Ji Hayeon glared fiercely at Sawon. Sawon just laughed, pressing his cheeks a couple more times before letting go. From a distance, Mok Geonho shouted:“— Hey, why do you keep picking fights with the Chief? Is he your friend or something?”“— Yeah, he is. Got a problem?”“— This bastard, seriously. Chief, don’t go easy on Gu Sawon.”Apparently, Mok Geonho had gotten used to Ji Hayeon in that short time; he threw in a few words of his own. Ji Hayeon drained his beer can in one go. He hadn’t even drunk that much, but his cheeks and neck were flushed bright red.They did say intellect-types had bad stamina. Was he weak to alcohol too?Watching his face turn into a real-time radish was a hundred times more entertaining than the hunters’ chatter. Sawon turned fully toward Ji Hayeon now. Mok Geonho pointed accusingly.“— You’re about to hassle the Chief again, aren’t you?”Leaning his upper body against the sofa back, Sawon shrugged.“— What’s that supposed to mean, Mok Geonho? When did I ever hassle him? I’ve never picked a fight with the Chief.”“— I saw you squish his face just now, same way you do with Nine. Don’t deny it. The Chief might’ve only been on my team for a day, but he was still my team member. I won’t just sit back and watch you pull your crap anymore.”A helpless laugh slipped out of Sawon.Most hunters were like that, but especially Mok Geonho — he felt a particularly strong sense of responsibility and camaraderie toward his team members.The trip to Hinari must have been what opened his heart to Ji Hayeon. Sawon glanced sideways.That side doesn’t seem to think so, though.He rolled his shoulders in another shrug.“— When did I ever do anything bad? And what’s wrong with treating him like I treat Nine. I cherish and love Nine so much.”“— Ki!”At that, Nine, who had been quiet all this time, poked his head out from one of the arm guards.“— See? Nine agrees.”“— That little monkey isn’t exactly refined either.”“— This won’t do. Nine, go. Show that timid hyung what real mischief looks like.”Like he was throwing a monster ball, Sawon stretched his arm forward. Nine actually sprang toward the hunters’ table, then grabbed onto Mok Geonho’s hair like a tree branch and dangled from it. Laughter burst out as Mok Geonho shouted in annoyance, beer spilled across the table, soaking the snacks. Sawon watched the rather adorable chaos with satisfaction.Meanwhile, Ji Hayeon was still sitting quietly, clutching his beer can. Sawon stared openly at his now-bright red neck.“— Why are you staring like that.”“— Your face and neck are insane. They’re really red.”“…That’s just how my body is.”Ji Hayeon hunched his shoulders and covered his neck with his hand.“— Did you get mad because I grabbed your cheeks like I do with Nine?”“…No.”He was still stiff as a board. That kind of rigid, wooden attitude when trying to hide fluster was usually read in two ways. Either he was angry, or he was embarrassed.Since it wasn’t the former, the answer could only be the latter. It made him want to check. This time, Sawon slowly ran his index finger through Ji Hayeon’s light-colored hair.“— I teased you because you reminded me of Nine, Chief.”Ji Hayeon looked back at him, puzzled.“— I reminded you of a monkey…? Me?”“— No. Of Nine. I mean, to be precise, the Nine I really, really cherish, love, and dote on.”Ji Hayeon furrowed his brows. Those light-colored eyes started wandering in midair, flustered.Ah. Why is his reaction so cute.Holding back a grin trying to break out, Sawon bumped his forearm lightly against his own shoulder.“— I said I think you’re cute. Why aren’t you answering?”“— Huh…?”Those pale irises trembled as they looked at him. Sawon bit down gently on the inside of his cheek. If he didn’t, he’d want to chomp his shoulder in one big bite like he did with Nine.“— What are you even talking about…”Reaching out to him, Sawon spoke.What else.“— I’m saying I think you’re cute, Chief.”Ji Hayeon searched his eyes, trying to read his intent. Then, realizing that Sawon wasn’t just joking around, he stumbled back and shot to his feet.“— I’m tired. I’m going first.”Before Sawon could stop him, he strode off. Even then, he naturally headed toward the direction of the director-only elevator Sawon had told him about. Propping his chin on the back of the sofa, Sawon watched him go.Guess that elevator’s fine to ride alone.Thinking he’d been right to tell him about it, Sawon finally joined Mok Geonho’s table.***Bang, bang, bang!Early in the morning, someone started pounding on the door. Squirming under the blanket, Sawon sat up.