By Zephyria 
“What is love?”
It wasn’t even a conversation; it was a monologue directed at a crow perched on a cushion. Pi Min-hyeong’s hand, which had been about to wave, slowly dropped. Come to think of it, Yang Eun-ho had mentioned with a look of disgust whether he knew what Tae-un had been saying during the giant vine hunt…
Pi Min-hyeong hurriedly erased those words from his mind and turned around. Even if he had to take a detour to get to the sleep chamber, he decided he must not go that way. Kim Si-baek had done nothing wrong, but his instincts screamed violently that he should not meet him right now.
‘Tae-un, you crazy bastard. You lived like a eunuch without dating anyone, and now that you’re over thirty, what the hell are you doing? Fuck.’
He didn’t even want to know what had happened afterward to make Kim Si-baek mutter like that.
Fortunately, the talk about the Id Portal was still coming through his earphones, so he managed to force his attention back to that.
The South Korean government and the hunter community maintained an exquisite balance. Regarding the Id Portals, the government had secured the cooperation of the hunters as if it were a dictatorial state, but the government did not control the hunter community.
And like the current Director Noh, the directors of the Supernatural Phenomenon Response Agency had traditionally been fair and competent individuals.
This was true not only for the Agency but also for those in high-ranking government positions, including the President. Under the principled and upright leadership of the government, Korea was praised as a model case for overcoming the unprecedented disaster known as the Great Cataclysm.
‘Is this what they call national destiny?’
Of course, Korea wasn’t perfect. Social problems caused by the rampages of magical beasts remained everywhere. Nevertheless, the overall administration of the state was excellent. One critic had once jokingly remarked that it was as if an invisible hand were reading the future and moving the pieces on the chessboard of national management.
The initial catalyst that led to these changes was Tae-un’s conquest of the Id Portal.
‘Well, it’s not like Tae looked that far ahead when he started conquering portals. It’s just that portal management was so poor back then. Did they think it would be worse than in Seoul? That bastard is smart, but he’s definitely got luck on his side.’
When it came to examples of Tae-un’s luck, the incident involving the threat to blow up the State Council chamber came to mind. Everyone had been terrified when he suddenly threw out a “no-backdown” threat to blow up the chamber, but luck truly followed him afterward.
Naturally, the government didn’t succumb to the threat immediately. Opinions were sharply divided between those who argued that Tae-un should be arrested for treason and those who believed that suppressing him through regulation was not the answer.
However, about two days after they had discussed their response, an uprising of ethnic minorities broke out in China. Urgent news arrived that an S-class hunter had perished, blowing up the Great Hall of the People, and that the General Secretary and key figures of the Communist Party Central Committee had been killed in the explosion.
That night, the government scrapped the bills that would have shackled high-ranking hunters and reached a dramatic compromise with the hunter community.
‘If that incident in China hadn’t happened, Tae probably would have actually blown up the State Council chamber, right? I wonder what he planned to do after blowing it up.’
If that had happened, he might have become an internationally wanted criminal along with Tae-un by now.
He was sleepy, and thinking about such complex things gave him a headache. Having finished a video call with his worried family, he decided to head to the sauna attached to the sleep chamber. As he walked, he suddenly felt a tugging sensation beneath his feet. To be precise, it wasn’t his feet, but rather the feeling of his shadow being pulled. It was a strange way to describe it, but those who had experienced it knew.
“Ugh, this bastard, seriously.”
Instead of feeling a chill as if a ghost had entered his shadow, Pi Min-hyeong habitually looked down. Sure enough, a shade had appeared in the shadow stretched across the floor. It wasn’t a shadow created by sunlight hitting from various angles through the window. Darkness extending from the wall had blended into his shadow, creating a distinct difference in density. It was a summons from Tae-un.
He had complained to Tae-un not to call him by mixing darkness into his shadow because it startled people, but Tae-un had simply ignored him, saying this way was more convenient. What could he do when the man wouldn’t listen? A kind and gentle person had to endure.
Muttering his complaints, Pi Min-hyeong turned back and headed up to the representative’s office. Honestly, he wanted to ignore it, but given the chaos from yesterday, there was a high probability that something urgent had happened to make him, the First Attack Squad Leader, be summoned. A kind and diligent hunter had to endure.
“You brat, what is it now?”
“I want to have sex with Si-baek hyung.”
And the kind Pi Min-hyeong bitterly regretted that within one second of opening the door to the representative’s office, he should have ignored the Guild Master’s call and just gone to the sauna.
