MYEONG DOJUN
Twenty-six years old, a black-rank hunter, just over 180 centimeters tall. Cold-looking, but handsome enough that nobody could deny it.
His whole impression changes when he smiles, though he has no tolerance for rudeness, which means opinions on him split one way or the other.
When people count off the strongest hunters in Korea, he lands within the top three, so his skill is beyond question.
Awakened at twenty-two. A gifted student at Hanguk University, but he withdrew after awakening and never graduated.
An only son. His father, who worked at a large corporation, and his mother, a pharmacist, moved back to their hometown a year ago to take up farming.
His reputation inside the guild is excellent, and he enjoys the firm backing of the dungeon raid team in particular. Thanks to the team's record of clearing Class 1 and Class 2 ultra-high-risk dungeons without difficulty, his value keeps climbing.
News of his relationship with Hanul, Seonmyeong Guild's deputy leader, came as a brief shock, but the romance has had a positive effect on the guild's image.
Sightings of the two of them always draw enormous interest, and no small number of brands have signed them on as models.
Having scraped together everything he could find on Dojun, Hanul studied the commercials they'd filmed together and several interview clips closely.
Just then the door to the guild leader's office flew open and Hanul's younger brother, Hanyeong, barged in.
“I heard it started again?”
“Knock.”
At Hanul's remark, Hanyeong reflexively shut the door and stepped back out, then shoved himself in again, huffing.
“This is my office, you know?”
When Hanul pointed at the seat across from him without so much as a glance, Hanyeong stomped over and dropped heavily onto the sofa.
“Right, memories or no memories, you're the same Seon Hanul to me.”
When Hanul didn't answer and kept his eyes on his tablet, Hanyeong raised his voice.
“You really were dating him because you liked him, so if you don't want to regret it all over again once your memories come back, take it easy.”
Hanul lifted his head at an answer that came before he'd even asked, and Hanyeong flinched for no good reason, then snapped.
“Wh-what! If I don't stop you, you'll get mad later that I didn't stop you!”
Even so, he edged backward little by little, the end of his voice trembling faintly.
So only his face got older.
Well over 190 centimeters tall, built like a mountain, and now carrying the title of guild leader, and Hanyeong still hadn't changed much.
Though he does seem to put on a fairly bold front out in public.
“Fifth time, they tell me, and everyone's used to it. If there's something you're supposed to give me, hand it over.”
Honestly, even now he didn't want to believe he'd come down with amnesia five separate times.
But there was far too much evidence already laid out in front of him, and judging by the reactions around him, none of it seemed false.
In that case, rather than waste time on pointless pride, the right move was to accept the situation and adapt as quickly as possible.
“You really are exactly the same. Here, this is what you prepared.”
What Hanyeong handed over with a weary look was a set of documents useful for guild work.
It wasn't only the people around him who were used to Hanul's amnesia.
These documents, and the things he'd left scattered across his phone and his home, were the reason Hanul had been able to accept the present situation so quickly.
Some of it looked pointless, like his housemate's coffee preferences or meal times, but far more of it was genuinely helpful.
“Were things okay with Dojun-hyung? Don't tell me you picked a fight with him again?”
Hanul was no idiot.
“Dojun-hyung and I must have committed some enormous sin in a past life. That's why we're tangled up with you, going through all this.”
Even without Hanyeong's reaction, the records he'd left behind and the state of the apartment made it impossible to miss how precious Dojun was to his twenty-five-year-old self.
“You know I'm still scared hyung's going to snap and run for it, and I'll be stuck handling you all by myself?”
The warnings he'd left himself, surfacing over and over, and the things arranged for Dojun's sake in every corner of the apartment, made it viscerally clear just how mad with love his twenty-five-year-old self had been.
And that feeling had left its mark on his body too.
I tried to catch the hand that was pulling away.
Hanul didn't deny that he had liked Dojun.
“Please don't do anything that'll knock the stars out of his eyes. Dojun-hyung used to hate people like you, you know.”
Admitting that and using the man were two separate matters, though.
Dojun was far too useful to simply leave alone on the grounds that he was a lover.
They weren't going to break up anyway, so if they were lovers, what was wrong with him lending a hand?
“That damn dungeon aftereffect wrecked hyung's entire life. Him starting to date you, him suffering like this now, it's all because of the aftereffect.”
Just as Hanyeong said, Hanul and Dojun had become lovers because of a dungeon aftereffect.
At one point the two of them had been saddled with a restriction that kept them from getting more than ten meters apart, and sticking together like that had turned into mutual attraction.
And that had been a very desirable outcome.
“For the record, if you two fight, I'm on hyung's side.”
“Hunter Myeong Dojun is talent Seonmyeong Guild can't do without.”
Dojun's influence had a great deal to do with Seonmyeong reaching its current position, despite having a deputy leader whose memory failed this often.
Seonmyeong Guild.
