VSP 146

Usually, when summoners form a contract with a summon, they enter a dungeon, meet a summon that matches their level, and form a bond.

However, Sejun’s case was different. He met Hoya in a dream.

It was a strange dream, the first of its kind in his life. Sejun stood upon a vast, green meadow.

What is this place?

Even though he was a summoner, his physical abilities were so poor that he worried constantly about how he’d ever catch a summon. He had awakened as an S-rank hunter, so it would be great to contract with rare summons. Yet, for some reason, none of the information on HunterNet felt right. He was just wasting time as an empty-handed S-rank hunter.

Of course, he didn’t have the ability to catch one. To get stronger, he needed a summon, and those summons were inside dungeons. The problem was that Sejun’s physical capabilities were too weak to enter without one.

“Usually, even if they aren’t the physical type, S-rank hunters get superhuman strength as a basic feature. Why am I…” Sejun grumbled.

Sejun was much stronger and tougher than a non-awakened person, but that was only by civilian standards. By an awakened person’s standards, he wasn’t impressive.

“I need to form a contract and go hunt in dungeons soon so I can make money.”

At that time, Seo Sejun was just an ordinary college student. He had taken a leave of absence from school as soon as he awakened as a hunter, so he felt anxious every day. But he felt pathetic because he didn’t even feel like going out to look for a summon, despite awakening as a summoner.

That was when he had that dream. A dream where he stood in a space where only a wide meadow stretched out into the distance. Furthermore, that dream didn’t stop at just once. Once, twice, three times, the dream repeated. No matter how slow he was, he could tell this wasn’t a normal dream.

When he told his parents, they just asked if anyone nearby was pregnant. Even though he secretly suspected it might be a conception [unauthorized copy]dream, he spent a few days snapping back, “Hey, it’s not a conception dream!”

Finally, a blue tiger appeared in the dream. Maybe it was because it was a dream, but he didn’t feel very scared even though he saw a massive beast. The giant tiger revealed himself near Sejun and paced around him several times before…

‘Uh?’

He pounced at Sejun. The giant tiger occupied the space over his body. After Sejun fell back onto the soft ground, the tiger stared down at him for a long time and then licked Sejun’s face.

‘Ugh, what, what’s this!‘

Sejun flailed in complete panic, but the tiger didn’t let him go for a long while. Sejun eventually gave up. He lay warmly in the tiger’s embrace for a long time and thought, “This isn’t so bad.” After that, he woke up.

A summon appeared in Sejun’s empty summon window. A very large and cool summon occupied the entire capacity alone, as if telling him not to even dream of another summon besides himself.

He was happy. The sense of fulfillment that he finally had a summon, the thrill that the summon was stronger than anything else, and the natural affection for a being bound to him, at that time, he feared nothing. Even if Hoya hadn’t liked Sejun, and even if he was a summon he couldn’t handle, Sejun regarded Hoya as his soulmate.

[He was annihilated.]

So when he heard those words, Sejun felt like the blood in his entire body was turning ice-cold.

Annihilated. He was annihilated? Who? Hoya? That’s impossible. There’s no way.

Even as he thought that, he felt anxious because he couldn’t feel Hoya’s presence. He didn’t have the courage to check the summon window. But he had to.

Sejun finally opened the summon window. The moment he saw the empty space, he couldn’t handle ​unauthorized copy​the dizziness and staggered.

[Eh? Hey!]

I have to find it.

In that moment, no other thought came to Sejun’s mind.

I have to find our Hoya. My summon…

[Hey, get it together!]

Ugh, I didn’t mean for this to happen.

He heard the dragon in front of him making noise, but the sound didn’t register properly in Sejun’s head. A thumping sound echoed. His desperation turned into power and began to pressure the space. The empty space started to flicker like an old tape and began to vanish at a molecular level.

‘Ah, that Ruya fellow…’

At the moment he thought he heard someone clicking his tongue, Sejun’s sleeping consciousness rose to the surface for the first time.

“Ah!”

The strange sensation of returning to a numb body felt like finally waking up from a terrible case of sleep paralysis. Sejun lost his strength and dropped the water cup in his hand.

