Holy B-Class Life

#042

Dan Joo-hyuk observed the slightly long, grubby-looking white ball of fur. The more he did so, the more fiercely the dog barked.

“I don’t know why this one always acts like this when Joo-hyuk comes. I’ll have to put it in the room for a bit.”

The dog, immediately subdued by the mother, was exiled to the room.

Dan Joo-hyuk, pushing away his thoughts, moved his legs towards the kitchen.

“Let’s eat.”

“You’ve made so much again.”

“Your dad made a ton of side dishes you like. Take some when you go.”

“Thank you.”

“Hey, there weren’t any side dishes I like though…”

Kim Sin-cheol, who was scooping rice inside, grumbled, but the parents ignored him. In this cozy atmosphere, Dan Joo-hyuk just smiled and went along with it.

Though he had lost his appetite long ago, he didn’t show it.

“How’s work these days?”

“Ah, same as always. My throat’s about to split from arguing with those old geezers.”

The mother, sitting across, answered with a joke.

Lee Seon-young, who used to work as a lawyer, was now a first-term congresswoman. With the skills she honed in court, she was always busy going back and forth to the National Assembly, speaking without hesitation.

“Mom, stop fighting. I saw you in internet memes again.”

“Oh my, if there were humans who could understand what I’m saying, I’d stop. Is this how you support your mother?”

“Sorry…”

Her recent focus was on abolishing the Safety Special Zone system.

Though the system was controversial from the start, abolishing it was even more difficult. Issues entangled with human selfishness were always like that.

“Seems it’s still not going well.”

“Oh, look at this one. Talking like it’s someone else’s problem! You didn’t read the materials I sent last time, did you!”

She reacted fiercely even to Dan Joo-hyuk’s casually thrown comment of concern. The hand that was hitting Kim Sin-cheol’s back now moved to Dan Joo-hyuk’s.

Saying it was related to Dan Joo-hyuk’s human rights as a hunter, she occasionally sent over materials she had researched. And because he had truly never read them, Dan Joo-hyuk quietly hunched his back.

“Well, there might be some progress in Mom’s work soon. A big corruption case was just discovered.”

At that moment, the father, who had been eating silently beside them, spoke up. He seemed quite used to this situation of high-ranking hunters getting their backs slapped side by side.

“Ah, is it the case Father mentioned before?”

“Yes. The materials you brought, Sin-cheol, were very helpful. Ahem, but it’s not easy. The person suspected to be behind it has fed so much money to those around him, sigh…”

Unlike the mother, the father, who started as a prosecutor, had only recently been promoted to a fairly high position.

If it weren’t for what happened around the time Dan Joo-hyuk became an adult, he would have grasped that position much earlier.

“I’m sure that old man Kim Tae-jun is behind this again.”

“Hey now. You shouldn’t say that without solid proof, dear.”

“It’s just that there’s no evidence, but it’s quite public. I was so shocked when I heard those rumors after entering Yeouido.”

Then the mother spoke with even more fervor.

Suddenly hearing a familiar name, Dan Joo-hyuk asked again.

“Do you mean Congressman Kim Tae-jun?”

“Yes. Do you know him?”

If it was Congressman Kim Tae-jun, it was certainly a name he had heard before. And that was when he was investigating Yoon Pa-ran’s background.

He was the one pushing to make the area where that orphanage was located into a Safety Special Zone.

After pondering for a while, Dan Joo-hyuk answered cleanly.

“No.”

After all, he had no obligation to care about that.

“Joo-hyuk, I hear you’re overworking yourself going into gates again.”

Perhaps thinking the work talk had gone too deep suddenly, the father changed the subject.

It seemed he had heard about Dan Joo-hyuk’s recent activities through the grapevine.

“It’s just for a short while because of a system notice. It’s not that hard since they’re low-level gates.”

“Is that so?”

The mother, who had been listening to Dan Joo-hyuk’s excuse, now asked meaningfully.

“Are you not seeing anyone these days?”

The conversation jumped to personal matters as usual.

Kim Sin-cheol’s pupils trembled slightly beside him. He seemed to be recalling rumors surrounding Dan Joo-hyuk.

Knowing he wasn’t the type to speak unnecessarily, Dan Joo-hyuk just calmly answered.

“No one.”

“Not even dating anyone, what have you been doing? You should settle down and get married now.”

Though he gave the same answer every time, the two always worried about Dan Joo-hyuk. Their inner thoughts of carefully worrying whether it would be better if he started a family like Kim Sin-cheol were clearly visible.

He knew it wasn’t ill-intentioned. But it was truly exasperating in many ways.

Marriage, huh.

He had no intention of explaining about the S-rank syndrome to the two of them at length. Setting aside the fact that the information was top secret, it was because he had an aversion to a much wider range of targets compared to other S-ranks.

