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As soon as Jiho opened the front door, a gentle, clear voice greeted him. 

“My child, you’re home?”

“Yes, I am back.”

Jiho pulled his mother, whose arms were spread wide open, into a tight hug. Even though he’s heard people tell him this is embarrassing for a grown-up to do…. As the youngest of the family who grew up loved, Jiho’s used to acting spoiled—and this is also an act of filial piety.

In fact, Madam Lee Soon Hui was full of worry just a few hours ago, but this made her brighten up as though she had never worried.

“What about Dad?”

“Eung~ He has a dinner appointment tonight, but he said he won’t drink and will come home early.”

“Ah, really? If it’s because of me….”

“Don’t. That man wanted to come straight home, but Ji Hyung stopped him. That’s why he’s coming after a meal.”

“Haha.”

“Enough of that man, how about a nice, cozy meal together, just with Mom.”

“That sounds good. I didn’t eat anything before I came so that I could eat a lot here.”

“How could you not eat? Should we have some fruit first?”

A faint smile appeared on Jiho’s lips as he watched his startled mother move busily.

Just coming home and seeing his parents made his stifled heart feel much lighter. Because they’re always on Jiho’s side.

“…”

Jiho wants to spill his troubles to his parents, but he can only hold back.

Having grown up in this house the past 10 years, Joo Yiwon is like a son to his parents. Jiho can’t bring himself to reveal his suspicions towards Joo Yiwon to his parents.

Jiho recalled the conversation he just shared with Mireu’s two guildmembers.

‘Investigating Joo Yiwon…. Were you spying on him?’

Jiho snapped. Hojin snorted out of speechlessness.

‘Is that what’s important here? People disappeared.’

‘You were always suspicious of Joo Yiwon. How do you expect me to believe you when you were always biased?’

‘The biased one is Shin Jiho-nim.’

‘…’ 

‘If Yang Hojin-nim here were suspected of the same thing, would Shin Jiho-nim have trusted him as well?’

‘Hey, why am I the example? Though he’s not wrong.’

Jiho couldn’t argue, not against Tae Yong’s assumptions nor Hojin’s grumbling. Because they were right.

Someone disappeared while they were investigating someone? And not just one person, but five? Of course this situation means the subject they were investigating is suspicious.

The reason they didn’t reveal this to Jiho from the start is probably because they predicted he’d push back and take his hands off of this matter.

However, as various doubts piled up through the joint investigation, Jiho can no longer rule Joo Yiwon out as a suspect.

There’s a high chance that Joo Yiwon, or someone connected to him such as Ipeulis’s Lee Ha Yeon, is involved in the disappearances.

And Joo Yiwon might be the one Lee Ha Yeon is serving too.

Jiho doesn’t want to think too deeply into it, but this problem that won’t leave his head keeps gnawing at him.

“Child, are you tired?”

Jiho came back to his senses at his mother’s voice. Then he put a carefree smile on his face.

“I am a little tired, but I can still eat. I am hungry, so let’s eat.”

“Of course, even if you’re going to sleep, eat first.”

In front of his mother’s warmth, Jiho laughed like nothing was wrong.

---

9 PM.

Jiho planned to sleep later, but his parents urged him to go up early. Since, like his parents said, he was exhausted from the dungeon, Jiho decided to sleep early tonight.

“Let’s think tomorrow….”

Though he doesn’t think he’ll be able to fall asleep with so many thoughts, Jiho repeated this to himself as if to hypnotize himself. He won’t be able to make a rational decision right now anyways, so think about it tomorrow.

Maybe he just wants to run away right now.

Jiho smiled bitterly as he changed into his pajamas to go to bed. Then, he saw the potion bottle he had received from the Hunter Association. Checking its system window again, its description read that along with undoing seals, the potion also contains a low dose of sleeping meds and pain-killers.

On a sleepless night, a sleeping med that works on hunters is extremely tempting. Jiho held the potion bottle up in a trance. And he drank it in one swoop.

