CH 30

When Hara dragged her exhausted body, which was on the verge of falling unconscious, home, it was past 8pm.  

Kwon Wook smiled and said, “We’ll end a little early since today is the first day,” and added that someone else will be helping her from tomorrow onwards. S-class hunters weren’t that free. Those words were the truth.

While she felt slight regret that her favourite idol-oppa couldn’t help her with her special training, she could even feel joy the moment Kwon Wook said, “We’re done for today.”

When her boss, Yoojung, first registered for PT, she liked the trainer because he was so handsome, but now Hara thinks that she could understand why Yoojung kept muttering that she didn’t want to see her trainer when it was time for PT.

[T/N: PT: personal/physical training]

Hara’s home was an old two-story house in Yonggang-dong. A house that seemed old no matter how much care was put into it. 

Hara’s mother wanted to rebuild the house every year, but it remained the same as when Hara was born because her father said, “Why do you want to destroy a house that can still be lived in without any problems?”

She opened the old and worn gate, walked through the garden where bletillas grew sparsely, and went into the house. She punched in the password and entered the house, which had signs of life. It was obvious who it belonged to.

It was her younger brother Kang Hada, who’d recently become unemployed.

“Who is it—Ah, fX*k!”

From how he started cursing even before the words “Who is it?” ended, it seems like he was gaming again. Sure enough, the explosive sound of something shattering and a familiar mechanical sound echoed through Hada’s door. 

Hara went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. She was only going to check what was inside, but as soon as her brother heard the sound of the refrigerator door opening, he shouted like he’d been waiting. 

“Me too! Let’s have ramen!”

He hasn’t had dinner again? She was a little annoyed because it wasn’t even that difficult to cook two packets of ramen. Hara was so tired that she thought it would be nice if her younger brother, who played games all day, cooked some for her.

“Kang Hada, come and eat your ramen!”

Hara took out the kimchi and placed the chopsticks. She brought the ramen pot over and called him several times, but Hada didn’t come out.

Just then. Beep beepbeepbeep. She heard the sound of someone opening the front door. There was a high chance that it’s her mother.

Hara rose from her seat.

“Hara, why are you cooking ramen? I’ve already done the dishes though. And there’s side dishes in the refrigerator, so eat some rice.” 

With a bag of bread in one hand and car keys in the other, Hyunsook began nagging as soon as she came in and saw the scene unfolding at the table.

Hara mumbled. 

“No, Hada asked me to cook it…”

“Hada? Hada?”

“Ah, Mom, I’m here. Wait a minute, just after this round!”

Hada’s voice came from his room like a ghost. Hyunsook clicked her tongue.

“That one, that, playing games all day long again. Hada, have you written your resume or not?”

“Ah, I wrote it already!”

Kang Hada, who’d been preparing to get a job for almost half a year, responded loudly. 

As such, Hyunsook’s nagging was directed towards Hara without pause.

“This child, you’re just discharged from the hospital yesterday, and yet you’re wandering about. Isn’t it the perfect excuse for the insurance company to nitpick?”

Hara averted her eyes and raised her chopsticks.

In the past few days, Hyunsook became sensitive due to worry about whether Hara would be compensated for the accident. Let’s use the compensation to fix the house. 

Hara suddenly recalled the 10 million won she’d received from Kwon Wook for her to use comfortably. Should she give her that money? But she had to pay a fine. Then should she give around 2 million? She can excuse that for picking up and selling dungeon byproducts…… 

Hyunsook shook her head as she set the bag of bread onto the table and went deeper inside the house.

When she looked inside the bag of bread, Hara suddenly lost her appetite. There was only the pizza bread that Hada liked, as well as the red bean bread that her father liked.

‘What 2 million? Forget it. Let’s pay the fine and save the remainder…’

“Ah, you’re so stingy. How can you eat by yourself?”

While she was thinking, Hada came out of his room. Hara levelled a light glare at Hada through her glasses.

“I called, but the one that didn’t come out is you.”

“Ah, even so, you could have just waited for a moment though?” 

“Shut up.”

She served herself some ramen from the pot and was about to put it in front of her, but it was quickly stolen by Hada.

“Hehe, thanks.”

Hara looked at Hada dumbfoundedly, while he slurped down the noodles like it was rather natural. 

He turned on the TV, as it was Hada’s habit to watch TV while eating. He used both hands to support the bowl of ramen, while using his toes to press on the remote control to change the channels, like an exemplary unemployed person. 

[On the same day, the Democratic Progressive Party…]

Suddenly, Hara’s gaze suddenly rested on the TV. Yoon Seheon appeared on the news channel. The man was calmly reporting the news at Yeouido, so much so that it was as though it was a dream that he was drawn into a dungeon. 

People’s livelihood and whatnot. The welfare of the elderly, etc. 

Hara stared at the screen blankly, forgetting to take a serving of ramen for herself.

Seheon’s voice was low and sedate. He had excellent pronunciation, perhaps because he was a news reporter.

“Wow, seriously. He’s so handsome.”

At that moment, Hada spoke like he had read Hara’s mind. Hara looked at Hada in astonishment.

“I also want to transplant a hairline…”

Hara’s eyes became murky. So that’s what he meant.

Unlike Hara, Hada desperately wanted to become a hunter, but unfortunately wasn’t even an F-class. He had no doubt that he could also be a hunter, because Hara was a hunter. 

Anyway, thanks to Hara, Hada graduated from college without going to the army, and was currently preparing to get a job as an airline company’s flight attendant. It doesn’t seem to be that far of a stretch, since he was pretty handsome and good at English, but the problem was that he kept saying nonsensical stuff.

