People Over Conditions
It was a time when Jisu had yet to gain a hunter's abilities.
He'd taken a leave of absence from university and started taking whatever work he could find to cover his mother's hospital bills. More precisely, it was about three months after he'd earned his safety-training certification and gone to work on a construction site.
Site work — the kind of construction-site labor people usually called grunt work — wasn't actually as punishing as its reputation suggested. You got up before dawn, shouted the morning safety chants, did odd jobs until break time, then more odd jobs until the meal break. You worked through to evening, and depending on how the day had gone, you either stayed for the night shift or went home. That was the life. If you judged it purely by how hard the work itself was, loading cargo was probably a bit tougher. That was what Jisu figured, anyway, as he worked his way through those three full months.
This, too, was a place where people lived their lives, and so you met every kind of person imaginable. Students his own age, there for a short stretch to scrape together tuition or travel money. Men who'd crashed out of thriving companies and come here to keep their families afloat. Foreigners who'd crossed oceans to earn a living. People who'd chosen this path from childhood and were now treated as proper skilled tradesmen.
People who'd spent their whole lives behind a desk tended to assume that taking this kind of work meant you'd wrecked your life. That wasn't true at all.
Jisu had decent stamina, and though he wasn't much of a talker, he was quite attentive and humble about everything. Before long, he'd opened up a conversation with the older craftsmen on site. Young people vanished after about a month and new ones took their place, so at first they hadn't even treated him like he was really there. But as Jisu kept working hard, they gradually opened their hearts to him.
Manager Kim Baeksu, in particular, seemed to have taken a real shine to him. Kim had once held a high position at a company before becoming a casualty of office politics and tumbling all the way to the bottom. He wasn't a manager of anything anymore, but everyone on site still called him Manager Kim. And of everyone at that construction site, he was the one who backed Jisu the most.
"That kid's worth teaching a trade. Don't bother showing me — just take him under your wing. Director Park, I'm telling you, he's got real talent."
Whenever he overheard things like that, it left him with a faintly ticklish feeling, but he didn't exactly hate it. Sometimes the man's face overlapped with his late father's. And the truth was, without him, Jisu would have needed far longer to adapt to site work.
Whenever Manager Kim got a chance to talk with Jisu, he would, like a cuckoo clock stuck on a single hour, launch into his own experiences and deliver the words he considered most important.
"You won't get it while you're young, but a moment will come when you're out there working. Whether you stay on a construction site or some other opportunity finds you — you're still young, after all. Anyway, engrave this in your head when that day comes. Never betray the person you first agreed to work with just because something better comes along. It'll sound like some stuffy old fossil talking. But if you go around taking nothing but the profit, there won't be a soul left standing beside you the day there's nothing left to squeeze out of you."
True to his word, he hammered that same point home every time they met, like the most tiresome kind of old-timer. But the face Jisu saw beside him in those moments had always looked terribly hollow — as if he were endlessly longing for something he could never get back.
When had it been, that he'd last watched the man vanish off to smoke after saying those things — and never seen him again? Not much time had passed, and yet the memory was already growing hazy.
It might have been the usual meddling of old men everywhere. Or maybe he'd just been reciting a line he thought made him sound impressive in front of the young. But strangely enough, no matter how hard Jisu tried, he could not forget that one thing Manager Kim had said.
Yes. That one line he'd heard so many times he still couldn't forget it, even now. Never betray a person.
Those words were what troubled Jisu now.
"..."
He sank into thought for a moment. His mother's hospital. The reason he'd wanted to make so much money as a hunter — no, the reason he'd taken a leave from university and started working in the first place — had all been because he wanted to give her better treatment.
But was this really all right? Could he just throw away someone he'd agreed to work with?
I don't think Mother would like this very much, either.
And besides, his motto was to live righteously. How could he turn around and do something so unjust?
"I don't think I'll be able to join the Seongwolhoe Guild after all."
"If you could sign here, and here as well... wait, what? Why?"
Hyunji, who had been cheerfully walking him through the contract with a smile on her face, looked up at him.
"Joining would be difficult. I already have a contract with my Operator, and guild work itself would be a bit of a problem for me."
"But—"
Whatever she'd been about to say died as Jisu's face came into focus. It was the look of a man steeped in resolve — the kind that said, quite plainly, that his mind was made up. She had met all sorts of people in this line of work, but she had never once closed a contract with someone wearing an expression like that.
Maybe I should back off for now. Siyun still gave me time to bring him in.
Having reached that conclusion, Hyunji put her sales smile back on, tidied the documents, and spoke.
"Understood! This is an important decision, after all — of course it would be too much to ask you to make it all at once! If I was inconsiderate, I sincerely apologize. I'm sorry."
