I headed to the emergency room closest to the gate that had been reported on the news.
Seeing the press gathered outside the emergency room, I was certain and went inside the hospital.
Among the busy medical staff and the groaning patients, I spotted Doihyun sitting in the distance.
‘Then, those two people fighting over there…?’
They said they were seriously injured.
So naturally, I thought those two weren’t them.
But after hearing their voices again, it was definitely Kang Yedam and Haemalkum.
Since they were sitting with their backs to me, I couldn’t see their faces properly, but I could tell just from their voices.
Seeing them like that, fighting, eased some of my worries.
Although the conversation was fierce, it seemed they hadn’t gotten into life-threatening trouble and had just narrowly escaped death.
‘Did they break an arm and get stabbed in the stomach?’
From where I was standing, I couldn’t see well.
I had entered the emergency room using Geurimjahwa to check on their condition, but now it seemed fine to return to the shadows.
Just as I was about to do Geurimjahwa again, my eyes met Doihyun’s, who had been looking this way.
No, maybe it was just me who felt our eyes met directly.
It seemed Doihyun didn’t recognize who I was.
He narrowed his eyes at me, frowned, then stood up and walked toward me.
‘Why is that guy coming here?!’
Startled, I quickly disappeared using Geurimjahwa and hurriedly left the emergency room.
‘Did he think I was suspicious?’
He probably didn’t recognize me because last time, when I wore a mask as a half-blood, he said he couldn’t recognize me at all.
Whenever I wore a mask, no one could properly recognize me or meet my eyes.
It was embarrassing.
Since I had confirmed Kang Yedam and Haemalkum were somewhat okay, I picked up my pace and quickly returned home.
On the way, I checked if there were any open gates, but found nothing of note.
As soon as I got home, a message came through.
[You said you have the day off today. What are you doing? – Ban Eunhyeol]
[Home]
I sent a brief reply and immediately started getting ready to go out.
Though I hadn’t found any gates on the way, a sudden gate could open anywhere anytime, and if worse came to worst, a dungeon break could happen before I had time to react.
I had to close the gate before anyone got hurt.
As fast as possible.
“Visharp, let’s go.”
Visharp slipped out the window and grew in size.
Returning to his true form, Visharp was normally huge enough to lay waste to the nearby apartment complex, but thanks to Geurimjahwa, I could ride on his back without causing any more damage to this world.
As we soared high, scanning the ground below, my phone vibrated again.
It was Ban Eunhyeol.
[If you’re free, come out. I’ll buy you something delicious. – Ban Eunhyeol]
“What’s gotten into him?”
He never asked me out first by saying he’d buy me something delicious.
I asked Visharp to look down below for a moment and stared at Ban Eunhyeol’s message, wondering what to reply.
‘Should I go?’
Gates could open anywhere, anytime—even now.
But after some thought, I decided to meet Ban Eunhyeol.
There was no way he was just inviting me out for food for no reason.
Whether he had business or something urgent, one of those two was likely true, so I headed down.
“You’re here?”
When I arrived at the meeting place, Ban Eunhyeol was already waiting for me.
I only got the address via text, but it was a cozy, comfortable restaurant.
It looked like a place that would serve pasta judging by the interior, but with a grill and vent in the middle, it might be a barbecue restaurant.
There was no menu, so it was hard to guess what kind of restaurant it really was.
The interior was a bit unbalanced, but still, it felt relaxing.
Then I realized there was no one watching me here.
I wondered why I felt so at ease, and it dawned on me: there were no other customers.
It was already evening, so there should have been quite a few patrons, but aside from me, no one was coming in.
‘Is business bad?’
Maybe it was one of those hidden gem places.
I didn’t want to be in crowded places, so this meant I could enjoy dinner quietly.
“This your favorite spot? Quiet and nice.”
“I’ve liked it since I was young.”
“Since you were young? That must be quite a long time. Isn’t a place like this usually for special people?”
“Really? I just brought you here because I wanted to feed you something tasty. It’s been around since middle school, so not that long.”
“Huh, you said since you were young…?”
Usually, in INSO stories, the male lead has a secret hideout, a holy place no one else visits, or somewhere they have memories with someone.
Of course, I’m not the female lead, but hearing ‘since young’ naturally made me think it was a place he’d been attached to since elementary or even toddler days.
Ban Eunhyeol answered casually and after ordering, kept going on about trivial daily stuff.
I wondered if he had anything special to say or if something was wrong, but I just responded lightly.
Then the owner, judging by the way he moved, approached with a steaming hot grill.
“You’ll be amazed by how delicious it is.”
I hadn’t even seen the dish or taken a bite, and the owner hadn’t even set the food down on the table yet, but his confidence got me excited.
The spicy aroma hit my nose.
Just smelling it, it was clear the dish couldn’t taste bad.
“Vegetable gopchang?”
Ban Eunhyeol, vegetable gopchang?
In the original story, Ban Eunhyeol was one of the Four Heavenly Kings with the Gangnam Focus and Sensibility Co. signboard.
Gopchang?
Vegetable gopchang?
It was the number one menu that didn’t fit his smooth face at all.
Ban Eunhyeol watched me expectantly, as if urging me to eat quickly.
