Mu Yichen, still facing the door, suddenly let out a low laugh.

  A clear, amused chuckle.

  Seo MinHyun and Park Taegun froze mid-argument and stared at him.

  Seo MinHyun squinted. “Yichen… are you laughing? Are you actually laughing? Is it finally happening? Are you going crazy too?”

  Mu Yichen didn’t reply right away. He just stood there, smiling softly, eyes still fixed on the door.

  “That’s the first time,” he said, his voice gentle, “anyone has ever kicked me out of a house… like that.”

  His shoulders shook slightly with another quiet laugh. “I didn’t think it would feel this refreshing.”

  Park Taegun raised a brow. “You find this refreshing?”

  Seo MinHyun muttered, “I’m surrounded by psychos.”

  The door didn’t open again. There was no explanation. No apology.

  Just silence behind the locked door.

  It was as if Lee Aseok had closed the world out again, deciding even these top-tier awakeners weren’t worth the energy.

  But that simple dismissal, the soft thud of the door, stayed with them longer than any battle cry.

  Seo MinHyun and Park Taegun stopped the argument, both of them now staring at Mu Yichen.

  There was a strange lightness in Mu Yichen’s eyes, a rare glimmer of genuine amusement that didn’t match the situation at all.

  Seo MinHyun narrowed his eyes. “Wait.....You're not actually serious about this guy, are you?”

  Mu Yichen simply said, “Interesting.”

  Then, without another word, he stepped toward the locked door.

  A faint pulse of light shimmered between his fingers, the manifestation of his SSS-rank skills and with a soft click, the door obediently unlocked and drifted open without a sound.

  Mu Yichen walked inside.

  Seo MinHyun blinked. “That’s cheating…”

  Park Taegun was already following him.

  With no other choice, Seo MinHyun huffed dramatically and trailed behind. “Fine, if we’re all just breaking laws today.”

  But as soon as they entered, something was wrong.

  The lights were on.

  The kitchen was clean.

  The blanket on the floor was folded and left neatly on the couch.

  Yet… there was no one.

  The air was still. Too still.

  Mu Yichen’s expression darkened. A bad feeling twisted in his chest. Without a word, he closed his eyes and released his senses.

  Then he moved.

  In a blur, Mu Yichen shot across the room and dashed up the staircase, each step a blur of motion.

  Seo MinHyun’s stomach sank. He saw the direction Yichen was running and instantly knew.

  “The roof..! That lunatic is doing it again!”

  Without wasting time, he summoned the wind beneath his feet and took off like a cannonball, flying upward with wind crackling behind him.

  Park Taegun, calm but tense, broke into a sprint that shattered the floor tiles beneath him, his S-rank tank physique easily keeping pace.

  By the time Mu Yichen burst onto the rooftop, the wind was sharp and cold.

  And there he was.

  Lee Aseok.

  His long, dark hair swayed in the wind. Just like before, he was near the edge. Just like before, he stepped forward.

  He was walking. Not running. Not crying. Just… walking.

  And then..

  He fell.

  Mu Yichen’s eyes flashed. The gentle smile he always wore was gone, replaced by something dark and furious. He didn't hesitate for even a moment, he jumped.

  Park Taegun reached the rooftop just in time to see Mu Yichen’s figure disappear over the edge and jumped as well.

  Seo MinHyun arrived moments later, saw the same thing, and shouted, “I..! Why are you all like this?!”

  Without a breath of hesitation, he kicked up a powerful gust and leapt off after them, shouting curses the whole way.

  Seo MinHyun cursed violently, wind swirling around his feet as he leapt from the rooftop.

  He used his wind magic to cast a wide buffer around the building, reinforcing the air itself into a soft, controlled turbulence. It would catch anyone… just in case.

  Even if he knew Mu Yichen would never fail to catch him, even if this wasn't the first time, he still couldn’t shake the dread that clung to him like a cold sweat.

  The image of those lifeless, reddish-brown eyes flashed in his mind again.

