201 – HGL 201

201

A black puddle appeared in front of the large door. Soon, a round head popped out of the puddle, and then the whole body smoothly revealed itself. Min-gi Seo dusted off his clothes and grabbed the doorknob.

“Excuse me, Guild Master!”

Min-gi Seo didn’t wait for an answer and flung the door open. The first thing that came into view was a broad back and a red head, standing like a mountain. The owner of the back and the red hair turned around. It was Bae Won-woo and Kang Ji-soo. Min-gi Seo quickly bowed his head.

“You two are here too. Hello.”

Kang Ji-soo waved her hand.

“Hi. What’s up? Why are you barging in so urgently?”

“I have an urgent matter to report.”

“Haa….”

An annoyed sigh leaked out between the two. Min-gi Seo slyly craned his neck to find the source of the sigh. Lee Sa-young was sitting at his desk wearing glasses, and the desk was so full of all sorts of documents and electronic devices that there was almost no space left. He frowned slightly.

“What is it now?”

Just as Min-gi Seo was about to answer, Kang Ji-soo crossed her arms and stood askew. It was a posture similar to Lee Sa-young, who was in a bad mood.

“Guild Master, you’d better pass over one more piece of paper instead of picking a fight. The research team is urging you to give your opinion. They said they’ll stay here until you answer.”

“You also have to deal with the official letters from the Bureau of Rift Management and the Rift Management Bureau, Sa-young. You have to resolve them before the General Assembly.”

“Can’t you handle that kind of thing?”

“I’ve handled the minor stuff. The ones left are all things you have to look at yourself.”

“Haa….”

Sa-young sighed but obediently turned over the document he was holding. Min-gi Seo looked back and forth between the thick stack of documents in his hand and the pile of papers stacked on the desk. It certainly didn’t seem like this was all of it.

“Why are you dying from being crushed by work?”

“I already had three months’ worth of work piled up, and you’ve been running around here and there since you woke up.”

Bae Won-woo clicked his tongue. Min-gi Seo asked, puzzled.

“Didn’t you take care of some of it?”

“It’s piled up again in the meantime. Always following only J. You two had so much fun together, didn’t you?”

“Was it normal on the days J wasn’t here? No. Some crazy… anyway. So, I’m dealing with the work I couldn’t handle in the meantime.”

“Oh dear. By the way, I need to report urgently, so could you please step aside?”

“Huh? Is it a story we shouldn’t hear?”

“That’s for the Guild Master to decide.”

Sa-young gestured towards the door with his chin.

“Wait outside for a moment.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Aww, I’m curious too.”

The two grumbled but soon agreed and went out of the room. Min-gi Seo looked around the Guild Master’s office. The gray hair that should have been there was nowhere to be seen.

“Where did J go?”

“I heard he went to meet Ham Seok-jeong.”

“You didn’t follow him, surprisingly.”

“I’m not a crazy brat…. I don’t always chase after him.”

“……”

“So, the report?”

“Ah, I passed on information about Prometheus’s Laboratory to Honeybee Hunter. Mackerel was also watching it….”

“Yeah.”

“They were all annihilated. Honeybee Hunter even dragged in Gyugyu Hunter and scraped the bottom.”

“……”

“There are a few Hunters who were rescued in the process, but most of them had lost their ego as they reached the final stages of the experiment. They were transferred to the Seowon Guild basement.”

Sa-young raised one eyebrow. When Min-gi Seo handed over the data, he roughly snatched it away. Purple eyes behind the glasses quickly scanned the words.

“Any surviving laboratories or researchers?”

“The ones on the list we handed over were all wiped out. Hmm, I didn’t expect them to handle things so roughly. I should have considered that Honeybee Hunter was blinded by anger.”

Sa-young frowned and touched his temple. A deep sigh escaped.

“It’s going to be harder to catch the tail….”

During the second period break, when they would be very hungry, the back door of the classroom burst open. Ga-eul raised her head. Min-ji, who had rushed over, whispered.

“Hey! Emergency! Emergency! The tteokbokki truck is here!”

Da-yeon and Su-yeong, who had been lying down covered with blankets, also rose up like zombies.

“Truck? What, a food truck came?”

“That’s what they said. They sell tteokbokki in paper cups. But it’s so delicious that it’s a big deal. They asked us to promote it a lot.”

“They’ll be guarding the school gate.”

“There’s a low fence. The one where some crazy brat did a body check and dented it a long time ago. They parked it right in front of that. Let’s go, huh? Let’s go.”

“……”

The green fence. Is it just my imagination that I feel a sense of déjà vu? The place where J came to find me was also in front of that fence. Ga-eul pretended not to be interested and listened. Why does it have to be in front of that place? Is it a coincidence?

“No… and they said he’s so handsome.”

A fierce look of suspicion was planted.

“Could it be that much?”

“Isn’t it just that the kids’ standards for seeing men have lowered?”

“No, they’re covering it with a mask, but they said he’s really handsome. Really.”

“Bullshit…. Just say his heart is handsome instead.”

“Ah, I’m curious! Let’s go! Ga-eul, let’s go. It’s my wish.”

Min-ji grabbed Ga-eul’s arm and clung to her. Ga-eul rolled her eyes for no reason and scratched her temple with the end of her mechanical pencil.

