Never before had I ever found a voice telling me to get up more pleasant.
"Yes. Understood."
The first one to rise was Park Hyaeyoung.
After that, I could hear Jung Hayan tossing and turning.
As I was deliberating on when to get up, I felt a touch on my shoulder.
"Hyung-nim."
'Park Deokgu, nice.'
His timing wasn't bad.
Perhaps because I wasn't able to sleep well, I suddenly felt a wave of tiredness wash over me. Even so, I squinted my eyes open and sat up.
"Is it time already?"
"We're planning to get going a little bit earlier today. We've decided to venture a little further out for hunting before returning to the shelter."
"That's fine."
I deliberately didn't let myself turn away from Jung Hayan. I knew it would be more awkward to avoid her.
When I glanced at her I could see that she was smiling brightly in my direction.
She seemed so different from the day before.
I couldn't believe they were the same person. It was like she was another person.
'Which one is real?'
I didn't know if her current expression was genuine, or if what I'd seen last night was her true self.
For now, I thought it was best to cool off, so right after shooting her a small smile, I began to compose myself.
'I'm tired.'
Since I couldn't sleep well at night, my mind was blank.
When I went outside, Kim Hyunsung looked in my direction and began to speak.
"You look tired."
"Just a bit, I'll be fine."
"It would be good for us to go further out today. Would that be all right?"
"I don't believe it's going to be a problem. Currently, there doesn't seem to be many creatures nearby. I'm a little bit worried about the people staying at the shelter, but I don't think it's likely for anything to happen to them in the meantime. However, if we think there will be too many for them to handle...."
"Yes. Of course, we'll make sure to head back right away."
That was a reasonable judgement call.
"By the way, which way...."
"I scoped out the left path last night, and it wasn't any different."
Not only did he take the watch twice, he even searched ahead.
"Thank you for your hard work."
If there are workers who are as diligent as this, someone like me gets to have a good time.
I thought that it was possible for there to be something on the right pathway, but it was still too early to tell.
"Hyaeyoung-ssi and Hayan-ssi..,"
"I'm all set too."
"In terms of positions, if we find monsters like yesterday, then Hayan-ssi will come forward to replace Hyaeyoung-ssi instead. All right, let's get going."
"Yes."
It seemed like the march ahead would be a tiring one.
What worried me the most was Jung Hayan's presence.
