“Do you want to join our guild?”
Dohyun replayed his surprising offer in his mind, the words echoing with a strange intensity he hadn’t anticipated.
His hands, which had been meticulously cleaning his beloved Korean dictionary, gradually slowed.
This was profoundly unlike him.
He was a man consumed by a fervent love for pure Korean words, a passion so deep that he owned Korean dictionaries from every publisher, meticulously categorized and regularly dusted to prevent the slightest speck from settling.
His devotion to these tomes was unwavering, a sanctuary from the world’s distractions.
It wasn’t like him to be distracted when handling his dictionary, a sacred ritual that usually brought him a peculiar sense of calm and focus.
Yet, here he was, preoccupied with other thoughts, his mind drifting far from the definitions and etymologies he so cherished.
He, who loved pure Korean words so much that he had chosen the beautiful and evocative words “Onsaemiro” (meaning “everything is beautiful in the world”) and “Gaonnuri” (meaning “the center of the world”) as his guild name and nickname after encountering them somewhere, was now deeply engrossed in something entirely different.
He had sensed Dana’s presence a long time ago, a subtle shift in the air, a faint ripple in the ambient energy that only his highly attuned senses could detect.
He hadn’t awakened as an assassin for nothing, and his innate abilities were far beyond the norm.
Stealth specialization, keen senses – these were not merely skills but inherent, incredible abilities only he possessed.
No one, absolutely no one, could match his sensitive perception.
While those heightened senses often caused him trouble, leading to an overwhelming awareness of the mundane and the irritating, he never expected to discover such an interesting person, someone who cut through the constant noise and captured his full attention.
A peculiar girl who moved by turning into a shadow, slipping through cracks and unseen spaces.
A unique girl who found a strange catharsis in beating up monsters, using them as a peculiar form of stress relief.
An inexplicable girl who brazenly raided other people’s gates, yet with an odd sense of responsibility, consistently brought the byproducts to the guild.
She was a girl his age who kept drawing his attention, a magnetic pull he couldn’t explain.
She was the first person he had ever found truly interesting, a rare spark in his often solitary and focused existence.
These were the complex and novel emotions he felt while watching Dana, a cocktail of curiosity, intrigue, and something akin to admiration.
‘I wanted to get close to her,’ he thought, the desire a quiet ache within him.
When he had first seen her in the lounge, the sheer number of people around had made it impossible to approach her.
He was not one for casual conversation in crowded spaces, his nature leaning towards observation and careful planning.
He would occasionally think about trying to talk to her if he met her again, the thought a recurring whisper in his mind, sometimes surfacing while he was napping during class, a brief respite from the demands of his unique life.
But he never expected to meet her in such a place, under such circumstances.
Since he had already seen Dana move as a shadow, a memory burned vividly into his mind, he was able to sense her presence in that dark, ominous mountain where the guild leaders were gathered.
His senses, usually a source of mild annoyance, had served him well, singling out her unique energy signature amidst the powerful aura of the guild leaders.
He usually slipped away from the guild leaders without a word, his disappearances a common occurrence that no one questioned or even noticed.
His quiet, almost ethereal presence meant that no one would look for him even if he disappeared.
So, he went to where Dana was with a calm mind, his decision made with a quiet determination.
And, gathering his courage, a rare act for him in social interactions, he tried to talk to her.
The reason he spoke to her, despite her seeming intention to keep her identity hidden, was simple, driven by a protective instinct he hadn’t known he possessed.
He wanted to warn her that someone else might notice her existence, to impress upon her the need for caution.
And, if she allowed it, he wanted to help her conceal her identity by her side, an offer born of a nascent desire for closeness and companionship.
He expected her reaction wouldn’t be good.
His intuition, finely honed by years of assessing threats, told him she would react defensively.
As expected, her expression hardened menacingly, a mask of cold resolve.
She threatened him, saying she wouldn’t leave him alone if he carelessly opened his mouth, her words sharp and unyielding.
She coldly refused his offer, stating she didn’t want to join the guild right now, and then turned and left, her shadow-like departure as swift and silent as her movements.
‘Should I have tried to get to know her a bit more first, and then talked to her later?’ he mused, a hint of regret seeping into his thoughts.
He looked out the window at the increasingly bright sky, the dawn breaking over the city, and slowly stroked the back of his precious pet dog, Choco, seeking comfort in the familiar warmth of his companion.
