Holy B-Class Life

#097

“Ah, that.”

Yoon Pa-ran answered with as calm a demeanor as possible. However, he couldn’t help but be conscious of Heo Sang-yeon.

Do others still think that guy is just missing? He was afraid of causing misunderstandings if he mentioned that the guy’s body was found in the gate he had entered.

He wasn’t sure if he should answer hastily. While he was deep in such thoughts, Dan Joo-hyuk started to act unreasonably.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“…You didn’t tell me either, did you?”

Yoon Pa-ran blurted out in disbelief. Wasn’t it Dan Joo-hyuk who had talked nonsense when asked about whose body it was in the first place?

“The owner of the arm?”

At that moment, Heo Sang-yeon asked curiously from the other side. Yoon Pa-ran glanced at him cautiously.

Absurdly, he felt a strange sense of relief. Since Dan Joo-hyuk brought it up first, he’d probably handle it.

“I’ll send you the data, so look at it later. Oh, and stop contacting Yoon Pa-ran since that guy is dead.”

Dan Joo-hyuk tossed the information as if throwing away trash and focused his gaze back on Yoon Pa-ran.

“So why didn’t you tell me?”

Heo Sang-yeon looked at them with a quite strange expression. If one had to describe it, he looked like someone who had accidentally gotten rotten monster blood in their mouth during a fight.

Yoon Pa-ran also looked up at Dan Joo-hyuk with a puzzled expression, wondering why he was bringing this up now.

Then suddenly, a realization struck him like lightning. Could it be that he was trying to explain things to prevent misunderstandings about him?

Of course, he was probably protecting him because of their contract, but it was still help.

Yoon Pa-ran looked at Dan Joo-hyuk, who was being more helpful than expected, with a dazed expression. Then he answered as if entranced.

“I was going to tell you when I got the chance. After you came back from Russia.”

“Ah. So you were planning to discuss it closely with me from the beginning?”

“I didn’t think that far ahead…”

“Let’s say you did.”

Dan Joo-hyuk, who looked strangely satisfied, smiled shamelessly. With that expression, he turned his head towards Heo Sang-yeon. Heo Sang-yeon’s expression became even more bizarre.

He must have brought this up intentionally to let Heo Sang-yeon know we’re on the same side.

Feeling quite strange, Yoon Pa-ran scratched his cheek. As his tension eased a bit and he looked dazed, Dan Joo-hyuk fired another question.

“So why did you meet that aide?”

“I didn’t meet him, he just showed up out of nowhere! I was buying diapers for the kids at the time.”

Yoon Pa-ran said with an slightly indignant tone.

“Is that so?”

Dan Joo-hyuk subtly agreed and reached out his hand. His fingertip brushed past Yoon Pa-ran’s earlobe.

Feeling ticklish, Yoon Pa-ran frowned and pushed Dan Joo-hyuk away with his shoulder. He had been putting his full weight on him for a while now, so it was quite heavy.

“So what did that garbage scoundrel say when he rudely showed up?”

“Ah, right. He was trying to get me to do something, saying I go to gates with you.”

He left out the part about thinking the guy was some kind of pervert. It seems he had misjudged him at the time.

“And then?”

“Well… I ignored whatever else he was saying and just went home by climbing over the wall.”

As soon as he answered, Dan Joo-hyuk chuckled.

Then he spoke in an even softer voice and reached out his hand again.

“You did well.”

His large hand ruffled Yoon Pa-ran’s hair. His finger subtly brushed against his earlobe again, making Yoon Pa-ran’s eyebrow twitch slightly.

He really does have strange hand habits.

Anyway, thanks to this, it seemed like Heo Sang-yeon’s suspicions could be cleared up too. Since these two were close, he’d probably believe them more than if Yoon Pa-ran spoke alone.

Today, Dan Joo-hyuk had greatly helped him when he was about to get into trouble. So he tolerated Dan Joo-hyuk’s irritating hair ruffling twice before pushing his arm away.

Surprisingly, Dan Joo-hyuk moved away easily. Then, as if he hadn’t just been acting like someone with a broken spine, he finally sat up straight.

Then he spoke in a mocking voice towards Heo Sang-yeon, who had been watching them.

“Nothing to say?”

Heo Sang-yeon, who had been making a face like he had tasted rotten blood, let out a faint sigh.

Then he looked straight at Yoon Pa-ran.

“I’m sorry, Hunter Yoon Pa-ran. It seems my approach was wrong.”

“That…”

“I could apologize with just words too. It seems Hunter Heo Sang-yeon doesn’t know what sincerity is.”

As Yoon Pa-ran was about to answer tiredly and leave, Dan Joo-hyuk suddenly interrupted.

Unlike when looking at him, Heo Sang-yeon glared at Dan Joo-hyuk with a very irritated expression. Then he abruptly pulled out a business card from his pocket.

“I was going to give this to you anyway! Here, this is my direct number. If you ever need my help, just say so. I’ll definitely help you once.”

“Sis…!”

“It’s okay. I should take responsibility.”

He had thought it was enough that the misunderstanding was cleared up. Surprised by the unexpected compensation, Yoon Pa-ran looked down at the business card.