“Ugh, okay…. Let’s go.”

“Yay!”

Anyway, Yoon Ga-eul was also a high school student in her growing years.

The front of the fence was desolate, as if it had already been swept through once. The ground was just dirt without grass, as if people passed by often. As Min-ji said, there was a truck beyond the fence.

A black-haired man was sitting in the truck wearing a white mask. A man who had dyed his whole body black, wearing a black hoodie, a black cap, and a black apron. No matter how you looked at it, he was suspicious…. But her friends were blinded by tteokbokki, and Ga-eul was immersed in memories because of the apron.

‘The apron looks familiar….’

J was also wearing an apron like that. That past feels strangely distant. A ladle stirred the tteokbokki in the iron plate. At the same time, a sigh escaped.

“Ah, I’m so hungry.”

“It looks so delicious….”

The scent of tteokbokki was the most fragrant of all the smells she had ever smelled. The spicy smell that stimulated her appetite, and the rice cakes that were covered in red sauce and even more shiny. Even Ga-eul, who didn’t have much appetite, swallowed involuntarily. The man, seeing the swarming students beyond the wall, politely bowed his head.

“Welcome.”

…Huh?

Ga-eul suddenly raised her head. The voice is strangely familiar? Ga-eul slightly lifted her glasses, rubbed her eyes, squinted, and observed the man again. Coarse black hair, a white mask, and eyes hidden by a cap…. Then the man slightly raised his head. Their eyes met exactly.

Shady, cool eyes, black pupils that shone blue for a moment. Ga-eul swallowed a scream. This is crazy.

‘It’s J!’

The man lowered his head again. The black hair seems to be a wig. No wonder it was so dry! Ga-eul, who had been standing back among her friends, hurriedly clung to the fence.

“I, I, I’ll go over.”

“Huh? Are you okay?”

“I’m wearing gym pants…. I’m okay!”

“Should I support you from below? Should I kneel down?”

“No, no. I’ve been exercising lately.”

“Crazy… she’s living a righteous life.”

“Um, everyone’s going to eat tteokbokki, right? One per person?”

“Yeah!”

Ga-eul took a deep breath and grabbed the fence. She suddenly thought that she had to climb over naturally so that her friends wouldn’t suspect her, but it soon evaporated. Ga-eul grabbed the fence and easily jumped over. Wow, crazy. She heard her friends’ exclamations. Ga-eul hurriedly stuck close to the truck.

It was well-equipped for a makeshift food truck. Except for the ‘Cup Tteokbokki 1000 won’ price tag scribbled roughly on the back of a piece of paper and the old-fashioned radio in the corner. A song that Ga-eul didn’t know was playing on the radio. Ga-eul lowered her voice and whispered.

“What is this? Why, why did you come like this?”

“Well, it’s a bit weird for a man to be walking back and forth in front of an all-girls high school….”

J, Cha Eui-jae, smiled awkwardly, slightly lowering his mask. It seemed like a small scream had erupted from behind him.

“I can’t come wearing a mask either…. It’s something I have to come and find out secretly.”

“You came in a van last time. That, that looks better.”

“…It’s a bit much to get help from Pado or the Bureau of Rift Management. So.”

“So you’re doing this?”

Ga-eul swallowed as she looked at the shiny tteokbokki. It’s so elaborate! Eui-jae, who put his mask back on, muttered in an unsure voice.

“…Is it not good? Mackerel recommended it. He said this would be the best….”

If you think about it, it was a divine move that properly grasped the ecology of high school girls. Even Yoon Ga-eul, who only stayed in the classroom, was lured down by the tteokbokki. Ga-eul also muttered along.

“…I think it’s a genius idea.”

“I’m glad then.”

“Did you make the tteokbokki yourself?”

“Ah, yes. Should I put it in a cup for you first?”

“Yes….”

As Ga-eul nodded, Eui-jae skillfully stirred the tteokbokki and began to put it in a cup. After a moment of silence, he moved his hands diligently and said.

“There’s something I want to ask you.”

“Yes, yes. Please tell me.”

“You said before. There was a voice you heard from the moment you Awakened, but you haven’t heard it since you came back from the Destroyed world…. You said it was probably another Student Ga-eul.”

The black van that was standing here, J and Lee Sa-young who were in the van. Ga-eul checked Sa-young’s condition and told him about her situation.

‘But… I haven’t heard the voice even once since I came back from the Destroyed world. I thought about it. The Artisan said that Souls are merged….’

Ga-eul readily nodded.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Can I talk to the other Student Ga-eul? Or it would be good if the current Student Ga-eul could recall something.”

Ga-eul raised her head sharply. At that moment, a large paper cup was held out in front of her. Ga-eul reflexively took the paper cup. There was a small Post-it attached to the paper cup. The letters were written in the same handwriting as the price tag on the wall.

‘Doomsday.’

Ga-eul’s eyes widened. Eui-jae quickly raised and lowered his index finger over his mask. Ga-eul hurriedly swallowed. Eui-jae whispered.

“If she’s still inside, ask her about the watch.”

“……”

“How did she find out about the existence of this watch? The Student Ga-eul in that world.”