The Boyfriend Who Didn't Know
“……Lee Sihyun?”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
Jeyeon offered a smile, but before it could waver, her gaze dropped.
The hand resting on the desk caught her eye.
Slender joints, fair skin. Not a single callus—a hand that might have held a badminton racket, at most.
Only eighteen.
A child with no parents, no guardian, had died on her own birthday.
Jeyeon had no idea how it had happened, or what had occurred in those final moments.
She'd simply been so young.
And now Jeyeon was breathing in that child's body.
Should she say she was sorry? Or thank her?
Unable to choose an answer, Jeyeon spread the hand open and let the clerk finish.
She withdrew her hand and raised her head, and the clerk asked carefully, “Lee Sihyun, just one more thing to confirm. Is registering as a hunter your own decision?”
“Sorry?”
“No one has pressured you to register, or offered to look into a contract on your behalf?”
“No. I just want to be a hunter.”
“I see. Confirmed.”
“Why do you ask?”
“There are people who target underage awakened minors like you, ones without a guardian. Relatives and close acquaintances are no exception.”
The friendliness briefly drained from the clerk's face.
“Forcing unfavorable contracts, stealing dungeon earnings, pushing minors into dungeons beyond legal working hours—they even goad kids into awakening in dangerous ways. If anything like that ever happens to you, please report it.”
“……Yes.”
Jeyeon nodded, a little dazed.
In my day, who cared if you were seventeen? We were worked to the bone.
Back then, if you were weak, you got used. If your luck ran out, you died. That was exactly why Seongyeon had built its guild.
It stung less than she'd expected—in fact, she was glad the world had changed for the better.
Come to think of it.
She'd felt it ever since opening her eyes: wherever she went, the government systems seemed to actually function.
Fast, painless administration. Neatly maintained buildings and roads.
There even seemed to be layer upon layer of safety nets for the vulnerable.
A world far more stable and livable than it had been ten years ago.
Well—for everyone except Seongyeon, that was. Everyone.
She might have saved the world from annihilation, but who deserved the credit for building a society like this?
“Registration is complete. Also, if you look here, there's a housing support program for underage awakened. The requirements aren't strict, so apply.”
The clerk smiled warmly and handed over a pamphlet.
“They'll issue your hunter license right away on the first floor, so pick it up on your way out. It takes about thirty minutes.”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
Jeyeon bowed so deeply before she knew it that she was out in the hallway before her back had fully straightened.
“Sihyun, all done?”
“Yes, it was fast. They said the license will be ready as soon as we go down to the first floor.”
“The Association's always been famous for getting things done efficiently. The bastards.”
Jena spat the words out and twisted her face, apparently feeling as though Ryu Sungho's reputation had just been polished to a shine.
“Where are you heading, Sihyun?”
“I can't level up right away because of the survival tournament, so home for now.”
“Really? Then I should go work too.”
“What work?”
“I've got a dungeon gig and a furniture-loading job lined up today.”
……Ha. She's really scraping by, isn't she.
Jeyeon's chest ached all the more because she couldn't just tell her to quit.
Sensing the silence, Jena threw out a joke on purpose. “Our youngest will be earning dungeon bidding passes soon enough—I'd better get the money ready, huh!”
“I told you, I'm going to live off the tournament winnings.”
Jena laughed, letting the words wash right past her. “That's my girl, so dependable. Then I'm off. You know this guild is your home, right?”
“Don't worry. Tomorrow I'll be back first thing in the morning and planted there all day.”
“……Sihyun.”
“Yes?”
“You're still a high schooler. Students are supposed to be at school.”
“Ah. Right.”
“Same as today.”
“Also right.”
At the sight of Jeyeon showing not a flicker of guilt, Jena put on the serene smile of a Buddha.
Be honest with me. You're not exactly the bookish type, are you.
While waiting for her awakened license to be issued, Jeyeon took a look around the Association building.
Awakened Capability Enhancement Center?
Apparently the Association even provided basic training for awakened these days. Work that guilds used to handle had been taken over by the government.
Nothing like that existed in my day. The world really has gotten nicer.
Jeyeon collected one of the free café lattes the Association handed out and settled onto a sofa in the lobby.
So, where do I go after this?
The poor Seongyeon Guild had never had lodging for its members, and she had no idea where Lee Sihyun's home was.
Maybe there's some info on here.
On a hunch, she pulled the phone from her pocket—and there it was again, that photo filling the screen.
A boy sitting across a café table, caught mid-glance at his own phone, as if he'd been snapped without knowing.
How do I change this thing?
Jeyeon had always been hopeless with machines. It hadn't bothered her back then, though.
