It took Cha Eui-jae an hour and a half more to finally open the locked door. During that ti, Lee Sa-young waited patiently. In fact, it wasn't even about patience. Compared to the ti he'd already spent waiting, this was just a fleeting mont.
Hearing footsteps approaching the door, Lee Sa-young lifted his head. Cha Eui-jae, sticking just his head out of the door, squinted at him.
"...What are you doing there?"
"I waited for you... until you ca out."
Lee Sa-young, with his cheek resting on his arm draped over the back of a chair, narrowed his eyes and smiled.
"Have you cald down a bit?"
Still hiding behind the door, Cha Eui-jae glared at Lee Sa-young.
"This is all Mackerel's move, isn't it?"
"Well, I suppose it is."
"I saw the pictures. It was almost like you threatened them to take good shots. Wasn't that your doing?"
"Ah, so even you think the photos ca out well. That's a relief..."
"You little... Those guys are not going to get away with this."
Cha Eui-jae, spitting out curses, strode over. His expression was far from calm, as if he was ready to march into a fish market and thrash so mackerels. Lee Sa-young, deliberately tilted his head to show off the handprint still visible on his neck. Cha Eui-jae's nacing aura softened a bit at the sight.
"But thanks to the article, all the other issues were swept under the rug."
Lee Sa-young thought that it would be nice if the bruise lasted longer. Maybe when it started to fade, he could ask for another one. His lips curled into a smile at the sudden thought. He reached out and grabbed Cha Eui-jae's coat hem as he approached.
"I think we used our nas to quell any anxiety."
"..."
"Does that make you feel a little better?"
But Cha Eui-jae, without answering, kept his mouth shut. There was a strange shadow over his face that Lee Sa-young didn't like.
Lee Sa-young studied his expression, trying to read his thoughts. This topic needs to be dropped, he decided, smoothly changing the subject.
"Aren't you hungry? You've been sleeping for quite a while."
"Ah, a little."
"Let's go downstairs and eat. I'll have them bring food to the guild leader's office."
"Do we really have to? Can't we eat here?"
"Oh... do you want to eat here? In your shirts?"
Lee Sa-young smiled mischievously and slipped his fingers inside Cha Eui-jae's shirt. Cha Eui-jae grabbed Lee Sa-young's wrist and pulled it off.
"Hey, soone could see us. We'd have to take off the masks to eat."
"No one can just walk into the guild leader's office. Besides, I've got work piled up that I need to do."
"..."
"If you're that worried... Should I have soone stand watch at the door?"
"No, we don't need to go that far..."
Cha Eui-jae's expression turned reluctant. Whether Lee Sa-young was aware or not, seeing that face made him want to tease him even more. He got up from his chair and motioned toward the entrance with his chin. Cha Eui-jae, fiddling with the buttons of his loose shirt, muttered in response.
"Let just change clothes first. Where are my clothes?"
"In the dressing room. Your mask's there, too."
Cha Eui-jae headed toward the dressing room as if it were his own house. It was a nice sight, seeing him navigate the room so naturally. The sound of rustling clothes followed as he undressed and dressed. Lee Sa-young crossed his arms, listening to the noises. After a brief sigh, Cha Eui-jae erged, now completely transford into J.
All it took was putting on a mask, but the atmosphere was completely different from the loose and relaxed Cha Eui-jae. The mask, which concealed not just his expression but his entire face, exuded an eerie pressure.
A little later, the two stepped into the elevator side by side. It had only been a few months since they last rode the elevator together, but it felt like ages ago. Back then, Cha Eui-jae had picked a corner to stand in, alert to everything around him. Now, he stood calmly next to Lee Sa-young.
Lee Sa-young, staring at Cha Eui-jae's light gray hair, asked,
"By the way, do your grandmother and Ha-eun know that you're J?"
"Hm? No."
Cha Eui-jae gave a brief answer.
"I told them I closed the hangover soup restaurant... and that I'd be working at the Pado Guild now. They only know I'm a hunter."
"But the text earlier... it seed like they knew."
"...I don't think so?"
He tilted his head as if sothing didn't add up.
Cha Eui-jae hadn't told them he was J. Not when he first showed up to eat white broth soup at their house, nor when he later asked to work at their shop.
The elevator doors opened. As Lee Sa-young had ntioned, the floor where the guild leader's office was located was quiet.
Cha Eui-jae walked down the hallway, his footsteps echoing. Then suddenly, he ca to an abrupt stop.
"Oh."
A long-forgotten mory seed to have surfaced. Lee Sa-young, walking beside him, looked back in confusion.
"What is it?"
"I think... they might know. Yeah, I think they know."
