Holy B-Class Life

#041

“……”

“Stay put.”

Yoon Pa-ran, who had suddenly sat down, stared blankly at Dan Joo-hyuk’s retreating figure.

Dan Joo-hyuk returned to the gate entrance and continued explaining to the government official. It seemed he intended to keep the gate confidential for now, as the official’s face remained puzzled while listening to the explanation. Nevertheless, they soon began to move busily, sending in reserve hunters to maintain the gate.

Sitting under the clear morning sky, Yoon Pa-ran’s head suddenly felt even hazier.

His physical condition wasn’t good either, as if a chilling sensation kept wrapping around his body. It was as if the uncomfortable feeling he had experienced earlier had left a lasting burn mark.

He knew he should probably give a statement too, but strangely, he didn’t want to do anything. As he was focusing on that sensation and staring at the ground for a moment, a large shadow fell across his vision.

“It’s all over.”

Dan Joo-hyuk had returned and was looking down at him intently. Yoon Pa-ran nodded, trying hard to pull himself together.

Now he should contact the orphanage briefly and then move again. Despite the lingering feeling of dejection, he forced himself to organize his plans.

Then Dan Joo-hyuk abruptly said, “Take a rest for today.”

“Huh?”

It seemed odd that Dan Joo-hyuk, who had been acting like he could only breathe inside the gate, was now suggesting to rest.

Seemingly reading his confusion, Dan Joo-hyuk raised the corners of his mouth and added an explanation.

“Something came up.”

“Ah, I see.”

Right. An anomaly occurred in the gate. Dan Joo-hyuk might have things to handle outside.

After understanding this, a wave of fatigue suddenly hit him even harder. As he was calmly thinking about calling a taxi, Dan Joo-hyuk once again forcibly grabbed Yoon Pa-ran’s attention.

“I’ll drive you.”

“It’s fine.”

Yoon Pa-ran thought it was probably just an empty offer. He had learned painfully that although Dan Joo-hyuk appeared extremely kind on the surface, taking his words at face value would only lead to disappointment.

“I have something to talk about, so get in quietly.”

“Sigh……”

As expected, it was kindness with a separate motive.

Yoon Pa-ran nodded, unknowingly letting out a sigh. Dan Joo-hyuk, who had been silent for a while, turned around wordlessly.

As they headed towards Dan Joo-hyuk’s car nearby, Yoon Pa-ran habitually scanned his surroundings for attention. It was comfortable that there were no people near the gate since the two of them had been conquering it alone.

“Sleep a bit if you’re sleepy.”

As Yoon Pa-ran stretched out and leaned back in the passenger seat, Dan Joo-hyuk once again feigned kindness.

Having no intention of falling asleep so peacefully next to him, Yoon Pa-ran cut straight to the point.

“What did you want to say?”

“……”

The car started smoothly right away. Though he asked while fastening his seatbelt, no answer came.

Looking quizzically at Dan Joo-hyuk, he saw him staring straight ahead. What kind of conversation was he trying to have that required this much build-up?

An uneasy feeling rose unexpectedly, causing Yoon Pa-ran’s brow to furrow without him realizing it.

“For now, just rest quietly until the day after tomorrow.”

“The day after tomorrow?”

The rest period was longer than expected. It seemed that today’s incident was quite serious.

Well, the item that was supposed to be submitted as evidence suddenly disappeared, so Dan Joo-hyuk must be in a difficult position too.

“Other gates are still off-limits. It means don’t wander around as you please.”

The following spiteful words irritated Yoon Pa-ran a bit. Why did he keep arbitrarily deciding other people’s gate entry permissions?

However, the more he thought about it, the less reason he had to be angry with Dan Joo-hyuk. They had conquered many gates recently, enough to think this was sufficient.

Except for the dirty feeling of being pushed around by Dan Joo-hyuk, there wasn’t really anything bad about the situation.

Oh well, whatever.

“Alright.”

Yoon Pa-ran tried to relieve his frustration by roughly messing up his hair.

After that, silence continued. Yoon Pa-ran kept falling into deep thought, trying to recall the identity of the clock he had seen earlier.

Because of that, he was very tired but couldn’t fall asleep.

“We’ve arrived.”

Eventually, Dan Joo-hyuk’s car stopped in the alley where Yoon Pa-ran’s studio apartment was located.

Finally coming to his senses, Yoon Pa-ran quickly opened the car door and got out.

“I’m going.”

“Rest well.”

Another irritatingly sweet response came back, but Yoon Pa-ran didn’t bother to answer. He was just eager to take a shower.

However, as he got out of the car, Yoon Pa-ran suddenly felt puzzled.

The only thing Dan Joo-hyuk had to say was not to enter the gate until the day after tomorrow. It seemed like he could have said that outside the gate earlier.

“……”

Yoon Pa-ran unconsciously watched the retreating back of the car. Soon after, he came to a reasonable conclusion.

It must all be because of the contract. Just as Dan Joo-hyuk had repeatedly said.

Probably something in the contract about protecting Yoon Pa-ran’s safety. There was a clause about Dan Joo-hyuk providing appropriate assistance to ensure Yoon Pa-ran fulfilled the contract properly.

Maybe he was also trying to keep an eye on him to make sure he didn’t slip away somewhere else.

‘Of course, it’s because of our contract. What other reason could there be?’

With that judgment, all complicated thoughts disappeared, which was very comfortable.

❖ ❖ ❖

The next day.

Dan Joo-hyuk stared blankly at the document placed in front of him. It should contain the results of the investigation on the arm found in the gate yesterday.

