#started as hunter class
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littleouroboros · 8 months ago
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Vintage Story character doodles
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hehearse · 2 months ago
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all the princess carry art will make sense in like. a month. or a few weeks. i swear.
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tunamayojazz · 3 months ago
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wanted to draw hjyj + i want yoojin to rest more so this was born
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milkbreadtoast · 1 month ago
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quick yoojin phone doodles from memory/without reference... im surprised it turned out so accurate considering i havent drawn him much(this is like the 2nd-3rd time) but ig it's bc im always taking notes in my head when i look at my screencaps of him... 😳
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transsongtaewon · 9 months ago
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I don't think Yoohyun is agender I think he's gender apathetic. No he doesn't have a gender and no he doesn't really care. He's a guy by virtue of people calling him that so he just goes with it because it's not like he cares.
One time he walks in on Yerim doing her e-shot and asks her what she's doing and she says "I'm trans? You didn't know that???" and he say "no what do you mean"
And Yerim sits there for a second and contemplates if she wants to Explain Trans to Yoohyun of all people but they literally live together so maybe he should get the basics so she says "you know, because when I was born they said I was a boy but I'm actually a girl?"
And Yoohyun is like "what"
And Yerim is like "cause I feel like a girl"
And Yoohyun is like "what does that even mean"
And Yerim in her endless grace tries to explain "you know how when you were born they thought you're a boy and you feel good as a boy and if everyone suddenly started calling you a girl and treating you like a woman you'd feel really bad"
To which Yoohyun says "no, not really, why would I care what other people call me"
And then they stare at each other for a few seconds and Yerim decides that explaining "non-binary" or even "agender" to Yoohyun sounds like the stuff of nightmares so she just doesn't cause he seems happy enough as is anyway.
(also if she pursued this to the end they may get to a point where Yoohyun realises he's not actually Yoojin's younger brother so he couldn't call him hyung anymore and she thinks if that happened Yoohyun would probably spontaneously implode)
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shamera · 1 year ago
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this expresses about 1.5435432% of how much i've been enjoying this series lately, and touches even less on its amazingness, but what can you do.
if you have the time and energy to spare, please go read My S-Class Hunters / The S-Classes That I Raised!!!
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morteisshipping · 22 days ago
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"There is a way for overturning things a little more passionately - would you like to hear it?" [...] Hearing my explanation, Sung Hyunjae laughed cheerfully. "How should I express my feelings to you?" "What expression? No, thank you. I've already heard that you'll fall for me twice. I think I'm starting to get tired of it, so please change your repertoire a little. Don't just make do with your words." "The roses were burned and the watch was tossed aside, so what else should I give you?" "Ah, just some money is enough so I can buy some souvenirs." Since I was dragged away without a penny. Sung Hyunjae took a card out of his wallet and gave it to me, still with that smiling face. The limit would be enough, right? What should I buy for the kids?
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sandreeen · 5 months ago
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Sung Hyunjae || The S-Classes That I've Raised
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windcloudii · 5 months ago
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WIP
I wanted to draw something darker with pink threads, but then my shoujou filter worked on Yoojin and now it's cute
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thewastedpotential · 8 months ago
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Do you ever think about how, even before this generation of fairytales, it was a well known fact that if you dont follow your destiny you will case to exist and die?
Do you ever think that knowing this Red and Wolf still went against their destiny ? Knowing that loving each other means that they are putting themselfs in a deadly danger?
Do you ever think about how two teenagers loved each other more then they feared death?
Do you think that after highschool they lived thinking any moment could be their last? Did they thought that if they are going to die becouse of their love at least they can die married?
Maybe after they got married and nothing happend to them , only then did they started living like they had time and dared to imagine them growing old together.
