By Zephyria 
The Law of Moderation
“Hoo….”
With a whirring sound, the automatic door opened. A young man wearing a black baseball cap walked out onto the street. He held a yellow document envelope in his hand. The young man passed the tax office sign and took out his cell phone. He pressed the number 0, and a name appeared on the call screen.
[Idiot]
Before the connection tone could ring a few times, the other party answered the phone with a click. A blunt voice snapped.
—Why are you calling so late? I almost broke my neck waiting.
“You’re picking a fight as soon as you answer. Hey, do you know how many people there are? And the procedure is so damn complicated…. Honestly, I didn’t understand half of it.”
The young man, Cha Eui-jae, also replied bluntly. Sa-young clicked his tongue over the phone.
—That’s why I told you to take Min-gi Seo with you. Don’t suffer alone.
“I said it’s okay. Min-gi Seo is busy these days. I saw him crying about not even having time to go to the cafe these days.”
—Still, he’d come if Hyung called. Anyway, is it over?
“Yeah. It’s really over. I think?”
Eui-jae held the yellow envelope in his hand tightly. A proud smile appeared on his face. A soft voice spoke from over the phone.
—Congratulations, Hyung.
In a world where the System disappeared and Rifts and Monsters vanished, the former hero and current Hangover Soup Restaurant part-timer, Cha Eui-jae….
—I guess I should call you boss now. Boss Cha.
“Ah, don’t call me that. It’s awkward.”
Eui-jae tried to lower his twitching lips and began to walk with light, bouncy steps.
Now, a year and several months after the System disappeared.
The past year had been a series of chaos. The sudden disappearance of the Whitehole and the System, the Dungeons and System that they had believed would be with them forever, temporarily paralyzed society.
Mana Stones! Eco-friendly and convenient!
That was all in the past. Society, which had replaced most of its energy sources with Mana Stones and Dungeon byproducts, was turned upside down. Shortages of electricity and energy were reported everywhere, and electric Awakened became two-legged generators, being called to all sorts of places.
Many companies went bankrupt. Factories that focused on byproduct processing, companies that made and sold products from byproducts, etc., anyway, places that dealt with Dungeon and Monster-related items were left out on the street overnight, and the Rift Management Bureau was merged with the Awakened Management Bureau.
Of course, Cha Eui-jae and Lee Sa-young, the protagonists who eliminated the Doomsday, were also busy. Finding a house with a view of the sea. Eui-jae’s wish was indefinitely postponed.
Time to find a house? No. Too busy beating up Awakened.
Whether Awakened or civilians, losing their jobs was the same, but the Awakened had power. They began to commit various crimes using their abilities, as it was already hard to make a living. Public sentiment and the image of the Awakened plummeted like a cliff.
Jung-bin, who was trying to fix things as much as he could, eventually came to Eui-jae, handed him a box of vitamin drinks, and asked for a favor.
‘Please… could you help me just a little bit.’
With dark circles hanging down to his chin like Min-gi Seo.
Eui-jae readily agreed. That’s how J traveled around the country, beating up Awakened who committed crimes. Fortunately, his work was quickly finished. It was thanks to being asked to handle only the really difficult cases.
Soon, Cha Eui-jae quit his Hunter life and returned to being a Hangover Soup Restaurant part-timer. However, recently, Grandmother wanted to close the store due to knee and physical problems.
No, my sanctuary. Eui-jae said forcefully.
“Grandmother, I’ll take it over.”
That’s how former hero Cha Eui-jae jumped into the path of a business owner. Of course, it was a difficult challenge for him, who knew nothing about administrative procedures and solved everything with his body.
Then was Lee Sa-young idle? No. He was struggling in his own way.
Rifts and Dungeons disappeared. So what would the Hunters do?
There was nothing to do.
That’s how the Guild Hunters became unemployed together.
The Awakened Management Bureau was guaranteed a position as civil servants, but private sector Hunters were finished the moment the Monsters disappeared. Now it was a gathering of strong unemployed people, not a Guild.
Bae Won-woo emptied his Hangover Soup earthenware pot and muttered with a troubled face.
“Sa-young, what are we going to do to make a living now?”
No matter how rich Lee Sa-young was, he couldn’t keep giving money to the unemployed in a situation where there was no source of income. It was time to go their separate ways. Sa-young had a duty to part with his Guild members beautifully. After all, the Guild was a company, and Sa-young was the representative of the company.
