NBFF 17

The Stew Thief

Joo Jihye was a typical city girl.

She had been born and raised in the heart of Seoul and had never once lived outside the city.

A life beyond the city was something she couldn’t even comprehend.

Of course, there were times when she had to travel to the countryside for field operations or drama shoots.

But those experiences only reinforced her opinion.

She hated the countryside.

She hated the crude, unpaved dirt roads, hated disgusting insects, and hated how dark everything became once night fell.

Even after growing old and retiring, she planned to live among skyscrapers while popping champagne.

She was definitely, definitely going to live that way.

Or at least, that was what she had thought.

“What the hell is going on…?”

After getting out of the car, Joo Jihye stared blankly at her surroundings.

She was standing in front of a house tucked away in the middle of the mountains, with not a single skyscraper in sight.

Not only was this a rural area whose name she had never even heard of, but the house itself was practically hidden away in the middle of nowhere.

“Come on, get inside. That’s where you’ll be staying from now on. It might be uncomfortable if we use the same building, so you can stay in the detached house while you’re here.”

Oh Hyeonseong led her into the yard and pointed toward the detached house.

What a considerate homeowner.

Oh Hyeonseong nodded to himself, impressed by his own thoughtfulness.

Joo Jihye, however, was still in shock.

“You said you were going to treat me! I thought there might be some secret research facility or something. You’re telling me to stay here?”

“Rest is the best treatment for a hunter’s aftereffects. Spend some time relaxing in the countryside with its clean air, work up a sweat, and you’ll get better.”

“W-What kind of crazy nonsense is that?!”

Joo Jihye collapsed onto the ground.

She had come here with hope, only to receive a crushing blow to the back of the head.

Choi Jeongil, who had been standing behind her, glanced at Oh Hyeonseong before asking,

“Senior… Is this really okay?”

“It’ll only be for a few days. After that, even if she doesn’t want to, I’ll send her back to Seoul. Just leave her with me for a few days. Oh, do you want to stay here with her in the meantime? I don’t mind.”

“Ah, well… I have some urgent matters to take care of…”

“Right. You’re a businessman, so you must be busy. Fair enough.”

Cold sweat trickled down Choi Jeongil’s back.

He had heard that Oh Hyeonseong had moved to the countryside, but he never imagined that his plan to cure someone’s illness would involve bringing Joo Jihye here.

“Why? Don’t you trust me?”

Oh Hyeonseong gave a faint smile.

Choi Jeongil stared at him before shaking his head.

“Of course I do not.”

To be honest, Choi Jeongil had absolutely no idea what he was thinking.

But not understanding something and being unable to trust someone were two completely different matters.

The Oh Hyeonseong he knew wasn’t the kind of person who would do something like this without a reason.

Nor was this the first time he had made an incomprehensible decision.

Oh Hyeonseong had frequently presented plans that even his own teammates found difficult to accept, and every time, they would voice their complaints—though they weren’t quite complaints.

Yet looking back, his judgment had always been correct.

In extreme situations, those very decisions they hadn’t understood had saved Choi Jeongil’s life more than once.

The team members who knew that at the time had eventually nodded and followed Oh Hyeonseong’s orders every time.

And Choi Jeongil now nodded as well, almost out of old habit.

“Then… I leave her in your care.”

Choi Jeongil bowed deeply toward his longtime senior.

His gesture carried the same respect and deference he had always shown him.

“…”

Joo Jihye sat crouched in the corner of the room in the detached house.

He said he’d cure this damn insomnia… That’s why I postponed all my schedules and came all the way out here…

Under normal circumstances, there was no way she would have believed him.

Her first impression of him at the department store had been terrible, and there was no reason to trust someone who wasn’t even a doctor suddenly claiming he could cure her.

But she had believed him.

After all, he was a first-generation hunter whom Choi Jeongil himself had personally vouched for.

And if someone had been a hunter of that caliber, she thought there might really be some way to help her.

She had been suffering from this miserable illness so badly that she was willing to grab even the tiniest straw of hope if it meant getting rid of it.

But in the end, all she had found was despair.

Is he mocking me just because I made a mistake when we first met? He’s making fun of me over an illness that’s causing me enough pain to genuinely want to die?

Joo Jihye nervously chewed on the nail of her trembling finger.

If he hadn’t known the Representative, she would have already confronted him or done something worse.

At this point, she was even beginning to wonder if Choi Jeongil himself had been conned by some vicious scam artist.

What should I do? Should I just escape right now?

But she soon shook her head.

Choi Jeongil had warned her that if she caused another incident this time, he wouldn’t let her off with words alone.

She had already accumulated several strikes from previous incidents.

This time, she really had to listen to him.

Fine. He said to endure it for exactly one week… I’ll just put up with it until then. And Representative, you better be prepared. I’m going to milk this incident for everything it’s worth when we renegotiate my contract.

Joo Jihye huffed angrily as she tried to calm herself down.

But then, a delicious smell drifted in from somewhere.

She hadn’t eaten a single meal today, so her head snapped around.

What is that? There’s no way something could smell this good in the middle of this godforsaken countryside…

Without even realizing it, Joo Jihye stood up and followed the smell outside.

She entered the main house and came face-to-face with Oh Hyeonseong standing in the living room.

“Oh, you came out at just the right time. I was about to call you anyway. We’re having dinner, so sit down and eat.”

“…Eat? There’s nothing to eat.”

“There’s the dining table right there.”

Joo Jihye’s gaze belatedly shifted toward the table.

But the meal laid out before her was so plain and meager that at first she didn’t even recognize it as a proper dinner.

“This is a meal?”

