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Chapter 2. A Life of Taking the Loss (2)
Perhaps because he was in physical contact with the man, the man’s vitality gauge, which Doyoon hadn’t been able to see before, slowly began to appear.
The man’s vitality gauge, accompanied by a strong scent of blood, had dropped to around 55%.
But that was still enough stamina to make it to a hospital.
So why had he come looking for Doyoon instead?
According to Kim Changshik, Hunters usually didn’t ask a Healer from another team to treat them.
He had drilled it into Doyoon over and over that treating a Hunter from another team required Kim Changshik’s permission.
There had even been a few times when Doyoon had forgotten that rule and treated someone else who was in an emergency, only to get beaten by Kim Changshik afterward.
That was why Doyoon felt particularly uncomfortable with this situation.
The man, leaning his weight helplessly against Doyoon, whispered.
“I think the story where I collapse and you take me all the way to the hospital would be pretty good, too.”
The man’s arm, which had been around Doyoon’s opposite shoulder, moved around his neck, turning the position into something resembling a side hug.
“What are you doing?”
“I’ll let you go if you Heal me.”
It didn’t look like he had any intention of letting go.
Doyoon glanced back at the Gate, which was closing, and struggled to push the man away.
See? He’s resisting. He’s still got plenty of strength!
“You have enough stamina to get to a hospital. Please let me go. I really have to get into the Gate—Huh?!”
While Doyoon struggled with the man, who refused to let him go no matter how hard he pushed, he ended up watching helplessly as the Gate closed.
How did he know?
Because the ominous energy that had been swirling like a vortex suddenly hardened, becoming completely still.
“My day’s pay!”
On top of losing his wages for the entire day, Doyoon felt dizzy at the thought of having to deal with Kim Changshik’s foul temper later.
He plopped down onto the ground and stared at the black mass that had already closed and lost all movement.
The man crouched down in front of Doyoon, grabbed his thin chin, and examined his face from different angles.
“Looks like you can’t see, but at the same time, you seem to be able to see.”
Except for five strands of brown hair, Doyoon’s hair was pure white.
His hair was far too silky to have simply been bleached, and he had white eyebrows and irises that were a light gray, almost bordering on white.
With an appearance resembling an albino born from pure snow and ice, he was undoubtedly the ‘Healer Shin Doyoon’ the man had been searching for.
He had heard that Doyoon couldn’t see.
Yet right now, he had clearly perceived the Gate closing as if he had watched it happen with his own two eyes.
What an interesting and fascinating Hunter.
To assess Doyoon’s abilities, the man relaxed his exhausted body and let his head fall heavily onto Doyoon’s shoulder.
“Ah, I’m dizzy. At this rate, I might really collapse.”
Maybe it was because the man looked even weaker than before.
Or perhaps it was because the Gate had already closed, so Doyoon figured there was no harm in doing it.
Whatever the reason, Doyoon grumbled under his breath as he began to Heal him, while the man watched him with interest.
“If Senior finds out, I’m dead…”
The man felt his body recovering much faster than he had expected, and his eyes widened.
Five seconds?
No, three?
Just moments ago, while fighting the sudden monster, the man had suffered a wound that had torn away a chunk of flesh from his back.
For a Healer Hunter of the same rank as Doyoon, recovering from an injury like that would have taken at least one or two minutes, even under the best circumstances.
Doyoon had healed it in the blink of an eye.
The man smacked his lips and desperately suppressed the laughter that was threatening to burst out.
Doyoon had no idea that the man found him so fascinating.
Instead, he focused on the white, thread-like energy flowing from his fingertips and sinking into the wounds on the man’s body.
He finished treating the largest wound on the man’s back first.
Then the energy flowed toward the wounds on his right arm and shoulder.
As the remaining wounds closed, the white energy stopped flowing into the man and dispersed into the surrounding air.
The Gate’s already closed anyway.
Senior won’t start making a fuss until after he clears the Gate.
And if I don’t tell him, there’s no way he’ll know, right?
After confirming that the man’s vitality had been completely restored, Doyoon gently pushed the man away to check his condition.
“…Are you okay?”
When he saw the man with his head hanging low, completely motionless, Doyoon began to worry that perhaps he had treated him too late.
But someone with that much vitality shouldn’t have collapsed.
Could there have been some other problem I don’t know about?
A chronic illness or something similar was outside the range of what Doyoon could treat.
Doyoon hurriedly shook the man.
“Excuse me?”
At that moment, the man opened his eyes with a grin, and his eyes met Doyoon’s.
To Doyoon, it merely looked as though the muscles where the man’s eyes were located had moved, changing the heat in that area.
“You’re good at Healing. You’re even more capable than I’d heard.”
He’d heard?
Did he know about me and come looking for me?
But the man’s face seemed far too close.
Warmth was moving back and forth right in front of Doyoon’s eyes.
“I think you’re a little too close.”
“Oh, you can actually see?”
“Not exactly… I can only see silhouettes.”
“Ah. Then I guess you’re living a life where you have to take some losses.”
Wasn’t that a pretty insensitive thing to say directly to someone who couldn’t see?
Doyoon felt a surge of indignation rising inside him, ready to protest.
“My handsome face, for example. You can’t even see it.”
Until the man was just about to place Doyoon’s hand directly against his own face, Doyoon thought he must have heard wrong.
Did he just call himself handsome?
“…Are you really handsome?”
Doyoon became curious.
Being cool and handsome was a good thing.
Being pretty and beautiful was an even better thing.
It was something his older sister had drilled into him from childhood until he could practically hear her voice in his sleep, and Doyoon agreed with her to some extent.
After losing his vision, how much had he regretted the once-colorful world becoming so monotonous?
“Absolutely. Curious?”
“I’m not curious.”
