“Junior and Junior”
“How did you… Is your body all right now?”
“As you can see, I’m perfectly fine. I’m healthy enough that I have no trouble with everyday life!”
“…That’s a relief, at least. I never heard that you’d been discharged. When did you leave the hospital?”
“Not long ago. What about you? Have you been doing well?”
“Of course, I have.”
Choi Jeongil nodded.
His appearance was somewhat different, and the way he was dressed was completely unlike how he’d looked back then, but his distinctive way of speaking remained unchanged.
“Do the others not know that you’ve been discharged either? No, if it was Suyeon Senior, she would have known.”
“That’s right. I was staying at a hospital under the Management Bureau, after all. Suyeon came to visit my house once. I didn’t go around telling people about it, so the others probably don’t know. Come to think of it, you two haven’t been in contact either.”
“We’ve both been too busy to contact each other. The last time I saw her was at an official event two years ago.”
Oh Hyeonseong and Choi Jeongil continued their conversation.
However, there was one person who had been completely forgotten.
Joo Jihye.
No matter where she went, she was the kind of person who naturally drew everyone’s attention.
Normally, she would have shouted at them by now, but as she watched the two men, her mouth had been hanging open for quite some time.
“No… Why… How do they… know each other…?”
Joo Jihye muttered blankly.
The two men, who had forgotten about her presence, turned their gazes toward her.
“Ah, Jihye. Go ahead and introduce yourself.”
“Introduce myself…? What kind of relationship do you have with that man, Representative?”
“He’s my senior. Come to think of it, things seemed rather intense earlier. You haven’t caused some kind of incident already, have you?”
“Ah… No, well…”
Joo Jihye’s expression became extremely troubled.
She had already caused a massive incident, and Choi Jeongil, realizing what had happened, let out a deep sigh.
“If you’ve been rude to him, apologize immediately. And make sure you mean it!”
“Wait a second. That guy really is your senior? I’ve never even seen his face before. How does that make any sense?”
“He is the senior I respected more than anyone. Are you planning to disgrace me?”
“T-The senior you respected… the most?”
What era was this?
Even if someone had never cleared a Gate, as long as they possessed a useful unique constitution, they could be called a promising prospect, with their face and name plastered all over the country.
And Joo Jihye had definitely never seen Oh Hyeonseong anywhere before.
His presence was no different from that of an ordinary person, and even if he was a hunter, she had assumed he was some third-rate nobody whose face wasn’t even known.
Yet he wasn’t merely a first-generation hunter who had worked for the government back then.
He was the senior whom Representative Choi Jeongil respected more than anyone.
This… This is impossible.
Joo Jihye’s face turned red, then blue.
As she hesitated, unable to bring herself to say anything, Oh Hyeonseong stepped in.
“It’s fine. Let’s stop here.”
“…We’ll talk separately later. For now, don’t get in the way and go outside.”
Choi Jeongil spoke with a slight frown.
Joo Jihye’s emotions immediately surged.
Being told to leave because she was in the way was treatment she had never experienced even once in her entire life.
“I’m Joo Jihye! I’m the one who built one of the pillars of your company! And some… some nobody like him is treating me like this…! Ugh…!”
Joo Jihye poured out her words, then ran outside with tears in her eyes.
The two men stood there speechless for a moment as she hurriedly disappeared.
“…Youth, huh.”
“Indeed.”
Inside the completely wrecked office.
As if he were accustomed to situations like this, Choi Jeongil found some instant coffee packets scattered across the floor and made himself a cup using the water purifier that had somehow survived in the corner.
“The manager in charge urgently contacted me, saying that it looked like Jihye was about to cause trouble, so I came straight here. I never expected she’d already caused an incident by the time I arrived. Since it was one of our people who was rude to you, I’ll apologize on her behalf.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s not even my office.”
“Haah… I’ll have to compensate the department store and make sure they keep this quiet. Were there any other people injured?”
“Fortunately, no one was hurt. One employee did get caught up in it, though, so make sure she apologizes to him separately.”
“I will.”
Choi Jeongil stirred the instant coffee and handed it over with both hands.
In the middle of the trashed office, the two men leaned against the wall and sipped their coffee.
