That Face Is the Problem - vanish into fiction

There was nothing he could say. What Da-sol had intuitively picked up on was accurate, and trying to make further excuses would only make him look pathetic.

When Jae-gyeong couldn’t say anything and just wore a troubled expression, Da-sol spoke calmly.

“Leave. You already said everything you needed to say before Noona got here anyway.”

“Yes…”

Jae-gyeong carefully stood up, walking toward the entryway while glancing at Da-sol out of the corner of his eye. He wanted to know what Da-sol was thinking inside, but his expression was difficult to read. In the end, Jae-gyeong left Da-sol’s house after giving a greeting, feeling as if he were being kicked out.

Well, even if he couldn’t guess from Da-sol’s expression, he could roughly predict what kind of thoughts he would have.

‘He probably thinks it’s creepy. To think I looked at him and thought of his Noona.’ For siblings of different genders, that would truly be a nightmare-like thing.

But on the other hand, he might feel relieved. If Jae-gyeong hadn’t liked Da-sol but had liked Da-in instead… wouldn’t that be better for him?

The problem was… what had seeped into Jae-gyeong’s heart right now wasn’t Da-in, but Da-sol.

He went back into his own house and lay down on the bed as if jumping onto it. He buried his face in the pillow while lying face down. Tears trickled slightly from his eyes.

‘If Mr. Da-sol thinks it’s a good thing, that hurts my heart… and if he thinks it’s creepy, that’s sad too…’

At any rate, he could tell that something had become incredibly twisted. Jae-gyeong sniffled while lying face down on the bed and fell straight asleep (it was a frequent occurrence).

***

Fortunately, Lee Hyeon was not fired. He wasn’t beaten up by Da-sol either, nor did he particularly become awkward with Da-sol. Instead, the one whose distance had grown wider was Jae-gyeong.

Da-sol no longer even looked at Jae-gyeong now. If Jae-gyeong greeted him, he ignored it, and even if they ended up having a conversation due to strictly necessary work, he wouldn’t say anything other than, “Ah, really.”

Da-sol’s dead-fish eyes were so severe that the other team members came over one by one to ask Jae-gyeong what was going on.

“Mr. Jae-gyeong, by any chance, do we need to live together in a camp again~?”

Hee-ro asked like this, and,

“Hunter Jeong Jae-gyeong. Surely you didn’t launch a confession attack on Hunter Seo Da-sol, right? Though if you had, you wouldn’t be able to be here right now…”

Jeong-eon said such terrifying words.

“New Tanker-nim, did you have a fight with Da-sol-oppa?”

Ri-na also sensed the oddly changed atmosphere, and,

“Hunter Jae-gyeong, it’s fine. The Guild Master has maintained that kind of distance with Da-sol for three and a half years.”

Ye-jin encouraged Jae-gyeong (somehow, this hurt his heart the most).

Lastly, whether he felt guilty or not, Lee Hyeon called Jae-gyeong out separately again. The moment Jae-gyeong stepped into the empty conference room where no one else was present, Lee Hyeon flopped down onto his knees.

“Wh, what are you doing, Hunter Yoon Yi-hyeon…!”

“I did wrong, hyung. Honestly, it’s true that I acted like that because I wanted to get stronger, and it’s true that I felt burdened because of my younger siblings, but I… I’ve come to like the Healer-nim a bit… But because you kept hanging around only the Healer-nim and the two of you looked close, hyung, I acted like a piece of trash! I did wrong, hyung! You fought with the Healer-nim because of me, right? The Healer-nim is completely pissed off because you defended me and asked him not to fire me, right? Jae-gyeong-hyung, I will serve you as my older brother for the rest of my life! Hyuuung!!”

With that, Lee Hyeon held onto Jae-gyeong’s legs, filled with emotion, and rubbed his face against them, but honestly, Jae-gyeong disliked it so much that he almost kicked Lee Hyeon’s face with his foot.

Jae-gyeong stopped Lee Hyeon and explained that it wasn’t like that. However, Lee Hyeon wore a devout expression as if he ‘knew everything’ and smiled like the main character of a drama.

“Yes, let’s just go with that, between us. Still, I, Yoon Yi-hyeon, will never forget a grace once received for the rest of my life.”

To Jae-gyeong, it seemed like Lee Hyeon wasn’t in his right mind either. He gave Jae-gyeong a tight hug once and left the conference room first.

Jae-gyeong immediately felt a wave of fatigue and slumped face down onto the conference room desk.

‘I’m exhausted…’

Because they were a team where teamwork was incredibly tight and important, everyone detected it immediately even if a relationship changed just a little bit, and they seemed to hold a sense of responsibility that they had to view it as a ‘problem’ and resolve it.

Of course, Jae-gyeong understood too. Because the better the team’s teamwork matched, the higher the dungeon raid success rate and survival rate became. Even if it weren’t for that, wouldn’t the stress coming from human relationships decrease if everyone got along well?

However, being on the receiving end of an onslaught of questions or encouragement from the team members every few tens of minutes all day long completely drained his energy. He felt as if he had had too many conversations throughout today alone.

‘Even so, as expected… it would be better to go and talk to Mr. Da-sol again…’

Setting aside the fact that he didn’t want to make the team members worry, Jae-gyeong was also concerned about Da-sol. He was curious about what he might be thinking, and if there was some kind of misunderstanding, he wanted to clear it up.

But the only way to clear up the misunderstanding was a confession?