Is there a Gotgong in Sangam?
└ How can I get a hat without even knowing its face?
I saw Park Yeonwoo in Sangam with so friends? Did he co to watch the prelims?
└ Park Yeonwoo?? The archery guy?
└ Why is he in Sangam lol
└ I heard his eyes got ssed up
Did Bㅇㅇ sign up the mont he lost his national team eligibility? What a mindset
I want to awaken too....
(StarHero review) I can’t say much because of spoiler rules, but there were a lot of monsters (not blood fiends)
StarHero prelims in one line: S H O tore it up
└ H.O.D. Seoh Yeonwoo ca out? Good thing I didn’t apply
I heard many people forfeited StarHero prelims — what’s going on in there;;
The prelim challenge must be insanely hard lol
At that ti Hojin and Bi were waiting for their group outside the arena.
The two of them, each holding a drink, wandered around for a while before they could finally find an empty bench.
"Oh?! There it is!"
Bi sprinted like an arrow and dove onto the bench before anyone could take it.
"Hyung! Hurry up and co!"
Bi, who’d secured the bench by a hair, waved at Hojin. Then, thinking he’d overdone it, he cleared his throat and averted his eyes.
"...Thank you."
Hojin approached awkwardly and still couldn’t open up to Bi.
He hadn’t been this shy even with Taeeon. Maybe Roy’s psychopath comnt had lodged itself too deep in his brain.
Sitting a little apart from Bi, Hojin hoped Roy would co out soon.
The sun felt like full sumr and it was hot.
Fidgeting awkwardly, Hojin sipped through the straw and noticed the restroom, so he stood up clumsily.
"Um... I’ll use the restroom."
"Ah, yes. Go ahead."
The two got all flustered, not sure what to do with themselves.
"Th-this is..."
Hojin set the takeaway cup down and picked it up again, and Bi mustered up the courage and reached out.
"If you give it to I’ll hold it. Here."
"Oh? Ah, thanks."
"Not at all. Also, please speak casually."
"Mm. Then you—"
"No. I prefer formal speech."
Having his kindness refused, Hojin felt embarrassed and hurried off to the restroom.
He went straight into an empty stall and locked the door. He sat down on the toilet lid and let out a big sigh.
Hojin was even more extrely introverted than Bi and didn’t know how to get close to soone he’d just t.
If anything, the scariest thing in the world to him wasn’t a blood fiend but a stranger.
Maybe because Roy had warned him not to act familiar, Bi didn’t talk more than necessary. But just having him nearby still made Hojin nervous and stressed.
‘I’m just more comfortable alone...’
He hated being so timid. Wanting to change didn’t make it happen.
The more Hojin thought about it, the more he wondered how he’d even beco friends with Roy.
From the first mont he’d t Roy he’d never once felt uncomfortable.
‘I wish I were an awakener too.’
Then he wouldn’t have to wait here with strangers, right?
Hojin sighed deeply.
He planned to stall a bit so he wouldn’t be noticed for being gone too long.
Just then, a small business card caught his eye.
☆★☆ Awakening Pill ☆★☆
Hey, you can awaken too!
100% refund if not awakened
'An awakening pill...?'
Entranced, Hojin reached out and picked up the card.
A pill that could make a normal person an awakener — he vaguely rembered classmates talking about sothing like that.
'Was that for real?'
Most people admired awakeners.
Against their superhuman abilities, blood fiends were helpless, and awakeners were heroes who brought positive change in any situation.
And awakeners often appeared in the dia with good looks, so to teenagers they seed flawless.
Hojin had often thought the sa watching Taeeon and Roy. Those handso kids beco awakeners, he thought.
Roy was kind and cute and had a knack for making people laugh.
He had a strong sense of sacrifice and justice, willing to risk his own body to save others.
'Such a lovable kid... why does he have no friends?'
Cupid’s halo firmly in place, Hojin thought everyone else had weird taste.
Taeeon was successful socially and academically — practically a businessman already.
He even warmly accompanied Roy ho for over a month at Roy’s request.
And what about himself?
Shy, fearful, tearful — he hoped he at least didn’t inconvenience people. Drawing was all he knew how to do.
Roy had told him drawing was great, but Hojin had started because he didn’t fit in with peers and doodling alone beca a habit; his horoom teacher noticing his talent was just a coincidence.
That art study had continued to this day.
When he drew, he could clear his mind, and that was a relief.
Luckily, despite his introversion he wasn’t ostracized. He had so friends who got him.
Jjing—
At that mont Hojin’s phone buzzed.
The caller was his close friend Deokseon.
[Deokseon: Where are you?]
[Hojin: Hanging out with a junior I’m close with. I can’t go to academy today...]
[Deokseon: Why are you telling this now? Are you giving up on your entrance exam..?]
