CH 40

Hara calmly explained the entire story, but Seheon had to question her several times. While looking for a rest area for drowsy drivers, he looked in Hara’s direction several times. 

Hara spoke calmly while looking at Seheon.

“I’m not really lying. If I could let you see the system window, I’d definitely show it to you.” 

“I don’t think it’s a lie.”

It was unimaginable, but it was the truth. If she was going to lie, she would’ve made up a more plausible excuse.

Seheon knew that reality was much more dynamic than dramas, and that liars would always make up stories that were close to reality.

Additionally, it wasn’t like he didn’t understand when he recalled what had happened.

No, on the contrary, he could understand everything now. 

Kang Hara’s strange attitude and Chief Jung, who’d asked loudly if he had a girlfriend.

Yoon Seheon was also quite familiar with Chief Jung Yoojin. The Mapo Tiger. She’d occasionally do something absurd, but she wasn’t the type to be rude in front of others.

But he couldn’t believe that she would say such things in public at that perfect timing. She wasn’t the type to do that unless there was another reason. Up till a while ago, he’d thought that it was because Kang Hara liked him.

In addition, he also had an inkling from Kang Hara, who’d asked him to hold her hand. During the filming for the documentary, she easily pulled out a sword as long as the length of an arm, but as soon as she held his hand, its trajectory became large enough to divide the sky.

He also remembered the words she said in the first dungeon they were drawn into, the Yeouido dungeon, and that contact with him was necessary to use her skills. Was that why she asked him to hold her hand?

Seheon could also understand from Team K’s treatment, who’d singled him out and insisted that he be the reporter for the documentary. When he thought of it all as part of the Hunter Agency’s bigger picture to make Kang Hara awaken fully as an S-class, everything fits.

A service area appeared before the drowsy driver’s rest stop. Seheon drove straight towards the rest stop.

It was after 10pm, so there were quite a number of people at the rest stop. Seheon stopped the car at the back of the rest stop, immediately opened the car door and breathed in the chilly air. It was so that he could come to his senses.

Hara also got out of the passenger seat and stood beside him timidly.

“In other words, Kang Hara-ssi can only awaken as an S-class completely when Kang Hara-ssi and I are in a relationship.” 

“Yes.”

“I should have seen every amusing thing there is…”

While he muttered to himself, Hara watched his mood. Seheon continued to question her.

“Then if I break up with Kang Hara, that S-class will be cancelled, right?”

“He said it wouldn’t be…”

“Where would you find such a ridiculous condition like that?”

“…It’s here though?”

Although Hara found her own words absurd and was embarrassed, she answered clearly. At the same time, she seemed slightly gloomy.

Seheon rubbed his face roughly. Of course, this woman would also be rather dumbfounded. He could tell just without giving much thought to it. The person that’s most dumbfounded would definitely be the Kang Hara that’s in front of him. 

“No, isn’t he the god of love?”

“Right……”

“That’s not how love is supposed to be like. In the first place, love can’t be forced just by making two people without romantic feelings for the other enter a relationship……”

Seheon paused while saying that. It was because he wondered about the people that met through blind dates or matchmakers, entered a relationship successfully and even got married. 

“It’s not like there aren’t people that entered a relationship like that. But…” 

“Erm, Anchor. If you could please listen to me for a while.”

Just then, Kang Hara opened her mouth. Seheon looked at the sky dazedly and responded. 

“Please speak…”

“Actually, after coming out of the dungeon, I kept butting heads with this constellation. I’m sure that this constellation is a little crazy.”

“……”

Seheon’s gaze turned down to look at Hara inadvertently. Can she even say that?

However, Kang Hara didn’t mind him and stared at the air agitatedly. 

“Oh, are you not crazy? Didn’t you say love drives people crazy! Or maybe I’ve gone crazy! Because of you, constellation-nim!”

“……”

In any case, it seems like one of the two was crazy indeed. Or was he the one that’s crazy? 

Seheon wanted to take back what he’d said previously, that he wouldn’t be shocked by anything. There were so many things in this world that could shock him, but he was too arrogant…

In the meantime, the woman regulated her breathing, pulled herself together and looked at Seheon.

“Moderately… I mean, why don’t you take it as you’re performing official duties and pretend to go out with me for a while?” 

Afterwards, Hara looked at the air again and stomped her feet, saying, “Ah! Why!” Then, she continued speaking with a face that was clearly much redder than before.

“N, not that. Can’t you just… go out with me?”

This was probably what it means for someone’s senses to have gone to Andromeda.

The people around hunters with constellations said that they were just like schizophrenic patients, and Seheon also felt the same way. Seheon stared at Hara dazedly.

When Hara saw Seheon like that, she looked like she was on the verge of tears. 

“I understand too. Anchor Yoon must also find it ridiculous. But it’s also absurd to me……”

“……”

“But this is… Sometimes, things like this would occasionally happen in your life. Such as falling into a gutter, or being bitten by a crazy dog, or…”

I’ve never fallen into a gutter or been bitten by a dog in my life. He wanted to refute her like that, but he felt sympathetic instantly. The thought of dying must have crossed the mind of this woman, who was comparing dating him to the gutter or rabies, multiple times. 

