After that day, Kwon Taehan gave up on the idea of creating a Guild.
Since he never brought it up again, it seemed he had abandoned it completely.
Instead, he diligently continued clearing Gates. “Seo Jehyun” accompanied him most of the time, though every now and then he would go out alone to handle whatever business he had. But because the viewpoint was fixed, I could not observe “my own” movements directly.
Still, I could roughly guess.
After all, that thought process was mine too.
I was controlling Kwon Taehan.
I had asked to see the beginning, so I did not know why this particular point in time had been shown to me, but there was one thing I could infer.
Inside the deleted regressions, only “Seo Jehyun” retained his memories.
And the deleted regressions were not merely one or two.
Then the conclusion came naturally. Before the regressions Kwon Taehan remembered, an enormous number of rounds had already been “deleted.”
With only “me” remembering them.
'Why?'
Time only had to continue moving forward. Eventually, no matter what, it would reach some kind of result.
I thought about why I had said I put so much effort into this round.
There were things that existed as constants regardless of regression. Events that could not be altered through interference, or people who naturally came into existence no matter what.
As if driven by inertia, Kwon Taehan still sought out Joo Seowon and inevitably became entangled with Im Haekyung, but in this round alone, from “Kwon Taehan’s” perspective, he never became deeply involved with anyone.
The reason was simple.
“l” had removed every opportunity for Kwon Taehan to seek out other people.
If he lacked money, I created it. If he lacked information, I brought it to him. I had no idea how I did it.
Kwon Taehan questioned it repeatedly too, but in the end he always stopped short of asking. Between us existed an unspoken rule that we would not suspect each other.
Though honestly, I was the only one who benefited from that rule.
Kwon Taehan had never been the type to mingle with many people anyway, so it was simple. The deficiencies he carried were surprisingly trivial things, and most of them were filled simply by my existence.
Family, friends...... yeah, things like that.
In the end, only two things truly mattered to Kwon Taehan.
One was his conviction that he had to save the world.
The other was me.
I moved carefully without damaging that conviction.
I had just picked Kwon Taehan up after he finished clearing a Dungeon. Handing him a potion, I swept my eyes over him.
“You look fine.”
“...Almost got my stomach pierced. A dragon showed up.”
“Sounds fun.”
“That’s not what I meant! If Hunter Tae hadn’t been there, it would’ve been bad. They’d seen a water-attribute dragon once before, so that helped. Though this one wasn’t water-attribute.”
“Yeah, yeah. How about putting your seatbelt on? If I hear that damn beeping one more time because a Hunter fresh out of a Dungeon won’t wear a seatbelt, I feel like I’m gonna beat the shit out of him.”
Kwon Taehan obediently fastened the seatbelt while drinking the potion.
I turned on the air conditioner for the bastard who had just fought a fire-breathing dragon and stepped on the accelerator.
Staring blankly out the window, Kwon Taehan casually threw out a question while pretending he was not particularly curious.
“Where’d you go?”
“Hunter Market. Needed to pick up an artifact.”
“Why? Need something?”
“I did.”
“You got it?”
“Yeah.”
The questions ended there.
I glanced sideways at Kwon Taehan once before continuing to drive as if nothing had happened. The distance from the Gate to home was considerable, so the drive took longer than usual.
Kwon Taehan spoke again, his voice quieter than before.
“A pretty persistent reporter latched onto me earlier. Kept taking pictures too....”
“You’re famous.”
“...Remember when I failed to stop that Dungeon Break? When people got hurt. In front of the school....”
“Yeah.”
“They brought it up again. ...I got a little sensitive about it. The reaction online might be bad.”
What ridiculous nonsense.
I let out a faint scoff and glanced at him.
“Okay.... So what if the reaction’s bad?”
“...That’s all.”
“Taehan, you seriously just need to stay off the internet. Should I confiscate your phone?”
“Huh?”
“Come to my room before bed tonight and hand it over.”
“What the hell are you talking about.... ...Wait, are you serious?”
“Or you wanna give it to me now? I’ll throw it away.”
As I said that, I rolled down the driver’s side window.
When I held my hand out toward him, Kwon Taehan flinched and stared at me like I had lost my mind.
“...You’re not serious, right?”
“Give it.”
