Quiet Weekends, Stacked Messages, and a Late-Night Question
I wanted to ask her the real question, yet I answered first.
“Isn’t this my house? Why does it feel strange to see me here?”
“Not that… shouldn’t a senior like you be heading to the fitness center around this time?”
I glanced at my watch. Three in the afternoon. According to Arin, she and the others usually visited the nearby gym on weekend afternoons.
Even during my hospital stays I pushed hard through rehabilitation, but long stretches in bed had drained my strength.
So I kept going to that gym… until the point where ordinary equipment and routines stopped delivering real results.
Although I couldn’t use mana properly, Ruby inside my body kept me awakened and capable. That was the decisive factor.
At just the right moment, Flame Headquarters already had its own awakened-only fitness wing. When I had no missions, it made perfect sense to use that facility instead of the one near my apartment.
“So now I’m going to work out at headquarters.”
“Oh my, you actually thought of that? You should have been more careful!”
Arin set the bags she was holding down with a reluctant sigh.
At least she hadn’t secretly installed cameras in my room. I could be thankful for that.
Back in the hospital she had always reacted so carefully to my every move. Now she pulled out her smartphone and started typing. I caught a glimpse of something like “Lee Minsu’s daily schedule” and felt a chill run down my spine.
“But senior, you were home. Why didn’t you reply to my messages?”
“Well… I said I’d rest on the weekend.”
“Really? I sent over a hundred messages and you didn’t reply to any of them.”
Thinking about it, Arin’s messages must have piled up high. I was used to sending a lot, and I was in the habit of checking them all at once later. That’s why I hadn’t seen hers before.
“Hmph. If it was Unnie Yu or Soo-soo’s messages, you probably checked them first, right?”
Arin tried to sneak a glance at my phone as I came closer. I quickly blocked the screen.
“No, it’s just… the phone screen got dim.”
She then picked up the framed photo that had been on the wall and began sticking stickers on Yu and Soo-soo’s faces.
“Too much. For the past two years… you let me use your body to my heart’s content, and now you’re going back to being the old girlfriend? After I’ve seen everything about you—every embarrassing moment.”
Arin’s expression turned sulky, but she spoke the opposite. The humiliation I felt was actually mine alone.
After I lost consciousness and during rehab, Arin had taken care of me almost single-handedly.
Right after I regained awareness I couldn’t even move my own body. She stayed by my side and protected me.
Of course, during those two years she never once let me see her struggle or discomfort. So I was always secretly sorry for her.
Detecting my serious expression, she immediately changed the mood with a playful tone.
“It’s cold outside, and a guy lives alone in a room—super gloomy, right? A woman’s touch is exactly what you need.”
She spoke that and started unpacking the bags. Endless side dishes. And kitchenware needed for a one-room apartment.
Arin, wearing a white nun’s habit with a clean apron over it, began bustling around my room with determination.
She really feels like a mother right now.
Actually, something even more accurate would fit: girlfriend. During my recovery she had stayed glued to my side almost every moment except the time I spent at Eins Academy.
Arin had given herself completely to me, and I knew it. At first I thought she was chasing the ghost of Si-woo or Min-ah, the childhood friends she and Kang Si-woo had lost, but that wasn’t it at all.
According to Professor Seong Chaerin, she had started falling for me the moment I entered the academy as a third-year senior.
And the Arin of today was precious to me too.
Her appearance was beautiful, and my heart wavered often, but I had drawn a firm line.
Just like at Eins. I don’t want to make mistakes.
Moreover, I was a terminal patient. No, not just that—I was a person this world shouldn’t have. The only right thing was to stay away from her.
I couldn’t act cold toward her, but I had sworn countless times that I would be no more than a caring senior.
And Arin knew my heart too.
Professor Seong Chaerin had kept my terminal condition secret, and even if she didn’t know the full truth, she understood my body’s condition to some degree.
Arin had always been the same as she was now. Whenever I looked at her, it felt like she was peeling back my own wounds, and sometimes it hurt.
“Senior! You couldn’t even reply, so I brought food. What do you want to eat? Anything is fine.”
“Just… whatever you’re making.”
“Ugh. Women hate that kind of answer the most.”
Yet Arin simply started cooking without hesitation. The delicious smell soon filled the room and my lost appetite returned.
I suddenly thought of something and asked her.
“By the way, how did you know my one-room password?”
Arin answered casually.
“I prayed to the Lord all night and He told me. I really wanted to come into senior’s house.”
My words died in my throat.
***
The dinner was lavish.
Normally I ate instant food or delivery, but Arin’s careful preparation left my mouth truly satisfied.
That said…
Arin still didn’t leave even after dinner. It seemed she was making up any excuse to stay.
She had probably planned to come anyway, since she knew I would return from the fitness center. It didn’t seem to embarrass her that she had been caught sneaking into my room.
She acted as if she were my roommate. Lying on my bed, she said,
“Senior, about the portable MCI oscilloscope the association gave as compensation. Please tell me how to use it. I tried reading the manual but couldn’t understand anything.”
