CH 50

Han Cha-soo went to sleep early in the evening and woke up early in the morning.

‘…Am I seeing things?’

The bed was large enough for two people. Ki Tae-yeon was beside me with his eyes closed and breathing evenly.

Somehow, I felt like I was dreaming.

In the dream, Han Cha-soo was submerged in seawater and couldn’t get out. He could breathe and walk on the bottom of the sea, but he couldn’t get out. He felt like his stomach was going to explode with frustration, so he finally used a dragon to wake up…. It was like this.

(TL/N: I don’t quite understand the last sentence: 답답하다 못해 속이 폭발할 것 같아 겨우 용을 써 깨어났는데…. 이 꼴이었다.)

“Hmm.”

His dark eyebrows wriggled and the distance he had barely opened narrowed again.

“Ugh!”

The strength of an S-rank pretending to be an A-rank was no match for Han Cha-soo and he stared at the ceiling in despair, then at Ki Tae-yeon, then at his thick arms.

But the thick arm didn’t disappear nor did the man’s breathtakingly close body move away.

Han Cha-soo tried to make sense of the situation with his half-hearted reason.

‘Is it the spiritualization or something?’

There was no indication that he was suffering from any condition, nor was there anything unusual in the food he had eaten yesterday.

‘Could it be the effect of the spirit stone?’

Han Cha-soo looked at the spirit stone lying on the table. But the grey spirit stone was unchanged from yesterday. It sat still on the cushion the medics had brought with them, emitting a faint glow.

By then, all the locks had fled. It was also because Ki Taeyeon hugged him more strongly.

(TL/N: another confusing one: 그쯤 되자 잠기운이 전부 달아났다.)

“Kuluk!”

If I stay like this, I’ll be flattened like a dead frog on a stone. Han Cha-soo raised his voice in a sudden sense of crisis.

“…Chief Ki Tae-yeon.”

“Mmm.”

“Chief Ki!”

Oh, my God. Han Cha-soo didn’t get up but was surprised to see the man clinging to him more and more. He was sleeping with his shirt untucked.

Somehow, he could feel an unpleasant warmth. Han Cha-soo looked at the man, his eyes sinking even further, and he cleared his throat.

“Chief, we’re in trouble! They say a gate has blown open on the east coast. It’s a class 1 gate!”

“—!”

There was a rattling sound and the bed shifted violently.

“A Class 1 gate… Where? The East Sea?”

A cracked voice burst out. A pair of piercing blue eyes quickly swept over him. The hand that had been binding Han Cha-soo was now busy buttoning his shirt. It was almost ingrained in my body.

‘So you’re the head of the Crisis Management Office.’

It was clear from his unconscious reactions that he was meant to be a civil servant. Inwardly, Han Cha-soo applauded his sincerity. Meanwhile, Ki Tae-yeon seemed to have shaken off his daze.

“Ah.”

A dumbfounded sound came from the man who had finally seen reality.

Han Cha-soo stared at him.

“It’s crazy, what time is it… ah.”

After muttering something to himself, Ki Tae-yeon slowly turned his head towards Han Cha-soo, whether it was because he had just woken up or because he was in the shadows, and his blue eyes, much darker than usual, stared back at him.

“…….”

“…….”

There was an uncomfortable silence on both sides, until finally, Ki Tae-yeon spoke up.

“Good morning, Hunter Han Cha-soo.”

Good morning? Are you kidding me?

Han Cha-soo crossed his arms and rubbed his eyes. His displeasure was palpable and Ki Tae-yeon gulped.

“Hmm.”

He ran a hand through his messy hair and frowned. He looked like he didn’t know what to make of this.

“I can explain everything.”

“Please do.”

It was hard to tell him what to do when he laid out the board for him. Ki Tae-yeon pursed his lips several times before letting out a long sigh.

“Haa….”

It felt strange to see him like that. He felt like a stranger waking up after a night of drinking and asking the person next to him what happened last night.

‘Shit.’

Han Cha-soo cursed under his breath as he mulled over my words. He was shocked to realize that it was almost true, except for the drunken, hot night.

“So, um, what’s going on here?”

Ki Tae-yeon began his explanation, either because he had finished thinking or because he realized that he would have to retire in disgrace as of today if he couldn’t explain it properly.

Han Cha-soo was left speechless as he continued.

“Overnight, Hunter Han Cha-soo became spiritized and tried to disappear, so I gave him some energy.”

“…What?”

With his head spinning, Ki Tae-yeon spoke up in a calm voice.

“I didn’t explain properly last time. To solve the condition of the Hunter Han Cha-soo, you can’t do it with an antidote. You have to have someone who is directly by your side to give you energy.”

