EVS Chapter 50

‘Seeing as there’s no answer, I suppose the reason you brought me here is quite a bit more important than I thought. Is it some kind of secret?’

‘On what basis are you thinking that way this time? What, did it show in my eyes again?’

‘It didn’t show. It’s just that since you’re really not killing me, I feel like there must be a reason. If it were someone else here instead of me, I feel like you would have already taken action, but you haven’t even laid a hand on me yet.’

‘So what, are you protesting because you want to get hit?’

‘You know that’s not it.’

Even though we were having a conversation that others might perceive as a contest of wills, it was endlessly enjoyable.

Although it might seem a bit fierce, I was steadily climbing the steps towards my goal, so I couldn’t help but find it fun. On top of that, it was entertaining to see the person who had always shown crazy madness slightly flustered in front of me, and it was intriguing to see him pretending to be nonchalant to hide his secret.

Now that we were engaging in a proper give and take, he became more talkative as well.

I already knew why he was being lenient with me. The guild members had informed me that he favored me. Geon-joo had heard from them that Sa-yoon liked his handsome face.

However, that alone was insufficient. A person like the Night Rats Guild’s leader wouldn’t be this lenient to someone he had just met for the first time, simply because they had a good-looking face or seemed to have good abilities.

As proof, even a guild member who was as handsome and capable as Geon-joo had his arm broken when he was recruited, according to his personal account.

So what Geon-joo wanted was the reason for the favoritism. What about him brought about the favoritism and made Sa-yoon lenient.

He felt that the topic was getting closer and closer to the ‘secret of Sa-yoon’ that he had been thirsting for. It was a pleasant result of not giving up on the tedious conversation and pushing through.

It seemed like he could uncover it if things continued like this.

If he just endured a little more and pushed a bit further.

He was thinking about how to stimulate Sa-yoon further when the man suddenly picked up a vodka bottle and filled the glass to the brim. He poured it without regard for the remaining wine. Puzzled by the incomprehensible action, the man slightly raised the corners of his lips and made a suggestion.

He proposed a bet.

It was unfavorable and abrupt to make a bet when Geon-joo was already dominating the game. That thought grew even stronger when he heard the answer that came back after asking what kind of bet it was.

If he drank all the vodka in that glass, Sa-yoon would tell him what he was curious about. He was already drunk, and if he downed vodka on top of the dizzying buzz, it was easy to predict what the result would be without even having to think about it.

When he showed reluctance, the man smirked and told him not to do it if he didn’t want to. The upper hand Geon-joo had gained tilted towards him with this ridiculous bet. It was utterly unfair.

He said he doesn’t get drunk easily and doesn’t even like alcohol. Would you make this kind of bet if you were him?

He only grumbled inwardly about the rising discontent. When Geon-joo asked if Sa-yoon was trying to make him drink and die, the man denied it and said that if Geon-joo couldn’t trust him, he would drink it first, then picked up the wine glass.

Then, without any hesitation, he brought the glass that seemed like it would spill over with the slightest shake to his mouth.

Gulp, gulp. The sound of drinking alcohol echoed on the terrace. It would be a lie to say Geon-joo wasn’t appalled by Sa-yoon, who kept chugging without stopping even though the intensity must have made his throat sting.

Where in the world was there a person who could really one-shot that barbaric amount of alcohol?

The man, who had emptied the glass without giving Geon-joo a chance to stop him, turned the glass he was holding upside down and shook it as if to prove that he had one-shotted it.

When Geon-joo called it childish in response to the provocative posture, Sa-yoon provoked him again by asking if he wasn’t going to do it then. It was self-evident, without the need to measure, which was better between giving up now when the goal was right in front of him and downing a glass of vodka with his eyes closed.

If I’m going to suffer, I might as well die.

There were only predetermined choices, so Geon-joo received the glass and downed it. The drunkenness that he had suppressed tightly rose unhindered with the alcohol he poured in again.

Because he drank it while ignoring his stomach that was churning at its limit, he coughed a few times after one-shotting it. As soon as he covered his mouth while coughing, he felt the vodka he had drunk rushing straight to the top of his head.

