“Hyung wanted it. It’s not that strange, is it? After all, Lulu and hyung have a special relationship.”
Lulu smiled spitefully and pressed close against Seo Sinwoo’s side. It was an opportunistic move, taking advantage of the fact that Seo Sinwoo wasn’t in his right mind.
“That’s a lie.”
“What is?”
“There’s no way hyung would like something like you.”
“But he does like me.”
Even with Yeom Hajae’s hand now resting on his sword in front of him, Lulu showed not the slightest hint of fear. He stroked his chin for a moment, then lowered his voice and murmured secretively.
“Do you know what Lulu and hyung did in the bathroom earlier?”
“!”
“I’ll show you right now.”
Lulu reached out and traced Seo Sinwoo’s face as if tracing a drawing. He could see Seo Sinwoo holding back groans and panting for breath, but he paid it no mind. Instead of telling Yeom Hajae about Seo Sinwoo’s condition, he pressed his face against Seo Sinwoo’s neck as if about to press his lips to it at any moment.
Whoosh!
“Ah!”
He’d more or less expected it, but the attack came flying in immediately. Lulu easily caught the sword sheath. Yeom Hajae’s hand and the sheath trembled with the force of the strike pressing down.
“Ha, you attacked first, you know.”
Lulu laughed coldly and kicked Yeom Hajae in the stomach.
Thud!
Yeom Hajae went flying and slammed into the wall. The wall was slightly damaged, and a cloud of dust rose up.
“…..”
A moment later, Yeom Hajae staggered up out of the dust, clutching his head.
Drip, blood dripped onto the floor.
“Haa…”
His reason wasn’t returning. Blood flowed from his head, blurring his vision. With a blank expression, Yeom Hajae picked up the sword sheath lying beside him.
Whoosh—
Flames climbed up along the sword, gradually growing larger.
“!”
The sudden wave of heat snapped Seo Sinwoo back to his senses.
What’s going on?
Yeom Hajae was using his ability. And across from him, Lulu stood watching with his arms crossed, as if enjoying the show.
It was a sight that seemed to give no consideration whatsoever to the possibility of the building collapsing. He had to stop this before the fight grew any bigger. Seo Sinwoo staggered to his feet, trying to get between the two of them.
“Stop… that’s…”
I have to stop them.
He hadn’t even taken a few steps before his movements began to slow drastically.
“Urgh.”
Both of their heads turned at once at the sound of violent retching. Seo Sinwoo, pale-faced, was covering his mouth.
“Hyung?”
“Hyung?”
The two of them moved toward Seo Sinwoo as if in unison. Yeom Hajae, touching Seo Sinwoo’s exposed skin, was startled.
He’s burning hot.
He’d noticed earlier that Seo Sinwoo was sweating a lot. He’d assumed it was simply because the room was warm… But now he realized it was sweat from a fever.
“Does something hurt?”
“My… my stomach…”
Seo Sinwoo couldn’t finish his sentence and doubled over. Seeing Seo Sinwoo collapse onto the floor, Lulu asked brightly.
“Does your stomach hurt? Upset stomach?”
There was no way a simple stomachache would cause this kind of agony. Yeom Hajae, restless and anxious, chewed at his lips.
That’s it…!
He hurried over to the monster’s corpse. The dungeon’s core had to be inside it. If he destroyed it and got hyung to a hospital, it would be fine. He prodded the corpse with his sword.
But no matter how much he poked around with the sword, the core was nowhere to be found.
Why…?
Yeom Hajae froze, plunged into confusion.
“Fuck, ngh… aaaaaahhh…!”
“!”
Seo Sinwoo, who had been groaning, let out a long scream and clutched his stomach.
“Hy-hyung!”
No matter how desperately he called out from the side, Seo Sinwoo didn’t turn to look. It didn’t seem to even reach his ears.
“Hck, hhhk…”
The veins stood out on his neck. His curled-up body trembled in tiny convulsions, as if having a seizure. To Yeom Hajae, it looked like he might die at any moment.
“Ngh…!”
What do I do?
