CH 11

From what he had heard, the young man was the eighth cousin of the second son-in-law of the nephew of the grandmother who owns the Haejang-guk house. To search for relatives who have survived the loss of their families due to the rift, he finally met his grandmother. He said he had no place to lean on, so he spent his time helping his grandmother’s shop, the only remaining blood relative in the world.

Won-woo only half-heartedly listened to the young man’s sad and epic backstory. The story of how he lost his family and survived on his own was not part of the story.

But they all praised him as an unprecedented filial piety. Nowadays, all young people go to Noryangjin to prepare for the Hunter Civil Service Examination or to join the Hunter Guild’s Non-Awakened Division, and no one would work in a shabby haejang-guk house, even if it was a family-run restaurant!

Because of this, the hunters, including Bae Won-woo, viewed the young man who had suddenly appeared in a very favorable light. In fact, they thought they had eaten too much for an old woman to run a business alone. The young man, who was healthy and strong, was so good at his job that he was able to sell a few pots.

‘He looked like he’d been working in a haejang-guk house for 30 years.’

By all accounts, this must be his first time working at a haejang-guk house, but the young man’s serving skills are unusually good. The tables have definitely been turning faster since he started working, and he wasn’t scolded by the grandmother to stop eating! For hunters who eat fast and eat a lot, his arrival was good news.

But lately, the young man seems to be running the shop on his own. When I asked him about it, he said that his grandmother’s legs weren’t feeling well. It was a pity.

“Welcome.”

The young man bowed his head in greeting, and Bae Won-woo returned the greeting with a friendly smile before scanning the empty seats. The only vacant seat was across from a lone patron in a two-seater, but luckily, the owner of the seat was a hunter who knew Won-woo. He was as much of a regular as Bae Won-woo, seeing him at least once every two days, so they had built up quite a bit of familiarity. Won-woo asked nicely.

“Can I sit here for a while?”

“Sure. You’re in good time before the long wait.”

”Of course.”

Bae Won-woo, who had joined the group with a casual greeting, scanned his surroundings for a moment. In order to gather the information the guild leader had requested, he asked into thin air.

“Oh, by the way… Where do you wearing your soju apron these days?”

His voice was slightly squeaky, but as far as Bae Won-woo was concerned, he rhymed quite naturally. Hunter, sitting across from her, narrowed his eyes and asked back.

“What, a soju apron, all of a sudden?”

“Uh, hmm, I was just wondering.”

He blurted out and the tables around us chimed in with comments of their own.

“Don’t you usually wear one when you go to a restaurant to keep food splashing to your clothes?”

“Right.”

“Yeah. They’re everywhere, they’re hanged on the wall, for us to wear them.”

“I went to the chicken ribs in front of the Madok Guild the other day, and they were there, too. I heard it’s a Hunternet-certified restaurant, and it’s really good.”

“Wow, I went there once and the wait was so long, I just gave up.”

“If you go there on a Friday night, there’s a whole guild of Madok eating there.”

As Bae watched the hunters chatting about food, he inwardly felt proud of himself. As he turned his head to look around, he saw a black apron hanging on a grid of hangers on the wall.

Yes, that one. As Won-woo’s eyes lit up with delight, the young man walked over with the kimchi and kkakdugi and set them down on the table. Then, from the apron’s front pocket, he pulled out a ballpoint pen and a new bill…

…An apron!

Bae Won-woo felt a flash in his head: the shop’s diligent part-time worker always wore an apron. The young man’s apron had a large ChaX logo on the chest.

..A soju brand apron?

“One haejang-guk, right? Do you want a lot of chili?”

Bae Won-woo forgot to answer and stared at the young man as if mesmerized by something.

When he first saw him, je thought, ‘What kind of actor is in Haejang-guk’s house?’ At first glance, one would be surprised to see such a pretty and handsome person in such a shabby place, with his sharp, nonchalant face, clear black eyes, and neat black hair. Bae Won-woo’s eyes suddenly narrowed.

‘What?’

The part-timer’s hair was originally… Under the fluorescent light, the rounded crown of his head looked much brighter than his black hair today.

‘If you have gray hair…’

Gee… that’s pretty close to the description Lee Sa-young gave, isn’t it? He said it was black or gray, with hair that was confusingly curly, and gray hair isn’t even common!

“Customer?”

This is haejang-guk house… Shouldn’t there be a ladle? Won-woo looked around uncertainly.

“Customer.”

“Hunter Bae-nim?”

Bae Won-woo came to his senses only after a hunter, who was present, called out to him. Two pairs of eyes stared at him in disbelief. Bae Won-woo smirked and nodded.

“Uh, yeah, that’s right. Lots of cheongyang peppers.”

“Okay. Wait a minute.”

The young man clicked his ballpoint pen and turned around to head for the kitchen. Bae Won-woo, who had been staring after him, soon shook his head. There’s no way that Lee Sa-young would be looking for a part-time worker at Haejang-guk house. Far from meeting, I’m sure they’ve never crossed their clothes.

…But maybe?

Bae Won-woo kept glancing in the direction of the kitchen where the young man had gone, trying to guess at the possibilities. But after a while,

“Haejang-guk is ready.”

