“…Lately it seems I’m waking up like this far too often.”

Opening his eyes to the feeling of pressure like someone pressing down on his solar plexus, Sa-yoon let out a bitter laugh at how familiar it felt to find himself moved to his room while unconscious. Rai, who raised his head at the vibration of Sa-yoon’s stomach, barked “Woof!” happily, but Sa-yoon didn’t pet him. The summon on top of him was simply too large for that.

“You climb on top of me without even considering your size.”

Woof!

“Stop barking. Why is Fenrir barking like a common dog with no dignity?”

Even young, a Fenrir is still a Fenrir. As befitting a top-tier summon, Rai’s bark revealed threatening fangs, but to Sa-yoon he just looked like a young puppy. Though calling him young might be strange given he was larger than Sa-yoon, but that was just a characteristic of the Fenrir species, so he let it slide.

At any rate, having a summon whose height easily surpassed his own when standing upright lying on his stomach couldn’t be anything but heavy. It was only thanks to reaching A-rank that he could endure this much—if he were still B-rank, he might have been coughing up blood before even opening his eyes. Frowning, he tapped the bed telling Rai to get down, and the beast whimpered uncharacteristically before climbing down to lick his cheek.

“So, do you know why I’m here?”

While stroking Rai’s tail as if pulling it, Sa-yoon asked, and the Fenrir barked “Woof!” again. At the same moment, the door opened revealing a familiar face.

“You’re awake.”

“Somehow this situation feels way too familiar as well.”

“Pardon?”

“Nothing.”

Muttering at the intense sense of déjà vu, Sa-yoon sat up while half-embracing the Fenrir. Leaning against the headboard, he carefully traced his recent memories.

“I only remember getting to A-rank and leaving the gate.”

“You collapsed after that, so you wouldn’t remember.”

“No wonder I can’t think of anything.”

Sa-yoon responded calmly before realizing something odd about the conversation and opening his eyes wide.

“Wait, collapsed?”

“You were so nonchalant I thought it was a common occurrence, but apparently not. That’s a relief.”

How is this a relief?

While Sa-yoon might die occasionally, he rarely collapsed. He could proudly say it hadn’t happened even once since reaching S-rank.

Of course, he was only A-rank now.

Was that why he collapsed?

As he stood there confused by the unfamiliar situation, Jaehee handed him a glass of water.

“You collapsed while saying we should head back. I figured your body relaxed when fatigue recovered, so I had you lie down—how do you feel?”

“I feel fine physically.”

“That’s good then. Now that you’ve experienced why you shouldn’t overdo it, let’s adjust the schedule going forward. Maximum three gates per day, and two days off per week. Even though I said I’d help you, I had no intention of running gates like manual labor like this.”

“Two days is too much.”

“Korea has two weekend days, how is that too much? Seeing you call even this many holidays excessive makes your employees’ situation pretty clear.”

Those employees worked without even feeling tired. When they got tired while working, they’d pass out with their heads on their desks. Then the standby response team would appear to carry them to sofas, and when they woke up, they’d go right back to work. Wanting to respond with that but feeling like it would make him sound like an evil guild master, Sa-yoon searched for a different excuse.

“They get paid well.”

“High earnings are good, but money doesn’t determine life’s happiness.”

“But it can improve quality of life.”

“I agree with that, but happiness is more fundamental than that. Having money doesn’t make you happy, does it?”

“Hey, I’m not like other people…”

“You’re not, because your situation is different. That situation determines happiness. Not money.”

How is this bastard so good with words?

Everything he said was spot on, making it hard to deny. Unwillingly closing his mouth and furrowing his brow, Sa-yoon returned to the topic of days off.

“One day. I’ll allow that much consideration.”

“Come to think of it, with seven days in a week, why take two days off? Let’s make it three.”

“One day.”

“How about splitting it evenly between work and rest? Three and a half days. Like that.”

“If we’re doing it that way, why don’t we both compromise and just run gates until Saturday morning?”

“Sounds good. Let’s do that.”

“…”

What kind of person is this?

Sa-yoon’s mouth gaped before letting out an empty breath. He felt like he’d been had. No, he hadn’t just felt it—he had been had. Wasn’t it unfair to throw such a punch at someone who’d just woken up?

He felt extremely wronged but had no one to complain to.

To lose a day and a half of his precious week. His heart ached hearing what seemed like the crying of the S-rank gates that had been eagerly awaiting him.

He tried persuading Jaehee one more time with those words, but it didn’t work at all. Lee Jaehee was one stubborn bastard.

“You’re the only one who takes this much from me.”

“It’s fortunate there’s at least one person like that.”

“…seriously.”

What the hell is in that head of yours?

Sa-yoon genuinely wanted to open up Jaehee’s skull and take a look. As he tried organizing his confused thoughts about this man whose personality became more puzzling with each conversation, his phone on the table started buzzing. Checking it, he saw a message from Yen.

