As Geowong pushed Hakyung toward the rooftop dorm, Sangho, who had somehow managed to finish the labor contract, returned to the office.
“Hey? Muheon, where’s the new employee you hired?”
“In the rooftop dorm.”
“Huh…? Why there?”
Sangho, thinking about it with a confused look, seemed puzzled by the answer.
As his eyes darted around, Muheon narrowed his gaze, not particularly pleased by the sight. Unlike the cute, smooth movements of the playful young dolphin, Sangho’s eyes rolled awkwardly, which didn’t look appealing.
Muheon didn’t bother to widen his narrowed eyes as he casually threw an answer.
“That one.”
“What do you mean?”
“The dolphin I rescued recently.”
“Excuse me?!”
Eighteen years ago, Muheon, who had been sleeping for centuries out of laziness, suddenly disappeared, saying he wanted to go to the human world.
When Muheon, the serpent ruler of the West Sea, vanished overnight, chaos ensued in the sea.
Immediately, the royal officials sent Gi-sang and Park Geowong to bring him back to the land.
The two came to land with a desperate resolve to find Muheon, but they were surprised to discover he was very close, right next to a tidal flat connecting to the West Sea Dragon Palace.
When they found him on land, Gi-sang and Geowong breathed a sigh of relief and hurried toward him.
“Muheon-nim!”
“You can’t just disappear without telling anyone where you’re going! Moreover, the land has changed drastically over the last 100 years. You don’t know what harm you could come to wandering alone!”
They sounded like overprotective parents, warning their child about a playground.
Muheon, uninterested, lazily waved them off.
That was a signal to be quiet.
The two, who had been his closest subordinates for centuries, sealed their mouths.
They knew that saying anything further could get them exiled to the East Sea, where Muheon’s temper was legendary.
Finally, after the surroundings quieted down, Muheon spoke.
“I lost it.”
“What…?”
“The dolphin I caught… I lost it in just a moment.”
“Dolphin…?”
Gi-sang and Geowong looked at each other, blinking.
Did dolphins live in the West Sea?
They had only heard of dolphin tribes in the East Sea or the South Sea.
How stupid must it have been to float all the way to the West Sea?
And more importantly, why did Muheon even catch a dolphin?
He, who had no interest in anyone…
While his subordinates were confused, Muheon was furious.
He had nearly saved the dolphin, only for a little human brat to snatch it right from under his nose.
Even worse, the human had sneakily transformed the dolphin while Muheon was briefly away.
The thought made Muheon even angrier.
He had to calm himself by remembering the voice of the child who had been crying, clinging to him like a baby.
“Please, save me. Please…”
The child’s pink hair, dyed like coral, fluttered in the water, and the soft, beautiful voice of the child crying was the prettiest thing Muheon had ever seen.
To his surprise, waking up after such a long time and encountering this situation wasn’t so bad.
No, it wasn’t just good—it was actually quite pleasant.
So, Muheon, in a rare playful mood, asked teasingly.
“If I save you, what will you do for me?”
“Anything! Cough… anything!” The child, who seemed to have swallowed some seawater, coughed and promised to do anything as they cried. Hearing the child’s promise, Muheon grinned and leaped up from the surface of the water.
“Alright, since I saved you, you’ll do anything.”
Unfortunately, the child couldn’t hear Muheon’s reply as they lost consciousness.
Taking in frustration, Muheon returned briefly to the sea in his dragon form before attempting to return to human form, only to find the child had disappeared by the time he resurfaced.
Not long after, he spotted the child, smiling brightly, surrounded by their family in the distance.
The child, who had been clinging to him and crying, now smiled even more beautifully.
From that day, Muheon settled on land, waiting for the pink dolphin to come back and fulfill its promise to him.
“So… you’re saying the dolphin you met today is the same one?”
“Well, I hope so.”
If Kang Hakyung really was that young dolphin and had somehow ended up in a building that was now his, it would be an even rarer coincidence than winning the lottery.
The thought of the dolphin finding him despite such impossible odds made Muheon smile, his curiosity piqued.
