BS 07

Chapter 7. The Value of ‘Me,’ the Hunter (1)

Since he hadn’t expected everyone to welcome him the way Jaehyuk had, Doyoon steeled himself and smiled brightly.

“I’m not completely unable to see.”

“Hmm. Lee Gunhoo. I guess introductions are over now?”

Lee Gunhoo merely tossed out his name as if he couldn’t be bothered and sat down on the sofa, fiddling with his smartphone.

At his cold attitude, Doyoon subtly glanced at the other team members. But unless they moved first, Doyoon had no information from which he could infer their feelings or thoughts. Even so, he could feel the awkward atmosphere on his skin.

It was as if the gazes stealing glances at him had a temperature. Everyone seemed to have something they wanted to say but couldn’t.

It was an atmosphere Doyoon had often sensed since the accident.

“I’m going to use the bathroom for a moment.”

“Ah, it’s this way.”

Following Park Yul, who led the way, Doyoon failed to notice the small table placed off to one side of the living room and bumped into it.

He hurriedly caught the table before it could fall, gave an awkward smile, and quickly entered the bathroom Park Yul had shown him.

“Tsk.”

His heart pounded at the sound of someone clicking their tongue behind him just before he closed the door, but Doyoon pretended not to notice.

At least he had successfully hidden in the bathroom.

“Phew… Shin Doyoon. Get a grip. We said we’d give this a try.”

Where had the man named Shin Doyoon who used to easily mingle and play around with others gone?

Since the accident, he had constantly started worrying about what others thought of him. He had also become more sensitive to even the smallest sounds and more withdrawn.

If this had been the old me, I would have brushed it off as a joke and laughed heartily.

“Dating? Of course I can do it! I’ll take responsibility for all of your health!”

Or, if not that, I would have provoked them with the exact same tone.

“Why else would I have come here if I couldn’t go hunting?”

Doyoon raised his head and looked toward the mirror.

He couldn’t see anything through the mirror.

If he could see his own body temperature right now, the exposed skin all over his body would probably be red. His tense body was giving off so much heat that he was sweating profusely.

Doyoon casually washed his hands, wiped away the sweat, then grabbed the bathroom doorknob and twisted it.

“What was the leader thinking, bringing a healer like that? When he said he was looking for one, I could understand. But how can he take a Hunter who can’t even see a table right in front of him with us? Everyone probably thinks the same way I do.”

“Actually, I kind of do too.”

At Lee Gunhoo’s hushed voice, Joo Ina answered brightly in her bouncy voice.

“Can’t we just keep hunting while using potions like we do now? A healer who can’t see? What if we go hunting and everything gets messed up for no reason?”

“Hunter. That’s a bit harsh.”

“No, hyung. You know what happened at my previous guild. Jaehyuk hyung, tell them something!”

Lee Gunhoo’s piercingly high voice became a needle that slipped through the slightly opened door.

“Jaehyuk must have his reasons… Hunter Gam, you should say something too.”

Park Yul, looking troubled, asked Gam Dawon for help.

“I don’t really have anything to say. Whether you live or die depends on your abilities in the field. We’re all people who survived that way, aren’t we? So wouldn’t we know once we go hunting?”

“If you bring one bomb along, everyone dies. I’m someone who got lucky and survived that time. And now you want me to go in with another bomb? Do I have to hope for another miracle that lets me survive when I’m on the verge of death? Hyung, I want to survive and keep hunting for a long, long time!”

Lee Gunhoo recoiled in disgust at the cold reality that came from the mouth of the warm-looking Gam Dawon.

Park Yul continued trying to calm Lee Gunhoo down, sweating nervously as his emotions grew even more heated.

Doyoon pressed his lips tightly together.

They still weren’t treating him as harshly as Kim Changshik’s team had, but both teams were the same in one respect: their words hurt Doyoon.

The wounds were the same, so why did the second one hurt more?

Even though it was a smaller wound than the first, Doyoon found this one harder to endure.

Right. Perhaps expecting everyone to like him the way Go Jaehyuk did had made things worse.

Expectations could sometimes become fertilizer that nourished disappointment and emptiness.

Of course, he understood it logically.

Those people hadn’t even seen him use his healing ability. And he hadn’t properly explained how he saw the world to them, so of course they would be anxious.

He understood it in his head, but…

Perhaps he had taken coming here too lightly.

‘Let’s go back.’

The team would obviously be taking on more dangerous assignments than Kim Changshik’s team, and he couldn’t afford to become a burden.

Rather than waiting for Go Jaehyuk, who could return at any moment, Doyoon decided that he should simply go home instead of causing trouble for others.

Bang.

He opened the door and strode out, causing everyone in the living room to turn their eyes toward him.

He was leaving, but that didn’t mean he would tuck his tail between his legs and run away.

“I understand that you’re worried, but it’s not very pleasant.”

Even though his mind understood and his heart had become timid, Doyoon’s natural temperament hadn’t disappeared.

The team members, who had stiffened in the living room, shifted their eyes around and avoided his gaze.