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dyinggirldied · 3 months ago
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Leaving him behind
Ep. 98 vs Ep. 133
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puppetmaster13u · 1 year ago
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Prompt 63
Danny is honestly having fun. Sure his friends and him have gotten thrown into this world with a bunch of monsters and giant creatures, but it’s fun! He’s going to make friends with all of them- even if they do try to eat him in human form most of the time. They all seem pretty confused by them when they smell like ecto though, which uh, wow wasn’t how they wanted to learn the whole class has become liminal. Oh well, it’s just them and Mr Lancer on an entire island to themselves! And he can’t be the only one to want to pet and befriend a dragon, like, c’mon! It’s a dragon! And Star is already eyeing a giant lightning unicorn so he definitely isn’t the only one down to go feral! Hey, at least there’s no GIW here or ghost attacks, and seeing as he doesn’t know how to make portals like Wulf, it’ll take a while to make a ghost portal to the zone. So feral island children it is! 
Bonus DCxDP crossover is if a hero of group of heroes also get thrown into the world onto the island. To them it’s almost like a peter pan situation only the children have a single adult whose given up on controlling the chaos. Oh yeah, they also all have powers and ride giant mythical beasts. Did they mention none of the group trusts any of them either? Yeaaah, this is going to be a long trip home…
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freyadragonlord · 9 months ago
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Sctir Side Story spoilers - chapter 83
Han Yoojin having mastered the art of seducing Sung Hyunjae so hard by this point he can do a fucking speedrun and make him fall in love with a 3 minutes conversation.
Hyunjae literally talking about marriage xjfjfmxjdznd
I didnt think the gayness could escalate but dear lord
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milkbreadtoast · 4 months ago
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sharing this here too.... Got up to ep 47 in the my s class hunters webtoon and asked a korean friend about Sung Hyunje's way of speaking bc i noticed he seemed to talk like an old man..... MFNSMDBSNN THIS IS AMAZING 😭😭🤭
edit: apparently there's a lore reason he talks like that that neither of us knew at the time... i appreciate everyone who's holding back from telling me what it is🫡
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just to be thorough i asked about -군(-gun) too which is how SHJ calls HYJ (han yoojin-gun) (in ep 46-47 at least) (i believe the jp equivalent is -kun, which more ppl r prob familiar w)
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fallloverfic · 7 months ago
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Han Yoojin's Black Choker
This post isn't going to be everything, but it's going to hopefully be easier to find/navigate than the handful of posts I'm seeing floating around and that I've responded to: a summary of official art with Han Yoojin wearing the black choker in S-Classes that I Raised, its maybe appearances in the text of the novel, and its maybe relationship with fanart. For the short answer, yes it appears in multiple pieces of official novel art, and maybe at least once in the novel text. But it might also be a fan design that's sort of accepted as official at least in some cases? Explanation beneath the read more.
Yoojin's black choker is most likely Grace, the protection item Myeongwoo made from Shalos. Other folks have said it's the translation item he gets from Yoohyun, and I disagree, but I'll get to that.
The novel covers and text
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Yoojin is not wearing a choker on either novel cover. The first cover, on the left, has a black line for his collar, not a necklace or choker. It appears often in the manhwa. The black collar is gone in onlyraii's cover on the right (even though onlyraii had drawn Yoojin with the collar in fanart years prior to this, detailed later). The first cover seems to be from when the novel started publishing, and the second cover came out in April 2022. More on the second cover later.
The ebook release also got a cover, but it doesn't have Yoojin on it.
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Text-wise the "choker" is possibly from novel chapter 109, where Grace turns into a sparkling choker at one point (which Yoojin notes is more over the top than a bracelet during his struggle to get her to turn into something less ostentatious). Some folks looked at different text in the novel here for how it and particularly Grace look, but just as a warning, there is no official English translation for the novel outside what we get in the manhwa, which is somewhat modified because it's a manhwa adaptation. There are fan translations for parts of the novel, but a lot of folks use machine translation, which can be very dubious.