“What should I have done, Choco?” he murmured, his voice soft with a hint of self-doubt.
He, who had initially taken the initiative to approach her, a bold move for his reserved nature, had now reverted to his original timid personality, the social awkwardness returning with full force.
“Ugh…”
Dana groaned, her body aching.
Perhaps it was due to the increased dungeon difficulty, a recent development that had amplified the intensity of their battles.
Her body, which hadn’t slept a wink due to the dawn battle, was screaming for just a little bit of sleep, each muscle protesting the lack of rest.
Just as her eyelids grew heavy and she was about to lay her head on the desk, yielding to the overwhelming fatigue, Ban Eunhyeol, who had arrived late, threw his bag on his desk with a thud and sat next to her.
“Our gate disappeared this morning, didn’t it? What was that status window too?”
After the first period, Eunbada barraged Ban Eunhyeol, who had arrived late, with a volley of questions.
Early that morning, strange magic fluctuations were detected at the Gwanak Mountain gate that the Four Heavenly Kings had acquired.
Meanwhile, a cryptic status window had appeared, stating that the dungeon difficulty was increasing due to an outsider from another dimension.
To top it all off, the Four Heavenly Kings’ gate had vanished without a trace, as if swallowed by the earth itself.
All of this had happened in the chaotic hours of dawn, leaving everyone reeling.
Some speculated that these events were entirely unrelated, suggesting that the gate’s disappearance was merely the work of the infamous Phantom Hunter, a master thief of dungeon loot.
However, a larger number of people thought differently, connecting the dots of the strange occurrences.
“If the Phantom Hunter had raided the gate, they would have brought the dungeon byproducts. But when I went to the guild building this morning, there was nothing,” Eunbada reported, his words laced with a hint of frustration.
He seemed to have visited the guild building that morning, a testament to his diligent, model student nature.
‘Sorry. I didn’t have time to gather the byproducts,’ Dana thought, silently apologizing for something she couldn’t say directly.
She closed her eyes, seeking refuge in the darkness behind her lids.
She intended to try and sleep again, to snatch a few precious moments of rest.
However, shortly after falling asleep, her slumber completely vanished, shattered by a sudden jolt.
She had woken up with a large start, perhaps having had a nightmare unconsciously, a vivid, unsettling dream that left her heart pounding.
Embarrassment washed over her, a hot flush spreading across her cheeks, and as she remained slumped over, pretending to still be asleep, something slipped between her arm and the desk.
‘A band-aid?’ she thought, her mind slowly processing the unexpected item.
She lifted herself to see who it was and saw Ban Eunhyeol listening to the class with a bored, almost indifferent expression.
He was staring straight ahead, seemingly oblivious to her presence.
‘Could it be that he gave it to me?’ she mused, a flicker of surprise mixed with disbelief.
No way, that couldn’t be.
He was usually so aloof, so unconcerned with others.
‘Wait a minute.’
Hadn’t Ban Eunhyeol taken off his shirt for her last time, offering it as a makeshift bandage or cover?
Of course, he had also given her his jacket when they were caught in a sudden gate together at the very beginning of her possession, but this felt completely different.
That had been an act of necessity, a pragmatic response to a dangerous situation.
This, however, carried a subtly different weight, a hint of something more personal.
She looked at him with a puzzled expression, her brow furrowed in confusion, and then he placed something else on her desk.
She couldn’t hide her surprise, her eyes widening slightly as she picked up the small tube of ointment he had given her.
Then she noticed it.
The band-aid that had clearly been on the back of her hand, covering a fresh wound, had fallen off.
As soon as she got home earlier, she had diligently put band-aids on all the visible injuries from the dungeon, but the adhesive must have been poor, or perhaps she had moved too much in her sleep, and it had fallen off while she was sleeping.
The sharp cut from a jagged stone that had burst from the dungeon boss’s body was now exposed, a stark red line against her skin.
‘He didn’t notice anything, did he?’ she worried, a surge of anxiety tightening her chest.
Since being exposed as the #0 ranked hunter to an unexpected person that morning, she had been continuously on edge, her nerves frayed.
Because of this heightened state, she immediately suspected that Ban Eunhyeol knew something and was giving her the band-aid as a subtle hint.
But Ban Eunhyeol didn’t try to probe or find out anything while observing her.
He was just staring at the blackboard, his gaze fixed and unblinking.
