“Are you feeling sick? What’s with your face.”
“What’s wrong with your face?”
You always pick the most annoying way to say things, just like Ban Eunhyeol.
That made me let out a hollow laugh.
The tension left me all at once, and I almost lost strength in my legs right there.
“What the, you’re even sweating cold sweat.”
When I was eavesdropping on Do Ihyeon and Ihwan earlier, my back felt damp from the tension—so it was cold sweat after all.
I barely felt any cold sweat, but Ban Eunhyeol noticed instantly and stepped closer, as if to support me.
“Hey, kid. Go home.”
“…I just wanted to talk to Do Ihyeon for a bit.”
“You really look terrible right now. Go, while I’m asking nicely?”
Ban Eunhyeol’s tone was much more forceful than usual.
Do Ihyeon nodded and made a phone gesture with his hand, so I must really look bad.
I decided to contact Do Ihyeon from home and left the Hunter Association first, heading home.
As soon as I got home, I messaged Do Ihyeon to meet up when he had time, and then I just collapsed onto my bed.
***
After Dana went home first, the awakened ones left in the lounge exchanged glances.
Actually, if you were someone like Yeon Hayeon or the Four Heavenly Kings, who saw Ban Eunhyeol often, you’d get it, but the other awakened didn’t see him much, so they had no idea.
But the moment they saw the interesting scene just now, everyone had the same thought.
‘It’s a love triangle.’
Do Ihyeon worrying about the sick-looking Dana, and Ban Eunhyeol bristling with jealousy at the sight of the two—this was the very definition of a classic love triangle.
No one knew how Dana felt about the two, but just looking at Do Ihyeon and Ban Eunhyeol, that’s the first thing that came to mind.
They were eavesdropping on the three’s conversation with great interest, but unfortunately, the conversation ended quickly.
Do Ihyeon came into the lounge for a moment, then left, and Ban Eunhyeol said he’d take Dana home and left with her.
“That was something else just now.”
The silence that settled over the lounge like a storm had passed was broken by Eun Hasu, who had been the most interested in the situation from the start.
“I never thought those two, who seemed the furthest from this kind of thing, would end up like that.”
He, who was stuck right next to his girlfriend, looked on with shining eyes, as if he found it all fascinating.
“What’s with that kid anyway? I saw the necromancy video and it was seriously cool.”
He gave a thumbs up to Yeon Hayeon, guild master of Hyulhyang, where Dana belonged.
At that, the disbelief on Yeon Hayeon’s face eased a little.
“It’s a good time.”
“Their prime, huh.”
James and Cha Hyeonseo, who had been watching the love triangle unfold, gave short comments and turned their attention back to their ongoing ping-pong game.
“Wow, wow, wooow…”
“So there was a rival.”
Han Jibin, who hadn’t noticed his close friend’s feelings at all, was left speechless after finally catching on.
Eun Bada had kind of suspected it, but seeing such an obvious scene for the first time, she looked stunned.
Meanwhile, only Ji Ganghan casually mentioned the word ‘rival.’
Yeon Hayeon stared blankly in the direction the three had just been standing, still in disbelief.
“Wow, Dana noona’s the emotional queen bee. Those big shots all like her?”
Yeon Hyungwang wasn’t flustered or surprised, just watched with shining, interested eyes.
At that moment, Ban Eunhyeol returned to the association after dropping Dana off at home.
The murmurs that had filled the room stopped abruptly before he opened the door, and when a dozen awakened ones all turned to look at him, Ban Eunhyeol raised an eyebrow.
“Why so quiet?”
He looked around the lounge, which had gone silent as soon as he entered, and flopped onto the sofa.
The awakened ones, quick to catch the irritation in his movements, exchanged glances.
‘Even if you know, just don’t show it for a while, and if you don’t want to get burned, absolutely no teasing.’
With Do Ihyeon as his love rival, the stress must be intense.
And so, Ban Eunhyeol, without even realizing it, became the protagonist of a love triangle and was being treated with extra care by the awakened ones.
