S-Rank Healer Gets Kidnapped First Chapter 13

An unnaturally peaceful stretch of days passed.

During that time, I became a member of Baekyang Guild.

There was one condition attached to it.

“Take care of your body. I even put a star next to the part asking them to prioritize your safety. If you’re going to make that kind of proposal, you should prioritize your own well-being too. Let’s get you into shape so you can properly endure.”

“What’s wrong with my body? Is there a problem?”

“You’re that skinny and you plan to take care of everyone in Baekyang Guild? It’ll be difficult.”

Only then did I understand why Cha Seohae had been displeased with my arm.

Under the pretext of building up my stamina, I repeated a routine of eating and sleeping diligently.

Since my living quarters were at the headquarters, I also became acquainted with guild members I happened to run into as I came and went.

“Hostage!”

“Ah…!”

I even acquired an annoying tagalong.

Han Seongwoo came to see me every day, claiming he wanted to help me exercise.

‘Doesn’t he have work to do?’

Because he was so annoying, my tone came out sounding almost like I was grumbling.

“I told you I’m not a hostage anymore, so stop calling me that.”

“But I’m already used to it.”

On top of that, he was stubborn enough to ignore me no matter how many times I told him.

Well, I suppose that was why he might be coming so often that I was getting sick of him.

“By the way, you were going to lie down again, weren’t you? I told you that healers need to exercise because healing drains their stamina. Unlike tanks or damage dealers, healers are more likely to suffer from poor condition if they aren’t properly managed.”

Han Seongwoo rattled off a lecture as though he already knew exactly what I was going to do.

Listening to him, I realized that I must look like a stubborn person to him too.

There was nothing wrong with what Han Seongwoo said. Unlike tanks and damage dealers, who constantly moved around, fought, and got battered, healers were relatively frail.

A healer with a sturdy body? I had never seen one. Perhaps because they were rarely placed in the middle of the battlefield, their physique looked no different from that of an ordinary person.

As I listened to his seemingly endless nagging, I compared my arm to Han Seongwoo’s.

“Hm….”

Perhaps this was what an extreme example looked like. I stopped comparing them because of the sense of deprivation it gave me.

If I had to make an excuse, it was because I never had any spare time before.

I couldn’t say I had lived with any real awareness of it, but the schedule the Association had arranged for me was strange too.

Healers affiliated with the Association were assigned to at least two teams.

The First Team, which was called out every single day, would appear with a new injury the moment I took my eyes off them, without even a hint of exaggeration.

If I barely had time to eat, how could I possibly have had time to exercise? A single day was nowhere near enough time to handle four First Team hunters with B-rank healing.

“Hostage?”

Han Seongwoo called out to me as I was lost in thought.

“I’m not thinking about running away, so don’t worry.”

“Good. Do you know how dumbfounded I was when you ran away from me last time?”

“Ugh….”

It happened early on after I started exercising. I had been so tired that day that I shook off the hand reaching for me and ran with all my strength.

But that had been an act of underestimating the Assassin class. I had run as hard as I could, only to be shocked when I suddenly found him standing right in front of me.

‘I haven’t thought about running away since then.’

Han Seongwoo grinned, bent down, and brought himself to eye level with me.

“I’ll make it easier than yesterday, so don’t be scared.”

“Okay….”

It probably wouldn’t feel all that different, but I reacted appropriately.

‘Right. He’s worried about my health, isn’t he? Let’s think positively.’

I only wanted to avoid it because instinctively I found it annoying. I never intended to refuse altogether.

In a way, this was also his way of looking out for me.

Not entirely because he cared only about my health, of course. Now that I was a guild member, he was probably thinking about the guild members who would be receiving my healing in the future as well.

Someone was taking this much care of me. Having never experienced anything like this before, I found the feeling strange.

That didn’t mean the feeling had any positive effect on reducing my resistance to training.

“Can’t we leave after sitting here for just a little longer…?”

“No.”

“…Oh! Look, Cha Seohae is passing by!”

“If you try to use tricks, I’ll increase the difficulty.”

In the end, I gave up on stalling and followed Han Seongwoo.

Ugh.

 

***

 

Cha Seohae had disappeared.

“He is currently away.”

It wasn’t that he had been kidnapped like me. He was simply busy with an external schedule.

“Still?”

After coming up empty-handed for several days, I let out a heavy sigh.

The guild member guarding the office looked flustered at the sound.

Perhaps because rumors had spread that the new recruit was a healer. Other than Cha Seohae and Han Seongwoo, everyone else definitely seemed to feel awkward around me.

At least Childugi was comfortable enough to treat me without hesitation.

Seeing how unsure the guild member looked, I erased the disgruntled expression from my face.

“Do you know when he’ll be back?”

“All I can tell you is that it will take a few days. I’m afraid I can’t give you any more details than that.”

In a way, I should be grateful that a low-ranking employee could tell me even this much.

I readily accepted it and continued.

“Then could you just pass along one message for me?”

“Yes, I can.”

This time, the guild member readily nodded.

Perhaps it was unusual within the guild for someone to deliver a personal message to Cha Seohae rather than a work-related one. The guild member looked expectantly at me, wondering what I was going to say to the Master.

Normally, I would have felt burdened and wanted to leave, but it didn’t bother me now.

“Please, for the love of God, take Han Seongwoo away from me….”

“Hostage. What are you doing here?”

“Ah…!”

A sigh escaped me at a voice so familiar that I was already sick of it.

I couldn’t exactly curse at an executive in front of someone I had just met, so I had to force myself to keep it in.

I desperately hoped it was a hallucination, but judging by the expression of the guild member acting as the office guard, it clearly wasn’t.

“Good afternoon, Vice Master!”

