Holy B-Class Life

#060

“……”

As he had felt every time, Yoon Pa-ran’s body temperature was quite high. Even when their lips just touched, a hot sensation always burrowed into his skin.

Having done it once, Yoon Pa-ran boldly inserted his soft tongue. The hand that had been gripping his collar was now cupping both of his cheeks.

And it was still a clumsy kiss, no better than a child’s.

Why did it stir him so much?

“Ah!”

He wrapped one arm around Yoon Pa-ran’s waist and pulled him close. As he pushed with his body, Yoon Pa-ran’s small frame fell back onto the sofa.

Surprised, Yoon Pa-ran’s mouth opened wide, and he thrust himself in without hesitation.

“Mm, mmph…!”

He stirred impatiently inside the narrow mouth, hotter than even the lips. The sensation of their tongues intertwining sent shivers down his spine, electrifying his nerves.

Every time Yoon Pa-ran kicked his feet in frustration, the sound of leather sofa friction rang in his ears. Yoon Pa-ran’s hands, which had been cupping his cheeks, suddenly grabbed his hair tightly.

“Ha, hnngh!”

Undeterred, Dan Joo-hyuk tilted his head and delved even deeper. He felt an urgent desire to taste every corner of the narrow mouth with his tongue.

Before he knew it, their bodies were pressed tightly together, having completely pinned down Yoon Pa-ran. He could feel the sound of his racing heart through his skin.

“Ah.”

“Haa, haa…”

Only when the status window flickered did Dan Joo-hyuk come to his senses. He had instinctively activated a skill belatedly.

With a somewhat dazed look, he gazed at Yoon Pa-ran gasping for breath beneath him. Yoon Pa-ran, wearing a character hood just like his, lying in his space.

He had only meant to tease him a little. He hadn’t intended to fill up his skill percentage today, which he wouldn’t be able to use anyway since they’d be dispersed.

Something felt a bit… odd.

“Haa, huff… Now tell me, you bastard.”

He finally collected himself when Yoon Pa-ran pushed his shoulder and spoke. Habitually, he put on a smile, feigning composure.

Strangely, his throat felt very dry.

“As expected, repetitive learning didn’t amount to much. Right?”

“You’re talking like you’re training a dog.”

Right. His throat was parched. He felt a sense of lacking somewhere.

The moment he felt that, he found himself moving towards Yoon Pa-ran as if entranced.

“Hey.”

Yoon Pa-ran’s hand firmly covered his mouth.

Only after that contact did he fully come to his senses.

“We’ve already done it. Back off and talk.”

“……”

Right. The impulse was too strong. Was it sexual frustration after all?

Forcibly awakening his reason, Dan Joo-hyuk backed away. It was hard to take his eyes off Yoon Pa-ran, who immediately fled to the edge of the sofa as soon as he moved.

Precariously controlling his impulses, Dan Joo-hyuk spoke in a leisurely tone.

“This S-rank gate is about 5km away from here. Fortunately, it appeared in the mountains, making it easy to control the media.”

“……”

“It’ll be registered as A-rank on the intranet. To prevent confusion.”

Yoon Pa-ran’s pale face hardened as he heard the information Dan Joo-hyuk calmly delivered.

The orphanage he cherished wasn’t far from Dan Joo-hyuk’s house either. So his busy mind was likely calculating the risks.

As all of Yoon Pa-ran’s attention turned this way, Dan Joo-hyuk felt his throat go dry again for some reason.

“It seems Kim Sang-deok will enter this time. If the clearance fee negotiations go well.”

“Really? Hunter Gold Sang-deok…?”

Yoon Pa-ran, who had straightened up by now, trailed off with a slightly lukewarm emotion.

“……”

Seeing that anxious face suddenly reminded Dan Joo-hyuk of a few more pieces of information he had collected.

“And what Heo Sang-yeon mentioned about the hunters who entered the safety zone gate suffering severe injury aftereffects. I think we might find a connection.”

“What kind of connection?”

Interested in the content, Yoon Pa-ran leaned his body, which had retreated far, towards him. Dan Joo-hyuk naturally closed the distance as he leaned his arm back on the backrest.

Whether aware of this or not, Yoon Pa-ran just sent an urging gaze.

His ears are still red.

“I’ll need to investigate more, but I suspect that stone is involved.”

“That stone? Why?”

“I found a commonality among the hunters suffering from injury aftereffects.”

Dan Joo-hyuk intentionally lowered his voice a bit. Yoon Pa-ran, furrowing his brows, moved slightly closer.

Suddenly, he felt like he was luring an animal into a trap.

It was an apt metaphor, given that he had words to extract from Yoon Pa-ran.

“I heard that those suffering from aftereffects had been eagerly collecting [Broken Blessing Fragments] inside the gate.”

“Blessing fragments?”

“Yes. If their goal was to collect blessing fragments, they probably picked up any stone that looked plausible. After all, a mere stone fragment couldn’t be a dangerous item.”

Since no status window appeared, the stone would have been discarded as is. But Dan Joo-hyuk focused on the fact that Heo Sang-yeon had sensed some energy from the stone.

