Despite kicking Jongsik to the couch and claiming the bed, Sa-yoon couldn’t get quality sleep. He opened his eyes with difficulty, feeling fatigue spreading through his entire body via his bloodstream. He didn’t want to get up. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this emotion.
Though he wanted to become one with the bed and lie there for about a month, he decided against it since he’d done that just days ago. There was much to do. He needed to run gates, check Jae-hee’s abilities, and clear backed-up quests. One body but too much to do. Groaning about how the system never let him rest, he let out a grunt and sat up, first noticing Jongsik sprawled on the couch.
He’d managed to stuff that huge frame onto the couch. Sa-yoon briefly marveled at the peculiar sight of him sleeping with one leg hanging off the armrest and one arm hugging the backrest, then checked the wall clock while rolling his stiff neck. It was still early morning. Since he’d only gotten to sleep at dawn, he hadn’t slept very long.
No wonder I’m so damn tired.
Though he’d gone to bed late, he hadn’t fallen asleep right away. For some reason, sleep wouldn’t come, and he’d tossed and turned several times before finally dozing off, and even then he’d kept waking up, getting only light sleep. No wonder he was yawning wide enough to split his face. Wiping away the physiological tears while coming out of the bathroom after washing up, he shook his head. Perhaps woken by the water sound, Jongsik, now sitting properly on the couch unlike when Sa-yoon went to shower, stood to greet him but briefly showed shock.
“…Boss, are you alright?”
“What?”
“You look very tired.”
“I’m tired every day. My body’s perfectly fine.”
“If you’re fine, why does your face…”
Jongsik’s eyebrow twitched at the casual response before he let out a resigned sigh. At that reaction, Sa-yoon checked the mirror and was surprised to see his own face after quite a while. A thoroughly exhausted person stood in the mirror.
Touching his sallow cheeks, he thought even an office worker who’d pulled three all-nighters would look more alive than him. Though he’d always been pale, today he looked not just pale but sickly and ashen like someone with a serious illness. The dark circles under his eyes were remarkably deep, and his lips were rough with peeling skin. Being tired was one thing, but looking this wrecked from missing just one night’s sleep? It was so different from his usual appearance that he was turning his head this way and that in disbelief when Jongsik brought a blanket and covered him with it.
“Did you not sleep again? Should I prescribe some sleeping pills for awakened ones?”
“Don’t bother. They won’t work on S-rank anyway… Ah.”
Sa-yoon, habitually refusing, belatedly remembered his rank had dropped to C. So that was it. No wonder his face looked so different from when he was S-rank – the rank drop had shown so drastically. When he was S-rank, his excellent stamina and physical stats had kept him looking fine even after several sleepless nights of stress, but he hadn’t known dropping to C-rank would show this much.
“C-rank sucks.”
A newly realized disadvantage. While expressing his dissatisfaction about the inconveniences and hardships of low rank, Jongsik brought cold green tea and handed him a cup.
“I told you not to serve it cold in the morning.”
Though frowning, he skillfully took the green tea and downed it in one shot while Jongsik went to the bathroom to wash up. The man dried his wet face by pressing it firmly with a towel, then collected the towel from Sa-yoon’s head and threw both into the laundry room.
“Boss, you need to raise your rank first. My heart can’t take you acting like an S-rank while being C-rank. What if you get seriously hurt? If needed, I’ll help, so let’s focus on ranking up first.”
“Ah, that’s fine.”
“What?”
“I said it’s fine without your help. You have lots of work. Go do it.”
“But if you take me along, I could be useful…”
“Boss, it’s been over a year since you entered a gate with me. You should use me at times like this, I may not look it but I’m S-rank…” Jongsik muttered in what seemed like a disappointed or hurt voice. Sa-yoon looked at the workaholic with a somewhat bewildered expression. With all the work he was handling, how could he offer to help with rank-up too? Though Jongsik was capable and skilled at handling multiple tasks simultaneously, giving him more work would be too much.
Who would take responsibility if he broke down and quit?
Though unlikely, it was still concerning. Of course, Jongsik would have to stake his life taking responsibility for that resignation.
“I said it’s fine, just do your work.”
“Then should I at least assign some others to help?”
“I prefer being alone. Most aren’t up to par. Besides, I’ve already found someone to help with ranking up.”
“What?”
When?
Jongsik, who had naturally brought a hair dryer and sat Sa-yoon down, blinked. Whirrr. The dryer’s noise filled the gap. Letting him do whatever he wanted with his hair, Sa-yoon rolled his eyes toward the door. Following his gaze, Jongsik stared at the firmly closed door before letting out a small “Ah.”
“Lee Jae-hee?”
“Yeah.”
He was talented enough to not just help with ranking up but even carry him. Since it would be his first time riding an S-rank summoner bus, Sa-yoon chuckled, and Jongsik sighed and shook his head at their leader who was laughing like a perfect villain without any flaws.
