…Dark. I couldn't see anything. …Did the building come down?
“Haa… cough.”
My throat itched.
I tried to push myself up while lying face-down, only to ram the back of my head into something. A hazy powder showered down from above.
It seemed that in this space, propping up my upper body on my elbows was the best I could manage.
By the way.
There seems to be something underneath me…
I barely managed to dig into my pocket and turn on my phone's flashlight.
“…!”
I thought my heart would drop. Right below me was a person's face. After calming my pounding chest, I checked the corpse before my eyes.
“What the…”
When I blinked a few times and looked again, it was Yeom Hajae.
Yeom Hajae was lying between my arms. It seemed I'd thrown myself over him and we'd gone down together. Was the reason I had no real injuries because Yeom Hajae played the role of a cushion?
…Is he dead?
I brought my fingers under the nose of the motionless Yeom Hajae. I felt breathing.
“Phew…”
Thankfully, he was alive.
Looking around, it seemed we were isolated in a small space formed in the gap between the collapsed ceiling and the door.
When I checked the debris piled up as if surrounding us on all sides, the scene I'd seen right before losing consciousness came back to me.
…
I thought the griffin was going to put a hole in my face, but… seeing that I'm fine, it seems the griffin couldn't get through the door.
Maybe it had smashed the wall and ceiling near the door as it charged. That was my guess.
I shifted my position very carefully. At a collapse site, touch one thing wrong and have it all come crumbling down, and that was just a burial. For now I decided not to move recklessly and to assess the situation first.
With effort, I operated my phone with one hand. No signal.
As I was staring at the “No Service” message, I felt movement below.
“Cheolsu?”
The awakened Yeom Hajae called my alias. It was only after seeing his bare face that I remembered what I'd forgotten.
When I felt at my face, I had no mask, same as Yeom Hajae. Did it fly off when we fell? Yeom Hajae, who'd opened his eyes with effort, gazed straight at my face.
“So you really were alive…”
There was no hiding my face at this point. Having no choice, I just grinned.
“…Long time no see. You've been well?”
“You saved me again.”
No. I just happened to fall. Yeom Hajae, who didn't know my true feelings, spoke with a slight flush, as if moved all on his own.
“I was worried… Because Haegang kept saying you were dead.”
“Is that so? You sure caught on quick that I was alive, Hajae.”
“Well, the escape Gate opened, after all. Ah… and here you are, perfectly fine…”
Yeom Hajae raised a hand and touched my cheek. But this guy's complexion is bad. His words kept cutting off, and he was breathing hard, in gasps too. Could he be injured?
“Cheolsu. When we meet again… there's something I really want to say…”
Yeom Hajae, with dazed eyes, stammered in a fading voice.
“For not… ognizing you at a glance, I'm sorry…”
I examined Yeom Hajae with my phone's light.
Looking closely, his legs were completely buried under debris. The pieces were nearly the size of a person, too big for me to move with my own strength.
His legs are probably crushed.
It'd be best to get out fast before shock sets in. I made my decision.
“You can't move, Hajae. I'll go look around the area and come back.”
“Again…”
He muttered something to himself, but I couldn't make it out.
“Be back soon, then.”
“No, no…”
Yeom Hajae shook his head. When I ignored him and moved my body, my clothes were grabbed.
“Don't go, just stay like this.”
“What?”
Yeom Hajae stubbornly wouldn't let go. Wondering if he had something to say, I stayed still for now.
At that, Yeom Hajae closed his eyes as if relieved.
Some time passed just like that. Yeom Hajae's complexion grew worse and worse. By now he was pouring with sweat. It was questionable whether he was even conscious.
…If this gets ruled as me having killed him, what do I do?
I couldn't just wait around until Yeom Hajae died like this. Unable to bear it, I moved to the space beside us and pulled back from atop Yeom Hajae. The instant I came off him, Yeom Hajae opened his closed eyes like a phantom.
“Stay still…”
“Stay still, please. I'll go find something that'll be of help.”
Before I could get grabbed again, I quickly drew back. As I was inspecting the debris, sweeping the area with my flashlight, a sniffling sound came from behind.
“Don't go.”
“?”
When I turned around, Yeom Hajae was bawling like a small child.
“Don't go. I said don't go…”
What a handful.
“Kak, cough, cough…”
“Hajae. Calm down for now… the rescue team will be here soon.”
“Wahh…”
He wasn't in any state to understand.
“Save your bawling for a time like that, all right? Got it?”
“Kk-hup.”
I soothed him roughly and tried to crawl elsewhere. It seemed best to move myself to a slightly more open corner.
But.
Rumble.
Suddenly an ominous tremor came through.
“!”
Drawn by survival instinct, I rolled my body. Quickly, I climbed back on top of Yeom Hajae.
Crash!
The spot I'd been in just moments ago collapsed.
“…”
“Hk, huu-hk…”
Fuck.