Whether he was curious or disappointed, the fact that the man was saying things like that when Doyoon couldn’t even see made it feel like he was being teased.
Doyoon answered sullenly and pulled his hand away.
But the man grabbed it again and brought it to his own face.
Doyoon flinched at the unfamiliar warmth against his palm.
He didn’t need to keep feeling those strange sensations beneath his hand every time the man’s expression changed, did he—
His facial features are really defined.
The places that should be recessed are recessed, and the parts that should protrude are nicely shaped.
He probably really is handsome when you see him.
Perhaps Doyoon had unconsciously become focused while touching his face.
The man’s breath puffed against his palm.
He seemed to be laughing.
“Are you laughing right now?”
“Ah, ah. I won’t laugh.”
He could hold back his laughter, but he couldn’t hold back his breathing.
Doyoon pulled away from the man.
He didn’t feel good about being teased.
“Are you sulking?”
“No. I treated you, so please move.”
Doyoon adjusted his grip on his white cane and stood up.
Since Kim Changshik wasn’t there to take him home, he figured it would be better to take a taxi today.
First, though, because of the chaos caused by the monster, there probably wouldn’t be any taxis nearby.
He planned to walk along the main road until he reached an area where he could find a car.
Tap. Tap-tap.
With his hood pulled back up, Doyoon walked along, using the sound of his cane striking the ground as background music.
But the footsteps following behind him were extremely irritating.
“Why are you following me?”
“Want me to take you home?”
“No.”
“I’m not a suspicious person. My name is Go Jaehyuk, and I’m an A-Ranker. If you’re suspicious, look me up in the rankings.”
Was that supposed to be his way of bragging about how strong he was?
“……”
“You probably won’t find a Hunter as dependable and handsome as me.”
Hunter Go Jaehyuk.
Doyoon felt a strange sense of déjà vu, as though he had heard the name somewhere before.
But he had no room to worry about him.
Thinking about losing his meager daily wages because of this man, and about having to deal with Kim Changshik when he inevitably came looking for him later, made Doyoon’s head hurt.
If I tell Senior that I couldn’t enter the Gate because of this man, will he believe me?
No. If I say that, he might also find out that I healed this man.
Ugh…
No matter how much I worry about it, something I can’t control is obviously going to happen anyway.
With the magical phrase, I’ll think about it later, Doyoon immediately brushed away the complicated thoughts filling his head.
But the man who had introduced himself as Go Jaehyuk continued following him.
“So why don’t you try trusting me?”
“Hunter Go Jaehyuk. I heard your introduction, and I appreciate it. But I’m going to take a taxi, so you don’t need to take me home. Goodbye.”
Despite Doyoon’s stiff attitude clearly drawing a line between them, Jaehyuk continued following him.
“If you want to hire me as a bodyguard, you’d have to spend a fortune.”
“I’m not buying.”
“What about a team that pays well and treats its Healers like royalty? Actually, forget royalty. Like imperial family?”
“I don’t need—Huh?”
Doyoon reflexively refused, then stopped.
“Tempting, isn’t it?”
Doyoon looked at Go Jaehyuk’s face, which appeared red and yellow to him.
He still couldn’t properly see the man’s expression, but judging by the rhythmic sound of his breathing, Jaehyuk seemed to be smiling.
Maybe this guy just laughs a lot.
“Seriously, though. Does it make any sense that a Healer who can Heal as quickly as you can is working as a porter for C- and D-Rank Hunters? I wouldn’t believe it even if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”
Doyoon felt somewhat bitter.
It was as though he had just received confirmation that the treatment he had been experiencing was not normal.
In Korea, Healers were considered one of the rarest professions.
Regardless of rank, there were so few people capable of Healing that teams were willing to take them in as long as they could use the ability.
That was why Healers were often described as the nobility among nobles.
But Doyoon thought that description only applied to Healers who could walk around normally and dodge incoming attacks without difficulty.
Kim Changshik had said the same thing.
“As you can see, I’m basically closer to luggage.”
Perhaps because Kim Changshik’s words had been drilled into him day after day, Doyoon, unlike himself, let out a gloomy remark that didn’t reflect what he truly felt.
Jaehyuk was genuinely upset.
He quietly looked down at Doyoon, who stood before him with a bitter expression.
The dejected and lonely atmosphere surrounding Doyoon was amplified even further by his pure-white hair, equally pale skin, and unfocused white eyes that looked as though a cloudy film had settled over them.
Jaehyuk wanted to embrace him and comfort him right then and there.
Is the team he’s with treating him poorly because of his eyesight?
Jaehyuk didn’t believe a Healer’s abilities had anything to do with their vision.
Of course, having a healthy body in every respect was beneficial when it came to protecting oneself.
But for a support-class profession like a Healer, Jaehyuk didn’t think it was important.
Especially for a Healer with abilities as powerful as Doyoon’s, who was even more capable than many Rankers, Jaehyuk thought he deserved to be treated as someone precious wherever he went.
“Not at all. You don’t seem to realize how valuable an ability you have. With abilities like yours, you could genuinely be treated like nobility among nobility.”
“……”
Doyoon tried his best not to show it outwardly, but he felt happy.
The words were so sweet that they almost made him happy enough to forget everything.
Still, he couldn’t tell whether they were genuine or simply pleasant lies meant to lure him in.
When Doyoon tried to continue walking, Jaehyuk grabbed his arm and stepped in front of him.
“If you don’t believe me, I’ll make you feel it yourself. Are you really just going to walk away like this? I’m offering to recruit you on the condition that you’ll be treated like nobility among nobles.”
Then Jaehyuk added,
“No. Like an emperor.”
His voice was light, like a gentle spring breeze.
Because of that, Doyoon couldn’t tell whether Jaehyuk’s offer was sincere or a scam.
