A Familiar Face in the Crowd

“Why is that?

Is something wrong?”

“…No.

I just thought I saw someone I know.”

Since he didn’t appear again, Jiwan assumed he had seen wrong and tried to brush it off.

The conversation soon drifted back to the topic of the mine.

“Guild Leader Do is already of that age…

He’s still not engaged, right?”

“Oh my, really?

Most people usually get engaged around their early twenties…”

Jiwan smirked inwardly.

That was true for people from normal chaebol families.

But in his case, the secret of his birth had been revealed around high school, and being an illegitimate child was a major disadvantage.

Because of that, not a single place had ever proposed an engagement to him.

Of course, after the Domun Guild grew significantly, there were a few offers, but none of them interested him.

Most of the suitable matches had long since been engaged to his relatives anyway.

They knew that too, yet the reason they brought up this topic wasn’t to tease Jiwan, but to lead into what they wanted to say next.

“A man needs a stable family supporting him to succeed in business…”

“My niece is attending Berklee College of Music.

She’s very well-mannered.

What do you think?

Interested?”

“No, no, Guild Leader Do!

My youngest sister-in-law is a hunter too.

Her rank isn’t that high, but she knows the hunter world inside out.

Wouldn’t it be better to have a wife you can communicate well with?”

The surroundings quickly became noisy as they all tried to introduce someone to Jiwan.

Everyone raised their voices, but the person involved had no interest at all.

He had built the Domun Guild on his own, so he didn’t need anyone’s support.

Especially with Jiwan’s personality—wanting full control over everything—he disliked anyone who might interfere with his work.

Still, he wasn’t inexperienced, so he hid those feelings and expressed his refusal politely.

“For now, I want to focus on growing the guild further, so I’m not considering marriage.”

“But…”

With Jiwan responding like that, it became difficult to push further.

In the end, they all stepped back with disappointed expressions.

However, persistent people existed everywhere.

And at that moment—

“Do Jiwan!

Long time no see.”

“Hello, sunbae.”

The man was someone who had attended the same high school and university as Jiwan.

He wasn’t particularly outstanding, but his family background was decent.

He wasn’t difficult to deal with either, so Jiwan had treated him respectfully as a senior, and they had become acquaintances who greeted each other occasionally.

Perhaps he had been invited because of his family, but he approached and helped Jiwan escape from the crowd.

“Ugh, those old guys.

They talk too much.

Isn’t it annoying?”

Jiwan gave an ambiguous smile.

If he agreed, it could spread as gossip, so he stayed vague, but the man seemed to think he agreed.

“It’s been a while, but you really haven’t changed.

If anything, you look even more handsome…”

“No.”

“Man, if I looked like you, there’d be a line of women wanting to date me as long as the Han River.”

“Haha…”

After making a few pointless jokes, the man leaned in and lowered his voice.

“Hey, seriously…

You’re not seeing anyone, right?”

The man scanned Jiwan up and down with curious eyes, then smiled.

“Then should I introduce you to someone?”

“An introduction?”

“Yeah, an introduction.

I know a junior.”

“No, it’s fine—”

“Hey, I’m not saying you have to date her.

Just meet her.

She’s from our school too.

Wouldn’t it be nice if fellow alumni got along?

Come here.”

Dragged along half by force, Jiwan found himself in front of an intelligent-looking beauty with short hair.

“Chaeun!

Over here!”

“Oh, sunbae…”

The woman called Chaeun looked slightly surprised, then smiled faintly at Jiwan.

There was a hint of awkwardness in her smile, as if this situation wasn’t her intention either.

Jiwan sighed inwardly.

‘I’ll just deal with this briefly and leave.’

He had plenty of excuses anyway.

As Jiwan resigned himself, the introduction continued.

“You know him, right?

The famous Guild Leader Do Jiwan of Domun Guild.

And this is Min Chaeun.

She majored in broadcasting at our school and is now an announcer.”

“Hello.”

“Nice to meet you.”

As Jiwan greeted her, she smiled softly.

“We never spoke during our school days, but now we’re talking long after graduation.”

The atmosphere wasn’t bad.

The man only introduced them and stepped back, and the woman didn’t cling.

Just as Jiwan wondered if this was truly just a networking introduction, a familiar face he shouldn’t be seeing appeared again.

“So back then—”

“…Excuse me.

Something urgent came up.”

“Huh?

Hey, where are you going?”

Breaking away mid-conversation, Jiwan headed to a corner of the party hall.

Watching a familiar brown-haired figure serving drinks and collecting empty glasses, he slowly followed behind.

When the tray was emptied, the person headed toward a staff-only room in the corner.

As the door opened, Jiwan quickly followed inside.

“Shin Jiho.”

“Eek!”

At Jiwan’s voice, the other startled and threw the tray.

Jiwan caught it instantly with sharp reflexes, and the other stared wide-eyed.

As expected, it was Jiho.

“H-How…?”

Whether he meant how Jiwan found him or how he caught the tray didn’t matter.

“You—what are you doing here?”

“I-I’m… working part-time.”

“…Part-time?”

Suspicion filled Jiwan’s eyes.

Jiho hadn’t even known about this event earlier—so how could he suddenly be working here?

But instead, Jiho became more confident.

“Yes!

It’s a part-time job!

That’s why I’m here!”

“…Hmm.”

Was it true?

Jiwan felt half suspicious, half wanting to believe him.

‘He likes me.’

That’s why he wanted to know everything Jiwan did, even monitoring who he met—so coming here for a part-time job did somewhat make sense.

But jobs like this weren’t something you could get on the same day.

‘They recruit people days in advance because of background checks.’

Jiho hadn’t known about the event…

So did someone help him get in?

‘I should’ve checked the documents in the car earlier.’

Unless the nagging doubt in his mind disappeared completely, Jiwan felt he couldn’t fully accept Jiho.

More importantly, Jiwan had many enemies here.

He was worried about leaving Jiho alone, but also worried that keeping him close would attract attention.

So he decided to take Jiho out of here and grabbed his arm.

At that moment—

“What are you doing over there?”

A man in the same waiter uniform called out to Jiho.

Because of the bent corridor, he couldn’t see Jiwan.

Just as Jiwan was about to speak, Jiho answered first.

“It’s nothing!”

“Stop slacking—come quickly!

There’s a lot to do!”

“Yes!”

With a relieved expression, Jiho shook off Jiwan’s grip.

As Jiwan tried to call him, Jiho raised both index fingers to his lips in turn.

A gesture telling him to stay quiet.

Then he slipped away.

Watching his retreating figure, Jiwan let out a hollow laugh.

‘What on earth did he come here for?’

Since he couldn’t stay there, Jiwan returned to the reception hall.

As soon as he did, people approached him again.

While responding, he kept glancing around for Jiho—and found it somewhat absurd.

‘He didn’t come to monitor me… he really came to work?’

Jiho was working diligently.

So diligently that their eyes didn’t meet even once.

It was strange that he claimed to monitor Jiwan but paid him no attention.

Maybe it was just his personality, but even though it seemed like Jiho’s first day, he was already friendly with the staff.

He even laughed while chatting with them.

Especially when he whispered with the same person he had run off with earlier, Jiwan unconsciously clenched his fist.

Jiwan barely managed to maintain his poker face.