Chapter 229: The Calamity Strikes (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 229: The Calamity Strikes (1)
After class.
Riding the bus home, Shin Yu-jeong felt a sudden emptiness.
The space beside her, usually occupied by Kim Do-jin, who would accompany her to and from school unless something special came up, felt particularly vast today.
…It’s already been two weeks.
Students who acquired their Hunter licenses while still in school were given various accommodations to help them balance their Hunter activities with their studies. One of these was granting excused absences for classes missed due to dungeon raids or association missions.
For two weeks now, Kim Do-jin had been absent from school, citing dungeon raids as the reason.
As she stared down at the smartphone in her hand, her eyes filled with dissatisfaction.
How can he not contact me even once? That bastard.
She’d wondered if the dungeon raids were just an excuse and he was off playing somewhere, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
His alibi is solid, I guess…
She could find news about him just by going online. No, she didn't even have to look for it. The school was always full of students chattering about the latest internet articles featuring him.
I think I heard he was raiding some kind of ruin today.
She had seen it in an article online before falling asleep last night. The dungeon he was scheduled to raid today was said to be one of the most difficult B-rank dungeons, a place only frequented by veterans.
The article had also mentioned something else.
Today would be the last day of Kim Do-jin’s grueling march, after which he planned to take a short break.
He’s coming home today, right?
A mix of worry and excitement bloomed within her.
What if he failed the raid? What if he got hurt, big or small? But then, the thought that she would see him soon made her heart flutter.
“Heehee.”
A happy laugh escaped her lips.
You’re so dead, Kim Do-jin. I’m going to drain you dry until you’re… ah, maybe not.
The thought of him naturally made her body heat up, but Shin Yu-jeong quickly poured cold water on her excitement.
For the first time, she found herself thinking of him before herself. She decided to let him off the hook for tonight.
“…He must be tired.”
He would be tired.
Very tired.
He was coming back after completing a hardcore schedule of clearing fifteen dungeons in just ten days. There was no way he wouldn’t be exhausted.
After getting off the bus, Shin Yu-jeong went home, changed into comfortable clothes, and then headed to Kim Do-jin’s room with a spare key she had secretly taken from her mother’s room.
It wasn’t for any particular reason.
He’s been gone for a while. I can’t let him sleep in a pile of dust, right.
With clumsy hands, she began to tidy up the room.
She wiped the floor, which hadn't been cleaned in days, with a wet wipe. She then carried the mattress outside and beat it with her sturdy hands, sending dust flying.
“Phew…!”
Looking at the now-tidy room, a surge of confidence washed over her.
“At this rate, I’d do a great job even if I got married right now, wouldn’t I? Hehe!”
As she smiled, lost in such silly thoughts, Shin Yu-jeong felt something was missing.
“The smell of delicious food would make this perfect.”
If the clean room were filled with the fragrant aroma of a meal she had cooked herself, it would be absolutely perfect.
What the hell, should I give it a try?
The thought was fleeting.
“…Let’s not do anything stupid.”
She knew.
She knew her cooking skills were nothing like her mother’s. The memory of trying to make her sick mother some porridge as a child, only to nearly make her condition worse, was still vivid.
“Time is flying by.”
A red sunset streamed through the clear glass window, bathing the room in a crimson glow.
It meant the time for his return was drawing closer.
She quickly closed the door and went outside, sitting on the bench. She wanted to keep the room in its pristine, clean state until he saw it.
A shiver ran down her spine.
She wasn’t being herself right now.
She, who usually earned a smack from her mom for being too lazy to clean her own room, had diligently cleaned someone else’s. The fact that she was grinning at the thought of him liking it felt incredibly strange.
What was even scarier was that the reason for this change was her feelings for Kim Do-jin.
The thought that she had to do whatever it took not to fall behind him, as he leaped far ahead of her expectations, weighed heavily on her mind and shoulders.
The reason she couldn’t shake this anxiety was the uncertainty of their relationship.
What… are Kim Do-jin and I?
Nothing about their relationship was clear.
They had crossed the line of friendship long ago, but the word ‘lovers’… it just didn’t feel right on her tongue.
