“…I asked, and he said he’ll have time this evening. Where’s the location?”
“……”
“Are you listening?”
“Yeah. I’ll contact you separately about the location.”
“But why are you suddenly looking for an illusion ability user?”
“I need one for personal training.”
After throwing out only a simple answer and unilaterally ending the conversation, he walked past Jang Yun-seo. It was toward the spot where he’d been keeping his gaze fixed.
“Seo Hae-il.”
“Yes?”
“Check if the training program preparations are finished.”
“…Yeeees.”
Seo Hae-il, who’d been buried among the team members, drawled out the end of his word as if he didn’t want to do it. But he soon extracted himself and headed toward the corner where the equipment was placed.
…Suddenly giving him work. It was even an unnecessary chore. He’d already said the preparations were almost done earlier.
Jang Yun-seo looked back and forth between the two with suspicious eyes once more.
The strangely suspicious circumstances continued throughout the mock training.
“Here, I’ll receive guiding from Soo-hyun senior.”
“You’re on the complete opposite side position-wise. What nonsense are you talking about?”
“We’re all going to return to the center anyway.”
“That’s why it’s more efficient to handle guiding while moving. We’ve always done it that way. You keep…”
Both were strange—Seo Hae-il, who insisted on receiving guiding from a guide far away instead of someone nearby, and Moon Woo-shin, who insisted he receive it from himself even though there’d be no problem doing it Hae-il’s way and it would reduce his own workload.
Isn’t that almost like a lovers’ quarrel…?
When Espers and Guides dated each other, they always fought unnecessarily over team guiding like that.
Most strangely of all, uncharacteristically for Moon Woo-shin, he cut off his words mid-sentence, dragged Seo Hae-il to a corner, and continued arguing in a low voice.
After one set ended, during break time, while Moon Woo-shin talked with another team member, Seo Hae-il stared at him intently, almost glaring.
“He’s really going to bore a hole through him this time, Hae-il.”
“Yes, I’m trying to bore through him.”
“Huh…?”
Jang Yun-seo, who’d tried to tease him casually, hesitated.
“You don’t… have that kind of ability too, do you…?”
“Unfortunately, I don’t.”
And then from the next day on, they started picking fights with each other over trivial things at every turn.
The two who appeared at the training hall side by side looked very tired, as if they’d been doing something exhausting. Separately from that, they were verbally fighting an incomprehensible fight.
“I said I’ll walk on my own.”
“Shut your mouth.”
“Try doing that as you please too. Oh, right. You can’t do that. Because I’ve figured out what’s possible now too, you know?”
“Seo Hae-il. Can’t you see where we are? I said shut your mouth.”
“Who started this first?”
During training, you could feel them persistently staring at each other.
Especially Seo Hae-il—before, he seemed like someone desperate to get close somehow, but lately it felt like he was observing with fire in his eyes to pick fights with Moon Woo-shin.
He was still nice and pleasant to other team members, but he was particularly prickly only to Moon Woo-shin, which was very suspicious.
During break time, while the two were talking alone in a corner again, the team members standing at a distance murmured quietly.
“No, we knew Moon Woo-shin senior was originally like that, but why did Hae-il suddenly become like that?”
“Such a nice kid, how did he…”
“I think he got influenced from sticking together.”
“Did something happen between them?”
“I don’t know…”
Amid all this, Jang Yun-seo was suspecting alone.
For him, isn’t that being quite lenient toward Seo Hae-il?
Given Moon Woo-shin’s personality, he would’ve cut him off sharply long ago, yet he was accepting it all, which itself was suspicious. If he really disliked it, they could just ignore each other and be done with it.
It felt very ominous.
Until before entering the first Gate, he’d thought it was Seo Hae-il’s one-sided crush and only planned to tease him moderately. But after confirming that even Moon Woo-shin was showing a strange attitude, a sense of crisis crept over him.
Two years ago, Jang Yun-seo had personally experienced the harmful effects of in-team romance.
Thanks to them needlessly being wary of other team members, fighting, then getting back together as if nothing happened and causing trouble, the team atmosphere had been quite a sight. After experiencing firsthand how much one could suffer because of a single couple, becoming very sensitive about this sort of thing was a bonus.
