Let’s Eat

I, Oh Hyeonseong, a man among men, had once been one of the best hunters in Korea.

I felt a little strange saying it about myself, but among the survivors of that brutal era, there probably wasn’t a single person who would deny it.

But not everything in this world was proportional to one’s abilities.

This was an age when even the names of fledgling hunters who had barely set foot in the field were plastered across the news as promising prospects.

Yet the name Oh Hyeonseong could be found nowhere.

That was because he had virtually no achievements or fame that were known to the outside world.

On the other hand, if you were to name the most famous hunters in South Korea, there were several names that would inevitably come up.

One of them was Han Suyeon.

A Grade 13 hunter capable of single-handedly bringing down a small nation.

A powerful figure within the Blue House who enjoyed the president’s absolute trust.

And the deputy director of the Disaster Management Bureau, a special government agency responsible for overseeing government-affiliated hunters and Gate-related issues.

Even though she wasn’t a private-sector hunter who frequently appeared in the media, she was so well-known that there wasn’t a Korean who didn’t know those three syllables of her name.

Her past achievements had all been brought into the spotlight, and her current position matched them perfectly.

Unlike someone else, she was truly a hunter who had achieved tremendous success.

She was, quite literally, a major figure among major figures—someone who had absolutely no reason to set foot in a rural village like this.

Yes.

She was my junior.

A silence stretched between them at the front gate.

Oh Hyeonseong stared at Han Suyeon standing before him.

She had appeared completely unexpectedly, yet she looked almost exactly as she had back then.

Her eyes seemed slightly sunken, but that was about it.

“I didn’t expect you to find me here. Why did you come?”

“I’m a little hurt, Senior. You’re asking why instead of how?”

“How is obvious. Wherever you go in this country, you people probably have it all under control. What isn’t obvious is why you came all the way here without a single escort.”

Oh Hyeonseong glanced toward the vehicle parked off to the side.

There wasn’t a single man in a suit, let alone a driver.

She had apparently driven all the way to this remote countryside by herself.

As far as he remembered, Han Suyeon neither drove well nor particularly liked driving.

“It’s a completely personal schedule. Besides, if I’d come making a grand entrance in a helicopter, someone would obviously have hated it, wouldn’t they?”

“Just so we’re clear, this has absolutely nothing to do with the government. Things aren’t so desperate that they need to drag a retiree who’s just been discharged from the hospital back into service.”

Han Suyeon spoke quietly.

“I just… wanted to see your face.”

“Come inside first.”

He couldn’t exactly leave her standing outside, so he let her in.

As Han Suyeon entered the yard, she looked around with a small gasp of admiration.

“This is your new house? It’s huge.”

“Yeah. Somehow it ended up like this.”

“It’s nice when it’s spacious. Though I wonder how you’re going to clean all of it.”

“You really are a city person.”

“Hmm?”

Han Suyeon blinked her large eyes.

Oh Hyeonseong let out a brief, hollow laugh at the sight.

“It’s been five years, but you don’t seem to have changed at all.”

“I worried about you a lot during that time. And I’m sorry. I should have visited you at the hospital more often.”

“No. I understand you must have been busy. I know what it’s like because I used to be in that position myself. And you must have been overwhelmed with all the cleanup afterward.”

Oh Hyeonseong wasn’t someone with a particularly wide circle of friends.

His job had left him with almost no free time, and as people got older, maintaining friendships required time and effort.

Han Suyeon, meanwhile, was essentially a cabinet-level official within the government.

It was a position that was inherently grueling. And after the Queen Entity had been defeated, they must have spent more than a year throwing manpower into the aftermath.

Besides, Hyeonseong himself had rejected every request for visitors while he was undergoing rehabilitation, so he didn’t particularly hold it against her.

Still, she wasn’t the type to suddenly show up without contacting me first. Did something happen?

The Han Suyeon he knew was an extremely methodical person.

But the woman standing before him seemed somewhat impulsive.

The same applied to her personality outside of missions.

It was almost as if she’d suddenly felt the urge to come and see him and had simply acted on it.

“Whimper, whimper!”

“Huh? You guys…?”

At that moment, the spirits who had been hiding began slowly crawling out from all directions.

They had been secretly watching and had recognized a familiar face.

“Wow. It’s been ages. Senior’s little Whimpers.”

Han Suyeon smiled brightly.

The spirits eagerly rushed toward her, welcoming her with enthusiasm.

Han Suyeon had always been loved by the spirits because of her naturally high affinity with them.

She herself also adored the little spirits and often played with them.

She had even been the one who first gave these useless little creatures the nickname “Whimpers,” because of how close she was to them.

Whenever there was downtime during an operation, she would always ask Hyeonseong to summon them so she could play with them.

“Whimper!”

“Still cute as ever.”

Han Suyeon lifted an Earth Spirit that had climbed onto her shoulder and was rubbing itself against her.

Then she brushed the dirt lightly off her shoulder.

Seeing the Earth Spirit grow dejected, Oh Hyeonseong placed it on top of his own head.

“You really came just to see my face?”