Anything she couldn't figure out, she'd hand to Ki Taewon sitting beside her, and it was solved.
“……This is annoying.”
Now she had to do it herself.
Just as Jeyeon was locked in a wrestling match with the phone, the lobby began to stir.
“Isn't that Do Suho?”
“Wow, he's gorgeous.”
Everyone was staring at someone, sighing in admiration.
Jeyeon's head lifted despite herself, and she saw the man everyone was fixated on.
Huh? Same school?
He wore the exact same uniform design as Lee Sihyun, but stood a head taller than the kids around him.
But why does he look so familiar?
Jeyeon narrowed her eyes.
She clearly didn't know him, and yet his face felt oddly familiar.
As if she'd just seen him a moment ago……
Wait.
Jeyeon raised the phone, screen lit, in front of her eyes.
The face on the screen. The boy before her.
……They're identical.
At that moment, Do Suho's gaze landed on Jeyeon.
“Lee Sihyun?”
He squinted for a second—then strode straight toward her.
Watching him close the distance in long, purposeful strides, Jeyeon reached a verdict.
……Yeah. He's the boyfriend, isn't he.
Do Suho closed the gap in an instant, crossed his arms, and asked, “What are you doing here?”
The tone wasn't that of someone glad to run into her—it sounded more like an airing of grievances.
Jeyeon lobbed a question back to test his intent.
“Why? What's it to you?”
Do Suho let out a hollow laugh. “What do you mean, what's it to you. Didn't you come here because of me?”
That tone—as though it went without saying that Lee Sihyun had come looking for him.
Jeyeon was certain now.
Definitely the boyfriend. Definitely.
Why else would he keep a photo like that as his wallpaper if they weren't dating?
The photo even looked like it had been taken on a proper date.
Confirmed.
She'd never dated anyone, but she wasn't blind enough to miss that much.
Which meant the poor guy had no idea his girlfriend was dead.
And she couldn't exactly break the truth to him.
This is a problem.
Besides, Jeyeon couldn't carry this romance forward.
I'm not Lee Sihyun.
Above all, she had far too much to do.
Since we've met, I'll ask one thing and be done with it.
Having decided, Jeyeon rose from her seat.
“Hey, I've got a question too.”
“……I asked first?”
“Answer mine and I'll tell you. You know where I live, right?”
Asking the boyfriend is the fastest way.
It was absolutely not because the phone was impossible to handle.
But the answer that came back was one she never expected.
“How would I know that?”
“Huh? You don't?”
“Why would I need to know that? What, am I supposed to walk you home now?”
Is this boyfriend really boyfriend material? The guy's got zero clue.
Jeyeon flared up without meaning to and fired back. “Hey. Do you at least know today's my birthday?”
“……Why does that matter?”
From his shifty reaction, he'd clearly known.
“A cake? A present? Even a small letter—did you prepare anything?”
“……Why would I?”
“You knew it was my birthday.”
“Ha. You're the one who said, ‘I'm buying you dinner, so at least eat with me'? Talk about changing your story.”
Do Suho wore an expression that said here we go again.
That face, on a girlfriend's birthday.
You really had no taste, did you.
If Sihyun were still alive, she'd have told her to dump him on the spot.
Cold-hearted bastard.
If he'd written even a single letter, Jeyeon would have placed it on Lee Sihyun's memorial altar for her.
A girl who lived nineteen short years and left nothing behind deserved at least that much.
Jeyeon swallowed the words climbing up her throat, and instead gave the boy standing before her a slow once-over.
What on earth had been so appealing about this guy?
Tall, sure, and his face was dazzling enough—but a student wearing an earring?
And what was with that scar slicing across the end of his eyebrow?
Tried to look cool and ended up with a scratch, huh.
Kids these days must think that was the fashion.
A pretty face isn't everything.
Clicking her tongue, Jeyeon squared her shoulders.
“You asked why I came here, right? I came because I awakened.”
“Awakened?”
“Yeah. So I'm busy from now on. Which means—let's break up.”
“……What?”
“We're breaking up. As of today.”
The expression drained from Do Suho's face.
Didn't think he'd be the one getting dumped.
Seeing him like that, Jeyeon felt oddly refreshed.
Do Suho, however, had frozen for an entirely different reason.
Something's off here, isn't it?
That was all he'd been thinking, so what Lee Sihyun had just said hadn't even properly registered in his ears.
The Lee Sihyun he knew could barely meet his eyes, always shrinking back timidly.
The girl in front of him now was like an angry chihuahua.
As he groped for the source of that wrongness, the words he'd just heard finally slammed down into his brain, a beat too late.
Break up?
……Who was, dating whom, exactly?