As he staggered, he heard a mocking remark asking if he was drunk. It could have just been a question, but somehow, when Sa-yoon said it, it sounded like mockery, so Geon-joo retorted crookedly and stood up straight to show that he was fine.

Now that he had gone this far, it was truly time to hear the answer. When he mentioned the topic that had been dragged on, showing that he had finished all the vodka Sa-yoon had urged him to drink, the only answer that came back was that Sa-yoon had a strong premonition that he should catch Geon-joo.

That was it?

Say something that makes sense if you want me to believe you.

Sa-yoon’s excuse was not at all believable. Geon-joo was not a dull person who would fall for such a pathetic excuse. No matter how much he mulled over it and tried to understand, it was an incredibly sloppy excuse. That was the only conclusion he could reach.

Is this his way of saying it won’t be this easy?

…Tsk.

It seemed wrong to expect an answer today.

Even though they called him the leader of the worst guild in the world and a high-ranking awakener, Sa-yoon was certainly different from the people Geon-joo had met so far.

He realized that pestering wouldn’t work, but he wasn’t foolish enough to cling to it. Still, it wasn’t entirely fruitless, and their relationship seemed to have progressed compared to before. It’s not like today was the only opportunity.

If it doesn’t work out today, it’s right to seize the next opportunity, so he cleared his complicated mind.

As his thoughts diminished, the drunkenness rose even faster and spread throughout his body. When he was about to fall asleep, he roughly answered the voice asking about his condition.

The last thing he remembered was Sa-yoon muttering something and supporting him as they entered the room.

He woke up in the morning because his body was shivering. His body, which had been warm until he went to sleep, was cold and chilly, so he opened his eyes and saw a ridiculous scene.

The room was completely frozen.

When he asked the reason, saying it was clearly Sa-yoon’s doing, the answer came back that he had done it to wake Geon-joo up, testing his patience from the morning. He thought their relationship had progressed with the conversation the day before, but nothing had changed except for Sa-yoon acting a bit more like a lunatic.

Was that the only thing he gained after struggling so much and continuing the conversation yesterday?

The more he thought about it, the more futile it felt. It wasn’t that he had hoped for Sa-yoon to act like a normal person overnight, but after drinking together and having a conversation, sharing a bit of rapport, he thought Sa-yoon would become a little more affectionate, but there was no positive effect at all.

In the end, Geon-joo gave up on acting submissive.

There seemed to be no point in maintaining an image in front of someone who didn’t manage their own image, so he stopped smiling until his mouth twitched and cursed first. As he grumbled and cursed in the bathroom, he heard laughter coming from outside. The fact that Sa-yoon was laughing even after hearing the curses confirmed that the lunatic was indeed a lunatic.

After washing up, he was dragged to a C-rank gate and heard an unfamiliar rumor on the way.

A rumor that he was Sa-yoon’s lover.

He wondered how such a ridiculous story spread, but apparently, it was because he and Sa-yoon had slept in the same room. Geon-joo gasped and frowned at the people who could only think impurely about something purely innocent.

When he asked if they were all crazy, only Sa-yoon’s annoying laughter followed, and he didn’t seem to care much about the rumor that had arisen between them.

I guess this kind of thing happens all the time.

Thinking that he was the only one bothered by this rumor made him feel resentful again. It felt like he had lost even though he had never even had a match, and even though their age difference was at most less than five years, he felt like a child.

So he stopped paying attention to it, pretended not to have heard the rumor, and moved to the gate. What he ended up doing in the high-level gate he entered with some expectations and worries was hard labor.

He didn’t know if all C-rank gates were like that, or if the gate he went to with Sa-yoon was unique, but he fought so many battles that it could only be called manual labor, and just as he was getting tired, he was ambushed by a white lifeform he had never seen before.

He didn’t know whether to call it human or something inhuman. According to Sa-yoon, the being called the Unknown was the most threatening among the monsters and awakeners he had encountered while exploring gates.

And the same went for Sa-yoon, who fought on par with the Unknown.

S-rank.

The momentum and battle of the highest-ranking awakener, which he had only heard about, were engraved in his eyes, and it was something he could never forget.

Including the helplessness he felt at that moment.

