It is now October 7th, the day of the Hunter's Memorabilia Museum, where the weapon that Eight once held is displayed.
"Can't believe this is happening..."
Yeon Yujun finds himself at the museum entrance, the morning sun shining down on them.
It has been six days of intensive training, and he's ranked the highest among the new awakeners — meaning it will be just three or five months before he finally becomes an official hunter.
He never intended for this to happen, but his instincts and ego had different plans.
'I should've never gone to the vortex, but... the kid might've gotten hurt or worse.' Yeon Yujun shakes his head and pulls his cap further down.
"Are you done preparing yourself for nothing?" Seo Hwigeon leans beside him. They've been standing there for a few minutes because Yeon Yujun has been hesitant.
Yeon Yujun sighs, his shoulders slumping, then looks up at the masked wolf man beside him. "I'm okay. Let's just head in."
"Stop overthinking it, alright? We're getting it one way or another. It's yours anyway." Seo Hwigeon gestures inside and then walks in first, with Yeon Yujun following.
"Hope so..."
Inside the museum, it's crowded with curious and interested unawakeners, including some who seem to be off-duty or taking a break for the event.
"What time does the auction start?" he asks, checking his watch.
"Around 12pm."
It's only 11:20am now — are they too early?
"What do we do in the meantime...?" Yeon Yujun looks around. The former top hunters, who contributed to South Korea, have their weapons, artifacts, and statues displayed everywhere.
It's not surprising that Yeon Yujun doesn't have one, as he's labeled a traitor after all...
But it feels like all his contributions have been washed away.
"Guild leader! Hyung!" Woo Taehwa waves happily with a bright smile as he cheerfully walks over.
"Ah… Taehwa, right? I was expecting to see you here." Yeon Yujun offers a polite smile, which quickly disappears when Woo Woojo appears behind his brother.
"Why, hello there, you both are really here," Woo Woojo greets, nodding toward Yeon Yujun but deliberately ignoring Seo Hwigeon.
"Everyone's busy looking around since the main event hasn't started yet. Noona didn't come because she helped raid the vortex with Yeonbom-ssi!" Woo Taehwa explains.
Seo Hwigeon simply nods, more focused on Woo Woojo and Yeon Yujun beside him. "Seems like we need to wander a bit then, kitten."
He casually pulls Yeon Yujun to his side as Woo Woojo's blonde eyes shift to the shoulder brushing against him, containing a gentle smile.
"Why, of course! It would be boring to just stand around here now, wouldn't it?" he chuckles, sounding more genuine than Seo Hwigeon.
"You two seem to be on a pretty fun date, after all," he adds, almost teasing. Woo Taehwa flinches, softly hitting his shoulder in reprimand—
"Hyung! Why are you talking like that to my guild leader?" Woo Taehwa whines, and Woo Woojo laughs wholeheartedly.
'A date? As if!' Yeon Yujun flushes and quickly backs away from Seo Hwigeon's grip.
"Well, it's nice meeting you here, guild leader and Hyung! I still have many things to show Hyung, so we'll be going now." Woo Taehwa waves happily at them as usual and walks away.
Before Woo Woojo follows, he takes one last look at Yeon Yujun and Seo Hwigeon with a calm smile.
"We'll see you both around."
With that, the pair watches Woo Woojo catch up with his brother, leaving them alone again in an almost awkward silence.
Before Yeon Yujun can say anything else, something wiggles inside his pocket.
"What the?" he mutters.
He looks down and fishes out whatever is inside —
"Pupu…!!"
"Pouch!? What are you doing here? I told you to stay with Seolji!" Yeon Yujun sighs, letting Pouch perch on his shoulder as it whines.
"Bubu!!"
"Fine… you can explore with us, but don't cause any trouble, alright!?" he scolds, then his eyes shift to Seo Hwigeon, who seems amused at their dynamic. Pouch then decides to take a nap on his shoulder.
"You both bicker a lot too, huh?"
"Too? What do you mean?"
"Nothing. Since we'll wait a few more minutes for the event to start, I saw some food stalls outside," Seo Hwigeon gestures back at the door they just came through.