“— Ugh… who is it at this hour.”Bang, bang, bang!“…What the hell…”This time a groan came from the far bed. The moment he heard Ji Hayeon mumble, Sawon’s eyes snapped open. He kicked the blanket off and sat up.“— Who the hell is banging on our door at this hour.”Wearing nothing but briefs, he yanked the door open. Standing outside was Mok Geonho.“— What, you’re still sleeping?”Sawon glanced at the clock on the wall. It had just passed 6 a.m.“— Still? It’s only six.”“— I told you to help with my morning training.”Sawon frowned.“— When did you say that.”“— Wow, this bastard really didn’t listen to a word I said. I told you yesterday I needed a sparring partner to prep Seo Hansu for his test. I thought you were listening while we were on comms, but you weren’t listening at all, huh.”Only then did last night come back to him.At the party table, between the others, he’d taken a call with Ji Hayeon. He’d been worried about whether Ji got back okay and wanted to check one more time that his body was fine.While he was on comms with Ji, Mok Geonho had said something to him, and he’d just gone, yeah, sure, do whatever you want, without really listening. As Mok said, he hadn’t heard a thing.There was movement under the blanket on Ji Hayeon’s bed. Nine, who’d been dozing by Sawon’s side, sat up on the bed, blinking sleepily at him.Letting someone’s words go in one ear and out the other had now come back as early-morning noise destroying his sleep. Rubbing his forehead, Sawon looked at Mok.“— All I have to do is spar, right?”“— Yeah. I booked the training room from six, but if we don’t hurry, we won’t get many rounds in.”Annoyingly diligent about this sort of thing, that was Mok Geonho. With a sigh, Sawon pulled on a zip-up training hoodie and pants.“— What test is Seo Hansu taking, anyway. Is he taking the senior exam?”“— You bastard. I told you that yesterday too.”Sawon raised his brows with a did you? look. Checking his watch, Mok said:“— The Hunter entry exam schedule got moved up. Next week is the first round.”“— The entry exam?”Throwing on his clothes, Sawon zipped up to his chin. Nine staggered over and wrapped himself tight around Sawon’s calf.“— They said the casualties were bad this time, so they’re pushing recruitment up. And.”Mok stepped closer, dropping his voice.“— They’re going to make it a bit easier too.”For a second, Director Kwon’s words flashed through Sawon’s mind.‘Lately, the number of Awakened has been dropping.’Apparently the drop in hunter numbers was hitting harder than expected. He didn’t know what excuse they’d give publicly, but knowing the real reason left a sour taste. Hugging Nine into his arms, Sawon shoved ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ his feet into his sneakers.“— Let’s go.”“— Gu Sawon, hang on.”With his hair all mussed, Ji Hayeon pushed himself up from the bed.“— If you two are sparring, you’re going to use Metena, right? I’m coming too.”“— You too, Chief? Why?”“— Why not, Chief? You should sleep more.”They spoke at the same time. Having just woken them up, Mok Geonho had the nerve to say something like you should sleep more.Ji Hayeon shot him a brief glare, then came out to the entryway wearing long training pants and a long-sleeved T-shirt, a hoodie draped over his arm.“— I want to measure your Metena increase during combat. Most of the records are biased toward the afternoon, and we’ve hardly ever measured yours.”He glanced at Sawon.“— Why do you suddenly want to measure that? Not like there’s anything wrong with the training. Do whatever you want.”Puzzled but agreeable, Sawon nodded. With him okay with it, there was no way Mok — the one who’d rudely wrecked their sleep — could refuse. Cracking his knuckles, Mok said:“— Then we should go a little harder today.”Shoving him out the door with a shoulder, Sawon said:“— We’ll go down first and warm up, so Chief, drink some milk or something and come down after.”Ji Hayeon gave him a dubious look. His expression clearly said, Why are you going on about milk when we could just go together? Sawon replied with only the shape of his mouth.'Elevator.'Only then did Ji Hayeon’s face go oh, right.Of course, Mok would use the central elevator. The completely enclosed one that Ji Hayeon couldn’t ride. Catching on to his intent, Ji bit his lip and spun around.“— Don’t start before I get there.”“— Okay. Don’t worry. We’ll wait. See you in a bit.”Out in the hall, Mok said, baffled:“— What are you two, a married couple?”