***
The video of me using necromancy shot up to trending, and it became a fad for people to ask this question:
‘What do you think about necromancy? Is it okay, or not okay?’
I wondered why people even asked such things, but just walking down the street, I’d hear that question at least once.
People who saw me passing by would always ask their friends the same thing.
People who saw my necromancy split into two camps.
Those who thought it was cool became my fans, and those who thought it was a dark and scary power became my antis.
Is it really necessary to become an anti over this?
Did I ever do anything to harm them?
But thinking back to before the possession, it wasn’t that strange.
Back then, I never harmed anyone—if anything, I saved a lot of people with necromancy.
But what I got in return were fearful and hateful looks, calling me a creepy awakened one with a terrifying power.
‘Compared to back then, this is nothing.’
No matter how many people disliked me, it hardly fazed me anymore. I already had anti-cafés in all sorts of languages around the world.
“I’m home.”
Today, after closing a gate with Yeon Hayeon and the guild members and enjoying a good afterparty, I came home.
The lights were off and my parents didn’t answer my greeting, probably already asleep.
Maybe they’d gotten used to me coming home late, but lately my parents had started going to bed without waiting for me.
I actually preferred it this way, so I shrugged and headed to my room.
After getting ready for bed and lying down, I suddenly wondered what the fan cafés here were like. I grabbed my phone and searched for my own fan café.
“Oh. There are more people than I thought?”
I’m not an S-rank awakened, nor do I have the dazzling looks of the Four Heavenly Kings or Yeon Hayeon, but there were quite a lot of members.
I never imagined I’d look at my fan café in a different body and with a lower rank.
As I read through the posts, most people seemed to admire my necromancy or liked the power of darkness.
Smiling in satisfaction, I hit the back button.
I thought I’d check out some other fan cafés before going to sleep.
“Huh?”
That’s when I found it.
‘Nada’s’ fan café had several times more members than the ‘Idana’ fan café I’d just seen.
I didn’t even know Nada had a fan café, and no one had ever mentioned it to me, so I was only just finding out.
With a nervous heart, I entered Nada’s fan café.
The posts were really active. Usually, inactive fan cafés would get a post every few days and then fade away, but this one showed no signs of that.
Even just scrolling through the titles without reading the posts, I could tell what they were about.
From the titles and the bad vibes, it looked like antis had swarmed in to fight with the fans.
The title about me seeming like a good person made me feel a little guilty, but the rest were so spot-on that I nodded in agreement.
‘Should I check out the anti-café too?’
Curiosity got the better of me, and I went to the anti-café, fully expecting to see people cursing me out.
There were twice as many members as the fan café. I clicked on a few posts at the top and hit back right away.
These kinds of titles stood out among the posts cursing me for being from another dimension.
‘Shouldn’t have looked.’
Regretting my decision, I set my phone down by my pillow and closed my eyes.
I figured it was better to just sleep and recover from the emotional damage.
When I woke up, the whole world was covered in white.
Seeing the beautiful scenery made me feel a bit better.
“If you’re up, go buy the things written on the paper!”
As soon as I lazily opened my door and stepped out, Dad shouted from the living room.
On the table was a piece of paper with a shopping list for tonight’s dinner.
I opened my wardrobe to change clothes.
In the corner, I found the beige hoodie and black sweatpants I wore as the hooded girl, crumpled up.
I’d shoved them in the corner just in case, after the hooded girl news broke.
‘I should just burn these.’
I decided I’d take them to the dungeon and burn them later, then finished getting ready and headed to the market.
While I was shopping at the market, I heard the now-familiar murmurs, and then Do Ihyeon appeared, dressed like a local slacker.
‘He comes to the market too?’
He hated crowded places and usually avoided people so much that he even walked his dog at dawn.
Between the aquarium and this, he’s really changed…
As soon as Do Ihyeon spotted me, he gave a tiny, almost imperceptible smile that only I could see, and walked over to me.