Holy B-Class Life

#056

For having exchanged quite a bit of information, the silence was rather heavy. Yoon Pa-ran observed him curiously at this sudden change in attitude.

What’s going on?

“In the end, you made people come and go over a stone that turned out to be nothing.”

Dan Joo-hyuk, who had been silent, slowly rose from his seat.

“No, I…”

“Next time, don’t call me with such trivial information.”

He seemed ready to leave completely. Watching Dan Joo-hyuk speak so sharply, Yoon Pa-ran fell into contemplation.

Heo Sang-yeon’s intuition wasn’t wrong. Though he didn’t understand why no status window appeared this time, the strange energy emanating from the stone itself was real.

He said other hunters couldn’t detect anything either, so did Dan Joo-hyuk not feel it?

Seeing that Heo Sang-yeon noticed it, Yoon Pa-ran thought S-rank hunters had developed some kind of sense, but then again, didn’t he say earlier that Kim Min-ji, another S-rank hunter, couldn’t detect anything either?

Yoon Pa-ran’s mind raced. There was too little information to use as a clue. Was there something because he and Heo Sang-yeon were both in the water skill category?

As he was about to turn his head to observe Heo Sang-yeon again with these questions in mind:

“Let’s go.”

Dan Joo-hyuk suddenly grabbed his forearm and lifted him up.

Standing on both feet in surprise, Yoon Pa-ran followed Dan Joo-hyuk with a bewildered expression. Heo Sang-yeon, flustered, hurriedly chased after the two.

“Hey, hey. Wait. I had a lot to say today!”

“Say it.”

“Jeez.”

Dan Joo-hyuk, who had strode all the way to the entrance, turned to Heo Sang-yeon with a smiling face. However, his attitude of demanding an immediate response was quite impatient.

Only then did Yoon Pa-ran understand the situation. It seemed Dan Joo-hyuk was genuinely upset, thinking they had come for nothing. That must have been why he felt a sudden chill earlier.

Having found the answer, Yoon Pa-ran inwardly clicked his tongue, thinking he should tell Dan Joo-hyuk about the energy he felt from the stone later.

“Do you know anything about the Safety District gates? I hear those people are short on information?”

“Why bring that up suddenly?”

Heo Sang-yeon, who had been hesitating, rubbed his head vigorously and spoke vaguely. Yoon Pa-ran also looked at him quizzically at the sudden change of subject.

Come to think of it, the term “Safety District” seems to be coming up unusually often these days.

“Recently, too many hunters are suffering from injury aftereffects. Did you know?”

“I just said a moment ago that I don’t need trivial information.”

Injury aftereffects were serious, but their occurrence rate wasn’t that high. That’s why when hunters who returned alive from A-rank anomaly gates all had seizures at once, even Yoon Pa-ran had to undergo several detailed examinations.

So, an increase in those numbers was certainly serious information. Yoon Pa-ran shot Dan Joo-hyuk a reproachful look from the side, seeing his ruthless attitude.

He deliberately kept his distance, afraid he might be seen as having the same thoughts.

“…”

Then Dan Joo-hyuk’s cold gaze pierced him.

To show such displeasure just because I glared a little.

“Jeez, look at how you talk. Anyway, it was weird that kids kept collapsing suddenly, so I looked into it a bit. Turns out, there were a lot of friends who had gone to deal with Safety District gates.”

“…”

“They say nothing special happened inside the gates, but yesterday, someone who wasn’t even injured had a seizure.”

Dan Joo-hyuk, who had been indifferent until now, finally raised one eyebrow.

Yoon Pa-ran was equally surprised. As the term ‘injury’ aftereffects suggests, these symptoms usually only appeared when one was wounded by monsters.

“It’s not a rookie hunter, right?”

“It was a B-rank hunter with three years of experience. It’s a bit late for trauma seizures now.”

“…”

“You have more sources of information than I do. I wondered if you knew anything.”

Dan Joo-hyuk, who had been thinking with narrowed eyes, eventually let out a light sigh.

Then, with a reluctant air, he opened his mouth.

“They already want to abolish the Safety District system, but it doesn’t seem easy.”

“Yeah, I saw that on the internet too. They speak well.”

“I’ll look into it. All I know is just political friction.”

“Alright. I’m counting on you.”

Who have they been talking about this whole time?

Deliberately suppressing his questions, Yoon Pa-ran prepared to leave. He wasn’t particularly comfortable being caught between the two as they conversed.

As Yoon Pa-ran acted as if he was going to leave the house before Dan Joo-hyuk, Heo Sang-yeon waved his hand.

“Take care, Hunter Yoon Pa-ran. Um, see you again.”

Why would I see you again?

Thinking this, Yoon Pa-ran simply bowed his head.

Heo Sang-yeon’s complexion looked extremely tired somewhere, so he didn’t bother to ask why.

❖ ❖ ❖

“Phew…”

After the two left, Heo Sang-yeon plopped down on the sofa and sighed. He had just finished showering, but his back was already drenched in cold sweat, making him feel very uncomfortable.

