By Zephyria Cha Eui-jae finally opened the locked door after an hour and thirty minutes. Sa-young waited patiently during that time. Actually, it wasn’t really patience. Compared to the time he had waited so far, it was just a fleeting moment.
Sa-young looked up at the sound of footsteps approaching the door. Eui-jae, who only peeked his head out from behind the door, narrowed his eyes.
“…What are you doing there?”
“I was waiting for Hyung… until you came out.”
Sa-young, with his cheek resting on his arm draped over the back of the chair, smiled, crinkling his eyes.
“Are you feeling a little better?”
Eui-jae still hid behind the door, glaring at Lee Sa-young.
“This is Mackerel’s doing.”
“Well, I guess so.”
“Looking at the photos, it was at the level of threatening to take good pictures. Didn’t you order him to do it?”
“Oh, does it look good to Hyung too? That’s a relief…”
“Damn it…. These guys are hopeless.”
Eui-jae, who spat out a rough curse, strode over. His expression was ominous, as if he was about to go to the fish market and beat up Mackerel right away. Sa-young deliberately tilted his head slightly to show the handprint. Then Eui-jae’s fierce momentum subsided a little.
“But thanks to the article, all the other issues have been covered up.”
Since it’s already there, I wish the bruise would last a little longer. Should I ask him to do it again when it’s about to disappear?
The corners of his lips went up at the sudden thought. Sa-young reached out to Eui-jae, who was approaching him, and grabbed the hem of his clothes.
“I think we calmed the anxiety with our reputation.”
“……”
“Will that make you feel a little better?”
But Eui-jae just kept his mouth shut without answering. He didn’t like the strange shadow on his face.
Sa-young examined his face, trying to read his inner thoughts from his subtle expression. I should stop talking about this. He changed the subject in a nonchalant voice.
“Aren’t you hungry? You’ve been sleeping the whole time.”
“Ah, a little.”
“Let’s go downstairs and eat. I’ll tell them to bring food to the Guild Leader’s office.”
“Is that necessary? Can’t we eat here?”
“Ah… do you want to eat here? Just the two of us?”
Sa-young deliberately smiled mischievously and slipped his fingers inside the hem of his clothes. Eui-jae grabbed Sa-young’s wrist and pulled it away.
“Hey, my face might get exposed. I have to take off my mask to eat.”
“No one can enter the Guild Leader’s office. And I have some work to catch up on too.”
“……”
“If you’re really worried… should I tell Min-gi Seo to stand guard at the door?”
“No, there’s no need to go that far…”
Eui-jae’s face changed awkwardly. Whether he knew it or not, seeing that expression made him want to be even more mischievous. Sa-young got up from his chair and gestured towards the entrance with his chin. Eui-jae fiddled with his loose shirt with the buttons undone and replied.
“I’ll change my clothes first. Where are my clothes?”
“In the dressing room. I put the mask there too.”
Eui-jae headed to the dressing room familiarly. That sight was better than he thought. Going to the room as naturally as if it were his own home. The sound of rustling as he took off and put on his clothes could be heard. Sa-young crossed his arms and listened to the sound. After a short breath, Eui-jae, completely transformed into J, appeared.
He only wore a mask, but the atmosphere was completely different from the loose and relaxed Cha Eui-jae. The mask, which didn’t reveal his expression or even his features, gave a strange sense of pressure.
A moment later, the two of them got into the elevator side by side. It was only a few months ago that they rode the elevator together, but it felt like a distant past. Back then, he would take a seat in the corner and be wary of everything around him, but now he was standing side by side.
Sa-young stared at his bright gray hair and asked.
“By the way, does Grandmother and Ha-eun know that Hyung is J?”
“Huh? No.”
Eui-jae replied briefly.
“I told them that I closed the Hanover Soup Restaurant… and that I’ll be working at the Wave Guild from now on. They only know that I’m a Hunter.”
“But the text message from earlier… they seemed to know.”
“…I don’t think so?”
He tilted his head as if it was strange.
Cha Eui-jae had not revealed to them that he was J. Not on the day he first visited and got a bowl of milky Gomguk, nor when he visited again and said he wanted to work at the restaurant.
The elevator door opened. As Lee Sa-young said, the hallway on the floor where the Guild Leader’s office was located was deserted.
Eui-jae stopped walking, dredging up vague memories against the background noise of footsteps.
“Ah.”
A suddenly recalled past grabbed his feet. Sa-young, who was walking side by side, turned around with a puzzled look.
“What’s wrong?”
“I think they might know. No, I think they do.”
Eui-jae rubbed his mask for no reason. Cold sweat broke out on his face under the mask. A flustered look was evident in his distorted voice.
