Chapter 42 – Hot Issue (2)
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“Ooh ooh. Why can’t we see each other tomorrow at school? Why does she always call me out when the weather is cold.”
The weather was getting cold. Jaemin quickly walked in haste as he adjusted his clothing. Jaemin looked into the distance when he saw a woman sitting on a swing inside a small playground.
Her figure was lit by the streetlight, and he was sure it was Lee-soolgi.
“Hey. We’ll be able to see each other tomorrow at school. Why did you come here? It’s dangerous.”
“Yo. Jaemin is now worried about me?”
“Uh uh? Of course. It’s really dark here, so it’s dangerous for you.”
“Heh heh. The study bug Jaemin is now worry about this noonah. I guess it was worthwhile to come here?”
Soolgi’s bright smile and her words made Jaemin’s heart pound. She was already pretty in her school uniform, but she was pretty in a different way in her casual clothes.
“Ha. Do you have something to say to me?”
“What’s the rush? Sit here.”
At Soolgi’s words, Jaemin sat next to her as he grumbled. Soolgi kicked the ground without saying anything. Her movement caused the swing to sway.
Jaemin didn’t press her for an answer. He just waited for her. Today Soolgi was in some undecipherable mood. What did she want to say to him in such a serious manner….
“Hey, Jaemin.”
“Yeah.”
“I was chosen by the SW agency as a trainee.”
“What?”
Jaemin was surprised. If it’s the SW agency, it was a really big entertainment management company. And if she was chosen as a trainee… With Soolgi’s face, she wouldn’t have any problem debuting as an entertainer.
“Ee…ee-yah. Congratulation! Didn’t I tell you in the past you will become a entertainer? C…congratulations..”
“…….”
Soolgi didn’t show any signs of being happy at Jaemin’s congratulations.
“Don’t you have anything else to say except congratulations??”
“S…say what?”
Jaemin’s heart trembled. Ah. Why was it shaking so much? Is it because she looks sad today? Soolgi would usually smile brightly towards him.
His heart pounded. His imagination ran wild, and it made it feel like he had stopped breathing.
“Don’t you have anything to say to me? This might be your last chance.”
“Haha. You have to become a great entertainer.”
Soolgi’s face was filled with disappointment. Her moist eyes turned damp. When Jaemin saw this it felt like he had committed a sin.
You stupid idiot. You made Soolgi sad. All kinds of guilt started to wash over him. However, he couldn’t take back the words.
“Idiot… Even until the end…”
Soolgi mumbled in a small voice.
He couldn’t hear what she said at the end.
He was handsome and smart. He didn’t play around like the other kids, and he didn’t chase after the skirts of girls.
She really liked him… In her heart, she had always wished Jaemin would reciprocate her feelings. It seemed she was the only one wishing for such results.
Soolgi stood up from the swing. She rubbed her eyes as she wiped away her tears, then she stood in front of Jaemin.
“Hey. S…Soogi.”
It felt like Jaemin’s heart was about to stop. It felt like the inside of his head was empty.
Soolgi tried her best to smile.
“When this noonah becomes famous, you are going to regret it.”
“Uh uh?”
“There will be a day when you will hit the ground in regret.”
“…….”
She was so pretty. Just by looking at her eyes, his heart shook. He would most definitely regret it. No, he was already regretting it right now.
What should he say? Would it be possible to turn back the time?
His head was filled with complicated thoughts. However, the complicated thoughts flew away in a moment.
Choop.
Suddenly, Soolgi bent over then her lips met Jaemin’s lips.
Hoo-oop. He stopped breathing.
A bat was continuously hitting Jaemin’s heart.
It felt like time had stopped.
Soolgi’s closed her eyes, and her face was right in front of his nose. Her long eyelashes trembled. Does that mean she is sad?
“Hoo-oop.”
As if she was surprised by what she did, Soolgi pulled back with a red face. Jaemin’s face also turned red, and he didn’t know what to do.
What should he say? No thoughts came to his mind. Soolgi saw his flustered figure, and she laughed. ‘Poot.’
“When I become famous, you better not bully me on the internet.”
“Uh? Haha. No way.”
Retard! Is that the only kind of answer he could give? He was about to lose his mind. Soolgi waved her hand.
“Noonah is going. I’ll see you tomorrow at school.”
“Ooh-oong. See you.”
Ah, he berated himself for being a retard. See you. He said see you….
His excited heart cooled down. His heart was talking to him. It said this is the end… This is the end.
Catch her. Catch her.
In the end, his body didn’t react to the voice inside heart.
*
[Yuhbo. I have something to say.]
[What is it?]
[Ddi-ri, Dda-rara, Ddararara….]
“Ah-oh! How can it end there?”
The drama he was watching with much interest ended, and a commercial for a cafe started running. This meant he had to wait until tomorrow to see it again.
He cleared his palate of regret when the front door opened.
Ddi, ddi, ddi. Ddi-ro-ri.