“I heard you went straight into farming after being discharged from the hospital. I was curious about how you were doing. I wanted to see it for myself.”

“And? What’s your impression?”

“Honestly, I thought you would look completely out of place. But somehow, the picture isn’t as strange as I expected.”

“I didn’t leave the city without a plan. I was recommended a carefully selected place.”

“By Kwon Gyeongmin?”

“You even did a background check on the area?”

“No. You only have a handful of friends. It wasn’t hard to guess.”

Han Suyeon plopped herself down on the wooden platform.

Then she stared silently at the sunset slowly sinking into the horizon.

“It’s a beautiful view.”

Han Suyeon had always liked sunsets painted across the clouds.

But from those words, Oh Hyeonseong finally understood what had felt strange about her ever since she arrived.

Was I wrong to think she hadn’t changed?

Her words just now had been spoken mechanically, without any real emotion.

Though everything looked convincing on the surface, she wasn’t actually feeling anything as she gazed at the sunset.

Her expression and tone were nothing more than an act.

Of course. I wasn’t the only one worn down by the battlefield.

Han Suyeon, after all, had continued fighting monsters in a transformed society while constantly dealing with high-ranking government officials.

Perhaps thinking that everyone else had remained unchanged during the five years he’d spent lying in a hospital bed had been far too naive.

Still, this wasn’t an area where he should stick his nose in.

Oh Hyeonseong smacked his lips and spoke.

“You haven’t eaten dinner, have you? Let’s eat.”

“Uh… Senior?”

Han Suyeon stared blankly at the table in front of her.

There was a single plate in the center, piled high with potatoes.

The potatoes were rough-looking and varied greatly in size.

She was fairly certain he’d said this was dinner, but as Hyeonseong calmly walked over and sat across from her, it seemed there was nothing else.

What is this?

Han Suyeon was visibly bewildered.

She was accustomed to eating food prepared by top-class chefs using the finest ingredients.

As long as the food tasted good, she was perfectly willing to pay hundreds of thousands of won for a single meal.

It wasn’t because she was a gourmet.

Unless she wanted to eat horrendously cheap food, she simply had no other choice.

These days, anyone with money spent a considerable amount on food.

Even politicians who presented themselves as humble and ordinary people from common backgrounds in front of the cameras secretly spent enormous sums on premium synthetic meat.

And now she was faced with a meal consisting of nothing but rough-looking potatoes.

The contrast couldn’t have been greater.

“You eat like this normally?”

“Hm. Is it too extravagant?”

“Senior… You don’t have a shortage of money, do you? Did you invest all your retirement money? Or have you developed a gambling problem or something…?”

Han Suyeon asked in a surprisingly serious tone.

Even if he wanted to pursue a simple life in the countryside, surely his circumstances couldn’t be so dire that he was eating such a crude meal.

But Oh Hyeonseong was bursting with anticipation.

Man, I’m salivating already.

She had arrived before he’d even finished his previous meal, so he was still a little hungry.

And this time, he’d prepared the potatoes differently.

They weren’t boiled.

They were baked.

He was dying to know what they would taste like this time.

Still, he didn’t reach for one immediately.

“Since you’re the guest, I’ll let you go first. Try one.”

“I don’t know if I’d call it something that grand… but thanks.”

Han Suyeon swallowed a short sigh.

She hadn’t expected anything impressive from a meal in the mountains.

But a dinner table piled with nothing but potatoes?

Since she already knew what natural crops tasted like, she could practically predict the flavor.

There wasn’t even a sauce to disguise it.

But she couldn’t exactly make a big show of how bad the food was or refuse to touch it in front of a senior she’d seen for the first time in five years.

“Where did these potatoes come from?”

“I grew them myself in my vegetable garden.”

“What? You’ve only been here for how long, and you already have potatoes you grew yourself? Did you use some kind of illegal growth drug?”

“Stop talking and just try one.”

Oh Hyeonseong slid the plate toward her.

With a dubious expression, Han Suyeon picked up a reasonably sized potato.

The potato was lightly sprinkled with salt, and steam rose from it as it gave off a surprisingly delicious aroma.

That was unexpected.

Natural potatoes as she knew them didn’t smell like this.

Have I just been away from this kind of food for so long that I’ve forgotten?

Tilting her head in confusion, Han Suyeon took a large bite.

The crispy skin gave way to a fluffy potato interior that filled her mouth.

Han Suyeon’s eyes widened.

The unpleasant smell and rough texture characteristic of natural potatoes were nowhere to be found.

This taste…

Han Suyeon’s expression stiffened.

Even her chewing stopped.

She sat there expressionless and silent.

Only silence remained.

What? Does she not like it?

Oh Hyeonseong was momentarily flustered.

He had expected her to have an explosive reaction the moment she tasted this new flavor.

Just as he had, he thought she’d be completely overwhelmed by how delicious it was after only one bite.

But this reaction…

He wondered whether something about the cooking process had changed the flavor since he’d baked rather than steamed the potatoes.

Just as Hyeonseong was about to say something—

A trembling voice came from across the table.

“Wha… what…?”

Tears began to fall from Han Suyeon’s large eyes.