The Hunter Wants to Live Quietly (bl)-Chapter 116: Short

J.

Jung Bin adjusted his grip on the phone and looked around. None of the team members were watching him yet, but they would surely notice if he acted strangely. He needed to stay as natural as possible.

"...I see. Please wait a moment."

Jung Bin ran a hand over his face, then stood up and grabbed the suit jacket that was draped over the back of his chair. The rustling sound of the jacket seemed unusually loud.

"..."

Several team members glanced at him with puzzled expressions. Jung Bin didn't respond verbally; instead, he raised his index finger to point at the ceiling. A look of fatigue spread across their faces. Someone even seemed to sigh.

With the phone wedged between his shoulder and ear, Jung Bin scribbled a sentence on a scrap of paper and held it up.

[I'll be stepping out for a moment. Please take a break.]

The team members nodded after reading the note. As he left the office, Jung Bin's pace quickened the moment he opened the emergency stairwell door. His feet pounded rapidly down the steps.

He stopped at the stairs leading to the basement— a place with no CCTV and where no one could overhear his conversation. Jung Bin paused to catch his breath.

Normally, he would have ignored this. He would have dismissed it as just another impersonator. But...

"J has returned."

Did that person understand the weight of those words?

Jung Bin rubbed the back of the phone with his thumb, took a deep breath, and spoke.

"Sorry for the delay. You can speak now."

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—Seems like you were with other people. Haven't you left work yet?

"..."

—It's almost midnight.

Every time he heard that distorted voice, something fluttered in his chest— a feeling he couldn't quite identify. Was it tension or anticipation? No, it was closer to anxiety.

Whether the person on the other end knew his feelings or not, they continued talking.

—Talking over the phone feels a bit insecure. I'd prefer to meet in person. Are you available now?

The person, J, whom they had organized a tracking team to find but failed, was now contacting him first to arrange a meeting— something he hadn't anticipated.

'Moreover...'

Hong Ye-seong's words echoed in his mind.

"J said so. He thinks the dungeon restructuring happened because of him, but he doesn't know why yet. Until he finds out, he said he would only appear when absolutely necessary, like this time."

Absolutely necessary. A vague statement. He quickly ran through recent events. Was there a crisis as serious as the S+ grade dungeon? Although Prometheus had infiltrated the depths of the Awakened Management Bureau, it wasn't an issue that warranted J's involvement. So then why? Jung Bin couldn't easily answer.

"..."

—Are you very busy? If so, I guess it can't be helped.

The distorted voice now carried a hint of disappointment. Jung Bin quickly responded.

"No, I'm available. Where should I go?"

—Oh, I'll give you the address. But come alone. And don't tell the Director.

The voice then recited an address, which Jung Bin noted down mechanically while pondering.

With Prometheus's dummy infiltrating the core of the Awakened Management Bureau, he couldn't entirely dismiss the possibility that this could be a trap. After all, it had been eight years since J disappeared into the rift, and many had impersonated him since then. Most weren't worth dealing with and had disappeared before they could be apprehended, but...

'Still...'

Even a slight possibility meant he had to go. It was the duty of the survivors.

The address J provided was a playground. As he made his way there, Jung Bin tried calling the number back, but there was no answer. Out of curiosity, he searched the number and found it was a certified public phone number.

"..."

He parked his car in a nearby alley and walked slowly. The night was quiet, with not even the sound of insects. His lips keep drying up. Eventually, the playground came into view.

A young man wearing a cap and a plain black mask was sitting at the end of a red slide. His posture was casual, with his arms resting on his knees.

He wore a thick jacket zipped up to his neck, black track pants, and sandals with three white stripes— an outfit so ordinary that he could have easily been mistaken for a regular person if not for the mask.

Beneath the flickering streetlight, insects buzzed about busily. The air around the young man seemed to hang still. As if sensing Jung Bin's presence, the young man looked up.

"Oh."

The distorted voice let out a short exclamation. He nodded slightly as if in greeting.

"Long time no see. I hope you've been well."

Jung Bin didn't respond. The tone was familiar, but he couldn't easily trust it.

Was it really him? How did he know his number to contact him? If it was really him, why had he suddenly appeared? Why had he stayed hidden for so long? Countless questions arose, but all were left unanswered.

Fortunately, Jung Bin was good at hiding his emotions, and even better at extracting information.

With his hands behind his back, he smiled faintly.

"Yes. Long time no see."

"..."

This time, the young man didn't answer. Jung Bin searched his hazy memories. What was J's build like? Although the young man was a bit smaller, his overall physique was similar. But it was hard to gauge as he was sitting on the plastic slide. The young man rested his chin on his hand and muttered.

