“Yes.”
“You got a mission up there or something?”
“...”
Dojin didn’t answer. He just looked out the window. Faced with such open, unhidden annoyance, the driver pulled an awkward face and got the car moving. Dojin kept staring out the window, expression blank, but his hand was clenched tight into a fist.
Please. Please, let him be there.
Without a scratch on him. Let him still be there, exactly the way he was.
Repeating the words over and over inside himself, not even knowing who he was begging, Dojin kept his eyes fixed on the world outside the window.
Meanwhile. The lobby of the Seongun building.
The security guard was drifting aimlessly around the lobby again today. Apart from the day of the Seongun Guild interviews, the place was pointlessly quiet. If only every day could be like today.
He was thinking exactly that, happily milking the clock, when a familiar figure appeared beyond the clear glass.
Huh? Isn’t that the guy?
It was that odd one he’d seen on interview day. He showed up in the exact same outfit he’d worn a week ago. Only this time he slipped into the revolving door without a hitch and made it safely inside the building. Then he looked around, spotted the guard, and broke into a brilliant smile.
“Hello!”
“Ah... h-hello th—”
The smile was so dazzling that he returned the greeting in a daze, then came back to his senses a beat too late and asked,
“What brings you in today, sir?”
“Oh, oh, I got in!”
The man’s smile grew even brighter than before.
“Starting today I’m a Seongun Guild cleaner!”
That clear, ringing voice filled the whole lobby.
Beneath the expensive lighting lay snow-white marble floors without a single speck of dust on them. People hurried back and forth across the lobby, and all sorts of doors lined the sides of the wide corridor.
At the far end of that corridor, a cluster of people stood huddled together. They were the new cleaners Seongun Guild had just hired.
Faces lit with excitement and nerves in equal measure, they looked around the inside of the building. Among them, the youngest-looking of the bunch had his cheeks thoroughly flushed as he tilted his head this way and that, taking everything in.
Wow. It’s so cool.
Round, high-set cheeks went pink. The inside of the building was so clean it made you wonder why they’d bothered hiring cleaners at all. There wasn’t a mote of dust anywhere, so much so that he felt like he shouldn’t even be stepping on it. It was a world away from the place he’d been living.
The man standing beside him, the one called Yu Jihan, was marvelling at it too.
“This is seriously nice. Now I get why everybody goes on and on about Seongun.”
Nod, nod.
Ain agreed fiercely, and his shoulders crept up as he did. Well, of course it was nice; it was the company Dojin worked at. He couldn’t help feeling a little puffed up about it himself.
Yu Jihan tapped Ain on the arm.
“Look over there. They’ve even got photos of the hunters up.”
Hm?
When he turned his head, there was a huge picture taking up an entire wall. Looking closer, it wasn’t a picture at all but photographs of the hunters in action, mounted side by side. Some were shot straight on, posed for the camera; others had caught them candidly.
“Oh, damn, that’s awesome... Choi Yeonhee’s up there too!”
Ain’s round eyes swept down the photos from the top. The wall was crowded with faces he didn’t know. Then, as his gaze travelled lower, one photo snagged it.
It’s Dojin!
Dojin wasn’t facing the camera; his body was turned slightly away. Dressed in combat gear, he was staring hard at something off to the side, and his hair was blowing, as though the wind had picked up. There was dark dirt on his cheek, and a red gash with it. Ain startled badly and laid his hand over Dojin’s cheek.
That must have hurt so much. If only he’d had the ointment I made back then too...
“Uh? I think we’re not supposed to touch that?”
“Ah!”
Startled, Ain whipped his hands behind his back. Meanwhile Yu Jihan had sidled right up next to him, and with a thoughtful hmm he studied the photo Ain had been looking at.
“What, are you a Woo Dojin fan too, Ain?”
“Fan?”
The unfamiliar word put a puzzled look on his face, and Yu Jihan’s own expression turned faintly unimpressed.
“Didn’t take you for a face stan.”
“Face stan?”
He just kept firing back these clueless little questions. Yu Jihan put a palm up in front of his own face and waggled it up and down.
“Means you’re in it for the looks. Woo Dojin’s famous, you know. For his face.”
“Yeah. I am in it for the face.”
The face was the first thing you saw when you looked at a person, so wasn’t that obvious? And Dojin was definitely famous. He’s my friend, after all! Yu Jihan shook his head at the flat, unshakable answer.
“My little sister says Woo Dojin’s her favourite too. What was it she called it? A face with a story in it? To me he just strikes stupid poses. Nothing special.”
