He had expected that Sa-yoon wouldn’t stay still if he escaped right in front of him, but he didn’t think he would chase him with killing intent. If caught, he would die. He would certainly die. He sensed this from the overwhelming energy emanating from his pursuer, but it wasn’t easy to shake off Sa-yoon when he was determined to chase.

Compared to when facing monsters, Sa-yoon’s speed seemed slower, as if his physical abilities had dropped a level, but Geon-joo’s body was far from S-class. His escape attempt was rendered meaningless as he was quickly caught and faced a gaze that seemed to strike down from above. Geon-joo fully understood the meaning of a gaze like a blade when he faced Sa-yoon, who appeared soaked in anger from head to toe.

This wasn’t the usual Sa-yoon.

The sly, unnecessarily meddlesome man who always offered unwanted advice, that subtly familiar man was nowhere to be found, leaving only someone with flashing fury. A foot on his stomach applied pressure. While struggling to remove that foot as it was painful and suffocating, Geon-joo tried to decipher the emotions surfacing on Sa-yoon’s face.

Anger, betrayal, disappointment, and irritation.

All emotions were revealed without concealment. Facing that expression, a shiver ran through his body. Even in this situation, thinking that he had peeled away one layer made him wonder if he too was out of his mind.

‘Do I look like someone who’s not killing you out of the goodness of my heart?’

How could that be? Although Geon-joo recognized Sa-yoon as not as bad a person as he had thought, he had never considered him a good person. He was clearly a criminal who had kidnapped him. If he had truly been a good person, he would have considered gentler methods than kidnapping during their first meeting.

So no.

The reason you don’t kill me isn’t because you’re good.

It’s because you have a purpose.

That purpose, goal, reason—everything Geon-joo wanted to know was with Sa-yoon. For the first time, it seemed like Sa-yoon was bringing up the subject first, making his mouth go dry.

He couldn’t miss this opportunity, and he couldn’t let Sa-yoon compose himself again and hide back in his shell without revealing anything. Provoking him was the only way to discover what he wanted to know.

When Sa-yoon lost his reason, he seemed easily swept up in impulses, so perhaps even the secret he so desperately guarded might be revealed in a moment of impulse.

Geon-joo aimed for that and provoked Sa-yoon.

‘Are you thinking of killing me too? Like Noah?’

By mentioning a being that was like a sore spot for both of them.

As expected, Sa-yoon wavered. He hesitated, was annoyed, and moved his lips. He seemed to feel wronged.

Just a little more.

With just a little more provocation, he might get what he wanted. If that happened, Geon-joo would choose to give up his escape and remain by Sa-yoon’s side.

If only that happened…

But Sa-yoon wasn’t as easy as Geon-joo thought. More precisely, even in his excitement, his sharpness didn’t fade. He frowned for a moment as if ruminating on memories, then cursed, then made an incredulous expression, and finally looked humiliated.

Ah.

Seeing that expression, Geon-joo realized he had failed.

It seemed he had caught on.

‘Are you testing me?’

‘Are you testing me, you bastard?’

He had wanted to know Sa-yoon’s true feelings, but his own intentions were exposed. Actually, it would have been a feat not to be discovered, so Geon-joo didn’t waver. He had expected that someday Sa-yoon would figure it out. He just didn’t know that day would be today, this moment. It was regrettable, but the opportunity had flown away. In the end, there was no truth he could directly extract from Sa-yoon.

But it was different from the night of the welcome party. It was also different from when he asked again about his purpose in the field to make up his mind. Unlike then, when he knew nothing and could find out nothing, now Geon-joo had the quest window.

If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine.

But what can I do?

‘I’ve already found a clue.’

If Sa-yoon wouldn’t reveal the truth, he would just follow the clues. In the end, for the time being, it was right for them to separate. As it was, nothing would change.

Why wouldn’t it change?

Because you see me as just a child? Because you see me as just a kid you need to guard? Or is it because I’m not in a position to hear your secret?