  Damn it… Why was he even feeling this way about a lunatic?

  On the other hand, Mu Yichen didn’t hesitate, not even for a breath.

  He caught Lee Aseok midair, pulling him securely into his arms. His descent was steady and elegant, his SSS-rank aura pulsing softly around him as he landed gracefully on the ground.

  But the moment his feet touched the pavement, he didn’t let go.

  Mu Yichen’s brows furrowed deeply as he looked down at the youth in his arms.

  Lee Aseok looked up at him calmly.

  There wasn’t the panic of someone who just tried to end his life. There was no shame, no drama. Just... calm.

  Unsettlingly calm.

  As though he had merely stepped out for a walk and fallen by accident.

  That look made something in Mu Yichen snap.

  His instincts screamed to lock this man away in a place no one could reach, just to keep him alive. He wanted to pull him somewhere safe and never let him out of sight again.

  But he knew, he knew, if he even tried, he would lose him forever.

  So, all he did… was hug him tighter.

  Lee Aseok didn’t resist the catch. He didn’t flinch. But now, feeling the secure grip around him, he began to squirm lightly. Not out of fear, just discomfort. Being held… felt foreign.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Mu Yichen reluctantly released him, letting his arms fall to his sides as Lee Aseok straightened his posture and looked around.

  By then, Seo MinHyun and Park Taegun had landed beside them.

  They didn’t speak. Just stared.

  It was surreal.

  A man had nearly died again and yet here he was, brushing off his clothes like he’d merely slipped on ice.

  Lee Aseok, sensing their stares, simply tilted his head.

  His gaze held the same quiet void.

  Mu Yichen opened his mouth, wanting to say something, anything, Why? Are you okay? Don’t do it again, but nothing came out. The words tangled in his throat, burning but refusing to leave.

  And Lee Aseok?

  He turned around as if nothing happened, hands tucked in the pockets of his loose shirt, and walked back toward the building with slow, unhurried steps.

  Not a single word.

  Not a glance.

  Seo MinHyun’s fists clenched.

  “What the hell… was that,” he muttered, voice shaky. “He just... walked off. Again.”

  No one answered.

  Because none of them understood.

  Seo MinHyun watched the retreating figure and felt something unfamiliar crawl under his skin.

  It wasn’t just frustration or confusion. It was fear, a cold fear that he almost lost someone he barely knew, but for some reason… didn’t want to lose.

  And that made him even angrier.

  “Damn it,” he hissed under his breath. “Why the hell is he making me feel like this?”

  Park Taegun stood beside him, silent, but his expression had darkened too. Something had shifted in all three of them.

  And none of them knew what it meant yet.

  Seo MinHyun stood frozen, fists clenched tightly at his sides.

  The image of Lee Aseok falling off the rooftop replayed in his head like a curse, gnawing at his nerves.

  He had seen many things, chaotic dungeons, bloodied corpses, collapsing cities, but watching that silent figure fall without hesitation had shaken something inside him.

  It was beyond logic.

  “Damn it… what the hell is wrong with him?!” Seo MinHyun growled, pacing restlessly.

  Park Taegun, standing beside him, touched his chest lightly. His heart was racing for a reason he couldn’t quite explain. Watching that long-haired youth walk away now, it felt painfully familiar.

  A sense of déjà vu, like watching a dream turn into a nightmare.

  His brows furrowed. “This feeling…” he murmured under his breath. “I’ve… seen this before.”

  Before he could chase the thought further, Seo MinHyun stormed forward.

  “HEY!” he shouted. “Are you actually crazy?! Is jumping off buildings your hobby or something?! You think that’s funny?!”

  Lee Aseok didn’t stop.

  Didn’t flinch.

  He walked ahead, silent and unaffected, as though the shouting belonged to a stranger in a dream.

  Seo MinHyun's emotions spiraled. Frustration, fear, helplessness, they all swirled together like a storm, and finally snapped.

  With a sudden flash of magic, he blasted the crumbling house next to them into splinters. The explosion echoed through the dead streets, dust rising into the pale sky.

