The attack came from the right back. Kim Woo-jin, who barely avoided the tip of his sharp spear, grabbed his opponent’s arm and swung his leg.
“That’s a good attack!”
The other party blocked Kim Woo-jin’s kick and exclaimed with excitement. Kim Woo-jin, who had a slight frown on his forehead, once again avoided the swinging spear and widened the distance by back tumbling.
Clank!
He landed on the floor in perfect position and raised the item gun he was holding. His auburn eyes gleamed coldly through the fluttering red hair.
Taang, a bullet that flew at his right shoulder and left thigh, bounced off the spear and hit the wall. The smiling opponent hit the bullet-studded wall with the tip of his spear once.
“Great. That’s all for today.”
“Gasp…”
Kim Woo-jin, who was nervously pointing a gun at the man, let out a rough breath and wiped the sweat running down his chin.
“Has it been a month or two since you started training? You even took a few breaks, but your skills aren’t bad.”
“…thank you.”
Kim Woo-jin, who responded with a little emotion to the compliment, patted the art inventory attached to his palm. Then, starting with his barrel, the entire item pistol he was holding scattered like smoke.
“So speaking of which. I think it would be good to finish training soon and enter the gate.”
His training teacher, S-rank spearman, Park Hyuk-joon (박혁준), grinned with the spear on his shoulder.
“I just got a schedule for next week. This is the B-grade gate of Jayna Guild. How is it?”
B-grade gate. Kim Woo-jin, who blinked for a moment, answered.
“I will go.”
“Right. You can’t just train forever. It’s B-grade, so it will be safe. Well, if you have this level of skill anyway, it will be hard to get hurt.”
It was an official schedule that he was properly in charge of after reawakening. It wasn’t the first time he had entered the gate, but it was different from before when he forced himself to follow and only caused trouble for his team members. This time, he was in a situation where he had to take the lead and kill the monster.
Actually, it didn’t matter whether he was training himself or entering the gate…
‘Han Yi-gyeol.’
He was sure he would be happy that it went well. He might praise him for his hard work. Thinking like that made his heart pounded.
“Hm?”
Park Hyuk-joon tilted his head slightly at the appearance of Kim Woo-jin, who looked slightly excited.
As the team leader of the physics support team to which Kim Woo-jin belonged, he felt fresh at the reaction he had never seen before while training Kim Woo-jin himself for the past two months.
‘Even such a naughty bastard likes to enter the gate.’
It reminded him of the fact that he was a celebrity who had reawakened. He even went from C-rank to A-rank, so he probably wanted to get to the gate as soon as possible and check his skills.
‘There’s an unexpectedly cute side. Indeed, he’s still young.’
Park Hyuk-joon, who understood him in a completely different direction from Kim Woo-jin, smiled warmly and extended his hand to him.
“Congratulations, Kim Woo-jin.”
“Thank you.”
Kim Woo-jin shook hands with a calm face.
“The departure date will be announced within this week. Until then, get some rest.”
“Yes.”
Park Hyuk-joon, waving his hand a couple of times, left the training room first. Kim Woo-jin, who was standing still and swiping his thumb on the palm engraved with the art inventory, smiled slightly.
Kim Woo-jin, after cleaning up the mess inside due to training, headed straight for the elevator. Kim Woo-jin, who was about to press the 23rd-floor button naturally, remembered something and quickly checked his condition with the elevator mirror.
He ran and rolled around, his hair was in a mess, his face and body wet with sweat. In this state, he could never go to meet Han Yi-gyeol.
Kim Woo-jin, who changed his mind and headed to the 24th floor, went straight to the bathroom as soon as he entered the room. He changed his clothes after washing and the time was just past 1 p.m.
“……”
Han Yi-gyeol used to wake up late after lunchtime most of the time when nothing happened. He might have been sleeping or waking up recently.
He must be hungry. Kim Woo-jin, who had reached that point, seriously thought about what ingredients were left in the refrigerator. It was breakfast, so it wasn’t too heavy, and it was easy for Han Yi-gyeol to eat…
“Toast?”
Bake the bread in a frying pan with butter. He liked sweet things, so he would sprinkle some sugar on them. He liked to add fried eggs or bacon. If he gave him juice or milk, it would be enough for one meal.
After finishing his thoughts, Kim Woo-jin left the room after one more final check with the mirror. He went down one floor with a light footstep and went to Han Yi-gyeol’s room, which he had become accustomed to visiting even with his eyes closed.
“Han Yi-gyeol.”
Entering the living room, he looked for him, but the surroundings were too quiet. It was the same when he looked around the kitchen and bathroom just in case.
“Han Yi-gyeol?”
Was he still sleeping? Finally, he walked to the bedroom with the door closed and knocked lightly.
“Han Yi-gyeol, awake?”
Normally, he would have gotten up and come out. Today, strangely, there was no response. Kim Woo-jin, who had been standing around the bedroom for a while with an anxious expression, hesitated and carefully grabbed the doorknob.
“…I’m going in.”
Contrary to concerns that it might be locked, the bedroom door opened gently. The warm midday sunlight shone through the window and a neatly arranged white bed caught his eye.
However, Han Yi-gyeol was nowhere to be found.
It seemed that he went out through the window again last night. If he had known this would be the case, he would have come in sooner.
‘Then… he will come after eating.’