Dan Joo-hyuk occasionally felt physiological aversion even towards those he felt deeply indebted to. It wasn’t a sensation he could control.

There’s no way I could explain something like that.

“Or should Mom set up a meeting for you?”

“It’s fine. I’m not interested.”

Dan Joo-hyuk had been wearing a gentle smile all along. However, noticing that it was quite a firm rejection despite his expression, the two didn’t bring up the same topic again.

“Try this too.”

The ordinary dinner continued after that.

As time passed, the pressure Dan Joo-hyuk felt also grew. It was because he had been suppressing his wavelength as much as possible from earlier. Still, Dan Joo-hyuk endured this situation silently.

Heo Sang-yeon manages to do this all day long, huh.

He was starting to feel a slight sense of respect for her.

The noisy sound of small animal footsteps was heard from inside.

Woof! Woof woof! Woof woof woof!

“Cotton! Oh dear, how did you get out again.”

It was the dog that had been exiled earlier. It was the moment Dan Joo-hyuk showed a tiny gap due to the unfamiliar behavior. It was quite clever to burst out so quickly after sensing that.

Woof woof! Grrr, woof woof!

“This one does this every time. I’m sorry, Joo-hyuk.”

“It’s okay.”

Dan Joo-hyuk spoke calmly as if it was no big deal. The dog, held in the mother’s arms, barked even more fiercely towards Dan Joo-hyuk.

Animals were naturally sensitive. Perhaps that’s why, even after several years, that dog barked like that every time Dan Joo-hyuk came.

As if it knew Dan Joo-hyuk’s true nature, no matter how much he hunched his body.

The dog in the mother’s arms looked very fierce on the outside. However, Dan Joo-hyuk keenly noticed that its tail was completely curled up.

Even while so scared, the dog bravely barked.

Just like Yoon Pa-ran.

It was when he inadvertently thought of Yoon Pa-ran again. Dan Joo-hyuk suddenly realized one thing.

Come to think of it, he had never felt any aversion towards Yoon Pa-ran yet.

“…”

“Honey, I think I should take it for a walk or something?”

“Okay. Take your time eating. I’ll buy some fruit on the way back.”

“Please do.”

It was such an habitual feeling that he realized it late. It was something he experienced at least once, sooner or later, whenever he met humans.

Especially when the distance got closer. Not to mention if there was physical contact. That’s why Dan Joo-hyuk didn’t mix bodies repeatedly with the same person unless it was necessary for his skill.

But Yoon Pa-ran was different. Even after so much contact.

“Go ahead and finish eating.”

“Yes.”

With this subtle realization, Dan Joo-hyuk slowly caressed his mouth.

❖ ❖ ❖

When it was time to leave, Kim Sin-cheol went out to the gate, saying he would see Dan Joo-hyuk off.

“Take care. You’ve worked hard.”

Kim Sin-cheol was Dan Joo-hyuk’s next target. Having listened to nagging for a full hour about what was wrong with him having started a family, Kim Sin-cheol looked ragged.

The thought he had while recalling Yoon Pa-ran hadn’t left his mind since earlier. So Dan Joo-hyuk inadvertently thought while looking at Kim Sin-cheol standing in front of him.

Come to think of it, Yoon Pa-ran was the first man I’ve ever been aroused by.

He slowly scanned Kim Sin-cheol from head to toe. Although there wasn’t even a hair’s worth of similarity to the dog he saw earlier, Kim Sin-cheol was still a man.

And Dan Joo-hyuk had never once been aroused looking at this guy in his life.

“Ugh. I just felt extremely uncomfortable. Did you just release killing intent towards me?”

“No.”

Befitting an A-rank hunter, Kim Sin-cheol had good intuition. Dan Joo-hyuk just feigned innocence and lifted the corners of his mouth.

Come to think of it, Yoon Pa-ran was also trying to hide that he was an A-rank hunter, I wonder what’s different.

“Really? Ugh, am I feeling weak these days?”

“Who knows.”

“Maybe I heard too much nagging…”

As Dan Joo-hyuk feigned innocence, Kim Sin-cheol hugged himself with both hands and joked around.

After watching him for a while, Dan Joo-hyuk brought up his business.

“Be careful with your body when entering gates for a while. There might be more anomaly gates.”

“Damn. They appeared again?”

“More precisely, we almost fell victim to one. I’ll send you the data, read it if you want.”

“What…? Oh, okay. Thanks.”

Recalling the evidence he found with Yoon Pa-ran, he suddenly became interested. It was strange, considering he found even looking at data troublesome earlier.

Yoon Pa-ran would probably be quite surprised if told about this fact too. Thinking of that expression, a smile unconsciously escaped.

Then Kim Sin-cheol suddenly said something strange.

“By the way, you look like you’re enjoying yourself these days?”