Monsters cannot communicate with people. This was common sense. But this individual spoke.
“More, more! Make that bastard exhausted!”
Something that looked like a scarecrow made of stitched leather, like something from a horror movie, waved a baton. Each time, monsters clutched their heads and charged at Hong Seoyoon screaming in rage.
“More, more!”
Aha, Hong Seoyoon realized what the strange-looking monster wanted. That thing was weaker than Hong Seoyoon. That’s why it was pushing monsters in, hoping he’d exhaust his power before dealing with it.
Bosses that could control monsters of lower rank than themselves appeared occasionally, and it seemed that scarecrow was that type too.
“This sucks.”
Hong Seoyoon said, grinding his teeth. So what if it was weaker than him? He couldn’t even touch it right now. All he could do at the moment was burn the monsters flooding in like waves.
Even S-rank Awakeners didn’t have infinite power welling up. Hong Seoyoon was getting exhausted. He fumbled at the pocket of the shirt he was wearing. It looked like an ordinary shirt, but in reality, it was armor made from Arachne’s thread. Thanks to that, the cigarette he’d put in his pocket was safe.
Hong Seoyoon took out the cigarette and put it in his mouth. He didn’t light it. There was a time when he’d smoke cigarettes by the pack, but he’d quit now. Because his close friend Choi Jaeheon’s younger brother really hated the smell of cigarettes.
How much that little guy would nag when he smoked. He’d shout about wanting to die early from lung cancer and rummage through his body to take away his cigarettes. Even knowing this, Hong Seoyoon brought cigarettes every time. It seemed he liked someone caring about him.
But that too eventually met its end.
“Shitty life.”
Choi Ian. The little kid with a small, pale white face suddenly disappeared one day. At that time, Hong Seoyoon saw his friend go crazy. He reported it to the police, put up flyers, went around distributing them everywhere, but couldn’t find him. What’s so great about a kid who didn’t show even a hair for years?
He wondered if he wanted to see that kid in his last moment. Somehow his mouth tasted bitter. Hong Seoyoon felt his stamina reaching rock bottom.
Then let’s burn his life. Then at least the guys behind him would die later than him.
‘Bad guy.’
Hong Seoyoon hoped Choi Ian was alive. He didn’t want to believe that a kid younger than him had died. The moment he roughly threw away the cigarette in his hand and tried to gather his strength again, someone entered his field of vision. There were hardly any monsters behind Hong Seoyoon, and it seemed they’d managed to break through there. Anyway, the face somehow looked familiar.
“Huh?”
If the little kid grew for a few years, his face would look exactly like this. The plump baby fat that used to cling to his cheeks had disappeared, making his face slender. His slightly upturned eyes were prim like a cat’s, and his nose bridge was high. Overall, his coloring was on the pale side, but there was a part that particularly drew the eye.
His lips.
Long, slender fingers approached and grabbed Hong Seoyoon’s shirt.
“Huh?”
As he was being pulled along blankly in the unexpected situation, he suddenly stood on his tiptoes and brought his lips over. In other words, he kissed his cheek. Even before disappearing, Ian was a kid with more affection than he looked, contrary to appearances. He didn’t do it as an adult saying it was embarrassing, but when he was young, he’d lavish kisses even on his hyung’s friends.
‘No, no!’
Was this a final delusion before death? Then why was his partner Ian, whom he’d thought of as a younger brother? Just as Hong Seoyoon’s eyes were spinning, Ian removed his lips from him.
“Hyung.”
“Huh? Yeah.”
“Now fight.”
Ian said that and rounded his eyes.
“What?”
What are you suddenly talking about? The moment he was about to ask that, Ian lightly tapped Hong Seoyoon’s shoulder with his hand.
“Hurry.”
Only then did Hong Seoyoon notice that his depleted strength had fully filled up. When he raised his head, he saw the scarecrow floating in the air writhing.
Hong Seoyoon looked at the scarecrow and raised his middle finger.
BOOM!
With a loud explosion, the scarecrow burst apart. It struggled desperately to endure, but it was no match for the recovered Hong Seoyoon. It seemed that bastard was a glass cannon once you took away its control ability.
With a loud noise, the scarecrow burned up and collapsed.
“No, this isn’t right. Why, why!”
You.
The last words were swallowed like a murmur and didn’t reach Hong Seoyoon.
When the scarecrow died, the remaining monsters scattered in confusion. As if they’d belatedly realized fear and pain. With the situation turning out that way, cleaning up the rest wasn’t difficult. Hong Seoyoon fired off flames everywhere and swept away all the monsters.
