“I think you are overthinking this. There are a lot of stories where someone witnessed how much Hyeon Gyu-ha behaves. Would you like me to show you a few?”
“My eyes are rotting.”
The man pushed away the tablet handed to him by the secretary without even looking and gestured lightly.
“Take a thorough look at In Yoo-shin. So that I can even find out what he ate this morning.”
After the secretary left, the man, who had been thinking while rubbing his chin, tapped his temple.
“Hey.”
『…….』
“Please wake up. Sleeping Beauty.”
『Huaaahm.』
After a few proddings, a loud yawn rang in my head. And when the man closed his eyes once and then opened them.
『Why did you call me?』
Before his eyes, a huge whale was floating in the air as if swimming. Eyes larger than those of most young men blink slowly. The whale, which was almost an opaque illusion, was not enough to occupy the spacious office and wriggled its body through the building.
If you were to witness it from the outside, it would look like the building was pierced through the whale’s massive body. The only people who can see whales are men.
It was a body so dizzying that it made one lose one’s senses just by looking at it, but the man knew that it had also been miniaturized by condensing and clumping it together, like crushing mud. If this whale were to appear as its true self, the Earth could be torn apart.
“I heard Hyeon Gyu-ha has a lover.”
『Wow. Is Prince getting married?』
“You don’t know that. Anyway, do you feel anything about this person? Is he by any chance the same age as Hyeon Gyu-ha?”
The man took out a photo of In Yoo-shin from a document he had received from his secretary the other day and showed it to Whale.
The whale’s large eyes were glued closely to a photo that was smaller than its pupil.
『Umm. This is just a meaningless scene that humans have stuffed together. I don’t know from this alone. I guess I’ll have to see it in person to find out.』
The whale spoke slowly in a dull tone, opened its huge mouth again, yawned, and closed its squinting eyes.
『Call me again when the time comes. I’m going to sleep.』
When the whale closed its eyes completely, the illusion disappeared like a lie. Returning to his original office, he looked down at the photo he was holding in his hand.
There was a young man there who had a pretty neat and cute face, but he wouldn’t have paid any attention to him if it weren’t for the rumor that he was Hyeon Gyu-ha’s ‘lover.’
It’s In Yoo-sin.
The man, Narsha’s guild leader Gong Tae-sung, pondered that name for a long time.
4.
23:00 sharp. ‘Munin’s Eye’ floating in one corner of the field of vision. Cell phone in one hand. The location is on the roof. Today is perfect too.
After tearing open the scroll containing the skill to prevent the sound of Hyeon Gyu-ha from escaping, he calmly made a phone call.
“Yoo-shin, it’s time to go to sleep, right?”
-Gyu-ha-ssi? I was just lying down on the blanket to go to sleep.
“I’m going to sleep too. What pajamas are you wearing?”
-It’s Pajamas with hamster drawings.
“That looks cute. Next time, show me too.”
- Would you like to come over to my house and spend the night?
“I’m going to go now.”
- T-today, I’m too going….
After some trivial chat, the call ended. It is a sign of a regular life of going to bed by 11 o’clock at the latest. The light shining in the room under the roof soon went out.
Hyeon Gyu-ha closed his eyes on the roof, listening to the rustling noise that soon became quiet. Then, exactly three hours later, he woke up.
‘Where is In Yoo-shin?’
As soon as he woke up, he checked the location coordinates. In Yoo-shin is still sleeping in the rooftop room under the roof.
There is a long time left until the sun rises. If there were a dungeon, he would have gone hunting again, and if it had been an officetel, he would have drunk something that wasn’t intoxicating due to the terrible boredom, but now, In Yoo-shin is right downstairs. Hyeon Gyu-ha lay quietly on the roof until the sun rose. He said that just having the thought of wanting to die can be considered depression, but is boredom, which is so exhausting that it doesn’t even matter if you die, also be depression? Hyeon Gyu-ha is worried. Even those worries soon disappear, and Hyeon Gyu-ha’s head becomes empty. Just like he always did.
As the eastern sky began to become brighter, Hyeon Gyu-ha realized a subtle abnormality from last night’s In Yoo-shin.
The light was shining brightly outside the window until he turned it off.
‘I fell asleep without the curtains closed again. What are you doing if you have blackout curtains installed but aren’t using them?’
Hyeon Gyu-ha lowered his upper body under the roof. He also didn’t properly close the curtains on the window. He used psychokinesis to quietly move the curtains to cover the window. The succulent plant pots on the windowsill were safe and did not fall.