“……”

He had received it a while ago, but lacking motivation, he was just staring at it. Although it probably wasn’t long enough to take several hours to go through, time was passing well enough thanks to it.

Dan Joo-hyuk, who had been killing time with a bored expression, finally picked up the document. It was around the time he realized that even killing time was futile.

“……”

As expected, the investigation results weren’t long. However, it was surprising that there was more progress than anticipated.

The body could be immediately identified as it belonged to a person who had been reported missing.

[CRO Investment CEO Lim Hyun-sung]

Dan Joo-hyuk tilted his head as he looked down at the business card of the deceased that was enclosed.

Who might this be?

The business was just a well-packaged shell. He was also a typical piece of trash with some unremarkable fraud records.

In many ways, he wasn’t the type of person likely to be found inside a gate. There were no circumstances to suspect him of being an unregistered hunter either.

In the end, it meant that once again, the body of an ordinary person, not a hunter, was found inside the gate.

Although they thoroughly searched the inside of the gate, no other bodies were found. This was also a difference from the previous anomalous gate.

In the pile of corpses from the anomalous gate, they failed to identify most of them except for a few. The fingerprints of those bodies were all smudged, and there were no notable missing person reports.

“Less interesting than I thought.”

It was a series of mysteries, but somehow it didn’t pique his interest.

It was public knowledge among the higher-ups of the Gate Management Office that Dan Joo-hyuk would enter this D-rank gate. So if someone was targeting Dan Joo-hyuk, they could have utilized this information sufficiently.

Having experienced life-threatening situations more than once or twice in his life, it wasn’t a particularly special event. However, unlike before when it contributed somewhat to Dan Joo-hyuk killing time, this too was quite indifferent.

Finally losing interest, Dan Joo-hyuk tossed the document he was holding back onto the table.

“……”

His head, suddenly drained of energy, rested on the back of the sofa. In that position, looking out the window, he once again held his breath quietly. The sunlight pouring brightly into the house was unnecessarily dazzling.

This was the first time in the past year that he hadn’t entered a gate for nearly two days.

Sometimes, the more he breathes, the more he feels like he’s suffocating. At such times, Dan Joo-hyuk would give up even struggling and act like a sculpture in the house like this.

As he had told Yoon Pa-ran, he did have a schedule. Originally, he should have entered three more gates yesterday, and apart from the fact that the schedule was actually only for today, that is.

Why did he do that?

What was it about that pale, weak face?

It wouldn’t have mattered if Dan Joo-hyuk had dealt with the remaining gates alone, but ridiculously, he didn’t feel like it. Maybe he thought it was a bothersome task since he didn’t have any skills he had been researching interestingly lately.

Anyway, after being cooped up at home for nearly two days, his condition wasn’t very good. He was in the midst of being consumed by an unpleasant sensation, as if mold was growing on his brain.

“Ah.”

A faint vibration sound awakened his mind.

With some kind of expectation, Dan Joo-hyuk turned his gaze towards his mobile phone. However, the expectation dissipated like smoke before he could even realize what it contained.

The name that appeared on the screen was Kim Sin-cheol.

“……”

After staring at it for a while, Dan Joo-hyuk reluctantly moved his hand.

“Yeah.”

―You know it’s today, right?

“Yeah.”

―Don’t be late. See you later.

As if proving their long-standing relationship, the call wasn’t long. The conversation, which briefly covered only the necessary business, ended quickly.

He forcibly awakened his mind that just wanted to remain buried.

As he tried to get up and prepare to go out, he noticed that the sun was already setting.

“……”

He had mindlessly let several more hours pass after the phone call ended. Realizing this fact, Dan Joo-hyuk smiled with satisfaction.

Although this process was getting slightly longer day by day, he didn’t mind.

❖ ❖ ❖

Today was the day Kim Sin-cheol had proposed to have dinner with his parents.

In the year Dan Joo-hyuk turned fourteen, he lost both his parents simultaneously. Despite living in an era with gates and monsters harming people, ironically, what took his parents away was an ordinary car accident.

It was Kim Sin-cheol’s parents who took in the still young Dan Joo-hyuk. This was because Dan Joo-hyuk had no relatives or grandparents he could rely on due to his parents’ limited family relationships.

Kim Sin-cheol’s parents were college classmates with Dan Joo-hyuk’s parents. After taking in Dan Joo-hyuk, Kim Sin-cheol’s parents tried to raise him like their own child.

If Dan Joo-hyuk hadn’t happened to awaken as the youngest S-rank hunter after that, their intentions might have been moderately successful.

“Joo-hyuk, you’re here.”

“Come in.”

“I hope you’ve both been well.”

As he entered his parents’ house, Dan Joo-hyuk suppressed his hunter’s aura as much as possible. He wore a smile on his face as if it had been painted on.

Although his conscience and morals had long since rotted away, he tried to maintain habitual courtesy. Even if it was for less than a year, they had done their best for Dan Joo-hyuk. And even after that, they had continued to make efforts for Dan Joo-hyuk, who was experiencing unprecedented events.

So this was a kind of last bastion of behavior for Dan Joo-hyuk.

Woof! Woof woof!

At that moment, a small white dog came rushing out, barking frantically. It was his parents’ pet dog.

The tiny body that could fit in Dan Joo-hyuk’s palm shook violently with each bark.

“Oh my, Somteol. Calm down.”

“……”

Looking down at the dog, Dan Joo-hyuk suddenly thought of Yoon Pa-ran.