  Still, the long-haired youth did not react.

  Mu Yichen and Park Taegun exchanged glances.

  No words were spoken between them, but both calmly followed Seo MinHyun, whose chest heaved with unreleased emotion. They all moved toward Lee Aseok again.

  Lee Aseok had reached the door of his building.

  But then, as if sensing their approach, he stopped.

  For a moment, no one moved.

  He turned.

  Those dull, reddish-brown eyes met theirs, lazy, gloomy and indifferent.

  Then he slowly looked up toward the top of the building.

  Mu Yichen, Seo MinHyun, and Park Taegun all followed his gaze instinctively.

  The rooftop.

  Where he had jumped.

  Twice.

  Lee Aseok’s gaze drifted back to them.

  He didn't smile. He didn't speak.

  Then, without a word, he turned around again, opened the door, walked inside, and locked it with a soft click.

  The silence that followed was louder than any explosion.

  It wasn’t hard to understand what he meant.

  If they entered again… he’d jump.

  Again.

  And next time, maybe he wouldn’t let them catch him.

  “…This guy,” Seo MinHyun muttered, his voice unsteady, “really is insane.”

  Park Taegun was silent, staring at the closed door.

  Mu Yichen stood still for a long moment, his eyes narrowing, unreadable.

  But none of them moved.

  Because this time, it wasn’t a door.

  It was a warning.

  And none of them were confident they’d make it in time next time.

  Mu Yichen's fingers curled into a tight fist at his side. His eyes were fixed on the closed door, yet his gaze had drifted far beyond it.

  For someone who always appeared calm and unshakable, a storm churned quietly behind his refined exterior.

  He didn’t understand why being hated by that young man, someone he barely knew, hurt this much.

  It wasn’t just rejection.

  It felt like... punishment.

  As if just existing in his presence was enough to make him want to disappear.

  That thought made something in Mu Yichen’s chest twist unbearably. He took a slow, deep breath, pressing a hand against his heart as if to restrain it.

  "I want to hold him," Mu Yichen murmured softly.

  Seo MinHyun blinked in confusion. "What?"

  Mu Yichen didn’t answer.

  Because he couldn’t. Not really.

  He only knew that if he rushed it, if he reached out now, he might lose that person forever.

  So instead, he steadied himself and turned to the others.

  “We’re staying in the west zone,” he said plainly.

  Seo MinHyun turned to him, mouth half-open. “...Huh?”

  “We’ll investigate the cause of the declining gates numbers here,” Mu Yichen continued without missing a beat. “We’ll operate out of this sector for the time being.”

  Park Taegun nodded immediately, like it was the most logical decision in the world. “I’ll contact headquarters and inform them.”

  Seo MinHyun looked between the two of them in disbelief. He glanced at the derelict buildings around them. The collapsed roofs. The broken streets. The eerie silence.

  Then back at his two childhood friends.

  “You both actually have lost your minds,” he muttered. “Did I fall into a mirror dungeon or something?”

  Mu Yichen turned toward him, lips curling into a subtle grin.

  “Well,” he said lightly, “since we’ve taken on the mission to investigate the west zone’s gate population decline, it’s only natural that we investigate thoroughly, personally.”

  Seo MinHyun stared at him.

  There was silence.

  Then:

  “…You’re seriously using that as an excuse?” he asked, deadpan. “Do you think anyone will believe that?”

  “Don’t need anyone to,” Park Taegun said simply.

  “That’s not the point..!” Seo MinHyun raised his arms, then let them fall helplessly. “You know what? Fine. But if we get tetanus from breathing in this zone, I’m blaming you both.”

  Mu Yichen chuckled.

  And with that, all three of them looked around.

  The streets were quiet, the buildings crumbled, and the western sky was painted in the fading glow of dusk. This place, once a bustling outer hub, now resembled a ghost town more than anything else.

  It was eerie.

  Silent.

  Abandoned.

  And in the middle of it all, one lone door, locked tightly, held the person they couldn’t stop thinking about.

