After bringing Kwon Taehan home, I kindly gave him a tour of the place.
“So, what do you want to know first? Living room? This is the living room, kitchen’s over there. I don’t use it. You shouldn’t either.”
“...You never cook?”
“Why would I? It’s annoying.”
I answered indifferently before sitting down on the sofa.
Kwon Taehan stared at me quietly before speaking.
“Thanks.”
I gave a lazy nod.
Kwon Taehan looked at me for quite a while before finally heading into the room I had assigned him.
***
After that, my strange cohabitation with Kwon Taehan continued.
It did not feel unfamiliar.
I had seen scenes like this before.
Though I could not tell whether that had been in an earlier regression... or a later one.
Kwon Taehan and I moved independently, without affiliations. Operating without being tied to a Guild or the Hunter Association naturally brought more restrictions, but we accepted them.
Then one day, Kwon Taehan cautiously asked,
“...Should we make a Guild? Since I’m S-rank, I technically can. It’d be easier belonging somewhere.”
“That’d be a pain. You’re bad at that kind of thing, aren’t you?”
“You could... help me. You’re good at things like that.”
“Me?”
Leaning back against the sofa, I looked at him like he was being ridiculous.
But Kwon Taehan seemed to have genuinely thought this through already, because he immediately started explaining seriously.
“Yeah. The restrictions on our actions bother me. There’ll be more Dungeons in the future, and they’ll get harder too. Being affiliated with a Guild makes cooperation requests easier.”
“Cooperation.... What, planning to contact Haeseong if things get dangerous?”
“Doesn’t matter whether it’s Haeseong or somewhere else.”
Kwon Taehan repeatedly pulled the zipper of his hoodie up and down. He looked strangely unstable.
I glanced at the zipper before looking back into his eyes.
“And you....”
Kwon Taehan started speaking before abruptly turning his head aside.
Even from here, I could see the tips of his ears turning slightly red.
“What about me? Go on.”
“Don’t get offended, but... listen first.”
“People usually get offended after hearing that.”
Kwon Taehan stared at the wall for a while before lowering his gaze toward the floor. Then he lifted his head again with a resolute expression.
“I admit you’re abnormally strong for a B-rank Hunter. But you’re still B-rank.”
“What’s this? Calling me weak? Taehan, what the fuck kind of disrespect is this?”
“That’s not what I mean! If things get dangerous for you later and I... can’t make it in time to save you, then what? Are you just going to die? Of course not. We should consider other options too. ...What happens when an S-rank Dungeon appears?”
“Then I guess I got unlucky.”
“That’s not something you should brush off so casually.”
Kwon Taehan abruptly rose from his seat and strode over to me.
Standing over me while blocking my view from the sofa, he spoke down at me.
“You think dying is just bad luck? You know how guilty I feel over other people dying.”
“You planning to feel guilty if I die too?”
“...What?”
Kwon Taehan blankly stared at me after suddenly losing his words, then slowly repeated himself.
“If you die too...? What does that mean?”
“No, you would feel guilty. That’s just the kind of person you are. Guilt, morality, responsibility... you’re especially serious about all that stuff. Yeah, I understand. But....”
“.......”
“With enough time, you’d mostly recover.”
I shrugged casually before grinning up at him.
The expression slowly vanished from Kwon Taehan’s face.
I stared at him for quite a while, trying to interpret what exactly I was seeing there.
Then in the next instant—
he grabbed me by the collar.
Kwon Taehan practically lifted me one-handed while lowering his voice roughly.
“What the hell are you suddenly talking about?”
‘Trying to look intimidating? Funny bastard.’
“How can you say things like that so easily? You— I.... I’ve never gotten used to death!”
“No way. You’ve seen tons of people die already. Enough people have died around you that you should be numb to it by now.”
“Are those people the same as you? No, I still care about all of them. Even now...! I still care! I still remember the corpses I saw when I first awakened. But if you died, then what the hell am I supposed to—”
Hadn’t he basically worked himself into a panic all on his own?