In other places in the novel she's just described as turning into a necklace, not specifically a choker, though in novel chapter 176, it's described as sitting close around Yoojin's neck (which sounds like a choker). Whatever jewelry she turns into is specifically described as having a blue/silver jewel from which her bird form emerges (as she has in novel chapter 156, which is the chapter one fanwiki lists it appearing in, and in which she is described as turning into a necklace, not specifically a choker). So there's very little textual support for him to be wearing a choker, though he does at least on occasion wear necklaces.
Revised ebook novel volumes
SCTIR the novel was (and still is) originally released chapter by chapter on Naver, Munpia, and Ridibooks (currently Side Story is only available on Naver, but the chapters of the main story are on all three). The main story was eventually collected into 35 volumes and partially revised or at least given additional scenes in places. Each volume contained at least two pieces of art. For volumes 1-14 this was seemingly a character portrait with their bio (e.g., age, height, likes, dislikes), and 1 piece of interior art, with the latter at least being by 비완 (the manhwa artist). Volumes 15+ switched up interior artists, for a total of I think at least 3-4 artists, and those volumes had at least 2 pieces of interior art, with volume 35 having 4. The individual chapters didn't have this, it was added for the ebook release.
The volumes themselves are available on Ridibooks and Naver (they might be somewhere on Munpia but I couldn't find them).
The first volume of the ebook released in May 2020 (the Ridibooks release lists an earlier date for some reason than the one on Naver, which is November 2020). By this point, fans had already been drawing Yoojin wearing a black choker with a gem (usually blue or silver) on it since at least 2019: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. <This fanart is by onlyraii, the artist who went on to make the new cover for the novel published in April 2022. So at least some of the official artists were involved in the community and knew of popular fan designs (though notably, Yoojin is not wearing the choker on onlyraii's official book cover).
Just want to emphasize: there's a difference between an author drawing/commissioning art and ensuring that it complies with their specifications in the text/their vision and their publisher commissioning art that might not even get approval/comment from the author. I don't know how much geunseo had a say in any of the art for the novel. If there's some interview or something somewhere where they state clearly how many/which pieces of art they approve and the level of control they have over what the art looks like, I haven't seen it. It's not unusual for third party artists to have more freedom to do stuff and draw fan designs/things that aren't accurate in "official" art and for it to get approved (e.g., some of the interior art for the official English translation of "Mo Dao Zu Shi", which actually goes directly against what's on the page; it's kind of unclear how much control MXTX had over this stuff, and heavily implied she had little to none; it's possible that's the same case with geunseo). So whether or not you view this stuff as official is up to you. But it is in the official ebooks, though designs are not really consistent, which implies there was a lack of strong direction in what artists were/weren't allowed to do.
비완 potentially drew Yoojin wearing the choker in volume 13, for the Chuseok art (September 2020, I'm going by the Ridibooks release dates). It's very hard to tell whether that's his shirt collar or a choker. But judging by the color of what's beneath it before robe starts and the skin above the choker, it looks like it's again the collar of a white t-shirt, not a choker.
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The next time it was potentially drawn was by a different artist in volume 18 (July 2021). It's hard to tell because he's holding a bouquet that mostly covers his neck, but on the right side of his neck seems to be part of a black choker.
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You can kind of see something that looks like a black choker near Peace's front left paw.
The clearest earliest example of him wearing it in official art is in volume 19 (April 2022), where he's clearly visible wearing a black choker with a blue gem on it. I don't see it mentioned as something he's wearing in the text of that chapter, at least from a brief browse.
He's also definitely wearing it in two pieces (one each) of art for volumes 20-21 (April 2022). Here's the one from volume 21:
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In volumes 22 (April 2022) and 25 (August 2022), Yoojin seems to be wearing a cat collar with a similar design in two other pieces of art (one each volume). Not exactly a choker, but he's at least wearing something on his neck. Here's the one from volume 22:
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The other art of him with the cat collar in volume 25 is a lot more similar to the other interior art choker designs, with a black ribbon or whatever it is and a blue gem in the center, rather than a blue ribbon.
