The Anxious Wait
I don’t even know my own heart anymore.
In my head, I keep telling myself that getting back together with Yena is a bad idea… but everything I’ve been doing is the complete opposite.
Every night before bed, I call her. We’ve gone on dates. We’ve even hugged.
Can I really call this relationship just childhood friends?
No.
I’m doing exactly the same things we did when we were dating.
So if someone asked me whether I could stop now…
Honestly, I don’t think I can.
The guy who left thirteen missed calls because she didn’t pick up is now talking about stopping? What a joke.
“Ga-young, can I ask you something?”
“Sure? Anything except a confession.”
“Crazy. Why would I confess to you? Anyway… if a guy friend asked you for a hug because he’s having a hard time, would you do it?”
“…I’d probably curse him out and slap him hard?”
“Right? That’s the normal reaction, isn’t it?”
“Senior, I’ve never liked the words ‘guy friend’ or ‘girl friend’ in the first place. Let’s be real—can men and women really be just friends? Could you take a bath with me right now?”
“Of course not.”
“Exactly! There’s no such thing as friendship between men and women. If two people are meeting privately, at least one of them definitely has feelings.”
I completely agreed with Kim Ga-young.
Just imagining Yena meeting someone privately made my stomach burn.
“But why are you asking? Did a guy friend ask you for a hug?”
“Logically, that would never happen. I was just suddenly curious.”
“Hehe, liar. You’re terrible at lying, you know that? Lately, whenever you look at your phone, you smile like an idiot. It’s obvious you’ve got a girl.”
“……”
Thanks to Yena, I’d been smiling a lot more these days. I knew that myself, but I hadn’t realized it was so obvious.
“Senior, do you know you’re incredibly stubborn?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about…”
“See! That’s exactly the problem. I’ll say it straight. You overcomplicate everything in life. It’s simple—do you like that person or not? That’s what actually matters. Ask yourself.”
Do I like Yena or not?
If the question is that black and white, there’s only one answer I can give.
“…I like her.”
“Then what the hell are you waiting for? Go confess already! If you’re not going to, stop stringing her along and making her suffer. Give her to some other guy! Or is that too much of a waste? Seriously, good-looking guys are all the same… Ahem, sorry. I got a little worked up.”
“No… hearing you say that actually cleared my head.”
“But don’t go confessing right away just because I said this. Think about it seriously. The fact that she asked you for a hug already means she has feelings for you.”
“Yeah… thanks.”
“Hehe, I’m glad I could help. When you two start dating, make sure to introduce me. A beautiful girl with a boyfriend… just imagining it makes me drool…”
“Because you just said that, I’m never introducing her to you even if I die.”
“Aww! It was a joke! A joke! After seeing her in person that day, I already decided I wouldn’t go after any other beautiful girls except Yena-nim! Look, I even bought a Yena-nim keyring!”
“……”
I had only been half-joking, but after seeing that keyring, I made a firm decision.
There was no way I was ever introducing Yena to Kim Ga-young.
As Ga-young said, I tend to overcomplicate everything.
Well, you could call it thinking deeply… but from another angle, I think so hard that I drive the other person crazy with frustration.
Sometimes I really envy people like her who can keep things simple.
“Haa…”
Standing on the company rooftop after a long time, watching the clouds drift by, old memories came flooding back.
Even when I was dating Yena, people used to complain that I was frustrating.
Our first kiss happened four years after we started dating, after all.
Even that first kiss wasn’t intentional—Yena went wild during the sports festival and headbutted me with her lips.
I still remember getting scolded by the others, told that I had to take responsibility for pushing her that far.
I just wanted to cherish her…
“I wonder if Yena made it there safely…”
She said she was entering the Tower today, so we wouldn’t be able to contact each other for about a week.
If I’d known I’d miss her this much on the very first day, I should’ve gone to see her yesterday under the excuse of covering the raid team.
“…Maybe I should just go back to work.”
Two days since Yena entered the Tower.
I thought I’d be fine if I just focused on work.
But today’s meeting happened to be about Yena’s July photoshoot… and the more I tried to concentrate, the more I thought about her fighting inside the Tower.