“Ugh, you lunatic.”
The moment he heard those words, Pi Min-hyeong turned to leave, but the darkness Tae-un moved was faster. As the darkness blocked the door of the office like a curtain, Pi Min-hyeong had no choice but to slump onto the sofa with a grumble.
One reason he gave up on escaping this nonsense so easily was that the person involved was Kim Si-baek.
‘Tae is definitely different when he’s with hyungnim.’
Even when they were young, Tae-un had always been prickly, but he studied hard and was a quiet, diligent kid as long as no one bothered him. At least, that’s how he appeared to Pi Min-hyeong.
However, after the Great Cataclysm, Tae-un changed as if he had become a different person. Though he had been precocious and matured early, Tae-un—who hadn’t been vastly different from other children his age—began killing magical beasts without batting an eye and coldly leading the survivors.
It wasn’t that Tae-un had led the survivors from the very beginning. While the children from the orphanage were the core, most of the survivors who joined one by one were adults. No matter if he was an Awakened, it was unlikely they would obediently follow a fourteen-year-old child.
Then, an incident occurred where a priest, who had taken responsibility as an elder and stepped forward to protect the children, almost died.
〈I will only save those who are worth saving. Those who aren’t, I might leave to die, or I might kill them myself and get my hands bloody.〉
Tae-un killed everyone who had kidnapped and attempted to torture the priest without exception. While the Awakened children from the orphanage, who had killed magical beasts but had never fought humans in earnest, stood frozen, everything was already over.
Drenched in blood, Tae-un spoke in an indifferent voice.
〈What are you going to do? If you can’t follow me, tell me now.〉
The children couldn’t answer immediately, but they didn’t criticize or oppose Tae-un. Orphans thrown naked into a horrific world adapted to that world by protecting themselves in such a way.
After that day, Tae-un stepped to the forefront and suppressed all the adults who expressed dissatisfaction with sheer force. That was how Tae-un’s Jae-woo University shelter was formed, and they began saving people in earnest.
Pi Min-hyeong couldn’t even guess what pain and determination the boy—who had been ordinary except for being an unfortunate orphan—had gone through to save people while becoming covered in blood.
Tae-un became numb, slaughtering magical beasts with a gaze that sometimes felt bored.
Though he was surprised by the change, he didn’t find it alien. It was natural to change. In a hell where people are eaten alive right before your eyes if you let your guard down for a second, how could anyone survive without changing? Not only Tae-un, but Pi Min-hyeong himself and the other children of the Somang Orphanage must have all changed.
Tae-un was a man who was utterly indifferent to others even while saving people without regard for his own body. Since such a man was pouring all his attention into one person for the first time and even acting coy, which didn’t suit him at all, Pi Min-hyeong figured he might as well listen. After reciting a mantra he learned from Seo Gae-un five times in his head, he asked.
“Does hyungnim hate you because he’s not gay?”
“No, he got hard when we kissed.”
And the moment he spoke, he regretted it again. Why the hell is this bastard blabbing about other people’s sex lives that I don’t want to hear?
“Hey. But what sin did I commit to have to endure this kind of torture?”
“Then should I call Seo Gae-un to talk about it?”
“…….”
Then again, there was no one else to talk to about this besides Pi Min-hyeong. Tae-un had no other friends, Yang Eun-ho and Lee Han-gyeol were younger brothers, and while he had never been conscious of Seo Gae-un’s gender, she still had XX chromosomes.
Pi Min-hyeong lamented his fate of not being able to enjoy this funny and pleasant situation where none other than Tae-un was actually seeking relationship advice, and he asked back.
“What’s the problem, fuck.”
“I’m telling you, I want to have sex with hyung.”
“Is your head filled with nothing but fucking? Anyway, you’re saying you want to date hyungnim.”
Isn’t it natural that wanting to have sex with someone who has been making it obvious they’re head over heels for them implies a relationship? However, Tae-un ruthlessly threw away that obvious premise.
“I have no intention of dating Si-baek hyung at all.”
“Eh. Weren’t you, uh, lo… uh, mmm, l-l-l-loving hyungnim?”
Pi Min-hyeong barely managed to squeeze out the word ‘love’ while feeling as if his limbs were curling up from cringe. Upon hearing that, Tae-un, unlike himself, couldn’t answer immediately. He wore a stunned expression, as if he had encountered a word he had never expected.
“……I, him?”