Ppik! Ppaek! Ppiyoo.
Listening to the unique sounds Bbobbo made while jumping around and rolling all over the bed, Raon packed supplies into his backpack.
Relationships between people were the fruit of time and effort. This was even more true for relationships that weren’t like coworkers who had to meet for a certain amount of time every day in the same space.
At least one of the two had to take the initiative to make contact, make plans, or go to where the other person was. If they couldn’t get physically close, they had to use intermediaries like calls or messages. But this too wasn’t successful. If the other person blocked all those contacts, the relationship wouldn’t continue.
What he wanted was time to talk candidly and openly about their feelings. Beyond Jaehwi’s cold expression, his rich emotions showed through. Even excluding the special circumstances of being an Esper and Guide, just with basic physique and stamina alone, he was no match for Jaehwi.
Yet each time, Jaehwi let himself be swayed by him. He threw out warning comments and didn’t hide his displeased expression, but he’d never shown physical force. When he said let’s have a drink, instead of refusing, he attached a condition. And he had definitely proposed a condition he thought was reasonable for his contact information.
And it was Jaehwi who ignored that message.
He thought contact would come if he waited a day or two, but there was no contact whatsoever from Jaehwi. He came and went from the center every day but didn’t come to the office where he was, and though he had Jay check the corridor constantly, as expected, not even a single strand of Jaehwi’s hair was visible.
Whenever they met, they had a battle of wills, and after parting like that, intentional radio silence.
Raon plopped down in the armchair next to the bed and gently rolled energy in his palm.
“Ppiyoong!”
“Huh? Hey!”
The energy he’d just been making into a ball and rolling in his palm disappeared in an instant. Though invisible to the eye, because he’d made it, he could follow it sensually. Until it completely disappeared, that is. Raon’s gaze, recalling how he’d helplessly lost it when meeting Jaehwi last time, landed on Bbobbo flying around.
Though it ate ore, Bbobbo could eat most things. Its favorites were ore, then sweet things like milk, cake, biscuits, and snacks, but he never expected it would even devour a Guide’s guiding ability.
The moment the energy disappeared, Bbobbo stuck out its small tongue with a satisfied expression and licked around its mouth. Then it looked at him with sparkling eyes. As if telling him to give more.
“Why are you eating that! Are you an Esper? You already ate all the ore I brought out back then, so even now I’m going to the dungeon to mine ore.”
Literally, all the ore he’d prepared for Jaehwi had gone into Bbobbo’s stomach. How could he not give it when it was drooling while looking at that? No matter how much he tried to take it away, it gripped tightly with those small front paws and held on with strength, so Raon had no means to withstand it.
He couldn’t raid the center’s storage room just to feed Bbobbo, and with people’s eyes on him, it was awkward to go around auction houses collecting ore. It was also that way to have someone do it. With the situation like this, all of Raon’s circumstances and environment fell into one conclusion.
When a low-grade ore dungeon occurred, he’d go mine it himself. He could also accumulate dungeon experience, so there was no reason to refuse.
After spending several days together, it was clear Bbobbo understood everything that was said. The problem was it only heard what it wanted to hear the way it wanted to hear it. Even now, shaking his head at Bbobbo, who clearly understood everything he said but pretended not to know and purred while floating around, Raon sighed and stood up from his seat.
To mine ore faster and more comfortably, today he’d brought gloves and arm guards with stamina and strength attributes attached from the center. Though he said brought, it would be more accurate to say he took them with his authority.
Even if it was D-rank, he would have thought about it a bit, but since it was an E-rank dungeon that appeared in the suburbs as expected, Raon chose that dungeon as the place to spend his leisure time today without any hesitation. Moreover, wasn’t tomorrow the weekend? This time he wasn’t even going alone and planned to take Bbobbo along.
When the Donghae underwater dungeon occurred, he’d left it alone in the office and when he came back, for three days Bbobbo followed him around and burrowed into his embrace whenever there was a chance, crying.
“You’re coming, right?”
Without even moving its wings, Bbobbo, floating as if entrusting its body to the flow of air, was already sitting obediently on Raon’s shoulder.
“Look at this. Look at this. You understand everything.”
When he flicked Bbobbo’s nose tip with his fingertip, a small sneeze followed. It sneezes whenever I touch its nose.
“Bbobbo, we’re going out now. Get in the bag for a moment.”
