Raon looked at the dust and what seemed like stone fragments falling around him and urgently raised both hands over his head. And shortly after, he realized that unlike the surroundings being shaken dizzyingly or the team members moving busily, he himself was extremely stable.
The space was shaking to a dizzying degree, but his body wasn’t shaking, and nothing fell on his head or threateningly brushed past his body.
In front of his stable self, Jaehwi was frowning and sweeping back his abundant black hair. Above the team members’ heads, Nayeon created a wind barrier, and Seowoo, who seemed not to have fully recovered his condition yet, was busy controlling the debris flying around terrifyingly with one arm wrapped around his torso.
Minji, standing in front, was checking the dungeon tablet and urgently taking something out of the bag she’d brought, and Taehyun, standing in the middle of them, didn’t look pleased.
The urgently turning confusion felt like virtual reality to him. As if he were in a different space.
When Jaehwi, who had been standing beside him, raised his hand slightly upward, Bbobbo landed on his hand like a flying squirrel flying to find its owner.
“I was wondering when you’d cause trouble, so it’s today?”
At Jaehwi’s action of giving a knuckle rap to Bbobbo’s small head, it seemed a “ppyeok-” sound was heard. As if that sound heard very briefly among countless noises wasn’t a mistake, Bbobbo’s wings trembled and its head disappeared between its short front paws.
“Hwiya. We need to help…”
Gently stroking the small head of Bbobbo that suddenly entered his arms, when he touched a place that protruded smaller than other areas and had heat, he heard a small crying sound “ppiyuuu” from his arms.
“Who’s helping who. If you come out from in there, I really won’t see hyung ever again, so know that. Hold that one well. It’s unlikely, but if an emergency situation arises by any chance, throw Bbobbo outside.”
Jaehwi, who had been standing right next to him, walked a few steps forward and without a word smoothly took the tablet Minji had been looking at and started viewing it. After swiping through the screen a few times, he handed the tablet back to her, and Raon’s eyes widened watching Jaehwi walk away with large strides.
Weren’t we all leaving together? When Team B comes, we can just go back in.
What’s more, as soon as Jaehwi stepped forward, the team members who had been in formation naturally kept their distance and made a path for him to pass through. Going in there alone? The feeling Jaehwi gave off was like that, and the team members were also acting as if that was the natural thing to do.
“Where are you going?”
“Bbobbo caused trouble, so I have to clean it up. It would have been comfortable to go in while organizing things one by one, but since they’ve all been brought out already, if we leave it like this, it’s only a matter of time before the dungeon goes into rampage.”
At Jaehwi’s words as he moved farther away without looking back, Raon’s feet moved on their own. Even when they met again, he had been alone, engulfed in flames in a rampaging dungeon. Every time, there was no one by his side in the rampaging dungeons.
Even in the illusion dungeon, they said the first thing Jaehwi did when he arrived late was to send all the ability users inside out. What must his feelings have been when he broke through the dungeon alone, came out alone, and walked on his own feet into the rampage room deep in the center?
It hadn’t been long since he vowed never to leave him alone, yet his head throbbed at the sight of Jaehwi trying to handle everything alone so naturally.
Holding Bbobbo, after walking just a few steps, Raon bumped into the barrier Jaehwi had created.
“Hwiya!”
“……”
“Jaehwiya.”
“……”
“Min Jaehwi!”
Trapped in the barrier, no matter how loudly he called out, Jaehwi only grew more distant.
It was a little wrong—a very little wrong—not to listen to his words and enter the dungeon, but he couldn’t just stay like this. Because he had put him in more danger by acting rashly. No matter how much he pounded on the barrier and stomped his feet, the barrier didn’t budge.
“Team Leader Lee.”
If he wouldn’t help, he had no choice but to ask someone else for help.
Raon called out to Minji, who was in the closest place to him, but she only shook her head with an awkward smile. She too seemed unable to do anything about this barrier Jaehwi had created.
Through vision blurred by continuously falling debris and dust, he saw the flames Hyungjun was creating and light flashing intermittently like thunder. The frequency gradually increased, and he felt the distance between the light and himself growing.
“Kim Seowoo. Take Team Leader Kang out of the dungeon. Since Nox is here, don’t worry about inside the dungeon. When Team B arrives, contact us by radio. I’ll tell you whether to deploy them depending on the situation. Hyungjun, can you follow Nox?”
