Chapter 126: Endless Night (2)
“Let’s eat out?”
Ohjin’s eyes widened.
“Have you finally decided to give up on your catastrophic cooking skills?”
“What did you say?”
“Hehe. I’m just kidding, but why do you want to eat out all of a sudden?”
“Um… uh.”
Ha-eun twirled her hair with her finger and avoided his gaze.
“Well, there’s no special reason in particular. I was just thinking it’d be nice to change the mood.”
“Sounds good.”
Ohjin happened to be worried about how Ha-eun was acting lately. If Ha-eun was able to feel just a little better by eating out, he’d accompany her as many times as she wanted.
“Are we going in the afternoon?”
“No, let’s have lunch.”
“Hm. Then I’ll come after doing some training.”
“I’ll text you, so don’t come home, and head to the restaurant right away.”
“Huh? We live in the same house; can’t we just go together?”
“Just listen to what I say.”
Ha-eun poked his side.
“Hmm. Well, alright.”
Ohjin turned around while nodding his head.
“Then, see you later, Ha-eun.”
“Hehe. I’ll treat you, so leave your wallet behind.”
Ha-eun boastfully raised her nose and placed her hands on her waist.
“We’ll have to eat something expensive.”
“Give me your best shot. I’ve got a hefty amount of money from Isabella’s reward.”
“But isn’t that my money?”
“Who cares if it’s your money or my money in our relationship? We just use it together.”
“This is unfair.”
Would that be what husbands felt when their bonus pay was stolen by their wives?
“Kyahaha! I’m just kidding. I’ll treat you with my own money, so don’t worry.”
“Well, I wasn’t really worried.”
Ohjin only acted like he was mistreated to play along with her. It honestly didn’t really bother him because, at that point, money wasn’t all that important to him.
“But what about your prosthetic leg?”
“They said it’s completed, so I was going to go get it at the Association in a bit.”
“Do you want to go together?”
“Nah, I’ll go alone.”
“Hmm.”
It wouldn’t be a big problem, as the Association wasn’t far and could easily be accessed by taking a taxi ride.
“I requested them to make it while focusing on its durability, so there shouldn’t be any cases of it breaking like before.”
“Sweet.”
Ha-eun smiled as she nodded her head.
Ohjin smiled faintly while looking at her face that looked brighter than before.
‘That’s a relief.’
He was worried about how dispirited she looked after returning from the dungeon, but it seemed that she had sorted things out, as her expression became much brighter in just a day.
‘This is more like her.’
The Ha-eun he knew was confident, upright, and couldn’t be held back.
He recalled the appearance of the brightly gleaming girl from his album of memories that was so old he couldn’t even remember when it took place.
‘She hasn’t changed at all from back then.’
As always, she was so beautiful that it was blinding.
“Send me a text later.”
“Okay.”
* * *
* * *
Ohjin went outside and crossed the crosswalk. He entered the mixed-use apartment that was gifted by Isabella.
The apartment that was renovated to make it possible for even high-rank Awakeners to train at ease was wide enough to make it reminiscent of a soccer field.
“Vega.”
He sent mana into the pendant hung on his neck.
[I’m here!]
Crackle, crack, crack—
Vega appeared as rays of silver light exploded like fireworks behind her.
With her arms spread out wide, she rotated her body 360°.
“Anything good happen?”
[Fufu. Haven’t you called me every day recently? Well… though it is because of training.]
“Once again, I’m in your hands.”
[Hmm. Getting to see your face every day is nice… but is there something to do other than training?]
Vega pouted her lips.
[Working hard is certainly good, but sometimes there’s a need to relieve your built-up fatigue.]
“I just happened to be planning to train briefly for today.”
[Ho. Until when are you going to train?]
“Around 1PM?”
[Ohh.]
Vega’s eyes twinkled.
[Then will you go sightseeing the city with this—]
“Ah, let’s do that next time.”
[Hmm? Do you have plans for today?]
“Ha-eun wanted to have lunch with me.”
[I see. Then are you saying just the two of you will meet?]
“Well, probably.”
No matter how oblivious he was, he wouldn’t take Vega to a lunch that Ha-eun went out of her way to propose.
[Hmmm.]
Vega crossed her arms with narrowed eyes.
She sat on his shoulder and temperamentally shook her legs.
[I see… so just the two of you are going to meet up.]
Vega mumbled in a quiet voice.
Bzzzzzt!—
[Let’s start the training.]
Her golden eyes shone as she floated up into the air.
Bzzzzzzt!!—
Fierce bundles of lightning raged violently like a storm.
“Um… Lady Vega?”
‘I’m fucking scared.’
[So do you want me to attack you until you touch me three times while avoiding the lasers as we’ve done before?]
“Uh, yeah. That’s right.”
[Then let’s raise today’s difficulty a bit and continue until you touch me thirty times.]
“Pardon?”
‘Since when did a ‘bit’ mean an increment of 10 times? Is this crypto? Mom, are we going to the moon?’
“Wait, isn’t thirty times too m—”
[We’re starting!]
Click!—
As Vega lowered the switch, thousands of lasers shot out in all directions. Although no injuries appeared when the lasers hit his skin, as he was in a state where he had yet to use ‘lies’—
[Hyaaaaaap!]
