The room went still the moment Seo Hwigeon entered — arms full of coffee cups, wolf mask as unreadable as ever.
"Boss… welcome back," One of the members greets, bowing slightly and awkwardly in respect while the others imitate the woman. Then, some of the people who weren't members but from other guilds left.
'Good thing Song Dohyun's guild didn't visit today,' he thinks to himself as he walks over to the table.
Seo Hwigeon put the coffee aside at the table while the members of the
Besides, it's their guild leader's problem and they have no rights to interfere with his personal life.
"What's everyone discussing?" Seo Hwigeon decides to ask casually as he leans against the door of his own office.
Chae Yuna, one of the good awakeners in South Korea raises her hand, "We were thinking when's the next vortex raid, it has been a while ever since we've done one."
Then, another awakener chimes in brightly, Woo Taehwa, the healer of the
Seo Hwigeon just chuckles, shaking his head, "Y'know that I'm still finding the right time–"
"But there's a lot of vortexes appearing here in Seoul! Not to mention, in Busan too!" A fleet-footed young woman, Gim Haesung, interrupts quickly as she plays with her own chains with a whine.
Before Seo Hwigeon, another awakener walks into the room, none other than Ki Yeonbom, "It's not normal anymore, it's like… something's going on,"
"Something's not right," Seo Hwigeon agrees with their statements as he clasps both of his hands together, almost a habit.
"That's what the
"Hold on, you rarely get us anything, Hwigeon-ssi…"
Woo Taehwa quickly takes one cup of coffee too, more excited than the rest, "Yeah! What's the occasion? What made you buy… twenty cups too?"
"I decided to support a small business," Seo Hwigeon murmurs, leaning back against the wooden door as he crosses both of his arms over his chest.
"...Right, back to the topic, guild master. Is… the reason for finding the right timing relevant to what you just said three days ago?" Ki Yeonbom took this opportunity to finally ask Seo Hwigeon about the interview a few days ago.
Seo Hwigeon pauses on the spot as if Ki Yeonbom just saw right through him, but he quickly regains his composure and just snickers playfully. "When I claimed that Eight was alive?"
"Are you that obsessed with clickbait and attention, master?" Gim Haesung just chugs an entire cup of coffee and sniffs, "Darn… it's so bitter…"
"Just what are you planning, Seo Hwigeon?" Ki Yeonbom sighs, looking up at him behind his wolf mask, as if in an attempt to try and study their guild leader.
The air shortly became tense and quiet, not the comfortable silence or awkward… The uncomfortable silence.
Chae Yuna and the others exchange glances before returning to Ki Yeonbom and Seo Hwigeon, though none of them speak.
"You've been here for a few weeks and you've barely opened up to us—"
"It's none of your business to know, alright? But here's the thing you all should know…" Seo Hwigeon sighs beneath his mask and starts walking toward his office.
He turns around for a moment to look at the members of
"Eight is alive."
With that, everyone watches Seo Hwigeon turn around and enter his office, then the sound of the door locking fills the silence in the room.
"He's insane…" Ki Yeonbom mutters, clenching his fist. He doesn't hate him at all, he's just too frustrated to understand who their leader is.
"Hey now, we could try tomorrow!" Gim Haesung laughs as she drinks another coffee despite its bitter flavor.
Chae Yuna sighs, "There's nothing we could do if he really wants to be mysterious, but we really can't just stand here and do nothing. We'll have to convince him to go on a raid."
"I agree, I agree! It's been sooo boring ever since Mister Yoonwoo left him in charge…" Woo Taehwa huffs, "Though, I still like him even when he's a little crazy!"
Behind the locked door, Seo Hwigeon stood at the window overlooking Seoul in silence. He could hear the chatter of his members, but his mind was elsewhere.
"Yeon Yujun…" he mutters his name like a lover whispering a secret as he lifts his mask just slightly to reveal his scarred mouth.
"I'll take you home soon."
***
"Aughhhh…"
Yeon Yujun stretches his hands up in the air after researching all about the vortex loots and how to sell them.
It's about time he starts cleaning up his storage.
"Pupu!!" Pouch quickly gets out of the pile of sheets as it stares at Yeon Yujun before deciding to climb up to his desk and lay beside his laptop.
"Pouch, what is it?" Yeon Yujun reaches out to rub Pouch's belly as it squirms and giggles from his touches.
He chuckles, smiling at it fondly before retracting his hand, "If this is an attempt to borrow my laptop, I'll have to deny you."
"Bubu…!!!"
"Yes yes I know what you're planning, Pouch." he sighs, shaking his head as he returns his focus to the screen of his laptop.
