LIGHTNOVELWORLD 14.
14.
“Mine.”
Sehun’s eyes curved roundly, seemingly pleased with what he had said. At that moment, Jian groaned and shifted his body.
Sehun quietly held his breath and watched Jian’s face, then slowly moved to climb onto Jian’s stomach.
He pressed his ear to where he could hear the heartbeat best and let his arms and legs dangle. Sleep began to overtake him.
Only after positioning himself so that he could wake up immediately if Jian moved did Sehun finally fall into a deep sleep.
* * *
“Why did you close the cafe yesterday? I came all the way to the door and had to turn back. Your coffee is the best in this area, so I was really disappointed.”
“I see. I’m sorry. My brother was a bit sick.”
“Oh, you should rest then. Is he okay now?”
“Yes.”
Jian smiled brightly at the concerned customer while tapping on the POS machine.
“I’ll make it right away. Just a moment, please.”
As a one-person cafe, Jian immediately started making drinks after taking orders and processing payments. While making the vanilla latte the customer had ordered, Jian tilted his head, looking at the long line.
‘Why are there suddenly so many customers?’
He had closed the cafe yesterday without any notice.
Contrary to his expectation that today would be slower than usual, the cafe was fully seated within 5 minutes of opening, and takeout customers were constantly coming in.
Thanks to this, Jian was moving non-stop with a smile on his face, not even feeling tired, and contentedly looking at the growing pile of receipts.
‘Did some power influencer promote my cafe?’
Although it was puzzling, it was much better than suddenly losing all customers, so he didn’t think too much of it.
* * *
Unbeknownst to Jian, the post Kim Soochul had uploaded to the hunter community had caused an unexpected ripple effect.
The post uploaded two nights ago immediately caught the attention of those wandering the cyber world late at night.
/Anonymous Board/
[Beware of the Cafe Owner Hiding His Strength]
TL;DR
I almost died recently
Messed with him thinking he looked like a skinny guy who’d leech off women, but got my wrist broken
(Proof photo)
I knew there were many hidden masters in the world, but I didn’t think I’d meet one
Adding more proof photos in case you don’t believe me
(Hunter ID photo)
I’m B-rank, not stupid enough to forge a hunter ID
(Item photo)
(Purchase receipt photo)
I’m also attaching the purchase receipt for the insight item I used to try to peek at the cafe owner’s rank.
When I used the item, it said insight was impossible. You know what this means, right?
The cafe owner is stronger than me
At least A-rank
Maybe even S-rank
Anyway, I’ve warned you
—You’re lying
└There’s photo proof though?
└└I could upload photos like that right now
└└└Then do it
—Everyone’s been fooled once or twice? You know posts like this come up once or twice a week
└OP: No, it’s real, I’m telling you the insight item didn’t show his rank
—You say he might be S-rank? Don’t you know you could get arrested for carelessly saying things like that? The government is desperately looking for new S-rank hunters
└OP: I admit I exaggerated, but he’s really at least A-rank. But he looks really weak on the outside while being a cafe owner. Just believe me when I say it, damn it
└└Why are you swearing?
—Looking at this guy, he seems to have pseudologia fantastica. If he’s A-rank, he’d be clearing dungeons, why would he be a cafe owner? Is the cafe at least 3,000 square meters?
└OP: No, it’s ㅈㄴ small, it’s in front of the ㅅㄹㅇ dungeon in Gangdong-gu
└└Wow, you’re revealing the location like this?
└└└OP: That’s how truthful I’m being
└└└└I’m going to check it out tomorrow. If he’s A-rank, I’ve got to become ㅈㄴ close to him
At first, people were skeptical, but as Kim Soochul continued to plead his case, believers started to appear one by one, and suddenly the idea of visiting the cafe in person became the main topic.
The dungeon near Jian’s cafe was a B-rank dungeon where slimes appeared. Although it was B-rank, even C and D-rank hunters could raid it if they formed a good party, so it always maintained close to 100% reservation rate.
People who had already reserved dungeon raids there said they’d stop by Jian’s cafe for a coffee before entering the dungeon, and everyone agreed to upload proof shots.
* * *
Click.
‘Huh?’