“No. I’ll just give it to you tonight before bed.”
“Changed my mind. Hand it over.”
“No....”
“Give me the phone.”
“What the.... Seo Jehyun, seriously, you.... I contact a lot of people with this, okay? And how the hell am I supposed to live in the twenty-first century without internet—”
I slammed on the brakes.
The car came to a dead stop in the middle of the road, and horns immediately exploded behind us.
HOOOOONK—!!!
“Fuck— hey!”
“Give it.”
Our eyes met briefly.
By the time the blaring horns became deafening, Kwon Taehan made his decision.
He hurriedly dug through his pocket and dropped the phone into my hand, then whipped around to look behind us.
“Just drive already, hurry!”
After taking his phone, I started driving again.
I switched into the outermost lane, rolled down the window, and casually hurled Kwon Taehan’s phone toward the empty sidewalk.
The phone hit the ground with a dull thud, rolled several times, and finally slammed into the edge of the street.
Kwon Taehan jolted hard before muttering blankly,
“You actually threw it.... You seriously.... Hey, you....”
“I was worried about my friend. Out of the goodness of my heart.”
“What...?”
Staring at me like I was unbelievable, {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} Kwon Taehan frowned.
“...Then hand over your phone too. I’m worried about you.”
I burst into laughter and jerked my chin toward him.
“It’s in my pocket. Take it if you want.”
“Which side?”
“Right.”
“...Uh, by any chance.”
“Don’t get weird ideas. My dick’s on the other side.”
“...You’re insane.”
Letting out a disbelieving laugh, Kwon Taehan awkwardly felt around near my thigh before finally pulling out my phone.
He half-opened the window as if considering throwing it out too, but after glancing between the road and the sidewalk, he quietly rolled the window back up.
Instead, he opened the glove compartment and tossed my phone inside.
I followed the movement with my eyes before crookedly curling my lips upward.
“Yeah. Let’s do a little digital detox together.”
“.......”
I said it lightly before turning my gaze back toward the windshield.
I drove in silence for quite a while. Then, while stopped at a light, I turned my head to see if Kwon Taehan had fallen asleep—
only to meet his eyes immediately.
“You got something to say?”
“...Checking if you’re mad.”
“For fuck’s sake....”
The way he instantly started gauging my mood the second I gave him an opening was absurd.
I reached out, roughly brushed his hair back once, then grabbed the wheel again.
Without saying anything, Kwon Taehan lazily smoothed his pushed-back hair down again with his hand.
By the time we arrived home, Kwon Taehan absentmindedly patted his pocket before staring at me blankly.
“My phone’s gone....”
“Well, yeah. I threw it away.”
After getting home, we ate as usual and cleaned up a few things. Then even I unconsciously turned my head looking for my phone.
“Ah, my phone.”
“.......”
“Fuck, I keep forgetting.”
“Were we addicted to our phones or something?”
For people who had supposedly decided to do a digital detox, we gave up on it pretty fast.
I sat in front of the television flipping mostly through news channels before gradually relaxing and slumping sideways.
Kwon Taehan looked just as drained.
The news noise announced disaster after disaster, but even that felt familiar because it had become everyday life.
Keeping his eyes fixed on the television, Kwon Taehan asked,
“When do you think the world will recover?”
“You want it to recover? You’ll become useless again.”
“...By then everyone’s abilities would disappear completely too, right?”
“Probably.”
“Still. It’d be better if things recovered.”
“Your guilt’s stronger than your sense of self-worth?”
I was genuinely curious about that.
At my words, Kwon Taehan slowly edged closer toward me.
I did not stop him. I simply lowered my gaze and watched what he was doing.
After pressing close beside me, Kwon Taehan cautiously spoke while pretending to test the waters.
“When people die, it feels like it’s my fault. Like maybe I could’ve stopped it.”
“Really? Sounds like mental illness. Go to a hospital.”
“I’m serious.”
I could roughly tell what he wanted from me, but instead of stroking his hair or touching his cheek, I simply leaned back and quietly stared at him.
By the time the silence while holding eye contact had stretched long enough to become awkward, Kwon Taehan hesitantly withdrew a little.
I dissected even that tiny movement before suddenly speaking.
“Taehan. Where the hell does that mindset come from—the one where you think you can solve everything? Seriously curious. Even superhero movies kill at least a thousand people.”
