“Sub Guild Master? Are you awake? Sub Guild… Master?” Jo Hye-Jin asked.0

“Why are you holding my hand? You’re creeping me out,” I[1] answered.0

“I-I wasn’t… holding your hand…” she stuttered.1

“I’m still alive… Calm down,” I assured her.0

“...”0

“Let’s see… Miss Hye-Jin, are you crying?” I asked.0

“S-Stop playing around. How can you joke at a time like this?” she scolded.0

“I wasn’t joking. I was merely speaking the truth,” I said.0

“Last time… you teased me the same way… I didn’t cry. So… don’t say things like that,” she mumbled.0

‘If I really wanted to joke around, I wouldn’t have ended it here.’0

I probably would have said the lines she said earlier.0

“Don’t talk like you know what’s going on.”0

‘Wow…’0

“Don’t tarnish his pride.”0

‘Wow, Hye-Jin. Shit… Hye-Jiiiin… I never knew you thought of me that way.’1

What she said almost made me smile—no, cry. My face flushed red as I was lying on the bed. It was definitely the highlight of this plan and the decisive blow that ended the crisis.0

I knew I was building a beautiful friendship with Jo Hye-Jin,...0