Jian turned his head in the middle of making a drink, hearing a camera shutter sound from somewhere. He felt like someone was taking a picture of him.
His guess was right. A man wearing black techwear, popular among hunters, was lowering his phone with a flustered expression.
Jian’s eyebrows furrowed. While he didn’t particularly have portrait rights, it wasn’t very pleasant to have a stranger taking his picture.
Come to think of it, it was really strange. Jian took a fresh look at the customers filling the cafe. There were some familiar faces like the customer who just ordered a vanilla latte, but most were new.
Moreover, if he wasn’t mistaken, they seemed to be constantly glancing at him.
At first, he thought they were looking at the menu board, but after turning his head a few times and making eye contact with customers, he realized that wasn’t the case.
‘Surely they’re not taking pictures of Sehun?’
Jian looked worriedly at Sehun, who was sitting beside him doing a coloring book.
Today too, he had brought Sehun to work because the child didn’t want to be alone at home. Fortunately, his fever had gone down and the child’s condition was fine.
He had planned to seat Sehun at one of the cafe tables and bring some delivered items for him to play with, but Sehun didn’t like that, so Jian set up a small table and chair inside the counter area with a screen.
He had carefully positioned it so that Jian could see Sehun’s face well, but customers couldn’t.
Because of the child’s exceptional appearance, customers would always try to pat his cheeks saying how cute he was, and some even tried to take pictures.
Each time, Jian would stop the customers with a gentle but firm attitude.
“Excuse me, customer.”
Jian called out to the customer who had just taken a photo. The man, his face red, pointed at himself with his index finger and asked.
“Yes? Me?”
“Yes.”
“What is it…?”
“The photo you just took. If you don’t mind, could I check it?”
“I just took a picture of the menu board.”
“I’m sorry. Could you please let me check just once?”
All eyes in the cafe turned to the man. The man irritably rubbed his shortly cropped hair, then frowned and approached Jian.
“I was taking a picture of the menu board and caught your face. I’ll delete it right away. Okay?”
The man, red up to his nape, waved his phone in front of Jian’s face.
Contrary to his worry, the phone screen showed Jian’s face, not Sehun’s. As the customer said, there was a photo clearly showing part of the menu board and Jian’s face. Jian let out a small sigh.
“Thank you for cooperating. But I’m not comfortable with my face being in it. I’m sorry, but could you delete it and take another picture with just the menu board? I’m really sorry.”
When Jian spoke in a polite voice, the man soon said okay and showed Jian that he was deleting the photo in front of him.
Only after seeing the photo deleted from the trash bin did Jian bow his head to the man.
“Thank you. I won’t charge you for your drink in return.”
“That’s not necessary.”
As people’s attention continued to focus on him, the man waved his hands and left the cafe as if fleeing.
Strange incidents continued to happen after that. One customer stared at Jian with uncomfortably sparkling eyes, then suddenly extended his right hand for a handshake when Jian was serving the drink.
“A handshake…?”
“Yes. You seem to have a clear aura. I’d like to get some good energy before entering the dungeon.”
If he had heard this on the street, he would have run away without looking back. Unfortunately, Jian was the owner of a small cafe, and the other person was a customer who had just ordered a drink.
Putting aside his uneasy feelings, Jian shook hands, and then felt a cold touch on his fingers.
“Sehun?”
Sehun, who had somehow approached from the side, was meticulously wiping the hand Jian had just shaken with the customer using a wet towel.
With his brows furrowed in concentration, Sehun looked determined. Jian scratched the end of his eyebrow with one hand while letting Sehun clean the other.
‘This is really strange.’
At first, he was simply happy that the number of customers had increased, but now he felt uneasy. He had a strong feeling that he shouldn’t ignore this and let it pass.
Finally, when lunchtime came, Jian promptly closed the cafe and hung a “Break Time” notice on the front door.
His expression hardened as he witnessed a group of hunters, who had almost reached the cafe, walking away with disappointed faces as soon as he closed the door.
If this cafe had been a famous local eatery, he would have understood. But when Jian first started running the cafe, he barely had twenty customers visiting throughout the entire day.
‘Let’s feed the kid first.’