They had a passionate relationship, sleeping together whenever they had the chance, but it was like iron heated in a forge—red, soft, and of an unknown final shape.
If she was so anxious, why not just define it?
She had thought about it several times.
But she kept missing the timing, and now she was afraid to even bring it up.
Kim Do-jin had shot up so frighteningly fast that he could now meet a woman far better than her.
Like a high-ranking Hunter in the same field, for example, or an idol who was always on TV.
“Ah, fuck.”
Shin Yu-jeong spat out a curse, ruffling her hair in frustration.
She didn’t know how things had ended up like this.
“At first, I was just planning to use him a little…”
Now, that feeling had grown to an irreversible point, and it was suffocating her.
The mere fact that her approach hadn’t been pure made her chest feel tight, as if she had sinned against him.
She sometimes thought it would be better to just confess everything, but whenever she stood in front of Kim Do-jin, her lips would freeze.
She couldn’t begin to imagine what kind of expression he would make upon hearing her true intentions.
As she took a deep breath, frustrated with her inability to do anything, a car pulled up under the faint streetlight and stopped in front of her house.
A familiar face got out of the passenger seat.
Her eyesight, far superior to that of an ordinary person, recognized Kim Do-jin.
And the woman sitting in the driver’s seat with the window rolled down, Yoon Ji-an.
“…That damn bitch.”
The moment she saw Yoon Ji-an’s face after so long, the memory she had buried away resurfaced as clearly as if it were yesterday.
The devastating scene she had watched, isolated from everyone else, during her first raid with Kim Do-jin.
She knew it had been a condition for leaving that room, but she still didn’t like it. To Shin Yu-jeong’s eyes, Yoon Ji-an’s actions back then had seemed far too enthusiastic to be just about fulfilling a condition.
The two of them looked quite friendly as they stood facing each other, talking.
Whatever they were discussing, a blush even bloomed on Yoon Ji-an’s face.
She looked just like a girl in front of the man she liked, which made Shin Yu-jeong’s heart ache even more.
“What the hell are they talking about to make her act like that…?”
She wanted to know.
She wanted to know what the two of them were talking about.
She could see them, but they were too far away to hear, which only added to her frustration.
Finally, after finishing their conversation, Kim Do-jin waved goodbye to Yoon Ji-an as she drove off, then entered the building.
The faint sound of footsteps grew clearer, and at last, his hair came into view.
When Kim Do-jin finally appeared, he had changed again in the two weeks she hadn’t seen him.
Something’s different.
It was hard to pinpoint exactly what, but she could clearly feel that something had changed.
And that this change had widened the distance between them even further.
Hiding this feeling as best she could, she greeted him.
“…Why are you so late?”
Inwardly, she was screaming, wanting to tear out all her hair.
You’re back. You worked hard. Was it tough? Are you hurt anywhere?
Forgetting the dozens of greetings she had prepared, all that came out was a blunt complaint.
The only silver lining was that Kim Do-jin didn’t seem too upset by her gruff welcome.
“How did you know I was coming and wait for me?”
“…Your whole schedule is online if you look at a few articles.”
“So you saw that and figured I’d be coming, so you waited?”
The moment she saw his eyes, brimming with a smile he couldn’t contain, Shin Yu-jeong snapped.
“Yeah, so I waited! What are you gonna do about it?!”
She was embarrassed.
It felt like her heart, which had swelled with longing after not seeing him for two weeks, had been laid bare for him to see.
So she yelled, but his response only tightened the knot in her chest.
“Why are you so embarrassed about something like that?”
With words full of amusement, he casually stepped forward, reached out his arms, and pulled her into a hug.
In that moment, Shin Yu-jeong was flooded with both happiness and a soaring anxiety.
She wished she could stay in his arms forever, but she felt like she couldn’t.
If she let herself get any more used to this, she felt like she would truly break. Forcing her arms between them, she pushed him away.
“……?”
Kim Do-jin looked at her, bewildered, wondering what was wrong.
Shin Yu-jeong clenched her teeth and asked him.
“Hey, let me ask you one thing.”
“What is it?”
“What… are we, exactly?”