  They didn’t say it aloud.

  But staying here had nothing to do with a mission.

  And everything to do with the long-haired youth who made them feel things they couldn’t explain.

  No one dared to call it what it really was, a three-man camping trip for emotionally confused elites chasing after a long-haired sofa potato with suicidal tendencies.

  The air was quiet as they looked around again. The buildings were nothing more than skeletons, cracked walls, sunken roofs, shattered windows. And the further they walked, the heavier the silence became.

  Eventually, all three of them silently split off, each heading in a different direction.

  Fifteen minutes later, Mu Yichen and Seo MinHyun met at a broken intersection.

  They shook their heads at the same time.

  “Nothing,” Mu Yichen said with his usual soft tone.

  “Absolutely nothing,” Seo MinHyun groaned, arms folded. “I think I just saw a rat glare at me for disturbing his home.”

  Then Park Taegun returned, a towel wrapped around his neck and dust on his shoulders. He nodded once, sharply.

  Mu Yichen’s eyes lit up. “You found something?”

  “A two-story building, south block. Mostly intact. Could be reinforced,” Park Taegun said like he was reporting to a commander.

  Seo MinHyun blinked. “You serious?”

  Park Taegun raised an eyebrow. “Do I look like I'm joking?”

  “…Touché.”

  And so, the three of them quietly walked off to the south block. They didn’t draw attention to themselves, no flashy transport, no visible weapons, and absolutely no broadcast of their arrival.

  They were celebrities in the hunter world, after all. If anyone knew they were here, things would escalate fast.

  Better to stay under the radar. Especially when the reason was that long-haired man.

  The building was dusty and falling apart in places, but still functional. The water and electricity surprisingly worked, probably due to automatic gate subsidies that still powered the west zone.

  “We’ll call this the west zone command center,” Seo MinHyun declared dramatically as he flung off his jacket.

  “You mean secret hideout,” Park Taegun corrected.

  “Same thing!”

  Within minutes, they were all working. Park Taegun stabilized the structural points and sealed any collapsed areas. Mu Yichen organized internal space, pulling out supplies and energy tools from his storage. And Seo MinHyun…

  …Seo MinHyun stood in front of a pile of debris, arms crossed.

  “I’m too pretty for this,” he said.

  No one responded.

  Grumbling, he finally rolled up his sleeves and started clearing rubble with wind magic, each wave blasting debris into piles.

  “Reduced to labor. Is this punishment? I should’ve stayed in the palace.”

  Still, he worked.

  Quietly, steadily.

  And by nightfall, the two-story building had become a surprisingly decent base of operations.

  Meanwhile, just across the street...

  Inside a much quieter building, Lee Aseok lay slumped on a sofa with his arm dangling off the edge and a blanket lazily tossed over his legs. His eyes were half-closed as the bright glow of the TV reflected in them.

  Anime.

  He was binge-watching it again.

  A slice-of-life this time, about high school students chasing their dreams and getting into absurd antics. It didn’t mean much to him, but it was easy to watch. Predictable. Calm.

  That’s what he needed.

  Peace.

  He knew the three people across the street hadn’t left.

  Of course they hadn’t.

  He hadn’t even bothered peeking through the window. He could just feel it.

  But what bothered him wasn’t that they stayed.

  It was how they acted.

  The sincerity in their eyes. The way they stared at him like he meant something. It didn’t match anything from this life.

  Especially since... he hadn’t met them.

  Not in this timeline.

  So why were they looking at me like that?

  The thought made his brows furrow slightly, but only for a moment.

  He didn’t care.

  Not really.

  Weird things happened all the time. And Lee Aseok had long since stopped chasing answers.

  So he curled deeper into the blanket, grabbed a handful of chips, and turned the volume up slightly.

  On the screen, the animated characters were shouting about friendship and dreams.

  Lee Aseok stared at them blankly.

  Then, without emotion, muttered, “…Idiots.”

  And went back to watching Anime.

  every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Yes, every week!