“…You really moved to the countryside?”
“It’s not bad. You should consider it after you retire.”
“I’ll seriously consider it. Still, I never imagined that you would move to the countryside, Senior.”
“Suyeon said the same thing.”
Oh Hyeonseong gave a faint chuckle.
“But I’m the same. In fact, of all the news I’ve heard from outside, I was most surprised when I heard about you.”
“You mean hunter management?”
“Yeah. Once our team disbanded, I naturally assumed you’d join the military. But who would’ve thought you had a talent for business?”
“I just ended up like this after doing it for a while. Sometimes it still feels strange to me, too. Being here and doing this.”
Choi Jeongil took another drink of coffee, emptying about half the cup at once.
“I started this business because I wanted to train the next generation before I retired. Raising those kids turned out to be harder than I expected. It’s taken so much out of me that I can barely go into the field these days.”
“Isn’t that a bit of an exaggeration? I’ve heard that you’re still active, regularly clearing S-rank Gates.”
“It can’t compare to the condition you were in after being injured there, Senior… But I’m not the same man I used to be, either.”
Swish.
Choi Jeongil removed the eyepatch covering his left eye.
His pupil had turned completely white, staring straight ahead without focus.
Oh Hyeonseong’s expression hardened in surprise.
“You…?”
“As you can see, I’m completely blind in this eye. It wasn’t an injury caused by a monster. The strain accumulated over time, and eventually the side effects surfaced. My eyesight could no longer recover.”
Oh Hyeonseong was speechless for a moment.
Choi Jeongil’s unique constitution was an ability that placed an enormous burden on his eyes.
That was why, even in the past, he had always worn an eyepatch over his left eye whenever he wasn’t using his ability.
But if he had gone completely blind in that eye, then he could no longer use the ability granted by his unique constitution.
“Hunters are consumable resources for society. If you keep using them, they eventually break down. The more times you go into the field and the more injuries you accumulate, the closer your recovery ability gets to zero. It’s an unavoidable fate.”
Choi Jeongil spoke calmly.
“That is also why I left the field and began raising the next generation. I wanted them to be able to work in a better environment than we had, at the very least. I wanted to make sure they wouldn’t be consumed by overwork as easily.”
“Then you succeeded. The hunter industry has become this much more mainstream because of the business you started.”
“The mainstreaming of the industry was inevitable anyway. I merely accelerated it a little. And fundamentally, nothing has changed.”
Choi Jeongil stood silently for a moment, recalling the past.
The comrades who had been dragged into training camps together without knowing anything, the seniors and juniors who had been deployed to countless battlefields.
The hunters of the past, commonly known as the first generation.
Because of his excellent memory, Choi Jeongil could vividly recall countless faces.
Yet almost none of the people he remembered had survived to the present day.
“I don’t believe the peace we have now will last forever. Eventually, a disaster like the one back then will strike again. I’ve already entered the downhill stretch of my life. The only thing I can do now is raise the next generation.”
“So that humanity doesn’t perish because of the Gates?”
“Of course, that’s the primary goal. But even if we manage to prevent the crisis, it’s also about making sure hunters aren’t recklessly consumed in the process. We can’t let them be ground down by overwork because of manpower shortages like we were.”
Choi Jeongil spoke bluntly.
Oh Hyeonseong knew what he had gone through, so he didn’t add anything else.
A brief silence followed.
But soon, Oh Hyeonseong remembered what Joo Jihye had done at the department store.
Since he himself was the farm owner she had been looking for, he realized that it would be troublesome if something like this happened again.
“Why was Joo Jihye causing such a scene here? Did she really do all that just because she wanted to eat the strawberries from this place?”
“Ah… I’m not sure where to begin.”
Choi Jeongil clicked his tongue as he thought for a moment before beginning his explanation.
“Jihye was always a rather picky person, but she wasn’t incapable of controlling her emotions like she is now. If she had been like this from the beginning, I wouldn’t have accepted her into the company. But a lot changed after she was injured during the S-rank Gate raid in Busan a year ago.”
“PTSD? Or did she suffer some kind of direct psychological aftereffect?”