"Is your arm okay?"

"Pardon?"

"You injured your right arm back then, protecting the others from the golem."

"..."

Jung Bin's eyes widened, but he quickly masked his expression. The fact that he injured his arm was widely known, especially on Channel 1 and elsewhere. But the details were only known to those who were there... No. This alone wasn't enough to be sure. There was a possibility he could have heard it from Hong Ye-seong's debriefing...

At that moment, the young man let out a deep sigh.

"Oh man, how does that guy manage to twist his words so much... I can't deal with it."

With a groan, the young man stretched and stood up. He slipped his hands into his pockets and stood crookedly, his gaze sweeping over Jung Bin from head to toe, lingering on the scars on his arms exposed beneath his rolled-up sleeves. The young man shrugged.

"You've grown a lot more suspicious."

"I apologize. Given the current circumstances."

Jung Bin lightly bowed his head. The young man paced in front of the slide, seemingly deep in thought, before crossing his arms.

"Shall we talk about that time when we had a chat on the outdoor stairs of the headquarters?"

Outdoor stairs. The familiar location brought back memories, and Jung Bin let out a breath he had been holding. The tension that had stiffened his shoulders eased. Jung Bin ran his hands over his face and muttered.

"Ah... So you really are him."

"Of course, I'm not a fake."

"..."

After rubbing his face for a while, trying to regain his composure, Jung Bin suddenly lifted his head.

J, who had said he would only appear when absolutely necessary, had reached out to him suddenly. Could something serious have happened? It couldn't have been just to say hello.

Jung Bin urgently asked.

"Has something serious happened?"

"Oh... that. It's nothing too big."

The young man rubbed the back of his neck.

***

A boy presumed dead was alive and well. Like a miracle.

Even Cha Eui-jae, who didn't believe in miracles, believed in one the moment he held Lee Sa-young in his arms. In a dark space reeking of blood, they were the only two breathing. The warmth of Lee Sa-young's head nestled against him was so comforting that he could have held him all day.

He was the only proof that Cha Eui-jae's life had not been a failure, and he was so precious that no amount of good words would suffice...

However,

"I'm tired."

"I see."

Precious was precious, but...

"Sorry, I have a guild meeting. Let's talk later."

"Okay."

But the fact that they couldn't communicate was a separate issue!

It had been eight years since they last met. Even friends or family would have a mountain of things to say after eight years, and the bond between Cha Eui-jae and Lee Sa-young was much deeper.

Cha Eui-jae felt he had an obligation to hear exactly what had happened to Lee Sa-young over the past eight years— how he had been taken by Prometheus and what experiments he had endured. That was his duty as a guardian!

But Lee Sa-young avoided serious conversations like a slippery eel, despite showing up at the hangover soup restaurant daily. He always had some excuse: a guild meeting, a dungeon, a rift, handling a guild member's mistake, or attending the Awakened Management Bureau.

One day, Cha Eui-jae tried to keep him from leaving, only for Lee Sa-young to feign exhaustion and cling to him. Cha Eui-jae had initially worried that he might have fallen prey to Jung Bin's chains again but decided to let it slide.

However, even that had its limits.

On the day when a week had passed without a real conversation, Cha Eui-jae was squatting by the recycling bin, peeling labels off drink bottles, thinking to himself.

If a week had passed without any progress, there was a high chance that Lee Sa-young would never open up. He was overly sensitive and stubborn— traits that had only become more pronounced over time.

The only card Cha Eui-jae could play at the moment was one— A Small Miracle Seo Min-gi. However, if he requested information about Prometheus from Seo Min-gi, there was a high chance that it would be blocked at Lee Sa-young's level.

As someone who had operated as J, Cha Eui-jae was more familiar than anyone with receiving limited information. Of course, he knew how to handle it. But was he really going to live off these scraps of information? No.

'I need to find another source of information.'

Cha Eui-jae threw aside the recycling bag and returned to the store, where he pulled out the [Basic Guide for New Hunters]— a gift that he had only flipped through two or three times since receiving it. He opened a page. Acting as a bookmark was a business card that read:

[Awakened Management Bureau, Field Response Team 1]

[Team Leader Jung Bin]

***

The streetlight flickered precariously. Late at night, two young men, who seemed out of place at a playground, were standing tensely, facing each other.

As Cha Eui-jae watched the bewildered and tense expression on Jung Bin's face...

"Give me all the information you have on Prometheus and Lee Sa-young."

He bluntly demanded confidential information.