episode_0089

Although I don’t think it’s a good idea to judge a person’s personality by their face. Sometimes, there are people whose lives are revealed on their faces.

Ha-yeon Moon is looking at you. A mixed hunter group of about five or six people was a good example.

Sharp eyes. Tightly shaved hair, etc. Looks like the typical gangster.

What made them stand out the most was the choker around their neck.

“That… .”

I narrowed my eyes slightly and stared at them.

A choker made of jet black leather and red decorations attached to it. The small decoration had the vigilante’s mark clearly engraved on it so that it could be recognized from afar.

I briefly turned my head and looked at Ojik. I knew it. It was the same one that hung around her neck.

“Over there. Hayeon, are you okay?”

Ha-yeon Moon has quite an expression. No, it didn’t look terribly good.

More than the eyes that suddenly turned red. The pale complexion was even more noticeable.

Although she was definitely a timid person. It was my first time seeing him so scared.

“Ugh, ugh. Me, I, I… .”

My hands were shaking. I couldn’t even answer properly. All my clan members, including me, were looking at her with worried eyes.

“Let’s go to the tent first. I think you need to rest a little.”

“Yes, yes… . Yeah, yeah. hurry. let’s hurry… .’

Ha-yeon Moon’s hands were cold, as if they had been dipped into ice water and then removed. I could clearly feel my fingertips shaking.

I quickly grabbed her hand and headed toward the barracks assigned to us.

*

The eerie sound of tree branches shaking could be heard through the open barracks door.

Inside the gate densely lined with huge trees. Since not even moonlight could come through the tree branches that filled the sky, the only source of light was the LED lamp inside the tent.

Is it because we are about to go on an expedition where it is almost predicted that humanoid monsters will pop out tomorrow? The surroundings were infinitely quiet.

Only me and Moon Ha-yeon remained in the barracks. The other clan members had gone out to hear a briefing on tomorrow’s expedition.

-Sleep well… .

‘Iknow, right… .’

Ha-yeon Moon was sleeping with her head on my thigh.

I didn’t fall asleep as soon as I entered the barracks. He hugged me and shivered in silence for about two hours. I sobbed alone. Since I was already asleep, I just offered my knee.

I was too unstable to ask about their relationships or the color of their eyes, so I ended up not hearing anything about what happened.

-If I even say the word, it seems like I’m going to cry right away, but if you ask me in the meantime, that’s strange.

‘Iknow, right.’

I lifted my hand and carefully ran her hair through her hair.

Am I having a bad dream? She, who always fell asleep with an expression so peaceful that it made her feel sick, didn’t look so good today.

Even touching his soft cheeks only makes him flinch more. Seeing that he wasn’t sticking to me like he usually did, I didn’t feel very good.

-however. Do you really not know why?

‘I don’t know. ‘I’ve never heard of it.’

-Have you not been together for quite some time?

‘You did, right? It must have been a little less than a year and a half.’

-We stayed together the whole time.

‘That’s right.’

-But you can’t sense it?

Rather than saying this to scratch my insides. Because the tone was purely as if it was hard to believe. I just scratched my cheek without thinking about what the succubus said.

As much as she doesn’t know anything about me. It was true that I also didn’t know much about her.

As it is a relationship that was strangely formed in the first place. It was inevitable, I thought.

-you… . Are you not interested in this person at all?

‘It’s not like that. I just want to thank you for being by my side when I’m lonely. I heard about it. ‘That’s it.’

-That’s not what this person is interested in.

The succubus spoke in a voice that was extremely trembled.

Because this time it got quite unpleasant. I take my hand off Ha-yeon Moon’s cheek. I tried to force my eyes to narrow by pressing down on them.

‘So, you’re saying I had to pry?’

-Hey. Relationships are not so one-sided. The real interest is not in prying and being questioned, but in sharing and understanding.

‘ah. So, I’m a piece of trash who just takes things, right?’

The succubus closed her mouth out of defensive nerves. Even though she had no face, it was as if her complex expression was clearly depicted before my eyes.

-… Now I am mixed with your magic. You know I can at least read what you’re thinking, right?

‘… .’

-The moment you are truly happy is not when people pay attention to you. It’s just when you’re next to me without asking anything. When it seems like nothing happens, even if you don’t put any effort into it. Because you know that, you don’t intentionally narrow the relationship any further –

‘Why are you pretending to know so much? ‘You monster.’

I pulled out all the magical energy inside my body, lumped it into a huge pink ball, and threw it across the barracks.

It was difficult to sit down due to the feeling of exhaustion, as if all the blood had drained from my body. Still offering my knees to Ha-yeon Moon, I laid down on my back.