Ian watched that sight standing one step back. At first, he tried to step back thinking he might be in the way, but Hong Seoyoon firmly grabbed Ian’s hand.
“Hey, don’t go for now. Wait here!”
At the urgent voice, Ian unconsciously nodded. As the inside of the gate was cleaned up like that, Hong Seoyoon immediately returned to Ian’s side.
“You, you! Ian!”
“Yeah.”
Ian nodded and faced Hong Seoyoon. Just as Hong Seoyoon saw traces of time on Ian, Ian also felt the same from him. While he’d been in another world, several years had passed on Earth.
He resented anew the god who had dragged him to another world.
“You!”
In the meantime, Hong Seoyoon seemed to have organized what he wanted to say.
“Why, why did you do that!”
Ian’s brow twitched at the words he blurted out in shock, firmly gripping his shoulders with both hands.
“What?”
“I told you! If someone asks you to go somewhere, say you can’t! And if they say they’ll touch you, what did I tell you to say!”
“I don’t like it. You can’t. Please don’t.”
Those were words Ian’s hyung had also taught him many times.
“Does that apply to me too?”
“Huh?”
Ian blinked blankly, then belatedly recalled Earth’s common sense. He’d forgotten while living in another world and using his ability freely, but normally kissing someone without their permission was molestation. He lightly struck his palm with his fist.
Hong Seoyoon meant it in a different sense, but Ian understood it the opposite way.
“Hyung, I’m sorry. I committed sexual harassment.”
Ian said, grabbing Hong Seoyoon’s hand.
“Hit me.”
“What? Hit what?”
“I did something bad.”
“No, where do you even have a place to hit! And what sexual harassment! A kid giving a kiss doesn’t become sexual harassment!”
Watching Hong Seoyoon blurt out whatever came to mind in shock, Ian nodded. He roughly understood why Hong Seoyoon was acting like this. Even though he’d been sexually harassed, he couldn’t bear to hit a younger sibling he’d known. He had a rough mouth and looked rough, but he was actually a gentle person when you knew him.
“No, this isn’t what I wanted to say!”
Hong Seoyoon raised his hand and rubbed his forehead. He had so much he wanted to say, but the location wasn’t good for that.
“First, let’s get out of the gate. Let’s talk after we get out.”
Even in the midst of this, Hong Seoyoon firmly held Ian’s hand and wouldn’t let go. Like that, he returned to the guild members he’d left behind. On the way, Ian was obedient without asking anything. That was somewhat awkward too. Before, he had a more lively feeling.
“Hello.”
When Hong Seoyoon, who had been fighting monsters with his life on the line, brought a pure white beauty, the guild members’ eyes widened.
“Ah, hello?”
Among them, there was someone whose inner voice honestly popped out.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Choi Ian. I know Seoyoon hyung.”
“No, that’s not it.”
A new person suddenly appeared in a closed gate, so they couldn’t help but be suspicious. However, Hong Seoyoon stepped forward and crushed any explanation about this situation.
“He must’ve barely gotten in before it closed.”
Why? One guild member successfully blocked the inner voice that was about to come out again this time. If the guild master said so, then it must be so. Hong Seoyoon’s guild members had higher loyalty compared to other guilds. Most of them had been helped by him before.
“We killed the boss, so let’s go out.”
Only then did the shadows that had been cast over the guild members’ faces lift. Supporting the injured and helping each other, they exited the gate. As soon as they came out of the gate, reporters who had been standing in front shoved cameras at them.
Among them were people from the Awakener Management Bureau and Awakeners from other guilds. It seemed they’d been called after hearing the news that the gate rank had suddenly risen and Hong Seoyoon was the only S-rank among those who went in.
Hong Seoyoon hid Ian behind his back and quickly scanned the people in front. In this kind of situation, that guy couldn’t not have come. And sure enough, that guy was here.
“Yoon Taegyeom.”
An S-rank Awakener belonging to the Management Bureau. To borrow Hong Seoyoon’s words to describe him, a water guy with a slick face. Having heard the voice calling him, the guy raised his head and looked this way. Soon, cold eyes reached Hong Seoyoon.
“Hong Seoyoon.”
Yoon Taegyeom strode toward Hong Seoyoon. The two S-rank Awakeners were entangled in many ways. In addition to their abilities being starkly divided as fire and water, they were friends since childhood yet growled at each other whenever they met face to face.
“You managed to survive safely.”
“I’m not one to die in a place like that, am I?”
As expected, words never exchanged nicely between them.
poor ian oml
his poor brother too