“What’s missing? There’s soybean paste stew, rice, and several basic side dishes.”

“Who even eats soybean paste stew these days…?”

Joo Jihye frowned as she stared at the stew.

Soybean paste stew was one of the worst foods left over from the past.

Cheap, factory-produced soybean paste was particularly terrible compared to other foods.

It smelled awful and tasted even worse.

Unless someone was genuinely poor or had an unusual palate, there was no reason to eat it.

But… why does the soybean paste stew smell like that?

Contrary to her prejudice, the smell that had been drifting through the house was intensely stimulating her hungry senses.

It smelled completely different from any soybean paste stew she’d ever encountered.

But Joo Jihye shook her head and abruptly stood up.

“Eat by yourself. I can’t stomach this kind of thing.”

“You know there aren’t any restaurants selling ten-million-won course meals around here, right? If you starve to death, don’t blame me.”

“I’m not going to die just because I skip a few meals. If I just die outright, at least the Representative will apologize.”

Joo Jihye spun around.

As she stomped away, Oh Hyeonseong scratched his head.

“Hmm… I need to get her to eat, but this is troublesome.”

There was a reason Oh Hyeonseong had brought her here.

He wanted to conduct a clinical experiment on the crops grown by the spirits.

If the downgraded version alone had produced such an effect on Joo Jihye, then eating the genuine crops here should produce an even greater effect.

But if she refused to eat, he wouldn’t be able to observe the results.

Well, she’ll eat when she gets hungry enough.

The time he had promised to give her was one week.

He assumed that, out of pride, she intended to endure for an entire week without eating anything and then leave.

But that was an extremely foolish idea.

Oh Hyeonseong didn’t know about modern hunters, but even hunters couldn’t overcome hunger.

They might gain superhuman strength and abilities and come to seem like extraordinary beings, but the moment they most painfully realized that they were still ordinary human beings was when they spent a long time starving during an operation.

It was, in fact, an experience that forced them to see the very bottom of human nature.

Maybe that’s why the training camps always included at least one period of deliberate starvation.

He didn’t pay much attention to it and finished setting the table.

Then he looked proudly at the generously prepared meal.

At first, simply making white rice and gochujang stew had required an enormous amount of effort.

Since he had to do everything himself without relying on outside ingredients, cooking was inevitably labor-intensive.

But now, the range of dishes he could make had expanded, and the number of basic side dishes on the table had increased as well.

The system had finally settled into place, and the variety of crops available to him had grown.

Normally, I’d prepare snacks for the spirits too… But they’re hiding because of the stranger and won’t come out.

Oh Hyeonseong once again looked appreciatively at the meal before picking up his spoon and chopsticks.

“Thank you for the meal!”

A pitch-black room.

In the quiet silence, a rustling sound could be heard.

“…Haah.”

The pain of insomnia wasn’t simply the inability to sleep.

The problem was that even when the body and mind desperately cried out from exhaustion, sleep still wouldn’t come.

Severe insomnia was essentially a horrific state of constantly floundering without being able to move forward or backward.

“This is driving me crazy.”

Joo Jihye pressed a hand against her forehead.

Her body was exhausted, but she couldn’t sleep, and she was hungry.

Her stomach was growling so loudly that she wondered if skipping just one day’s worth of meals could really be this painful.

It’s all because of that smell.

The smell of that stew had been penetrating through her bedroom door for quite some time.

Her sense of smell was already more developed than an ordinary person’s, and hunger had made her senses even sharper.

As a result, a smell that she normally wouldn’t have been able to detect was being amplified many times over in her nose, driving her even crazier.

“Ugh… I can’t take it anymore!”

In the end, she sprang to her feet.

At this rate, she wouldn’t be able to sleep even if she died and came back to life.

Of course, she still had her pride to protect.

I’ll just have one bite. I don’t know why it smells this good, but once I taste that disgusting soybean paste, it’ll probably kill my appetite anyway.

Moving stealthily, she slipped outside and quietly surveyed the main house.

Through a crack in the door, she could see Oh Hyeonseong sleeping.

He’s completely knocked out. There’s no way he’ll notice me.

Joo Jihye smiled faintly.

When she had received separate training from Choi Jeongil at Aegis, she had also learned infiltration techniques for concealing her presence.

Of course, she had only learned them superficially, to the point where she would have been embarrassed to compare herself to a professional.

Still, she could easily fool ordinary people and mediocre hunters.

Besides, Oh Hyeonseong was a retired hunter, and he was already fast asleep.

She thought she could get away with it.

Click.

When she opened the pot in the kitchen, the soybean paste stew was still there.

The smell that burst out made her head swim.

She grabbed a spoon and carefully scooped up some broth and ingredients.

Joo Jihye’s eyes widened.

Hadn’t someone once said that food eaten secretly in the middle of the night tasted the best in the world?

But could cold stew really taste this good?

Her original plan to eat just one bite disappeared without a trace, and her spoon began moving rapidly.

It’s delicious! It’s delicious!

The savory broth, tofu, onions, and zucchini—

The explosive flavor of all those fresh ingredients blending together in her mouth made her forget even the thought that she might get caught the next day.

But just as she was eating frantically—

“…A thief?”

A voice suddenly came from behind her.

Joo Jihye spun around in surprise.

W-What?

It wasn’t Oh Hyeonseong.

A woman was staring at her from within the darkness.

The appearance of an unknown intruder was shocking enough, but more importantly, the presence she sensed from her was anything but ordinary.

…Dangerous!

Joo Jihye instinctively raised her arm.

She immediately activated her telekinesis.

In an instant, she seized control of the surrounding space and attempted to crush the woman’s entire body.