'I just have to download an… app? How do I do that again?' Yeon Yujun thinks to himself as he takes his phone out and taps on the search bar.
"It's on Appystore… right?" he murmurs before he hears his door open, startling him — Lee Seolji is standing in the doorway as she peeks inside his room.
"H-hey! Is knocking extinct in your generation or what!?"
"Oppa, I'm just searching for my sock," she says as she lifts a solo pair of the dandelion design sock.
"You're the one who folded the laundry right?"
"Yes, but that doesn't mean…" Before he could finish his words, Lee Seolji just strides inside his room and begins opening his closet then drawers, rummaging through his clothes.
"Hey! HEY! STOP THAT!"
Lee Seolji just hums to herself as she gets to Yeon Yujun's underwear drawer and rummages through it without any shame or hesitation.
"Seolji, stop that!" Yeon Yujun walks towards her, about to grab her shoulder when Lee Seolji pulls out another sock with the same design.
'Huh? Why is the sock in my drawers?'
Lee Seolji's face wrinkles in disgust and turns to look at Yeon Yujun, "Why do you have my sock, Oppa!? Now I'm sure this smells like butt! Ugh… I gotta wash this,"
"Hey, watch it! I didn't put…" he trails off, his eyes landing on Pouch who sometimes has the habit of stealing people's things…
Yeon Yujun just ran his hand through his face as his eyes moved back to Lee Seolji, "Alright, alright… I probably just misplaced one of the laundry," he surrenders with both arms in the air.
She just looks up at Yeon Yujun with crossed arms, "Hmph, I thought you have a good memory, Oppa!"
"H-hey! I'm getting old, alright!?"
"Sheesh, you and aging…" Lee Seolji just rolls her eyes before her eyes find Yeon Yujun's laptop screen, seeing his search bar with the prompt "How to sell vortex loots online?".
"Did you become a loot collector without letting us know?"
"Loot collector? What?"
Lee Seolji just scoffs, "Loot collector! An unawakener who collects and sells vortex loots from awakeners?"
'Gods, I've never even heard of that term… I just needed a few bucks.'
Yeon Yujun gulps and nods at Lee Seolji's words, "Yeah, and how do I download the "Stellar Market" and "White Market"?..."
She just stares at him before snatching his phone from him, Yeon Yujun tries to protest but Lee Seolji interrupts him quickly.
"Stellar is for awakened people who sell it to other awakeners, while White Market is for people who support both awakeners and unawakeners." Lee Seolji tosses his phone back after educating him.
Yeon Yujun was almost stunned at Lee Seolji's explanation, "How do you know all that…?"
"One of my friends is awakened and almost everyone else knows the market, well… except for some oldies like you." She turns and walks out of the room casually as the sock dangles from her hand.
'She's just going to info dump me like that? I mean… I've always expected her to be a nerd about hunters since she always watches them.'
Yeon Yujun decides to ignore her insult too as he taps on the app where it led him to the registration website, it also says that if a user has a hunter license… they could be verified as awakeners. But Yeon Yujun is unregistered himself, so he signs up as an unawakener user.
After signing up, Yeon Yujun is finally into the White Market and sees a lot of items listed by the awakeners and the collector unawakeners.
Speed stones… Guild stones that cost like Yeon Yujun's lifetime… Mana potions and so on.
He wasn't even aware that a market like this exists for trading and selling, it looks like this could be a jackpot for him too.
Yeon Yujun opens his status window and swipes to the inventory as he navigates through the many items, it takes him at least ten scrolls to reach the end.
He had never considered that loots could be sold — he had always thought that it was for personal use.
Now that he thinks about it, since he's no longer a hunter… he could sell the [Red Earrings of Persephone (replica)] since it only gives 500 mana when equipped, he has a lot of mana anyway.
"I just have to take a picture and list it?" Yeon Yujun said to himself as he took out the earrings and placed them onto a bright spot which was his desk. He puts it down and casually takes a picture of it with his phone before listing it for sale in the White Market.
Yeon Yujun decides to list it as "[A] Red Earrings of Persephone (replica)" and since he doesn't know the value of the item, he lists it as 500,000 won.
After a few minutes of verifying and processing it, the listed item finally made it to the "Fresh Items" category. Yeon Yujun purposely made it cheaper than the other items so someone could reach out to him about it — especially since he's a new seller and all.
When Yeon Yujun puts his phone aside, it chimes with a notification before he could do something else to pass the time.
"What the…?"
'Someone's already interested after I just listed it?'
Then another chime.
Before he could even fully process, his phone is already blowing up with DMs that sound desperate to get the earrings one way or another.
"What the hell is happening...?!"