My Ex-Girlfriend
A bakery café in District A.
It was famous for its incredibly delicious bread.
Thanks to Han Gain, I get to enjoy another luxury like this.
I mused to myself as I chewed on a cream bagel that melted in my mouth.
I'll be a 4th-floor Ascender soon—would District B be within reach if I filed for a district transfer?
To enter District A on your own merit, you had to be an Ascender who'd reached the 5th floor.
The upper class and the middle class.
The dividing line between them lay right between District A and District B.
I didn't yet have the qualifications to reach District A, but the fact that I could now at least glimpse it on the horizon was enough to lift my spirits.
"……So where did this woman disappear to?"
Han Gain had contacted me for the first time in ages.
When I saw dozens of missed calls piled up, I'd thought something terrible had happened at first.
[I wanted to make a request!]
When I called back in a hurry, Han Gain answered with a bright, cheerful voice.
When I asked why she'd been calling, her answer was frankly absurd.
[M-my cat must have stepped on it.]
"……"
I could have pressed her on what kind of nonsense that was, but something about her seemed genuinely embarrassed, so I let it slide.
She was, after all, my first patr—no, my sponsor. Best not to put her on the spot, right?
Once I let it go, we got down to the actual conversation.
[I remembered you saying you were quite well-versed in alchemy, Hajun! Would it be possible for you to craft potions as well?]
Alchemy involving potions could fairly be called my area of expertise these days.
Most of what I'd been making with Sage's Alchemy so far consisted of mana circuit enhancement elixirs, stamina potions, and mana potions, after all.
[Oh, then might I trouble you with a request?]
Since I didn't know whether I could pull it off, we agreed to meet and discuss the details before deciding anything.
And that was how I came to be sitting here today.
Except Han Gain had said she was just stepping into the restroom—and then vanished without a trace, gone far longer than any trip to the restroom should take.
Should I go look for her?
Just as I rose from my seat to refill my glass of water—
Someone called out to me from behind.
"Kim Hajun?"
A familiar voice.
At first I thought I'd misheard.
"……!"
I turned toward where the voice had come from, and there was her face.
"Yeonhee……"
Yes. The owner of that voice was none other than my ex-girlfriend, Lee Yeonhee.
"What brings you here?"
"That's my question. Must be doing well for yourself lately? Coming to places like this and all."
Her voice had a strange undertone of looking down on me.
Come to think of it, Lee Yeonhee had always carried this undercurrent in how she treated me.
A tone, a manner of acting, that placed me beneath her.
Now that I think about it, the real reason she dated me was probably that I wasn't embarrassing to have around.
I'd asked her once, in the past.
Why she'd accepted my confession.
- I mean, if I keep you around, it's not embarrassing. You're good eye candy.
- What?
- Kidding, kidding. I'm dating you because I like you. Okay?
Back then, I'd chalked it up to a joke, but her words had always snagged on some corner of my heart.
Seeing her now, it was crystal clear.
That remark hadn't been a joke. It had been the honest truth.
Unbelievable. That stings.
"I've been climbing the Sky Tower lately."
I couldn't exactly tell her I was Unknown, the sensation sweeping the world right now.
Still, I figured I should at least mention I'd become an Ascender.
"Oh my, you became an Ascender?"
"Yeah."
"Mm. That's a shame, honestly. If you'd awakened just a little sooner, we might not have broken up like that."
She said it with a sly, sidelong smile.
Wow.
That's a bit much, don't you think, Yeonhee?
By now I knew exactly what that smile meant.
She's casting a line. Fishing for a backup option.
What kind of absolute trash—
How much of a sucker did she take me for?
Hearing I'd become an Ascender, Lee Yeonhee was laying down insurance, just in case.
How many years had we dated? Did she really think I wouldn't know exactly what was going through her head?
And judging by the looks of it, the only reason she could even come here was thanks to her boyfriend. And she's got the gall to sit there openly dangling her fishing rod at me.
Truly impressive, Yeonhee.
That I ever dated a woman like this……
Frankly, I was starting to suspect my ancestors were watching over me when we broke up.
"What's with the expression?"
Yeonhee's eyes narrowed. I thought I'd kept my composure well hidden, but she was as sharp-eared as ever.
"Seeing you just now, I realized I probably would have dumped you even if you hadn't dumped me."
