I Don’t Want This Reincarnation

I grabbed the documents and lay down on the sofa. I fixed my gaze on the documents, but the contents did not enter my mind.

After lying idly for a while, Kim Woo-jin, who had left the room saying he was going to his room for a while, came back. After getting used to Kim Woo-jin's behaviour of sticking to me no matter what I was doing, I spoke first.

“What is that?”

“The cup from my room. And extra clothes.”

“Why did you bring those?”

“To put here.”

So why were you putting it in my room…?

Regardless of whether it was absurd or not, Kim Woo-jin started moving things into the room one by one in a good mood*. This bastard, I think he only went upstairs when it was time to sleep.

“What are you doing?”

Kim Woo-jin, who moved things freely, finally approached me. I was going to tell him anyway, so I handed over the documents to Kim Woo-jin.

“This… Is this a list of gates?”

“Yeah. Did you hear that there are problems with the gates?”

“Mh.”

“This is a list of gates that need to be cleared in these two months… Among them, the gates marked in red are ones I was asked to help clear as a mercenary.”

“All guilds except Blun requested two each.”

Jayna sent two A-grade requests, while Roheon sent B-grade and A-grade requests. Requiem requested an A-grade and an S-grade.

‘I’m sure Cheon Sa-yeon has checked it out.’

You made me suffer at the S-grade gate a while ago and now you were asking me to go again. You had no conscience.

“How could they contact you?”

“They requested it through Requiem. Cheon Sa-yeon talked about how he was close to me on the news, remember?”

“……” Kim Woo-jin pouted his lips as if he didn’t like it. “Then just ignore it.”

After thinking for a while, I shook my head. “There’s no way I can’t go at all… I’m going to get a suitable gate.”

“Why can’t you not go?”

Kim Woo-jin knelt on the floor by the sofa and looked at me. I couldn’t be honest with him, so I gave an appropriate excuse.

“Well, first of all, it’s an official recruitment of mercenaries. They’re probably paying me.”

“Do you need money?”

“It would be nice to have.”

There was the 100 million that Cheon Sa-yeon gave me, but I couldn’t keep living in one of the Requiem Guild’s rooms. Even if there was no reason for it, if you saved money, you will have a place to spend it.

‘It’s surprising that Cheon Sa-yeon gave me permission.’

I remembered Cheon Sa-yeon’s face, who was smiling at me the day I was about to leave the representative room, saying that he was looking forward to which gate I would choose. I didn’t know what he was thinking at the moment.

‘Anyway, it’s a great opportunity.’

It was an official schedule that allowed me to work confidently without paying attention to Cheon Sa-yeon. I didn’t think it would be a bad idea to build a proper friendship with Ha Tae-heon by taking charge of the Roheon Guild gate.

I would get paid as a mercenary, check the gates, and make contact with other ability users. Like the saying goes, it was like striking gold!**

“…how much do you need?”

I was thinking of a plan to get the best compensation with minimal labour, but my attention turned to Kim Woo-jin’s words once I registered what I belatedly heard.

“I didn’t really set a specific amount… Why?”

“I’ll earn the money. So let’s ignore the gate request. There’s a lot of buzz about the gates being unstable, so why are you trying to go when it’s so dangerous?”

I frowned. This kid, don’t tell me…

“How are you going to make money? Are you going to use your ability?”

Kim Woo-jin hesitated and avoided my gaze. I smiled in disbelief.

“Weren’t you determined to never do that again?”

“Right. I wasn’t going to.”

“But why all of a sudden?”

“You said you need money.”

“Okay. I need money, so why are you earning it?”

I honestly couldn’t understand, so I asked, but Kim Woo-jin seemed hurt.

“You hated it so much that you refused to do it even when you were threatened by a scumbag.”

“I still hate it now.” Kim Woo-jin looked directly at me and said in a clear voice, “But I can do it if you want.”

“Kim Woo-jin.”

Why would I want such a thing?

I sighed and said, “Don’t do anything unnecessary. I’m not happy with money earned from that kind of work.”

“Then what can we do to ignore the gate request?”

“I’m going in no matter what, so give up.”

When I said it firmly, Kim Woo-jin glared at me quite fiercely. Even so, I wasn’t going to miss out on the gold***.

“Then I’ll go with you.”

“Are you done…”

It’s not like he (KWJ) was a dog that was begging for its owner to bring it along when they went to work. At this rate, I thought there would be no end to this, so I decided to hand over one job to Kim Woo-jin.

“Kim Woo-jin, if you’re really that bored… Please find something for me while I’m in the gate.”

“Mh?”

“There’s some information I’d like to get. I was originally going to move on my own, but as you know, things are not going well right now.”

It was difficult to fully trust the information given by Cheon Sa-yeon. In order not to depend on him, I had to acquire a useful informant.

Kim Woo-jin, who lowered his gaze as if contemplating my words for a moment, asked in a calm voice, “What do you want to know?”

I was rather surprised by that statement. I thought he’d be annoyed about being given such a task.

“…are you okay with it?”

“Yeah.”

Kim Woo-jin placed his hands on his thighs and looked at me with an obedient expression.

“Tell me, Han Yi-gyeol.”

It was the first time I saw Kim Woo-jin like this. Kim Woo-jin raised the corners of his lips and smiled at me in embarrassment.

“Whatever it is, I will give you what you want.”

* * *

The guild management headquarters acknowledged the fact that the gate was unstable and officially announced the gate management schedule for each guild. Maybe that was why there was so much talk regarding the gates.

“Who’s this? Isn’t this our famous A-rank mercenary, Han Yi-gyeol?”