“Come to think of it… I think I went there wearing the same clothes…”
“Wearing what?”
“The clothes I wore when I was working as J!”
Eui-jae instinctively followed the smell as soon as he opened his eyes and knocked on the door of the Hanover Soup Restaurant. At that time, a documentary commemorating the 8th anniversary of the West Sea Rift was playing on TV at the Hanover Soup Restaurant. There was even a photo of J wearing a mask. Grandmother was trimming garlic while watching it, and Cha Eui-jae was wearing J’s combat uniform as it was. It was tattered, though.
‘No. They might not have noticed…’
Eui-jae turned to look at Lee Sa-young.
“Hey, Sa-young. Have you seen the J documentary? The one where Song Jo-heon Hunter is being interviewed.”
“…Huh?”
“Did you see it or not? Tell me quickly.”
“Ha.”
Sa-young, who was staring at Eui-jae, snorted. The short snort soon developed into a sneer. Sa-young narrowed his eyes.
“There’s no way I wouldn’t have seen it… Wave Guild made it.”
“…What?”
“Wave Guild did everything from planning to investment support… How did you even see it?”
“What?”
“I guess I should put the Guild logo on it next time.”
Sa-young muttered as if he was dumbfounded. Was that so? He must have erased all the trivial things from his memory because of the shock of it being 8 years ago. Eui-jae hurriedly grabbed Sa-young’s shoulder.
“No, that’s not the point, I didn’t see all of it. I only saw a little bit of the interview and the part before that. Does it show me when I was active?”
“Huh? Of course, it does. It shows you fighting and the interview video before you went in… It shows everything.”
“……”
“Why?”
It was getting more and more ominous.
Eui-jae hurriedly dredged up his memories. What did Grandmother do back then?
He had finished his meal and was hesitating because he didn’t have any money, and Grandmother didn’t scold him for it, but instead handed him a navy blue jacket and a black hat.
‘If you wander around like that in broad daylight, you’ll get caught. Wear it.’
Then he bowed and took off his tattered jacket, and put on the jacket Grandmother gave him. He also pulled down his hat. Why did she give him the jacket and hat? Because of the wounds? No.
‘Getting caught, could it be…’
His face turned pale.
Looking back now, Cha Eui-jae was not in his right mind immediately after coming out of the West Sea Rift. He didn’t even realize that his clothes were easily identifiable, or that he had to cover his face. He was barely aware of his most primal desire, hunger.
If it hadn’t been for Grandmother’s kindness, he might have been caught a long time ago. His bare face, the fact that he had returned. The decision to run away.
Eui-jae covered his mouth. His voice trembled involuntarily.
“I think they know… Grandmother was watching that documentary. She even gave me a hat…”
“Well, I guess so.”
“What?”
“I don’t think Hyung knows how much your video was on TV…”
Sa-young stared at Eui-jae with a blank face before turning his head. A strangely cold voice followed.
“Back then, Hyung was on TV all day long. From people debating whether to let J in or not… When they finally decided to let him in, they showed a summary of Hyung’s achievements up to that point, the back view of him entering the West Sea Rift, and even the last interview… They squeezed him dry.”
It was a tone of conveying what someone had told him. Well, Lee Sa-young was in a situation where he couldn’t see anything properly back then. It was when he was even uncomfortable moving around. Besides, it was a slightly unfamiliar story to him too. Eui-jae suddenly asked.
“Who did you hear that from?”
“……”
Sa-young, who was quietly looking at Eui-jae, shrugged his shoulders.
“From Jung-bin.”
“……”
“We lived together for a while in the past… Anyway.”
Sa-young crossed his arms and tapped his arm with his fingers.
“You were more famous than you think, Hyung. There wouldn’t have been anyone who didn’t know you.”
“……”
“Well… after they built a memorial stone saying you were dead, you were gradually forgotten.”
It was perhaps a natural thing. Hunters who shone brighter as time went by would have appeared.
Like sand covering sand, people cover past memories with new ones. They wouldn’t have remembered a Hunter who was trapped and died in a Rift for a long time. They would have just occasionally remembered that there was such a person. They wouldn’t have thought that he was alive, even more so.
Even he himself was lost and wandering.
“I can’t just leave it like that.”
However.
“Who decided to forget him? That.”
Eui-jae stared blankly at Sa-young. Sa-young, who was staring straight ahead, turned his head.
“Well, still…”
Their eyes met.
“I guess it was worth spending money on the documentary. If they’re playing it even in such a remote store.”
Sa-young smiled, raising the corners of his lips.
“Right?”