“Nothing special?”
Ain cried out, deeply shocked.
“No way! How can he be nothing special? Are your eyes broken?”
“...”
Yu Jihan made a strange face. Okay, he’s a hardcore one. Better not poke the bear. Muttering that to himself, he jabbed a finger off in another direction.
“What about this one, though? Ji Yeonho.”
“Hmmm...”
Ain narrowed his eyes and inspected the photo with great care. There was a brownish cast to the man’s eyes and hair, which was interesting in its own way, but that was all it was. As expected, Dojin was the one for him. Ain reached his verdict coldly.
“Nothing special.”
“No way! How can he be nothing special? Are your eyes broken?”
“...”
“Oh, hang on, why are you talking to me so casually? You’ve been doing it this whole time.”
“S-sor—! I’m very sorry...”
Ain’s eyes went round, and then he bowed his head in a deep little nod. Yu Jihan snickered and slung an arm around his shoulders. Ah, why is messing with him this much fun?
Ain went stiff as a board at the sudden contact, then saw Jihan laughing and looked thoroughly bewildered. After that, he turned back to Dojin’s photo. And he spoke to it, on the inside.
I came to the world where you are, Dojin. I’m the one looking for you this time, so you’d better wait for me. Someday we’ll get to meet.
Dojin’s face was reflected in Ain’s clear eyes.
It should be right around here.
Dojin set his jaw tight and kept moving his feet. His steps up the mountain were desperately hurried. Around the time sweat began dripping from his chin, he spotted the mouth of a small cave.
There it is.
There was no mistaking it: the shape of an exit. Dojin hurried toward it, then suddenly stopped walking.
A huge yellow eyeball rose up in his mind. The blue-black fangs that had punched mercilessly through his flesh. The scale-covered body, like some blunt weapon built to shatter every bone he had.
Thud. Thud.
His heart beat in a way that made him sick, and his mouth went dry. Cold sweat seeped out across his smooth forehead.
After standing there a while, Dojin slid a hand into his trouser pocket. A small bag rustled into his palm. The gummy bears the slime used to love. Dojin crushed it in his fist and lifted his head.
I already killed that thing. All I have to do is find the slime.
All he needed was to confirm he was alive and well. Dojin took a long stride into the cave.
When he swept his lantern item over the walls, a dreary, bleak passage came into view. And soon enough he reached a space he knew. The den where he and the slime had lived together.
Leaf pigtails. A kerchief and apron smaller than his palm. The roughly woven bedding and the food basket. The stone table.
Everything was exactly as it had been. Every trace of the slime was still here, untouched. Only one thing was missing: the slime itself.
Where are you?
Dojin searched every inch of the den and everywhere else besides. Only after he had combed through even the bathing pool and the dark grotto, places his feet hated to carry him because of the memories, was he certain.
He isn’t here anymore.
With the boss monster gone, this had become an abandoned dungeon, so maybe the slime had simply moved his den somewhere else. Dojin shoved the darker thoughts that surfaced off into a corner and shut his eyes, then opened them again.
...Don’t worry about it. He’ll be living just fine.
Dojin looked around the den one more time. Then he set a few bags of gummy bears on the stone table. He left every single object where it was, walked back out, and left more gummies at the mouth of the cave as well.
If he’s alive, we’ll meet again someday. I’d know that slime at a glance. And when we do, I should at least give him a name. For some reason his chest felt hollow, like something had been punched clean through it.
Dojin tugged his cap straight and headed down the darkening mountain path.
Now, for real. It was time to go back to reality.
Back at the guild, Dojin walked slowly, dragging his feet. Maybe it was the hollowness; all the strength had gone out of him as he made his way to the main building. He wanted to go straight back to the dormitory, but the office had put in a request to re-register his fingerprints and irises, so he had no choice.
The main building, which he hadn’t set foot in for a long time, was as huge as ever and as crowded as ever. Feeling his brows knit of their own accord, he started toward the elevators, only to find a cluster of people gathered in front of them.
Each of them was holding a booklet or a pamphlet, all of them huddled together in front of the board displaying the hunters’ achievements.
What’s this? A tour group? Or new hunters? They don’t look like hunters, though.
He turned on his heel toward the emergency stairwell, then faltered. When he glanced over, one man’s profile came into his field of vision.
Black hair falling to about the nape of his neck. The round back of his head. Cheeks a pleasing, milky plumpness. Eyes wide, lips parted in a little circle, he somehow looked oddly, giddily excited.