“Hey. You came back? Your noonah’s hand phone num…”
“Ooh-uhhhhhhng.”
What…what the hell?
Jaemin came in crying, and he didn’t even have the presence of mind to wipe away his tears. Woojin was taken aback.
“J…Jaemin?”
“Ooh-uhhhhhng.”
Jaemin imedately went into the restroom. He came out after he washed his face. He started wiping the water off, and he looked more pitifuil like this. Soon tears started to fall once again like waterfalls from his red eyes.
“Ooh-uhhhhng. Soolgi.”
“Hey. What’s going on?”
Woojin wasn’t sure if his words had been heard by Jaemin. Jaemin fell on to his bed, then he buried his face in to the pillow.
“Ooh-uhk, ooh-uhhhng.”
“W…what happened??”
“Ooo-ung, hy-ooh-ung, you shoooung, leave, ooh-uuhhng, alone. Hoo-uh” (TLN:hyung should leave me alone)
“Uh, uh-whew. All right.”
He didn’t know what Jaemin experienced outside, but it wasn’t a situation where he could ask for Jiwon’s phone number.
“Oooh-uhhhhng.”
Jaemin sobbed his heart out.
Regret and remorse. Sadness and fear.
Now he wouldn’t even be able to dare to look up at Soolgi. She will probably be up too high for him.
Yes. How could he grab on to her ankles?
Good bye, Soolgi.
“Ooh-uhhhhhhng.”
He didn’t’ know it when she was next to him. However, he knew it now that she was going to leave.
Jaemin found love late into his 3rd year of high school, and he cried endlessly.
*
“Uh-ooh. My dream was quite fierce.”
He had a nightmare every night, but today’s nightmare was a bit worse than the usual ones. He dreamed of being chased by Jaemin, who wouldn’t stop crying.
Jaemin had already left for school, so Woojin half-heartedly washed himself before he left the house.
“I didn’t get Jiwon’s number.”
He wasn’t in a hurry to get it. Woojin headed towards the address given by Haemin yesterday. It was a somewhat large building near the intersection.
“It’s the 5th floor.”
Woojin entered the building, and the construction of the interior was in process.
Haemin found Woojin looking around with a blank expression on his face. He approached Woojin.
“Uh. You are here, president?”
“That’s right. Where is team leader Jung?”
“He went to the Management Bureau to hand in the paperwork for establishing the guild.”
“When is he coming back?”
“He should be back by lunch.”
“Is that so?”
“Do you want to look at the office?”
“Let’s see it.”
Haemin guided Woojin around the office. It was originally an office space, so the purpose of the construction was to re-organize the space.
“Do you have an interior design in mind? If you tell it to me, then I can immediately change it.”
“Eh-ee. Just put a big tv in here.”
“Heh heh. Yes, sir. Also, please don’t be so formal with me. I am older, but aren’t you the president??”
Woojin nodded his head at Haemin’s words.
“Ok.”
Uh? Still, he didn’t expect Woojin to go straight to talking in an informal manner.
“Since we’ve moved, let’s have jajangmyun for lunch.”
“…Yes.”
It felt weird. The funny thing was Woojin was only 24 years old, but he was quite natural at using informal speech.
“I have nothing to do, so I’ll go around the Dungeon once more..”
“Ah. You have to mine for the Artifacts.”
“Huh?”
“Aren’t you going to the Dungeon to mine the Artifacts?”
“Why would I do that?”
“…….”
Kim-haemin started to explain to Woojin about the change the Dungeon goes through after the first clear.
“The highest number of Artifacts comes out on the first raid. After it changes into a basic Dungeon, the number of Artifacts that can be found inside decreases. As one repeats the Dungeon, the probability of finding an Artifact decreases.”
This was why a number of Artifacts had come out of this Dungeon even if the basic monsters had been summoned. He had thought something was weird.
“After the Dungeon doesn’t drop any Artifacts any more, the Dungeon is open to the public.”
“To the Miners who excavate the bloodstones?”
“Yes. Still, the probability of an Artifact dropping isn’t zero, so it does drop occasionally. If one shows up, it is considered a jackpot. Moreover, normal items also drops continuously.”
Woojin grinned.
“So we suck out the nectar first, then we rent out the rest to the outside party.”
“T…that’s correct.”
“Then I’ll be back after I go suck out the nectar. I’ll come back at lunch..”
“Are you going to take Mr. Sunggoo?”
“I’ll just call him on the way.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll drive you there.”
Kim-haemin had been an elite inside the Support division. Dungeon management, Roused management and other duties related to the support division was mastered by him. Therefore, he smoothly took care of his business.
Woojin met Sunggoo in front of the Dungeon. Before the two of them could enter, Haemin asked a question.
“Excuse me, president. Do you not excavate stuff like bloodstones?”
“It’s all in my sub-dimension.”
Kim-haemin was surprised by Woojin’s words. He had been curious as to why Woojin didn’t bring anything out even after cleared the Dungeon twice.
