Father must have expected this day would come since he had reacted calmly to my deviant behaviour. I also shed tears of emotion that night as I realized I had been too ignorant of my parents’ love. As my father said, I was their only son who had lived under the same roof as them. My parents must have contemplated how to raise a child who was superior to other kids in terms of physical and intellectual development. I could only assume from the pictures since I had skipped the ‘tutorial’ of my youth, but my parents had done so many things for me.

The next day, my mother took out a photo album after my father went to work. She turned over the pages while talking about old stories, and I saw that I grew up fast. Although I was standing in the last row, I was the tallest in my elementary school’s first year. There was another picture of young me wearing a taekwondo uniform and holding a poomsae[1] with an awkward smile. I was expressionless in the pictures that my parents took without me noticing, but I was awkwardly smiling in the others that were taken in art, mental arithmetic and piano academy.

“The only academy you wanted to attend was Taekwondo. Do you remember?” Mother asked with a smile. Until the first year of elementary school, I could be regarded as a child. Well, as an exceptionally tall kid.

“Oh, did I?” I asked vaguely.

As I grew older, more pictures had been taken of me when I was outdoors, usually in the empty area behind the hiking trails. I was doing chin-ups, soccer and judo. Most of the photos had been snapped while I was doing sports.

“All the coaches said you should become a national athlete. They even came to our house to convince us, you know,” she said softly as she reminisced about the old days.

“I thought you were talented in sports, but you quit everything after three months”“Did I say I’d quit? I don’t remember much,” I said.

“You’ve been such a good kid. You never said such things.”

“Then?” I asked.

“I could tell that you didn’t want to go, so I didn’t want to force you. We were grateful that you willingly tried so many things,” she replied.

I flipped over to the last page, and school certificates poured out. I had swept away all the awards related to studies from grades one through six. My student record demonstrated that I had received all As, but my homeroom teachers were concerned about my sociability.

「Grade 1: Excellent student but quiet and doesn’t get along with his classmates.

Grade 2: Smart and exemplary, but lacks social skills.

Grade 3: Outstanding grades and very fast-paced growth, but not in harmony with classmates due to his personality and maturity.

Grade 4: Quiet and habitually sleeps during class.

Grade 5: Polite and sincere, but has no friends. Teachers have consistently encouraged him to socialize.

Grade 6: Cannot adapt to school life due to the adult level of mental and physical maturity.  Requires more attention.」

There was a column where my homeroom teachers briefly wrote down their observations of students, but all of them were negative about me. They usually left positive comments there, but this gave me a hunch that my parents probably got a lot of calls from them. My mother bent closer down to me with a smile.

“You never studied, but were born with your father’s intelligence.”

She sounded happy.

「Class Rank 1/51, Grade Rank 1/720」

I had been first place in the entire school every semester, and I probably acted aloof and prideful because I thought that would make my parents happy. My mother stared at me, and I was worried she might cry. However, she just looked at me with a beautiful smile.

“I’m so glad that my son found something he likes to do. Really, really.”

***

My walk to the office was light despite the torrential rain, and I was smiling. Woo Yeon-Hee widened her eyes and smiled as if my feelings had been conveyed to her. She greeted me silently and seemed to focus on feeling my emotions as she sat on the couch. In a way, she looked like she was pleasantly drunk.

I wanted to chill before turning on the computer as I was tired of getting reports saying that they had not caught the First Evil. Also, there was nothing unusual about the two other pre-Awakened in New York.

The rain was falling hard outside, and I took my eyes off the window after a while when Woo Yeon-Hee’s gaze at me had become quite burdensome. She asked with a knowing look, “Did you come from home?”

“Yes, where else would I come from? Did you find what I asked?” I replied, changing the subject.

“Thanks to the trait Explorer, I managed to do so easily,” she responded.

***

Dungeons were usually buried in mountains or gigantic plains, and the one in Hwasung was the same. Starting construction for the next dungeon was already underway, and preparing for the next one in advance became a ritual.

Meanwhile, we were the only ones on the road as the typhoon hit the city. Woo Yeon-Hee’s minicar shook whenever the wind blew harshly, and the large puddles sprinkled around the road hindered her from driving fast. Every time the car stumbled, I thought about changing my mode of transportation to a rhino-looking car that could be driven smoothly in this terrain and weather. It was praised as the greatest car of the era apart from the acquisition and merger of Ssang-ho into Dae-hoo Motors. Woo Yeon-Hee had to focus on driving so she didn’t even answer her phone when it rang.

The sound of the heavy rain was loud enough that I couldn't even hear the phone ringing at first. The wipers moved at the fastest speed to clean up the rainwater, but it was a lost cause. The weather was terrible. Woo Yeon-Hee managed to arrive at the Hwasung entrance and leaned back against the seat. She parked close to the housing complex. Part of the hill where the dungeon was sealed seemed to be used as a hiking trail for nearby residents. I realized that there would be complaints if I raised walls here. Woo Yeon-Hee straightened her back when I was debating whether to choose a dungeon in a more secluded area.

“Why don’t you rest a little more?” I asked.

Driving in a typhoon was like performing dangerous acrobatics.

“It’s okay,” she replied.

“Then, I’ll drive on our way back.”

As soon as I opened the passenger’s door, rain and wind slapped my face. I knew that an umbrella would be useless, so we started climbing the hiking trails in the rain. There was a small open space similar to one of the pictures in my childhood, and Woo Yeon-Hee changed directions when we arrived at an exercise field.

“This way.”

She led the way, leaving small footprints on the muddy ground. However, our footsteps soon disappeared as the water filled them up instantly. Then, she stopped as a group of blue rays appeared for a moment, and I caught up with her while scrunching my face. The light became clear as the distance narrowed.

Shit! The dungeon is open!

“Seon-Hu…”

Under the blue-coloured membrane, I saw labyrinth-looking stairs. The raindrops were sliding off the invisible dome covering the entrance.

“Woo Yeon-Hee, when did you find this?” I asked.

“It was closed yesterday.”

She had a wary look on her face and pulled out a hidden dagger from her pant cuffs. That was when I noticed that she purposely wore wide pants to carry a dagger every day. I thought hip-hop pants were in fashion but had never imagined she was wearing them for a different reason.

I also took out a dagger from the back of my waist. Since I had bought multiple sheaths from Namdaemun, I threw away one from the waist. I had not taught Woo Yeon-Hee to be wary of the other Awakened. Even if my feelings had been transferred to her, she had been even quicker to arm herself than I was. She asked, “Can you tell how many there are? There might be more than one like us, right?”

All traces had been washed away by the heavy rain, so I searched for places where people could hide near enough to overhear us. There was a perfect spot, and the space was covered with dead trees which meant it would be sheltered a bit from the rain. I lowered my voice, “I think you know what to do.”

“Kind of,” she replied.

“If you have seen any other Awakened…”

“T…then I would’ve told you earlier,” she replied as her voice trembled.

“Okay, let’s talk about the rest afterwards,” I said.

Woo Yeon-Hee bit her lip and looked agonized by her own dilemma. She seemed to be scared as she was when first entered the dungeon. Nevertheless, her grip on holding the dagger was perfect. She looked like a wet cat when she stared forward with a low posture.

1. Poomsae is a sequence of movements that include basic stances, blocks, punches, and kicks in a meaningful order to attack an opponent. ☜