As soon as the words ended, Bbobbo opened the zipper on its own and entered the backpack, and Raon put his feet into his walkers.
Even as he slung the backpack over one shoulder and went outside, Raon couldn’t let go of his cell phone. Should he say he’s going to the dungeon? What about asking to go together? He couldn’t make a decision even when getting in the car and departing.
As Raon grew farther from the city center, he suddenly recalled hearing that Jaehwi was trying to get a detached house in the quiet suburbs. He must hate noise that much. And he had made him stay at a hotel in the middle of the city center where the most people came and went.
The more he thought about it, the more bitter his mouth became because there was nothing he’d done well for Jaehwi. Even now. While saying he was letting go from his heart, he couldn’t let go. It was him who groped his body under the pretext of guiding and made unreasonable demands.
“Sexual harassment, blackmail, and abuse of authority—I’d have nothing to say even if sued.”
Who in the world would want to drink alone with an uncomfortable workplace superior? It’s my fault. My fault. I should have shouted that I’m crazy, why would I drink with you? Why attach a dungeon accompaniment condition there and make a person’s heart this heavy?
At this point, it would be nice if Bbobbo noisily chattered or clung to him and turned his attention elsewhere, but Bbobbo curled its body up in the passenger seat and fell asleep the moment the car started.
“Bbobbo.”
When stopped at a signal, Raon reached out and roughly stroked Bbobbo’s soft body. It wasn’t gentle or careful but rough movements filled with his complicated feelings, enough to wake the sleeping Bbobbo.
“Ppo! Ppo!”
If asked what he was doing to the obediently sleeping Bbobbo, Raon could confidently say. Bbobbo also always burrowed into his embrace while he slept like this or suddenly rubbed its whole body on his face, waking him in between.
“Ppiwing.”
Raon, who had been stroking, shaking, and touching Bbobbo as it squirmed and curled its body up even more roundly until the signal changed, clicked his tongue and grabbed the steering wheel again. Raon’s worries continued until entering the dungeon, but after entering the dungeon, he wasn’t given even a bit of time to worry about such things.
“Ahhh!”
Being startled and screaming repeated countless times. The problem was that the dungeons Raon had entered until now had been excessively static. Since he didn’t have any particular safety anxiety, he didn’t prepare for safety excessively either.
As expected, a short sword on his thigh, a gun worn at his waist. Light, highly mobile low-grade protective suit with some defensive ability added, and gloves and arm guards for convenience when mining ore—that was all he had equipped.
The moment he stepped foot into the dungeon, sinking up to his ankles as if stepping into a swamp was the beginning. But where Raon stepped wasn’t a swamp but sand. His eyes were dazzled by the heat and bright light as if coming to a hot desert.
Though it sank to his ankles, since there seemed to be solid ground below and he didn’t sink further, Raon straightened his posture. Bbobbo, which came out of the bag, began rolling on the sand filled with heat and taking a sand shower, so excited about something.
“Hey! Hey! If you do that, you’ll have to wash when we get home.”
What are you going to do about the fine sand that got between your fur? For now, no danger was detected in the visible vicinity and Bbobbo also showed no signs of tension, so Raon took out the tablet. With the dungeon’s occurrence, basic matters could be automatically estimated, but to be certain, he had to enter the dungeon like this to know.
“……”
Until now he’d only seen grass as life forms, but at the screen showing that life forms estimated to be desert-type monsters, not just plants, were detected, Raon gulped. Would he go back as is? Or go in a bit more?
All of Raon’s worries were clearly a luxury. Though there wasn’t even a warning sign on the tablet, Raon was drawn by an unknown force and dropped the tablet. That was the first scream Raon let out after entering the dungeon.
Suddenly drawn by something like a plant stem that wrapped around his ankle, Raon was already hanging upside down in midair.
Urgently looking around, Raon gripped the short sword he was wearing on his thigh. He swung the short sword at the golden sparkling stem, and at the same time was slammed into the sand. Just as he managed to steady his body, the golden stem lifted Raon upside down, and when he swung the short sword, the stem disappeared and he repeatedly fell vertically onto the sand.
Meanwhile, Raon was gradually going deeper into the dungeon. His body ached from continuously falling from a height of about 1.5 meters. At least it was this much because it was soft sand rather than a hard floor. Learning the fact that the stem-like thing didn’t appear until he definitely steadied and stood his body, Raon couldn’t rashly move his body.