It’s a shame that you can’t see In Yoo-shin sleeping because the mattress is against the wall. But since he wasn’t a real stalker, he didn’t open the window and went inside to check the sleeping face.
He just felt like he would be in despair if In Yoo-shin’s presence was not confirmed, and the despair of being abandoned made him want to destroy the world, so he checked his safety every now and then.
It’s just that. That was it.
Thanks to the anonymous stalker covering the window, In Yoo-shin woke up from a restless sleep. Hyeon Gyu-ha doesn’t know that In Yoo-shin just keeps forgetting to close the curtains every day.
“6-seya, Did you have a good night?”
“Squeak.”
6-seya cried happily after running on a treadmill all night, coming back after escaping from the cage to explore, forgetting to eat food, taking a sand bath, and even witnessing Hyeon Gyu-ha secretly closing the curtain.
With half-asleep eyes, In Yoo-shin reached out and patted 6-se, then yawned and went into the bathroom. It’s time to get ready for work.
Hyeon Gyu-ha also took a regretful step from the roof and flew to the officetel. He also had to wash up and give In Yoo-shin a bike ride on his way to work.
It was an unchanging morning.
***
He was on his way home from work, waiting at the entrance for Hyeon Gyu-ha to come up on the bike parked underground. He took advantage of the time he was away all day to do a quick search. He tried searching again and it didn’t change the results he got last night.
‘There is no king in Romania now...’
The Romanian-Serbian monarchy collapsed decades ago. Even in countries where the monarchy has been abolished, there are former royal claimants to the throne, but Hyeon Gyu-ha’s words did not seem to mean them.
He looked for descendants of the Romanian-Serbian royal family just in case, but he couldn’t find a man who looked like Hyeon Gyu-ha.
‘This one also has something in common: he’s good-looking... but Gyu-ha is more handsome.’
So then, was it really a joke? It only makes his head spin even more. When he felt like someone was close by, he quickly put his phone in his pocket and raised his head.
“Excuse me, but are you In Yoo-shin-ssi of the Department of Public Safety?”
“Yes. I am In Yoo-shin, who are you?”
“haha. The greeting was late. I am Lim Ji-hoon of the Seongho Guild.”
The man held out a business card with a business smile.
“We want to invite In Yoo-shin to our guild. Our Seongho guild is still small in size, but it has several hunters, including Hunter Jang Seong-guk, who is a top-ranked B-level hunter. If you’re interested, can we set up a separate room and give you a detailed explanation?”
“Uh, that’s…”
“If you are busy right now, please tell me a convenient time. After work or on weekends are also okay.”
While In Yoo-shin, surprised by the sudden situation, blinked in confusion, a hand was placed lightly on his shoulder. It was Hyeon Gyu-ha.
“I’ll take a look and contact you later. Right now we’re on our way to a date.”
“Sorry to disturb you! Then, I will be waiting for your contact. Have a nice evening!”
The man who had been pouring out words and pushing toward In Yoo-shin, who looked young and easy-going at first glance, quickly bowed his head when Hyeon Gyu-ha cut him off firmly.
Hyeon Gyu-ha snatched the business card from In Yoo-shin’s hand, who was blinking because he still didn’t understand what was happening and tore it up and threw it away.
“Don’t be such an idiot and go to a large guild if possible. It looks like competition is starting to creep in, so if you stick with it for a day or two, your annual salary will rise to hundreds of millions.”
“A hundred million? My annual salary?”
“Sure. Then, to make the excuse true, let’s go on a real date. What do you want for dinner? That restaurant from last time?”
Hyeon Gyu-ha, who had dinner with In Yoo-shin, who still did not understand what was going on, called him every two hours from the roof as usual and then put him to sleep.
And two days later, In Yoo-shin received an email offering an annual salary of hundreds of millions of won. It started with the Anpang Guild under Yangsa Group, a large conglomerate.
Love calls poured in from all directions. Sometimes in front of the house.
Sometimes in front of the Department of Public Safety, sometimes by email.
Even a person filled with unfounded confidence would have no choice but to realize this. That he is bait to catch Hyeon Gyu-ha.
Support on Kofi:
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Credits:
Translator: Hoshi Miya
Editor/Proofreader: PsycheAsylum, Ghostx
PA: I want to see Yoo-shin’s reaction when he finally found out about Gyu-ha being a stocker as side line-side line. ☭ ͜ʖ ☭)
Editor’s Daily Entries: PA
Feb 24/24: At 6 am I finished some orders for my business, and I drank the remaining double black. I woke super late, like 10 pm so I decided to edit again.
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