“Oh, Noona. Just once. Hm? Just once.”

“No way.”

“Oh, just once!”

“I said no.”

“Oh, come on!”

He then put his ramen bowl down and stomped his feet. But Hara shook her head stubbornly.

“Would the interviewers pick someone by looking at their forehead?”

“Oh, of course!”

Then he suddenly showed her his forehead. On the hair-covered forehead was a brilliant… M-shaped hairline. His forehead was exactly like the siblings’ father, that is, his father in his youth.

He went off the deep end again. 

“Oh, flight attendants are often judged based on their looks!”

“Then work as something else! If your forehead is peeling off, get a job that won’t take your peeling forehead into account!” 

“What do you want me to do when I’ve already graduated with my major?”

Hada has already failed two interviews with domestic airlines. No one knew why. Hada claimed that he’d failed those interviews because of his genetic traits.

All the flight attendants would show their foreheads during their interviews, but Hada resembled their father and had a particularly wide forehead.

Of course, the sibling’s father’s forehead, which was so wide it was hard to explain its expanse in words—no, he had a hairstyle, so it was natural of him to be unconcerned.

Hada started acting out because of the words that the interviewer said to him at his last interview.

“This candidate has a rather long forehead.”

Hara claimed that those words were a blessing, while Hada claimed that those words were backhandedly implying that he would become bald soon. The disagreement between the siblings became rather intense. 

However, if it had ended there, the siblings’ quarrel would have resulted in a heartwarming picture of Hara encouraging Hada.

The problem was that Hada had constantly begged Hara to lend him money to do hairline procedures.

“Please! It’s not like I’m just asking for it for free, I’ll pay you back!”

“Hey, is 5 million won the name of someone’s dog?”

The amount required wasn’t even 500,000 won, but 5 million. 

“I don’t even have the money for that.” 

“Ah, I know that Noona’s term deposit will be reaching maturity soon!”

“And why are you coveting that?”

“Ahh!”

As he spoke, Hada stomped his feet. 

That’s right. The amount of money he asked to borrow was as much as 5 million won.

It wasn’t like the Kang family wasn’t very well off. However, the beginning of the tragedy lay in the fact that the Kang family’s economic power solely belonged to the father.

Usually, Kang Jae-pil was a rather stingy person. When Hara turned out to be a suitable candidate as a hunter, Kang Jae-pil was the one that said paying the tuition for her private high school had been a waste, and was determined to take back three years worth of private high school tuition from her after she got a job as a civil servant. 

Even now, she had to give 500,000 won a month regularly as living expenses to live in the house. 

He didn’t even let the job hunting Hada off the hook. Hada received quite a lot of pocket money when he was still schooling. However, after three months of preparation for employment, the allowance gradually decreased, and eventually was completely drained. 

In such a situation, he couldn’t ask his father for 5 million won for a hairline procedure.

Additionally, it would be rather difficult to explain why he required the hairline procedure. Who was the cause behind Hada wanting such a procedure? It was Kang Jae-pil.

‘Since Dad’s the one that’s balding, take responsibility!’ 

The moment he said that, Kang Hada might be kicked out onto the streets in his underwear. 

As such, to Hada, it was easier to pester Hara. Hada begged Hara to lend him some money for hairline procedures from the day his allowance began to decrease. Of course, Hara kept refusing.

“Ah, Noona. Wouldn’t there be compensation money from the dungeon?” 

Hara flinched at the words ‘dungeon compensation’. This is because she recalled the 300 million won that Kwon Wook offered her today.

But she decided not to take that money. Hara shook her head and spoke resolutely, like she was trying to erase the money that came to mind momentarily. 

“It won’t appear if a compensation agreement isn’t reached. And you’ve never even come to visit me in the hospital before, but you’re making a lot of noise for that compensation, aren’t you?”

“Ah, isn’t that because Noona’s office only indicated that one person can visit as your guardian!”

That’s true. In order to keep things a secret from her family, Chief Jung restricted visits to Hyunsook alone. 

Only the ramen became soggy amidst their fierce fighting. Just then, Hyunsook, who’d changed her clothes in her room, came out and shouted loudly.

“What are you two fighting about again? Eat your ramen quickly and clean it up.”

“Oh, Mom! I asked Noona to lend me some money, but she won’t.”

“What? Have you run out of pocket money? How much do you need?”

“5 million.”

Hyunsook, who was about to enter her room to find her wallet, paused. She’d wanted to end this by giving him a reasonable amount like a few ten thousand won bills, but the amount was rather unusual.

Hada kept grumbling.

“Oh, Mom. I have to get my hairline done for the interview, but I don’t have money. Mom wasn’t here either. And Noona won’t lend it to me. She said she doesn’t have money.”

As Hara watched the scene unfold, she sighed and pressed her forehead in her palm.

Hyunsook called Hada with disbelieving eyes. 

“Son, why do you need that? My son is very handsome.”

At those words, Hada pointed at the news screen and raged. 

“Ah, Mom, do you know the sadness of having an M-shaped forehead when you see a hairline like that?”

On the news screen — in other words, it’s showing Yoon Seheon again. Anyways, Yoon Seheon’s forehead shown on the TV was really handsome and neat.

Hada pulled all his hair upwards and stood next to the screen like he found it rather unfair.

“Look at this. Imagine me and this person are standing side by side. As an interviewer, who would you pick?”

“Of course…”

As Hyunsook was about to say, “My son,” she paused for a moment. Hyunsook, who loved her son dearly, seemed to grow a conscience when her son was placed next to the peerlessly handsome man on the screen.

Hada couldn’t stand that pause and lied down again while screaming, “Ahhh!” Hara just slurped up her ramen.