BRH 26

“Are you going to keep doing that?”

“…Are you teasing me? There’s nothing left to wipe.”

“Look, it’s still damp.”

Please don’t smile… Every time Do-heon saw Moon Tae-yi’s face, his ears burned, and his emotions went wild. Seeing the moisture clinging to Moon Tae-yi’s eyelashes, Do-heon grabbed his sleeve and gently wiped around his eyes.

“My eyes sting, Do-heon-ssi.”

“Ah, just stay still. Why would it sting when I’m just patting?”

After wiping away the moisture, he lowered his arm, and Moon Tae-yi’s handsome face filled his vision again. Now that he thought about it, Moon Tae-yi’s very existence was a crime. He must be a demon born to captivate people.

How else could his heart pound so wildly just from seeing him smile with his eyes?

“Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something wrong with me?”

“…No, it’s just. I was hoping I might become immune if I kept looking.”

It was a futile effort. Like being splashed alternately with cold and hot water, his body only became stiffer.

Eventually, Do-heon clicked his tongue, lowered his head, and covered his eyes. Ha, there’s no hope when someone is this pretty and handsome. Was he an someone blinded by looks?

“Do-heon-ssi, you too…”

“Yes?”

“You have moisture here.”

Suddenly, a hand entered his field of vision. A large hand slowly rubbed the corner of Do-heon’s eyebrow. Judging by the cold sensation that spread, it seemed to be true. He slightly closed his eyes and looked up at Moon Tae-yi.

His focused eyes calmly reflected Ha Do-heon. A part of his heart tickled, and his palms were hot. At the same time, things he had forgotten slowly resurfaced.

He had to give an answer.

Although Moon Tae-yi hadn’t pressed him for an answer since the confession, Do-heon knew that the appointed time had passed. So, instead of pretending not to know, wouldn’t it be polite to give him an answer now, even if it was late?

Do-heon, who was fiddling with the coffee that had started to cool in his hand, spoke as Moon Tae-yi’s hand fell away.

“Tae-yi-ssi.”

Strangely, his racing heart calmed down.

“Why do you like me?”

At those words, Moon Tae-yi looked up at the sky for a moment.

‘Did I ask too directly?’

His palms became damp in the chilling silence. Do-heon glanced away and took a sip of his coffee. They were surrounded by a white, misty fog.

As Do-heon pondered how to salvage this awkward atmosphere, Moon Tae-yi belatedly smiled. He stared intently at Do-heon.

“Well… to put it simply… let’s call it attraction. Imagine your gaze constantly drifting elsewhere for no reason. But there’s always someone where your gaze stops.”

“…That’s me?”

“You don’t believe it?”

“……”

“That’s right. I felt the same way, so it’s probably hard for Do-heon-ssi to understand. But what can I do? Strangely, Do-heon-ssi is always there when I shift my gaze. It was… a first for me in my life.”

It was about to rain again. He could clearly see the raindrops that were beginning to dampen the ground. Perhaps because there was a tree behind the bench, his shoulders weren’t getting wet yet.

“Then since when…”

“The ‘first time’ that Do-heon-ssi and I are thinking of is probably different. Do you remember my first impression, Do-heon-ssi?”

“Yes?”

Ha Do-heon looked at the sky for a moment, as if retracing his memories. He let out a shallow breath and fidgeted with his fingers, seemingly failing to recall.

“Actually, I don’t really know when I first saw Tae-yi-ssi. It’s not like I usually go to dangerous places. Tae-yi-ssi usually goes to rank 3 or 4 dungeons.”

“Is that so? That’s strange, Do-heon-ssi’s movements are quite bold. You go to as many as three dungeons a day. My heart has been a mess lately, probably.”

Ha Do-heon glared at Moon Tae-yi, wondering if an S-rank was saying something weak. Even though he quickly turned his gaze away as soon as their eyes met.

“Anyway, that’s how it is for me. It was a first, and the important thing is that I felt that from Ha Do-heon-ssi. That’s enough for me. How about Do-heon-ssi?”

“What?”

“I’m talking about Ha Do-heon-ssi and me getting married.”

Seeing Moon Tae-yi’s smiling face, he suddenly wanted to hit him… Ha Do-heon quickly regained his senses and took a deep breath. Hmm… I still need more training. How could I harbor such thoughts towards Moon Tae-yi-ssi over something like this?

He cleared his throat a few times to avoid getting excited.

“Weren’t you… asking me to date you?”

“Ah. Hmm… Was I? But it would be nice to date with marriage in mind, right? If possible, even live together…”

“Ugh, Tae-yi-ssi. It’s raining too much, isn’t it? Let’s go to the car first? We’ll get soaked like this.”

