Chapter Text
“You shouldn’t be concerned about this, Han Yoojin-ssi.”
“What do you mean I shouldn’t be concerned?! People are bad-mouthing my brother because of me,” he couldn’t help but cry out. He didn’t want people to scrutinize his brother. Especially not online. People are cruel with their comments, their words are as precise as an arrow when they try to hit a target.
Having lived years, years, under so much criticism made him hate the idea of someone having any reason to talk about him.
He didn’t want his little brother to go through this.
Suk Simyeong gives him a look before sighing.
“There will always be people that have negative things to say. The key here is to ignore it when the accusations they make have no grounds. Media nowadays likes to follow the next big news, and your relationship with your brother wouldn’t be tested against that.”
“How would you know that,” Suk Simyeong never lived under such scrutiny, he wouldn’t know.
The head of HR pinched the bridge of his nose before sighing loudly.
“Han Yoojin-ssi, these are merely conspiracy theorists. I’ve planned for some of them to exist. Their eligibility is questionable and not a lot of people would believe them. Yes, they have their fans, everyone has a diehard fan, but they are a minority,” he said frowning to the side at a … a thermometer? Was that here before? “A loud minority, I will admit. Trust me when I say I can handle this.”
“You planned for this?”
“You hope for the best but prepare for the worst in this job.”
Yoojin still didn’t feel happy about this. It must have shown on his face as the man stood up and went to the beverage tray, they were stashed by the side of the room away from people who didn’t know about it. He picks up an electric kettle and an assortment of tea before coming to his seat and offering some to Yoojin.
“I see the guild master has gone against my advice and gave you the monster,” he notes, changing the direction of their talk. Yoojin looks down at Peace, who had been having a hell of a time swatting at Yoojin’s shoelaces. “I will admit, I didn’t expect the monster to be so docile even with the owner’s token.”
“Owner’s token?”
“Yes?” Suk Simyeong was smiling, but it was slowly falling off as he realized that Yoojin had no idea what he was talking about. “Guildmaster Han has given you the owner’s token, correct? Please tell me yes.”
“I’m sorry …” Yoojin looks away.
“How are you controlling the monster without one?”
“I don’t know, Peace is just a distinguished little gentleman. Aren’t you, baby?” Yoojin said as picked Peace off the floor and hugged the creature to himself.
“Kyaa!” Peace sounds, giving him a really adorable smile.
“Very reasonable, much intelligent, a good baby. Do you know how much I love you, little guy?”
“Nyaa!”
Suk Simyeong has been watching them silently, resting his elbows on his table and his chin on his hands. His expression changed for a second before he wore his smile again.
“I see,” the man said. “If only Leader Han would allow me to post some pictures of you, this would have been good publicity.”
“What?” Yoojin asked.
“Yes, not many people can control beasts at all. It’s notorious how hard you can tame one. Having you here holding one without an owner’s token, as if it were a common house pet, will be great publicity. However, there are some drawbacks to the idea, it would put too much spotlight on you.” Yoojin huffs. Of course, the man would care about his brother’s fame over his own, but he couldn’t honestly argue against that. “This would mean we’d raise more security around you.”
“… what do you mean?”
“Yoojin-ssi, people will think you have a beast-taming ability. Have you ever heard of other people with such a skill?”
“But I don’t have one?”
“Are you sure?” Suk Simyeong asks, voice sharp. “You haven’t checked your skills.”
A lump suddenly grew in his throat.
“Well …” he tries to say, but his voice grew weak. “I can see Peace’s stats …”
“Yes, the skills that we do know about, the ability to see a person’s full stat and skill set, and how to get to it. Yoo Myeongwoo’s ability is valuable, even at its weakest. Not many can boast about having a permanently enhanced weapon, but one enhanced by 2%? On top of that 50% for knives and daggers? I am very excited to see his full skills.”
“Y-Yeah, he’ll be very impressive. I just hope he gets some confidence along the way.”
“I hope so too, but we’re not here talking about Yoo Myeongwoo, we’re here talking about your potential beast skill.”
Yoojin looks down on Peace, and slowly, ever so slowly, an idea starts to sprout in the back of his head.
“I can give you good publicity easily,” Yoojin said, hesitant at first. Would the infamous Suk Simyeong allow it?
“Please share, I’d like to hear your opinions.”
“Yoohyun gave me Peace as a … as a companion, I suppose. He can’t argue with me if I bring Peace with me to next week’s dungeon raid, right?”
“The one with Bak Yerim and Yoo Myeongwoo? You do realize that you don’t need to enter, right? He can argue against that.”
