HG | Chapter 9

Another day passed with Cheonghyeon, and Hakyung fell asleep again. Even in his sleep, he was tormented by dreams of his father, leaving him exhausted despite resting.

When he opened his eyes again, everything was quiet.

“My back hurts…”

And there was an ache in a place he couldn’t speak of.

Hakyung, barely able to move his eyes, quickly noticed the changes that had occurred while he was asleep.

“The bedding changed.”

The sheets beneath him and the blanket covering him had changed from black to white. His father usually used dark-colored bedding, so this sight felt unfamiliar to Hakyung. His body ached from the aftermath of sex, but the fact that the bedding had changed to something his father wouldn’t typically use made the reality feel more intense.

“……”

It feels like he changed it for me.

Hakyung lay there for a while, then slowly got up after noon had passed.

“Ugh…”

His whole body still felt sore as if he had been beaten. He considered just giving up but decided to move. He was thirsty and needed to use the bathroom.

“At least my head is clear.”

Think positively.

He gathered his resolve and cheerfully put on a robe. His steps were overly sluggish, but… he decided not to worry about minor things. After all, there was no turning back now.

It would be a lie to say he wasn’t satisfied. In truth, it was that satisfaction that kept him going.

The end of his imagination always predicted his father’s rejection, contempt, and disgusted gaze. He had only foreseen such outcomes, but when the reality of being embraced, loved, and protected by him came, the aftereffects seemed trivial.

At first, he was shocked at the thought that he had finally caused an accident, but thanks to his father’s repeated desire for his body, even that shock quickly subsided.

“I can’t turn back.”

Hakyung repeated to himself as if making a vow, then took a step forward. As he passed through the short hallway, the spacious living room greeted him.

“Where is father?”

The building had a total of seven floors up to the entrance. It was all his father’s “home.” It was also Hakyung’s original home.

Except for the entrance, they only used the six floors from the second to the seventh, but even that was too much of a journey for Hakyung at the moment.

“Maybe he’s in the study.”

The seventh floor only had the living room and bedroom. Since his father had a large build and disliked cramped spaces, he divided the space into large sections on each floor, which others might have divided into three or four rooms. For example, the seventh floor was the bedroom, the sixth floor was the study and artificial garden, and the fifth floor was the dining room and cafeteria.

The father Hakyung remembered often stayed in the study. It was more like a small library than just a study. The interior was filled with books, and there was an artificial garden connected to the outdoor terrace. While his father worked, young Hakyung would wait for him by basking in the sun, riding a bicycle, taking naps, or admiring the flowers in the garden.

“Come to think of it… I don’t have many memories of father after transferring schools.”

He suddenly felt regretful. If he had known it would be like this, he would have tried to endure without fear.

Father wouldn’t dislike me. He had always lived believing that, and he could have continued to live believing that, but he had thrown it away himself.

“I got scared for no reason…”

In hindsight, it wasn’t five good years, but five regretful ones.

Hakyung shook his head to dispel his thoughts. Thinking about this issue any further would only bring a bitter smile.

“Oh. My phone.”

At that moment, he belatedly remembered the convenience of modern technology.

“Where did I put it?”

It was good that he remembered its existence, but he couldn’t recall where he had left it. It was understandable since he had been in a daze when his father carried him.

“Oh… it might be in the dormitory.”

The possibility of that was much higher. In such an urgent situation, it was unlikely his father would have thought to bring his phone. He also tended to keep his phone at a distance.

A sense of defeat washed over him. Hakyung gauged the distance between where he stood and the elevator.

“Far…”

Was our house always this big? No, he knew it was spacious, but today it felt unusually vast.

Ding.

Perhaps sensing Hakyung’s predicament, the elevator doors opened at just the right moment, revealing the man he was looking for.

He approached silently and kissed Hakyung’s cheek.

“Did my baby wake up?”

A gentle tone. Many people found his father’s strong features and large build intimidating, but Hakyung found even that build comforting. Like a breakwater, a shield that seemed to block all the tsunamis of the world.

Hakyung reached out with unsteady arms and embraced his father’s waist.

“…Yeah. I slept… well.”

“My pretty baby.”

Smooch, smooch, smooch. His father planted kisses on his forehead, nose, cheeks, and lips. He seemed genuinely affectionate.

Hakyung’s ears and neck turned red again. When he was with his father, those areas never retained their original color.

“How’s your body?”

“A, a little… better.”

It wasn’t a lie. After sleeping for so long, he felt better than yesterday. As he answered, Hakyung caught a faint scent of the esper. It was subtly light for a body scent but distinct enough to be mistaken for one.

It felt like he was sensing it through his skin rather than his nose. The guiding energy inside him slowly seeped out, intertwining with Cheonghyeon, and the resulting scent was absorbed back through his skin.

What was clear was that this faint scent calmed him. It lulled him into a state of relaxation, as if commanding him to stay comfortably.