‘Head hurts… .’

still. Just because I don’t hear a voice that sounds like it knows everything. The headache seemed to go away a little.

*

The slash and burn clan was one of the common small clans when viewed from an outside perspective.

Furthermore. It was also a clan that had the characteristic of being difficult to be evaluated favorably, in that the reputation of the clan leader was inferior to that of the clan members.

so that. They rarely opened their mouths in meetings. Since this was an expedition organized by a vigilante group in the first place, most of the matters were decided by them.

Still, there were many stories to share. After the long meeting ended, time was quickly approaching midnight.

“We’re here~. … Huh?”

The first thing that caught Yang Ji-hee’s eyes when she opened the barracks door was something that looked like a pink ball stuck in the corner.

Thick magical power was leaking out from that object. If I hadn’t been familiar with the color and the feeling, I would have considered running away with Park Jeong-woo.

“I guess I’ve drained all my magic power.”

“Why did you do that… ?”

Chae Seo-ah, who came in later, tilted her head slightly to the side and muttered.

of course. I guess I could do it because I have a magical weapon. This was because she could not guess why she would do such a thing.

“You came.”

Park Jeong-woo’s condition didn’t look that good either. In a quiet voice. Even the narrowed eyebrows.

Because he was always smiling. The clan members who saw that expression seemed somewhat embarrassed and kept their mouths shut.

A strange sense of déjà vu felt in his expression. Ojiri, who was staring at his face with one eyebrow raised, barely opened his mouth.

“… uh. Nothing special happened?”

“Hayeon continued to sleep, and I just sat there.”

“Okay. There was no problem here either. Departure was set for lunch tomorrow as originally scheduled.”

“Oh, that’s right.”

Normally, this would have been the time to nod your head loudly with your eyes shining. Park Jeong-woo could only nod his head briefly, as if gnawing.

Inside the barracks. The clan members dispersed according to the positions they had decided when they first came in. Ojik asked, kicking the lump of magic power next to his seat with his toe.

“Why did you put the magic power like this?”

“Ah… . That one. Just, well… . It’s no big deal.”

“This isn’t a big deal… ?”

Ojiri raised one eyebrow as if he was about to say something. I took a deep breath.

… at that time. Perhaps because the surroundings have become noisy. Moon Ha-yeon, who was sleeping like a corpse with her head on Park Jeong-woo’s thigh, slowly closed her eyes.

She looked around with her purple eyes that had suddenly returned to their original state. He slowly lifted his upper body while holding on to Park Jeong-woo’s shoulders.

“Hayeon, are you okay?”

It was Yang Ji-hee, not Park Jeong-woo, who asked the question.

“Yes, yes. It’s okay, it’s okay. Oh, maybe… .”

Moon Ha-yeon, who was still blinking slowly and sleepily, answered belatedly. He was rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand and muttering answers because his tone of voice was more stuttering than usual. Anyone who heard it could easily tell that it was not okay at all.

“Sorry, sorry. I-I’m making you worry, I’m doing it, I’m doing it for you… .”

“It’s okay. I’m glad you slept well.”

Park Jeong-woo looked at the face of the woman right next to him and spoke calmly.

In a lower tone of voice than usual. Ha-yeon Moon shrugged her shoulders and glanced at him.

Put your hands together in front of your big chest, touch your fingertips and wiggle. Moon Ha-yeon’s purple eyes darted across the air.

twice. third time. She just touched my fingertips and moved her lips for a while. He lowered his eyebrows and opened his lips with an expression like a puppy getting caught in the rain.

“… Actually, with those people from earlier… .”

“No.”

A heavy silence settled in the not-so-spacious barracks.

Park Jeong-woo is the same as usual. You can’t read any special thoughts, and to put it in a good way, he’s bright and bright. To put it worst, he was shaking his head with a stupid-looking smile.

“I think it’s difficult to talk about. It’s okay if you don’t have to.”

“Well, even now… .”

“It’s okay.”

Park Jeong-woo opened his closed eyes and spoke.

Ha-yeon Moon opened her eyes wide. Soon I looked at the floor. Unusually for her, she didn’t say anything to Park Jeong-woo. I got up, returned to my seat, and laid down with nothing on my back.

There is a silence that is even heavier than before. Park Jeong-woo was opening his suitcase and organizing a change of clothes as if nothing had happened.

“Mr. Park Jeong-woo.”

The voice, which was particularly harsher and more business-like than usual, tickled Park Jeong-woo’s ears. He raises his head. I looked up at the woman standing in front of me.

“Look at me for a moment.”

Outside the barracks. Chae Seo-ah spoke while gesturing through the black forest.