After that, they switch artists at least once if not twice and none of them drew Yoojin with the choker - or any necklace at all - that I can see. He didn't lose Grace for good in the novel, though he doesn't wear her all the time, but no other artist for the interiors drew him wearing the choker for the last 10 volumes of the revised ebook novel release, if not the last 14. Whether that's a narrative choice or the inclusion of the choker at all is random/whatever the current artist wants/what was geunseo/the publisher's mood, who knows?
The manhwa adaptation
This is how manhwa episode 103 depicts Yoojin trying to get Grace to turn into something wearable after first receiving her (art by 비완), when the alleged "choker" description appears in the novel text:
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I'm not seeing a black choker anywhere. The black line near his neck is the collar of his shirt.
As of posting on November 6th, 2024, there is no art in the manhwa of Yoojin wearing the choker, either as Grace or the translation item he got from Yoohyun. The manhwa depicts the translation item differently, and Grace has only appeared as fancy necklaces or a bracelet. If 비완 drew the choker on Yoojin in the Chuseok ebook novel art for 2020, although the manhwa hasn't gotten there yet, they have drawn him wearing the choker before in official artwork, and yet have not drawn him wearing it since in the manhwa, for whatever reason. We'll have to see how the scene is drawn when the manhwa gets to Chuseok.
In the manhwa, Grace is shown turning into a simple bracelet after negotiation in episode 103:
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You'll note he often wears shirts with black collars on them.
Grace is drawn, consistently, in multiple episodes, as this bracelet. Not as a necklace. And not as a choker.
This is the translation item that Yoohyun gives Yoojin as it appears in manhwa episode 55:
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Which is roughly how it's described in novel chapter 68, absent any specific color description for the metal ornament. Someone else said this is actually what people are drawing when they draw the choker because the design is vague enough to match a choker, which is strange to me, because from what I recall of the novel, Yoojin has this in his pocket/inventory most of the time. He's not wearing it constantly (he also already had it when he got Grace). It's kind of implied if not stated he doesn't like wearing it much and only puts it on out of necessity and takes it off at the first opportunity. He does, however, typically wear Grace (though he does, for various reasons, take her off a decent amount).
The April Fool's 2022 art by ? and the 2022 official novel cover by onlyraii
Someone else pointed out the "sketch" for the official novel art by onlyraii (final art below):
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And here it is when it was released seemingly originally on 31 March 2022/1 April 2022 (KST).
In the other post I'm seeing about the "sketch" for this, the unfinished "sketch" listed was actually the April Fool's Day joke for 2022 that seems to parody onlyraii's cover, but with all the guys being bald:
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(A lot of manhwa and I think Korean webnovels do April Fool's Day joke posts with fake "new" art done by official artists; 2022's SCTIR manhwa April's Fool's Day joke was magical girl themed, and this was 2024's, which had most of the cast become dinosaurs).
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You can also see that while there are similarities, this is very much not what they ended up with, and again, it's dubious this was an actual sketch for the cover: it's not on onlyraii's twitter, though that doesn't mean it wasn't posted elsewhere, and seems more in the style of 비완's art, so it's likely this is the manhwa team doing a jokey post (the manhwa started in November 2021, and 비완 was still doing art for the novel ebook revision at least around 2020, so they'd have been around, and serikachan, the lead storyboard artist, does post about recent novel chapters on twitter, so at least some of them pay attention to the novel). I think it's intentional that all the men are bald as well, to note it's a joke; a lot of the Korean commenters are commenting on their baldness.
A core issue is the similarity and that they were released 11 hours apart (the gag went up around 11 hours before the official cover was released; onlyraii commented on their work for the cover around 40 minutes after the official cover was released). The "sketch" seems to show maybe a planned choker, but if it was an actual sketch in whole or part, it was clearly nixed for the final design. Who made that decision is anyone's guess.
"Sketch" or not, again, onlyraii has drawn Yoojin with a choker many times in their fanart dating back to 2019: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Before the 2022 piece. If onlyraii and/or 비완 wanted to incorporate a fan design into the official art in some way, again, they wouldn't be the first fanartist/community member to do so on official artwork. But at least in this case, that didn't happen in the final design.