Sangho couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at Muheon’s unexpectedly gentle expression.
He quickly lowered his head, as if fearing he might be scolded for his thoughts.
Sangho and Geowong still didn’t fully understand how Muheon had found a dolphin from another sea, but since Muheon had claimed it, they reluctantly accepted it.
They weren’t sure whether they were more puzzled by the dolphin or by Muheon’s recent actions.
In fact, they hadn’t even believed it at first, thinking that Muheon might have dreamt the whole thing after his long slumber.
But now, with a cleaning contract signed and the child brought into the picture, it was clear that Muheon wasn’t making things up.
And the dolphin was certainly no ordinary sea creature.
“That… dolphin smelled like earth, not saltwater.”
“Yeah. It’s called a river dolphin.”
“Oh, so there are river dolphins in Korea?”
Sangho dropped his palm into his fist and opened his mouth in realization.
It made sense now. Muheon had never gone toward the East Sea or South Sea when looking for dolphins… this was the reason!
Sangho’s face brightened, relieved like someone who had just lost a tooth.
He realized that if this dolphin really was the one Muheon had saved, then the troublesome search could finally be over.
“Then we’ll just have to confirm it and convince it to go to the Dragon Palace, right?”
“Mm… I don’t think that will work.”
“Eh?”
Sangho, who had already worked out a perfect plan in his mind to bring the river dolphin to the Dragon Palace, looked confused.
“Why wouldn’t it work?”
“Kang Hakyung is afraid of the sea.”
Muheon recalled the frightened look on Hakyung’s face when the subject of the sea came up.
It was likely because of a traumatic incident from childhood, which was mentioned in his resume.
As he thought about Hakyung’s fearful expression, Muheon tapped his fingers on the armrest of the sofa.
The audacity to claim that they overcame their fear of the sea in the resume—now that was cute in its own way.
“So, what will you do then? It’s unique that even a river dolphin is afraid of the sea.”
It was as strange as seeing a sparrow afraid of flying.
Muheon, after a brief moment of thought, quickly came to a simple conclusion in response to Sangho’s question.
“Well, there’s no need to go to the sea right now. We still need to figure out if that river dolphin is really the one. We have time, don’t we?”
In other words, Muheon wasn’t planning on returning to the West Sea anytime soon.
And he wasn’t entirely certain that Kang Hakyung was indeed the same dolphin he had saved as a child.
With less than 100% certainty, the search would continue.
Sangho’s brows furrowed in a disappointed frown at the prospect of an ongoing pursuit.
“Excuse me, is this the dorm?”
Hakyung looked around the wide-open rooftop, bewildered.
No structure resembling a dormitory was in sight.
The expansive rooftop only had a bench and an artificial pond.
Why a pond had been placed on a rooftop was beyond him, but there was nothing else in sight.
His question seemed to leave Geowong flustered, as he gave an awkward smile before leading Hakyung toward the back.
This revealed a space hidden by the rooftop stairs—an expansive traditional house with tiled roofs.
It was hard to imagine that such a house could exist on a rooftop in the heart of Seoul.
Hakyung’s eyes widened to the size of marbles as he gazed at the magnificent house that looked like something straight out of a palace, his small lips parting in astonishment.
His reaction was completely understandable.
This wasn’t a dormitory for staff—it was one of Muheon’s personal residences.
Who would offer such an extravagant place as a dormitory?
Geowong himself couldn’t believe the situation.
But, when it came to Muheon’s words, Geowong was in a position where he had no choice but to comply, even if Muheon asked him to turn seawater into sugar water.
He offered a plausible explanation, hoping to make the situation sound more reasonable.
“Muheon is very loyal and takes great care of his staff’s welfare. It’s important for us to sleep well and eat well if we’re to take on such difficult tasks.”
However, this explanation lacked clarity, leaving room for misinterpretation depending on how Hakyung chose to interpret it.
Repeatedly hearing “loyalty” and “difficult tasks,” Hakyung quickly realized that this was no ordinary organization.
It was only natural that, if he wanted to leave this place on his own two feet one day, he would need to behave with extreme caution.