Today was a special day.

One that I had been waiting for a very long time and desperately needed.

Tr triiing—!

Turning off the alarm and checking the time, 8:00 am, I felt like a new man. 

The morning air felt fresher, and even my apartment didn't seem as gloomy as it usually did. No, I more than embraced the gloom. It was a nice change of pace.

There was just something fundamentally different about today than any other day. 

'Who would've thought I'd long for such a day.'

A day off.

I had finally gotten a day off.

It was only after getting such good sleep that I finally realized how deprived of it I was. It was the first time in almost a month that I managed to get at least 7 hours of sleep.

What a great day.

Tr triiing—!

My phone rang all of a sudden and I became wary. Staring at the caller ID, I could feel my face scrunch up. Even so, I still picked up, and hesitantly asked,

"What is it Mia…?"

Right as I said those words, I brought my phone away from my ear, expecting the inevitable squeal that was to come. Mia didn't disappoint as her voice echoed out of the phone speakers moments after. 

—Manager! Manager! Where are you!? Did you die or something? Oh no! What are we going to do?!

"Calm down will you?"

—M,manager! A ghost!

"Ah, ghost? No, what ghost? I'm still alive."

—You are?

"Of course I'm alive. Why are you cursing me already in the morning?"

—C,cursing? I'd never d,do that!

"You just did."

—Haha, anyways… where are you manager? Why are you so late this morning? This is so unlike you.

"Didn't Dean tell you?"

—Tell me what…?

"So he didn't…"

How unsurprising of him. He tended to forget to say important things like this. 

"I'm taking a day off."

—Ah!??

As if she had heard the most shocking thing in the world, Mia let out another squeal. What followed after her squeal was a ruffling sound in the background as Sarah's voice echoed shortly after.

—Manager, you're taking a day off? 

Her voice seemed rather hurried as if she had just rushed to snatch the phone away from Mia. No, that was probably what had happened. I could practically picture her holding the phone with her hair all ruffled up from having just woken up. 

"I am. Dean told me to take a day off and have some rest."

He seemed rather adamant about it too.

But now that I thought about it, did he also get some rest? He seemed to be in more urgent need of rest than me.

—I see then. 

Sarah went quiet for a brief moment. Her voice sounded rather downcast, and just as I was about to say something, she managed to say, 

—Enjoy your day off. We will see you tomorrow. Joana said to tune in on the interview that will be out today.

I could hear the faint giggling sound of Joana's voice echoing in the background as she said, 'You should've taken your day off another time so we could watch the interview together.'

"No, I think this is a good thing."

I replied, hoping she managed to hear through the phone. 

Just thinking about what was to come, my stomach churned.

On a good note, I didn't tell anyone I knew about it so I was good. Saved me from embarrassment. 

—Manager! Manager!

Mia's voice echoed from the speaker of the phone once more as she probably snatched the phone back from Sarah's hands. 

—There was something that I wanted to tal…

"Hmm? What's going on? Ah, my phone is running out of battery."

—Uh? Manager! Manager!

"Sorry Mia but I don't think my phone can keep up. I'll—"

Du. Du. I hung up my phone there and then. Today was my day off. I wasn't going to let Mia ruin it.

Absolutely not.

Not…

I grit my teeth and dialed a number. 

"Mia, make it quick. I have something I have to do later."

***

I brushed my teeth, exercised for a little bit, ate breakfast, and…

"What do I do?"

I blankly stared at the ceiling of my room. 

No matter how much I thought about it, I really had nothing else to do. Before this, my life had all been about training. Now, it was all about work, and the girls. 

Just what in the… 

"No, things can't go on like this."

At this rate, I was probably going to spend the entire day thinking about work. 

But what could I do? 

The orphanage was too far for me to visit, I couldn't work, and I had no friends…

No, wait.

I looked down at my phone to stare at the message that just appeared.

There was in fact one guy I could still call my friend. 

In the end, since I had nothing else to do and I refused to just stay at home doing nothing, I made an appointment with Elbert. 

He lived quite close to me, and the two of us decided to meet at 'Mastivia Island,' one of the smaller islands in the vicinity, approximately half the size of Sun Island. This island fell under the Mastivia Guild's jurisdiction, a three-star Guild.

The train ride took about an hour, and coming off the train I spotted Elbert waving at me from the platform below. He looked exactly the same as I'd last seen him a month back before I joined Emblem of the Sun.

Even though he looked like a middle-aged man, he was the same age as me. 

"It's been a while."

There were a lot of people coming out of the train and I had a hard time navigating through them to get to him. 

"A while? You went radio silent ever since your new job. If not for the fact that you left me on read, I'd have thought you died."

"Well… circumstances."

That.

I couldn't explicitly say I forgot to reply to him. It wasn't untrue either, as my work schedule kept me so busy that I had hardly enough time to sleep.

"It's fine. Now and then, not much of a difference. You have the habit of leaving people on read."

"Wouldn't say it's a habit…"

"Then why do you do it?"

When he asked, I got a bit stuck, trying to figure out how to answer. The more I thought about it, the more I saw he was right.

I often left people on read and oftentimes 'forgot' to reply to them. Couldn't argue with that, so I just gave a bitter nod.

"Habit."

"See? Isn't that so hard to say?"

With a grin on his face, I felt a pat on my shoulder as he dragged me out of the train station.

