Chapter 48
“I’m going to go find him.”
She had spent days wearing only that suffocating, frustrated expression.
Then one day, after grinding out the cigarette she’d been smoking into the ashtray, she stood up and said it.
“…”
Yeonho stared at her for a moment, looking genuinely exasperated.
He rubbed the bridge of his nose for a few seconds, barely holding back a sigh.
“Sung Jia, you know that going to him yourself will only make things more complicated, right?”
“As long as I don’t get caught, it’ll be fine.”
“And how exactly do you plan on not getting caught?”
Considering how many people had been bothering him recently, his guard must be at its peak.
He was curious to hear what nonsense she had in mind to break through that.
“I’ll just pretend to be an elementary school classmate. He’ll buy it.”
“…That’s so you.”
In this case, “so you” meant hopeless.
He couldn’t believe she actually thought that would work.
“Don’t go.”
“I’m going.”
Her stubbornness had begun.
Wondering what had set her off this time, he asked:
“Why are you trying to meet him anyway?”
“I need to see if he’s actually someone who fits with us.”
“Ha.”
She’d been sulking ever since their last conversation—so this was the reason.
A headache.
He wanted to stop her, but looking at her expression—which was basically a wall of solid iron—he knew stopping her was impossible.
‘Even if I try to stop her, she won’t hear a word.’
Even if he tied her up and locked her in a room, she’d find a way to break out and cause trouble.
Her personality was useful sometimes, but nine out of ten times it led to disaster.
Yeonho was paired with her precisely to deal with the aftermath of her disasters.
He was on the team to stop her from doing something reckless… but even he was never enough.
The best he could do was predict the damage in advance and prepare to clean up afterward.
But this time, he couldn’t let her go.
“This time you really can’t. This kid soloed an A-rank gate boss.”
Rumor said that Ju-hyuk had taken down an A-rank boss alone and immediately afterwards wiped out a group of armed robbers.
His strength wasn’t the issue—they already knew he was strong.
The problem was somewhere else.
“He cut off those robbers’ limbs. He probably isn’t mentally stable right now.”
Reports said nobody died, so maybe it wasn’t that bad.
Still, apparently every robber had one limb chopped off.
Even a Hunter was, at the end of the day, a twenty-year-old kid.
There was no way a kid could chop off people’s limbs and come out emotionally unscathed.
“If you go now and accidentally provoke him, you might lose your head.”
“You think I’d lose to some brat?”
“Yes. You would.”
He could say it with certainty.
Even if she had a demonic contract and was technically an Awakened, she was barely an A-rank.
Experience or not, she was nothing compared to someone who solo-cleared an A-rank boss.
At Yeonho’s firm answer, her pride was wounded. She scowled and stuck another cigarette in her mouth.
“Just wait. You’ll meet him eventually.”
“…Hmph.”
Jia blew smoke upward in irritation.
She seemed to consider yielding for a moment, burning through cigarette after cigarette—then suddenly she spoke loudly:
“No.”
“….”
Yeah, he never expected she’d actually listen.
Usually she was quiet, tapping away at her keyboard, but the moment something caught her interest she would drop everything and run out the door.
He’d known long ago that calming her down with a bit of advice was impossible.
‘She really drives me crazy.’
If she didn’t recklessly latch onto things, she’d be a reliable teammate with great skills.
But the moment she disliked something, she ran straight into danger without looking back.
“I won’t care if you get caught and die.”
“You think he’d start slicing people on the street?”
Even if she met an illegal Hunter group member, he wouldn’t immediately pull out a weapon to kill her.
At most, she’d get restrained—she could always run away when things got dangerous.
As he thought too optimistically, Yeonho spoke again:
“If he were anyone else, I’d say no. But… with him, I don’t know.”
He remembered that day again—
The last conversation he had with Ju-hyuk.
[If anyone around me gets touched, I’ll kill every last one of your Candy guys.]
He laughed back then.
Some kid who’d only killed monsters was threatening to kill people so casually.
[You’ve never killed a human before.]
Killing a fellow human was on a completely different level from killing a monster.
Killing something that lived in the same world as you, said the same words as you.
Even if you killed out of hatred, the feeling didn’t fade.
Even if you killed out of disgust, the weight didn’t shrink.
That was the weight of killing a person.
A kid who didn’t know any of that saying “I’ll kill you” was just laughable.
[If I work as a Hunter, I’ll end up killing people someday.]
Until… Ju-hyuk’s expression changed.
[I don’t want to kill outside. So be careful.]
Calm voice.
Unchanging tone.
A casual delivery, like he was talking about what he’d eaten last night.