If he hadn’t come back by this time, he must have already had lunch. Kim Woo-jin took a deep breath, trying to ignore the bitterness that came over him.
Then he should go down to the training room again and finish training while waiting for him to come back. He would contact him when he arrived. Kim Woo-jin, who was about to leave the bedroom, stopped his steps when he saw a cell phone placed on the table.
“……”
It was Han Yi-gyeol’s cell phone. He said he had received it directly from Roheon Deputy Master.
Kim Woo-jin, who was holding the cell phone with an uneasy expression, frowned. He told him to carry his cell phone well. If anything happened like last time…
“Bracelet?”
Kim Woo-jin shifted his gaze to the side and soon found the bracelet that Han Yi-gyeol always wore. The bracelet next to the cell phone shimmered in the sunlight.
“Why is this…”
Kim Woo-jin, who looked down and held the bracelet in his hand, felt a chilling sensation passing by the nape of his neck at the moment. He felt something was wrong and his face turned pale as if blood had drained from his feet.
“What the…”
Kim Woo-jin, who was persistently staring at the bracelet with a pale complexion, remembered the conversation he had once had with Han Yi-gyeol.
“Master found your location. So we weren’t too late to save you.”
“Cheon Sa-yeon found out?”
“Han Yi-gyeol, the bracelet you are wearing.”
Cheon Sa-yeon could know the location of the holder even if he only knew the code of the item. Han Yi-gyeol knew that. That was Kim Woo-jin, because he said it himself.
Still, it was because he couldn’t find out the changing location in real time, so even if he had to go out for a while, Han Yi-gyeol never took off his bracelet. But he did…
At one point, the hand holding the bracelet was trembling like crazy.
No, it couldn’t be.
“No…”
There was no way. He couldn’t do that.
Kim Woo-jin’s eyes were miserably distorted. It was then. A lively voice resounded in the room where the chilly silence fell.
“Good afternoon, Yi-gyeol-ssi. Ah, there’s Woo-jin-ssi, too.”
It was Min Ah-rin, who knew the door lock number along with Kim Woo-jin. Min Ah-rin, seeing Kim Woo-jin’s shoes on the shoe rack, entered the living room and chattered.
“Today, a new member of the healer team came in and they bought a strawberry glutinous rice cake! I thought Yi-gyeol-ssi would like it, so I stopped by to eat with you.” (찹쌀떡, or chapssal-tteok, here)
Min Ah-rin put the bag of the boxes down on the table with a puzzled expression on her face. There was no answer coming back. It was Kim Woo-jin, who didn’t answer well in the first place, so it wasn’t strange, but there was no way that Han Yi-gyeol didn’t answer.
“Yi-gyeol-ssi, are you still sleeping?”
Min Ah-rin, who was standing in front of the bedroom, knocked once and then carefully opened the door. And she found Kim Woo-jin standing in front of an empty bed and table with his head down.
“Woo-jin-ssi?”
Min Ah-rin, who quickly noticed the unusual atmosphere, approached Kim Woo-jin. As she stood next to him, Min Ah-rin blinked her eyes as she looked at Han Yi gyeol’s cell phone and his bracelet in his hand.
“Aren’t this Yi-gyeol-ssi’s stuff? Woo-jin-ssi, what the hell is going on…”
Min Ah-rin, who was asking in her anxious voice, couldn’t finish her words and bit her lips.
“……”
A thick tear fell on Kim Woo-jin’s pale cheek, who had only looked at the bracelet with a blank face. Kim Woo-jin, who began to cry in an expressionless face, wasn’t normal wherever she looked. Min Ah-rin, startled, hurriedly grabbed Kim Woo-jin’s shoulder.
“Woo-jin-ssi, calm down!”
“Gasp… uh…”
“Woo-jin-ssi!”
As Kim Woo-jin staggered while clutching the bracelet tightly, the tears that were dripping from his long eyelashes fell to the floor.
“Ha, Han Yi-gyeol… Yi-gyeol…”
Kim Woo-jin covered his eyes with his hand as he gasped. The pain he felt was thickly covered in his wet voice mixed tears.
“Left… from here…”
“Yi-gyeol-ssi left?”
Confused by his stuttering words, Min Ah-rin looked at the cell phone and bracelet he had left several times.
“Bu, but why all of a sudden…”
What does it have to do with the bracelet?
‘Yi-gyeol-ssi has never gone anywhere without a bracelet, but…’
Wasn’t it too early to think that he left just because he left something behind?
However, when it came to Han Yi-gyeol, Kim Woo-jin was more thorough than anyone else. It was clear that this wasn’t a simple matter for him.
“Woo-jin-ssi. Calm down for now. Calm down and explain slowly. So that I can help.”
Min Ah-rin swallowed her dry saliva, suppressed her nervousness, and grabbed Kim Woo-jin’s shoulders. Kim Woo-jin, who was trembling enough to feel a vibration in her hands, slowly opened his mouth at Min Ah-rin’s words.
“…the bracelet, can be tracked. Han Yi-gyeol knows that too. Therefore.”
“So he left it here?”
Min Ah-rin quickly rolled her brain. Discarded the item to avoid tracking his location. If then.
“Because of whom…”
Min Ah-rin, who mumbled subconsciously, soon realized something and opened her eyes wide. Kim Woo-jin and Min Ah-rin’s eyes collided.
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