“There isn’t a clear diagnosis. She’s been suffering from nervous exhaustion. Intermittent anxiety, trembling hands, excessive fatigue, and the worst of all is her insomnia. But recently, she said that after eating strawberries from Hankyung Department Store, her insomnia improved.”
“What…? Her symptoms improved just by eating strawberries? Isn’t that just her imagination? Like a placebo?”
“At least, that’s how she seems to feel. She’s hot-tempered, but she’s not foolish enough to mistake her own physical condition to that extent.”
Hunters were highly sensitive to the condition of their own bodies.
Part of that was because they naturally possessed heightened senses, but there was another reason as well.
If they failed to properly monitor their physical condition, there was a high chance they would end up as monster food in the field.
“Regardless, it does seem clear that something has changed recently… But we couldn’t find any clues through scientific analysis. As you know, things like this aren’t particularly uncommon in our industry. Still, at this rate, she won’t be able to hold out for long. She knows that herself, which is probably why she became even more agitated.”
“Hm…”
Oh Hyeonseong let out a thoughtful hum.
He had seen plenty of hunters who complained of psychological problems even after completely recovering from severe physical trauma.
He had initially thought she was simply an ill-mannered woman, but apparently she had her own circumstances.
However, what concerned him more was the story about the strawberries.
Her symptoms improved after eating our strawberries… Honestly, I don’t know if that even makes sense.
Especially since they weren’t even the original strawberries.
They were merely the downgraded version being sold on the market.
For something like a disease to be cured simply by eating those strawberries…
If such an effect occurred on a widespread basis, the entire world would have gone into an uproar by now.
He had never even heard rumors about anything like this.
According to Choi Jeongil, who had extensive connections throughout the hunter world, this phenomenon had only appeared in Joo Jihye.
But now that I think about it, my own physical condition improved to an unusual degree as well. And that improvement has continued even now. Could it really be related to the crops grown by the spirits?
Even after everything that had happened, Oh Hyeonseong had been walking on both legs without limping, and he felt no pain.
There was only a slight tingling sensation.
Until now, he had simply assumed that his condition had improved because he had moved to the countryside, where the air was clean, and was living a relaxed life.
But if—just maybe—the crops grown by the spirits really did have some kind of effect on a hunter’s body, then that would be no ordinary matter.
I need to find out.
Oh Hyeonseong spoke with Choi Jeongil and had Joo Jihye called back inside.
“Why… Why? If you two are so close, then go ahead and keep talking.”
Joo Jihye entered the office and spoke.
She pretended to be fine on the outside, but she couldn’t hide her slightly swollen eyes.
But whether she was crying or not didn’t matter.
Oh Hyeonseong strode toward her and asked:
“You. Do you want to get better?”
Amid a bustling atmosphere, people began leaving the conference room.
After the NSC meeting presided over by the President, Han Suyeon remained seated for a while.
She let out a deep sigh before finally standing up.
As if he had been waiting for her, a man who had been watching her approached.
“Director Han, you’ve worked hard.”
“I’m a Deputy Director, Prime Minister.”
“Haha… Who doesn’t know that? I heard you didn’t even eat anything. Why don’t we have a meal together? I’ll take you somewhere very nice.”
The Prime Minister smiled amiably.
But Han Suyeon politely declined.
Of course, there was no way his invitation would end after just one attempt.
She had to turn him down several more times as he persistently continued to press her.
This is the only skill that keeps increasing around here.
Meals in places like this often didn’t end as simply meals.
“Then, I have an appointment, so I’ll be leaving now.”
“Next time, you absolutely must have a meal with me!”
Han Suyeon shook her head repeatedly before getting into the back seat of her car.
Under normal circumstances, she would have gone to an expensive restaurant around this time to grab a meal.
But she no longer needed to follow that routine.
After returning home, she quickly peeled off her heavy formal clothes and changed into something comfortable.
“What should I make today?”
Han Suyeon headed toward the balcony with light footsteps.
A faint smile, one that she rarely showed in public, even slipped onto her face.
“Ah…”
But the moment she opened the box, she froze.
It was an empty box.
There wasn’t a single thing inside.
Only crumbs remained.
Han Suyeon’s expression immediately fell.
“The potatoes… They’re all gone.”