Ki Tae-yeon continued.

“I know that Han Cha-soo’s body isn’t as strong as F-rank. Your body was almost in cardiac arrest, so you can’t gather the scattered energy from the Spiritualization by yourself, so even if you took the antidote, it’s only a temporary solution.”

At this point, he thought he knew why Ki Tae-yeon was found next to him. No, actually, he didn’t want to know.

Ki Tae-yeon pointed at Han Cha-soo, who was washing his face dry with a complicated face.

“From now on, I will be by your side until hunter Han Cha-soo’s spiritualization is released. So please take care of yourself.”

“…Are you sure you’re okay with that? I know the Crisis Management Office is a very busy place and you handle a lot of things yourself.”

“You’re worried about me? Thank you, but I’m fine. It’s not like I’m the only one working in the crisis office, there’s a security office, so it’s not a problem.”

“…….”

“Let me use the bathroom first.”

As he watched Ki Tae-yeon leisurely go to wash up after pushing the others out of the way, Han Cha-soo thought.

‘Isn’t sparring a form of contact?’

If we have to make contact, it would be okay if I hit Ki Tae-yeon.

“Okay.”

Even if he says no, he’ll push him to at least give it a try. His eyes shone with determination as he stared at the firmly closed bathroom door.

Unfortunately, before he could ask Ki Tae-yeon if he could tie him up and beat him, the medical staff who had visited earlier in the morning found him.

“Chief Ki, I was wondering where you were, but you’ve been here since morning?!”

“I told you I’m in charge of treating hunter Han Cha-soo.”

“I didn’t realise it was from today…. Oh, never mind, Chief, we’re in trouble, you need to go to the Director’s office now!”

“Why should I?”

“I heard you fell on your face in the dev room.”

“Oh.”

Ki Tae-yeon let out a low sigh. Han Cha-soo looked at him with a puzzled expression.

“Weren’t you making my antidote in the development room?”

“That’s right.”

“But you turned it upside down.”

“It wouldn’t have happened if you had done what you had been entrusted with.”

Ki Tae-yeon replied, straining his clenched hands. The medical staff overheard their conversation.

“But who’s going to freeze the whole dev room!”

“After all, we didn’t touch the research building, right?”

As he tapped his foot, Han Cha-soo realized what he meant. He realized what they meant when they said that he didn’t get promoted because he had a bad temper.

‘You’ve been losing your temper even with your colleagues.’

In the original, Ki Tae-yeon barely appears until the middle of the novel. His rise to prominence comes in the second half of the novel, when the director of the Awakening Agency dies, and the head of the agency takes control.

Ki Tae-yeon then reveals his hidden rank and takes down the head of the bureau in one fell swoop. Political backlash is a futile struggle in the face of an S-rank dual-series awakener.

Afterwards, Ki Tae-Yeon confronts Jung Yiheon and disrupts his ruthless plan.

So, to cut a long story short.

All he knows about Ki Tae-yeon from his time as head of the Crisis Management Office is what he picks up. He heard that he was good at his job but had a bad temper, so he stayed as a chief when he could have been a general manager.

He didn’t realize that he’d been out and about smashing up other departments.

“Forgive me if I ask, but you haven’t tampered with any of the therapeutic devices you’re working on, have you?”

“I’m afraid I don’t have that much brain.”

Ki Tae-yeon snorted. The medic sighed heavily.

“You’re very lucky, sir. If you’d broken one of the machines, the director would’ve come calling.”

“It’s okay.”

“I’ll win,” he said calmly, and Ki Tae-yeon wore his employee ID around his neck. He seemed to be on his way to see the director, so he was supposed to have some courtesy.

“Hunter Han Cha-soo. Take care of this, please.”

“…….”

“It’s not very expensive, but it would be a nuisance if you lost it, so take care of it.”

Han Cha-soo took the watch, ignoring the answer his subconscious was screaming at him. His hand sagged slightly under the weight of it.

“Are you sure you’re supposed to eat five meals a day?”

Ki Tae-yeon clicked his tongue and gestured toward the medic.

“Give him the antidote, then bring him some snacks and take him for a walk, preferably in the garden, not the lake. What the hell are you doing locking him in a room?”

“Are you going to go against our medical center policy now?”

“Even if I stop by the research building from here, it takes less than 10 minutes to get to the director’s office.”

Ki Tae-yeon shook his head and stomped his foot on the floor.

Shaaa-

The medical staff’s faces turned white from the cold aura that spread like mist. The implications of his actions were clear. It meant that freezing a few medical devices and going to the director’s office wasn’t even a job.

Seeing that, Han Cha-soo shook his head. After all, among the S-ranks, Jung Yiheon was the only one with the right character.