Chapter 54: A Pendant, a Crisis, and… a Missing Person?

“I personally really wanted to meet you.”

Gam Joo-an, looking eager to chat, tugged Yoo Hee-ro by the arm. While Sung Ji-woo closed the shop door, the two disappeared into the staff room.

“I can’t even tell anymore whether this place is my house or someone else’s…”

Ji-woo sighed softly and followed. Maybe he really did need to separate his home from his workplace.

Gam Joo-an leaned in, face just inches away.

“That pendant—did it work well?”

Hee-ro leaned back.

“Uh… yes.”

“Really? It activated properly?”

“Yes.”

Hee-ro frowned as he recalled the incident. If not for the pendant Ji-woo had given him, things would have gotten very troublesome. Because of some bug whose name he didn’t even remember, multiple people almost ended up dead.

Completely oblivious, Joo-an’s voice rose with excitement.

“There were two activation conditions! Can you guess what they were?”

His eyes sparkled like a quiz show host.

“He’s always like this when it comes to his work,” Ji-woo explained when Hee-ro looked uneasy. Joo-an was acting in ways he normally never did.

For example, staring straight into a stranger’s eyes. That was more like the guildmaster, Park Su-jin, than Joo-an.

Hee-ro reluctantly answered:

“When the wearer’s life is in danger.”

He had heard that in the dungeon from that short-haired woman who knew Ji-woo. What was her name again? Gu Min-ah?

“That’s correct! Actually… I guess I shouldn’t sound so happy. If it activated, that means… things were dangerous.”

Joo-an’s cheerful voice dimmed instantly. But the person involved, Yoo Hee-ro, seemed unfazed. Situations where lives were at stake inside gates weren’t rare. And honestly, things like that weren’t truly threatening to him. They were merely situations where he could die—not ones where he would.

Ji-woo watched Hee-ro’s calm expression with tangled emotions. He had suspected something was off when he heard the pendant had been used… but hearing Hee-ro had actually been in a situation where he could have died made his heart sink sharply.

“What… kind of situation was it? Was it really serious?”

Ji-woo asked carefully. Hee-ro hummed.

“It wasn’t much. Someone went crazy and rampaged, and everyone in the dungeon almost drowned together… but I survived thanks to the pendant hyung gave me.”

“How is that ‘not much’? That’s absolutely serious!”

Ji-woo flinched at the word “drowned.”

“You didn’t have any mental strain afterward? Nothing lingering?”

“…What?”

“Like… trouble sleeping?”

“I never slept well to begin with.”

Ji-woo blinked rapidly in disbelief. Then he fired the next question:

“What about eating? Any loss of appetite…?”

“I didn’t eat very well, but I kept exercising. Took my protein supplements properly. So I stayed strong.”

“…Did the scene keep replaying in your head? Like a trauma?”

“Hyung kept replaying in my head, but…”

Something felt off. Hee-ro was answering the questions—but also wasn’t.

“…Do you have any idea what the second activation condition was?”

Hee-ro’s expression darkened instantly. He wrinkled his face as though recalling the most horrifying memory of his life.

Ji-woo grabbed his wrist, fearing delayed PTSD. Hee-ro lowered his head like a guilty man, then muttered gloomily,

“…I momentarily lost the pendant.”

“What? You could’ve died!”

Ji-woo burst out. Based on Hee-ro’s explanation, his survival had depended on owning that pendant. If Ji-woo hadn’t made the special request…

“But hyung protected me.”

Hee-ro vividly remembered that warm, enveloping light. Ji-woo’s light had always been that way. Not just special—extraordinary.

“That’s right! Ji-woo set the target as ‘the first person to ever wear the pendant.’”

At those words, Hee-ro remembered Ji-woo’s graduation ceremony. He had whined, insisting Ji-woo put the necklace on him. From that moment on, Ji-woo had been protecting him all along.

His chest tightened painfully, and his head grew hot. His feelings had grown so much they were frightening now.

“That’s… really serious.”

“Well, of course it was serious. Thank goodness nothing happened.”

“No, not that.”

Ji-woo looked confused, and Hee-ro just smiled meaningfully. Joo-an, meanwhile, let out a huge sigh of relief.

“Anyway, this was my first time adding two activation conditions, so I’m glad it worked. And relieved. Ah—right! I should’ve said this first… congratulations on returning! I actually attended the reinstatement ceremony too.”

“Oh…”

His memories of that day were blurry. All he remembered was the urge to go see Ji-woo immediately—and throwing his planned proposal before escaping quickly. That was about it.

“Well, I don’t expect you to join our guild. Our guildmaster just wanted to meet you, she was curious. So don’t feel pressured… Ah! Right!”

In the middle of rambling excuses, Joo-an suddenly straightened up like someone who remembered they left the stove on.

“I forgot to tell you—Hunter Association is planning to file a missing persons report for you…”

At the same moment, Sun-rye stepped on the remote while running with a toy, turning on the TV. The channel Ji-woo had been watching yesterday came on—showing the news.

Ji-woo reacted a beat late.

“…What?”

On the screen, a huge photo of Yoo Hee-ro appeared. The headline underneath was absurd:

“Hunter HERO Missing After Return.”

And the next caption was even worse:

“Removed restraint without authorization and fled. Seeking witness reports.”

Joo-an’s voice continued faintly.

“The guild contacted me first, saying it would become news soon… I hurried here to tell you, but… looks like I’m already late.”

Ji-woo stared blankly at the missing person in front of him.

“Missing…? You?”

Was he looking at a hallucination? Ji-woo waved a hand in front of Hee-ro’s face. Hee-ro grabbed the hand.

“…They’re just being like that.”

“How is ‘just being like that’ an excuse? How can the Hunter Association file a missing person report?!”

Ji-woo yelled in disbelief. He knew they did a lot of insane things, but this?

His head throbbed. He pressed his fingers to his forehead, asking carefully:

“That part… about removing the restraint and fleeing… Is that because I unlocked yours?”

“Mm… probably? They said it had a GPS.”

The more Hee-ro explained, the more ridiculous it sounded.

“He’s not a criminal! How is that any different from an ankle monitor?!”

“Hyung unlocked it, so it must’ve sent them a signal.”

Ji-woo’s face turned pale.

“Wait… does that mean this ridiculous news is because of me?”

Joo-an and Hee-ro hurried to reassure him, insisting that wasn’t exactly it. But Ji-woo couldn’t calm down.

How was he supposed to handle this? Was this really something worth a missing person report? And what if all of it was actually his fault?

Ji-woo’s eyes trembled, carrying embarrassment, frustration, and guilt.

“It’s not because of hyung. Those people are just weird.”

“Well… that part’s true too.”

After all, they were the ones treating Hee-ro like a criminal. “Fleeing”? Seriously?

“I… I don’t know anymore…”

Ji-woo flopped onto his back. Sun-rye happily pounced and smothered his face with slobbery kisses.

Hee-ro rushed to pull the dog away. The human and the dog growled at each other like enemies, and Joo-an watched them like it was peak entertainment.

“Both of you stop. My head already hurts.”

Ji-woo mumbled in a low voice.

Both stopped immediately, though their eyes still glared fiercely at one another.