I grabbed plenty of gopchang and vegetables with my chopsticks and stuffed them into my mouth.
“Good, right?”
“…It’s good.”
Honestly, it was really delicious.
The best vegetable gopchang I’d ever had, and one of the best dishes I’d eaten across both my past and current worlds.
Seeing me eat, Ban Eunhyeol lifted his chopsticks and, in a dry tone like he was saying ‘Tomorrow’s Wednesday,’ said,
“I’m going to America.”
“cough cough—”
America?
Why are you talking about that while eating vegetable gopchang?
He hadn’t given any sign that he was going far away before.
Was he going to study abroad?
If so, then the number one ranked person in Korea would be down to one.
Was that okay?
The current situation was really bad.
It was a huge loss of strength.
And I’d assumed he’d be going through his senior year of high school here too, but now I wouldn’t see him?
Hearing that he was going to America suddenly made me cough and choke, so Ban Eunhyeol handed me a glass of water.
After gulping it down, questions spilled out of me.
“Studying abroad? When? Why all of a sudden? So you won’t be going to school here anymore? What about the Four Heavenly Kings guild?”
He looked startled by my barrage of questions, then smiled wryly and said,
“Why, you sad?”
“Of course! You’re suddenly going far away.”
“You sound happy.”
“What are you talking about? When are you going to America?”
“This weekend, I’m going and coming back.”
“Going and coming back? Weren’t you going to study abroad?”
So unlike a typical INSO story where the rich heir goes to America for management training, or someone goes for a critical surgery they can’t get in Korea… he was just going to America for a short trip?
‘Geez, why say it so seriously then?’
As I stared blankly at him, bewildered, he casually said as if talking about someone else,
“I was originally supposed to study abroad. My parents brought it up recently.”
Suddenly, memories of the original story I had forgotten flashed through my mind.
It felt familiar because in the original, Ban Eunhyeol was also advised to study abroad in America.
‘I think he didn’t go because of Yeon Ha-yeon back then.’
I remembered personally finding Ban Eunhyeol’s choice hard to understand at that time.
He gave up studying abroad because he wanted to stay with Yeon Ha-yeon.
I had muttered ‘a love for the ages’ and flipped the page.
How deeply in love must a high schooler be to give up a great opportunity just for a girlfriend he hadn’t even dated six months?
‘I would have definitely gone.’
It felt like such a waste to throw away such a chance like that.
But now he was giving up studying abroad again.
This time, though, it wasn’t because of Yeon Ha-yeon.
What was the reason for giving it up?
“Why did you decide not to go?”
Ban Eunhyeol looked at me straight in the eyes and answered,
“I just want to stay here.”
A concise answer.
The flow had changed from the original, but big events like this didn’t.
Only the reason changed, but the fact that he gave up studying abroad in America remained the same.
‘Interesting.’
Anyway, it was a relief he wasn’t going to America.
I hadn’t known Ban Eunhyeol for long, but sending him far away would have been too sad.
“I’ll bring you a gift if I go to America.”
“Oh, I’m looking forward to it?”
“So…”
After a brief pause, Ban Eunhyeol continued.
“Don’t push yourself too hard.”
Suddenly telling me not to push myself, I wondered what he meant.
I wrapped two or three vegetable gopchang pieces and some garlic in some lettuce and looked at him, so he added an explanation.
“The gates… Yeon Ha-yeon’s been closing so many lately.”
“Oh, that? Before senior year starts, I’m going to close as many gates as possible to focus on studying.”
“Right. There are plenty of people besides you who can close them, so pace yourself.”
It sounded like he was worried about me, but true to Ban Eunhyeol’s character, he spoke gruffly.
I smiled lightly, feeling touched.
“You worry about me? That’s kind of you.”
“Worry, my foot.”
He was pretending not to care while eating, but his ears were red.
It was okay to worry about a friend; maybe he was just embarrassed.
After we finished eating, Ban Eunhyeol walked me to my front door.
Even when I said it wasn’t necessary, he insisted, telling me to get some rest soon.
“Get some rest.”
“Thanks for the ride. I really enjoyed the meal today!”
“Yeah.”
As I got out of the car and headed inside, the sky had already grown dark.
I had originally come out to close at least one gate to reduce casualties, but I ended up eating my fill of vegetable gopchang and going home.
‘While eating, I didn’t think about anything at all.’
Maybe because Ban Eunhyeol’s studying abroad story had come up.
I was so focused on that that I momentarily forgot about the gates.
I wondered if I should patrol outside at dawn or what to do.
Then a good idea struck me.
‘Why not station the summoned spirits around Seoul?’
I’d already closed seventy gates here.
Each quest required killing the boss monster ten times, so to reach level 7, I had to close seventy gates.
The more gates I closed, the more spirits I could summon.
Since gates opened mostly in Seoul, maybe if I deployed spirits there, I could reduce casualties.
Of course, I’d also station spirits in the provinces and ask them to alert me quickly if gates opened.
‘I can’t believe I’m only thinking of this now.’
Deploying spirits was far better than me riding Visharp around myself.
I immediately summoned all the spirits and gave them orders to hide everywhere and watch for opening gates.
The turmoil inside me finally began to settle.