In conclusion:
At this point I don't fully know if the design/his regularly wearing a choker comes from the novel or fanon that was later incorporated by fans into canon when they worked on the official art, or if geunseo suggested it or at least okay'd its inclusion on official art, but these things at least are true:
Grace is apparently mentioned as being a choker at least once in the novel text, but it's described as being rather fancy
the fan design/idea of the black choker with a small gem in the middle predates at least the official release of the ebook art with him wearing a choker (if they were released earlier than that on an artist social media post or portfolio or publisher post somewhere, in some form, encouraging fans to use it in fanart prior to the book releases, I have no idea), so at least the stuff pre-2020 was not inspired by the ebook interior art, and potentially nothing before 2022 was inspired by interior art because the clearest art with him wearing it wasn't out until then; it was likely inspired by the potential single/two times Grace is described as a choker in the text, or just generally popular fanon about him wearing a choker (wouldn't be surprising, there's a lot of emphasis on Hyunje grabbing Yoojin's neck all the time and how Yoojin's neck feels when he's not grabbing it)
Yoojin wears a black choker/collar with a gem in the middle of it in at least 3 if not 6 pieces of official ebook interior art, and a blue ribbon collar in at least one piece of official ebook art
after the choker/collar shows up on those 3-7 pieces of interior art, it stopped appearing at all (his neck is visibly bare of any necklace of any kind in multiple art pieces), and he doesn't wear anything on his neck in the artwork for at least 10 volumes; furthermore, despite the manhwa artist potentially drawing him wearing the choker in one of those pieces, they have not drawn him wearing it in the manhwa in the years since that ebook art was released, even after he had both Grace and the translation necklace item, both of which have been suggestions for what the choker is
So does he wear a choker? In the novel text and novel art, maybe, at least sometimes, but not currently in the manhwa. Does it look like it does in fanart? Maybe: it's not really described in the text and the few novel art pieces we have don't quite match each other. The publisher and/or possibly geunseo okay'd at least some official art with it on (though I don't know how much control geunseo has in that decision, and the author of the original work okaying art is different than the publisher okaying art, particularly depending on what degree of control geunseo had over any changes/what could be drawn, or if they were just allowed to say yes or no and that's it).
I'll try to keep this updated if new information/art comes out, so if you're seeing this as a reblog, check the source post to see if there's an update.
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lalune9x · 3 months ago
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SCTIR Translation - Chapter 474: The Owner of the Letter (1)
I swallowed back the words, 'I'm sorry for being late. Did you wait long?' The hall was just as dark as it had been before I entered the drawer. But something about the atmosphere was strangely different.
Chapter translation under the cut.
—-
Chapter 474: The Owner of the Letter (1)
I was in exactly the same spot where I had used the drawer. That is, a spot slightly suspended in the air. It wasn't too high, and since I had prepared, I landed lightly. At the same time, I remembered to turn off my Curse Resistance.
My socks, still soaking wet, were now covered in flower petals. White, pink, yellow, light purple, and various other colors—they were scattered all over.
Not whole flowers, just petals.
I swallowed back the words, 'I'm sorry for being late. Did you wait long?' The hall was just as dark as it had been before I entered the drawer. But something about the atmosphere was strangely different. I blinked slowly.
Sung Hyunje was sitting in a chair, leaning back against it. Flower petals were scattered all over his body, and beneath his long, stretched-out legs lay piles of stark green stems stripped bare of all their petals.
It looked like a graveyard of bones. That thought suddenly crossed my mind. The soft, vibrant petals were dispersed in all directions, with only the long stems in piles overlapping here and there. He must have gathered all the flowers that had been decorating the room, as there were more than enough to bury the chair's legs.
"You… must have been very bored."