Panicking, Yeom Hajae froze up completely. He began breaking out in cold sweat, as if he himself were the one in pain.
While Lulu watched with sparkling eyes and Yeom Hajae stood there malfunctioning, Seo Sinwoo writhed weakly between them.
Croak.
“?”
Croak.
As if to confirm it wasn’t his imagination, the sound rang out once more. It was coming from inside Seo Sinwoo’s stomach.
“Something’s… something’s wriggling, ugh.”
Wriggling.
The cup he’d seen in the lobby flashed through Yeom Hajae’s mind. The small eggs inside that cup. And the frog-shaped monster he’d just killed.
Don’t tell me—
“…!”
“Aahh!”
He had to kill it.
Yeom Hajae drew his sword. At the appearance of the blue-edged blade, Lulu, standing nearby, grabbed Yeom Hajae’s arm.
“Wait! What are you planning to do with that?”
He had to kill it.
“The monster, hyung has a monster inside him…. I have to kill it quickly.”
“What? Even so, if you use a sword, hyung will die.”
Lulu, looking utterly baffled, snatched the sword away. Then he shoved the dazed, muttering Yeom Hajae aside and rolled up his sleeves.
“If it’s a person, you use your hands. The point is to get the monster out of his stomach, right?”
“…?”
“Stomach? Intestines?”
Judging by how he was clutching his lower abdomen, the intestines seemed likely. Before Yeom Hajae could even say so, Lulu beat him to it.
“Let’s start with the stomach first.”
“Aaargh!”
He wrapped his arms around Seo Sinwoo’s struggling body from behind. The hunter and the monster watched on, dumbfounded.
There was a brief physical struggle against Seo Sinwoo’s fierce resistance.
“Fuck, get off!”
“Wait, hyung…!”
Crackle!
“Ngh!”
With a brutal sound, Lulu collapsed. At the same time, Seo Sinwoo’s movements stopped dead, as if he’d died.
“!”
Could he be dead? Yeom Hajae scrambled over to Seo Sinwoo’s side. Bringing his trembling hand under his nose, he felt a faint breath.
“Ugh… Hyung really attacked for real.”
Lulu, who had collapsed to the floor, got up clumsily. He swept back his disheveled hair and glared sideways at Yeom Hajae.
“Don’t just stand there watching, help me.”
He wrapped his arms tightly around Seo Sinwoo from behind again. Fumbling into position, he locked Seo Sinwoo’s body with his legs and wrapped his forearm around his head. It was a posture reminiscent of wrestling.
While he smoothly restrained him, Seo Sinwoo lay limp with his eyes closed.
“Come here.”
Yeom Hajae, who had been blankly watching the scene, snapped back to attention at the curt summons.
“W-what should I… do?”
“Put your finger in here.”
Lulu used his free hand to grab Seo Sinwoo’s jaw and force it open.
“…!”
“Why are you surprised? He needs to vomit to get the monster in his stomach out, right?”
Yeom Hajae approached hesitantly, his body trembling. It was a gesture that looked almost pitiable.
Lulu smirked.
“If the hunter hadn’t been so useless, Lulu would’ve done it himself.”
“…..”
“Hunter.”
Seeing his thoroughly frightened expression, a streak of mischief stirred in Lulu’s heart.
“Our hyung’s kind of a jerk, isn’t he? Even without me, there’d be a whole truckload of guys who’d jump at a chance like this.”
Lulu roughly tilted Seo Sinwoo’s face upward, into an angle that gave a better view inside his mouth.
“Here’s your chance for revenge on that obnoxious mouth of his.”
That’s when it happened.
Smack!
Seo Sinwoo, who had been lying still, suddenly convulsed and kicked out as if in a fit. Startled, Yeom Hajae stumbled backward.
“Grrhh….”
“Woke up, huh. There we go.”
Lulu straightened his upper body, which had hunched in pain.
Seo Sinwoo struggled with all his strength, but apart from his still-free legs, all he managed were feeble twitches.
But then—
“Something… seems off, doesn’t it?”
Yeom Hajae, his face deathly pale as he watched, cautiously spoke up.