Heo Sang-yeon’s expression as he looked towards the door clearly revealed his bewilderment.

“What’s wrong with him today?”

That Dan Joo-hyuk was so prickly today that it was even a bit difficult to suppress his waves.

Dan Joo-hyuk wasn’t particularly pleasant on a normal day. But today was exceptionally bad. From the moment he arrived, he was openly showing his bad mood.

“Did he get an earful about the Russian gate?”

There wasn’t anything that particularly stood out. The Russian gate incident was indeed something that would drive Dan Joo-hyuk crazy.

Anyway, he’s had a bad personality since he was young. Heo Sang-yeon, who was the second earliest to awaken among the current S-rank hunters, was one of the people who had observed Dan Joo-hyuk for a long time.

In any case, that wasn’t the only thing that surprised Heo Sang-yeon today.

Hunter Yoon Pa-ran, who stood quietly beside Dan Joo-hyuk in such a bad state.

He remembered that delicate face well. Although the cute t-shirt with a puppy on it was a bit unfamiliar, it wasn’t a face he could forget.

They had cleared gates together once or twice, hadn’t they? His skills weren’t bad, but he wasn’t strong enough to stand out, which was interesting.

Honestly, when he was calmly looking around the garden while Dan Joo-hyuk was constantly showing his bad mood, Heo Sang-yeon was a bit dumbfounded. So he observed him a bit without realizing it, and Dan Joo-hyuk’s murderous intent, which kept poking at him, was so irritating.

Yoon Pa-ran didn’t seem to notice even that. Could it be that his senses were extremely dull?

“Hmm…”

By the way, the atmosphere was a bit strange.

It was different from what he expected when he heard that Dan Joo-hyuk had singled out Yoon Pa-ran to use him. Yoon Pa-ran’s limbs were fine, and he didn’t seem particularly tired.

Moreover, strangely, whenever he looked at Yoon Pa-ran, the waves intensified. When answering Yoon Pa-ran’s questions, he even openly stepped in between them and sent out killing intent.

For Dan Joo-hyuk, it was too one-dimensional a reaction, which confused Heo Sang-yeon. Was he hoping and inducing Heo Sang-yeon to think that way, or was he genuinely upset about looking at Yoon Pa-ran?

“If that’s the case, why did you bring him? You rotten bastard.”

The reason for reacting like that just because someone looked at him was unknown. However, there was something even stranger that made Heo Sang-yeon frown.

Dan Joo-hyuk’s behavior of persistently staring at Yoon Pa-ran throughout their time in this house was unfamiliar.

He couldn’t grasp the intention behind those stares. Anyway, though he had faced Dan Joo-hyuk for quite a long time, it was certainly strange to see him so interested in every move of ‘another person’.

“…”

For now, Heo Sang-yeon decided to store this change in a corner of his mind.

❖ ❖ ❖

The two who left Heo Sang-yeon’s villa immediately got into the car. Dan Joo-hyuk remained silent throughout, perhaps thinking about the information he had just heard.

Because of this, the heavy air in the car weighed down on Yoon Pa-ran’s shoulders.

“…”

“…”

Dan Joo-hyuk was problematic when he opened his mouth, but it was also a problem when he kept it tightly shut like this. It felt like a time bomb.

While thinking that he was truly something else, Yoon Pa-ran tried hard to endure the silence.

Now what, are we going straight into a gate? Yoon Pa-ran naturally thought, as this was what Dan Joo-hyuk always did.

The thought of going from gate to gate again made him feel slightly nauseated. He had never felt like this while living as a hunter, but this too was Dan Joo-hyuk’s achievement, if you could call it that.

“Seems like you took a liking to Hunter Heo Sang-yeon.”

“What?”

At this sudden remark, Yoon Pa-ran frowned hard.

What nonsense is this now?

“What are you talking about?”

“…”

The corners of Dan Joo-hyuk’s mouth lifted even higher. Seeing this, Yoon Pa-ran’s mood, on the contrary, plummeted to the ground.

What’s he upset about now?

“You kept looking at him. I thought you might be interested.”

Yoon Pa-ran was exasperated by these constant unnecessary comments. No matter how much he tried to recall, he couldn’t figure out what Dan Joo-hyuk was talking about. He wouldn’t even feel wronged if he had asked for an autograph just because he met an S-rank hunter.

Is he doing this because he’s that close with Heo Sang-yeon?

Feeling unnecessarily upset, Yoon Pa-ran glared at Dan Joo-hyuk.

“Didn’t you learn that when people talk, you look at them and have a conversation?”

“Ah. Everyone usually avoids meeting my eyes. I didn’t know that was the social consensus.”

What is he talking about now?

Dan Joo-hyuk was always surrounded by people, both inside and outside gates. Yoon Pa-ran had seen it several times already.

With so many people flocking around him, how could they not make eye contact?

It was obviously just another sarcastic remark, so Yoon Pa-ran deliberately stared straight into Dan Joo-hyuk’s eyes. As their gazes met, Dan Joo-hyuk’s eyes curved beautifully.

Just like he had seen in the gate yesterday.