Kwon Taehan was acting like someone whose trigger had just been slammed.
Twisting his hand away from my collar, I quietly asked,
“Taehan. Did I die right now?”
“...What?”
“So why the fuck are you suddenly freaking out?”
The mood was neither pleasant nor heavy.
Even as an observer, there was no way I would not recognize “my own” emotions.
It was difficult to explain, but instinctively understandable.
“Yeah, I know you’ve got trauma related to death.”
“.......”
“I understand. Your family situation was a disaster. Your parents died too.... Yeah. I get it.”
“.......”
Kwon Taehan narrowed his eyes at me before sighing and sitting down beside me.
Leaning back fully against the sofa while staring blankly into space, he eventually spoke again.
“It’s not like I’m absolutely insisting on making a Guild.... I just thought of it as an option.”
“.......”
“Yeah, I have trauma.... My parents are dead too, and I only have you left.”
“Why are you so attached all of a sudden?”
I let out a disbelieving laugh and looked at him.
“So why are you suddenly worried about my safety? It’s not like I’ve ever really been in danger before.”
“...I thought about it, and I think I’ve been too confident this whole time. We don’t have enough information either....”
“If you need something, ask me. I can get it for you. Information, artifacts, whatever.”
I answered casually.
Kwon Taehan’s gaze immediately grew more persistent.
He stared at me for quite a while before asking,
“How do you know so much?”
“What?”
“You always act however you want, but in the end... you still help me. That’s what’s strange. Just like you said, I don’t have any family left or anything anymore.”
“That’s why it was easy to pick you up.”
“Pick me up my ass.... We’re just living together. Jehyun, I was genuinely curious. ...You won’t answer stuff like this?”
At those words, I shifted my gaze toward the calendar.
Time really moved fast.
I had been watching this from Kwon Taehan’s age twenty-four, and now somehow he was already twenty-seven.
And on top of that, it was winter now.
Meaning Kwon Taehan and “I” had already known each other for over two and a half years.
A lot had happened during that time.
Kwon Taehan had been lonely, exhausted, hurt, then recovered...
and I had simply stayed beside him.
After all, he had excellent resilience.
Though no matter how resilient someone was, if you pushed them past their limit, eventually they would still break.
Still, the fact that he had been given one duty nobody else possessed had been fortunate for him.
Because it could substitute for a purpose in life.
Without taking my eyes off the calendar, I asked,
“Didn’t we agree not to suspect each other?”
“I’m not suspicious. I just... trust you.”
“Don’t ask things like that, Taehan.”
“Why?”
Was there irritation mixed into my voice?
No, it was pure curiosity.
Slowly, I turned to look at Kwon Taehan.
His gaze remained fixed on me without wavering.
Like someone completely isolated.
“I put a lot of effort into this one.”
“...What do you mean?”
“So I want to eliminate as many variables as possible. I don’t want you contacting Haeseong, Damyeon... Clavis, anywhere. And I don’t want you finding another information source and trying something new either. Variables....”
“.......”
“Variables are interesting. But not anymore.”
I curled the corner of my mouth upward.
Listening to “myself,” I slowly began realizing something.
This was not the first time.
Then which regression was it?
No, but Kwon Taehan did not remember anything....
What exactly was a deleted regression?
A “deleted” regression was ultimately just an erased life.
If so, whose life was being illuminated here?
Mine?
Or Kwon Taehan’s?
With a confused expression, Kwon Taehan said,
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about....”
“Yeah. I’d rather you didn’t.”
“But I want to understand you....”
After a long silence, Kwon Taehan looked toward the familiar Status Window.
Save the world from destruction!
At first, it had probably sounded ridiculous.
But now, he seemed to have grasped the rough idea.
Because the world really was collapsing quickly.
If so, then how did Kwon Taehan understand the meaning of “salvation”?