It was about time to go anyway.

After receiving the message, he got ready to head out after a quick wash, when Jaehee, who had summoned even Shiro and Maru to watch TV, gave him a skeptical look.

“Are you going to a gate?”

“No. The office.”

“Office?”

“Yeah. Got work to do.”

Now that he’d reached A-rank. He’d left guild work alone for too long, so it was time to check on things. Besides, Jongsik had asked him to verify if everything was running smoothly.

When else would he have time if not now when he’d been advised to take a break from gate clearing?

Thinking the timing of the message was good, Sa-yoon looked down at his phone screen.

[I left the documents you asked for on your desk♡]

Apart from the good timing, he wished she’d leave out that disgusting heart.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Sa-yoon deleted Yen’s message and smirked at Jaehee who was staring at him.

“If you’re bored, come work with me.”

It was meant half-jokingly, but Lee Jaehee actually got up from the sofa. Not only that, he even followed him into the elevator, making things awkward.

“Earlier you said you wanted to rest. After negotiating for days off because you wanted to rest, what’s with the sudden change?”

“It’s not that I want to help with work specifically. I’m just curious what your office looks like. Honestly, who wouldn’t be curious about the office of the number one crime guild?”

“Ah…”

That damned curiosity.

Sa-yoon would bet that if you took curiosity out of Jaehee, only a corpse would remain. He gave a sidelong glance at the man who seemed to be trolling someone heading to work, then left the elevator. In his office which he hadn’t visited in a while, Jongsik was already inside organizing documents.

“Boss? Is it okay for you to be up?”

“What, should I not be?”

“No, it’s just that I heard you collapsed…”

“That reached your ears too?”

“The guys were talking about it, wasn’t that right?”

At this exchange, Sa-yoon turned to look at Jaehee. Since he was the one who took care of Sa-yoon when he collapsed last night, he must have been the one who brought him into the guild. When Sa-yoon asked exactly how he’d entered for rumors to spread, and heard that he’d been carried in on Rai’s back, he pressed his forehead with his hand.

“This is insane. You carried me in through the main entrance on that huge guy’s back.”

“Yes.”

“Draped like a pile of laundry.”

“That position seemed best at the time.”

“Ha.”

This was basically entering while openly displaying their collapsed boss for everyone to see. The fact that there was no malice in that action made it even more infuriating. Pressing his temples while suppressing his anger, Sa-yoon sighed and headed to his desk.

“Was that not the right way to bring you in?”

“It’s not that it wasn’t right. Just that you clearly don’t care about my dignity at all.”

“Oh my. So it hurt your dignity. I’ll be more careful next time.”

“Yeah, why don’t you bang gongs while you’re at it.”

“Should I buy one?”

“…”

He couldn’t tell if it was a joke or serious. Sa-yoon’s shoulders twitched as he looked up, and when their eyes met, he sighed at the man’s smirk. It seemed like a joke, but he couldn’t feel relieved at all.

He’d misjudged.

It seemed better to just let Jaehee do nothing except open gate reward boxes.

“Ah, Boss. About the proposal from Cecil regarding acquiring shares of the Dragon-Tiger Guild we merged with back then…”

“Reject it.”

“Yes.”

While reviewing documents with Jongsik who had somehow already taken his seat, furrowing his brow, Jaehee, who had been looking around the office, sat on the sofa and picked up a stack of papers. They were documents Sa-yoon had jokingly offered him to look at if he had nothing better to do.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m bored.”

“Nothing better to do?”

“Apparently not.”

He looked around before answering. Well, an extra pair of hands only makes things easier for the guild master. Knowing from reviewing gate documents together that his work ability wasn’t too bad, Sa-yoon had Jongsik separate documents Jaehee could and couldn’t see before continuing to handle important matters.

After the sound of turning papers continued in the office for a while.

“So what kind of person was he?”

Jaehee suddenly asked an out-of-nowhere question. Sa-yoon, who found the small text looking blurry after his rank drop, took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

“What kind of person who?”

“Han Geon-joo. I heard he used to be in this guild?”

“…”

At that moment, all sound ceased at once. The sound of turning papers, the scratching of pens. In the silent office, Jongsik’s lips quivered. As if reacting to a name that shouldn’t have been mentioned, Sa-yoon put down the documents he was holding.

“How do you know that name?”

Speaking while glancing sideways, Jaehee shrugged.

“The guild members were talking about me that way. Asking if I was the pretty boy who came after Han Geon-joo ran away. Of course, I told them that wasn’t right since I’m not a pretty boy. If anything, I’m more of a handsome guy than a pretty boy.”

Jaehee touched his face and said with a slight smile. Feeling a headache coming on, Sa-yoon looked at the smiling man with an exasperated expression.

There he goes again, talking nonsense with a straight face.