After the Hospital Visit — B-Class Hunter Han Sohee (1)
An awkward silence settled over the room for a while after Sohee walked in.
It was only natural. They were meeting for the first time — of course it would feel strange.
Whether that was fortunate or unfortunate was hard to say, but the moment Mom got a look at Sohee, she couldn't hold back. She launched straight into small talk.
"So, young lady, where did you meet Taejin~?"
"Ah, well… at the apartment complex…"
"Oh my, at work?"
"That's…"
Once they got past the little things, the two of them hit it off so well that every kind of story started pouring out.
"My son said that~?"
"…It's not like that. Don't get the wrong idea."
"Smooth operator. Real smooth~"
Mostly stories that made fun of me.
"This kid was always such a talker, even when he was little. The first time he wrote me a letter…"
"Mom, come on!"
"Really?!"
Stories from my childhood, that sort of thing.
I'd called Sohee in for help, but the whole experience left me feeling like my life force was draining four times faster than usual.
Maybe that was why.
"…I'm just going to step out for a cigarette."
"Ah, yes, of course!"
"How many times have I told you not to smoke those…"
I slipped out of the hospital room in a hurry and headed for the outdoor smoking area.
Honestly, if I'd stayed in there any longer, I was pretty sure I'd have nothing left.
And so, while I was outside—
Sohee and Kim Gowun were left alone together.
An awkward silence settled between them all over again.
That was just how it went when the person holding a conversation together left the room.
But this time, something was clearly different from before.
This time, Sohee was the one who spoke first to Taejin's mother.
"Um… Taejin is working very hard. He takes his security duties seriously, and…"
At those words, Taejin's mother smiled for a moment before she answered.
"I know. I know how hard that boy tries."
If I don't know, who would?
Sohee fell quiet for a moment.
The emotion in the woman's voice just then was something complicated — hard to put into words.
"Would it be all right if I told you a little about myself?"
"Of course."
Sohee thanked her and began to share a story from some time ago.
More precisely—
from the moment she first fell ill with a disease no one had ever heard of: Mana Assimilation Disease.
Back then, Taejin had still been scraping by on part-time jobs.
Monster meat covered the groceries well enough, but living like an actual human being cost more than a few coins.
So he'd been working two jobs, three jobs, saving every scrap of money he could.
And that was when she collapsed.
From a disease no one could name.
At first, they thought it was nothing serious.
She'd gone down, sure — but in a world where a Healer's support made most surgeries almost trivial, how bad could it be?
What they diagnosed her with, though, was something no one had ever heard of.
Mana Assimilation Disease.
At the time, people talked about reporting it to academic societies and the like, but they couldn't even pin a proper name on it.
Only later did the disease finally get its official designation.
For a while, thankfully, they received hospital support — meal support, more accurately — but as time went on, even that dried up.
So Taejin took every job he could get his hands on, bouncing from one workplace to the next until the ones he hadn't tried were fewer than the ones he had.
All of this had been barely a year ago.
And when she learned the truth of it, she told him:
"You can live for yourself now."
In other words — please, stop pushing yourself so hard.
Please don't sacrifice yourself for me.
Just as her husband had died for his family, she had no desire to keep living if it meant her precious son had to destroy himself for her sake.
So she begged him — please, just live a little for yourself.
But even then, Taejin shook his head and said they should try a little longer.
At least until something like a trial drug for the disease came out.
And so more time passed.
Prices soared. Expenses only grew. Taejin, with no credentials to his name, was still bouncing from one part-time job to the next.
Worn down to the bone, the last position he applied for was this security guard job.
Three million won a month might not sound like much — but it was enough to cover her food costs.
The quality wasn't great, but she had to eat to stay alive.
The hospital bills, thankfully, were half-covered free of charge by doctors who treated her case as research material for a rare disease.
Taejin had been overjoyed.
At last, he could support his mother's treatment with something stable.
"If a boy like that hasn't been trying hard enough… then who on earth has?"
But from a mother's perspective, it didn't sit well at all.
Her son was only twenty-three, and he was giving up food and clothes for himself, pouring hundreds of thousands — millions — into keeping her alive.
That was why her heart had never been at ease.
She had always assumed he would never take care of himself as long as she was around.
But now, just a little, she could finally relax.
"He brought home a lovely young lady like you. Whatever he does from here, he'll do just fine."