His expression was the usual prickly one, a mask of stoicism that revealed nothing of his thoughts.
It was impossible to tell what he was thinking, and his lack of reaction only deepened her suspicion.
Ban Eunhyeol’s strange behavior didn’t end there, only adding to her confusion.
“Are you really giving up?”
On the way home from school, these were the first words he had spoken all day, after not saying a single word to her or anyone else.
His voice, though low, cut through the ambient chatter of the students.
“What are you talking about?”
Dana asked, genuinely perplexed.
“Are you giving up on following me around?” he clarified, his gaze sharp.
What was he talking about?
Why was he suddenly like this?
Had he eaten something strange that morning, or was he just being deliberately difficult?
“You can tell, can’t you?” he said, his tone flat.
When Dana answered with a look that clearly asked, “Why are you like this?”, her face a mixture of confusion and mild annoyance, he frowned, seemingly displeased with her lack of understanding, and said, “What about that hand?”
“Why is it hurt?” he pressed, his eyes still fixed on her.
He just stared at her, not even nodding, his silence more unnerving than any accusation.
“It just got a little cut. There’s a… a sharp part on my bookshelf in my room,” she lied, her voice a little too quick, a little too casual.
A slight pause emerged in her hastily fabricated lie, a brief moment where her mind scrambled for a plausible excuse.
That slight pause, that awkward gap in her sentence, made her nervous.
It felt like an eternity, and she worried he would see right through her.
She quickly glanced at him, trying to gauge his reaction.
Luckily, he seemed to buy it, or at least he didn’t outwardly react with suspicion.
He merely twitched his eyebrows, showing his discomfort, his expression a usual mask of mild irritation, but nothing that suggested he doubted her.
“Oh, thanks for the band-aid and ointment. I used them well,” she said, quickly lifting the back of her hand to show him, her belated thanks an attempt to change the subject and put some distance between them.
Without waiting for a reply, she immediately turned around and left first, walking away at a brisk pace.
She didn’t know why Ban Eunhyeol was acting like that, but she felt so uncomfortable that she didn’t want to be with him at all.
His strange demeanor was unsettling, and she just wanted to escape the awkwardness.
Feeling uneasy, a lingering sense of discomfort, but telling herself it was Friday and she wouldn’t have to see him over the weekend, she entered her house with a complacent sigh.
She wouldn’t have to face him for two whole days, and that thought brought a small measure of relief.
Little did she know, she’d soon receive a message from Han Jibin, asking to hang out since it was the weekend, an unexpected turn of events that would bring her back into Ban Eunhyeol’s orbit.
‘Why does he want to meet at a furniture store?’ she wondered, looking at the message from Han Jibin.
They had only ever talked and hung out at school; this was the first time they had made plans to meet outside, setting a specific time and place.
While they had occasionally run into each other and spent some casual time together, he had never initiated hanging out like this before.
It was a new experience, and a slightly confusing one given the chosen location.
Unlike Ban Eunhyeol or Ji Ganghan, who were subtly uncomfortable or difficult to be around, their presence often creating an unspoken tension, Han Jibin was fine to meet separately.
He was easygoing, and she felt no particular pressure or awkwardness around him.
It was because he was the Social King of the Four Heavenly Kings for a reason; his affable nature meant that a few conversations had quickly made her feel comfortable with him, dissolving any initial formality.
Dana walked into the large furniture store in the bustling area, the sheer size of the place almost overwhelming.
She looked around, craning her neck and craning her neck, trying to find Han Jibin amidst the rows of sofas, beds, and tables.
Then, in the distance, she saw a familiar silhouette.
It was Han Jibin, unmistakable, and next to him… Ban Eunhyeol?!
Her heart did a strange flip.
Her quick steps faltered, and she stopped dead in her tracks, her earlier composure completely shattered.
Her mind raced, contemplating an immediate escape.
‘Should I turn around and make a quick escape right now?’ she thought, a desperate urge to flee washing over her.
But Han Jibin was quicker.
He spotted her first, his face lighting up.
He waved excitedly and ran over, his enthusiasm infectious, leaving her no choice but to follow, practically dragged towards where Ban Eunhyeol stood, a silent, almost intimidating presence.
“You’re here,” Ban Eunhyeol said, his voice flat, as he glanced at her while inspecting a bookshelf.