“I hope she doesn’t get hurt.”
Three days since Yena entered the Tower.
[Lee Yena Hunter July Photoshoot Concept: Hotel Vacation with Boyfriend.]
The concept was decided during today’s meeting.
The department head mentioned they’d be filming behind-the-scenes footage during the shoot, so he planned to have me follow along for interviews.
When I visited Yena’s office, she mentioned she had something to discuss with the president. This must have been it.
I couldn’t shake the thought that maybe Yena herself had chosen the photoshoot concept.
Now that I thought about it, we’d promised that once we became adults, we’d go on an overnight hotel stay together…
“There were so many things we never got to do…”
Five days since Yena entered the Tower.
I’d almost finished writing all the interview content and had confirmed every outfit that would be used in the photoshoot.
They weren’t as revealing as I’d feared, but quite a few had deep necklines, and I felt the urge to complain to the styling team.
At the same time, though, I wanted to see Yena wearing those clothes.
She’d said she planned to show me even more revealing outfits…
Imagining her in the bathtub with nothing on, tempting me to join her, made my face flush hot.
“Haa, seriously, when is Lee Yena coming back…”
Ten days since Yena entered the Tower.
The raid team was already two days past the announced return date, and there was still no news.
Even the community, which until yesterday had been saying “nothing could possibly happen to the raid team,” was starting to fill with worried posts as the delay stretched on.
“Senior… you don’t think something actually happened to the raid team, right?”
“It’ll be fine… Kim Ha-rin is there, and Yena too…”
I was pretending to stay calm, but I was losing my mind with anxiety.
I’d asked the hunters I’d gotten close to through the vanguard meetings, but none of them had received any contact either.
Time passed, and fifteen days went by.
Just when my worry for Yena reached its peak—
“S-Senior!!! The raid team just arrived!”
“……”
At Ga-young’s words, I grabbed my bag and bolted out of the office.
But by the time I reached the Association, it was already packed with reporters who had heard the news through their networks.
“Haa… shit…”
The curse slipped out on its own.
What mattered to me right now wasn’t getting the scoop—it was confirming Yena’s condition.
If that was the case, there was only one way.
I hadn’t released my mana since graduating from the Hunter Academy, so I wasn’t sure it would work, but I didn’t have time to worry about something so trivial.
I lowered my stance and concentrated mana into my legs.
Just as I was about to charge toward the crowd—
A hand grabbed my shoulder, and I turned my head.
“Follow me…”
Kim Hyun-joo couldn’t hide her shock.
This crazy person had been about to release his mana and charge into the crowd.
What if someone had gotten hurt?
At the same time, she felt a pang of envy toward Yena.
‘Is there really someone in this world who would lose their mind like that for me?’
Honestly, even her own parents probably wouldn’t go that far.
“Um… where are we going right now?”
“Ah… I didn’t explain, did I? They’re doing detailed examinations at the hospital.”
“E-Examinations…?”
“Just a moment. It’s not what you’re thinking. Their stay was longer than expected, so they’re running checks just in case…”
“Then Yena is safe, right?”
“We won’t know for sure until the results come out, but… do you know what she said the moment she came out of the Tower? She started looking for her phone, saying she had to call Eun-woo right away. Probably got blocked because of information security.”
“That sounds just like her……”
Lee Eun-woo leaned his head against the window and let out a sigh of relief.
At the same time, a tear rolled down his cheek.
‘No wonder he’s Yena-nim’s boyfriend—his tears are just like hers.’
Yena kept insisting they weren’t dating, but if someone reacted like this and still claimed they weren’t together, that was basically gaslighting every single person.
“Here, tissues.”
“Th-Thank you.”
“It’ll take about two hours to get to the hospital, so try to get some rest. If you show up looking like that, she’ll definitely scold you.”
“Yeah…”
Maybe the tension had finally eased after hearing that Yena was okay—his eyes slowly closed.
Seeing him up close like this, she could understand why the vanguard hunters had tried so hard to win him over.
Dark circles hung down to his cheeks, making him look exhausted, but even that gave off a strange, decadent charm.
“Haa, I should just focus on driving…”
If she got into an accident, Yena-nim might actually kill her.