After the incident in the early hours, Jang Ijung killed some time nearby before returning in the morning.
“Don’t worry about the details, just stay here until tomorrow morning.”
That’s what Seo Sinwoo had said the day before. But by the time he actually got back to the room, Seo Sinwoo wasn’t there.
So he lay alone on the bed, lazing around. While waiting, he’d dozed off without meaning to, and at some point he came to and found himself inside a gate.
Instead of moving around himself, Jang Ijung used the monster he kept to search the hotel.
The ability to sense and tame monsters—that was his power. The catch was that taming required direct physical contact with the target…
Of the monsters that had come in with him, the only one useful in the current situation was the vampire. He also had a bird-type monster, but being trapped indoors made it likely to stand out. On top of that, since it couldn’t use its front limbs, it was awkward for it to follow someone secretly. So he had no choice but to use the vampire.
If the connection weakened even slightly, the monsters acted on instinct. Whenever Jang Ijung got lost in thought, the vampire would drift toward whichever human smelled of blood. Because of that, his spying on the two of them had been discovered almost immediately.
Up until now, he’d mostly used monsters that resembled animals, so maybe he’d lacked awareness that he was controlling a monster at all.
Far from attacking, the vampire had even acted like some kind of pet toward Seo Sinwoo when he approached.
“…..”
Jang Ijung pushed bread into his mouth, lost in thought. The connection had gone faint several times already from all the stray thoughts crowding in. He’d learned it from eavesdropping on the conversation between Yeom Hajae and Seo Sinwoo.
Seo Sinwoo isn’t normal.
What Yeom Hajae had said made a certain amount of sense. Jang Ijung had had his own ulterior motives, but looking only at what had actually happened, the result was that Jang Ijung had, in fact, assaulted Seo Sinwoo. Even giving him every benefit of the doubt, it hadn’t been a “normal conversation.”
And yet Seo Sinwoo had brushed the whole thing off as if it were nothing.
That’s not how an ordinary person reacts.
He thought of Seo Sinwoo, who had pulled back his retreating hand instead of letting him go.
…He did seem used to being treated that way.
Drunk, Seo Sinwoo had acted as if offering his own body to someone else wasn’t a big deal at all.
Normally, he was a man who put a lot of effort into how he presented himself. He was well aware of how he appeared to others. It seemed like the kind of person who, out of sheer pride, wouldn’t be able to admit weakness even if he wanted to.
Jang Ijung rolled the object in his hand, expression blank.
It was a wristwatch.
He’d received it as a gift from Seo Sinwoo yesterday. Amid the faint rattling of the metal, he thought he could almost hear the sound of a second hand ticking—though there was no way he actually could.
“Hm…”
Jang Ijung stared intently at the watch. As if he might find some hidden device inside it.
But he already knew. There was no hidden device at all.
A birthday present… he said.
Jang Ijung didn’t put the watch on. He left it in its box and put it in his pocket.
He lay down on his back, looking up at the ceiling, then closed his eyes again and began searching for the familiar presence. In the darkness behind his eyes, the images of the two of them took shape.
***
The monster, which had been lying quietly on my shoulder, suddenly snapped its head up.
“Kreeek!”
“?”
Then it hissed at the empty air and shuddered all over. It looked almost like a seizure.
Did it eat something wrong?
I lifted Whitey up with both hands. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I figured I’d at least pat its back.
But after a few pats on the back, the movement suddenly stopped dead.
“Huh?”
“…..”
I gently shook the limp little body.
Snap!
Whitey, which hadn’t been responding, suddenly opened its eyes. Its gleaming red eyes were now visible.
“…Kkik?”
The creature tilted its head. It blinked innocently, as if nothing had happened.
“You scared me.”
I’d thought it was dead. Despite my worry, Whitey quickly slipped out of my hands. Watching it move as fast as a little rat, I thought it’d be better off caught and kept in the jewelry box. That was the whole point of bringing it along in the first place.
But… it won’t stay still.
After it slipped away from me once, it seemed to have caught on, and from then on it dodged my hands like it had a sixth sense. After that, I had no choice but to leave it loose.
Anyway, having confirmed it was nothing serious, I looked away. Yeom Hajae, who had gone into his room alone, poked his head out.
“Hyung, what are you doing out there? Come on in.”
“Then, excuse me.”
The layout was similar to my own room. There was almost nothing inside worth looking at.
“Did you check the detector?”
“Yeah, the needle’s pointing outward…”
A dungeon-grade detector. A small device worth tens of billions popped out of Yeom Hajae’s pocket.
The detector was shaped like a transparent sphere containing an elongated hexahedron inside. Following the direction the hexahedron tilted toward would lead you to the core. As Yeom Hajae said, the hexahedron was pointing downward, but the tip was angled at a slant, suggesting we’d need to go outside the hotel.
“We’ll need to do something about the barrier wall first, then.”
I glanced around and sat down on the edge of the bed, when something stuck to my hand. A bandage. It was an ordinary enough object, but the way blood was smeared on the inside of it felt oddly familiar.
It must’ve fallen off while I was lying down yesterday…
Maybe I’d been lying in Yeom Hajae’s bed longer than I’d thought.
This is uncomfortable, after all.
I called out to Yeom Hajae right away.
“Hunter, do you happen to have more bandages?”
“Yeah. Want one?”
“I’d appreciate it.”
After rummaging around for a moment, Yeom Hajae turned to look at me and flinched.