“Hello.”

The greeting was full of vigor, but Han Seongwoo’s voice was relaxed.

He even draped an arm over my shoulder.

“Move your arm.”

“I can’t. I was a little hurt after hearing that Hostage wanted to get rid of me altogether.”

I didn’t know how long he had been there, but he had already figured out why I was looking for Cha Seohae.

“That’s a misunderstanding. I never said that.”

“Really? I heard you loud and clear just now asking them to take Han Seongwoo away.”

The way he raised his voice at the end of the sentence was unbelievably irritating.

I suddenly understood why people in general called this guy gloomy.

‘I got straight to the point because I didn’t know when or where he might show up!’

Since he had seen through everything, separating Han Seongwoo from me was basically a failed mission.

I sighed in frustration.

Cha Seohae’s instruction to make sure I ate according to my diet hadn’t been merely advice.

He seemed determined to manage me, because he had even assigned me a supervisor.

And that supervisor was Han Seongwoo.

The vice master of a major guild was managing a new recruit!

It was the first time I had ever seen an S-rank hunter assigned a task like this.

Wasn’t this an incredible waste of manpower?

Because of that, wherever I went, I could feel eyes following me, which was burdensome.

But that wasn’t the only problem.

As expected of an Assassin-class hunter, Han Seongwoo was extremely good at suppressing his presence.

Because of that, the number of times he startled me was beyond counting.

‘When I can barely even sense an ordinary person’s presence, they had to stick someone like this to me. Change him! It’s so burdensome I feel like I’m going to get indigestion!’

No matter how much I screamed internally, it was useless. Now that Han Seongwoo knew what I was plotting, he would make sure I never came anywhere near this place again.

Then he would probably make another hurt expression and ask whether I didn’t need him.

“Hostage. Do you dislike me? Enough to ditch me and hand me over to the Master?”

“…….”

“I even suppressed my presence as much as possible so I wouldn’t make you uncomfortable.”

“That’s exactly what makes me uncomfortable….”

My prediction had been completely accurate.

Even when I answered with a sigh, he didn’t budge.

Just as I had gotten to know him, he had also finished adapting to me.

Han Seongwoo continued speaking while maintaining eye contact.

“Hostage, isn’t this really not the time to argue with me here? You have somewhere to go, don’t you?”

His tone made it sound as though he knew something, so I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.

“Don’t tell me you report my entire daily schedule.”

“I don’t, so please don’t look at me like that. Even without reporting anything, anyone would figure it out after spending a few days with you.”

“…….”

“Some of the guild members probably already know.”

He chuckled as though teasing me.

When I glared at him irritably, he raised both arms above his head as if claiming innocence. His drooping, dejected eyes were an added touch.

He was the one who had done something wrong, so why was he making that face?

Strangely enough, whenever I saw those mysterious violet eyes drooping with a pitiful look in them, my mouth automatically fell silent.

This gloomy assassin in front of me clearly knew exactly how attractive his eyes were.

‘Does Baekyang Guild have an executive who specializes in seduction?’

Cha Seohae briefly came to mind, but I quickly dismissed the thought.

That wasn’t what mattered right now.

“Why don’t you just openly check what I ate today and have me report it?”

“I told you I can’t do that. If I did, you wouldn’t be able to eat whatever you wanted comfortably. You’d even give up on snacks because you’d be worried about what I thought.”

“If the goal is to make me healthy, isn’t that exactly what you should do…?”

“If I act like that, you’ll eventually sneak off somewhere to eat.”

After saying that, Han Seongwoo proceeded to demonstrate just how thoroughly he could hide his presence. In the end, I completely surrendered.

Even now, the guild members already knew that we went around together. Apparently, he had his own principles.

‘I really can’t figure him out.’

Somehow, as time passed, I began to suspect that Baekyang Guild’s reputation among the public had been greatly exaggerated.

“Fine. Let’s just go.”

I raised the white flag and said goodbye to the guild member standing guard outside the office. Han Seongwoo followed me with a satisfied expression.

“I’ll let you eat double today instead.”

“I can eat double even without you.”

“Try being that generous toward me too….”

“What?”

“Mm. I was just talking to myself.”

Han Seongwoo smiled brightly and kept quiet.

 

***

 

The mandatory stop I had to make after lunch.

“Strawberry flavor again today, right? Three of those, please.”

“Would you like them all in one container?”

“Put two in one container, and one separately, please.”

“Yes.”

It was an ice cream shop.

“Stalker.”

Even if I came here often, even if I ordered strawberry every time, the fact that he knew all of that meant he had secretly followed me at least three times, if not more.

“Not a stalker. I’m your bodyguard.”

There was no way I could beat someone who was all talk.

I received the ice cream when it came out on time and moved to a seat.

“Should we eat here?”

“Sure. There’s nothing waiting for me except training if we go back anyway. I’ll have to use Hostage as an excuse.”

“…Do you call me Hostage even outside?”

The awkward nickname still hadn’t become any easier to hear, no matter how many times I heard it.

“Yeonhee?”

“Ugh!”

“See? You wouldn’t be able to get used to it anyway. It’s a nickname, a nickname.”

We sat down and chatted.

The conversation wasn’t particularly substantial.

Whether strawberries were really that good, how ice cream was supposed to be chocolate, how mint chocolate was actually pretty good, what are you even talking about, and so on….

We were repeating the kind of pointless teasing that neither of us would remember after turning around when—

Beep—

Brrrrrrr.

The store’s alarm and the emergency alert on everyone’s phones rang simultaneously.

The atmosphere became strange.

The conversations coming from every direction abruptly fell silent.

As though they had been trained to do so, people stared at their phone screens.

The faces of those who checked their screens instantly turned deathly pale.