“I told you not to laugh like a gumiho, and now you’re laughing like a villain…”
“What did you say?”
“The new hair dryer is quite good. Should we replace them all with this model?”
“You’re scared after all.”
Innocent, naive, and loyal. Though his looks and actions suggested he should work at some association, he was an executive in a criminal organization – life was truly unpredictable.
When he stood up as his hair was mostly dry, Jongsik followed to see him off and help him prepare to leave. Since it was only 7 AM, Sa-yoon waved him off saying he could rest more and pushed Jongsik’s shoulder away as he left the room.
Can’t tell if he’s a butler, executive, or secretary. Come to think of it, he seemed to do all three jobs, Sa-yoon thought as he glanced at Jongsik’s room before heading to his own. He couldn’t sense any presence. No, maybe he just couldn’t sense it in his C-rank state. Debating whether to knock, he decided it was his room anyway and entered without hesitation to find the man sitting on the bed basking in sunlight turn to look at him.
“You’re up.”
It was a time when Han Geon-joo would be sleeping in, but Jae-hee seemed to have no trouble with early mornings. Sa-yoon spoke while entering with his shoes on, and Jae-hee tilted his head slightly and smiled. Whether due to the morning or the bright sunlight, his hair looked unusually bright compared to other times.
“Did you sleep well?”
“More or less. You?”
“Thanks to you, I slept well.”
Judging by how pleasantly relaxed his voice sounded, he’d clearly slept better than Sa-yoon had. After checking Jae-hee’s status window once more to see if anything had changed overnight and confirming there were no issues, Sa-yoon spoke.
“Then let’s go to a gate.”
“…?”
Jae-hee’s eyes widened at Sa-yoon suggesting they leave less than a minute after entering the room. Regardless, Sa-yoon grabbed the arm of the dazed man and pulled him up. As he trudged forward, Jae-hee followed slowly while tilting his head.
“To a gate first thing in the morning?”
“Since when did gates care about day or night?”
“That’s true.”
After seeming to think for a moment, he nodded and then obediently let himself be pulled along. He was truly a peculiar man.
***
“By the way, which gate are we going to?”
“You’re asking quite late.”
He was brought out after preparations but only asks now? Sa-yoon looked strangely at the man who had just gotten into someone else’s guild car without knowing the destination. Was he this defenseless because he was confident in his abilities, or did he lack wariness because he could see through everything? Either way, it was equally baffling. Seriously, what if he’d taken him to an uncleared gate – why had he just followed along like that?
“You followed without even knowing that?”
“Since I decided to follow your schedule, I was planning to go wherever.”
“…”
Hmm, definitely crazy. Momentarily lost for words at the unsettling things he kept casually saying with that normal-looking face, Sa-yoon clicked his tongue and handed over the file he was holding. It was a list of ten gates owned by Night Rats that Sa-yoon had selected for clearing quests.
“Pick whichever you want from there. I’m not saying we’ll go to all of them, but I’ll consider them when planning the schedule. Since we’re cooperating, I should give you some choice.”
When he spoke as if being generous, Jae-hee opened the file and examined the documents inside.
“Hmm. Which gate are we going to this time?”
“Fantasy Theater.”
“Fantasy Theater would be A-rank, right?”
The man looking through the file raised his head. Sa-yoon responded in an unconcerned tone.
“Yeah, it’s A-rank.”
“Your rank is…”
The man trailed off, looking at Sa-yoon as if he couldn’t understand. Perhaps conscious of the guild member in the driver’s seat, he left it unfinished, but Sa-yoon could guess what he’d been about to say. Probably asking why a C-rank would try to clear an A-rank gate.
That expression reminded him of someone, making Sa-yoon close his mouth. He’d thought they had nothing in common, but this aspect seemed quite similar.
Or not.
Was this just something any normal person would question?
Well, trying to tackle a gate two ranks higher wasn’t ordinary. But was he an ordinary awakened one? He wasn’t just any C-rank, but an S-rank who used to clear uncleared gates like eating meals. He was something like an experienced C-rank, so clearing an A-rank gate wasn’t impossible.
Of course, he’d only cleared two low-rank gates since quitting his shut-in lifestyle, but what did a little overexertion matter? After all, he was an existence that couldn’t die, and Jae-hee knew his identity to some extent, so even losing his life in the gate wouldn’t be a big problem. Though he couldn’t show his suicide show in front of Geon-joo out of concern for their relationship, he had no such reservations with Jae-hee.
Since he already knew about being swayed by the system, wouldn’t he be even more interested to learn about being able to come back to life through the system?
Based on last night, it seemed entirely possible, so Sa-yoon looked with jaded eyes at the man stroking his chin. Suddenly, he felt thankful that Jae-hee was a good person. He was already a lunatic obsessed with his beliefs – imagine if he’d been an evil person with twisted beliefs. The world would have been screwed.