If he had burned the flowers or smashed the table, that would have been less surprising to me. Even if the entire hotel had been blown away, revealing the blue sky, I might have just rubbed my forehead. Someone suddenly disappearing without a word was more than enough reason to get angry. Maybe even to break some of the surroundings in frustration. But this… this felt like a calm, quiet madness.
I swallowed dryly.
After a brief silence, Sung Hyunje spoke.
"1 hour, 29 minutes, and 51 seconds have passed since Han Yoojin-gun disappeared. And now, precisely an hour and a half."[1]
Click. The cover of the pocket watch in Sung Hyunje's hand snapped shut. He was sitting slightly outside the hall's illuminated area, so I couldn't see his expression clearly. His face was cast in deep shadows.
"Out of sheer boredom, I decided to try flower divination. Fortunately, there were plenty of flowers."
He must have sat there, picking the petals one by one. The chains must have quietly wrapped around the piles of flowers and stacked them at his feet. It would have been better if he'd just destroyed everything. Without fear resistance, I’d probably have goosebumps by now.
"I didn't mean to be late, but an hour and a half isn't that long, is it? And we were playing tag, so you must have guessed that I was hiding on purpose."
I didn't think he would have been worried. When I first disappeared, he must have been surprised, but also found it amusing. But as time dragged on, he must have gotten a bit annoyed.
"Of course."
Sung Hyunje crossed one leg over the other and continued.
"I figured you had gained something new that I wasn't aware of. But the human mind… this brain." He lightly touched his temple with his fingertips. "It likes to imagine things. What if, perhaps, maybe, surely not… and so on. I was once human, after all, so it wasn't an entirely pleasant time."
"I… apologize for that."
"I believe I've told you before—I'm neither accustomed to nor fond of having anything taken from me."[2]
"But it's not even yours."
"Not just objects, but people and relationships can be taken as well. Didn't you once mistakenly think you'd lost your position as your little brother's guardian?"
"…I did lose it. That wasn't a misunderstanding."
"Well. From my perspective, you never lost it once." His pale-colored eyes remained the same, but the corners of his mouth lifted faintly. "And waiting, as it turns out, really doesn't suit my temperament."
Waiting, knowing nothing, unable to do anything—that was what he really didn't like. Although Sung Hyunje's voice was relatively light, I had the sense that he was more displeased than he'd ever been before.
"I've spent years like that. But no matter how much time passes, I've never gotten used to it. It's always infuriating."
Thinking about it that way made me feel even more guilty. I had just assumed that he hated waiting a long time. In any case, since we were supposed to be partners now, it wouldn't do to just suddenly go missing… Though, he had also hidden things from me.
Anyway, I had won, right? But the atmosphere didn't seem right to demand the letter right away.
"Um, I drank a bit, and finished off all of Hyuna-ssi's wine but… would you like a cigarette, at least?"
This was a non-smoking hotel, but still. Sung Hyunje tilted his head slightly and beckoned me with a finger. The gesture was disgustingly arrogant, but just this once, I should bow my head. I took out the cigarette case from my inventory and approached him.
"You're wet," he noted.
"I fell into some water."
"Oh my, and in this chilly weather."
"It was pretty warm there."
I opened the case and pulled out one cigarette, then took out another.
"It's not good for—"
"Secondhand smoke is worse, you know," I cut him off and put the cigarette in his mouth to stop him from nagging.
I couldn't touch these things in front of the kids anyway, and I rarely went anywhere alone these days. Especially recently, with Gyeol trying to stick to me all the time.
Of course, I had no lighter. I was looking around wondering how to light it, when Sung Hyunje picked up a flower that hadn't been torn apart yet. 
Around the full, pale pink bloom—
Crackle.
Electricity sparked. The skillfully ignited flame enveloped the flower. Usually, something so moist wouldn't catch fire so easily.
With the flower in the middle, both cigarettes were lit. This would be the last time; truly the last.
"I received it from the King of the Mist Sea. There's a limit on the number of uses."
I spoke as I watched the smoke curl and dissipate into the air.
