Necromancer Survival

‘Ah, I woke up again…’

That day, we arrived home; I talked with Dawon-ie until we fell asleep together. However, I couldn’t sleep much, and my eyes flew open.

‘I feel so…’

Recently, I haven’t been getting enough sleep; more often than not, my sleep has been shallow. After a few days of struggling to sleep and feeling stressed, Dawon gavea mysterious potion that he said he had received from Choi Kyung-sik.

If I slept after ingesting that potion, my sleep didn’t break, and I did feel better, but… I experienced the side effect of waking up with tears in my eyes. Eventually, I stopped taking the potion, and naturally, I didn’t tell Dawon about my insomnia. He’d be worried, after all.

“……”

The only good thing about waking up at dawn was that I could see Dawon’s vulnerable face–the Mage was dead to the world. Fortunately, Dawon’s sleep was deep; even if I placed a finger on his forehead, he didn’t open his eyes.

‘So cute.’

I brushed back his curtain-like bangs, and gently kissed the empty skin left behind. Seeing his calm, undisturbed expression, the storm in my troubled mind calmed down a bit.

I’ve never voiced this to Seo Dawon before, but… I often felt overwhelmed when he was by my side like this.

I couldn’t believe I could hear Dawon’s breaths, his warmth, his softness… There were several times I suddenly pressed my hands against my heart because I was so moved by these seemingly trivial matters–the little things.

‘This, as expected… it’s too excessive, right?’

Dawon also had an intense personality, but he may be flustered if I told him my honest feelings. Even I thought they were weird. To be reduced to such a state just because I’m reveling in the fact that my lover is alive…

“Haah… What’s wrong with me?”

People who cry often… are troublesome. I wiped away my tears by dabbing and pressing down at my tear ducts. My heightened sensitivity was becoming an issue. However, lying here next to Dawon, gently nestled in his arms, I soon felt calm again. “…Dawon-ah.”

“……”

When he didn’t answer, I raised his arm to open a space in his embrace. Afterwards, I buried my nose into his chest and hugged him tightly. Still asleep, Dawon gently embraced me; only then did a flood of drowsiness sweep overagain.

As my consciousness wavered, I called out his nonce more. And, when I opened my eyes again, the sun was already high in the sky.

I woke up to the pleasant sunlight and gentle shakes. My eyes soon found Dawon, who had already dressed for the day and was sitting on the bed.

“Lee-kyung-ah.”

“Mmn…”

Maybe the veranda window was left open; the sound of leaves blowing in the wind flowed gently into the room.

Dawon always wokeup so pleasantly. Despite being fully awake, I kept my eyes closed. Soon, his soft lips began to touch my face here and there. I stretched with a contented sigh.

“Are you still sleepy?” he asked.

“Mmmn, I’m not…” But, I wanted to stay like this.

Following my desires, I avoided Dawon’s hands and rolled to the other side of the bed, but I was quickly caught. Dawon lightly pinneddown and tousled my frizzled hair.

“So heavy…” I grumbled quietly, but I didn’t avoid his hands around my waist. In fact, it felt good to have Dawon weighingdown and pressing on my body. Furthermore, I always wanted to hug Dawon tightly–as much as possible.

However, those sweet thoughts quickly deflated, like a balloon, with the ensuing conversation.

“If you don’t want to get up, you can sleep smore.”

“What about you?”

“…I’ll watch you sleep smore before departing for work.”

“What?!” I abruptly sat up at that comment.

Instead of saying ‘Just kidding,’ Dawon leaned closely towardswith an apologetic expression on his face. His attempts to act cute madeeven more despondent. He really was going to go to work.

“…Are you really going in? I thought we’d be together all day today.”

“I’ll cback as soon as I can. Before 7. Let’s eat dinner together.”

“……”

“Sorry.”

Dawon-ie really was the best boyfriend, but if he had one flaw…it was that he was too busy. I wonder if he was handling all the guild work alone, as he often couldn’t return hwhenever a new dungeon scenawas released. Even now, his desk in the second-floor master bedroom was filled with piles of documents.

The competence he showed while doing his job made him look incredibly cool, but I was only able to be with him for about 10 hours…. I was utterly disappointed since I thought we’d spend the entire day together. Exhausted, I wasn’t able to manage my expression.

“Once this business is finished, I’m going to relax for a month,” Dawon whispered smoothly, as if to soothe me.

However, I couldn’t bear to say it was ‘okay.’ “…Got it.”

Still, I forced myself to nod. There was nothing I could do, after all. After a short sigh, I kissed him and said I understood. Still feeling sorry, Dawon’s expression relaxed a little.

“If I call, pick up. Don’t forget to eat as well. I’ll be in touch.”

“Got it… Have a safe trip.” My mood wavered once more when I saw Dawon walk to the front door and slip on his shoes. However, when Dawon turned around to look back at me, I squeezed his waist tightly before slowly letting him go.

“I’ll be back,” Dawon-ie fiddled with my cheeks before opening the door.

Thud–!

“Haaaaah….” A deep sigh tumbled out of my mouth as soon as the door closed.

* * *

Frankly, after eating breakfast and washing up, there really wasn’t anything left to do. There was no housework to be done, because Dawon had already implemented automatic skills for those chores. But, going out and hanging around was a bit difficult for me. Since I joined the Hub and started dating Dawon shortly after, I didn’t know anyone besides Dawon’s acquaintances.

In other words, I had no one to socialize with other than Dawon. I had various numbers in my cell phone, but all of them belonged to folks in the [Red Lotus] guild or other rankers I met through Dawon’s connections. We managed to exchange numbers thanks to Dawon, but we had nothing much to talk about without Dawon there… So I eventually stopped texting them.

“Haah….” And, it wasn’t like I had non-User friends to hang out with….

With nothing to do, I scrolled through the [Red Lotus] Guild’s official Social media on my phone and browsed through Dawon’s photos. Occasionally, I would press the heart ‘like’ button while watching short clips or reading comments that praised the Mage.

I stopped there, unwilling to look further. I was hurt stago when I searched Dawon on a site, out of curiosity, and saw that he was getting criticized for dating me.

‘Kim Sangyoon… Why aren’t you posting a new video?’ I grumbled inwardly as I looked at Kim Sangyoon’s account. The User posed with various luxury goods on Instagram, but he hadn’t filmed anything new on Youtube. Because everything seemed so staged, I wanted something fun to consume.

At that moment, old memories bubbled up in my mind.

‘What’s… Han Kiseok doing?’

Out of curiosity, I went to Han Kiseok’s account, which I had secretly looked at before.

[Had spretty good wine from #TDD]

His most recent post was a photo of him enjoying delicious food at a restaurant. The photo contained well-plated dishes under dim lighting.

Scrolling down, there were photos of him with several friends. Even though his face was partially obscured by sunglasses, it was easy to recognize him among the nearly ten people gathered.

‘He’s…well. I suppose he’s doing well…’

I was amazed at how comfortable I felt while looking at his daily life through his posts. I probably owe that ease to my stable relationship with Dawon. Following Kiseok’s rejection, I had been miserably spying on his social media with a love-hate gaze.

‘Is that because he hitup last time?’

After an article aboutdating Dawon was published, Han Ki-seok contactedthrough his cell phone. I don’t know what he intended with that call, but he asked to meet up. I had yet to respond. At that time, I remembered feeling a subtle sense of superiority.

Beca member!

TL: Man, even in a dream world, Han Kiseok exists