“Shit….”
That’s how he was crushed by numerous administrative procedures in order to part with the strong unemployed people beautifully. At least he had to give them severance pay and let them go. Days went by where he couldn’t leave the Guild building and ate and slept in the Guild Leader’s office.
Was that all? He also had to take responsibility for the research team in Incheon. They were wandering around, having lost their research subjects overnight. To open a Rift, there had to be a Rift, but the Rift had disappeared. The research team members asked once a day by email.
Guild Leader, are we all going to be unemployed?
Are we going back to the small, cold lab?
Should we pack our bags?
They were all depressing emails. The maknae of the research team even sent an email to Sa-young that he was supposed to send to the professor.
Professor, my thesis topic has disappeared….
Did this crazy brat send it to me on purpose? Sa-young suspected. And he replied in bulk with copy and paste. To summarize the long answer in one sentence:
[Ah, shit, I’m busy, so wait a bit]
Fortunately, the research team began to study the timing of the disappearance of the Awakened’s abilities in connection with the Awakened Management Bureau, and they avoided becoming unemployed.
Anyway, Sa-young worked like a dog for about a year and managed to part with the Guild members beautifully. The Guild members, who were given generous severance pay and sent out, left to find their own places. Bae Won-woo got a job as an instructor at the Taekwondo gym run by his Hyung, Min-gi Seo was scouted by the Awakened Management Bureau, Kang Ji-soo returned to university, and Choi Goyo was preparing for the college entrance exam. The other Guild members also dispersed well.
In the midst of all this, time to share love? There was no way. They lived such busy lives that they didn’t even have time to see each other’s faces, and now they were finally back on track. It was fortunate if they could see each other’s faces for a while and check on each other.
Fortunately, Eui-jae had good cost-effectiveness. Occasionally meeting Lee Sa-young, hugging him, kissing him, and spending time together was enough to get by.
But Sa-young’s situation was different. According to Bae’s testimony, the longer he was away from Eui-jae, the worse he became and the more of a character destroyer he became. In fact, when they met after being apart for a long time, his kisses and groping hands were particularly persistent.
Finally, today, on the monumental day that Cha Eui-jae became the boss of the Hangover Soup Restaurant. Sa-young exploded.
“I want to quit everything and have sex with Hyung.”
He blurted out the words while walking home side by side after closing the Hangover Soup Restaurant. When Eui-jae first heard it, he suspected that his ears were wrong. So he asked again.
“What?”
Sa-young repeated in an even clearer voice.
“I said, I want to quit everything and have sex with Hyung.”
Damn it, he heard it right. Eui-jae gagged Sa-young before he could explode any further and headed home as if flying. And they sat facing each other in the living room and had a serious conversation.
To summarize Sa-young’s argument:
[Aren’t we promised to be together for life, and even the life after that? But we’re both too busy. It’s been a year since we dealt with the Doomsday, but it doesn’t make sense that we haven’t progressed beyond kissing. I want to (censored) (censored) (censored) (censored) (censored) with Hyung, but, damn it, I’m too busy to go get rings, and I don’t have time to go see land to build a house. It’s like (censored). (A long string of profanity follows.)]
It sounded like a reasonable opinion. Well, he also wanted to spend a little more time with Sa-young. It would be nice to make more progress too…. Eui-jae nodded with a serious face.
“Well, yeah…. Then should we do it moderately today? You don’t have work for a while.”
Eui-jae didn’t realize it, but he was also horny. At those words, Sa-young’s face, which had been crumpled like an angry twisted breadstick, bloomed like a bright flower. Eui-jae patted Sa-young’s back as he hugged him and rubbed his head against him, feeling proud.
Of course, the pride didn’t last long. After showering first, he fell into deep thought.
‘Hmm, this is a bit difficult.’
He bravely blurted it out, but Eui-jae had no experience. He went back through his memories of the past world one by one, but not once! He had no experience with women, let alone men. Even kissing was something he did for the first time with Lee Sa-young in this world.
He had basic knowledge, but the relationship between men was a little different, wasn’t it?
‘I’m the Hyung, so shouldn’t I teach him a little? It’s a little weird to just lie down and receive. But it’s also a little weird to pretend to be good.’
The older one has to do something. I have to lead Sa-young. As a result of the collision between the mindset of an old-fashioned person and an inexperienced body, Cha Eui-jae entered a state of a wooden doll whose body and head were separate.
‘I’m screwed….’