Whatever the reason, he needed to break free from the current relationship where he was in Sa-yoon’s grasp and Sa-yoon kept pressing him down endlessly. He couldn’t live like this forever. What he had to do someday was just brought forward a little. Because of Sa-yoon’s secret.

‘I think we need to become more equal.’

‘At this rate, you won’t change. You’ll keep acting this way. Because that’s how you’ve lived.’

‘I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be pushed around by the Guild Master anymore.’

Since meeting Sa-yoon, he had never not been pushed around by him. How many decisions had he made on his own? Being kidnapped, entering the gate, even Noah’s death—none reflected his will. Since meeting him, the only thing Geon-joo had chosen for himself was this escape.

This relationship was tilted.

From my perspective, I’m the one receiving unfair treatment, but from yours, it might be different.

Yes, it might be different for you.

So.

‘So try to understand.’

We needed to understand each other a little more.

It might be absurd, ridiculous, and irritating, but bear with it. Since meeting you, I’ve endured all those emotions too.

“…Hmm.”

As he ruminated on the memories, the emotions from that time surfaced vividly, wrapping around him as if to take control. Judging by how vivid it was, it must have been quite an intense memory.

Was there ever a time when it wasn’t intense?

Geon-joo suddenly raised his head to look at Sa-yoon with this doubt in mind. Thinking about it, not once since meeting Sa-yoon had he spent a moderate time. Yet he had lived a moderate life until then.

He had studied as much as others, gained as much experience as others, and lived just as well as others. He wasn’t particularly unhappy, nor extremely poor, nor overflowing with happiness. He was just moderate. Although others seemed to look at his life with envious eyes, perhaps because of his appearance, Geon-joo felt his life was uninteresting and boring, without a single vibrant pulse of life.

Many people approached him, but when times were tough, he had no friends to contact, and he lived a mediocre life surrounded by mediocre people. That’s why he was quite excited when he became a hunter. It was the first extraordinary change that had come to him. It was a variation in a life that had been monotonously tedious.

He thought something would be different if he became a hunter and began activities in earnest. At least, he thought he would spend time that was more passionate, happier, or more undulating than now.

Although he never imagined the undulations would be like this.

Since being kidnapped by a criminal, it had been a series of hardships and adversities. If there were a section to record life’s hardships and adversities, writing “Sa-yoon” would be sufficient.

Yet despite everything I’ve endured, if I don’t hate you, is it because I wanted a change in my life?

Geon-joo slowly blinked his eyelids and captured Sa-yoon’s face, who seemed lost in thought, in his pupils.

To be honest, he knew. He knew that if it had been others, they would have been planning to escape when they realized the guild they were forced to join was a criminal guild, or they would have attempted to escape secretly or tried to kill Sa-yoon when forcibly dragged into a gate.

But Geon-joo didn’t do that. When dragged into the gate, he was just annoyed, without particularly thinking of killing him or hating him to death. He just thought it would be nice to get back at him once.

Then he even developed affection and now was going through self-imposed hardship to learn more about him. If others heard his story, they would likely ask, “You were kidnapped, almost died, were forced to do things you didn’t want, and went through hell, yet you want to understand the person who did this to you?”

Even he thought he was strange.

But what could he do?

He wanted this.

It seemed that’s the kind of person he was born to be.

“So the place you escaped to was that gate.”

Sa-yoon, who had been lost in thought for a while, asked in a low voice. Despite having given a long, detailed explanation so that he could understand why he ran away, Sa-yoon not inquiring about that part was strangely unpleasant. Geon-joo frowned once, then nodded.

“Yes. When I used the Survival Instinct skill to escape from the Guild Master, the system opened a gate for me. So I entered there and…”

Hmm.

Geon-joo briefly ruminated on the memory and frowned. The memories inside the gate couldn’t be called good, even as a white lie.

And for good reason.

“I was trapped there for a year.”

The system had promised to make him S-class but had trapped him in that gate for a year.

And it made him go through a killer monster elimination course.

He could dare say that what he experienced in there was more terrible and vicious than all the malicious training Sa-yoon had put him through in the field. For one thing, inside that gate, he had been made into a body that wouldn’t die even if killed.