Chapter 351: 43. Year-End Gift

After going into the Dungeon with Choi Yujun and {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} coming back out, I kindly delivered Choi Yujun all the way home. The bastard woke up and hurriedly coughed, looking at me as though he resented me, but before long he relaxed his eyes on his own and behaved obediently.

“Are you getting out here? Or should I take you to the place where you’re having your pool party?”

“Here! I’ll get out here. My fear of water came back again, so I’m not even going to shower for a while.”

“Wash yourself. That’s fucking filthy.”

At that, Choi Yujun’s eyes widened. Facing that look, I parked the car near where the bastard lived and said,

“I’ll tell you what you need to do from now on, so let’s do it properly, okay?”

“.......”

“Answer me.”

“Yes!”

As he said that, Choi Yujun’s eyes rolled sideways. Just from looking at him, it was obvious he was strangely working his head again. I grabbed the back of his head hard, pulled him close, and quietly warned him.

“Do you know I’m an awakened person or not.”

“...I know.”

“Just because you drag some fucking weak-ass bodyguards around doesn’t mean I can’t kidnap you. If you make me kidnap you one more time, then it won’t be a peaceful Dungeon like today?”

“Y-Yes? I never said I bring bodyguards around.... I didn’t, though?”

Bullshit. The bastard grabbed the seat belt and opened his eyes wide as though I had hit the nail right on the head.

'This bastard’s thinking never develops.'

Clicking my tongue, I flicked my hand at Choi Yujun.

“Stop thinking so shallowly that you keep getting seen through, and get lost.”

“Y-Yes....”

“Make sure you answer when I contact you. If you get caught trying some bullshit that won’t even work, just know I’ll beat the shit out of you until the Dungeon is cleared.”

“Yes....”

“And, fuck. Yujun, I’m saying all this because I want things to go well for you. You think I’m saying it because I want to fuck you over? Aren’t I finding you a place where you can succeed? If you’ve lived an easy life, then you should run into at least this much hardship while living. Isn’t that right?”

“That’s right.”

“Yeah, good. I’ll keep treating you well from now on too. You know that, right?”

“Yes.... Thank you.”

At those words, Choi Yujun nodded, gathered his clothes around himself, and got out of the car. I looked at him for a moment, like a drowned rat, then rolled down the window and even waved my hand to tell him to go safely.

“Bye.”

“Get home safely....”

“You should greet me properly.”

“Please go safely!”

Watching Choi Yujun bend deeply at the waist, I snickered and started the car.

'Maybe because it’s been a while since I played with him, it was fun.'

That didn’t mean I planned to meet him often. Well, my time was too valuable, there was no need, and there were various complicated reasons.

***

Maybe because I had started so many things, it took quite a lot of time just to deal with them. Still, fortunately, thanks to Im Haekyung paying attention to it, the frequency with which I entered Dungeons had decreased.

Of course, there were also things that weren’t fortunate. First of all, the fact that my poor condition kept continuing was the most fucking annoying, there was still a fucking lot of work I had to deal with, and from opening up close contact with the chairman of the Hunter Association to things involving Sung Uijae and Kang Sojeong, there wasn’t just one or two things I had to pay attention to.

And it was good up to the point that I had to enter Dungeons less often, but there was a problem with this too.

“Jehyun, today’s appraisal.... I think it would be better if you mainly did appraisal work through this week.”

“I’ll enter the Dungeon.”

“What? No, no. Just stay comfortable!”

“Yes.”

“Right, right.”

When I leaned back comfortably in the chair, Seok Jiwon cleared their throat a couple of times, then pretended to look around and lowered their voice.

“The guild master told us to keep you out of the field for a while, so there’s nothing we can do. I heard your condition isn’t very good. We’re not excluding you, okay?”

“My condition is good. That’s strange.”

“Ah, I know what’s going on between you two, so you can talk comfortably with me. I already took care of things so the other guild members won’t know.”

What exactly did they take care of?

I had no idea how a single remark from Im Haekyung could possibly have been distorted this far. Unless, from the beginning, it hadn’t been just a single remark.

For reference, the “measures” Seok Jiwon had talked about hadn’t worked at all. At this point, honestly, I would have expected Im Haekyung’s side to at least correct it and say it wasn’t true, but whether that bastard had gotten used to it by now or had decided that the misunderstanding had gotten too far out of control, Im Haekyung didn’t make any particular response.

“Yes.... What?”

“Tell the guild master later.”

“Tell them what?”

“Ahem, you know.... Like, I... let you off a little and things like that.”

“.......”

“Anyway, good work. Tell me if the work is hard!”

Watching Seok Jiwon disappear into the distance while even giving me a wink, I marveled inwardly. At this point, I couldn’t even get a sense of where to start and where to stop correcting things.

'Well, they’ll deal with it themselves. I don’t know, fuck.'

It did feel like they were treating me like an idiot, but I was already fucking busy with work anyway, so if they reduced my work, it was good for me. Even though Do Yehyun seemed not to like it.

Sure enough, I could see Do Yehyun in the distance staring coldly at Seok Jiwon and pressing his lips tightly together.

At that moment, a message came in.

'Oh.'

I hadn’t even imagined I would hear back this quickly.

The fact that I told Choi Yujun to invest in Kwon Taehan’s guild wasn’t actually me making a fuss without any reason. From the beginning, Seongmu Group, which had quickly seized the market as soon as Gates started appearing, was already in a situation where it was investing capital into various guilds.

