Myeong Dojun.
A twenty-six-year-old Black Rank hunter standing in the low 180s centimeters, with a cold demeanor — but undeniably handsome, a fact no one could dispute.
His expression transformed completely when he smiled, but since he had no patience for rudeness, opinions on him were divided.
When listing the strongest hunters in Korea, he consistently placed within the top three.
He awakened at twenty-two and had been an exceptional student at Korea University, but withdrew after his awakening and never graduated.
An only child — his father had worked at a large conglomerate and his mother had been a pharmacist; a year ago, both had retired to the countryside.
His reputation within the guild was outstanding, and he received particularly solid support from the Dungeon clearing team. Thanks to the team’s performance in clearing Grade 1 and Grade 2 ultra-high-risk Dungeons without incident, his value continued to grow.
The news of his relationship with Seonmyeong Guild’s vice-representative Hanul had come as a brief shock, but the couple’s relationship was having a positive effect on the guild’s image.
Sightings of the two together always attracted enormous attention, and no small number of brands had signed them as models.
Having gathered all this information on Dojun, Hanul settled in to carefully review some of the ads they had filmed together and several interview clips.
Just then, the door to the representative’s office flew open and Hanul’s younger brother, Hanyeong, appeared.
“So it’s happened again, huh?”
“Knock.”
At Hanul’s rebuke, Hanyeong reflexively stepped out and closed the door — then shoved it open again, grumbling.
“This is my office, you know?”
Without sparing him a glance, Hanul pointed to the seat across from him. Hanyeong stomped over loudly and dropped himself onto the sofa.
“Right. Memory or no memory, you’re the same Seon Hanul to me.”
When Hanul said nothing back and simply kept staring at the tablet, Hanyeong raised his voice.
“It really is genuine — the feelings are real, and if you don’t want to regret it again once your memory comes back, dial it back.”
Hanul looked up at words that had come before he’d even asked anything — and Hanyeong startled for no particular reason, then turned irritable.
“W-what! If I don’t say something, you’re going to yell at me later for not stopping you!”
Even as he said it, Hanyeong was slowly inching backward, the end of his voice wavering faintly.
He really has only aged in looks.
With a height well over 190 centimeters, a frame like a mountain, and the title of representative to his name — and yet Hanyeong hadn’t changed much at all.
Though from what Hanul could tell, he seemed to carry himself with considerably more boldness in public.
“They say this is the fifth time — everyone really has gotten used to it. Give me what you’ve got for me.”
Honestly, even now, Hanul didn’t want to believe he had lost his memory five times.
But the evidence had already piled up far too much, and nothing about the reactions of the people around him seemed fabricated.
In that case, rather than wasting time on pointless pride, accepting the situation and adapting as quickly as possible was the right call.
“People really do stay the same. This is what hyung left prepared.”
Hanyeong handed it over with a look of exhaustion — materials useful for the guild’s operations.
It wasn’t only the people around him who had grown accustomed to his memory loss.
There were these materials, and then there were also things Hanul himself had prepared, scattered all over his phone and throughout the apartment — which was why he’d been able to accept the current situation so quickly.
Some of the information looked unnecessary at first glance — things like a housemate’s coffee preferences and meal times — but the majority of it was genuinely useful.
“Was it okay with Dojun hyung? You didn’t pick a fight again, did you?”
Hanul was not an idiot.
“Hyung and I must have committed some enormous sin in a past life. That’s the only explanation for being tangled up with you and suffering like this.”
Even without Hanyeong’s reaction, just looking at the records he’d left for himself and the state of the apartment made it impossible not to see how much Dojun meant to his twenty-five-year-old self.
“Even now I’m scared Dojun hyung’s going to lose patience and run, and I’ll be stuck managing hyung all on my own.”
Looking at the warnings he’d consistently left for himself and the items he’d set aside all over the apartment specifically for Dojun, the full picture of how deep in love his twenty-five-year-old self had been came through clearly.
And that feeling had left its mark on his body too.
I tried to hold onto a hand that was pulling away.
Hanul didn’t deny the fact that he had feelings for Dojun.
“Please don’t go doing things that’ll snap you out of it. Dojun hyung originally couldn’t stand someone like you, you know.”
Acknowledging that was one thing — using him was a separate matter entirely.
As a partner, Dojun had far too much value to simply leave alone.
It wasn’t as though they were going to break up anyway — if they were partners, surely it was fine for Dojun to help him out?
“That damned Dungeon aftereffect has wrecked hyung’s life. Getting together with you, suffering like this now — it’s all because of the Dungeon aftereffect.”
As Hanyeong said, the two of them had developed into a couple because of a Dungeon aftereffect.
At one point, the two had been bound by a restriction that prevented them from moving more than ten meters apart — and through that time of being attached at the hip, they’d developed feelings for each other.
And that had been a very favorable outcome.
“By the way, if you two fight, I’m on Dojun hyung’s side.”
“Myeong Dojun is an indispensable asset to Seonmyeong Guild.”
Hanul was the one who frequently lost his memory and still held the position of vice-representative — and yet the reason Seonmyeong had reached its current standing owed a great deal to Dojun’s influence.
Seonmyeong Guild.
Only three years since its founding, already called the best guild in Korea — a place that had amassed extraordinary wealth and prestige.