It wasn’t a question, but a simple statement of fact, an acknowledgment of her arrival.
“Yeah. But why are you here?”
Dana asked, still processing the unexpected reunion.
“Trying to change the vibe of my room a bit,” he replied, his gaze returning to the bookshelves, giving nothing away.
“So that’s why you called me here?” she asked, a hint of suspicion in her voice. It seemed like an elaborate excuse.
“Well, pick one for me,” he said, his voice still calm, still not looking directly at her.
His tone, casual yet commanding, grated on her nerves.
She didn’t like his tone at all and thought about simply ignoring him and leaving.
But then he added, almost as an afterthought, that he would leave as soon as he bought the furniture.
That was all the motivation she needed.
With a renewed sense of purpose, she quickly scanned the furniture with a hawk-like gaze, determined to get this over with.
“What are you going to buy?” she asked, quickly assessing the various options.
“…A bookshelf?” she replied, a question rather than a statement, picking up on his earlier casual comment.
“Just that one? You said you wanted to change the vibe of your room,” she challenged, a hint of skepticism in her voice.
It seemed too small a change for such a grand statement.
“You can change it enough with just one piece of furniture,” he retorted, his voice unwavering.
What was this?
Something felt off.
His behavior was strange, almost as if he was putting on an act.
The awkwardness of his gestures, the deliberate casualness of his tone – they were more than just one or two things that bothered her.
Yet, she ignored the subtle cues and simply picked out a bookshelf for him, wanting to expedite their departure.
As soon as she chose one, Ban Eunhyeol quickly made his decision, as if there was nothing else to see, no need for further consideration.
He finished talking to the staff and even paid, then walked towards her, putting his card back in his wallet with a swift, decisive movement.
“Before you go, enter the address over there,” he instructed, pointing towards a tablet on a nearby stand.
“What address?” she asked, confused. Was he asking for her address?
“I bought two. It’s my thanks for helping me choose, so don’t even think about refusing,” he said, his voice firm, leaving no room for argument.
“What?” she exclaimed, stunned. A free bookshelf? Just for helping him choose?
“I’m leaving,” he said, and with that, he turned and fled the store before she could say anything else, as if escaping a trap.
He moved with surprising speed, quickly disappearing into the distance, leaving her standing there, bewildered.
“Wow, Dana, you’re getting a new bookshelf! You’ll be able to change your bookshelf! Should I help you organize it?”
Han Jibin exclaimed, his voice bubbling with excitement, completely oblivious to the subtle tension that had just transpired.
She blinked blankly, her eyes fixed on Ban Eunhyeol’s receding figure, watching him disappear into the crowd.
Then she alternately looked at the design of her suddenly acquired bookshelf, a modern, somewhat grand piece, and at Han Jibin, who was smiling brightly at her, his enthusiasm a stark contrast to her internal turmoil.
“Sure. I’d appreciate the help,” she mumbled, still somewhat in a daze.
As she mumbled her answer, Han Jibin clapped his hands excitedly, his face beaming, and then headed to the counter to ask about the bookshelf delivery date.
Dana, meanwhile, remained rooted to the spot, her gaze fixed on the bookshelf.
That bookshelf…
She had chosen a design that would look good in Ban Eunhyeol’s room, a fitting piece for a third-generation chaebol with expensive taste.
It was sleek, luxurious, and clearly high-end.
‘It probably won’t suit my room much,’ she thought, her mind already picturing the stark contrast it would create.
Her room was simple, filled with unpretentious, functional furniture.
This new bookshelf would stick out like a sore thumb.
It felt like her room was about to have a very unbalanced interior.
A luxurious and flamboyant bookshelf suddenly appearing among her simple, almost rustic furniture.
The thought was jarring.
‘Thanks for helping me choose?’ she mused, the phrase echoing in her mind.
Then, a sudden question popped into her mind, a nagging doubt that had been simmering beneath the surface.
Ban Eunhyeol’s behavior had been bothering her lately, the little gestures, the subtle shifts in his demeanor.
She felt as if she had seen Ban Eunhyeol act like this somewhere before, a familiar pattern she couldn’t quite place.
Wait.
‘Isn’t this similar to when he fell for Yeon Hayeon in the original story?’
The thought hit her with the force of a revelation.
Could it be?
Was Ban Eunhyeol showing signs of… interest?
The idea was both unsettling and oddly intriguing.
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