“It tastes good.”

It tastes like strawberry syrup. Jiho’s not sure how much of an effect it will have, but it should be better than nothing.

After brushing his teeth, Jiho laid down on his bed. He tossed and turned to fall asleep, but his body suddenly felt chilly.

“Why in the middle of summer….”

Was the window not closed? Before Jiho could move to check this, he lost consciousness.

---

Jiho had a mechanical pencil in his hand. Under that pencil were the types of problems he solved in high school. Scratch, scratch, the mechanical pencil moved slower than usual. That’s because of the nonstop chatter beside him.

He can’t focus.

In the end, Jiho set down his mechanical pencil and glared at Joo Yiwon, who was repeating his name like a spell.

“Hey, Joo Yiwon. Be quiet.”

“Only when Jiho accepts me.”

“…”

Jiho frowned in disbelief when he saw Yiwon’s confidence, like there’s not even the option of Jiho not accepting him.

“Jiho-ya.”

“What.”

“Just accept me already, you like me too.”

Jiho’s ears turned bright red at Yiwon’s slyness. When did this shameless guy notice that he likes him? Well… it’d be strange if he didn’t.

Like Joo Yiwon said, the 17-year-old Shin Jiho likes him. It’s been about one or two years since he’s liked him, but it seems like Joo Yiwon’s liked Shin Jiho for much longer. 

It’s good that their hearts are aligned. Can’t they start dating? Some may think that, but… Jiho doesn’t plan to accept Yiwon right away.

“Jiho-ya~ how much longer are you going to push me away?”

“How can we start dating in high school? Think about it once we graduate.”

“Jiho, are you crazy? There’s three more years left before we graduate?”

Yiwon shoved his face up to Jiho’s nose. They were so close that their lips could touch. Jiho startled and pushed Yiwon away.

“Exactly, we need to study hard during the next three years. Studying is a student’s duty.”

Jiho tried to sound as blunt as possible.

That’s right, what dating?

Things will be more difficult if he starts dating so soon. Even now, he can’t focus when he’s with Joo Yiwon because his heart feels like it’s going to burst. If they really end up dating, he might delay his studies just to be with Yiwon all the time. No, not might. Definitely. 

Joo Yiwon doesn’t have any control either. In fact, he’s even worse than Jiho. Already, his attention is entirely on Jiho, so this guy might actually give up on studying.

In fact, Jiho nearly caught up to Yiwon on this past mid-exam.

‘Jiho, just confess. Confess and crush the mentality of that guy in first place.’

His friend jokingly urged him to confess after seeing something online, but… because that would shatter Yiwon’s mentality for a different reason, Jiho can’t date him.

Of course, Jiho might be able to easily take first place if he does that, but… Jiho wants to beat Joo Yiwon at his best, he doesn’t want to make him fall.

“Hey, I like people smarter than me.”

“Aren’t I smarter than you? I had higher grades than you again this time?”

“That’s because I lose points in PE!”

“You want me to lose for you?”

“I don’t like fools.”

Jiho said coldly, in case Yiwon really did lose on purpose. Yiwon snickered.

“Then I guess I better keep winning. It’s hard to win all the time… how about a prize for my efforts?”

Jiho stabbed Yiwon’s puckered lips with the tip of his mechanical pencil. Yiwon made an exaggerated sound of pain and pulled away.

“Hey, there’s so many things you can do with my lips…. This is a loss for you too, you know?”

“I didn’t agree to start dating.”

“Why try so hard, we can just go to any college.”

Seeing Joo Yiwon, the first in their grade, say something so frustrating, Jiho pulled at his hair.

“I’m going to attend Hanguk University.”

All top students dream of attending that school, but Yiwon tilted his head like he couldn’t understand Jiho.

“Is that necessary?”

“Yeah. My older brother and sister went, how can I not?”

“Hm. Isn’t it okay to go somewhere else if they both went there?”