And most of all—
“I told you before.”
The chilling expression he had when he glared at Yeonho.
“That kid’s seriously messed up somewhere.”
He had no depth.
Something in that shadowed face couldn’t be measured.
Even someone like Yeonho—who had stabbed, cut, and killed more people than he could count—couldn’t understand it.
Humans instinctively recoil from what they cannot comprehend.
Every time Yeonho remembered that version of Ju-hyuk, the hairs on his arms stood up.
It felt like staring into a bottomless well whose end you couldn’t see.
“That’s why I said he matches with us.”
That day, he was certain.
That kid was someone who needed to be with them, no matter what.
“Well… you’re still going, aren’t you?”
“You know me well.”
Someone who’d never met him wouldn’t bend just because of some warnings.
He knew her stubbornness wouldn’t be swayed.
‘I just wanted to make her be a little cautious.’
A precaution.
A tiny crack in her wall of stubbornness.
Planting a small seed in there.
That was all he could do.
“Fine. Just… take it easy and come back.”
“Why are you so scared? I’m just going to observe.”
“You always say that, but look what happens every time.”
She smirked, not denying it.
Then she grabbed her bag and began stuffing things into it.
“You’re going now?”
“Of course I am.”
She packed the little she needed and headed out.
As the door opened, Yeonho waved weakly.
“Yeah, just… don’t die.”
“You worry too much~”
The door closed.
Yeonho turned on the special ventilator he’d installed to get rid of the cigarette smell, then sat back on the sofa.
‘She won’t cause a huge scene on day one… right?’
Based on every pattern he’d ever observed, she never caused trouble on the same day she declared she would.
First she’d approach slowly. Then a few days later—bam.
It was a pattern he’d gotten used to over the years.
‘And she’ll understand once she sees him.’
The moment she probed even a little, she’d see it—the depth in those eyes.
Even someone as stubborn as Jia, who still had a functioning survival instinct, wouldn’t cross the line easily in front of him.
‘Hopefully she gets her attitude fixed a little this time.’
Thinking that he hoped she’d get a small scare—but not enough to die—Yeonho started on his paperwork.
Night deepened quietly.
“Huh? We meet again?”
“….”
The woman who called herself his classmate yesterday.
A girl whose name he didn’t even know was waving to him like a close friend—it was awkward, honestly.
As he awkwardly tried to return the greeting, something in her hand caught his eye.
A familiar paper bag.
“You went to our store?”
“I hadn’t had it since I was little, so I suddenly craved it.”
His mom’s bakery bag.
Judging from how full it was, she bought a lot.
“They had a discount in the evening, so I bought a bunch.”
“Really? That’s good.”
Their leftover bread never sold well even with discounts.
His mom always looked sad whenever she had to throw away day-old bread.
Seeing someone buy that much, she would definitely be happy waiting for him at home.
“Can you eat all that? Looks like a lot.”
“I love bread. When our class had your bakery for my birthday party in elementary school, I ate a ton, remember?”
“Ah…”
“What, you still don’t remember even after that?”
She puffed her cheeks slightly and spoke playfully.
Ju-hyuk fiddled awkwardly with his wireless earphone.
“I thought you’d remember after that. Now I’m hurt~”
“…Sorry.”
She clearly knew about the birthday party at their bakery, so she probably was a classmate…
But no matter how hard he tried, her face didn’t match anyone he remembered.
It had been nearly 10 years since elementary school; unless they’d been super close, no one would recognize each other easily.
“Can you at least tell me your name?”
“Hmmm…”
She made a sound of thought, then smiled brightly.
“Nope.”
“….”
“If I tell you, I’ll seem weird for knowing everything about you. So I don’t want to~”
And with that, she walked off exactly the way she was headed before.
“Think hard until we meet again next time~!”
She waved her arm vigorously and disappeared—
Carrying only a bag filled with bread, leaving her identity a mystery.
Ju-hyuk stared blankly after her.
‘Yeah… she didn’t show up.’
He lifted his phone.
Several contacts were listed.
‘I called every girl I was even slightly close with from elementary school. Every one of them said they weren’t her.’
She thought her bakery-birthday-party trick was a great plan.
She had no idea he’d contact all his old classmates to verify it.
‘What is she after…?’
She didn’t try to stick close to him.
She bought bread and left. That was all.
And if his guess was right, she’d show up again tomorrow at the exact time his training ended.
‘Yena’s keeping an eye on the bakery every day so it’s fine… but still, I should be careful.’
If she appeared again tomorrow… should he draw his sword immediately?
It was going to be a night full of worries.
