「Now, here are the documents you asked for. There are ten people in total.」
Cheon Sa-yeon, who picked up any one of the files Chloe had put down on the desk, looked at it slowly.
「They are useless, except for one person.」
「That’s true, but it’s a bit annoying.」
Chloe, who was sitting on the opposite chair, pointed to the document with a chin.
「For now, that’s the best.」
「I don’t like it.」
「There’s nothing we can do about it because all the good guys already belong to the company. I can change one or two people though. What do you think?」
At those words, Cheon Sa-yeon pushed a file without hesitation.
「Get this guy out.」
「Ung? No, A-rank? Why? Wouldn’t it be better to change one of the C-rank?」
「He’s a criminal.」
「That’s true, though.」
Chloe, slightly bewildered, asked if he would be really okay.
「Even though he has a criminal record, it’s not a serious crime. First of all, he’s A-rank. Even though there are only ten people, how important is the individual ability…」
「Each person’s ability, of course, is important. So I subtract it.」
Cheon Sa-yeon explained in a clear, unshakable voice.
「Once the guild is established, I will have to go through the gates with the guild members countless times, but I can’t leave my back to a criminal. It must be the same for other guild members, not me.」
「Um…」
Chloe, unable to find a reasonable objection, eventually agreed and took the file.
「As I said in advance, the talented person who was brought in with this criminal is a B-rank at best. To be honest, it’s highly likely to be a C-rank.」
「I don’t care.」
「And the one S-rank wrote there…」
After a moment’s hesitation, Chloe spoke again.
「I want you to meet him in person. He’s not a bad guy. The problem is that he’s a bit playful. So, make time for me.」
「It doesn’t matter.」
「It’s nice you’re cool with it. All right. Lastly, take this with you.」
Chloe got up from her seat and handed a small note with an address to Cheon Sa-yeon.
「It’s the office on the second floor of the building I mentioned earlier. Pay me back later.」
「Of course.」
「The S-rank person is currently in the United States. I have to go back to the guild from today to next week, so I’ll bring him back when I come back. We can meet then.」
Chloe with her handbag in hand greeted just before leaving the room.
「See you next week, Cheon Sa-yeon.」
Clack, kung. Cheon Sa-yeon, who was left alone in the room with the sound of the iron door closing, bowed his head slightly. After that, it moved on to a new scene again.
The two-bedroom office with a bathroom Chloe had saved became Cheon Sa-yeon’s new home. Cheon Sa-yeon, who had filled some necessary furniture for the office with the money he had earned while working as a mercenary, exhaled exhaustedly.
It was that time that I realized that I had never seen Cheon Sa-yeon genuinely smile except when he was a child.
Cheon Sa-yeon, who was forced to live in a mansion at a young age, was abused for a long time and was forced to live as someone else’s shadow. The mansion collapsed and he took revenge, but it only ate away Cheon Sa-yeon’s spirit.
He obtained unwanted ability, received high-intensity training, and constantly fought monsters under a lot of pressure. People didn’t even give Cheon Sa-yeon a break as the only SS-level talented person in Korea.
Cheon Sa-yeon, who was crouching down on a small sofa in the cold office with his heating turned off, closed his eyes with his tired face. The pale moonlight coming in through the window lit up his skin white.
* * *
「Oh. You’re bigger than I thought?」
It was the first word that Park Geon-ho, an S-rank talented person introduced by Chloe, spat out as soon as he met Cheon Sa-yeon.
Kung, Park Geon-ho, who dropped the bag he was carrying as if tossing it on the table stacked with documents, raised the corner of his mouth and held out his hand.
「Nice to meet you. Ah, should I call you Master now? You’re too young to be called that.”
「I know that we are only five years apart.」
「Too young to be the guild representative.」
Contrary to his cunning attitude, the black eyes staring at Cheon Sa-yeon were quite cold.
The meeting between the age of 20 and 25, rather than 29 and 34, was a fresh scene in many ways. In the past, Park Geon-ho was much bigger than Cheon Sa-yeon and didn’t show a friendly appearance.
After shaking hands, he asked if he felt that too.
「Since you’re an S-rank, you can go to another guild, so why did you accept this offer?」
「Because it looks fun. There’s no big reason.」
Park Geon-ho, who sat on the sofa without asking Cheon Sa-yeon, folded his arms and looked around the office.
「It looks like it will be more difficult than expected, but… I didn’t come here with the intention of quitting after trying it for a few days, so don’t worry about that.」
「……」
「I heard that there are nine other people besides me. When will the other employees come?」
Park Geon-ho and Cheon Sa-yeon’s eyes met.
Cheon Sa-yeon, who had been staring at him for a while, smiled as if painted. It was a smile like a mask he always wore when he met Cheon Je-heon in the mansion.
「That’s what I’m looking forward to. Others will come in three days. Take this.」
Despite Park Geon-ho’s subtly ignoring him, Cheon Sa-yeon didn’t mind and held out the documents.
Park Geon-ho also didn’t care about the natural subordination and accepted the documents.