Even with his memory gone, suddenly finding himself with a partner, and so much of his environment changed — the reason Hanul didn’t particularly mind the process of adapting to his current situation was entirely thanks to Seonmyeong Guild.
“The image of being a couple is also a benefit to the guild, so I have no intention of breaking up.”
Considering the clear and unmistakable feelings his past self had left behind, and the influence Dojun carried — breaking up with him would be a foolish move.
The one thing that had been a concern was physical contact, but that was a line Dojun had drawn first — so going forward, Hanul would use this relationship to get as much out of it as possible…
“Hmph. Look at you acting all high and mighty.”
Hanul looked at Hanyeong, who had let out an exaggerated snort.
He’d been noticing it for a while now — hadn’t he gotten considerably more insolent?
Surely just because he’d been given the representative seat, he didn’t actually think he outranked Hanul.
“But hyung, you fall for Dojun hyung all over again every single time, even when you’re being all calculating like that.”
Hanyeong lifted his chin with a smirk, practically radiating smugness.
Was that shameless tone and look coming out because he had Dojun in his corner?
“Every time hyung falls for Dojun hyung again — that’s when the memory comes back.”
He’s really gone soft from being in a relationship. Or perhaps Hanyeong had figured out who needed to be handled.
Looking at their messages, they seemed quite close.
Hanyeong puffed out his chest triumphantly.
“The shortest it’s ever taken was two months, you know. Hyung is going to end up running back to Dojun hyung again!”
Anyone watching would think he was Myeong Dojun himself.
Still — thanks to him, Hanul had just obtained an important piece of information he hadn’t known before.
“Once the memory comes back, hyung’s going to get down on his knees and beg Dojun hyung’s forgiveness.”
His own notes on his phone had said that the timing of memory loss was unpredictable.
More precisely — the original state was supposed to be one of continuous memory loss, but thanks to the Awakened body’s resilience, the curse was occasionally suppressed and memory returned to normal.
The notes hadn’t explained exactly how the memory came back, so Hanul had assumed the timing of its return was just as unpredictable as when it disappeared — but falling for Dojun again is what triggers the return?
“That works out nicely.”
“Huh?”
“You said falling for him brings the memory back. I must have been deeply gone for him — once the memory returns, I’ll be clinging to him anyway, so it won’t matter.”
Hanul took stock of his situation.
He was suffering from a Dungeon aftereffect that caused repeated memory loss — and unlike the aftereffect that had led to him and Dojun becoming a couple, this one was a permanent condition with no set expiration.
The guild was throwing everything it had into finding an item that could eliminate this curse, but the realistic probability of actually finding one was extremely low.
Dojun was an irreplaceable figure for Seonmyeong Guild, and at the same time, he was someone who helped suppress the curse.
Which meant…
Myeong Dojun needs to keep loving me.
And ideally, that feeling should only deepen.
Right now he was staying by his side — but if memories kept disappearing like this, even the person beside you would eventually wear down.
And when that happened, feelings would cool.
That cannot happen.
There were nine Black Rank hunters in Korea in total, and Seonmyeong Guild held two of them — Hanul and Dojun.
The only guilds in Korea that possessed two Black Rank hunters were Seonmyeong Guild and Songhwa Guild.
In that situation, if things went sour between him and Dojun, Seonmyeong’s standing would inevitably be shaken.
I’m Black Rank too — but I carry the crippling Dungeon aftereffect of memory loss.
So for Seonmyeong to maintain its position going forward, holding on to Dojun was absolutely non-negotiable.
All the Black Rank hunters currently active have already settled into their places. A new Black Rank hunter won’t just turn up easily.
Finding and recruiting a new Black Rank hunter capable of replacing Dojun would require waiting years.
“How anticlimactic. I’m going to watch Dojun hyung’s interview.”
At that, Hanyeong — having lost interest from not getting the reaction he’d been hoping for — switched on the TV.
[Hunter Myeong Dojun! This Dungeon…]
Hanul stared intently at Dojun, who was surrounded by reporters.
The man with black hair and black eyes was calmly answering the reporters’ questions without a trace of nerves.
The features revealed beneath that black hair were clean and striking.
His large, sharp eyes with no double eyelids were particularly striking.
[I’ve heard that Hunter Seon Hanul has recently been suffering from an aftereffect again — would you like to say a word to Hunter Seon Hanul?]
[I’ll only be taking questions related to the Dungeon.]
The already formidable face hardened even further as his eyes went cold and sharp, and his expression turned imposing.
But only for a moment — when Dojun turned toward a different reporter and smiled faintly, his entire image shifted.
‘But if I so much as hold your hand while you’ve lost your memory, you throw a fit once you get it back.’
He was like that just now too.
Undeniably good-looking.
There must be a lot of people who’d want to take him.
In terms of ability and appearance alike.
If a partner with every quality others would covet and pursue happened to also be an asset to his guild and to his aftereffect — then what Hanul needed to do going forward was already decided.
I should make him like me even more. It would be such a waste to let someone else take him.
He was already his boyfriend — which actually made things even simpler.
If you’ve seduced someone once, surely you can do it again.
Pretending to develop feelings for him wouldn’t be all that difficult either.