Called the best guild in Korea barely three years after its founding, raking in staggering wealth and prestige.
He'd lost his memories, suddenly acquired a lover, and found his surroundings drastically altered, and the reason Hanul didn't much mind the process of adapting was entirely thanks to Seonmyeong Guild.
“The couple image helps the guild too, so I have no intention of breaking up with him.”
Considering the vivid emotions he'd left behind for himself and the influence Dojun held, breaking up with the man would be idiotic.
The one sticking point was physical contact, and the other party had drawn that line first, so from here on he'd use this relationship to squeeze out as much as he possibly...
“Hmph. Listen to you, acting all high and mighty.”
Hanul looked at Hanyeong, who'd let out a loud snort.
I've been getting this sense for a while now. Hasn't he gotten rather cheeky?
Surely he didn't actually think he outranked Hanul just because he'd been seated in the leader's chair.
“Calculate all you want, hyung. You fall for Dojun-hyung all over again every single time.”
Hanyeong lifted his chin with total confidence, a smirk sitting on his lips.
Is that impertinent tone and that look coming out because he's counting on Dojun?
“Every time, your memories came back once you started liking Dojun-hyung again.”
I must have gone soft over the course of this relationship. Or else Hanyeong figured out whose favor he needed to court.
Judging by those messages, they did look pretty close.
Hanyeong puffed out his chest triumphantly.
“The shortest was two months. In the end you're going to be clinging to hyung all over again!”
Anyone watching would think he was Myeong Dojun himself.
Still, thanks to him, Hanul had picked up an important piece of information he hadn't known.
“And once your memories come back, you'll be down on your knees begging hyung for forgiveness.”
The note he'd left on his phone said the timing of the memory loss couldn't be predicted.
To be precise, he was supposed to live permanently in a state of lost memory, but thanks to an awakened's body, the curse was occasionally suppressed and his memory returned to normal.
The note hadn't said how the memories came back, so he'd assumed the timing of their return was as unpredictable as their disappearance. But they came back once he fell for Dojun again?
“That's convenient.”
“Huh?”
“You said the memories come back once I like him again. Apparently I was head over heels, so when they come back, I'll be clinging to him and feeling perfectly fine about it.”
Hanul laid his situation out in order.
He suffered from a dungeon aftereffect that repeatedly erased his memories, and unlike the aftereffect that had made him and Dojun lovers, this one was permanent, with no set expiration.
The guild was pouring all its resources into finding an item that would remove the curse, but realistically the odds of turning one up were very low.
Dojun was indispensable to Seonmyeong Guild, and at the same time he helped suppress the curse.
Which meant...
Myeong Dojun has to keep loving me.
And preferably that feeling ought to deepen.
He was at Hanul's side now, but if his memories kept vanishing like this, the person beside him was bound to wear out.
And then those feelings would cool.
Can't have that.
There were nine black-rank hunters in Korea in total, and Seonmyeong Guild held two of them: Hanul and Dojun.
Seonmyeong and Songhwa Guild were the only ones in the country with two black-rank hunters between them.
Under those circumstances, if things soured between him and Dojun, Seonmyeong's standing would inevitably shake.
I'm black-rank too, but I've got a fatal dungeon aftereffect called amnesia.
So if Seonmyeong wanted to keep this position secure going forward, holding on to Dojun was non-negotiable.
Every black-rank hunter currently active is already settled somewhere. And a new one isn't going to just turn up.
Recruiting a new black-rank hunter capable of replacing Dojun would mean waiting years.
“Boring. I'm going to go watch hyung's interview.”
Having failed to get the reaction he'd been hoping for, Hanyeong lost interest at just the right moment and turned on the TV.
[Hunter Myeong Dojun! About this dungeon...]
Hanul stared intently at Dojun, surrounded by reporters.
The man with black hair and black eyes answered their questions calmly, without a trace of nerves.
The features beneath that black hair were clean and striking.
And those large, sharp eyes without double lids were extremely memorable.
[We hear Hunter Seon Hanul is struggling with his aftereffect again. Would you like to say a few words to him?]
[I'll only be taking questions related to the dungeon.]
With his eyes gone cold and hard, a face that was already difficult turned outright intimidating.
But only for a moment. When Dojun offered a faint smile to a different reporter, the whole impression changed completely.
If I so much as hold hands with the you who has no memories, the you who gets his memories back throws an absolute fit.
He looked like that then, too.
He certainly did have a handsome face.
Plenty of people would covet that.
For his abilities and for his looks alike.
If a lover with every quality people wanted and coveted also happened to benefit his guild and his aftereffect, then what Hanul had to do from here was already decided.
I'll make him like me more. It'd be such a waste to let someone else take him.
He was already the boyfriend, which only made the job simpler.
If you'd seduced someone once, why couldn't you do it twice?
And pretending to develop feelings wasn't particularly difficult either.
