Being A Full-Time Employee C22

Chapter 22

I clenched my teeth hard. Wonu was slowly pushing the earth aside, advancing little by little. My fists balled and uncurled repeatedly as I kept every sense sharpened to the sounds around us.

At least I could make sure he didn’t collapse mid-task, heart stopped or vessels ruptured. For now, there was no other choice but to focus. This road we carved was our only road.

Then—it came in an instant. My arm snapped.

“Ah….”

Sometimes immense pain doesn’t register immediately. The final bullet had grazed past rather than striking the monster’s weak point. That one-in-ten failure.

At least it didn’t slam straight into my throat. But it had been too close. To divert its falling body, heavier than it seemed, I’d thrown up my arm. Weight plus drop energy—it crushed bone. I dug in my heels to avoid being toppled. Sweat poured instantly, soaking me. Twisted limb at a wrong angle, grotesque.

I hissed through teeth, swallowing a scream. My head raced. Twenty-seven seconds earlier, Wonu’s vitals read barely stable. He’d need guiding this cycle. But my busted arm stripped my ability to buy time. From earlier patterns, attacks came in groups of four or five. I’d just dropped the fourth. If luck held…

“Eight, nine, ten…”

By fifteen, nothing came. Relief. I called softly.

“Hunter Chae…”

He was utterly absorbed, whole body straining with power. Lucky. If he’d noticed my injury, his concentration would’ve broken. The soil he displaced might have buried us all.

“Don’t look back. Absolutely not. …Good. Pause, then look at me.”

My vision blinked in and out with the pain. I needed focus. Reluctantly, I yanked out the morphine-based injector from my utility belt, stabbed my thigh. Cold, heavy relief spread. Back jammed against a half-toppled tree for support, I saw him turn, powers ebbing.

“Hy-hyung!”

He tore off goggles and bandana, rushed to my side.

“Listen carefully.”

He nodded, already pulling medical gear—splints, bandage. Thank god. Even rattled, he wasn’t the type to flounder.

“We’ve been inside continuously. From tracking… four to five per assault wave, every two-three minutes. Seems they spawn scattered.”

“Yes. And the point I need?”

“Ugh—!”

Splint pressed bone. He jammed cloth between my teeth. I bit down, fought not to black out as he set the fracture roughly into place. Just as the morphine settled, he unwound the cloth.

“My head won’t stay as clear.”

“And?”

He tied off firmly, knotted at shoulder. I tugged my bandana down, choking. My knife nearly grazed his chest, but he didn’t flinch—not even instinctive guard.

“You’re already at your limit.”

I yanked the blade free, better off with the gun now.

“I can keep goi—”
“No. You’re maxed.”

Even as I tracked countdown. Fifty-nine, fifty-eight, fifty-seven…

“You know we’ve got no time.”

I grinned bitterly through the haze, sweat-streaked, both of us lit by each other’s search lamps. Miserable sight.

“Which means—accept I won’t be at full strength. And let me…”

I pulled his neck down sudden. He caught his balance, hand bracing ground instead of pressing against my broken limb. The damp earth sucked greedily. Morphine tugged me into that sponge, and then—tongues meshed, raw and wet.

“Mmm…”

Whose throat the moan climbed from, his or mine—I couldn’t tell. Hearts hammered identical pace, exhaustion and terror mixing with a survival-driven arousal response. His body must’ve felt it too.

“Ah—!”

When I tried to break for breath, he dragged me back. Clumsy. He surged like hauling water from a well. Compared to him, even drugged I kissed like an expert. Still, we couldn’t part.

Pulse kept rising, pounding. Damn it—was primal instinct fueling this? Seventeen, sixteen, fifteen…

“Good.”

He growled it. Over and over. “Good. Good.” Each repeat between locks of lips.

I didn’t waste breath replying. A quick lick traced his chapped lip instead. Skin there, so tender it bled easy, like inner flesh.

Then—crash, a split behind. Three, two, one…

I tore away.

“…That look suits you.”

“…”

“Like your first kiss.”

“Was.”

I’d tossed it as a joke. He caught it straight-faced.

“My first. With someone I like. You stole it.”

Heat pooled in my stomach.

“That’s… fucking wild.”

I pretended not to hear the like part. Pretended it was the drug haze on both sides. Even so, I trembled.

Then—the tearing of roots behind, thick as snakes. The earlier rupture. He swept hands up, walls of soil shoving monsters back. They splashed mire up over our boots, but he only stared at me.

Vitals check glowed across my screen.

“You nearly wasted all my guiding leveling your cool pose tricks.”

Not at collapse, but nowhere near safe. Our sync said he should feel lighter now. But he didn’t. Effect muted, hitting a wall.

“Sorry, I said that earlier.”

His smile crooked. Face deathly pale, somehow sinfully striking. I grimaced, braced my broken wrist with splint, lifted gun and blasted the beast behind him.

“You and I are having words later.”

Not aimed at the monster. At him.

Forward we pushed, steady rhythm. Thanks to staggered entry, other teams siphoned pressure, but burrowed monsters grew nastier. Which meant—the core was near.

Each time his fever hit thirty-nine Celsius, I guided. With lips. Short intervals, exhausting pace. Terrain recovery intensified, taxing his powers further.

“Look at me.”

The morphine was thinning. My body sagged. Mire dragged at legs. Everything slowed.

I seized his arm, ripped splint tight again. Dull agony shot. I lashed out, sinking my teeth into his bottom lip. Shifted, wrapped tongue against his. Again, again—we’d kissed so many times my own lips raw, chapped. His alone still smooth.

“…You’re good at this.”

“Course I am. How many times have we done it today.”

“Then… am I?”

“No.”

Too tired to spare kindness. My voice blunt, honest.

Footnotes

¹ Guiding by kiss – In this world, Guides stabilize Hunters via tactile connection. Normally handholding suffices, deeper intimacy amplifying results. This scene portrays an emergency escalation.
² Vitals monitor – Guides track Hunters’ status through wrist devices: heart rate, body temp, exhaustion. Crossing thresholds prompts urgent guiding.
³ Morphine injectors – Standard emergency Hunter gear. Not for restoration, but blunt-force pain suppression, allowing continued operation in dungeon run