“Child, do you want to sleep more?”

Cheonghyeon seemed to have decided to treat Hakyung like a baby. He coaxed and held the twenty-year-old young man like a child.

Hakyung was startled by how easily his body was lifted. He wasn’t a ten-year-old child, yet his father handled him like a stuffed toy.

“He always found it more convenient to carry me around….”

Was it because of the difference in stride? In reality, even when Hakyung was in the upper grades of elementary school, he was often carried by his father. It was his father’s habit. Instead of holding hands and walking side by side, he would just scoop him up and stride forward.

It was at moments like these that Hakyung truly realized, ‘My father is really an esper.’ In other words, these were the moments when Hakyung glimpsed his father’s extraordinary strength.

Cheonghyeon carried Hakyung in front like a child. Their chests and stomachs touched. As a result, Hakyung’s view was higher than his father’s. As he wrapped his arms around Cheonghyeon’s neck and faced his side profile, thump, thump, thump, thump! His heart pounded like thunder.

“Fa…ther.”

“Yes.”

Judging by the direction Cheonghyeon was heading, it seemed to be the bedroom. Naturally, he was heading to his own bedroom, not Hakyung’s.

“I don’t want to sleep more.”

“Really? You don’t need a nap?”

Nap…?

Hakyung stiffened at the unfamiliar expression. It wasn’t that he didn’t know what it meant. He just didn’t expect it to be said to him, something usually said to toddlers.

Cheonghyeon patted his dry back and then gently stroked down his spine.

“If the baby doesn’t nap, I’ll have to take you to work… hmm. What should I do?”

Hakyung hesitated to say he could be alone. His heart’s cry was faster than his lips opening.

“I don’t… want to be alone.”

He had always been alone. Since awakening and transferring schools, how many times had he seen his father in a year? Probably countable on ten fingers. Hakyung couldn’t trust his condition, so he had chosen to stay in the dormitory even during vacations, using the excuse of needing to complete volunteer work and guiding practice scores.

At least for now, he didn’t want to be apart from his father, from ‘Im Cheonghyeon.’

“Was it harder than I thought…?”

Suddenly, Hakyung reflected on himself. On his heart that had exploded with the struggles he had been suppressing.

The longing he had felt all along.

Squeeze—

“Hmm?”

Unconsciously, Hakyung tightened his grip on him. He couldn’t bring himself to say, ‘Don’t let me go,’ directly. He didn’t have the courage, but he hoped he would understand this feeling.

Cowardly.

“Haha…. Hakyung. Child.”

The left arm supporting his bottom. The right arm securely wrapped around his waist.

The man, pressing his slender body against his own, burst into laughter. He buried his nose in the fragrant neck he had washed himself.

“Ugh….”

“How do you always manage to do such adorable things?”

“Haa…!”

“Hmm? You don’t want to be apart from daddy? Should I not leave Hakyung behind?”

Before he knew it, the lips, sticky with desire, were licking and nibbling Hakyung’s neck, gently caressing him. The arousal rose quickly. Hakyung bit his lower lip and tilted his head back. If it wasn’t a mistake, his body was getting wet.

Deep inside. Fluids flowed like a spring, soaking his insides.

Was it the aftereffect of the overload? He had never heard of such an aftereffect, but his thoughts soon scattered.

“Haaah!”

Thump!

The man finally pressed his lower body against the hole and thumped. Both were clothed, but having seen each other’s genitals and knowing the pleasure they brought, the scenario after insertion was already unfolding in their minds.

Thump, thump, thump!

“Ahh! Ah!”

The man, pressing Hakyung’s back against the nearby wall, thrust upward as if inserting, rubbing precisely where the hole was.

“When you act so cute, it makes things difficult for daddy, baby.”

Thump!

“What do you think daddy has to do today, ugh…, to know?”

“Huff! Ah, father, ugh…!”

“Daddy had something important to do today.”

Thud!

Cheonghyeon, rubbing his fully aroused cock against his son’s back hole, spoke.

“I was going to meet Hakyung’s biological father and mother.”

***

“……”

Hakyung stared blankly ahead. Not far away, a blackened land stretched out.

How did it come to this…. Just a moment ago, he was sharing renewed desire with his father.

“Child. Do you know this place?”

“…Yes.”

His voice was dry and cracked as he answered.

‘Of course, I know.’

Haegakryeong. The place where the first outbreak occurred in Korea over a decade ago.

It was an S-class dungeon, so the damage was severe. Not only that, but the monsters that emerged at the time caused ‘dungeonization’ wherever they roamed, causing a great shock.

It was a phenomenon with significant meaning, so it was included in textbooks. Nearly 20 years had passed, yet they still held large-scale memorial events, so it would be harder to find a citizen unaware of Haegakryeong’s existence.