At Minji’s words trying to bundle up and send out the injured Seowoo and himself instead, Raon struck the barrier again with his fist. More than the tingling transmitted through his hand, the debris continuously falling on the barrier and the team members’ bodies shaking concerned him more.
“Yes. I’m still okay.”
“What about Nayeon unnie?”
“I’m okay too. Taehyun is supporting me well with guiding.”
Here, Raon was literally an unwelcome guest. Bbobbo, knowing it had tried to help but instead caused an accident, stayed quiet with its face buried in his arms. In the end, Jaehwi was taking responsibility for all of this.
Raon clenched his molars tightly and only looked toward the inside of the dungeon where Jaehwi had disappeared. It all happened because his abilities were insufficient. Just how much more effort did he need to make to be able to stand by his side? He wondered if he even could stand there.
That all he could do was embrace Jaehwi when he came out exhausted after receiving reports only through the radio about what was happening inside and how? Was his desire to protect him by his side literally excessive greed?
At the sight of team members heading inside as if they would proceed as is and Seowoo approaching him, Raon grabbed the nape of Bbobbo in his arms and lifted it up. Its small, light body was easily lifted without any thought of resistance.
When he lifted it up to eye level and faced Bbobbo’s almond-shaped eyes with their outer corners drooping downward, Raon clicked his tongue softly. Where did the bold and always confident Bbobbo go, and why is there only this dispirited, powerless cat here?
“Bbobbo. It’s you and me who caused trouble. So whether we turn to mush or rice, we have to clean it up too. Of course, we can’t clean it up with our abilities. But we should be at least a fingernail’s worth of help to the people cleaning up. Does the situation change just because you’re here with your head buried and dispirited like this? Since you brought the monsters, you’re responsible too.”
The small head moved up and down.
“Then. Let’s clean up. You can break this, right? Break the barrier first. And fly around me and somehow make sure I don’t get hit by debris.”
With those final words, Raon threw Bbobbo outside the barrier. Along with that, Raon’s body swayed greatly. He knew when Seowoo, who was metal-type, used his ability to block the surrounding debris. Even if it was incompatible with this dungeon’s monsters, he was actually skilled at handling metal-type debris.
So it was certain that Bbobbo also had such abilities, and his hunch wasn’t wrong. Although it was difficult to maintain his body due to the vibrations continuously occurring large and small inside the dungeon, Bbobbo was definitely blocking the debris flying around threateningly.
“Team Leader Kang. But it’s still too dangerous.”
Raon silently stared at Team Leader Lee blocking his way.
“It’s dangerous, so I’m trying to go in. People always push him to the most dangerous places, so in the end, whether he wants to or not, he has no choice but to head there. Just because that kid is nice, he’s been faithfully breaking through dungeons as told until now, but I don’t know why they ignore the fact that if he has a change of heart, we all die. And I’m not in danger. Because Jaehwi absolutely can’t stand to see me hurt, even if he said that and went in, he’ll make a path for me to come to his side. There won’t be any damage to the other team members.”
Raon lightly placed his hand on Minji’s shoulder, patted it twice, and passed in front of her. Between being at a loss and flustered. It seemed the team members’ expressions today were fixed on that. Because they’d had this expression since he appeared in the conference room.
“The bonus for this dungeon is double.”
Though the formation was disrupted for a moment, Raon didn’t miss seeing the team members’ shoulders flinch as they dealt with the remaining monsters after Jaehwi passed through, bursting only the big ones visible to the eye with something like lightning.
Because effort must definitely be followed by reward. And there was no one stopping him anymore.
“Ppiing.”
At the sound of Bbobbo, who had been protecting him, staggering after being hit by a small rock, Raon clicked his tongue softly.
“Don’t do stupid things like getting hit trying to protect me, you can do it moderately. If you miss, Hwiya will do it.”
“Ppyoong! Ppyoppuaoong.”
“What are you saying?”
Spreading both arms slightly to balance, Raon focused on moving forward without falling and answered Bbobbo’s words curtly.
Bbobbo kept chattering, but for Raon, moving forward came before that sound. Bbobbo’s desperate cry that if even a speck of dust got on him, he might be dragged away and die later was buried in the noise of the dungeon.