Bzzzzzzzzt!!—
—Vega’s attacks were a different story.
As the celestial of Lyra, she had marvelous skills in controlling lightning meticulously. In other words, she was able to control lightning so that it was extremely painful but left no scar behind.
“Ahhhhhhhhh!!”
Ohjin evaded the nauseating lasers and blue lightning until his back was drenched in sweat.
* * *
“Fuu.”
After he finished showering in the shower room installed in the training facility, he turned on his phone while drying his wet hair with a towel.
“Hm?”
There were no messages in his inbox.
‘Huh?’
He thought that there would obviously be a text sent to him with the decided location.
-Ohjin: Ha-eun, where are you?
There was no reply, even when he sent her a message. The same thing happened when he called her. No matter how many times he called her, the only thing that returned was the machine that said the call was missed.
‘Is she sleeping?’
Ohjin tilted his head and headed to their home.
Click—
He opened the door and entered the house but couldn’t feel any presence inside.
“…”
Worry gradually started to build up.
Ohjin confirmed the last message he received from her.
-Ha-eun: On my way to get my leg~♫ ε₍₍ (ง ˙ ω ˙)ว ⁾⁾
-Ohjin: Ride a taxi.
-Ha-eun: kk I already called a kakao taxi.
10:39 AM…
There was nothing other than the message that was sent approximately two hours before.
Ohjin immediately went into his contacts and called General Manager Han.
-Ah, it’s been a while. I’ve heard that you’ve been focusing on training lately. How have things been progressing?
“General Manager, has Ha-eun come by the Association?” asked Ohjin while cutting off General Manager Han.
-Yes. Ha-eun came by around two hours ago.
“When did she leave?”
-She received the prosthetic leg and left right away… is there a problem?
Beep—
He hung up without answering.
“Damn it.”
Cold sweat ran down his back.
An ominous feeling spread out like black ink dropped on white paper.
‘I need to go to the Association.’
Her last confirmed location was the Association.
Ohjin headed to the veranda’s window. There was no time to leisurely go down using the elevator.
Crunch!—
He forcefully pulled off the window that was built to open halfway to prevent people from falling down.
Bang!!!—
The wire shooter was shot at the apartment that was on the other side.
“Hmpf!”
He violently jumped towards the apartment on the other side. While drawing an arc in the air, he used the wire shooter to propel his falling body upwards.
‘Faster…!’
Ohjin bit his lips with a nervous expression and headed to the Association.
Swoosh! Swoosh!—
It took him only three minutes to arrive at the Association.
“Fuu.”
Ohjin stood in front of the Association’s entrance and breathed in deeply.
‘Stigma of the Hunting Dogs.’
Owooong!—
The senses in his body amplified to the extreme as light poured out of his left chest.
“Argh!”
Countless smells rushed into his nose.
Ohjin endured the painful headache and searched for Ha-eun’s smell.
‘…It’s not here.’
Two hours had passed since she left the Association. How would there be any smell remaining when she hadn’t been around for a long time?
‘No. I can do it.’
High-rank Awakeners of the Hunting Dogs were said to be able to track down a person who brushed past them hours beforehand.
He wasn’t a high-rank Awakener, but it meant that it wasn’t impossible.
‘In that case…’
Ohjin clenched his teeth.
He shut his eyes tight and focused all his senses on his nose.
“Fuuuu.”
—The uncountable number of smells that rushed into his nose…
“Kugh… Kuk!”
Throb, throb—
His head radiated pain like it was going to explode.
His brain couldn’t process the information because too much of it was trying to dig into it at once.
“Ugh!”
Blood poured out of his nose.
No, it wasn’t only his nose.
His eyes got bloodshot as blood tears ran down his cheek.
Blood dripped down from his ears, soaking his neck.
‘It’s not enough.’
Even within the current of uncountable information, there was no trace of Ha-eun.
‘More, more, more!’
Bzzzt!—
Blue lightning sparked up and spread out wide.
It was what Vega demonstrated once in the past; a skill that used feeble lightning that was nothing but static electricity.
-Ring!
[The stigma of Lyra and the stigma of the Hunting Dogs are resonating!]
[Combination skill 《Star of the Weaver Girl’s Hunting Dog Lv MAX》 has been acquired!]
It started to flow in…
The uncountable, the unmeasurable,..
—tsunami of information.
“Huff, huff!”
The smell of smoke from the parking lot…
The smell of a cigarette butt thrown away in the street…
The smell of a half-full cup of coffee…
The smell of ginkgo trees on the roadside. The smell of a dead pigeon that was run over by a car. The smell of shampoo from the hair of a woman that was passing by. The smell of filthy water from the manhole. The smell of ice cream in the hand of a child. The smell of a man’s mouth who was running around. The smell of a bug rotting in the sun. The smell of laundry drying on the apartment’s veranda. The smell of paper stored in a file. The smell of pen ink that was drying. The smell of garbage that was blocking the pipe. The smell of gum stuck to the concrete. The smell of dust built up in the AC unit.
And, and, and…
A smell that was always by his side.
The infinitely familiar, and boundlessly precious, smell of her.
“Found… you.”
A blue fen fire ignited in Ohjin’s eye.
Bang!!—
With a loud noise as if a cannon had exploded, his body shot forward.
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