“Wh-what are you doing?”
“Taking off my clothes.”
“That’s not what I—why…”
Without a word, I undid my shirt buttons all the way down. Of course, I had no intention of taking everything off. I opened my shirt to expose my chest.
“My chest’s been itchy.”
“…!”
“I think it’d feel better with a bandage on it.”
While I spoke, I watched for Yeom Hajae’s reaction. His eyes were practically having an earthquake.
“Hunter?”
“…Here you go.”
He approached with stiff, jerky steps and held out the bandage without meeting my eyes. It was close enough that I could’ve just reached out and taken it, but I didn’t take it right away.
“One side of my chest has been itchy all morning.”
“That, um, sounds rough…”
“Want to guess which side is itchy?”
“…?”
If he looked, he’d know right away. One side was clearly inflamed and red. But Yeom Hajae absolutely refused to look.
Being this shy while supposedly having secretly sucked on someone’s chest is strange… but on the other hand, not being able to look at another man’s chest like this is suspicious in its own way too.
To make him check, instead of taking the bandage, I grabbed Yeom Hajae’s hand firmly.
“Won’t you look? I’m worried hyung’s chest might be inflamed or something.”
“It looks fine.”
“Ha-ha, say that after you’ve actually looked.”
Yeom Hajae stiffly, jerkily turned his eyes.
“It looks fine.”
“Put the bandage on for me. My hand hurts too much to move.”
I held up my right hand, the one Whitey had bitten. Thanks to Yeom Hajae’s fussing earlier, it was wrapped in bandages all the way to the wrist.
“…..”
Yeom Hajae went completely rigid. I kept smiling shamelessly, as if waiting for him to put the bandage on, until he slowly bent down in front of me.
He’s actually doing it.
I’d been expecting him to feel so guilty he’d just confess everything. Instead, without a word, he squeezed out some ointment from his pocket and spread it in a circle over my chest. The cold ointment against my swollen chest felt strange.
“…..”
“…..”
The mood had become too awkward to say anything further. It was because Yeom Hajae was being needlessly serious about it.
As I watched quietly, he tore open the bandage. Then, with a solemn expression, he pressed the band onto my glistening chest.
“Feels like it might come off…”
Staring intently at my chest, Yeom Hajae muttered to himself, then suddenly smacked the bandage hard.
Smack!
“…..”
“…Hauck.”
Despite being the one who’d done the hitting, Yeom Hajae gasped as if he were the one who’d been hit.
“S-sorry.”
“Good hand, huh?”
“No. Ah, n-not that it’s bad, I mean…”
Yeom Hajae hurriedly stood up.
“I’ll wait outside…!”
He grabbed the sword he’d left leaning against the wall. Then he passed by me and went out of the room.
“Tch, this is confusing…”
I’d been trying to test the waters, but all I’d gotten out of it was the unpleasant experience of getting smacked in the chest for no reason. I straightened my clothes and followed Yeom Hajae out of the room.
We started walking quietly down the lit hallway. Now that I thought about it, it seemed like electricity was being supplied to the upper floors, since the lights were on. Maybe the issue wasn’t with the emergency power itself, but with the lower floors’ power grid.
Since there was light to see by, Yeom Hajae was pretending to diligently scan our surroundings. Honestly, it was obvious he was deliberately avoiding looking my way. Maybe because of what had just happened in the room, an awkward silence hung between us, different from before.
After fidgeting restlessly the whole way, Yeom Hajae finally spoke.
“Th-that reminds me, something’s strange.”
“?”
“Director Kim said he was staying on the top floor, but this is the top floor.”
It was a blatant attempt to change the subject. The intent was obvious, but I decided to humor his effort.
“He must’ve misspoken. The lobby had it written that the 30th floor was the last one anyway.”
Yeom Hajae tilted his head, still unconvinced.
“I guess…”
His expression seemed to say, can someone really get that wrong?
Still, I felt some relief that he’d accepted it, at least for now.
There was also the option of just telling him the truth, but I had my reasons for needing to lie.
…I threw up so much yesterday.
The very top floor—the floor the Director used.
That room was bound to be full of unpleasant traces.
I didn’t know how much cleanup had been done… but in the worst case, if the room hadn’t been cleaned at all and yesterday’s traces were still completely intact—
There was no telling how Yeom Hajae might react if he saw the mess.
He might run straight to the police station, declaring the cooperation with the druggie off.
Anyway, this was likely to get troublesome. Just a gut feeling.
After that, we headed to my room without much conversation. We passed by the room with the door knocked off its frame. Because of the incident in the early hours, my room had been temporarily moved. I rummaged through my pocket and pulled out the key card.
But then—
“—.”
“…..”
I froze.
“Hyung?”
“Shh.”
I quickly raised my palm. Catching the signal, Yeom Hajae fell silent and drew his sword.
We held our breath and listened for any sound inside the room.
There was definitely a presence inside. The person inside seemed to have noticed us too, because their movement stopped.
“…..”
I’d expected there might be other people awake, but—
Don’t tell me… Jang Ijung?
I glanced at Yeom Hajae. He looked back at me with a tense expression. It would be a problem if the two of them ran into each other right now.
Yeom Hajae had the detector, and there wasn’t much else worth grabbing anyway. Maybe it’d be best to just retreat for now…
Just as I was about to convince Yeom Hajae to turn back—
The door burst open.
The room’s door swung open.