If I'd been even a second late, I'd be dead.
After that there was no choice. I had to maintain my original position.
It should be a chilly autumn outside, but trapped in a cramped place, I was hot and sweating. The elbows propping up my body were starting to ache.
“Huu-eung…”
It was hard enough already, and having to listen to a crazy guy's crying on top of it made it more of an ordeal.
“You can't go. Hyung, no, Cheolsu…”
Do I really have to wait like this until the rescue team comes?
While I was turning the gears in my head, Yeom Hajae, who'd stopped crying at some point, murmured hazily.
“Being like this brings back old memories.”
“Old memories?”
“My hyung…”
Yeom Hajae, recalling something, laid a hand on my back.
“Ugh.”
The strength gave out of my arm in the heat of the moment, and I flopped completely onto Yeom Hajae. Yeom Hajae, pulling me into an even stronger embrace with all his strength, recited in a low voice.
“You used to hold me like this.”
Whoever this so-called hyung is, I've never held you. And this is closer to me crushing Yeom Hajae flat than it is to a hug. The contents of the background check on Yeom Hajae suddenly came to mind.
On the family register, he had one older brother.
It seemed he was mistaking me for that real older brother.
“Hunter Yeom Hajae, do you know who I am?”
“Hyung.”
The eyes of the Yeom Hajae saying that were blurry. To not even recognize the person right in front of him—his condition was more serious than I'd thought.
Anyway, I've seen plenty of guys call for their mom before dying. But a hyung—that's unusual.
I wanted to at least slap his cheek, but Yeom Hajae was still gripping me tight. With no strength in my arms, I couldn't pull away even if I wanted to. Where a patient was drawing this kind of strength from, I don't know—he clung with his whole body, and pushing him off was quite a chore.
Since it had come to this, I decided to keep up a conversation for now to hold his consciousness in place.
“What kind of person is your older brother, Hunter?”
“My hyung, my hyung is…”
Yeom Hajae's eyes grew faint.
“Your hyung?”
“Kind, and the type to sacrifice himself for others…”
“A dumb— a good person, I take it.”
“But weak and pitiful, so…”
“Is your brother an awakener too? Or a non-awakener?”
“…”
“What's he doing these days?”
His eyes were open, but he didn't answer. Should I change the subject?
“By the way, I'm not that wonderful older brother of yours—I'm Kim Cheolsu, Kim Cheolsu. From the dungeon last time… do you remember?”
“? Yes… I know.”
Yeom Hajae nodded as if it were obvious. And he added:
“Cheolsu, you're my hyung.”
“Haha, your real brother's probably out there somewhere.”
“No, he's here…”
Yeom Hajae's voice grew fainter and fainter. He was about at his limit.
“Hunter?”
“Be my hyung.”
“…Sure. Let's do hyung.”
He seems to like his hyung, so he'll listen to what his hyung says, then.
Talking it out, a good idea came to me. I put on a tender face.
“Hajae.”
I pressed firmly against the forehead of Yeom Hajae, who kept clinging like a cicada.
“Can you let hyung go? There's something I want to check.”
“But you can't go…”
“I won't go, okay?”
Yeom Hajae loosened his grip, though his eyes stayed suspicious. I lifted myself slightly and searched Yeom Hajae's pockets.
“!”
I knew it'd be there. A Hunter's radio.
“My dear little brother. What number was the SPECAB Command disaster channel again?”
“Channel 9…”
I turned the dial to channel 9.
I didn't know the communication protocol, but I couldn't very well leave it to that out-of-it guy.
For now I tried pressing the transmit button.
Kshtt—.
“This is the 30th-floor banquet hall. Do you read me?”
I let go of the button. Before long, a voice burst from the radio.
W-we read you!
But…
Please, please help us… sob.
It didn't seem to be the rescue team.
Hmm…
To extract information, I changed my voice and pretended to be a rescue worker. Say you're trapped and need saving, and they'd obviously ignore you.
The naive other party fell for even my clumsy act. After a brief exchange, I was able to grasp some information about them.
And the conclusion I reached was:
Useless.
The other party was isolated just like us. It seemed that when the griffins collapsed part of the hallway, they'd gotten trapped in a somewhat more spacious area than ours.
More than ten people. Of them, two were awakeners, they said.
Meeting lots of people is never a good thing, though…
“You can see a pile of rubble, you said?”
Yes, yes…
It was probably the place we were trapped in.
“Understood. In case of a possible further collapse, please stay away from the rocks.”
Yes. A-all right… Uh, uhh… Hold on…!
Kshtt—.
What was that?
The transmission cut off. It seemed something had happened on their end.
What do I do about this…
It was the moment I was deliberating.
I felt a vibration from somewhere close. It was different from the vibration earlier when the side collapsed.
Soon a faint light leaked in from above.
“!”
The crushing debris was lifted up.
Jang Yijung, appearing along with the light, says:
“There's a person here?”
