Don’t You Want to Eat It Again?
Han Suyeon froze when she heard someone suddenly shout, “It’s Han Suyeon!”
It was an incredibly rude thing to say with the person in question standing right in front of them.
But the ones who had blurted it out didn’t have the presence of mind to care.
“W-What? I’m not seeing things, am I?”
Yoo Eunha rubbed both of her eyes.
But the same person was still standing there.
The very Han Suyeon they had only ever seen on television.
Naturally, Yoo Seungsu was just as shocked.
What on earth is going on?
They had merely come over to eat with their neighbor, only to encounter someone they had never expected to see.
For a moment, he wondered whether some enormous Gate had suddenly appeared nearby.
But if a Gate powerful enough to require Han Suyeon herself to intervene had appeared, the entire village would already have been evacuated.
Besides, judging by her shabby outfit, there was no way she’d come here for combat or work.
“Wow… she’s really beautiful…”
Yoo Eunha, standing beside him, muttered absentmindedly.
His younger sister had always had a tendency to be captivated by attractive people.
And she didn’t discriminate between men and women.
But honestly, even he had to admit that this time, she had a point.
I thought a doll had been placed there.
The siblings weren’t exactly unattractive themselves.
Quite the opposite—they’d spent their entire lives being told they were handsome and beautiful.
Even when they lived in Seoul, their refined looks and urban atmosphere had made them fairly popular with the opposite sex.
But they couldn’t compare with the person standing before them.
He’d once happened to see a famous actress in person.
Back then, his only thought had been that she was pretty.
But he’d never felt anything like this.
How should he put it?
She simply didn’t look like someone who lived in the same world as them.
Her overwhelming real-life appearance was something no camera could fully capture.
Yoo Seungsu looked back and forth between Oh Hyeonseong and Han Suyeon.
Come to think of it, Hyeonseong’s appearance had seemed unusual from the moment they’d first met him.
Seeing the two of them standing together, they somehow looked incredibly well matched.
People said that the art styles had to match.
“Wow, Hyung. You really are something.”
“I’m not a Hunter.”
“No, no. What exactly is the relationship between you two?”
Yoo Eunha hurried over and asked Oh Hyeonseong.
For some reason, she whispered from behind him as if she were trying to hide from Han Suyeon.
“We just know each other.”
“Just know each other? How?”
“You know that too. We used to work at the same place. We naturally became acquainted after seeing each other so often.”
“So you’re saying you two aren’t dating…?”
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
Oh Hyeonseong looked genuinely bewildered.
Yoo Eunha, meanwhile, was thoroughly confused.
She loved gossip about the Hunter world, and by now she’d already imagined several scenarios in her head—such as a top-class female Hunter secretly having an ordinary civilian boyfriend, or secretly being married to an ordinary civilian.
And now, a woman who supposedly merely knew his face had come all the way to a single man’s house and was acting like this?
“Senior had an excellent reputation at the Management Bureau. When I first joined, he taught me all sorts of things, and we became quite close after that.”
“Gasp.”
Han Suyeon had somehow approached them without Eunha noticing.
Oh Hyeonseong was now between the two women, and Eunha found herself facing Suyeon over his shoulder.
Han Suyeon smiled warmly.
Yoo Eunha’s cheeks immediately turned bright red, and after fumbling for a moment, she finally opened her mouth.
“Um… Could I have your autograph?”
“Ah, so you’re Senior’s neighbor.”
“Yes, yes, that’s right.”
“So I suppose you’ve heard of me.”
“Of course! I’m a huge fan! Aaaah!”
Sitting on the wooden veranda while receiving Han Suyeon’s autograph, Yoo Eunha looked completely overwhelmed with emotion.
All her earlier suspicions had already disappeared.
Oh Hyeonseong let out a hollow laugh at the sight.
He knew Han Suyeon was famous, but he’d never imagined someone would react quite like this.
“Let’s eat already.”
The two men had already set the table in the living room.
Since all they had to do was unpack the lunch boxes they’d brought, there wasn’t much preparation involved.
They only needed dishes and individual plates.