The compensation was a compact MCI oscilloscope, roughly the size of a smartphone, that displayed nearby atmospheric MCI values as a visual graph.
Well, something like this might be unfamiliar to Arin.
Still, anyone from the intelligence team or an operator like me would lose their mind over it. It measured the influence of mana and magic leaking from gates, dungeons, and monsters on people.
Its pure version was called atmospheric MCI in academic terms.
Normally these devices predicted gate or dungeon appearances.
Of course the full-scale versions installed across the country were far larger than this prototype from the Hunter Association’s research center.
The advantage here was that it reacted to the villain mana nearby. Professor Seong Chaerin would definitely know why it was so important.
“So you’re saying to ask Professor Seong Chaerin? She’d understand everything.”
“Unnie talks too complicatedly. Asking senior is better.”
I quickly explained it to her.
Of course Arin stayed pressed right against me, eyes locked on my face the entire time.
She didn’t need this tool at all—she was a nun of the White Cross Church, and holy spells were always at hand.
But for me, it was truly necessary.
In my time at Eins, with my originally sensitive senses and Ruby’s help, I might have managed without it.
But mana use was now restricted, so my senses were too. This item was essential.
Even if Flame Guild chased the Red Lake, their movements were still restricted as a certified guild.
I had to do what I could on my own.
Although the original novel had already been rewritten, I was the only one who knew the plot of its third act. Even a rewritten story could be useful information while quietly following the Red Lake’s true identity, which was more elusive than a ghost.
That’s why I couldn’t tell the Flame members openly about the original novel’s content.
I knew that carelessly interfering with the original story would trigger a butterfly effect.
Of course, if the goal was to eliminate the Red Lake, I would have to accept some butterfly effects. But this time I would move with the utmost caution.
With this oscilloscope, I could move even more carefully. It was an excellent reward for me.
If Flame couldn’t do it, I had to. Just like Si-woo did in the third act—so the remaining people could continue.
Thinking that, I wanted to fiddle with the oscilloscope more. Time passed without me noticing as I got lost in the device.
Wait, it’s already ten o’clock?
Arin was still lying face-down on the bed in my room.
“Why aren’t you going home? It’s already night.”
“Oh, you’re right. It really is night, senior.”
“Hurry back home. I’ll call you a taxi.”
Arin turned from the bed with an oddly excited expression.
“But night is dangerous. You might meet monsters or villains that jumped out of gates.”
“I’ll call a safe taxi. Hurry back…”
“No need for that. Two people can easily sleep on this bed, right?”
“Don’t joke around. I’m worried about Professor.”
“I told Unnie I was going to your house and she didn’t say a word.”
Even though I had tried to send her away for a long time, I failed.
“I already put my toothbrush in the bathroom. I brought all the clothes I’ll need for tomorrow’s work too.”
“Fine. Do as you like.”
Arin seemed determined, so I didn’t stop her. Since there were no extra bedding, we both ended up on the bed.
“May I cover you, senior?”
The shameless, sticky tone told me she was joking.
“Even if I die, there won’t be any of that. Don’t worry.”
“…Please don’t say the word ‘die’.”
“Okay. It was a joke.”
I unconsciously added,
“Want me to turn off the light?”
Arin stayed silent for a moment, then answered.
“It’s fine. Just leave the light on and sleep.”
“It’ll be uncomfortable.”
“Oh, what’s the problem? It’s not like this is the first time.”
Arin knew I wouldn’t sleep if I turned off the light. After I turned my back to her, she placed her hand on my back.
I felt her pink bob haircut brush against my neck.
“You still… do this?”
“No. It’s okay. You can turn off the light.”
“Don’t act tough. I know.”
I fell silent. As she said, when I closed my eyes to sleep, the ghosts of the Eins casualties still appeared beyond the darkness.
Those wraiths’ screams and desperate pleas calling out my name grew clearer in the dark.
Arin hugged me from behind. Although she didn’t show it, her body heat touching my back was warm.
On the nights in the hospital when I couldn’t sleep and suffered, Arin always calmed me like this.
“Good night, senior.”
I fell asleep quickly. And that night, I didn’t dream of the graduation ceremony that haunted me every time.
***
The intern program continued into the new week.
The only change was that the new person in charge was Dong-hyuk instead of Soo-soo, who had returned to the raid team.
“Wait, the guild master himself is personally guiding the interns? That’s a bit heavy.”
Exactly as Uncle Dong-hyuk said. Of course Team Leader Seo was with us, just like during the last dispatch mission.
And Team Leader Seo explained,
“It seems the guild master has high expectations for all of you. But there’s nothing strange about it. After all, Flame is still a mid-tier guild, so he probably wants to personally guide you guys—his future raid members—right now.”
He added that this time’s mission was a security dispatch, and because it involved civilians, Unnie Yu was being extra careful.
Security dispatch mission.
That sounded like a critical task for a guild like ours. It matched my agreement—because we might face villains as dangerous as gates and dungeons.
Shortly after, Unnie Yu entered the raid team’s waiting room.