「It’s a B-grade gate.」
「Currently, our guild has three C-rank employees, six B-rank employees, and one S-rank employee. A B-grade gate would be suitable for the basic practice of teamwork.」
「Are you going to take the three C-rank people as well?」
「No. We need someone to guard the office and take care of the paperwork, so they are excluded from the clearing team.」
As a guild that had just started, there was no gate that Cheon Sa-yeon had. So, to enter the gate, they had to rent a gate owned by another guild or join another guild clearing team.
「It’s not bad.」
Park Geon-ho, who had read through the documents, shrugged his shoulders and said.
「I’ll lend you a special car when you need to move.」
Again, the scene began to change. Perhaps because after moving the office, the interior of the room in front of me became much larger and cleaner.
Cheon Sa-yeon, looking out the snowy window at the winter night sky, was taller than when he was 20 years old. I approached him slowly and looked at the newspapers and papers on his desk.
It had been two years since Cheon Sa-yeon first formed the Requiem Guild and met Park Geon-ho. The office, which started in an old building on the outskirts of Seoul, was moved to Pangyo and the number of employees exceeded 30.
I raised my head and looked at the side face of Cheon Sa-yeon, who was standing quietly in thought. Cheon Sa-yeon, who was about to turn 23 years old, was still not smiling after two years had passed.
「Hey.」 (In English)
Then Park Geon-ho came in after opening the door. Holding two beer bottles in his hands, his hair was very short and he had a distinctive scratch on his right side.
Judging from the faint scars left, it seemed he was injured in the battle and had his hair cut short as a treatment.
「Why don’t you knock?」
「Acha, I didn’t?」
Park Geon-ho, who responded slyly to the harsh criticism, handed a bottle of beer to Cheon Sa-yeon.
「I brought something to drink, so please take a look? The employees all eat and drink together downstairs, so what’s wrong with you alone like this?」
「You thought that I wasn’t suitable to be in the representative’s position.」
「You also have a good memory.」
As I expected, Park Geon-ho didn’t leave Requiem. The two seemed much more comfortable than when they first met.
Park Geon-ho, who stood next to Cheon Sa-yeon and watched the falling snowflakes, said.
「It’s pretty. I wish I had a day off two days ago.」
「What’s the matter whether you get a day off before or today.」
「If I got a day off two days ago, wouldn’t it be a white Christmas. Sometimes you should act like your peers.」
「Is that what are you going to say?」
Park Geon-ho, who smiled at Cheon Sa-yeon’s harsh reply, drank beer with a complicated expression. Park Geon-ho, who had been drinking beer without saying a word, opened his mouth again after a while.
「She loved the snow, too.」
「It seems that you changed your girlfriend again.」
「Hm, it’s true that she’s a girl, but she’s not like that.」
He smiled bitterly.
「I have one younger sister. No, I don’t have it now.」
「……」
「Actually, when I first got the offer from Deputy Master Chloe about the guild, I got a picture.」
「I know what the picture is.」
「It’s a bit obvious. How did you survive a week in such bondage? It must be really boring.」
「It wasn’t bad because I needed quiet time to think.」
「I thought you lost your mind and became crazy because of that incident, but from the beginning, you were always crazy.」
「Do you want to get fired, Employee Park Geon-ho?」
「Please give me a break.」
After drinking all the remaining beer, Park Geon-ho carefully set the empty bottle down on the window sill.
「After looking at the picture, I couldn’t ignore it. That child is also…」
For the first time, Park Geon-ho’s voice shook violently. He swallowed the hot feeling that rose up to the tip of his throat and pretended it was nothing.
「I heard about it too late that you dropped out the A-rank, which had a bad past, and got the C-rank. As a result, that C-rank friend ran away soon after, huh.」
「He’s not good at writing skills, so it’s better to go to an ordinary company.」
「Indeed. Even if he was here, he only saw monster corpses and disgusting materials. Instead, isn’t there a benefit to capturing the heart of a big man like me?」
「I meant I should let that A-rank criminal get in the head.」 (It seemed the C-rank didn’t work well as the Deputy Master and Sa-yeon thought he should choose the criminal one)
When Cheon Sa-yeon showed a sign that he was genuinely regretful, Park Geon-ho agreed lightly, saying that it would have been quite spectacular and fun if that had been the case.
‘You have a sister.’
This was the first time I found out that Park Geon-ho had a younger sister.
It was as if I had unintentionally listened to Park Geon-ho’s heart while looking at Cheon Sa-yeon’s past.
Was she taken into some institution, just like Cheon Sa-yeon had suffered? From what he was saying, it seemed like she wasn’t around right now.
‘After reading the book… I should meet him separately and apologize.’
It must have been a personal matter that was hard to tell because I had been living together with Cheon Sa-yeon for nearly three years, but my conscience was too pierced to pretend I didn’t know.
Didn’t I even lie that I remembered Han Yi-gyeol’s dead sister in front of Park Geon-ho and Woo Seo-hyuk before?
“Haa…”
I never imagined that Park Geon-ho, who was always playful and mature, had such a past. It felt like a heavy weight hung in the corner of my chest.
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