BRH 33

“Aigo… Hui-seong Hyung is still screwing around even here.”

He was six years older than Ha Do-heon, so he often called him Hyung when he was in the 1st Platoon. As the second oldest in the platoon, the younger members relied heavily on Hui-seong. Ha Do-heon did too.

An inflexible personality, a silent nature that didn’t know how to flatter. Upright and steadfast, a person who didn’t know how to bend. He was smaller and more petite than Ha Do-heon, but those who saw his back knew he was as solid as an iron fortress.

— Do-heon, you understand what I’m saying… Just think about yourself now.

Why everyone took turns visiting Ha Do-heon every night, desperate to make a confession, he didn’t know, but when was it? Even amidst the fading memories, he remembered a night when stars poured down. Sitting shoulder to shoulder with Hui-seong by the bonfire, eating a meal.

Suddenly, he said those words, and Ha Do-heon looked at him, puzzled by the unexpected remark. When he twitched his eyebrows, Hui-seong smiled gently. He was usually nagging him to take care of others to the point of disgust, so it was absurd.

“You always told me to take care of the kids…”

The next words… he couldn’t remember. The emotions and memories of that time. Even the scene was faint. Everything about Ha Do-heon had been swept away, volatilized, and worn down in the Yakum Dungeon.

“You still have the same habit of taking care of others.”

Ha Do-heon chuckled, firmly hugged the kimchi container, and stood up. After releasing his energy to check, he found that Song Woo-yeop was in the area assigned to the pot-bellied man. As soon as he heard from the chief that Song Woo-yeop’s rank was D-rank, he cursed at his subordinates again and gestured towards the door, telling him to go.

“Shall we go find our Woo-yeop~”

Ha Do-heon hummed a tune and walked out of the interrogation room, passing through the hallway. He was thirsty, so he lingered near the vending machine, looking for something to drink, when someone opened the door from the emergency exit leading to the outdoor garden.

‘Probably an employee,’ Ha Do-heon thought, rummaging through his pocket for his card.

“Should I get some coffee for the first time in a while? Oh, there’s a character drink too? I should get Baby one too.”

Come to think of it, he was sleeping soundly with his cheek against Woo-yeop’s shoulder. He swiped his card, and the lights above the drink buttons lit up. He was just about to click on the character drink. The sound of footsteps from the emergency exit grew closer.

‘Huh?’

As soon as a familiar and faint smell of cigarettes brushed past his nose, Do-heon quickly turned his head. At the same time, something cold was pressed against his cheek.

“Do-heon-ssi.”

The languid voice made his heart sink. The chubby banana milk pressed against his cheek looked like it had just come out of the refrigerator, with no condensation on the surface yet. No, it was just starting to form.

“Did you finish the interrogation well?”

No matter how he looked at it, it was Moon Tae-yi. It was Moon Tae-yi, but… no, he wasn’t there when he scanned this area with his energy earlier? But why is he coming out from there? Did he fly here…?

As he blinked in bewilderment, Moon Tae-yi smiled and handed him the milk.

“Ah? Uh? Ah! Tae-yi-ssi.”

“Yes, it’s Tae-yi.”

Moon Tae-yi, stretching out the end of his words playfully, was as neat and flawless as ever. His hair, parted to the side, fell naturally, brushing above his eyebrows. In addition, a white shirt that hugged his chest without a single wrinkle. Even the fit of his pants, which gently hugged his firm thigh muscles.

One side of Moon Tae-yi’s cheek, who was a head and a half taller than Ha Do-heon, sparkled in the sunlight. Ha Do-heon, mesmerized and staring blankly at him, raised his hand. And-

Slap!

He slapped his own cheek. As the tingling sensation lingered on his cheek, the stagnant thoughts finally began to flow like a burst dam.

‘Wow, I’m finally awake.’ Do-heon gave Moon Tae-yi, who seemed surprised by his sudden action, an awkward smile. And realizing he was holding the milk, he lowered his head.

“I’ll enjoy this.”

“Yes. But doesn’t it hurt… Doesn’t it hurt?”

“No, not really… It wasn’t a hard hit.”

Of course, it was a hard hit, but since Ha Do-heon’s physique was like a dinosaur, this was just ticklish.

“But why did Tae-yi-ssi come to the Hunter Management Bureau?”

“I received a report.”

He tilted his head suspiciously and smiled. Then, he gestured behind him for a moment. It was towards the emergency exit with the rooftop. It seemed to mean to go out, so Ha Do-heon nodded casually.

Passing through the emergency door, a beautifully landscaped rooftop garden appeared. It was a place used as a rest area or intermediate rooftop, and a refreshing breeze gently swayed the green grass and trees.

Moon Tae-yi sat on a railing bench with a good view and patted the spot next to him. Ha Do-heon sat down with awkward movements, holding the kimchi container in his arms. The banana milk was placed neatly on top of it.

