Why on earth did I get jealous?
He’d had a feeling his condition wasn’t quite right today.
Hanul, who had been smiling pleasantly through his conversation with Lim Seonhwa, had stayed glued to Dojun’s side ever since.
At first, Dojun had wondered if it was a stupid misreading brought on by his own jealousy.
Like how, during the first and second bouts of aftereffects, he had given meaning to the other person’s actions and rationalized his way to even without your memories, I’m still someone special to you.
But the moment Dojun tried to step away to scout the area while Hanul was talking with the Songhwa hunters — and a hand immediately seized his elbow — Dojun understood what was going on.
It is one of the things he hates most.
Having spent more than a week inside the Dungeon, the Songhwa hunters were grimy, having gone without the comforts of civilization.
For Hanul, who was already in a foul mood after being worn down by the reporters, it was more stimulation than he could comfortably handle.
So Hanul was asking Dojun — who knew his mysophobia well — to make sure those people didn’t get too close.
So that’s why he went out of his way to confirm whether I was the possessive, jealous type.
Hanul had decided that was the most fitting excuse for Dojun to use to push people away — without having to disclose his mysophobia.
Part of him wanted to knock the hand away and tell him to figure it out himself.
But there was a desperation in the grip holding him in place, refusing to let him go.
In the end, Dojun couldn’t bring himself to refuse, and he dutifully took up his role as Hanul’s shield.
It earned him some curious looks from the Seonmyeong team members — but as long as the Songhwa side didn’t catch on, that was fine.
“It’s embarrassing to admit, but all the monsters in this Dungeon are aquatic, and that put me at a serious disadvantage.”
“You can’t ignore compatibility.”
“Even so, I should have protected my team members better…”
Dojun glanced sideways at Hanul, who was in conversation with Lim Seonhwa with Dojun positioned between them. Sensing the look, Hanul softened his eyes and said,
“Don’t say that. There are things that simply can’t be helped.”
Things I can’t help either, so just stay quiet and be useful?
The posture of someone asking for a favor was impressively unyielding.
But Hanul’s ability was critical to this Dungeon clear, so Dojun scraped together what patience he had left.
Meanwhile, Hanul gently reassured Lim Seonhwa.
“I know you did everything you could.”
Hanul narrowed his eyes slightly as he examined her wounds. In reality, he was recoiling from her disheveled, grimy appearance — but on the surface, at least, that’s not what it looked like.
Even from where Dojun stood, it was clear that Lim Seonhwa was in the worst state of all the Songhwa Guild’s attack team.
She had countless small cuts, but more than that — her clothes were riddled with holes and caked with monster filth that refused to come out, and her hair had been half-chopped off and was an absolute mess.
But the fact that the strongest hunter in Songhwa looked like this meant she had always been the first to face the monsters head-on.
Her team members had their share of injuries, large and small — but the reason there hadn’t been a single death in a Grade 1 Dungeon up to this point was entirely thanks to her efforts.
Just like the Songhwa Guild itself, Hunter Lim Seonhwa had put the safety of her team members above everything else.
Since Dungeons could only be entered — not exited — until the clear was complete, hunters had to use items to send rescue requests outside. When Lim Seonhwa did so, she’d included a sample of the boss monster along with the request.
The moment the Songhwa Guild confirmed the boss monster was an aquatic creature, they knocked on Seonmyeong’s door.
Hunter Lim Seonhwa wields fire.
Even the most powerful fire couldn’t perform at its best against this much water.
Hanul, by contrast, was a Black Rank hunter who controlled water.
Since no Black Rank hunter of the lightning type had emerged yet, the most fitting ability against aquatic monsters at this point in time was Hanul’s.
“So for now, I’d like to focus on finishing the clear. Could you tell us about the boss monster?”
Faced with Hanul’s expression — warm and yet utterly dependable — Lim Seonhwa let go of her self-reproach and began laying out what she’d observed about the boss monster over the past week.
“It’s never surfaced completely, so I can only speculate — but based on the suckers, I think it might be a squid or an octopus.”
Lim Seonhwa stared out at the gently shimmering, crystal-clear sea and clenched her jaw.
