Chapter 10: An Old Friend’s Apology

Usually, Replica’s requests for help kept calling Taehyun from one place to another, but even he occasionally had periods when things were relatively quiet for a hunter.

Such peaceful stretches were not particularly common, since they required all the monsters and curses in the dungeon to remain well-behaved and get along with one another.

Whenever such a period came around, Taehyun would spend his time running around dealing with the troublesome matters of ordinary life. Just because it was everyday life did not mean it was always warm and pleasant.

Naturally, there were exams to take, assignments to complete, group projects to deal with, and all sorts of interpersonal relationships to navigate at school.

The first two were manageable somehow. The last one was always the problem.

Taehyun could hardly claim to have a naturally sociable personality, and given his difficult family circumstances, he honestly thought that school life itself would have been impossible if his classmates had not been willing to accommodate him to some extent.

‘At least I’ve been much less of a burden this semester… Back when I was running around collecting curses, I practically couldn’t do anything at all.’

His relationships outside school were no easier. He was still on good terms with the colleagues and curses he met frequently, but his relationships with those he rarely saw were practically nonexistent. He simply had not had the energy to pay attention to them.

Still, with his final exams ending soon and his schedule as a student about to become considerably lighter, Taehyun decided to reconnect with the people he had neglected during that time. There was no harm in it.

Whether it was clearing a dungeon or finishing final exams, spending time with people after getting through a difficult hurdle was generally enjoyable.

The fact that he had added generally meant that there were, of course, exceptions.

“So, Taehyun. Once you finish your exams this afternoon, you’re going to meet that friend of yours?”

“I can’t keep putting it off forever. I have to face him eventually.”

Taehyun nodded at Rigor and took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts. It was unusual for him to be more nervous about what came after his two exams that day than about the exams themselves. But this was understandable.

He had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to deal with that guy.

“Hyung, are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“I’ll be fine, Seohyun. We’re just meeting for a little while to talk. What could go wrong?”

“Still… um, what if Q-Type and I came with you? Would you really be okay going alone?”

“Technically, I’m going with Rigor, so I won’t be alone…. Anyway, I’ll be fine. This is something between him and me.”

Seohyun’s face was full of worry. Taehyun patted her on the back and steeled himself. He truly did not think anything serious would happen. Hyungjin had been freed from the Clockmaker’s brainwashing, and he was no longer acting as recklessly as he had back then.

“Nothing’s going to happen. I’m just going to have some tea with Hyungjin and talk for a bit, so don’t worry. I’ll tell you what we talked about afterward, Seohyun.”

After waving to the still-gloomy Seohyun, Taehyun left with Rigor. Rigor seemed worried about him as well and held his hand tightly the entire way. Normally, Taehyun would have pinched his cheek and told him to stop trying anything strange, but today he found himself wanting to rely on that warmth.

The friend who had once been brainwashed by the Clockmaker and done something unforgivable to him.

Today, Taehyun was going to meet Park Hyungjin.

****

Ever since they had defeated the Clockmaker and returned Hyungjin and Fabio to their senses, Taehyun had never contacted him.

‘It wasn’t exactly a situation where I could have reached out first. Everything was just too chaotic.’

Hadn’t the problem concerning Hard Mode erupted almost immediately after the Clockmaker and the Knight joined them? There had been no time to contact Hyungjin, let alone think about him.

After that, Taehyun had gone straight into clearing the Origin Dungeon, and even once everything had finally settled down, he had been too busy checking on Replica and dealing with Seohyun’s admission to school to spare any attention for anything else.

He had only thought about Hyungjin again after Hyungjin himself contacted him and asked to meet.

Once Taehyun had remembered him, however, all the incidents he had pushed aside came rushing back one after another, leaving him feeling unsettled.

‘Still, I heard he kept his promise to Rigor. It’s true that most of the attention that would have fallen on me from the media and various civilian circles was blocked to some extent…’

Of course, it was impossible to avoid interest from overseas or attention on an international scale. According to Noah, however, the balance of power meant things would remain quiet for the time being.

At least the reason civilian hunters and XTubers in Korea had not dug into Taehyun’s background seemed to have a lot to do with Park Hyungjin.

During dungeon raids, Taehyun had occasionally been asked by hunters, “Do you have some powerful backing from the Huiwol Group or something?” Apparently, the group had been putting pressure on people to stop digging into his affairs.

Whether that was something he should be grateful for was debatable. In the end, Hyungjin was merely cleaning up the mess he himself had created.

