That Face Is the Problem - vanish into fiction

Jeong Jae-gyeong

Hello, Mr. Da-sol. I hope you had a good day. If you are unable to come to the guild because of me, I can change my schedule. I am just sorry that you have to bear the inconvenience because of me.

You are eating your meals well, right? The owner of the pork cutlet restaurant is very worried because you haven’t been coming by lately. No matter how much you hate me, please make sure to eat. The owner said if you visit again, he will fry a special king-sized pork cutlet for you, even bigger than the ones for others. So, please go visit. I will not even lurk near that area. In case you are conscious of me…

And the team members are also very worried. They say you seem to be in a worse mood than usual. Hearing that makes my heart ache and feel guilty. It is all because of me… I have no excuses. Actually, what I said before is everything. If you still feel upset even after hearing that excuse… I think it might be better for me to leave the guild. But rather than deciding on my own, I think it would be better to talk to you and officially submit my resignation… I would be grateful if you would meet me just once… So, I am very sorry for sending another long Hun-Tok message at this late hour… and I hope I can see you tomorrow. Have a good night.

It was incredibly long and detailed; it was a length that you could not even read fully unless you pressed “See more.” He had been sending letters like this every night. Because of Da-sol’s avoidance, he seemed to be seriously considering changing jobs, but that even annoyed Da-sol.

“Who told you to get lost from the guild? I just do not want to see you.”

Da-sol answered the screen and then irritably turned off his phone. For the past week, Jae-gyeong had been sending messages like that to a chatroom that had no replies.

“Did he say he liked me for three years? If he likes Seo Da-in for three years, a week is nothing.”

Da-sol said, fuming to himself. He was not usually the type to talk to himself much, but lately, words kept bursting out like a Christian believer speaking in tongues. Da-sol himself did not know why he was like this.

Anyway, in this way, Da-sol was able to avoid Jae-gyeong perfectly for a week. Meanwhile, he had only been able to see Jae-gyeong’s back, his small figure walking in the distance, or his profile.

Da-sol might not have realized it, but in reality, all the actions he had taken to avoid Jae-gyeong for a week were not much different from those of a stalker. And Da-sol also did not know that when actions become similar, the texture of one’s heart also becomes similar.

Having to secretly watch only from behind. Hiding in order not to reveal one’s presence. Grasping all the other person’s movements and watching their daily life. While doing so, thinking only about the other person all day long.

These were all creepy, perverted acts, while at the same time, they were blind acts where the center of one’s life became the other person. In other words, it meant that Da-sol had lived centering his life around Jae-gyeong without missing a single day for the past week.

And returning to the present, Team 1 of the Training Guild, who had gathered in front of the emergency gate, were all astonished to see Da-sol.

“What is this? What am I looking at right now? I am getting cognitive dissonance, Mr. Jeong-eon… I am scared…”

Hyeon Hee-ro pretended to be weak and collapsed into Jeong-eon’s arms. Jeong-eon quickly caught him and looked at Da-sol with a tense face. It seemed he could not bear to say anything.

Yoo Ri-na, who always spoke her mind clearly, pointed it out directly first.

“Da-sol-oppa , are you sure you looked in a mirror? You look like a crazy person wearing a beard filter over a baby filter right now!”

“Ri-na, you shouldn’t point out appearances… Da-sol… pfft, he might have wanted to grow a beard, khe-khem… He might have wanted a mature image change, k-k-khe-khem, pfft!”

Ye-jin pretended to stop Ri-na but added fuel to the fire. Lee Hyeon had a look on his face that suggested he was slightly turned off. Perhaps at this very moment, his feelings for Da-sol had been sorted out.

And Jae-gyeong… he stared intensely at Da-sol, who was checking his shield without looking at him.

Da-sol, whose hair had become bushier and whose skin had turned pale enough to look white, had grown a patchy beard on his philtrum and chin. Since the beard was on Da-sol’s face, which was pretty enough to rival a female idol, it gave off a strange feeling, just like Ri-na said, as if a “baby filter and a beard filter” had been applied in a camera app.

‘Still, in my opinion? A little bit? He seems to pull it off? But everyone is being too harsh…’

Jae-gyeong felt sulky to himself, thinking the team members were too mean. Then, a sudden question flashed through Jae-gyeong’s mind.

‘Could it be that he was so shocked and angry because of me that he even forgot to shave?!’

Was it possible that Da-sol had become a wreck, so furious at the fact that Jae-gyeong did not see him as he was but instead overlapped him with Da-in? If so, the one who made Da-sol like that was none other than Jae-gyeong!

“Mr. Da-sol…!”

Jae-gyeong opened his mouth for the first time today.