[Hojin: No, I’ll go tomorrow]
Deokseon teased him about his sudden laziness, which made Hojin even gloomier.
If Roy and Taeeon passed the prelims, filming would kick into full gear and they wouldn’t hang out like this anymore.
He thought that once StarHero ended and if they joined a guild, he might see them even less.
'We’ll drift apart naturally...'
Maybe that’s why he’d for the first ti secretly wanted to awaken.
He’d seen posts where people said they ended up awakening from spending ti with awakener friends. Maybe he could too.
Then he deflated again.
'No. I don’t think I can.'
Lost in his own imagination, the outside suddenly sounded to life.
"Hojin hyung. Are you in there?"
It was Jegalbi.
"Uh, ah? Yeah. I’m here...!"
Clumsy, he rushed out and bumped the toilet paper holder, dropping his phone.
"Are you okay? That sounded loud."
"Ugh. Y-yeah, I’m okay."
Ouch.
Rubbing his stinging shoulder, Hojin went to the sink.
"You were gone too long so I thought sothing happened. Iroi was—damn it, I almost swore in front of an Iroi stan."
Bi had almost cursed Roy in front of soone who loved him.
Slapping his own lips, Bi hesitated and filtered ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) his words.
"Uh, did you maybe have an upset stomach? You look pale..."
"No. I’m really fine."
Hojin dried his hands and returned to the bench.
He resud sipping the straw and when the drink was almost gone he absentmindedly put his hand in his pocket.
His fingers touched sothing stiff; pulling it out he found the business card he’d picked up in the restroom — he must have taken it without thinking when he left in a hurry.
Hojin glanced at Bi and started speaking cautiously.
"Um, you said you were an awakener, right?"
"Yes."
"Then have you ever heard of an awakening pill...?"
Bi’s eyes widened at the unexpected subject.
"An awakening pill? I’ve heard of it. Why? Interested?"
"No?! Absolutely not. I—no way."
Hojin waved his hands and denied it strongly.
Bi, who’d asked without much thought, was embarrassed by the intense reaction.
"I’ve heard people who want to be awakeners go looking for that stuff. But I haven’t heard anyone actually awaken from taking it."
Bi answered cynically but, intrigued, began to share his thoughts.
"If there were a pill that actually made anyone an awakener, wouldn’t everyone just take it? Who’d stay ordinary in these tis when blood fiends can pop up anywhere?"
"Y-yeah."
"And if it were real, companies would patent it and export it. Are our pharma companies idiots? I’d patent it imdiately and export it."
"Oh... I see."
"It’s not 'oh I see'—it just doesn’t make sense."
Having said the wrong thing, Hojin got lectured to the point he felt like his ears would bleed.
He seed to have pressed so otaku’s trigger button.
✧
Just as his head was going blank, Roy’s text saved him.
[Roy: Galbi, are you treating my hyung well? If you annoy him I’ll kill you♡]
Bi’s face contorted at the emoji, clearly intended to make him mad.
'This two-faced bastard. Who’s the real psychopath.'
Glaring at the ssage and grinding his teeth, Bi suddenly wondered.
'What’s Iroi’s deal with that hyung that he’s always clinging to him like this?'
Bi, who knew how indifferent Roy usually was, couldn’t understand his behavior.
So he asked casually.
"Hey, hyung. What’s your relationship with Iroi?"
Bi wondered how an apparently tough guy had beco so close to soone who looked like a psycho.
But the answer surprised him.
"Roy? Roy only has . I’m the hyung Roy likes the most."
His previously expressionless face brightened as soon as Roy was ntioned.
He even smiled.
The situation instantly flipped and Bi beca the one praising Roy.
He rattled off TMI: Roy’s favorite foods, small habits, hobbies, even the cat he kept — it was overwhelming.
'The people around Roy really aren’t normal.'
Taeeon looked like he was oozing honey whenever he looked at Roy; you’d think he was the boy’s actual parent.
Even Park Yeonwoo, rumored to be rude, only hung out with Roy — birds of a feather flock together.
'So am I the only normal one in this bunch?'
Feeling a sudden sense of crisis, Bi decided he needed to be more alert.
Rustle—
The shrubs nearby rustled faintly.
Normally his sharp senses would have noticed imdiately, but surrounded by a crowd and annoyed at Hojin’s topic, he failed to pay attention.
By the ti he sensed sothing suspicious, it was already too late.
"Did you see Roy yawn? His mouth makes a triangle when he does—"
"Yes yes. But hyung, hold on a sec."
Bi straightened his back to look around.
Sothing burst out from the bushes and lunged at Hojin. There was no ti to pull him back.
"Kyaaa!"
The accident that unfolded in an instant turned the surrounding area into chaos.
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