
“That’s a relief, then.”
Silence settled over the sickroom for a short while.
Ryu Sunghyun, who had been gazing at Cha Seohu with a calm expression as if thinking about something, opened his mouth again.
“Hunter Cha Seohu. I said I would hear your explanation later, when everyone is together, so I won’t ask in detail right now. But... you already expect it, don’t you? What question we’ll ask first.”
Cha Seohu could not bring himself to say no. He lowered his gaze and answered,
“......Yes.”
He had just heard the overall timeline from Ryu Sunghyun, but even without that, it was easy to guess.
The item “Evasion through Death.” A potion that could disguise him as a corpse for fifteen minutes.
He had drunk that potion while facing the cult leader, and when he regained consciousness afterward, he was already in this sickroom.
It would be one thing if the others had never come to rescue him at all, but since they had come all the way to Sector T-27 and gotten him out, there was a fairly high chance they had rescued him while the potion’s effect was active.
“I’m sorry.”
Instead of launching into a long explanation or excuse, Cha Seohu apologized sincerely.
The potion had caused a misunderstanding, but that was not the cause of every problem.
He had not drunk the potion in a healthy state. He had stabbed a sword into his own shoulder, and even afterward, he had moved his body violently while dealing with the cult leader for quite some time.
The only reasons he had managed to endure without dying from excessive blood loss were his S-rank body, luck, and the people around him who had moved quickly so he could receive treatment.
The reason Ryu Sunghyun had deliberately said it that way was the same.
Ryu Sunghyun was, despite everything, a Hunter who had been active for quite a long time. He was also quick-witted, so after the situation settled and he thought it over carefully, he must have noticed something strange.
Even if he did not know every detail of the item “Evasion through Death,” he had probably guessed roughly what it did.
“I’m sorry, hm......”
After hearing Cha Seohu’s apology, Ryu Sunghyun gave a bitter smile.
“Thank you for apologizing. But the truth is, there are other words I’d like to hear.”
Ryu Sunghyun blinked once, slowly, as if hesitating, then opened his mouth.
“Rather than ‘I’m sorry’ in that formal way, I’d like to hear you say you’re sorry more personally. And rather than hearing that you’re sorry, I’d like to hear you say thank you.”
Ryu Sunghyun’s clasped hands loosened. One hand hesitated, then slowly moved forward.
“After everything was over, while I watched you lying in bed... I regretted things belatedly.”
Ryu Sunghyun’s warm fingertips carefully tapped the back of Cha Seohu’s hand.
“That I should have expressed it more. My heart, and my feelings.”
At that confession, Cha Seohu’s eyes widened slightly. The black eyes directed at him trembled.
“I thought I was being considerate of you because you were too busy to have room for that, but the truth was that I was frightened and rationalizing it to myself. I... only realized that then.”
Watching Cha Seohu’s reaction, Ryu Sunghyun slowly took his hand when Cha Seohu did not pull away.
Over Cha Seohu’s white, cold hand, Ryu Sunghyun’s slightly larger, warm hand covered it.
“So... when you woke up, I wanted to make sure I said this.”
“.......”
“I’m sorry. I can’t be considerate anymore, Hunter Cha Seohu.”
Ryu Sunghyun smiled.

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