“— You’re only realizing that now?”Sawon shot back without missing a beat. Mok shook his head.“— How long does it take to drink milk. You could just wait and go together.”“— Mok. Chief isn’t like us. His body type is the kind that has to chew every sip of milk carefully for it to digest. You think he can drink comfortably with us standing there staring at him?”“…Is that so?”Is that so, my ass.Good thing Mok had no sense. Throwing an arm around his shoulders, Sawon dragged him along.***Hunters usually did endurance training twice a day, morning and afternoon. It was technically voluntary, personal training, but almost no hunters skipped it.The schedule and intensity were at the level of pro athletes — and that was just their warm-up. Stamina-types kept themselves in this “baseline warmed up” state unless something special was going on, for one simple reason: so that, no matter when they were suddenly deployed, they could immediately fight at a hundred percent.“— It’s been a while since you sparred, huh?” Mok asked.“— Yeah. But I haven’t skipped my personal workouts.”The elevator had already passed the fifth basement level. Looking around, Sawon answered:“— Hey, how does the director’s elevator work for the basement floors?”He’d only remembered the training room was on B8 after getting into the elevator. He’d never checked whether the director’s glass-walled elevator was still bright and open even belowground. A belated worry hit him.“— Why are you asking about the Director’s elevator?”“— Just curious. You seen it?”“— I rode it once when the Director came to observe. Man, they really poured money into that line. The basement floors are decked out like a department store. They put gravel down around the elevator, installed these fountain things and plants — looks great.”Only then did Sawon relax and lean his head against the elevator wall. So it wasn’t dark.That was close.He should’ve sent Mok down alone instead of telling Ji to come by himself. Chiding himself for being careless, Sawon renewed his resolve to stick closer to Ji from now on. He was already taking his guard role seriously.[B8 floor. Doors opening.]With a chime, the elevator doors slid open.Passing through the Gate scanner, they stepped into a lobby that really did look like a department store. Only after they had their names and reservation checked at the desk were they allowed inside.Before long, Ji Hayeon entered the training room with the same neutral expression as always. He was carrying a tablet PC and some small devices.Sawon walked up to him.“— Did you enjoy your milk, Chief?”“…Yeah.”After a brief pause, Ji answered and set the equipment down on the floor. Nine, now a little monkey again, climbed down from Sawon’s shoulder and poked curiously at the gear.“— I’d like to measure your Metena. Could you both put these on?”“— Yes, sir! I’ll just finish warming up!”Still doing on-the-spot jumps in the distance, Mok answered loudly. Standing beside Ji, Sawon stretched his arms and smiled.“— Who could say no to you. Should I take my top off?”“— Yeah.”Without hesitation, Sawon peeled off his top. Clear lines were drawn across his solid chest and abdomen as if they’d been traced on. Thanks to his chiseled muscles, it was easy to see where to place the sensors.Ji stuck small, round patches on both sides of his upper chest. Then, at regular intervals, he attached them to his solar plexus, collarbones, sides, abs, and back. But the hand that had been moving without hesitation paused at his abs.“— Pull your pants down a little.”“— How much is ‘a little’?”“— Your hips and… um… down to where nothing shows. I need to put one on your lower abdomen too.”Hooking a finger into the elastic waistband of his training pants, Sawon tugged it down.“— Like this?”He’d maybe pulled it down three millimeters at most. Ji muttered quietly:“— A l-little more.”“— Like this?”This time it slipped less than a centimeter.“— No, it has to come down to here so I can stick this…”“— How far down do you want it.”Grabbing his waistband, Sawon yanked his pants lower.He was the one who’d asked in the first place, but Ji’s cheeks flared scarlet.Steeling himself at last, he slowly drew the fabric down.It was just to stick a single patch, but his trembling only got worse. Then his fingertips brushed the base.“— Are you doing that on purpose?”“— W-what?”Staring straight into his eyes, Sawon spoke in a low voice.“— You keep touching it.”

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