"Ah— no, I'm not…"
Hearing Taejin's mother speak so kindly of her, Sohee answered in a small, uncertain voice.
How could a woman like her possibly be called lovely?
That was what she meant. But—
"Heh heh. 'Lovely' doesn't have to mean just one thing, you know?"
"Pardon? Wh-what do you…"
"That boy's a man, after all. Bam!"
"What?! N-no, Taejin isn't… that kind of animal… uuuuh…"
"Ohhh? Don't tell me~?"
"Auuuh…"
At Taejin's mother's words, Sohee's face went scarlet. For a moment she was so mortified she couldn't even lift her head.
Watching her, Taejin's mother more or less figured out what was going on.
I thought she was a timid little thing — turns out she's a lot more forward than she looks~
She had sized Sohee up rather quickly, in other words.
At any rate, after sharing a few stories that brought them a little closer—
"Th-then, let me heal you! Full recovery might be difficult, but… it should make you a little more comfortable."
Flustered Sohee decided to change the subject before things veered any further in a strange direction.
Finding the sight of her adorable, the older woman laughed softly, nodded, and offered her body so the healing would be easier.
Having barely managed to shift the mood, Sohee slowly began to draw up her mana.
The mana that rose from her seeped gently into Taejin's mother and began circulating through her entire body.
Ordinarily, if there was a wound, you concentrated a strong circulation on that one spot to maximize recovery. But for a disease that bloomed through the whole body like this, the only way was to circulate it just like this.
She let the mana flow slowly through Taejin's mother's body for a while.
Then, at some point, its force began to fade, and before long the mana withdrew completely from her body.
And the impression of Taejin's mother after receiving that single heal was—
"Wow… that's so much better than what I've gotten from other Healers."
Sheer amazement, more than anything.
It wasn't as if she'd only been healed once or twice in her life.
Ordinary people might receive a heal once or twice at most — she had been getting them weekly at times. So Sohee's healing truly astonished her.
It wasn't simply that the painful places in her body had eased.
If that were all, she wouldn't have been this surprised.
What stunned her was this: normally, even after a heal, your vitality didn't overflow.
If anything, the recovery burned through the energy already in your body, so feeling a little drained afterward was the more natural outcome.
But Sohee's heal did the opposite — it restored her vitality.
Color returned to Taejin's mother's gaunt face for the first time in a long while.
"My son really did snag himself a capable one."
"Ah— nooo…"
And with that, she began pouring praise onto Sohee without restraint.
"With ability like yours, my son's going to treat you so well~"
"Uuuuh…!"
Well — praising your future daughter-in-law was nothing out of the ordinary.
And she genuinely meant it, too. Sohee really was that impressive.
Sohee took the full barrage of compliments until her face was bright red, and before long—
T-Taejin! When are you coming back…!
—she was praying for his return while enduring the praise.
Fortunately, before the embarrassment made her completely lose her mind—
—rattle.
"What, still talking?"
"Taejin!"
"Oh my, my son's back~"
Taejin returned, smelling faintly of cigarette smoke.
Thanks to that, Sohee managed to come back to her senses before she fainted from sheer mortification.
After a brief, warm welcome for the returning Taejin, he heard a summary of everything that had happened, stared at his mother with a look of pure disbelief, then gave up and steered the conversation somewhere safer.
They talked a while longer, until the sun outside began to sink, and Taejin decided it was time to get up.
"Leaving already?"
"I'll come earlier next time."
"I'll be looking forward to it~ Son~"
Kim Gowun looked disappointed, but if they wanted to catch public transit home without too much trouble, they needed to move now.
Leaving the long-overdue visit with his mother behind them, Taejin and Sohee stepped outside.
Looking at Sohee — whose face still seemed a little red — Taejin spoke.
"Mom was pretty mischievous today, wasn't she?"
"Ah— no, not at all…"
"It's fine. I know her personality better than anyone. She got excited and started teasing you, didn't she?"
He apologized as he said it.
Apparently meeting one of his acquaintances for the first time in so long had gotten her a little too fired up.
At that, Sohee answered—
"I enjoyed it, too…"
—and she meant it sincerely.
Hearing that, Taejin smiled with visible relief.
"Then shall we head back?"
It was about time to go home, after all.
But at those words, Sohee shook her head.
More precisely—
"W-would you like to have dinner together?"
She made him a dinner invitation.
And she did it—
Squish~♥
"I know a really good place."
—in a way Taejin simply could not refuse.