Once everyone had gathered, Oh Hyeonseong couldn’t help laughing when he saw Yoo Seungsu awkwardly sitting beside him.
“Didn’t you say you weren’t particularly interested in the Hunter industry?”
“There are limits to that. Do you seriously not realize who is sitting right in front of us?”
Yoo Seungsu whispered into his ear.
Even as he spoke, he kept stealing glances at Han Suyeon sitting across from them.
He still couldn’t believe that such a powerful Hunter, someone important enough to come and go from the Blue House, was sitting around this tiny dining table and eating lunch boxes with them.
“Is that so? I’ve been in the hospital for so long that I don’t really have a sense of it anymore.”
Oh Hyeonseong tilted his head before picking up his spoon.
Earlier, they’d carried everything wrapped in cloth, so he’d assumed they’d simply packed some side dishes.
But inside were beautifully prepared lunch boxes.
Apparently, Yoo Eunha, who enjoyed cooking as a hobby, had made everything herself.
The menu and neatly arranged dishes alone were enough to show that she was skilled at cooking.
Eunha seemed quite proud of her cooking as well, speaking with an air of confidence.
Of course, Oh Hyeonseong’s standards for food had risen dramatically after eating potatoes and lettuce from his own vegetable garden.
The ingredients used in these lunch boxes, on the other hand, couldn’t compare.
At least the siblings had used some crops they’d grown themselves at their facility, which helped.
But most of the ingredients were factory-produced, so there was no way the food could taste truly good.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t particularly delicious.
It merely felt like they’d done their best to make the most of what they had.
The real value was simply in minimizing the damage to his palate.
“How does it taste?”
“Hmm, it’s delicious.”
Han Suyeon answered with a smile in her eyes.
But she couldn’t hide the awkward movement around her mouth from Hyeonseong.
She, too, had spent the previous day eating potatoes from his garden to her heart’s content.
She’d even woken up that morning expecting to eat those potatoes again, only to suddenly be given something completely different.
Naturally, she couldn’t help feeling disappointed.
Still, she didn’t let it show.
“Thank you for the meal!”
And so, the somewhat ambiguous meal came to an end.
While they were clearing the table, a brief argument broke out.
“We’ll do the dishes!”
“No. The people who were treated to a meal should clean up. You two go sit down.”
“That’s right. We’ll clean up.”
“H-How could we possibly let those delicate hands wash dishes…?”
“What are you talking about? She’s the one who tears monsters apart with her bare hands.”
Oh Hyeonseong looked utterly dumbfounded.
He forcibly dragged the siblings into the living room and made them sit down.
Once they’d finally given up, Hyeonseong returned to the kitchen.
There, he found Han Suyeon already standing in front of the sink, her hair tied back and rubber gloves on her hands.
“You’ve got some good neighbors. They really take care of you.”
“Right? I’ve only known them for a few days, but they’re good kids. Maybe they look after me even more because we’re all from Seoul.”
“Oh, so they moved here from the city too.”
“They came two years ago. But it’s impressive that Deputy Director hasn’t forgotten how to wash dishes.”
“If I couldn’t even wash dishes, would I really be a Hunter? I’d be a princess.”
“Good. Then that’s perfect. I happened to have something I wanted you to do.”
“Something you want me to do?”
Han Suyeon looked at him with a question mark practically floating above her head.
Oh Hyeonseong grinned.
“Don’t you want to eat those potatoes from yesterday again?”
What am I looking at?
The siblings sat side by side on the slope, staring blankly ahead.
A little farther away, Oh Hyeonseong and Han Suyeon were digging into the soil with hand hoes.
Han Suyeon was doing farm work.
The Grim Reaper of Baekya, who had entered countless S-Rank Gates alone and torn monsters apart with her bare hands, was digging through the dirt with a hand hoe.
“…Senior, is this really okay?”
“Yeah. You’re doing well. Keep digging like that.”
Oh Hyeonseong gave her a thumbs-up.
Han Suyeon scratched her head at the sight, let out a deep sigh, rolled her shirt sleeves up to her elbows, and got back to work.