He thought Woojin hadn’t gathered any loot on the first run, since Woojin had to expend a lot of effort on the first raid. The second run was done so fast, so he thought Woojin had only picked up the few important artifacts before he came out.
“What? Should I take it out?”
“N…no.”
There were too many eyes in the surrounding. Anyways, Artifacts were private property. It didn’t matter where one sold the Artifacts. However, the bloostones had to be sold to the bloodstone exchange store run by the Management Bureau.
“Excuse me, president. Please take care of the bloodstones this time at the exchange store. There are different routes to sell it, but those options are too troublesome.”
“All right. Let’s go, Sunggoo.”
“Yes, hyung-nim.”
“I’ll head back to the office after I finish this run. Don’t wait for me here. Go back to the office. I’ll be back before lunch.”
There were only 3 hours and 30min left until 12 o’clock….
“U…understood.”
Woojin and Sunggoo headed towards the Dungeon, and Haemin returned to the office.
They had hired a lot of workers for the construction. The walls of the office were already clean, so only several fake walls had to be put up. The construction ended before lunch time.
When the walls were put up, the delivery men arrived in waves to deliver the furniture, and office appliances.
Jung-minchan arrived at the office around that time, and Woo-soonghoon also came to help tidy up the place. After they tidied everything up, it was already 1 o’clock.
“Whew. It looks a bit presentable now.”
The workers were still here cleaning up the place, but everything seemed to be in place.
“Everyone worked hard.”
“Haha. Team leader was the one who worked hard.”
“Mr. Soonghoon endured a lot too.”
“Ah, yes.”
Woo-soonghoon smiled bashfully. Yesterday, he thought this was a scam, but when he searched all over the internet, he couldn’t find any evidence of this being a scam.
‘I was already having a hard time living on commissions, so it might be better to join a guild instead.’
It didn’t seem like they had work suited for him, but he wouldn’t refuse any work assigned to him. Soonghoon had already packed up his store, then he put his store out on the real estate market in the morning. Then he came to this place.
‘He seemed to be a scary person last time, but it seems he has a good conscience.’
He had beaten Soonghoon, and he also stole the expensive Crazy Red. However, Woojin had recruited him to the guild. When Sooghoon heard how Jung-minchan, and Kim-haemin spoke about Woojin, it seemed they were treated pretty well by him.
He might even receive a higher annual salary then when he worked at the store…
Woo-soonghoon was filled with anticipation, and he waited for Woojin to return.
Woojin and Sunggoo returned to the office at around 2 o’clock.
Sunggoo let out an exclamation when he got off the elevator.
“Ee-yah. This is a really good office.”
Sunggoo was surprised, and even Woojin showed some signs of being surprised. In the morning, the office felt disorganized, but they had organized the office in a short amount of time.
The space really looked like an office.
It was a little bit too large for only 5 people to use this space. There seemed to be a little bit of an excessive number of desks here, and it bothered Woojin a little bit.
Woojin saw the unexpected person inside the office, and he tilted his head in puzzlement.
“Why is this guy still here?”
“What?”
Woo-soonghoon had a confused expression on his face.
“I just wanted to borrow your name.”
At Woojin’s word, Woo-soonghoon’s face drained of blood. Jung-minchan queried in surprise.
“Y..you weren’t trying to recruit him as founding member??”
“Huh? I was just trying to fill up the required spots.”
“Jeez. I was mistaken…”
He thought Soonghoon was close to Woojin, but it seemed that wasn’t the case. Woo-soonghoon was taken aback, so he didn’t know what to do. Woojin grinned.
“Well, we could just assign him work when needed. Anyways, let’s order some jajangmyung. I’m hungry.”
“Yes. I know of a delicious restaurant nearby.”
Kim-haemin quickly picked up on Woojin’s wishes, and he ordered the food. While Haemin was ordering the food, the topic of Woojin’s sub-dimension came up.
“D..does that mean you stored all of your loot in the sub-dimension??”
“Yeah. I’ll take it out after I eat.”
Everyone except Sunggoo was filled with excitement at what Woojin said. It was the job of the Support division to sell the Artifacts, and items at a good price.
“It’s a little bit small over here. What’s that over there?”
Woojin pointed towards a door.
“That is the president’s room. The room next to it is the storage room.”
The office was so large that there were empty spaces left even after dividing the space. Woojin nodded his head after looking around. He needed a lot of room and this space was of an adequate size.
“Well, I’ll take it out now.”
Woojin opened his inventory, and he started pouring out all the loot he had stored up. He had over 300 Naga armor, and he also stacked up the spears the Naga used.
Everyone’s mouth fell open at the surprising amount of items. However, the finger-length Artifact was what made everyone really surprised.
“T…this is!”
Minchan held the artifact in surprise. This was considered to be one of the highest ranked Artifacts. It was something he had only seen in the Hammer Guild only several times. It was a super high priced item.