Yeon Yujun's eyes light up. "Hold on, are they selling fishcakes?"
"Maybe, or even better… there's some tomato sauce, too," Seo Hwigeon replies.
"Tomatoes? Eugh… I hate tomatoes," Yeon Yujun shivers at the thought.
"You… hate tomatoes? That's odd," Seo Hwigeon mutters, clasping his hands as he heads outside.
"Still, let's buy something, yeah? Surely you want a snack while we wait, right?"
Yeon Yujun can't resist the idea of eating something while waiting because he knows all too well he'll get fed up with Seo Hwigeon's behavior anyway…
After they get the fishcakes from outside the museum, Yeon Yujun finishes three sticks, wiping them clean with a single tug of his teeth.
"Waa… I want more, but I'm already starving," he sighs, throwing the sticks into a nearby bin. Seo Hwigeon did not buy anything for himself.
"Do you want more?"
"No, I'm good. How about you? Are you shy about taking off your mask? Is that why you refused to get anything?" Yeon Yujun scoffs.
Seo Hwigeon hums as they walk through the crowded museum.
"No, not really. You know S-class hunters like us don't need to eat every day, right? Mana keeps us alive."
'Yeah, whatever…'
Yeon Yujun checks his watch; it's now 11:50am.
"Shoot, we gotta go. We only have ten minutes. The auction hall must be full already!"
Yeon Yujun didn't wait for any response and hurried through the hallway. Heck, he almost didn't even care if Seo Hwigeon followed him or not.
Unsurprisingly, Seo Hwigeon still managed to catch up with him at the crowded auction hall.
Inside the auction hall, Yeon Yujun weaved through a handful of people who didn't have entry to the auction, with Seo Hwigeon following behind.
They luckily managed to find a seat in such a crowded place, and after a few more minutes, the auction started exactly at 12pm, as scheduled.
The lights dimmed, and only the stage in front of them was lit, demanding their attention.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Auction Hall of Hunters' Memorabilia Museum, where we auction off the rarest items in history to the highest bidder!" The host excitedly announced, prompting applause.
"Who will be the lucky winner of this auction!?"
Everyone in the room, except for those like Yeon Yujun, shouted, but almost everyone else did, and it was almost ear-piercing.
Who wouldn't want the weapon of a legendary traitor hunter? Little did they know that the hunter who owns the sword is none other than Yeon Yujun himself.
Everyone had no idea, except for the man beside him, Seo Hwigeon.
While the host kept talking, Yeon Yujun no longer listened. His mind was busy formulating possible plans to get his hands on the weapon.
But when he looked around the crowd, his grey eyes landed on someone he didn't expect to see at the museum event, but perhaps he should have...
"Song Dohyun?" Those whispered words escaped before he could stop them, and he covered his mouth with his hand. He felt nauseous just seeing that man as unwanted memories flashed before him.
This is why he hates anything related to the past.
"I didn't tell you he'd be here. I wasn't sure he'd actually come." Seo Hwigeon admitted as he pointed at Yeon Yujun's pocket.
"Take your pills and drink them." He casually pulled out a water bottle from his pocket and handed it to Yeon Yujun.
He took it after a few seconds, then took his pills.
After he swallowed the pills, the host and staff had already rolled out the legendary item…
"We hereby introduce you… to the
As for Song Dohyun… He looks detached and way too focused on the item even when the people beside him were being crazy over the displayed sword.
They don't even know that the original holder of that sword is present in this very room.
"Even if Song Dohyun is invited, he wouldn't show up like this at all…" Seo Hwigeon mutters, turning his head to Yeon Yujun's direction.
'What does he mean by that?'
"That means… he must've figured out that you're alive."
Seo Hwigeon came to a conclusion that Song Dohyun… somehow knows that Eight is still alive, which is Yeon Yujun.
But how? It seems almost impossible…
Before Yeon Yujun can reply to his absurd conclusion, an alarm breaks out and a smoke bomb is thrown at the center of the stage in the auction hall.
Everything stirred into chaos.
People were screaming and coughing from the smoke, but Yeon Yujun could clearly see that there were masked people who were attempting to capture the weapon displayed in the front.
'A planned heist?'