Sung Hyunje seemed as if he was only half-listening. The way he held the cigarette between his fingers looked like something the kids should never see. If they tried to imitate him, I'd have to cut them off. Even adults might be tempted to smoke more just watching him. He looked like a high-budget commercial ad.
In the meantime, ash fell from Sung Hyunje's other hand as the fire that had burned down to the end of the flower stem quietly fizzled out. He still didn't seem to be in a good mood.
"…Do you want to go to the aquarium? I'll buy you ice cream, too," I offered.
I wondered why I was trying to comfort him, but it was true that I had been quite late.
"What should I do with Han Yoojin-gun?" Sung Hyunje murmured as if talking to himself.
What do you mean, what should you do?
"Just leave me be. I'll take care of myself. Not everyone will turn out the way you want, you know. Take Director Song, for example."
"I recall a certain someone desperately trying to give him a baby lamb as a gift."
"…No, that was… that was just because I wanted to be of some help. Besides, well, you know about Director Song. What happened before the regression."
I wasn't trying to change someone completely. I just wanted him to take better care of himself. But even if that wasn't possible, I wanted him at least to survive.
"It's not easy to mold someone as you want while respecting them," Sung Hyunje commented.
"Look, the 'respect' part completely disappears if you're doing it 'as you want.' First of all, abandon the idea that you'll lead."
Even among natural born S-ranks, considering he’d lived for so long as a Transcendent-level being—though he’d lost those memories—it was only natural, I supposed. There was no way most people would feel like equals to him. Honestly, him calling me his 'partner' was probably not acknowledgement, but more something he was 'allowing'.
'It would be difficult for someone who's lived like that for hundreds of years to suddenly change.'
It hadn't even been six months, after all.
"Turning a blind eye to danger just to show respect is putting the cart before the horse," he said.
"Well, that's true, but…"
"What if a non-Awakened Park Yerim said she wanted to enter a dungeon?"
"Obviously, I'd stop her," I replied.
And I had also tried to stop an S-rank Yoohyun from entering dungeons. It wasn't that I didn't respect them, but… molding them 'as I want'… Then again, stopping them was an attempt to impose my will on them… It was complicated.
If they were complete strangers, it would be different, but with people around me, especially people I liked, wasn't it nearly impossible to just leave them alone? Even if it was for their sake… hmm. It was still my desire at the end of the day.
After taking a single drag and letting the smoke drift out, Sung Hyunje simply held the cigarette in his hand.
Meanwhile, my cigarette had already burned down quite a bit. As I glanced around, wondering what to do with it, Sung Hyunje held out his palm.
"…Come on."
Surely he wasn't asking me to put out my cigarette there. He was S-rank, so a lit cigarette would be nothing to him, but still I grimaced at the thought and stared at him.
Sung Hyunje reached out and pinched the end of my cigarette to snuff it out. Ash stuck to his pale fingertips. Then, he crushed his own cigarette with his hand. When he opened his fist, there was nothing left but a faint trace of ash.
Right. I could've just put it in my inventory. I followed suit and stored the cigarette butt.
"Let's say it wasn't pleasant, but it was a productive time," Sung Hyunje said lightly.
Productive? What had he been thinking about? He stood up, and the skeletal flower stems lightly brushed against his feet.
"Oh, the flower divination. What was it for?"
I was curious and concerned about what conclusions he had come to during that hour and a half.
Looking down at me, Sung Hyunje's eyes crinkled. "The young lady called."
"What? Yerim called?"
"She said she couldn't reach you and asked if I had broken your phone again. Then she asked me to tell you there's a famous dessert sold at this hotel and that she wanted to have some before leaving. And then…"
And then?
Sung Hyunje's eyes crinkled further as his smile deepened. "I told her Han Yoojin-gun wasn't here."
"T-that's—! You can't do that! So then, what did Yerim say?"
"She asked what I meant, so I told her again, you weren't here. Then she shouted for Han Yoohyun."