The assumption that everyone sees the same status window content had already been disproven. So couldn’t it affect humans somehow even without seeing the status window?

Just like how the morale of the monster that touched that stone suddenly increased.

“But there was no curse or anything on that stone’s status window.”

As intended, Yoon Pa-ran uttered the appropriate words.

Sensing the moment had come, Dan Joo-hyuk slightly lowered his head again. Thinking he was about to whisper, Yoon Pa-ran hunched his neck but didn’t avoid it.

He remembered when he had blown into Yoon Pa-ran’s ear as soon as he arrived earlier. Yoon Pa-ran’s sensitive reaction, jumping up.

So Dan Joo-hyuk deliberately pressed his lips close to his ear again and whispered.

“If you want to know more, pay up.”

“Y-you…!”

Startled again by the ticklish voice flowing into his ear, Yoon Pa-ran glared at Dan Joo-hyuk, who was acting especially strange today, as he backed away.

When did they get so close again? He pulled his body back.

Did he lay out that information just to tease him again?

These must be trivial things to him. It was obvious he was enjoying watching Yoon Pa-ran get swayed by each of his words.

The S-rank gate appearing too close to the orphanage. That fact alone was enough to make him deeply troubled.

Hunter Kim Sang-deok also had some inconsistencies in his attack style. What if he failed and the orphanage became endangered?

It would have been better if even Hunter Heo Sang-yeon had entered instead.

Consumed by worry, Yoon Pa-ran half-rose. It seemed this was all the “interesting information” Dan Joo-hyuk had mentioned.

He was about to disappear, since Dan Joo-hyuk had said he didn’t have much time. He needed to quickly check if there was anywhere to evacuate the children for a while.

Just as he was about to completely leave the sofa.

With a strong force grabbing his arm, his back hit the sofa again.

“What are you…”

“And, I’ve been thinking about what Hunter Yoon Pa-ran is hiding.”

As if the business wasn’t over, Dan Joo-hyuk spoke in a flat tone.

At the mention of hiding something, Yoon Pa-ran looked up at him hesitantly. Dan Joo-hyuk wore a mask-like smile, in a posture pinning him down like before.

Has this guy gone a bit crazier today?

Anyway, the priority was to escape this situation of being interrogated by Dan Joo-hyuk. What on earth was he talking about? Since Yoon Pa-ran wanted to hide pretty much everything, his eyes darted around.

“When you picked up that stone fragment that day, you saw a different status window than I did, right?”

His body stiffened again as Dan Joo-hyuk asked in a cryptic voice.

So he hadn’t just let it go that day.

“Thinking about it, that was the only difference. The status window. Hunter Heo Sang-yeon couldn’t see it at all.”

“……”

“I had some oddly obscured information added to my status window…”

Yoon Pa-ran involuntarily swallowed hard at Dan Joo-hyuk’s voice as he listed things point by point.

“The only difference between me on the first day and later was that I spent more time with you, Yoon Pa-ran.”

Soon, Dan Joo-hyuk arrived at a conclusion similar to Yoon Pa-ran’s.

With the appearance of being half-certain that the status window Yoon Pa-ran saw was different from his from the beginning.

“Am I wrong?”

So this is why he called me here today.

Yoon Pa-ran realized with a flash. Even though he said he didn’t have much time earlier, it was clear he had called him to interrogate.

While inwardly reciting curses, Yoon Pa-ran made a quick judgment. Something had felt off since earlier, giving him a strange feeling.

The sensation of his feet sinking into a swamp.

“Well, ahem, actually…”

“Tell me.”

“You’re right. From the beginning, it was the same as the status window you saw the second time.”

After some deliberation, he decided to tell the truth for now. Dan Joo-hyuk was already half-certain anyway. Denying it would only lead to worse consequences.

Surely Dan Joo-hyuk wouldn’t become more obsessed with his abilities just because he revealed this. Thinking of the bronze statue incident in the safe zone, it didn’t seem like such important information.

“And?”

“Huh?”

However, when Dan Joo-hyuk calmly asked for more, Yoon Pa-ran had a strong premonition that something had gone wrong.

Was that a premonition that he shouldn’t have told the truth?

“You don’t expect me to believe that’s all, do you?”

“No, that’s all! I couldn’t see anything else either!”

“Hmm.”

Flustered, Yoon Pa-ran desperately shouted.

Dan Joo-hyuk merely sent a deeper gaze this way, as if gauging the truth. The posture of being trapped between him and the sofa since earlier was extremely uncomfortable.

Maybe he should have drunk the water Dan Joo-hyuk offered earlier.

At the thought that crossed his mind, Yoon Pa-ran’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down noticeably.

“You know what?”

“…What.”

Dan Joo-hyuk opened his mouth again. His gaze was piercing into Yoon Pa-ran’s face frighteningly.

Seeing his smile gradually fade, Yoon Pa-ran felt an intense sense of crisis.

An instinctive crisis that made him want to leave this house immediately.

“Hunter Yoon Pa-ran tends to spill information well when he’s exhausted.”

“Huh?”

Was what I’ve been treading on already quicksand?

“Shall we prove it?”