“What do you mean I can’t enter? Yerim is 14 and is my ward, and Myeongwoo is my friend who has anxiety problems and never stepped into a dungeon before in his life. I can’t let either of them do this alone.”
“Leader Han will accompany them,” Suk Simyeong said, raising a brow.
“Good, it’ll be a brotherly bonding time.”
The man snorts loudly, honest-to-God snorts. He covered his mouth and nose, looking mortified at what he just did before coughing into his fist.
“Yes, that would do it, thank you for proposing your plan to help us raise our image, Yoojin-ssi.”
0o0o0
“What?”
“You don’t like it?” Myeongwoo asked, looking downtrodden.
Myeongwoo was wearing a button-up shirt, a dark red jacket, and normal jeans. It was similar to the one he’d seen him wear during the Choi twin’s party. Yoojin went with his usual black pants and sweater. It didn’t look too old to not be worn outside.
Kim Sunghan was also with them, but he was wearing what the man must have considered to be a casual look instead of his usual suits … if you consider a grey cameo jacket and pants as a casual outgoing look.
“I asked the twins for a good hangout spot. I had to ask Kim Sunghan-ssi to help as well though.”
“I asked some of the guild members around your ages to confirm if this is a ‘good’ place,” he said, doing the quotation marks with his hands. “I’ve also checked safety parameters with them,” Kim Sunghan said.
Yoojin gives a slow blink before looking back at the bar.
“Oh, I’m twenty-five now,” he said loudly, ignoring the look the other two shared with each other.
They had an awkward interaction with the staff before getting seated. Myeongwoo was now having a small crisis as he looked through the menu, if he knew his friend well enough, he was probably agonizing over the prices.
Kim Sunghan simply asks for what he previously ordered, an order he made before they even came here. Myeongwoo’s jaw dropped at this before putting down the menu. He must have felt betrayed by his actions.
“Did you really want to drink so badly?” Yoojin asked once their food came, Myeongwoo bit his lip before taking a cup and drinking it in one shot.
“No, you looked very stressed with everything, and after that talk with Bak Yerim, you’ve been out of it for a while. I also wanted to formally apologize to Kim Sunghan-ssi,” Myeongwoo admits. “I didn’t mean to scare your men that badly.”
“It doesn’t matter. If a B and C-rank were afraid of an F-rank, then they frankly deserved that fright.” After a moment of silence following his declaration, the man coughs. “Although I don’t think all F-ranks are weak, you two are the prime example.”
‘Awkward!’ Both Yoojin and Myeongwoo thought at once.
“I also wanted to apologize to both of you,” Kim Sunghan said. “At how I previously treated you, Han Yoojin-ssi, and how we made you feel stalked, Myeongwoo-ssi. They were trained to be better than that.”
“I don’t think that was the point,” Yoojin said.
“It was terrible!” Myeongwoo yelled, now grabbing another glass. His eyes started to tear up but nothing fell yet. “Do you know how many times I looked over my shoulder? I knew someone’s following, they touched all the food I touched while shopping. I think our neighbors started to freak out as well once they noticed you guys.”
“You must understand that Han Yoojin-ssi was never observed to have a friend before. It had been suspicious to see one move in suddenly.”
“Am I … Am I your first friend?” Myeongwoo said, lips trembling. He made a small wailing sound as he wrapped his arms around Yoojin. “You’re my first friend in a long time too!” He cries.
“I think Myeongwoo is a crier when he’s drunk,” Yoojin couldn’t help but chuckle, patting his friend was now slowly wetting his sweater. He remembered him crying over cat videos at the Choi twin’s party.
“He’s emotional,” Kim Sunghan noted.
“To be honest, I’m very much like him when I’m drunk, it’s very embarrassing.”
“You shouldn’t worry then, you’re very good at handling your drinks,” Kim Sunghan comments.
Yoojin blinks slowly, then looks down at the table.
He didn’t realize he’d been drinking so much. He didn’t feel like he’d been drinking at all.
He … didn’t know what to think. He loved drinking, it helped him forget. It was the only thing he had left back when nobody was with him. Every drink he sipped tasted disgusting, but they were cheap, and they were plenty, and it made his mind fuzz in the right way to just forget that he existed in this world.
Now, he can’t even depend on that.
Was it his skill? Nothing about [FINAL GRATITUDE] said it can do this-
[POISON RESISTANCE (L)]
Ah.
He looked to the side, able to see Myeongwoo stand up from their table to go do something inane.
He turns the skill off.