"No, I don't think that's something you need to apologize for."
"Not at all. I should have taken a process that actually reached you. Next time I visit, I'll be sure to come with terms that will truly appeal to you. Thank you so much for your time, Hyun Jisu! Then—!"
Before Jisu could even answer, she was already opening the door and preparing to leave. A parting greeting drifted back, and just as suddenly as she had appeared, she vanished from in front of him.
I wasn't going to join even if she came back...
What was he supposed to say if she showed up again? Should he just give her a call later? Drive a stake through it and tell her there was absolutely no chance he'd join?
He was turning those thoughts over when his eyes happened to meet Seyeon's. She was sitting on the sofa, staring blankly into space.
"Ah, Seyeon."
"Congratulations!"
"...What?"
Jisu looked at her strangely, but Seyeon didn't falter. She just kept beaming. Her usual high tension was still there, but something about her today felt a little off.
"That person who just came by — she's from the famous Seongwolhoe Guild, right? She came to recruit you, didn't she?! Jisu, you've really made it!"
"Ah, yeah. So you heard."
Her heart lurched. She steadied it. Act natural. Act natural. There was no need to debase herself at all.
"But she said she'd come back tomorrow, so I don't know what to do. I'm not going to join..."
"Right! There was something I needed to tell you. The truth is, I think I owe you an apology! Due to personal circumstances, I was going to terminate my contract with you... wait, huh?"
"The contract? Seyeon, is something going on?"
Jisu asked it back, looking a little startled, and she froze. The smiling face she always wore dropped straight to the floor.
"...You're not taking the contract?"
"No. I decided not to go to Seongwolhoe."
Seyeon's unsmiling, startled face honestly looked like a model's, or an idol's. But saying that at a time like this would have been ridiculous.
"Weren't you going to join? You could send your mother to a better hospital..."
"Ah, so it all leaked out the door? Sorry. I thought we were talking quietly."
Seyeon startled and quickly bowed her head.
"N-no. I wasn't trying to eavesdrop. I'm really sorry."
"What? It wasn't even anything important. Anyway, I just decided not to go to Seongwolhoe."
"Why?"
She asked it almost accusingly without meaning to, her eyes trembling. Jisu was a little thrown, not knowing what had happened, but he continued calmly.
"To join Seongwolhoe, they said I'd have to terminate things like my Operator contract."
"Ah, so it's because of me?"
"What? No, it's not because of you. I decided this, and also..."
Whatever Jisu said after that didn't reach Seyeon's ears. Instead of his voice, a phrase circled there.
A stumbling block in his life.
She let out a long breath, then smiled brightly and spoke. Like always. Like any other day. Hypnotizing herself as she went.
"Then that's fine! Like I said earlier, I was going to terminate the contract due to personal circumstances anyway! And since I'm the one terminating it, you don't need to pay a cancellation fee. Thank you so much for everything. Jisu, I wasn't able to support you for very long, but your ability is the real deal, so I'm sure you'll meet good people at Seongwolhoe and keep doing well!"
"Seyeon?"
"Ah, where's the contract? I'll take it today and bring the voided paperwork. I'm sure you put it in the drawer—"
"Seyeon!"
Jisu's hand settled on her shoulder. The sudden touch startled her for a moment, and he carefully opened his mouth.
"J-Jisu?"
"You didn't listen to the end, did you?"
"L-listen to what?"
"Yeah."
He nodded. Into Seyeon's eyes came the same resolute look Hyunji had seen only minutes before.
"It's not because of you. I decided this myself. I want you to keep being my Operator. I'm not pitying you. That's just what I think."
"Uh... th-that's..."
She couldn't even get the words out. Her face flushed red as she sat there, overwhelmed by him.
Thump. Thump.
Her heart began to pound fiercely.
"But if you have circumstances that mean you need to leave, well, that can't be helped. It's not like I can stop you..."
"..."
Strangely, in that moment, Seyeon felt that all the worrying she'd done was utterly pointless.
Right. If Jisu said so, then that was how it was.
She was embarrassed at having overreacted for nothing, but shamelessness had always been her strong suit.
"Well, I mean, that's true, but! Since you said you really need me, I won't terminate the contract."
"What? I mean, that's a relief, but you're all over the place today. If you're not feeling well, you can go home early..."
"Not feeling well? I still have to work for the money I've been paid! I haven't even done the dishes yet."
"I can do the dishes myself."
"No, I'll do them!"
Having said that, Seyeon smiled — a smile a little different from the business one she always wore. More precisely, she didn't hang a smile on her face.
"I'm your Operator, after all!"
She actually smiled.