Ack, she told Yoohyun? Wait a minute—so the kids now…! 
Sung Hyunje shamelessly continued. "When he asked where his hyung was, I honestly told him I didn't know either, and that Han Yoojin-gun had left this place about twenty minutes prior."
Twenty minutes prior? That was over an hour ago. Of course they'd be in a panic. Sung Hyunje!
"You were unnecessarily honest!"
"I only told the truth."
I quickly took out my phone. It had gotten wet but fortunately was still functioning. Thank god for waterproofing.
"Do you really want to be grabbed by the collar that badly?" I demanded.
"It seems they immediately left to look for you, so they didn't come here."
"Of course, because Chloe—Yoohyun!"
[Hyung!]
Yoohyun picked up almost immediately. There was a slight tremble in his voice.
[Where are you? Are you okay?]
"I'm fine. I'm at the hotel."
[…What?]
"It's true that I disappeared for a bit, but no one kidnapped me or anything. I was in a place kind of like Myungwoo's smithy—the drawer from the King of the Mist Sea."
I could hear him gritting his teeth on the other end, so I quickly added that Sung Hyunje hadn't known either. We didn't need the hotel to go up in flames.
[I thought you were taken while returning to the room alone…]
"You must've been really worried. But there are so many hunters around that it's hard to imagine I'd get kidnapped. Besides, if Sung Hyunje hadn't escorted me back, I would've called you."
There was no way I would've wandered around by myself without Gyeol.
"What's the situation now? You didn't announce to everyone I was kidnapped, right?"
[Of course not. We contacted the Awakened Management Office and the Association to check the airports and track Chloe Alger's movements. Only Director Song Taewon and a handful of people at the Association know.]
"Good job. Come back for now, but just ask Director Song to meet us at the hotel. Leave the Association out of it."
Even if they tried to handle it quietly, the fact that the airports had been checked meant it was unlikely the information hadn't leaked. Since things had already escalated to this point, we might as well make the best of it.
[You're not alone, are you?]
"Nope. The Sesung Guildmaster is right here in front of me."
"Don't worry, young master. I'll take good care of your hyung. You can come at your leisure."
[…I'll leave him to you for now. Hyung, stay put.]
The call ended. I quickly called Yerim next.
[Ajussiii!]
[Daaad!]
Gyeol was on the verge of tears, and Yerim was half-scolding, half-grumbling that they'd been worried sick. Poor kids. It really wasn't a big deal. But wait… Oh no, this meant…
[…Yoojin, you.]
Sure enough, Myungwoo sounded angry. His voice was heavy and intimidating.
[How on earth could you—!]
"No, really, this time nothing happened!"
[We were so worried, Yoojin-ssi. Myungwoo-hyung, please calm down.]
So the two of them were together. Well, even though this time wasn't my fault, I felt guilty since I'd worried them so many times before. I humbly apologized.
Finally, I called Director Song, who sighed heavily as soon as he answered.
"It was really a misunderstanding. I swear."
[At least you're safe. Is Hunter Sung Hyunje beside you?]
"I feel a little sorry for Director Song Taewon," Sung Hyunje said, his tone and expression showing not the slightest bit of remorse.
[Please refrain from making false reports.]
"False? I only spoke the truth. There was merely a slight misunderstanding in the process of the message being relayed."
It was annoying because technically, he wasn't wrong. But thanks to his mischief, Sung Hyunje's mood seemed to have improved a bit.
After finishing my last call, I looked up at him.
"Anyway, I won."
"I concede."
Nodding slightly, Sung Hyunje took out the letter and placed it in my hand. I hoped it wasn't just some trivial content after all this.
---
Footnotes:
[1] It says 1 hr 27 min 51 sec in the e-book but I think it is an error.
[2] The lack of a word in English that captures both "things" and "people" again makes it awkward to translate this without specifying one or the other. In Korean, Sung Hyunje doesn't specify what he doesn't like losing, which is why he then clarifies that it's not just objects but people that can be taken away.
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