After a moment, he spoke.
“If all the Dungeons disappear someday... I mean, if all the Skills disappear too, then how are you going to live?”
“Out of nowhere?”
“Just....”
“.......”
If all of this ended someday...
then obviously I would just return to an ordinary, boring life.
It was a natural answer.
I mulled over Kwon Taehan’s words for a long while before slightly furrowing my brow.
“Not sure.... Even now I’m kind of just moving out of inertia.”
“Inertia?”
“Yeah.... It’s boring. If everything ends, would it stop being boring?”
“Hey, people’s lives are constantly on the line in Dungeons. How the hell is that boring?”
“True. But it stayed entertaining for a pretty long time. Didn’t think I’d ever get tired of it.”
“.......”
As I slowly dragged a hand down my face, Kwon Taehan stared at me like I was insane.
The moment our eyes met, he stumbled over his words before finally blurting out a beat later,
“Hey, you... seriously need psychiatric treatment once all this is over. What kind of insane nonsense are you saying? What exactly is boring?”
“Fuck, stop saying useless shit.”
“What? Hey.”
“Alright, Taehan. Let me design your future for you.”
Throwing an arm around Kwon Taehan’s shoulders, I pointed toward the giant living room window.
His gaze naturally followed toward it.
Beyond the glass stood crowded buildings and roads, a bridge visible far in the distance, and tiny people moving beneath it.
Like an ordinary moment from everyday life.
“If everything ends, you’ll go back to being a loser again. Since you spent your whole life as a shut-in, once you stop being a Hunter you’re basically just a socially crippled high school graduate.”
“You fucking psycho.... You want to die?”
“But you’ve made plenty of money, so you can still live however you want. Inflation’s fucked, but even accounting for that, you’re rich. Maybe you’ll be even richer by then. You could lose all your assets too.”
“Lose all my assets? What the hell are you talking about? Whose?”
“Fuck, Taehan. Stop asking questions and listen quietly. Anyway, then you find something you vaguely want to do and get certified for it. Personally, I think you’d develop mental illness if you worked a white-collar job. So do physical labor. What’s there... wallpapering? Tile work? Carpentry? Construction work. Ah, vehicle repair wouldn’t be bad either. Feels weirdly fetishistic.”
He looked like about a thousand responses were fighting to come out of his mouth, but in the end he stayed silent.
Satisfied by how obedient he was being, I patted his head once and continued.
“And then... while doing that, go on blind dates.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Listen first. Anyway, after about ten blind dates, maybe someone will end up liking you. If not, at least dress yourself up properly before going. You’re handsome enough.”
“.......”
“Then date someone... and preferably get married quickly.”
“What?”
“You’re mentally unstable enough that you need something like marriage to stabilize your life.”
“You’ve been saying weird shit this whole time....”
I lightly poked Kwon Taehan’s cheek with a finger.
Despite grumbling, he still obediently listened to me.
“Then raise kids too. If your wife says she can’t have children, then adopt.... Or raise a dog or something. Though honestly, having kids with your genes would probably be better. It’d make forming attachment easier. Though even if they weren’t biologically yours, you’d still fulfill your responsibilities.”
“What kind of— why are you making my family planning decisions?”
“Two kids? One daughter, one son. Two sons sounds kind of miserable, right? Anyway, then become a good father. You can probably learn by referencing various media.”
“.......”
“And while living like that, eventually one day you’ll suddenly think, ‘Huh. Maybe I’m kind of happy?’ Then hold onto that and live a long, long life.”
Once I finished speaking, I withdrew the arm resting across Kwon Taehan’s shoulders.
Feeling the sudden loss of weight, Kwon Taehan naturally turned his head toward me.
I lightly shrugged, signaling I was finished talking.
Only then did Kwon Taehan ask,
“Then what about you?”
“Me?”
At his words, I raised an eyebrow before crookedly smiling.
“Mm, no idea?”