“Are you not interested at all? With your grades?”

With Yiwon’s personality, he’ll want to go to the same university as Jiho by all means, so if he’s talking like that, that means he has absolutely zero thought of going to Hanguk University. But the only one frustrated here was Jiho, Yiwon simply nodded his head without hesitation. 

“I’m not. Do I have to?”

“Why, why?”

“As long as I graduate from a decent university, Ahjussi will hire me at Chungram, so why should I work so hard? Wherever I go, I’ll end up at Chungram, so it’s not worth studying so hard. You should take it easy too. You’ll inherit a fortune anyways, so why push yourself?”

“No…..”

“Don’t push yourself just to go to Hanguk University. Your body’s already weak as it is…. I know you’re smart, but if you want to get into Hanguk University, you’ll have to keep studying. Let’s just get a diploma together. Truthfully, four years is too long. We’ve already been in school for twelve years, why do we need four more? If you really want to go to a college, do you want to go to a two-year college with me?”

“Are you crazy?”

“Your parents wouldn’t mind.”

Hearing Yiwon trying to earnestly convince him otherwise made Jiho’s head ring. This bastard is being for real. Jiho realized that he won’t listen to him if he acts normally. Jiho set down his mechanical pencil and glared coldly at Yiwon.

“No, I’m going to go to Hanguk University… and you will too.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“Why? Jiho, do you not want to be separated from me?”

“Yeah. That’s part of it, and… I’m only going to date someone with a degree from Hanguk University.”

Yiwon snorted at Jiho’s words. He was smiling, but his eyebrows furrowed, like he was slightly angry.

“Aha. So that’s how you’re going to be.”

“I’m not attracted to lazy men who play around, so if you want me to accept you, study hard.”

“If I study with Hanguk University as my goal… Jiho, you will never be able to beat me.”

“Hey, the high school curriculum is harder. You think you can stay first?”

“Naturally. I’ve always beat Jiho.”

Yiwon said in an obvious attempt to provoke him. Jiho was a little annoyed. He smiled and mocked.

“If someone is first in the class besides you….”

“If?”

“I’ll confess to that person.”

That’s what he says, but Jiho would never actually do that. Yet Joo Yiwon shot back like even the thought angered him.

“Fine, I’ll study. I’ll study.”

“Yeah, sure. Do it now.”

“I won’t go easy, even if you regret it later.”

Why would he regret it?

Joo Yiwon is such a fool.

In this age of 100-year life expectancies, they have, at minimum, decades to spend together.

He hopes it won’t, but in that long span of time, Chungram might go under or their parents might cut them off when they don’t acknowledge their relationship. There’s so many things that could happen in the future, so shouldn’t they graduate from a good university while their environment allows?

“I’ll study hard, so can you lend me the school uniform you wore today later tonight?”

“…”

Yiwon says the most idiotic things, but why does that look cute? Jiho struggled to hold back his laugh and turned back to his textbook. 

When Jiho woke up, he realized that there was something heavy on him. A thick arm held Jiho’s body securely in place.

Joo Yiwon. 

It took a bit of time for Jiho to recognize the other person. Because the Joo Yiwon in his dreams and the one right now are just too different.

The Joo Yiwon who was honest, jealous, playful, and warm doesn’t exist anymore.

People change. It’s natural that Joo Yiwon is different from high school when he’s gone through so much.

But why does that gap feel so much wider today?

“Jiho-ya.”

Joo Yiwon opened his eyes, like he had never been asleep.

In his dream, Yiwon’s eyes were more clean and innocent. But right now, Yiwon’s eyes reveal… affection, obsession, and an unknown, impure lust when he looks at Jiho.

Confused by Jiho’s stiffness, Yiwon slowly stretched his hand out.

“Jiho? What’s wrong….”

The next moment, Jiho instinctively slapped Yiwon’s hand away.

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LaZ Bird Corner

ㅠㅠ they were so cute and innocent

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