The lingering doubt in his mind lingering doubts in his mind melted away in the hot haejang-guk. Bae Won-woo smiled broadly, emptied the pot of haejang-guk to the bottom as if washing the dishes, and called out vigorously.

“One more bowl!”

<Pado Guild Blinds>

*Please be polite and respectful!

*Posts that do not meet the rules may be deleted without notice.

Subject: [Anonymous] What’s with the guild atmosphere today?

I can barely breathe.

Comment (12)

ᅳWhy?

ᅳIs it 240?

ᄂI’m late for work today.

ᄂIf I know, I wouldn’t have posted this…

ᄂI just saw him and he looks like you’re pissed off? HIs face is rottenᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏ

ᄂHe wear a gas mask all the time. How do you recognize his facial expressions?

ᄂIt’s so obvious

ᄂWhat do you think?

ᅳIt’s 240 again…

(TL/N: 240 is Lee Sa-young, they made it 240 so it won’t be obvious, like a codename. 2 – i ; 4 – sa ; 0 – gong ; if combined, it sounds like Lee Sa-young)

ᅳMr. 240 will be heading down to the 11th floor conference room shortly. Be careful not to cross paths.

ᄂThank you, secretary anonymous!

□Subject: [Anonymous] Mr. 240, if you’re not feeling well.

The temperature of the building itself seems to drop about 3 degrees.

Can’t you just tell them to work from home on bad days?

It’s so cold

Comment (7)

ᅳThat’s why I bought a heating artifact at Hunter Market ᄏᄏᄏ It’s hot

ᄂDo I really need a detox artifact and a heating artifact… Living as a pado guild member is hard.

ᄂIf you have such a thing, let’s get some tools–;

ᄂOn days like this, we need to supply hot packs. That’s guild welfare.

ᅳMr. 240, you don’t even have an ice ability, so how do you lower the ambient temperature?

ᄂI’m guessing it’s a skill or talent. No one knows the real reason.

ᄂI guess you’ll get those skills if you’re level S oo

A week after the dungeon bidding meeting, Lee Sa-young was in such a bad mood today that the entire guild was noisy.

His mood was like a gyrodrop hanging from the top, in a vertical plummet. Though his face was hidden by the gas mask, it was impossible not to notice the fearsome aura around him.

Something was happening that would not make sense to Lee’s common sense or to anyone else who knew anything about Korean hunters.

South Korea is one of the only countries in the world that has an excellent database of its citizens’ personal information. When the gates first opened and the awakened began to appear, the country quickly established the Awakened Management Bureau and created the concept of ‘government hunters’ who were subordinate to the state, and it only took a few years to systematically manage the information of every awakened.

It was because he trusted that database that he let his suspicious ‘hyung’ go so easily. From the moment he met him to the moment they parted ways, he was certain he was at least an A-rank hunter. No matter how much he hid, it was impossible to hide all of his abilities in front of an S-rank Hunter.

Hunters who hid their powers could easily live comfortably with a B-rank rating, so it was likely that his hyung was also a B-rank outwardly.

Anyone with a B-rank ability or higher would definitely be registered in the Awakeners Database. Thinking so, Sa-young instructed Min-ki to search the Awakeners Database and report back to him. He had no doubt that Min-ki was capable of doing so.

But a few days later, after creeping around for a while, the news came like a bolt of lightning.

“I got caught by Jung-bin.”

This was the worst news of all, and out of habit, he rubbed the crumpled business card with his fingertips.

“You, specialize in stealth, and you’re ranked 33rd…. right?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Then why the hell are you getting caught?”

“Because Jung-bin ranked third, and he’s an S-class… Oh, no.”

Min-ki swallowed back what he was about to say, but it was too late. Sa-young sneered sarcastically.

“I’m number one, and I’m an S-class. You’re scared of Jung-bin, but you’re not scared of me.”

“No, guild Leader, I’m fucking scared.”

“What did Jung-bin say?”

“That’s… the thing.”

Seo Min-ki muttered gloomily.

“He told you to go to the Awakening Management Bureau yourself. He said he needs a meeting with you….”

“Shit.”

It was for this reason that today, Sa-young delayed his work time to pay a personal visit to the Awakening Management Bureau. He listened to Jung-bin’s bitter words from the side, letting them drift out of his ears, and searched through the Awakeners Database. The whole time he was searching through it, Jung-bin,

“Lee-ssi, the Awakeners Database should not be used for selfish purposes.”

“Are you listening? Look, I said no.”

“Hunter Lee, can you at least pretend to listen to people?”

And so on and so forth, but he didn’t stop searching.

“If he’s not registered here, that means there’s at least a B-ranked unregistered person walking the streets, aren’t you going to check?”

When Sa-young said this, even Jung-bin, who seemed like a big man, shut up.

He was prepared to break down like that, and he did break down, searching everywhere he could find, but there wasn’t a single piece of information.

There was no ‘hyung’ in the Awakeners database, the pride of Korea!

He checked three times, including all the F-ranks, just in case, but he didn’t see the face he had seen that day. He wondered if it was a photo ID, so he went through the photos in reverse order one more time.

Two men were shocked for the same reason.

Unregistered hunters exist in South Korea…?