Of course, it wasn’t their bastard son Choi Yujun who was doing that.

Still, there was a charitable organization with quite a lot of money under Choi Yujun’s name. It hadn’t been created for the purpose of being used for something like this, but anyway, through one of Seongmu Group’s subsidiaries, Choi Yujun put investment money into small guilds, including one-man guilds.

Kwon Taehan’s guild received the biggest share of that windfall.

Thanks to that, Kwon Taehan’s guild somehow managed not to go bankrupt and was doing well. No matter how many Dungeons Kwon Taehan went around clearing, the truth was that at this point, he still didn’t have enough money to lead an entire guild.

The guild had also been established earlier than originally scheduled. Of course, there was also the method of growing in size by receiving support from the Hunter Association, but this time Kwon Taehan seemed to have chosen a method that didn’t involve the Hunter Association.

If it had gone bankrupt just like that, things would have been difficult in various ways, so from the bastard’s point of view, he had received a really... nice gift.

I had even wondered what I should do if he stubbornly said he wouldn’t accept the investment, but fortunately, that didn’t happen. There was no way Choi Yujun had somehow managed to persuade him brilliantly, so it also seemed like there had been a change of heart.

I rolled my shoulder once and checked Kwon Taehan’s message.

When are you free

Fucking hilarious. If we parted like that last time, shouldn’t he have contacted me a little more... properly than this?

'We’ll talk when we meet, whatever.'

I smiled and replied to Kwon Taehan’s message.

Now?

The bastard read the message right away, hesitated for a moment, and then sent a reply.

I can’t right now

Ah... this bastard asked me when I had time, but now he was deciding it himself.

Let’s meet when you have plenty of time

Because I want to stay together for a long time

That was sincere too. Since I had confirmed that he had gratefully accepted the one gift I sent him, now it was time to give him the real gift.

Then, only after a few minutes, a reply finally came.

I’m free Saturday

Really? Then let’s meet then

It’s been a while

After that, it didn’t seem like a reply would be necessary anyway, so I didn’t check anymore.

***

Saturday, 7:00 a.m.

I went all the way to Kwon Taehan’s house myself and knocked on the door. I hadn’t particularly intended to find out Kwon Taehan’s home address, but because he was famous and wasn’t as thorough about management as Im Haekyung, among reporters it was almost being used like public property, so it was difficult to pretend I didn’t know it.

Before going up to the apartment where Kwon Taehan was staying, I pulled out the maintenance-fee notice stuck on the first floor, leisurely went upstairs, and pressed the doorbell.

'Hmm.'

There was a loud sound, but there was no response.

'No way this bastard is sleeping?'

He said he had kept the whole day free, so it didn’t seem like he would have gone out right now.

Bang bang bang—!!

After pressing the doorbell about five times in a row and even happily pounding on the door, I heard a noise from inside as though something had broken.

'What could the password be?'

Just in case, I opened Kwon Taehan’s door lock and entered the password that remained in my memory. 0522. It didn’t have any particular meaning, and very simply... it was Kwon Taehan’s birthday.

Beep.

And surprisingly, the lock opened.

'Pathetic bastard.'

I had a few more candidates in case of emergency, but there was no reason to use them anymore.

The moment I opened the door like that, one hand urgently shot out through the gap. Kwon Taehan grabbed the doorframe and the door tightly, looked at me, and, unable to hide his bewilderment, stammered.

“...Seo Jehyun?”

“Hi, Taehan.”

“Why.... Why?”

Did this fucker forget our appointment or what.

“That hurts my feelings.... Taehan, we had an appointment today. Here, I even brought something like this for you.”

“What is this....”

“Maintenance-fee notice. Fuck, Taehan. You have to pay your maintenance fees on time.”

“I do... pay them on time.”

Snatch, Kwon Taehan took the maintenance-fee notice out of my hand and continued staring at me with bewildered eyes.

“...How did you know the password?”

“You should’ve stopped setting your birthday as your password after elementary school. At this rate, seven-year-old Minjun from next door could search your name on a wiki and come in.”

“No one lives next door....”

“I see.”

Ignoring the bastard’s useless words, I put strength into it and pulled the door open wider. Kwon Taehan hurriedly said,

“But why now?”

“Move so I can come in.”

“I was... washing. You suddenly rang the doorbell....”

“Really? Then go inside and finish washing, and for now move so I can come in.”

“Why did you come?”

Fuck, he kept making me say the same thing from earlier. I pushed Kwon Taehan’s shoulder with my hand and said,

“I came to pick you up, Taehan....”

“Why would you....”

“Hmm, I usually come pick the other person up before a date? I have really good manners.”

“...What?”

Still acting stupid. If I came to pick him up in advance, he should know to be grateful. Besides, if we suddenly ended up entering a Dungeon, how the fuck was I supposed to know whether we’d both drive separately and then get fucked by the parking fees.

Even when I’m being considerate, seriously....

Ah, of course, there was the minor problem that the time Kwon Taehan and I had agreed to meet was 1:00 p.m., and right now it was 7:00 a.m.

Well, there wasn’t any other particular reason I came at this time. I just personally thought it would be good if we met early, so I decided to.

“You never said anything like that.”

“Ah, do you think that kind of thing is important? Then I’ll say it now.”

“.......”

“Let’s meet a little early, Taehan.”

I pulled the door with force and raised the corner of my mouth.

“Open the door.”