A quick conclusion was reached in Lee Hyunjae’s head.
The conclusion that Park Jaerim and Seok Kiwoo had stalked him.
“It was a bit of a hassle. To think you’d be this sensitive, Hyunjae, you son of a bitch.”
Park Jaerim, curling up the corners of his lips, stepped closer to Lee Hyunjae.
At the action with an unknown intent, Lee Hyunjae’s intuition became extremely sharp.
He intended to respond immediately if an ability was used.
However, contrary to Lee Hyunjae’s expectation, Park Jaerim merely shrugged his shoulders.
With a relaxed posture, even putting his hands in his pockets.
“I didn’t come here to fight you, you know? If I did, would we bother doing all this, huh?”
Park Jaerim, sticking his face forward, said meaningfully.
Although he didn’t know the exact intent, he at least knew there was no intention to attack.
Lee Hyunjae, loosening his guard slightly, stared straight at Park Jaerim.
“So what is your business? If you went out of your way to find me like this, it seems you have business with me, am I wrong?”
“We’re just trying to gather people who want to slit the throat of that asshole Koo Hyukjun for once. How about it?”
“I’m not in the mood for jokes. If you’re going to talk nonsense, do it with Esper Seok Kiwoo.”
“That bastard is so damn prickly.”
Park Jaerim, responding nonchalantly, closed his mouth for a moment.
Then he quietly stared at Lee Hyunjae.
Just as Lee Hyunjae’s brow twitched at the unknown look in his eyes,
Park Jaerim, abruptly sticking his face forward, whispered lowly into Lee Hyunjae’s ear.
“How did my squirrel hole taste?”
“What on earth are you talking about…….”
“Yeonwoo, I mean.”
At the words Park Jaerim added, Lee Hyunjae’s eyes flashed sharply.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Lee Hyunjae’s eyes remained fierce.
Park Jaerim, placing a hand over Lee Hyunjae’s shoulder, faintly curled the corners of his lips.
“Well, from your perspective, playing dumb is probably the best thing to do.”
“Don’t touch me so casually.”
When Lee Hyunjae slapped his hand away as if displeased, Park Jaerim easily backed off.
However, he had only moved a step, and he still blocked Lee Hyunjae’s path.
“Isn’t this place a bit gloomy to keep talking? Why don’t you come with us now?”
“I never said I was going.”
Seok Kiwoo, who had been at a distance until just a moment ago, was now standing in front of Lee Hyunjae before he knew it and spoke.
“You should go. You wouldn’t want to see the rabbit get into trouble, would you? Right?”
The unfamiliar word coming out of Seok Kiwoo’s mouth grated on Lee Hyunjae’s nerves.
The word “squirrel” that Park Jaerim had spat out earlier was the same.
Didn’t it sound as if they were close?
As if they possessed an intimacy with Go Yeonwoo that he himself did not.
His brain, spinning tightly, soon reached a certain conclusion.
“……Did you do it?”
“Oops. I was just probing, but I guess it really means you haven’t done it yet? Wasn’t this guy a total pitiful bastard?”
Park Jaerim, who grasped the situation all at once upon Lee Hyunjae’s question, wore a look as if he felt pity.
Yet, contrary to that look, a subtle sneer lingered in his eyes.
Lee Hyunjae clenched his fists without realizing it.
It was hard to control the abruptly surging anger. He tried to catch his breath and calm down.
The opponent in front of him was an S-grade esper, no less.
He knew that facing them head-on gave him no chance of winning.
He also knew that trying to pick a fight would only result in a loss for himself, so doing as they wanted would be more beneficial to his well-being.
“You won’t lose anything, Lee Hyunjae. No, it might even be profitable for you.”
“Seok Kiwoo is right. What are you going to do?”
At Park Jaerim’s question, Lee Hyunjae, who had been glaring at the two of them, let out a small breath.
Recognizing it as tacit agreement, they soon wore triumphant smiles.
Lee Dohoon climbed straight into his vehicle upon leaving the center.
Driving furiously toward where his residence was located as if out of habit, Lee Dohoon temporarily stopped his car at a red light.
Lee Dohoon’s gaze, which had been directed straight ahead, suddenly drifted to the side.
A jewelry shop across the street strangely caught his eye.
Lee Dohoon’s brow twitched faintly as he spotted a black diamond necklace placed in the display case.
A scene that suddenly popped into his head caused Lee Dohoon to mutter to himself.
“Now that I think about it…….”
He didn’t remember the exact time, but there had been a day when he had brought and presented jewelry to win Woo Jiyoo’s favor.
Since he was a dedicated guide who had barely been found and was in a situation where he had to share him with three others, it was a petty trick to try and squeeze out even a little more guiding.
Woo Jiyoo accepted anything material without refusing.
Unlike his innocent-looking face, the fact that he had a massive appetite for material things was both funny and cute.
He had thought it was for the better.
A type who liked material things was easy to win over.
Yet, out of all the jewelry that he would gladly accept, Woo Jiyoo had refused just once.
To be precise, it was more like he threw a tantrum, got angry, and hurled the jewelry away.
It was no different from the other jewelry he had gifted until then.
He had merely presented a necklace embedded with a black diamond.
Yet, upon seeing that, Woo Jiyoo’s expression changed completely as he whipped the jewelry aside and threw a fit.
Because the situation was so sudden, Lee Dohoon had even suspected whether Woo Jiyoo had an anger management disorder.
He excused it by saying he was in bad condition, and although it honestly felt a bit strange, he just let it slide.
But why on earth did that memory suddenly pop up now?
Simply because he saw a black diamond hanging in a shop window?
A sudden wave of headaches washed over Lee Dohoon as he pressed hard on the bridge of his nose.
It felt as though a single, utterly insignificant little ant kept grating on his nerves.
Before he knew it, the light had changed, but it didn’t register in his eyes.
Even when cars behind him honked and blared their horns, Lee Dohoon’s car didn’t budge an inch.
“Why do you keep rubbing me the wrong way? So damn annoying.”
It was merely a meaningless memory.
It was definitely an insignificant memory, but he didn’t know why his mood kept turning sour.
Why a black diamond?