“Did you come here because of me…?”

As Ha Do-heon squinted, Moon Tae-yi folded his leg and placed it on the opposite leg, making eye contact. Ha Do-heon moved his butt slightly to the side at the burdensome look.

“I knew Ha Do-heon-ssi was dragged here… Um, someone asked me a favor.”

“A favor?”

“If you just bear with it once, they won’t bother Do-heon-ssi again.”

Moon Tae-yi took the milk that was neatly placed on the kimchi container, opened the lid himself, and handed it over. He gestured for him to drink it, so Ha Do-heon reluctantly accepted it and gulped it down. The clean sweetness hit his uvula and went down coolly.

“Since they keep bothering you, I was starting to lose patience too…”

“……”

“So, I waited? I was thinking of having a cozy meal with Do-heon-ssi when you came out.”

Moon Tae-yi smiled brightly. ‘Ah, yes, you did.’ But what to do. Ha Do-heon looked back and forth between him and the emergency door with a sullen face. Song Woo-yeop, carrying his sleeping brother, was wandering around the interrogation room in the hallway. He was probably looking for Ha Do-heon.

“Tae-yi-ssi, today’s not a good day. Can we eat next time? I have a prior engagement. And I have to take the kimchi container home.”

“Is that radish kimchi?”

How did he know? Ha Do-heon’s expression hardened at those words, and he looked down at the container seriously. Did he see through it?

“I saw Ha Do-heon-ssi hugging it and going in earlier, not as evidence but as radish kimchi. You looked like you were going to cry if I took it away.”

“……”

Ah, he was there from the moment I hugged this and went in. Wow… he saw that and stayed still.

A subtle sense of betrayal rose from deep inside his heart, and his eyes narrowed. Do-heon gulped down the innocent milk and slammed the empty bottle down. When another milk came out of Moon Tae-yi’s suit pocket, he thought of Eun-chan and didn’t drink it, but tucked it under his arm.

“How did you see me being dragged here again? You didn’t see me from Shinrim Station… did you?”

“That’s not it. I was on my way there as soon as the Shinrim Station incident broke out, but one of our guild members who happened to be nearby saw Ha Do-heon-ssi. I rushed over because I thought Do-heon-ssi might be trembling.”

Moon Tae-yi spread his arms wide as if telling him to hug him and folded his eyes with a smile. Ha Do-heon, seeing his beaming face, almost fell for it for a moment. He quickly regained his composure and replied gruffly.

“I wasn’t scared at all.”

“But why do you look like that? Did Investigator Hui-seong give you a hard time…?”

“That’s not it…”

A knife-like emotion poked out from the gentle voice. Ha Do-heon quickly shook his head, then met his expressionless eyes and closed his mouth.

It was a strange thing. People always used the emoticon ‘^^’ to express Moon Tae-yi. The affable and meaningful smile suited Moon Tae-yi well, and it also served as a standard for alleviating his sometimes sharp atmosphere.

However, the feeling of seeing his face without a smile right in front of him was, well.

‘He seems more comfortable like this.’

The raw look wasn’t bad. Showing the other person your true self without adding or subtracting anything wasn’t a bad thing. He didn’t know why Moon Tae-yi was trying to hide himself with a smile like this, but Ha Do-heon had already seen Moon Tae-yi without a mask once.

In a past life different from now-.

In the ruined city where blood was rampant, he was lying collapsed on a pile of collapsed buildings, covered in blood as if his body had exploded. His eyes were empty. Perhaps he couldn’t see well, so his focus wasn’t fixed.

At that time, Moon Tae-yi said to Ha Do-heon. To him, who was crawling towards Moon Tae-yi with both legs broken.

— You… live.

What did Ha Do-heon say to him then? He tried to save him, saying that the world needed him more.

— …I am. Everything… in the world… has meaning.

— But I… can’t do that…. I’m a monster… that ruins the world…. In that sense… Ha Do-heon-ssi is… beautiful.

He didn’t know why Moon Tae-yi said those words. Moon Tae-yi hated the things that defiled the world and wanted to rightly improve the violent world. In this world full of beautiful things, he belittled himself as filth that defiled it.

Ha Do-heon couldn’t save him. When the rescue team and suppression team arrived, Moon Tae-yi had already stopped breathing. Among the 328 hunters deployed in the 3rd Great Disaster, there was only one survivor.

That was Ha Do-heon.

What made him see Ha Do-heon as an entity that should live? What was so beautiful and good in his eyes?

He was occasionally curious. So Do-heon… wanted to ask if he met Moon Tae-yi again.

“…If, Tae-yi-ssi.”

The close distance between them wasn’t uncomfortable. The breeze that blew gently wasn’t heavy for summer, so Moon Tae-yi’s presence came just to that extent. Not light, not heavy, not burdensome.

“If… I were someone in the bad area that Tae-yi-ssi defined, what would you do?”