But if he had kept his promise, then perhaps the least Taehyun could do was respect the time they had spent as friends.

After arriving at school, receiving his exam papers, and somehow filling in his answers, Taehyun immediately left the classroom and headed toward the meeting place.

Rigor was probably already waiting there. No matter how shamelessly Rigor slipped into Taehyun’s lectures every day and enjoyed auditing classes without even the professors knowing, Taehyun obviously could not bring him into an examination room.

‘If Hyungjin is already there, it’s going to be pretty awkward…. I should hurry.’

They had agreed to meet at a café near the school. It had once been a fairly popular franchise, but had since fallen out of fashion. The interior was somewhat old, but the atmosphere was pleasant enough, making it a decent place for a quiet conversation.

And with the exam period coming to an end, there probably would not be many students camping out there under the pretense of studying.

With that expectation, Taehyun opened the café door.

As expected, the café was quiet.

And he immediately spotted a familiar face.

“…Taehyun.”

Rigor and Park Hyungjin were sitting across from each other.

Both of them had nearly empty glasses in front of them, suggesting they had ordered their drinks quite some time ago. It made sense for Rigor to have finished his drink while waiting for Taehyun during his exam.

But when had Hyungjin arrived?

“You’re already here? There are still ten minutes until our meeting time.”

“I happened to have some free time today. I finished my exam ages ago.”

“You could have come at a reasonable time. Why arrive so early just to wait?”

“What does it matter? I got to look around your school. It was interesting. By the way, you and this guy seem pretty famous. I asked people if they’d seen a tall man with long red hair, and apparently everyone knew who I was talking about.”

‘Why would you even go around asking people that…?’

Taehyun was dumbfounded, but he more or less understood what Hyungjin meant.

Honestly, Rigor had become something of a celebrity at school.

Between his hair color, his appearance, and his physique, it would have been stranger if someone that conspicuous weren’t famous.

Taehyun had eyes and ears, so he had picked up some of the rumors circulating through the school community. Apparently, the most popular theory these days was that this man named Rigor was some sort of foreign intelligence agent sent to monitor Hunter Yoon Taehyun.

‘What kind of intelligence agent dresses that flamboyantly?’

Still, everyone seemed satisfied with the theory, so Taehyun had never bothered correcting them.

Hyungjin knew the truth, so he must have realized how ridiculous it was.

Instead of saying anything, Taehyun merely shrugged.

Hyungjin stared at him for a moment before casually adding,

“And you, too.”

“What about me?”

“I asked about you while I was at it. The rumors are pretty impressive. I managed to keep the hunters quiet somehow, but I can’t exactly silence everyone outside the dungeon business. Apparently quite a few people are interested in you. Some of them even like you.”

“Are you writing a novel or something…?”

It was not even some outdated internet-novel trope. Who in this day and age paid that much attention to other people?

Hyungjin had always been like this. Even back in high school, he would say things like everyone was interested in Taehyun and wanted to become friends with him, only to immediately follow him around and badmouth whoever seemed to be getting close to him.

As Taehyun sighed, a café employee suddenly approached their table and held out an iced Americano.

Taehyun flinched for a moment, reminded of what Hyungjin had just said, but quickly composed himself.

“What? Did you order this for yourself?”

“Hm? No. He ordered it. He said, ‘Looks like the master is about to arrive.’”

Taehyun turned his head.

Rigor was smiling brightly as he tapped the empty seat beside him.

Right. Somehow, this man always seemed to know whenever Taehyun entered a certain radius around him.

‘Does some kind of radar activate or something?’

Taehyun immediately sat beside Rigor.

The man was smiling pleasantly, but Taehyun did not trust that smile.

Considering the way he had just addressed him, Rigor was clearly annoyed.

Apparently, he had not enjoyed the prospect of Taehyun being alone with Park Hyungjin at all.

In that case, there was nothing to do but get to the point as quickly as possible.

“So, Hyungjin. What did you want to talk about today? I’m glad to see you again after so long, but you must have had a reason for coming all the way here.”

Taehyun had a fairly good idea of what kind of answer he might receive, but he asked anyway.

Hyungjin, who had been lounging around casually until then, finally straightened his expression. He took a slow breath.

By the time Taehyun had taken a few sips of his coffee and composed himself, Hyungjin finally spoke in a voice that sounded as though he had steeled himself for this.

“I was wrong back then, Taehyun.”

“…”

“Do you think we could be friends again, like we used to be?”

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