"Anyways, how have you been lately? I rarely hear from you these days. Surely, it can't be your new job, right?"

"Haha… it actually is my new job."

"That bad?"

"Well, it's not that bad…"

It wasn't supposed to be like this normally. It was just that the girls were getting a lot more opportunities now with the success of Dungeon Seekers. There was Sarah's situation as well, and the fact that I needed to accompany the girls to the Academy, and… 

"Okay, it is actually pretty bad."

The more I thought about it, the more I grimaced at my workload. I also grimaced for Dean who had it way worse than me.

"You seem to have lost weight as well."

"You think so?"

"Hmm. It seems to be the case."

Elbert said after carefully looking at my body. Then, with a shrug, he dragged me to a small pub where we both ordered a drink.

"Now that I've got the hang of you, spill it. What group did they stick you with? Considering your attitude, I'm surprised they haven't kicked you out already."

"What attitude?"

"Seriously?"

Elbert cocked an eyebrow at me.

"Are you telling me you don't even know how you used to be in the past?"

"That's the past…"

"You were the same about a month ago."

I took a sip of my drink and refused to answer.

"Is it a girl group or a boy group? Which one?" 

"I didn't tell you?" 

"Why is this even a question?" 

"Okay, it's a girl group." 

"Hahahahaha." 

Elbert pounded on the table as if my response was the funniest thing ever, causing some of his beer to spill on the desk. Wiping away the tears from his eyes, he managed to ask, 

"...Seriously?" 

"What do you mean seriously?" 

Why was it so hard to believe that I was managing a girl group? 

"No, no. Don't get me wrong." 

Elbert said as he took a sip of his drink before eyeing me. 

"...I'll be honest. I just don't see how you haven't quit after a day with your attitude. Ah, fuck. How I wish I was there. I'd pay anything to see you interact with them."

"Fuck off." 

I rolled my eyes before picking up my phone. It had been vibrating since earlier, and when I saw that it was Mia again, my mouth twitched.

'What does she want now...?'

It hadn't even been a few hours since I was on call with her. What did she want now? 

Turning to look at Elbert, I pointed at my phone and mouthed, 'Do you mind?' 

He shook his head, and I responded to the call. 

—Manager! Manager! 

I flinched for a moment when I realized I was on a video call and saw all the girls huddled together on the phone. 

When I registered the situation, I frowned. 

Did something happen? 

"Girls, what's wrong?" 

—What do you mean what's wrong? Don't you know what time it is? 

I checked the time. It was 16:57. 

"Almost five?" 

—No, dummy! 

Mia shouted while looking exasperated. 

—The interview will be released in three minutes! 

"Oh." 

So it was about that... 

Right, I forgot. 

...or may have deleted it from my memory. 

—What do you mean, 'oh?'. Why does it seem like you don't care about the interview at all? 

"Because I actually don't care." 

—No, manager! What—eh? 

"Eh?" 

Seeing the surprised look the girls were giving me, I turned around to see Elbert leaning closer from behind. Staring at the screen, and then alternating his gaze between them and me, he clicked his tongue and muttered.

"Lucky bastard." 

"Oy." 

I hurriedly moved the phone away. 

"There's a child in there." 

"Do you think I care?" 

Elbert clicked his tongue once more. 

"You should've told me the girl group you were managing all looked like that, you lucky bastard." 

"Ey."

—Manager! Who's that!? 

"Keum." 

Clearing my throat, I sighed and briefly introduced them to Elbert who brushed his hand over his hair to make himself look better. I could only look at him in disgust as he introduced himself. 

"Nice to meet you. I'm this guy's one and only friend." 

—Ho! Oh? Only friend? Are you saying Manager doesn't have any friends?

"Haha, no. He's a total loner. If not for me, he'd have no friends." 

—Ehhh? Really? Actually, I'm not that surprised. 

"Oy." 

Surprised.

Be surprised. 

"If you have any questions about this guy, ask away. I'm at your service." 

—Oh! Oh! I've got one! I've got one!

For some reason, the girls seemed extremely excited as they all inched closer to the phone and started to ask all sorts of questions. from what I was like in the past to my embarrassing moments and my dating history... Now, why would that even matter? 

"Alright, that's enough."  

Before things could get any messier, I decided to hang the phone up. 

"Let me have my day off. Go watch the interview for yourselves. I'm not watching." 

I hung up the phone directly and took a deep breath. I then glared at Elbert who was equally looking at me with a glare. 

"Lucky bastard." 

He muttered again. 

"I finally understand why you didn't answer me for the past three weeks. It wasn't because you were overworked, it was because you were working with them." 

"Oh please."

 I put my phone away. 

"You say you know me, and yet why does it seem as though you don't?" 

"Okay, fair." 

Only then did his brows relax as he sat back down on his seat. Then, as if recalling something, he suddenly mentioned.

 "Wait. Now that I think about it, the girls were talking about a certain interview. What interview?" 

"Ah, let's not talk about that." 

I took a sip of my beer. He was the last person I'd want to see 'that'. 

"Oh." 

He nodded absentmindedly, his eyes focused on something behind me. Frowning, I was just about to ask him what was wrong, when I realized something and my head snapped back, my eyes settling on the large television behind me. 

My heart dropped. 

"Ah... Great."