“……”

Just as I was getting out of the elevator, my face fell at the teasing voice behind me. When I turned my head, Park Geon-ho, as expected, was waving his hand at me with a smile.

“Long time no see.”

“Don’t call me so weirdly.”

There were already a lot of people around. Of course, Park Geon-ho was adamant despite my complaint.

“Why? What I said was true.”

“What did you say that was true?”

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen your face. Aren’t you being too harsh?”

“It’s because I’m a consistent type of person.”

I was going to ignore him and go on my way, but Park Geon-ho chased after me and kept talking to me.

“You never contacted me when you said you were going to meet me.”

“I don’t have your contact information.”

“I’ll give it to you now, so you can take it.”

“I didn’t bring my cell phone.”

Actually, I did bring it, but I wanted to know something.

I tried to approach Park Geon-ho to find out Cheon Sa-yeon’s past, but my plans went awry when the gate burst and the situation changed.

There was no benefit in getting involved with things unnecessarily. Once the problems with the gates were resolved, there would be room to look back on Han Yi-gyeol’s past or Cheon Sa-yeon’s past.

“You’ve been so cold to me after moving my heart…”

“Ah, just—”

As Park Geon-ho sniffed sadly, the female employees passing by glanced at us with strange eyes. This guy really…

When I got really annoyed, Park Geon-ho stopped pretending to cry and raised the corners of his lips.

I swallowed back a curse and sighed. Never mind. It’d be my loss if I got angry at this guy.

“What’s with you? You seem to be in a very good mood.”

“You got me.” He shrugged and said softly, “I just heard that the rating has been increased by one level and the gates have become unstable.”

“Why on earth is that so good?”

“I’ve been a little bored these days.”

Uhhh. I took a step away from Park Geon-ho. I think I could understand why this person was able to stay with Cheon Sa-yeon for a long time.

“Did the Team Leader also have a gate schedule?”

“Of course. I got an S-grade one.”

“If it’s S-grade, there could be S+-or SS-grade monsters, is that okay?”

“Well, there’s quite a lot of people in there and there are healers. It might get rough, but you won’t die.”

Weren’t you too carefree? Even if it was S+, your attack power would be cut in half.

“Master will take care of it, but… if it’s considered dangerous, he will assign two S-rank people.”

“Then it’s not bad.”

Nodding my head, I found a familiar person passing by behind Park Geon-ho. A blunt face in a black suit. It was Woo Seo-hyuk.

“Woo Seo-hyuk-ssi.”

Woo Seo-hyuk turned his attention to my call. Woo Seo-hyuk, who had been lightly bowing towards me, noticed Park Geon-ho standing next to me and frowned slightly. What is it?

“Are you going out?”

“Yes. Woo Seo-hyuk-ssi is…”

“I was just coming in after finishing an outside schedule.”

Woo Seo-hyuk, who approached me, made eye contact with Park Geon-ho for a moment as he answered my question. However, there was no greeting exchange between Woo Seo-hyuk and Park Geon-ho.

‘What’s with this atmosphere?’

Unlike usual, Park Geon-ho only looked at Woo Seo-hyuk, but did not open his mouth first. Between Woo Seo-hyuk, who was so expressionless to the point of feeling stiff, and Park Geon-ho, who was smiling, I became extremely uncomfortable.

“Did you choose the gate?”

“Oh, yes. I was about to go to the Roheon Guild.”

There was nothing to hide, so I answered honestly.

Yesterday, after thinking through the documents, I finally chose Roheon Guild’s A-grade gate. It was the gate that Ha Tae-heon was most likely to participate in.

When I called the number written next to the gate name and expressed my intention to participate, I got a reply saying that I would like to attend the meeting tomorrow.

“If it’s Roheon, it must be an A-grade gate.”

How did you know? Were you a ghost****?

“That’s right.”

“That’s appropriate. Above all, Han Yi-gyeol-ssi does not belong to a guild, so it is better to experience various guilds and gates.”

While smiling awkwardly, Woo Seo-hyuk checked the time on his wristwatch and spoke.

“I have a place to go to. So, I’ll see you later.”

“Right.”

Woo Seo-hyuk bid farewell to only me as he did when he arrived and then left. Looking at Woo Seo-hyuk’s back, I asked Park Geon-ho quietly.

“Do you two have a bad relationship?”

“Well, it’s as you see.”

“That’s surprising. There are people who don’t get along well with the Team Leader.”

“Hmm. Is that a compliment?”

“It’s not an insult, though.”

Objectively speaking, Park Geon-ho had a pretty decent personality, although he was rumoured to be a bit weird. From what I had heard, he seemed to have a good relationship with his teammates.

“Because I don’t like such a tight-knit type. It’s frustrating when I look at it from the side.”

“Did Woo Seo-hyuk-ssi stay in the guild for a long time?”

“Well, it’s been like three years.”

Seeing the indifferent expression on his face, it seemed he was really not interested in it. Since Woo Seo-hyuk turned a blind eye to Park Geon-ho, did they hate each other?

“But didn’t you say that you should go to the Roheon Guild? You’re pretty relaxed.”

“Oh, right.”

I didn’t have a watch like Cheon Sa-yeon or Woo Seo-hyuk, so I took out my cell phone and checked the time. It was close.

As I was contemplating whether it would be faster to fly or take a taxi, my phone left my hand.

“What is it?”

“That’s what I was going to say. You said you didn’t bring your phone?"

Oops.

Park Geon-ho laughed at me and saved his number in the cell phone. I took the phone back and said, “I’ll tell you in advance. I’ll block you if you make unnecessary calls.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Leaving behind Park Geon-ho, who smiled in a way that worsened my mood, I quickly left the guild.

I happened to meet Park Geon-ho… I groaned and soared into the sky.