Welcome to Dungeon Hotel Chapter 321 - Side Story 1. An Ordinary Romance (16) 

Side Story 1. An Ordinary Romance (16) 

 

There were two things I found strange.

 

One was that Han Woohyun had hung up on me like that.

 

The other was that he said he was busy with a raid, yet he was able to answer the call.

 

‘What is this?’

 

I felt something rising up inside me and stood up from my seat.

 

Then Aunt Heeyeong grabbed my hand.

 

“Are you really going to go with that awl in your hand?”

 

“Yes?” 

 

Ah.

 

Oh… I still have this in my hand.

 

“Still, killing him might be a bit much, don’t you think? It’s your choice, though.”

 

“It’s not like that.”

 

What do you mean by ‘It’s your choice, though’?

 

Isn’t that a dangerous statement?

 

I looked at Aunt Heeyeong’s calm face and cautiously spoke up.

 

“Um… I’m sorry, but… right now…”

 

“Mhm. Go ahead. I’ll take good care of Misoon.” 

 

Aunt Heeyeong waved her hand as if she had expected that.

 

“Have you met Uncle Minhyuk recently?”

 

“Mhm? Me? Why, all of a sudden?” 

 

Aunt Heeyeong asked in a somewhat flustered voice.

 

“I haven’t been able to contact Uncle Minhyuk for a while.”

 

The person who knows Han Woohyun’s whereabouts best is Uncle Minhyuk.

 

But then, why isn’t he answering?

 

“We did have a meal together around last week. For official reasons.”

 

Emphasizing the words “official reasons,” Aunt Heeyeong lifted her soju glass.

 

“I haven’t contacted him since then. There’s no reason for him and me to call each other unnecessarily.”

 

“….”

 

So in the end, no one had actually contacted Uncle Minhyuk.

 

Then there’s no need to call Uncle Minhyuk at this hour.

 

I immediately left the workshop and caught a taxi.

 

Our destination, of course, was the Hanwoon Guild.

 

“Vacation? Both of them?”

 

But what I heard from Kang Sojin, whom I ran into by chance in front of the Hanwoon guild, was unexpected.

 

“Yes. Both the guild master and the team leader took their vacations at the same time. That’s why I thought they’d be at the Dungeon Hotel.”

 

“Oh. Yes.”

 

“They’re not there?”

 

“They probably came without telling me in advance. Let me check.”

 

I replied lightly and, in front of Kang Sojin, pretended to check the hotel reservation on my phone.

 

“It’s here. Sorry about that. I didn’t check properly…”

 

Of course, there was no such reservation.

 

“No, it’s fine. Hehe, see you next time!”

 

Kang Sojin waved brightly.

 

She looked bright, a stark contrast to when she first arrived at our hotel.

 

Han Woohyun even joked that he regretted putting Kang Sojin on his team because she was chattier than he expected.

 

‘That’s a relief, but—’

 

Where did these people go?

 

* * *

 

The whereabouts of the two missing men were surprisingly easy to find.

 

It was because I ran into the housekeeper in front of the Pyeongchang-dong house.

 

“Aunt.” 

 

“Uh, Miss Junghyo?” 

 

“Why are you here? Aren’t we supposed to meet at the funeral?”

 

Funeral?

 

I hesitated for a moment, then lifted the woman’s shopping bag and said.

 

“I had a few drinks, so Uncle Minhyuk told me to take the driver’s car.”

 

“Oh, I see.”

 

The woman smiled and opened the car door for me.

 

It was a guess, but I was glad she accepted without question.

 

“Then let’s go together.”

 

I got into the car, my mind a little tangled, not knowing the destination. Then I noticed that the housekeeper was carrying two suits.

 

Both were black mourning clothes.

 

As I fidgeted with it, the housekeeper lightly took my hand for a moment and then let go.

 

“I heard the guild master went to the hospital starting Monday? That’s surprising. He’s not usually the type to worry about other people’s business.”

 

“Other people’s business…”

 

Who was sick?

 

But no matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t think of anyone “man” that Uncle Minhyuk would care about, nor anyone near him who could be this sick.

 

And a funeral?

 

So someone died?

 

‘Was there a fatal accident at the guild?’

 

But that doesn’t make sense either. If that were the case, Kang Sojin wouldn’t be unaware.

 

“So now it’s not just ‘someone else,’ right?” 

 

At that moment, the housekeeper suddenly asked me.

 

“Yes?” 

 

“I’m talking about Team Leader Han. He even joins in family gatherings during the holidays.”

 

Family gatherings.

 

The housekeeper referred to the BJF as “family.” For Uncle Minhyuk, who had no family of his own, the BJF were practically like a family.   

 

In fact, most of the BJF didn’t really have families of their own, so it wasn’t an inaccurate statement.

 

We had an unspoken agreement to be each other’s family.

 

And Han Woohyun, who is part of it, plays a somewhat prospective son-in-law role—but

 

“Uh… I don’t know.”

 

Still, ‘family’?

 

I recalled what Aunt Misoon had said earlier.

 

Han Woohyun said that creating a family feels like a burden.

 

Even if it’s slightly distorted, it’s probably not entirely wrong.

 

Han Woohyun’s family, in one way or another, neglected him and left.