Dogyeong watched the glass fragments fly everywhere. He frowned, wondering what Sejun was doing, but then he realized Sejun was about to fall on top of the shards. Startled, he rushed over and pulled Sejun into his arms.

“What are you doing?”

Even though he suspected the Seo Sejun in front of him was a different person, he couldn’t bear to see Sejun get hurt. Dogyeong supported him, but his expression was filled with suspicion until it gradually softened.

No way.

“…Sejun-hyung?”

Sejun didn’t answer. He just frowned for a moment. As his physical senses returned, he tried to push Dogyeong away, but he realized his arms had no strength and he couldn’t breathe properly.

“Look at me. Seo Sejun, breathe.”

Dogyeong gripped the pale Sejun’s shoulders, certain now that the person in front of him was the usual Seo Sejun he liked.

“Seo Sejun!”

However, Sejun didn’t seem to hear Dogyeong’s words. He kept shaking his head and tried to shake off Dogyeong’s hands.

“No, no. What I… what I said… it’s not right. Dogyeong, Cha Dogyeong, Hoya, Hoya is gone… Hoya disappeared.”

He rambled incoherently. Dogyeong grit his teeth at the sight of Sejun, who clearly was not in his right mind. He didn’t understand the situation, but he knew for sure that Sejun was suffering. He didn’t plan on watching this state for long.

“I have to find Hoya.”

“I get it, so calm down.”

“Hoya…”

Dogyeong grabbed Sejun’s cheeks, which were exceptionally pale and smooth for an adult male, felt supple in his hands.

“Calm down.”

Dogyeong repeated the words several times and kissed Sejun’s cheek. He tightly hugged him as Seo Sejun exhaled rough breaths. As the feather-light kisses continued on his cheek, he slowly stopped struggling. His heart still pounded, but by the time he calmed down to some extent, his body lost all strength and slumped down.

Dogyeong had no intention of setting Sejun down on the floor where glass shards might have scattered. He immediately grabbed Sejun’s waist and lifted him onto the kitchen island. Even as he was lifted like a child, Sejun didn’t resist once, acting like a doll.

“…”

“…”

The surroundings were quiet for a while. Sejun occasionally let out a rough breath, but even that quickly calm down when Dogyeong hugged him and patted his back. However, Sejun’s confusion grew in proportion to his body calming down. His head felt like it was going to burst. Everything was mixed together. Memories of the last few days, where he was himself but also not himself, and some memories of a world different from this one were a chaotic mess in his mind.

“Cha Dogyeong.”

Sejun called Dogyeong’s name first. When Dogyeong looked at him, the hold expression he had shown to the “other” Seo Sejun was gone.

“That…”

He had called him out of nowhere, but he didn’t know how to start. His heart still was racing, and his fingertips turned cold and his body trembled whenever he thought of Hoya. But Sejun tried to stay calm. Cha Dogyeong must be even more confused than Sejun. He was the one who had to fix the situation.

But the more he tried to organize his thoughts, the more tangled they became. Sejun couldn’t get a proper word out. Dogyeong sighed, perhaps judging something from Sejun’s hesitation.

“Sejun-hyung.”

“Yeah, uh…”

“I knew something was wrong even when I was looking right at you.”

“You’re back, Seo Sejun.”

After saying that, Dogyeong pulled the cheeks he was still holding and kissed Sejun’s lips. They were soft and warm. It was a very ticklish act.

“What was that? Is it a dungeon influence?”

However, the reason the ticklish act didn’t feel ticklish was probably because this situation was one of the worst-case scenarios Sejun had imagined. The scenario where Cha Dogyeong finds out everything.

“Seo Sejun. I’m asking who that was.”

“…I don’t know either.”

Saying he didn’t know was unauthorized copy a perfect way to avoid everything. But as soon as Cha Dogyeong heard that, he frowned.

“You don’t know? It happened in your body.”

“.….”

Of course it didn’t make sense. That was Seo Sejun, and this was also Seo Sejun. They shared the same body, only the egos were different. How could the current Seo Sejun not know? Sejun just looked away without a word. That was as good as an answer. Dogyeong let out a long sigh.