“Over thirty tentacles appeared at once, and whether it has regenerative ability or not, cutting them off didn’t do any good.”
Self-regeneration — the odds weren’t great.
Even trying to cauterize the wounds with fire was pointless if it just retreated into the water.
“So we wanted to go after the main body — the core — hidden in the sea, but that wasn’t possible on our own. We can’t move freely underwater.”
Lim Seonhwa looked directly at Hanul.
“But Hunter Seon Hanul is different.”
So she was telling Hanul to dive into the sea and attack the monster’s main body directly?
But Hanul found monsters deeply repulsive — he was not the type to throw himself headfirst into a sea teeming with them.
He’d probably go in if there was no other way — but he’d be miserable for days afterward.
And the one who’d have to take care of him through all of that was Dojun.
Feeling the grip on his arm tighten, Dojun opened his mouth.
“Let’s not have him go into the sea.”
“Hm?”
At Lim Seonhwa’s questioning look, Dojun continued.
“Going into the sea doesn’t guarantee finding the boss monster immediately — and the monsters are just as free in the water as Hanul would be.”
Having conveyed his opinion that diving in wasn’t the best approach, Dojun turned back to Hanul, who had kept his gaze fixed on him.
“So how about using the same method I used when I was scouting this place? You use your ability to locate the boss monster hiding in the sea.”
But the response came not from Hanul, but from Lim Seonhwa.
“Is that possible?”
Having worked alongside Dojun a few times before, Lim Seonhwa had some idea of how he went about scouting a Dungeon.
“The sea is so vast.”
She cast a worried look across the endless expanse of water.
Her concern was understandable.
There was a stretch of sandy shore, yes — but the Dungeon’s largest territory by far was the sea.
Wide and boundless.
But at the end of the day, this was a Dungeon.
No matter how hard an extreme-danger Dungeon tried to imitate the earth, its spatial limits were real.
Even if it looked endless from the surface, the sea here wouldn’t run as deep as the real ocean — and the horizon that seemed to stretch on without limit did have an end.
Dojun held Hanul’s gaze and smiled.
“If I could do it, there’s no reason you can’t.”
This was a deliberate provocation. He’d admit that.
Dojun was irritated.
Stepping in to ward people off on Hanul’s behalf, helping manage his mysophobia — these were things that happened regularly. They were nothing. Becoming the jealous, possessive type wasn’t unusual for him either. Truly, none of this was anything.
But today, for some reason, he was insufferably petty.
Why?
Because today, Dojun had actually been jealous — and Hanul hadn’t even noticed.
Knowing full well how much Hanul hated filth, Dojun had still felt a flicker of jealousy watching him smile so pleasantly at Lim Seonhwa, thinking they seem close.
He couldn’t have been more pathetic and foolish.
So Dojun had chosen provocation over a perfectly ordinary suggestion.
In other words — this was his way of venting.
It’s just that Seon Hanul overshadows me, but my own personality isn’t exactly sterling either.
Dojun’s lips curved into a crooked smile.
“Right? I don’t see you failing.”
Hanul, who had been staring at him without so much as blinking, let a bright smile bloom across his face.
“And after you find it? Finding it isn’t the end.”
Because they had decided not to reveal Hanul’s aftereffects to the Songhwa side, Hanul had no choice but to drop the formal speech with Dojun.
Was it because of that?
His irritation — barely contained — seemed to bleed straight through into his tone.
It probably was. That would explain why Lim Seonhwa beside them looked so unsure of what to do with herself.
But Dojun didn’t change his manner.
“You’re right. Just finding it is only half a plan.”
If anything, Dojun lifted his chin with deliberate confidence and tilted his head toward the impossibly peaceful sea.
“So after that — we combine our strength.”
Dojun brought his hands together as if to clap, then spread them wide apart.
Hanul’s eyes shifted as he watched.
He’d understood immediately what Dojun was asking for.
And yet, knowing the answer, Hanul asked anyway.
“Combine our strength and — ?”
Dojun looked into those eyes, faintly lit with something that wasn’t quite excitement, and smiled with absolute certainty.
“We part the sea.”