That part was the truth.
"Excuse me?"
Her temper flared in an instant.
My words had clearly wounded her pride.
"Are you saying you would have dumped ME?"
"Yeah."
"Ha… you've got some nerve, Hajun. Did you already forget that I was the one who rescued you from a life where you couldn't get a single date well into your twenties? Even if you were the one who got dumped, that's no way to talk."
……?
What fresh nonsense was this?
The more I listened, the hotter my blood began to boil.
"Still single, I take it? No matter how much of an Ascender you've become, talking that ugly—no wonder there's no woman around—"
"Hajun?"
Just as Lee Yeonhee was spewing her vitriol, Han Gain happened to return to our table.
Perfect timing, truly.
My eyes had been growing colder and colder the longer I listened to her garbage.
"Do you know each other?"
"……!"
At Han Gain's appearance, Lee Yeonhee went wide-eyed and said nothing. No—she couldn't. Her expression was one of sheer, overwhelm at Han Gain's beauty.
"Someone I used to date."
"Oh, I see. Nice to meet you. I'm Han Gain."
At my words, Han Gain smiled warmly and extended her hand to Yeonhee.
Hm. Even after hearing I was her ex, she didn't so much as bat an eye. Han Gain clearly had no romantic feelings toward me whatsoever.
"Nice… to meet you. I'm Yeonhee. Wait—are you perhaps the Seolhwa Clan's……"
As Yeonhee clasped Han Gain's hand, the name of the Seolhwa Clan slipped out of her mouth.
She'd recognized who Han Gain was.
Fair enough—Han Gain had been rising fast lately as one of the hottest new names in the scene, so it wasn't strange for anyone to know her.
"Yes, that's right. I'm Han Gain of the Seolhwa Clan."
"Oh! And you and Hajun are… acquainted?"
Yeonhee asked the question while looking straight at me.
Her eyes said it all: How does a nobody like him even know Han Gain?
Then Han Gain smiled sweetly and dropped a remark neither I—nor anyone alive—could have seen coming.
"Yes. Lately we've been getting to know each other with growing feelings for one another."
Khrm. I nearly coughed out loud.
For a moment I thought I'd misheard.
Because Han Gain had just announced that she and I were developing a romantic relationship.
"G-growing feelings……"
"Yes. Hajun says such sweet, lovely things to me that spending time together is genuinely delightful."
"Ahaha. I… see."
For some reason, Lee Yeonhee fidgeted restlessly in front of Han Gain, who remained serenely composed.
"Honey, what's taking so long?"
"Oh! Oppa."
Right then, Yeonhee's current boyfriend appeared.
The same tower of an Ascender I'd seen before.
"Friends of yours?"
"Ah, yeah. Just ran into a familiar face while passing by. Well, we should get going. See you next time."
Lee Yeonhee hastily grabbed her boyfriend and fled the table.
She bolted like a foal with its tail on fire, moving at remarkable speed.
"That woman looks familiar somehow……"
"She said she's Han Gain of the Seolhwa Clan."
"What? That famous person? Honey, you knew Han Gain?"
"Ah, no, it's not like that……"
Their voices faded into the distance.
I tore my gaze from their backs and looked at Han Gain.
My eyes held a tangle of emotions as I regarded her, but the strongest of them all was gratitude.
"Thank you."
"Hm? For what?"
"You went out of your way to save my dignity just now, didn't you?"
Yes—Han Gain had clearly overheard the vitriol Yeonhee had been hurling at me moments before.
After listening to that woman ask whether I even had anyone in my life, Han Gain had deliberately made it seem like we were in the middle of a blossoming romance.
"I didn't go out of my way at all……"
"Sorry?"
"Oh, nothing."
Ho ho. That woman seems to hold genuine affection for you, I'd say.
At that moment, Ellaon, who'd been quietly keeping to himself, tossed in his two cents.
Oh, for goodness' sake, Ellaon.
What nonsense are you spouting now?
Just as I was about to tell him to keep useless commentary to himself—
WEEEEEEEEEEE——!
A massive alarm, blanketing the entire city, drilled into our ears.
"What's your history with that guy, really?"
"Ah, we just… barely knew each other, that's all."
"You're sure?"
"Ugh, oppa. Do you honestly think I'd hide something from you? If you did, I'd be seriously hurt."