“Hunter Shin Doyoon. We were being thoughtless…”

“As I said earlier, I can see well enough to follow your movements. And you wouldn’t have come here if you didn’t think you could go hunting, would you?”

Doyoon looked over all the team members, who remained motionless, then left the hideout.

He felt too stifled to stay any longer.

Doyoon turned sharply and walked out of the building. Before the front door closed, he thought he heard some commotion behind him, but he didn’t look back and simply stepped into the elevator and went straight down to the first floor.

“Haa… Seriously.”

He walked and walked after leaving the building.

Only when he felt the breeze tickling his cheek did Doyoon realize what he had done.

Summer was already coming to an end, so there was something he could no longer postpone: repairing his house.

He needed to earn and save money as quickly as possible so he could fix the house. Otherwise, he would end up spending the bitterly cold winter without even a wall.

Doyoon considered going back right now and smiling as if to say they should get along well, but he let out a deep sigh.

It’s not something I can decide just because I want to be with them.

Unless they changed their minds.

Above all, it was clear that Go Jaehyuk and the team members had not agreed on the matter. It would probably be better for Jaehyuk to discuss it with the team first and make a decision after that.

“Your Majesty!”

Doyoon stopped.

It’s ridiculous how my body reacts even though I’ve only heard that a few times.

Doyoon turned around, following the force that grabbed his arm.

There stood a person whose silhouette was radiating heat as if he had run all the way there.

“Why did you come out?”

“The team members don’t seem to want me to join. It seems like my joining wasn’t something you discussed with them beforehand.”

“It’s only natural for someone I chose to join my team.”

“……”

“What did those bastards say? Just let it go. They’re only saying that because they don’t know your abilities. Once they see what you can do, they’ll accept you right away. So what’s the problem?”

They hadn’t hit him like Kim Changshik’s team had.

And if he could prove that he was useful, he would probably be able to stay with the team just as Jaehyuk said.

The atmosphere might not be warm and friendly, but with Go Jaehyuk there, at least they probably wouldn’t get into fights.

However, as Lee Gunhoo had said, having a bomb on the team was enough to create anxiety and danger.

“……I think I’ll just become a burden.”

“Ha. You’re among the top healers of your rank. You’re at the very top.”

“I don’t think I’m quite that good.”

At Doyoon’s blinking eyes, as though he were hearing that for the first time, Jaehyuk messed up his own hair.

“Looks like you’re the one who doesn’t recognize your own abilities, not those guys lying around in the hideout.”

Jaehyuk manipulated his Hunter Watch for a moment before suddenly scooping Doyoon up into his arms.

“Whoa! Where are you taking me again?”

“To find out who you really are.”

Leaving behind those unhelpful words, Jaehyuk once again jumped from building to building, heading somewhere.

All Doyoon could hear was the sound of the wind rushing past his ears.

When that sound finally stopped, they had arrived in front of a Gate entrance that looked like a pitch-black mouth.

“Let’s go.”

“What? We’re going in just the two of us?”

“It’s fine. As long as I have you, clearing a B-Rank Gate is easy.”

“What?!”

B-Rank?!

Doyoon climbed down from Jaehyuk’s arms and immediately turned his body away from the Gate in an attempt to survive, but Jaehyuk caught him by the waist and stopped him from escaping.

With ease, Jaehyuk pulled Doyoon against his side, tucked him under one arm, and walked straight into the Gate.

As the weight and flow of the air changed, his vision suddenly became completely different.

The city filled with cold concrete walls disappeared, replaced by a space filled with long, tall trees that carried a faint warmth.

“…We came in.”

“Sure~ did.”

They say people become ugly when they panic, and Doyoon was the perfect example.

His eyes were so wide that the whites were clearly visible, and his mouth was hanging open enough to show his uvula.

Jaehyuk watched him with amusement.

It had been a long time since he had seen someone whose emotional changes were so obvious.

When was the last time?

Maybe when I was playing with my friends as a kid.

The world had become so harsh since the Day of the Cataclysm.

Life had become difficult, and whenever monster appearances made the news and disaster alerts rang out, people died.

There were fewer reasons to laugh.

Especially for Hunters working in the field.

“Have you ever been inside a B-Rank Gate?”

“No. This is my first time. I used to go into D-Rank Gates often, though.”

At Doyoon’s answer, Jaehyuk furrowed his brow.

He had been taking a B-Ranker like Doyoon around to D-Rank Gates.

What a waste of talent.

It made sense now why Doyoon had never realized his own worth.

“If you’re a B-Ranker, you should be going to B-Rank Gates. Now, show yourself your true abilities properly.”

“Shouldn’t we call the others even now…?”

“I told you we don’t need them.”

As Jaehyuk stopped Doyoon’s worries, he suddenly drew his sword and swung it to the right in the blink of an eye.

Slash.

Something was cut at the tip of his sword, even though it had seemed like he was simply swinging it through empty air.

It took Doyoon quite some time to understand what had just happened.

A white mist that had flowed from Jaehyuk’s body moved along his sword and lingered there for a long time.

And in that very spot, a silhouette whose body heat was gradually cooling was dying, its waist sliced through.

A monster had been eliminated in an instant.