At his words, Lulu also focused his attention on Seo Sinwoo. The two of them began examining him closely.
A man convulsing, making ugly, beast-like sounds. Drool he couldn’t swallow dripped from his mouth. Not a trace of his usual composure remained.
But this time, he wasn’t simply thrashing around, overwhelmed by pain. There was a definite pattern. Making a choked, gagging sound, Seo Sinwoo seemed about to spit something out, coughing and hacking.
As if something were stuck in his throat.
Two pairs of eyes stared intently into Seo Sinwoo’s mouth. And before long—
Croak.
A sound came from deep inside his throat.
“His throat’s blocked, isn’t it? Come here and check.”
Lulu called Yeom Hajae over. Yeom Hajae sat on Seo Sinwoo’s thigh to get a better look down his throat. He could clearly feel the muscle twitching beneath him.
Feeling embarrassed, he shifted his position slightly, and Seo Sinwoo, choking and gagging, brushed his thigh against Yeom Hajae’s lower body repeatedly.
“Ngh.”
Yeom Hajae let out an involuntary moan and grimaced.
…This was not the time for that.
“Hurry up. If you can reach it with your finger, grab it and pull it out. Even if you can’t, hyung’s good at throwing up, so just sticking a finger in lightly should do it.”
Yeom Hajae picked up a flashlight.
The face hidden behind Lulu’s forearm showed only the nose and mouth. Drool dripped freely from the forcibly opened mouth.
His slightly bloodshot eyes passed over fangs sharper than average and peered inside. The tongue kept moving and blocking his view, so he had to pin it down with his thumb.
The red tongue twitched, pinned down. Beyond it was a dark hole….
After a careful look, Yeom Hajae shook his head.
“I can’t see it.”
“Then I guess we’ll just have to make him throw up.”
Lulu looked at Yeom Hajae.
“Go on.”
At the prompting words, Yeom Hajae’s throat bobbed.
“…..”
“Put a bandage on it for me.”
The gentle voice echoed in his head. The hand removing the glove trembled as if convulsing.
“Eh….”
This was the hole from which those affectionate words had once spilled.
He slowly brought his calloused, thickened finger toward it.
“Hnngh.”
“Ngh.”
Yeom Hajae gritted his teeth. The inside of the mouth was soft and warm.
The tongue wrapped around the finger as if trying to identify the intruder.
Just as he steeled himself and was about to move his finger—
“!”
Seo Sinwoo’s face grew wet. It was tears. Seeing that, tears welled up in Yeom Hajae’s eyes too.
“Hurry up and move. Hyung’s in pain.”
“S-sorry…!”
At the harsh tone, Yeom Hajae flinched and apologized. He looked so timid it was hard to believe he was the same person who’d been gripping a sword and glaring just moments ago.
Tears finally spilled over, blurring his vision. Rubbing his face with his left arm to wipe away the tears, Yeom Hajae opened his eyes wide.
He’s in pain. The longer this drags on, the more hyung will suffer.
I have to finish this quickly.
“Khh.”
The hasty movement seemed to block his throat, and Seo Sinwoo made a choking sound.
“Ngh, sorry.”
Startled, Yeom Hajae carefully pulled his hand back.
“I’m sorry….”
If he just throws up, it’ll all be over.
Despite his intentions, the finger that had once frozen up wouldn’t move easily. The finger resting on his tongue twitched awkwardly.
Watching this, Lulu was at a loss for words.
What is he doing?
It was pathetic, watching him tremble all alone over something that would take ten seconds.
This is why hunters are useless.
This wasn’t an opportunity that came every day. If he’d been in that position, he would’ve gladly dived right in—yet here was Yeom Hajae, unable to seize the chance even when handed to it. While thinking this, Yeom Hajae kept hesitating, gasping in short breaths.
“Ugh, seriously. So frustrating.”
Lulu clicked his tongue and leaned his torso back.
Naturally, the finger slipped out a little. The moment Yeom Hajae unconsciously let out a sigh of relief—
“Like this,”
“Gkh!”
“—is how you do it.”
In a single motion, his hand was shoved deep into the throat.