But that’s all Hakyung knew. What he learned from textbooks was everything. The outbreak occurred when he was only two or three years old.

“How much do you know?”

“Just… a little. Only what I learned at school….”

“What did you learn?”

Cheonghyeon persistently asked about Haegakryeong. Hakyung recalled his memories and opened his mouth.

“It was the first dungeon in Korea that couldn’t be stopped, and when the monsters swarmed and the area became dungeonized, the remaining espers risked their lives to surround the dungeon with a barrier…?”

“Is that all?”

Was he waiting for a specific answer?

Cheonghyeon scoffed.

“Well, that’s a bit much.”

Hakyung found his reaction difficult to understand. Clicking his tongue in dissatisfaction, he soon composed his expression and tightened his grip on Hakyung.

“Alright. And what else?”

“Uh… the name Haegakryeong was taken from the boss monster ‘Haegak’….”

Hakyung was secretly nervous, wondering if he would demand more knowledge. It felt like facing a teacher reviewing past lessons.

Even so, Hakyung had no more knowledge to squeeze out. This was the main gist of what he knew.

In Korea’s first dungeon break, many people, both awakeners and non-awakeners, sacrificed themselves, and even now, espers were struggling to prevent further sacrifices.

The representative esper was Im Cheonghyeon.

Though he had retired and no longer took on official missions, the teacher had added that he regularly handled the monsters of <Haegakryeong>.

Only then did Hakyung realize why his father often returned home covered in black ash. It was all traces of wrestling with monsters.

Suddenly, a question arose.

“Come to think of it, why did father hesitate to register as an awakener?”

He didn’t know the exact reason. He only guessed that something bad had happened in the past.

“Could it be related to the dungeon break?”

As far as Hakyung knew, his father hadn’t been dedicated to the pharmaceutical company for long. Before that, he seemed more like someone involved in dangerous work. Like a gangster…

He didn’t know the details, but he had occasionally seen people of various ages visiting his father. His father seemed to adjust the timing so they wouldn’t encounter Hakyung, but things didn’t always go as planned.

Several times, he had run into them on his way home from school and greeted them. If his father kissed his cheek and asked if he had a good day, the expressions of those who witnessed it were similar.

Surprise and confusion. Emptiness and fear.

“Was father threatening them…? No. They must have done something bad.”

The father Hakyung knew was like that. Kind, gentle, and fair. Like a ‘hero’ from a movie.

“…Can I ask?”

“Did my biological parents… pass away there?”

“Well… yes.”

The answer was strange. It was correct but didn’t feel clear.

“How did you… come to raise me?”

Step by step.

Instead of answering, Cheonghyeon grabbed Hakyung’s wrist and approached the boundary. The ‘black land’ stretched out like a plain beyond the bluish line.

“This is the barrier.”

According to textbooks, the places trampled by the monsters that poured out at that time changed in terrain and background as if they were being consumed by the dungeon. The term ‘dungeonization’ was used because when you stepped into the transformed black land, a system notification would pop up, creating a boundary line indicating entry into a singularity.

However, since it was a place where they couldn’t conquer it in time and a break occurred, there were no specific conditions or time limits for crossing the boundary of ‘dungeonization.’ It had become a remnant left in the world like a virus rather than a dungeon.

And where there are disadvantages, there are also advantages.

<Haegakryeong> was a vast area that had swallowed parts of Seoul’s Eunpyeong-gu, Jongno-gu, and Seodaemun-gu. The fact that an indelible dungeon had appeared in the middle of the city meant that a practical training ground for awakeners and a stable source for harvesting dungeon byproducts had been created.

It was the dawn of the golden age of awakeners.

Until then, due to the fundamental issues of consecutive overloads by espers and low matching rates with guides, the manifestation had occurred, but the proportion of those who didn’t actively work as awakeners was high. The initial enthusiasm for awakeners was short-lived, as their ‘overload’ often led to civilian deaths, increasing fear.

What was remarkable about ‘Im Cheonghyeon’ was that despite manifesting earlier and using his abilities for a long time, he hadn’t gone into overload.

“Child. You asked why I raised you?”

Cheonghyeon adjusted his black gloves and stroked Hakyung’s cheek.

“Because you had no one but me.”

“……!”

“And I had no one but you.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he pulled Hakyung close, attaching him to his side, and stepped into the barrier.

“I’ll show you. What this place is.”

“F-father…!”

“What you mean to me.”

His father’s murmuring was something Hakyung couldn’t understand. What entered Hakyung’s eyes was the sparkling golden eyes, the strangely sharp face, and.

The black land.

《 SYSTEM 》

You have entered ‘Haegakryeong.’

《 SYSTEM 》

This dungeon is an outbreak area.

Beware of monster rushes that are out of control.

As soon as they entered the dungeon, a strong wind blew along with an unfamiliar system window. Within it, Hakyung caught a scent.

It was the smell of blood.