"No, it's not that……"
Lee Yeonhee sweated bullets, doing her best to gloss over her relationship with Hajun in front of her current boyfriend, Kim Min-sung.
This clingy, petty blockhead. If he finds out I was actually lovers with Kim Hajun, he'll throw another fit for sure.
Kim Min-sung looked the part of a hearty, stand-up man on the outside, but in truth he was more petty and jealous than most women.
It went without saying how he'd react if he learned she'd once dated a man as model-handsome as Hajun.
Ugh, my lot in life. I need to find out who Unknown really is, fast……. He's supposed to be an executive—how does he not know a single thing about Unknown?
Frustrated, she thumped her chest with her fist.
Come to think of it, what on earth has been going on with Kim Hajun lately? That vixen was looking at him in a way that was anything but normal……
She had no idea whatsoever that Han Gain's words had been a lie.
Because in her eyes, the way Han Gain had looked at Kim Hajun carried genuine emotion—well beyond merely friendly.
Ugh, whatever. But why does Kim Hajun keep refusing to leave my head?
She bit her lip, then abruptly turned to Kim Min-sung.
"Oppa, that man who was standing next to Han Gain……"
"Oh, the neighborhood oppa you said you knew. What about him?"
"Nothing major, it's just—she said he's an Ascender. What did he look like to you? Like, one of those… miners on the 1st floor? That tier of Ascender?"
"Are you kidding? His gear was insane. Forget the equipment he was wearing—sell just one of his accessories, an earring or a ring, and you could buy a house around here."
"Wh-what?"
At Kim Min-sung's words, Lee Yeonhee's eyes trembled as if an earthquake had struck.
He'd looked quite high-end, sure—but he'd been wearing artifacts like that?
How on earth?
"He's not some 1-star Ascender?"
"Nah. I can't say for certain, but everything that guy had on looked like at least Hero or Legendary grade. A setup like that is only possible if you're a super rookie or an ace being bankrolled by a major clan."
Good heavens!
Lee Yeonhee's face went slack with disbelief.
How long had it even been since they'd broken up—and he was already a promising Ascender like that?
Who did he think he was, Unknown?
…Okay, that's ridiculous.
Even to herself, that was too absurd a delusion.
Which left only one answer.
That sneaky bastard! He was hiding the fact that he was an Ascender the whole time we were dating!
It had to be.
Why else would he have done that to her?
If she'd known he was such a promising Ascender, she never would have dumped Hajun like that.
I'm furious!
The moment she trembled all over, unable to contain her rage—
WEEEEEEEEEEEEE——!
"M-Mommy!"
The sudden blare of the massive alarm nearly knocked her off her feet.
"Honey! Looks like an emergency. Stay here and wait."
"Y-you're going?"
"That alarm means an Irregular Portal just opened in the middle of the city."
"An Irregular Portal?"
"Yeah. One opening up in District A is rare, I'll give you that. Anyway, get back. I might have to step up and hold the line."
"Isn't that dangerous?"
"It's fi… huh?"
Kim Min-sung had spotted something.
A massive pterosaur emerging from the Irregular Portal.
A Level 40 boss monster out of the 4th floor.
And then—
At the window across from them, a man with his hood pulled low over his face.
His features were hidden, but the aura radiating from his clothes belonged, unmistakably, to the neighborhood oppa Yeonhee had known.
"Huh? K-Kim Hajun?"
Yeonhee, too, noticed Hajun a beat too late.
Hajun had assumed a stance, both hands drawn back as if gripping a bow.
It was the casting motion for the 3-star Mythic-grade skill, Astral Arrow.
KWAAAAAAA!
Light gathered and swirled at Hajun's hands.
Reading Hajun's intent from it, Kim Min-sung shouted desperately.
"You can't recklessly attack that thing! If you don't finish it in one shot……"
It'll draw the aggro, and civilian casualties will snowball!
—That was what he'd meant to say.
Thum.
FLASH—!
KWAAAAAAAA———!
Starlight flooded the entire view.
"SKREEEEEE!"
The pterosaur's scream, drenched in agony, shook the city core.
And when the light cleared, the scene revealed itself.
The boss monster had vanished without a trace.
At the sight of it—
"That's… impossible."
Kim Min-sung and Lee Yeonhee both broke into violent shudders, the chill running down their spines beyond their control.