How embarrassed she must’ve been, for her face to turn as red as a tomato, so much so that he found her pitiful. 

‘Could this be Stockholm Syndrome?’

It was absurd that he was coldly objectifying himself in such a situation. He shook his head and refuted her words.

“So what would I stand to gain?”

“What?”

“They say that you’re lucky if you fall into a gutter. These days, if you’re bitten by a dog that hasn’t been injected with an antirabic vaccine, you’ll gain compensation. But what’s the benefit of dating Kang Hara?”

Hara’s eyes shook.

“Let’s say I’m dating Kang Hara. Kang Hara will become an S-class hunter. Your skills will improve, and your life will unfold. Didn’t you just witness the production crew, who weren’t happy with Kwon Wook’s mistake, but they weren’t able to voice a single protest. Kwon Wook-ssi also owns a building in Yeouido. Apparently, the benefits that you’ll gain after becoming an S-class are huge.” 

“But what would I gain?”

It seems like Kang Hara had thought about it, as she didn’t seem flustered when he scanned her expression.

“I…”

Hara, who was averting her gaze, opened her mouth cautiously.

“I can give you some money…”

“I earn enough to make a living.”

“Ah, I know. The anchor has a golden spoon…”

Gold spoon. He was slightly annoyed by that insensitive word.

“…Even if I’m not from a well-to-do family, it isn’t usually called a courtship when I’m receiving money from the girl I’m dating.” 

“Oh, that’s true…”

“The Lunar New Year that Yoon Seheon sponsored was rather worth watching.” 

When she spoke twistedly and became sarcastic for no reason, Hara’s gaze became flustered, like she hadn’t intended to do that. 

Although Seheon also found it unbelievable, he couldn’t blame her, so he just stared at the distant sky.

The pitch-black sky. He couldn’t see the stars due to the lights in the rest stop. He was just resentful.

What constellation?

While he covered cases, he’d seen or heard of constellations that would frequently give quests that were practical jokes. However, hunters with constellations were like stars in the distant sky, so he’d never thought that a constellation would intervene in his life.

Although others would frequently dream of meeting a constellation and having a second awakening, Seheon doesn’t even watch sci-fi movies. Seheon was a rather realistic type, so he wasn’t interested in that kind of nonsense.

Could this be a hidden camera programme from the broadcasting company? That was the most absurd and ridiculous scenario Seheon could come up with.

He leaned against his car, rubbed his face, and suddenly glanced at the woman in front of him. Words suddenly came to mind at the sight of the embarrassed face that was illuminated by the lights in the rest stop.

“Instead, don’t just drag anything strange into this house.”

“Otherwise, at least meet a woman that can be of help to you.” 

“Managing to get entangled with an unimportant thing in the dungeon, tsk. Even if it’s national affairs, there should be a limit.” 

His father’s words. And Deputy Director Park’s name.

All of a sudden, another angle gradually began to take shape in Seheon’s mind.

Deputy Director Park Younghee. The Hunter Agency, which was focused on making Kang Hara an S-class. 

Perhaps Deputy Director Park had said something to Rep. Yoon. And Rep. Yoon probably didn’t like it.

“Do you happen to know Deputy Director Park Younghee?”

“What?”

Hara blinked.

“Who is that?”

Seheon’s brows furrowed. 

No, you’re working as a civil servant and yet you don’t know the name of the head of the main office?

Seheon thought that she was pretending not to know, but he changed his mind soon afterwards. If Kang Hara was really pretending not to know, she would have said that she knew that name. 

So, the Hunter Agency didn’t tell Kang Hara at all and just moved on a national scale. That’s what it meant.

He rubbed my increasingly wrinkled forehead. Was this situation also made by the Hunter Agency? Kwon Wook’s grinning face also came to mind.

However, Seheon. decided not to doubt this point. 

“Yoon Seheon-ssi, hold my hand!”

When the werewolf ran out, he was the one that chose to cover her. The Hunter Agency wouldn’t be able to calculate this. It could have been a trick though. 

What bothered him the most was the silhouette of Kang Hara as she stood before him.

Also—

“As long as you hold out in a safe zone, everyone will be rescued…”

“But this isn’t everyone.”

He also remembered Hara, who went to save the girl by herself even though she was trembling. 

So, when he thought about that incident, that’s what this woman was originally like.

His head was about to explode. But two things were certain. Rep. Yoon was quite unhappy with the situation. And Kang Hara doesn’t know about the entire situation.

Perhaps he was falling for the Hunter Agency’s sinister plot, and it didn’t seem like he stood to gain anything.

“Is Kang Hara-ssi’s boyfriend alright with this?”

Kang Hara raised her head abruptly.

“I don’t have a boyfriend! I’ve never had one in my entire life!”

“……I wasn’t curious about that.”