Far from helping, he only became a burden. Even a three-year-old child could have known that if Geon-joo hadn’t been there, Sa-yoon could have fought the Unknown more easily.

The battle, which was too fast to even catch with the eyes, was barely enough to judge the flow of who had the upper hand and who was being pushed back. If the gate hadn’t closed at the right timing and moved them to the reward room, it was clear that either Geon-joo or Sa-yoon would have suffered greater damage.

He chanted “crazy bastard, crazy bastard” like a mantra, but he still had a conscience because he was human.

Sa-yoon had even gotten injured trying to protect him, so how could he hold his head up if he received treatment alone?

Because he was not a beast but a human, he felt the need to do something for Sa-yoon, and when Sa-yoon happened to put something in his hand, Geon-joo conceded it, only to be asked if he was crazy.

Even when he tried to use a generous attitude, Sa-yoon didn’t give him a chance.

When Geon-joo saw Sa-yoon bleeding to the point where it looked painful even to him and tried to treat him, why?

Sa-yoon rarely shouted, not just asking if Geon-joo was crazy. Hearing him raise his voice for the first time made Geon-joo feel even more unjust.

‘Why are you getting angry?’

‘Do you know how much this costs? And you’re using it here?’

‘Then why did you use it on me?’

‘Are you and I the same?’

‘Then are we different?’

‘We are different!’

Sa-yoon, who had retorted in agitation, truly looked dumbfounded. No matter how expensive the potion was, life couldn’t be bought with money, so Geon-joo unknowingly bit his lip, wondering if it was something to get so angry about. When he declared that he would return to the guild regardless of the reward or anything else, the man, who had been observing his expression, let out a sigh-like breath and regained his original tension.

Geon-joo thought his anger wouldn’t subside just because of that, but after listening to Sa-yoon’s explanation, it subsided a bit. He said that an S-rank wouldn’t die from this much. It was a moment when Geon-joo, who had hastily poured the potion without extensive knowledge about high ranks, felt embarrassed.

Although he realized a fact he hadn’t known, it was now awkward to apologize. He closed his lips that he had almost used to apologize, swayed by the atmosphere. At first, he remained silent out of embarrassment and pride, but as he quietly thought about it, more and more injustices poured out.

So what if the potion was expensive? In the first place, it was a potion that Sa-yoon had given him to use as he pleased. Once an item is given to someone else, it is natural that from that moment on, the use of that item is determined by the person who received the gift.

Moreover, no matter how much he said he wouldn’t die, an injury was still an injury, and Sa-yoon was bleeding in front of him. That was an unchanging fact, so Geon-joo pointed out and argued about the dissatisfactory points one by one.

The more he spoke about what he thought was unjust, the more his voice rose, choking up. In the short time he had known Sa-yoon, he had suffered too much from him.

The potion was expensive, so he shouldn’t have used it?

Then what should he have done for Sa-yoon?

When they encountered the Unknown, he had stupidly stood there and caused all sorts of trouble, and in the end, Sa-yoon, who had tried to protect him, got injured.

After all that, should he meekly accept Sa-yoon’s treatment with a nonchalant face and shamelessly ask why he didn’t give him the potion earlier if he had it?

He felt miserable about his powerlessness, and he was so irritated that his nerves were stretched taut. He felt the composure within him disappearing.

He spoke about his inner feelings in excessive detail. It had been a very long time since he had vented his anger so unilaterally and shared a long story with anyone, but Sa-yoon’s reaction to it was utterly absurd.

‘Why are you doing this?’

After listening to Geon-joo’s story to his heart’s content, that was all he had to say.

Not apologizing, not pointing out Geon-joo’s mistake again by saying that the potion was still expensive, but ‘Why are you doing this?’ which gave the impression that he couldn’t understand Geon-joo’s reaction in the slightest.

How could his furrowed brows look so annoying? Dumbfounded and exasperated, a self-deprecating laugh escaped Geon-joo’s lips, wondering why he had struggled so hard to uncover the secret of such a man.

‘Hyung, you really have a knack for pissing people off.’

He was truly a man who made others throw a fit.

And a lunatic who had thrown common sense in the trash can.