“I never imagined I’d come here and end up doing this.”
“Those who don’t work shouldn’t eat. Don’t you remember hearing that endlessly during training camp with your class?”
“If I had it my way, I’d rather forget it. But why are we digging all this up?”
“Since I’ve decided to live as a farmer, I’m going to do it properly. I need to plant crops other than potatoes too.”
Oh Hyeonseong brought his hoe down hard.
“This is where the grain crops will go. Beyond this, I’m thinking of making an orchard.”
Fruit didn’t require much cooking to taste excellent on its own.
And it offered a completely different kind of flavor from cooked food.
It had been so long since he’d eaten proper fruit that he couldn’t even remember the exact taste anymore.
But the image of it had remained engraved in his mind.
“Farming… So does that mean everything grown here will become delicious too? Like the potatoes I ate?”
“Probably.”
“Your spirits have some incredible abilities, Senior.”
Oh Hyeonseong’s expression twitched.
Had she already figured it out?
Come to think of it, he’d wondered why she hadn’t asked anything about the potatoes yesterday.
Once she’d actually tasted them, she couldn’t possibly have failed to realize that they weren’t ordinary potatoes.
“How did you know?”
“I heard it from a spirit.”
Squeak!
A Fire Spirit suddenly popped out from the pocket of Han Suyeon’s shirt.
The little thing was clinging tightly to her like a barnacle.
Oh Hyeonseong stared at the spirit in disbelief.
“When did you even get in there?”
“Don’t bully the poor thing for no reason.”
Han Suyeon spoke with a mischievous smile.
Apparently, she’d already managed to win the spirit over.
Under normal circumstances, such a thing would have been impossible.
But Han Suyeon possessed a special constitution similar to his.
More specifically, she was one of the extremely rare Mana Resonators in all of Korea.
She wasn’t merely capable of storing and using mana.
She was a specialist who could directly sense and manipulate the mana surrounding her.
And among those with that ability, Han Suyeon was unquestionably at the very pinnacle.
Normally, only Oh Hyeonseong, as their contractor, could perfectly understand what the spirits were saying.
But through her ability to resonate with mana, Han Suyeon could also communicate with the spirits in considerable detail.
Besides, she’d survived for years among those twisted politicians.
Winning over a few innocent spirits was child’s play for her.
The Fire Spirit in particular was especially vulnerable to Han Suyeon, as the two of them were unusually compatible.
“Still, you’re going to get scolded later.”
Whimper!
The spirit immediately burrowed into Han Suyeon’s arms.
Of course, that wouldn’t save it.
Its contractor was right here.
Where could it possibly run?
“Just so you know, I came here because I retired and wanted to live a quiet life.”
“Don’t worry. I’m not stupid enough to go around telling people about something like this. I even played along with your little act earlier when you pretended to be a former government employee. Besides, I don’t want to make an enemy out of you, Senior.”
“A high-ranking official who has the entire Management Bureau under her thumb is giving far too much credit to a washed-up Hunter with an injured leg.”
“Who knows? I think every Hunter from our generation would feel the same way.”
Han Suyeon shrugged.
When it came to something like this, Han Suyeon was probably the most trustworthy person he could have asked for.
Still, he decided to make one thing absolutely clear before moving on.
Rustle.
Oh Hyeonseong reached into his clothes and pulled out a potato wrapped in foil.
The perfectly steamed potato gave off a delicious aroma.
To someone who didn’t know its flavor, the smell might merely seem appetizing.
But Han Suyeon knew exactly how devastatingly delicious it was.
Her mouth watered instinctively, and she swallowed.
This was beyond reason.
It was pure instinct.
“Th-That’s unfair.”
Things had gone slightly differently from what he’d expected, but he’d needed Han Suyeon’s cooperation anyway.
He hadn’t fed her potatoes from his vegetable garden yesterday for no reason.
He’d already needed a collaborator, and now the conversation had simply become much easier.
“I actually had something I wanted to discuss with you about the farming.”
Oh Hyeonseong smiled.
“My dear junior, could I ask you for a favor?”