 

Perhaps Han Woohyun likes me, but he might not trust me to the same extent.

 

That thought made me feel a little strange.

 

“I like Team Leader Han. I didn’t have time to see his character in detail, but you know the guild leader well. There’s no one he goes out of his way to care for like that. So anyone he cherishes must be a good person. Just like Miss Junghyo.”

 

Before I could even respond to the housekeeper, the car door opened.

 

I hesitated for a moment, looking at the university hospital funeral hall near Pyeongchang-dong through the car door that the driver had opened, before speaking.

 

“What number is Uncle…”

 

“Room 102.”

 

Room 102.

 

I took the two suits from the housekeeper and went alone to Room 102.

 

Then I saw the funeral hall completely empty, without a single mourner. There weren’t even the usual wreaths, and I almost passed by that empty place.

 

That is, until I saw Han Woohyun sitting blankly on a chair inside the funeral hall.

 

“…”

I stood frozen near the entrance, alternately looking at Han Woohyun and the faces and names at the front of the funeral hall.

 

Uncle Minhyuk was the first to speak to me, as I stood still, unable to make sense of what was happening.

 

“How did you get here…?”

 

Uncle Minhyuk’s brow furrowed.

 

I held out the suit I’d brought as an excuse.

 

“This.”

 

Facing Uncle, who was holding the suits, I began to regain a bit of composure.

 

Only now did I realize something, as if I’d been hit on the back of the head and awakened from a sleep.

 

It’s not someone close to Uncle who has died.

 

It was Han Woohyun’s family.

 

I hadn’t noticed it when I came in, but now I saw that the names of Han Woohyun, his cousin, and his aunt were listed as the mourners.

 

And the face of the deceased above them was that of a middle-aged man.

 

All the clues pointed to a single fact.

 

That person.

 

The person Han Woohyun had hated for so long, even feared he might harm me.

 

Han Woohyun’s uncle.

 

The long-time villain in Han Woohyun’s life was dead.

 

* * *

 

The call came on Monday morning.

 

Five missed calls

 

The moment I saw multiple missed calls, I felt a strange chill run down my spine.

 

Han Woohyun quietly stared at the phone screen on the nightstand, then pressed his lips to Junghyo’s forehead beside him. 

 

Then he went out to the living room and dialed the last number on the missed calls list. It was Han Minhyuk’s number.

 

As soon as Han Minhyuk answered the call, he got straight to the point.

 

[A call came from the prison. That man—no, your uncle—is in critical condition, and they can’t reach the other bereaved family members. I…]

 

Han Minhyuk hesitated for a moment.

 

Meanwhile, Han Woohyun collapsed onto the living room sofa.

 

Was that person sick?

 

Actually, there was no way to receive such information.

 

I had only heard that he went to prison, and since then, I hadn’t been in contact with either my aunt or Jinsu.

 

[I don’t think you have to be there for his last moments. But—]

 

“….”

 

[You might have something to say, too.]

 

Something to say.

 

Han Woohyun pondered for a moment.

 

Ever since my aunt came to the guild, I had sometimes wondered if that person might come looking for me too. I even thought about what I would say if, after his release, he happened to seek me out. 

 

If he tried to pick a fight with me first, I could finally beat him down myself now—without losing to him in strength anymore.

 

I could hurl insults at him the way he once did to me, or throw cutting, humiliating words right back at him.

 

Or—

 

He could have pretended not to know him.

 

He could have pretended not to recognize his face, pretended he’d forgotten him, and passed him by.

 

In those imagined scenarios, Han Woohyun would walk past him at least one time out of ten. And when that happened, the man—worn-out and pitiful—would simply look back at him, then give up and say nothing more.

 

As if shocked that he’d forgotten him.

 

As if to say, “How could you forget me after all the pain I’ve caused you?”

 

He had thought that might be a kind of revenge as well.

 

But life always has a way of defying expectations, and absurdly, the man was dying because of the very alcohol he had loved so much.

 

The last contact Han Woohyun received from that man wasn’t because the man came looking to pick a fight—it was the kind of message that, depending on his own choice, he could respond to or ignore.

 

“When do they say he’ll die?”

 

[Maybe tonight? They said it would be hard for him to hold on more than three days. Your cousin was notified while still in custody, but he said he wouldn’t come. After hearing that… his condition apparently worsened rapidly.]

 

He had to decide now.

 

He had to go, even if it meant spitting in his face. If he didn’t go, the man might forget him completely.

 

In his imagination, he was always the one ignoring that man—but now, if he chose not to go, it felt as though he might be the one getting ignored instead.  

 

So Han Woohyun ultimately went to that hospital room.

 

“Visiting is allowed.”

 

There was a musty smell inside the hospital room, where an unknown man, whether a police officer or a prison guard, was guarding the front.

 

It couldn’t have been a hospital smell; it was the smell of a body that looked like a lump of protein about to die.

 

Han Woohyun felt strangely nervous as he crossed the threshold of the hospital room.

 

‘F*cking bastard.’

 

He remembered a large body looking down at him and swearing at him.

 

It reminds him of how helpless he was when he had no power.

 

But when he opened the door and stepped inside, what he faced was a frail body, not even half the size of the one he remembered.