Do-heon, who had been watching to see what nonsense would come out of Moon Tae-yi’s mouth, shouted out loud. Moon Tae-yi’s shoulders flinched. Amused by how surprised he was, Moon Tae-yi laughed audibly.

“Haha, should we? I can’t have Do-heon-ssi catching a cold.”

Moon Tae-yi shielded Do-heon’s head with his hand to block the rain and opened the passenger seat door first. While Do-heon sat in the passenger seat and brushed off the dampness, Moon Tae-yi also sat in the driver’s seat.

The raindrops hitting the window were getting heavier. Moon Tae-yi slightly furrowed his brow and grabbed the steering wheel. He turned the steering wheel and immediately started the car. The headlights illuminated the road through the white fog. There was a forest right next to them, and it wouldn’t be surprising if a roe deer jumped out at any moment.

The car drove for 30 minutes and entered a familiar alleyway, and Do-heon started to fidget as soon as he saw the scenery in front of his house.

“Tae-yi-ssi, it’s there, there. If you go in here, you’ll see my house right away. You can just drop me off here. It’s hard to back up here.”

“Why in the rain? Do-heon-ssi will catch a cold.”

The way he drove through the narrow alleyway was all too familiar. Even his expressionless face was perfect, shining even in the foggy alley. In Ha Do-heon’s eyes, Moon Tae-yi was a sincere person without a single flaw, compared to himself. He had no mercy for crime, but the definition of justice against evil varied from person to person.

The fact that such a man liked him was bewildering, and he wondered if this was a dream. Ha Do-heon was just a common, ordinary B-rank hunter.

The car smoothly stopped before long. It was the apartment parking lot. Ha Do-heon’s house was an old corridor-style apartment that you could reach by following the alleyway a little further. It had only 10 floors in total, and there were only 3 buildings.

As soon as the car stopped, Ha Do-heon, embarrassed by his peeking, hurriedly prepared to get out. He gathered his clothes and quickly unbuckled his seatbelt. Moon Tae-yi, who had been leaning against the steering wheel watching the flustered Ha Do-heon, reached out and straightened his turned-over outerwear when he saw it.

“Ah… thank you.”

“Do you know this, Do-heon-ssi?”

“Yes?”

“People say that I kill criminals without mercy, but my thoughts are a little different.”

What is this again…? Ha Do-heon reflexively raised his face and flinched back when he saw Moon Tae-yi’s face so close that they were about to bump. His cold back touched the hard door.

Everyone knew that Moon Tae-yi was ruthless towards crime. Heinous criminals with even a single record of murder were brutally killed on the spot if he witnessed their crime.

“Actually, I turn a blind eye to them once. I see them but let them go.”

“Oh, is that so.”

As he nodded appropriately, Moon Tae-yi slowly reached out. There was a clumsy touch in Moon Tae-yi’s hands as he unfolded his folded sleeves and straightened his crumpled hood. He immediately realized that it was an act he had never done before.

“But if they catch my eye twice.”

“……”

“I send them to God, wondering if they want to die. If I let them go alive out of morality, they should stay away, right?”

Ha Do-heon pretended not to notice the cold sweat trickling down his back. Is this that…? Like, I know your identity, so confess the truth.

“But most of them aren’t like that, are they? Those vermin… think they’re just lucky.”

“……”

“Even if there were only beautiful and righteous things in this dirty and ugly world, it wouldn’t be enough… but since those guys trample on it as they please, I also crush them as I please. But the public says I don’t have the right to do that. What do you think, Do-heon-ssi?”

This wasn’t a question that Ha Do-heon, who didn’t have a single profound thought in his chest, could answer. Moon Tae-yi continued, speaking in place of him, who was only moving his lips.

“I want to create a world where Do-heon-ssi can live well. If vulgar things like murder and violence happen in this land where we will live in the future… it’s annoying.”

“…Wouldn’t that be the case for everyone?”

Ha Do-heon used to be like that too. He wanted to create a world where people could live well. With that one goal in mind, he had run forward, enduring sacrifices. And in fact, Do-heon knew that Moon Tae-yi had let him, the intruder, go during the abandoned building incident.

The ability that Moon Tae-yi used most easily when killing someone was ‘explosion.’ However, there was a macroscopically visible explosion and a microscopically invisible explosion.

If Moon Tae-yi had intended to kill him, he would have exploded Ha Do-heon’s body, that is… all the cells and blood vessels in his body.

But Moon Tae-yi didn’t do that, and he leisurely watched the scene, smiling as if a predator was playing with a mouse.