Cha Eui-jae absentmindedly rubbed his mask, sweat beginning to form on his face under the mask. His voice, already distorted by the mask, trembled with unease.
"Now that I think about it... back then, I went there in my J outfit..."
"What do you an?"
"The clothes I wore when I was J!"
Cha Eui-jae instinctively followed the scent the mont he opened his eyes, knocked on the door of the hangover soup restaurant, and entered. At that ti, the TV in the shop was showing a docuntary commorating the 8th anniversary of the West Sea rift. A picture of J, wearing his battle gear, had even flashed on the screen. His grandmother had been chopping garlic while watching that, and Cha Eui-jae had been standing there in his J uniform, looking ragged.
'No, she might not have noticed...'
Cha Eui-jae quickly turned to Lee Sa-young.
"Hey, Lee Sa-young. Did you watch the J docuntary? The one where Hunter Song Jo-heon gets interviewed."
"...Huh?"
"Did you see it or not? Tell quickly."
"Hah."
Lee Sa-young looked at him for a mont before scoffing. A short laugh quickly turned into outright derision. Narrowing his eyes, Lee Sa-young responded.
"Of course, I saw it... Pado Guild made it."
"...What?"
"From planning to funding and support, Pado Guild handled the whole thing... So yeah, I saw it."
"Whaaat?"
"I swear... Next ti, we should slap the guild logo on it, too."
Lee Sa-young muttered in disbelief. Was that so? Maybe the shock of eight years passing had wiped out all the trivial details from his mory. Cha Eui-jae quickly grabbed Lee Sa-young by the shoulders.
"That aside, I didn't watch the whole thing. Just the interview and a bit before it. Did it show in action?"
"Hm? Of course, it did. It showed you fighting, your pre-entry interview... everything."
"..."
"Why do you ask?"
The uneasiness grew stronger.
Cha Eui-jae desperately tried to recall the past. What had his grandmother done back then?
He had finished his al but had hesitated, unsure what to do since he didn't have money to pay. His grandmother hadn't scolded him but had instead handed him a navy jacket and a black hat.
"If you wander around in that state in daylight, you'll get caught. Wear it."
After that, he'd sheepishly swapped out his tattered jacket for the one she'd given him and pulled the hat down low. Why had she given him a jacket and a hat? Because of his wounds? No.
'Did she an I'd get caught...?'
Cha Eui-jae paled.
Now that he thought about it, right after coming out of the West Sea rift, he hadn't been in his right mind. He hadn't realized that his clothes would make him easy to identify, or that he should cover his face. He had been focused on satisfying the most basic need— hunger.
If it hadn't been for his grandmother's kindness, he might've been caught right then and there. His bare face, and the fact that he had returned. Even his decision to run away.
Cha Eui-jae covered his mouth. His voice trembled uncontrollably.
"She must know... She was watching the docuntary, and she even gave a hat..."
"Well, that makes sense."
"What?"
"Seems like you don't realize how much footage of you was shown."
Lee Sa-young stared at Cha Eui-jae with an expressionless face, then turned away. His voice, oddly cold, followed.
"You were all over the TV back then. People debated all day whether they should send J in or not... When the decision was made to let you enter, they showed all your achievents, your last interview, your back as you entered the rift... They wrung every last bit out of it."
His tone was that of soone relaying secondhand information. Then again, Lee Sa-young had been in no condition to watch anything at that ti. He had been in poor health, barely able to move. This was news even to him. Cha Eui-jae suddenly asked,
"Who told you this?"
"..."
Lee Sa-young quietly stared at Cha Eui-jae before shrugging.
"Jung Bin."
"..."
"I lived with him briefly... anyway."
Lee Sa-young crossed his arms and tapped them lightly with his fingers.
"You were more famous than you thought. There wasn't anyone who didn't know you."
"..."
"Well, after they set up a morial stone thinking you were dead, people slowly forgot."
It was probably inevitable. As ti passed, newer, more outstanding hunters would have appeared.
Like sand burying more sand, people cover old mories with new ones. They wouldn't have rembered a hunter who died trapped in so rift for long. At best, they might think, 'Ah, there was soone like that,' from ti to ti. They certainly wouldn't have believed he was still alive.
Even he had lost his way and wandered.
"I couldn't have just left it like that."
But.
"Who said they could just forget?"
Cha Eui-jae stared blankly at Lee Sa-young. Lee Sa-young, who had been staring straight ahead, turned his head.
"Still..."
Their eyes t.
"At least spending money on that docuntary seems to have been worth it. If they were playing it even in such an out-of-the-way place."
Lee Sa-young smiled, lifting the corner of his mouth.
"Right?"
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