Being able to use an S-rank’s power once was quite a good opportunity, wasn’t it?

“You call that compensation…”

“I’ll use it well.”

This time, Yoon Pa-ran cut off Dan Joo-hyuk’s words and quickly answered.

“You keep talking like that…? Oh, right. Speak comfortably.”

Afraid that Dan Joo-hyuk might nitpick again, Yoon Pa-ran quickly reached out and took the business card. Heo Sang-yeon, who had been saying something, suddenly muttered with a face that seemed to have given up on many things.

Heo Sang-yeon’s business card had a simple design. As Yoon Pa-ran looked at it curiously, Dan Joo-hyuk suddenly reached out his hand.

“If you leave it with me, I’ll give it back when Yoon Pa-ran is all grown up.”

“Don’t treat me like a kid.”

He avoided Dan Joo-hyuk’s hand trying to snatch it away and put the card in his pocket. It wasn’t bad to have one more insurance to use if something happened to the orphanage.

As Yoon Pa-ran hid the card, Dan Joo-hyuk suddenly spoke to Heo Sang-yeon. It was surprising that he spoke in a strangely sarcastic tone, as if venting his frustration, even though he could have taken the card by force if he really wanted to.

“So, what’s the big deal about hunters having some seizures from injury aftereffects?”

At those words, Heo Sang-yeon lightly gestured to his sister beside him.

As if they had discussed it beforehand, the lawyer bowed slightly to Yoon Pa-ran and quietly left the office.

“It’s an unusual situation, so of course we need to investigate. It happened to overlap a bit with Ji-yeon’s investigation, so I was going to ask Hunter Yoon Pa-ran, ahem, if he knew anything.”

“If the one who died was a congressman’s aide, why don’t you go catch Kim Tae-jun instead of bothering our Yoon Pa-ran?”

“Sigh…”

Heo Sang-yeon let out a long sigh while rubbing his face. Yoon Pa-ran unconsciously looked at Dan Joo-hyuk with an expression that said, “You’re saying ‘our’ now?”

Their eyes met directly.

“…”

As if he had been waiting for this, Dan Joo-hyuk gave a slight eye smile.

Feeling awkward because of it, Yoon Pa-ran looked away first.

“Of course, I first requested cooperation from Congressman Kim Tae-jun. But he sent a video saying it was definitely suicide and there was nothing more to say, so it was ambiguous.”

“And?”

“Anyway, since you’re here, let’s exchange information. Our leads suddenly hit a dead end when the prime suspect died. Hah, we were completely on the wrong track…”

Heo Sang-yeon tried to continue the conversation while suppressing his anger.

Curious about why he was trying so hard to control his temper, Yoon Pa-ran observed that he looked extremely tired. It was an unusual sight for an S-rank hunter.

Are there really that many hunters suffering from injury aftereffects these days? He had heard that even hunters without injuries were having more seizures lately.

He hadn’t known about this recently since he had been entering gates with only Dan Joo-hyuk.

“What about the possibility that it wasn’t suicide?”

“It was captured too clearly on CCTV.”

“Are you sure? We’re talking about Kim Tae-jun.”

Unlike Heo Sang-yeon’s efforts, Dan Joo-hyuk started answering carelessly as if he had lost interest.

Despite Dan Joo-hyuk’s attitude, Heo Sang-yeon continued his explanation as if he had a headache.

“Yes. He was walking backwards while looking at the air on the Han River bridge, then suddenly jumped off on his own. The drug test results were clean too.”

Heo Sang-yeon took out his phone and showed the CCTV footage. Dan Joo-hyuk looked at the screen with a bored smile, as if it was troublesome.

In the video, a man staggering on the Han River bridge suddenly started walking backwards. Even through the poor quality screen, it was clear that the man’s condition was quite bad.

Soon, he quickly climbed over the railing and fell into the river. He looked surprised while staring at the air, but nothing was captured in that space.

“…”

Yoon Pa-ran reflexively checked the date on the screen. It really was the evening of the day he came to see him.

The video now showed static before showing only the dark and empty bridge. That still image-like scene gave him a very unsettling and unpleasant feeling.

“Anyway, when I heard that a missing person report for Lim Hyun-sung was filed, I thought he was pulling another scam and tried to use it to our advantage, but I didn’t expect it to be a real disappearance.”

Heo Sang-yeon, who had put his phone face down on the table, continued in a dark voice.

“Remember when I asked why you keep doing useless things? It’s not useless. Right now, we’re short on high-ranking hunters. It got worse while you, Dan Joo-hyuk, were in Russia.”

“Ah.”

“There hasn’t been any major incident yet thanks to you solving every low-rank gate you could for a while, but it wouldn’t be strange if gates start bursting open soon. So we need to find the cause quickly.”

Dan Joo-hyuk still had an indifferent attitude, but Yoon Pa-ran immediately became serious.

He was worried about how serious the situation was. Even with the number of low-rank gates he and Dan Joo-hyuk had solved, they were on the brink of a breakdown.

Then Heo Sang-yeon thought for a moment with a strange expression and suddenly asked.

“By the way, are you two… close?”

Since it wasn’t a question that required much thought, Yoon Pa-ran answered immediately.

“No.”

“Yes.”