Jang Yun-seo, who’d been trying to gauge whether that was a budding romance, interest, or genuine mutual dislike, made a decision.
Let’s just ask.
If there really was something, he’d tell them to please not make it obvious and handle it themselves, and if not… he felt he needed to at least know the reason why they’d become like that to feel satisfied.
As soon as training ended, seeing Moon Woo-shin and Seo Hae-il about to leave the door side by side again, after some deliberation, he called out only Moon Woo-shin separately. The one with the sharper personality would surely give a more precise answer.
“Woo-shin, let’s talk for a moment.”
“Why?”
But as soon as Moon Woo-shin showed an attitude of accepting the conversation request, Seo Hae-il, standing beside him, started being sarcastic.
“So you don’t accept conversations after training time, and even that was selective by team member. I get it now.”
“I just don’t engage in pointless chatter, Hae-il. Unlike you acting friendly with just anyone.”
Moon Woo-shin was countering that again.
Fighting over trivial things for days isn’t chatter? Isn’t fighting over things like that jealousy?
Watching them snipe at each other over strange things again made the chilling ominousness maximize while simultaneously causing a headache.
Unable to hold back any longer, Jang Yun-seo just asked outright.
“Hey, are you two dating?”
As soon as the words ended, silence fell.
“Senior… aren’t your words too harsh?”
“Yun-seo. What bullshit are you talking about all of a sudden?”
The two speaking simultaneously had similar expressions. Dumbfounded expressions.
Watching that, Jang Yun-seo was also dumbfounded. You guys acted suspiciously, damn it.
“You’re always talking secretly in corners together, you always come to training together and leave together, you keep fighting over weird things, and most decisively! Moon Woo-shin, you’ve been strange since the last Gate.”
“What about me?”
“After Hae-il fainted, you specifically carried him out on your back. Even though your arm wasn’t fine.”
That was the start of the suspicion.
The team members who only managed to join the two after Seo Hae-il fainted had been shocked to see their battered state after just a few minutes.
But Moon Woo-shin, even though blood was flowing from his arm, only held onto Seo Hae-il while sitting and wouldn’t let other team members lay a hand on him.
‘Senior, I’ll carry Hae-il. First, your arm…’
‘It’s fine, so don’t touch him.’
He roughly pushed away the other team member who offered to carry him, and with an arm that had only been roughly bandaged to stop the bleeding, he stubbornly insisted on carrying Seo Hae-il on his back all the way to the end of the Gate.
Only after the conquest was completed and they exited the Gate, seeing them being taken to the hospital side by side, did he first feel something was strange.
“…That senior did that?”
“What, you didn’t know?”
Seo Hae-il looked taken aback, as if he hadn’t heard the story at all.
Meanwhile, Moon Woo-shin just laughed hollowly with a still-dumbfounded face.
“Just how far did you jump to conclusions from simple responsibility?”
“That’s just responsibility?”
He knew Moon Woo-shin had a strong sense of responsibility as team leader, but there were too many odd aspects to explain it that simply. His expression at that time was also very strange.
Even when they did practicals on the same team last year, he’d never seen him care that much about team members. He questioned whether he’d do the same if other team members now had a similar accident to Seo Hae-il.
But before the suspicion could continue, Moon Woo-shin cut it off sharply.
“Yeah. There’s another reason we go around together, so stop with the ridiculous talk.”
As if there was indeed some reason, Seo Hae-il also kept his mouth firmly shut without saying much.
Well, when they were adamantly denying it, it would be ridiculous to say more…
Jang Yun-seo felt a bit uncomfortable, but decided to stop meddling here.
“Fine. I’ve never seen a case where practicals ended well when in-team romance was involved.”
“So why are you telling me that?”
“Even if there really is something, even a little bit, do it after this semester ends at least. I really want to finish the practicals safely, guys.”
When he made a request considering even the slightest possibility, an even sharper voice returned.
“As long as I’m in my right mind, nothing like that will happen with him.”
It was a tone firm enough to be very trustworthy.
Seo Hae-il, who’d been quiet, declared in turn.