“Hey....”
“Even before Gates appeared, people died for all kinds of reasons. Feeling guilty over that is kinda... narcissistic, isn’t it?”
Kwon Taehan’s expression gradually worsened.
Was he the type to get depressed whenever someone stated facts to his face?
I silently watched him, and eventually he sighed heavily, scrubbed his face hard with both hands, then shook his head while looking at me.
“...I feel like I’ve got something close to an obligation.”
“Yeah, because you’re S-rank?”
It was probably because of the Status Window, but Kwon Taehan did not bother pressing the issue further.
Neither did I.
Instead, after calmly observing him for a moment, I spoke.
“I’m telling you, having good intentions is what actually makes someone good.”
“Hey, what if your intentions were good, okay? But in the end everyone still died. Is that still good? You’d get punished for that.”
“Usually the sentence gets reduced.”
“You still go to prison. ...Fuck, talking to you always turns into conversations about laws and rules.”
He frowned like he was sick of it, but he did not genuinely look upset. If he had been, he would have left entirely.
“Taehan, then laws aren’t about separating good people from bad people? Some asshole can harass strangers every single day and commit every kind of garbage behavior imaginable without getting punished, but someone who spent their whole life being decent accidentally kills a person in a traffic accident and goes to prison.”
“Yeah, exactly.... That means the result matters too.”
“Well, obviously people judge based on results. You can’t look inside someone’s intentions. Ah, I guess mental-type Hunters could. The Haeseong Guild Master should’ve become a judge instead.”
“...Anyway, I’m the only one who actually knows my intentions. Other people don’t know them.... They judge me based only on the results. So naturally I want the results to be good whenever possible.”
At that, I laughed quietly.
Kwon Taehan’s gaze landed on my face a beat late.
“Yeah.... That’s true, isn’t it?”
“.......”
Slowly, I leaned closer toward Kwon Taehan.
He flinched slightly, but he neither asked why I was so close nor pulled away.
I lightly pressed my forehead against his and slowly curled my lips upward while staring straight into his eyes.
Kwon Taehan’s throat bobbed once.
“But I know you’re good, Taehan.”
“.......”
“I know you’re just a soft-hearted idiot.... Can’t even properly say no when people push you around, can’t even shake off one reporter, still suffering over your family issues.... Still having nightmares because of your trauma.”
“.......”
“So make sure you get rewarded later.”
At that moment, I suddenly wanted to completely dismantle every thought inside Kwon Taehan’s head.
No, not his thoughts.
His emotions.
In a low, tight voice, Kwon Taehan asked a beat later,
“...Rewarded with what?”
“Ask God.”
“God?”
“Well, I don’t think having a religion would be that bad.”
Slowly pulling away, I lazily stroked the side of Kwon Taehan’s neck with one hand.
But that hand soon slipped away too.
Kwon Taehan reflexively brought his own hand to his neck and traced over the places my fingers had touched.
I merely lowered my gaze to watch him before eventually standing up.
“...Where are you going?”
“Heading out for a bit.”
“.......”
“Sleep well, Taehan.”
With that, I left the house.
Kwon Taehan looked full of questions, but in the end he could only nod without asking any of them.
And after that day, I did not return home for a very long time.
Kwon Taehan waited quietly for about two days.
After that, he started searching for me everywhere like a dog with separation anxiety.
But it was difficult for him to find any trace of me.
I was an unaffiliated Hunter.
Left alone in the house, Kwon Taehan instantly lost his daily life.
Even the Gates he had been clearing out of obligation gradually became less frequent once two weeks had passed.
Sometimes he quietly waited for me, then suddenly exploded in anger. One moment he was anxious, the next he was plunged into depression.
I quietly listened to his muttering.
“...Did I do something wrong? Why.... Why?”
He bought another phone and tried calling me.
Since my phone was turned off, he eventually started writing long messages instead.
I did not bother reading them. I could already guess what they said.
But even that stopped after he realized my car keys had been left behind and my phone was still sitting alone inside the glove compartment.
That day, Kwon Taehan curled up and cried.
Even so, daily life continued onward.
Time moved quickly as always, and the appearance of Gates only became more active.
Nothing changed.
And then, one week later—
the world ended.