Seol Hayun
Ever since the Hunter Association’s “Episode 0” video introducing the elementary-school-aged male hunter had been released and started drawing a flood of attention, a new teaser sent the view count surging all over again.
Of course, that was partly thanks to Seongwoon Group president Han Serin’s influence, but this time, most people had simply clicked because the algorithm and the title dragged them in.
As you might expect, very few people took the title at face value.
Anyone who subscribed to the Hunter Association channel already knew exactly what kind of mad dog Hunter Yu Chaerin was.
Their attention naturally shifted to the clumsy way Yeon-woo had pinned Yu Chaerin down and sat on top of her in the video.
At least until that point, people had mostly taken it as some kind of public-service Hunter promo video, or as the marketing department’s life-or-death rebellion against Gwon Seong-muk.
But the moment the full video was finally released, that mood turned on its head.
The video capturing the full-scale battle between Yeon-woo and Yu Chaerin made even ordinary viewers with no special knowledge feel that something was very wrong indeed.
What really brought the whole thing to a climax was a comment from one viewer who, for some reason, seemed to possess suspiciously deep knowledge of magic beasts.
Although the Hunter Association didn’t pin the comment themselves, it rose to the very top by sheer force of accumulating likes, only an hour after the video was uploaded.
[Views: 3.7 million] [Likes: 3.3k]
And then, a few hours later, the “Episode 1” video began racking up an explosive surge in views that easily surpassed the previous one.
That was largely because a number of South Korea’s influencers, including several S-class hunters, had begun sharing Yeon-woo’s video on their personal SNS accounts.
And once something starts trending on social media, the tide of the information age carries it everywhere.
That was right. Yeon-woo’s videos, which had already begun spreading overseas, were now receiving a fairly fiery response all over the world.
The magic beasts’ “hostility toward humanity,” a thing that could be altered by no force and no skill.
Most people couldn’t help but go wild over the enormous wave created by the fact that the first counterexample in human history to that supposedly unshakable truth happened to be a cute-looking elementary school boy.
-Krrrk….
That is, everyone except one girl, who was shut away in the shabby blankets of a run-down officetel and chewing at her fingernails until they drew blood.
*****
“N-noona…”
“H-how was it?”
“I won, right…?”
Hunter Seol Hayun, an A-class hunter. In the phone clutched in her hand, Yeon-woo’s video was looping for what must have been the umpteenth time.
Do Yeon-woo.
At first, of course, she had been startled that her friendly-match opponent was a cute little elementary-school boy.
No.
But the more she watched the video, the more one absurd thought began to rise in Seol Hayun’s mind.
No way.
The child in the video was charmingly pinning Yu Chaerin down. Aside from the fact that he’d once been wracked by disease until his whole body rotted away, he looked remarkably like her own older brother had when he was young.
There’s no way.
And yet, after staring blankly at the repeating footage for a long while, Seol Hayun finally tossed the phone aside and buried her face in her pillow.
“My brother is already dead.”
With that cold voice leaving her lips, silence settled in for a long while.
…….
Still face-down in her pillow, Seol Hayun bit down hard on her lip as she drifted back to an event from a few months ago.
“We’re sorry, Ms. Hayun.”
The hospital she had returned to only after agonizing over the decision for days and days, the day after she had celebrated the success of her anonymously donated mana-circuit surgery with her fellow hunter acquaintances.
“Wh-what do you mean?”
“That is… ah.”
She had abandoned her older brother for success, yes, but that didn’t mean she intended to keep abandoning him forever, even after she’d finally gained enough ability to support him properly again.
Fortunately, only a few months had passed since Seol Hayun received her mana circuit from the anonymous donor and gave up her status as her brother’s guardian.
Then it could still be reversed. She had only given up guardian status for treatment, after all; she had never asked them to stop life-support care.
So she would go back, despite having no face to show, beg her brother for forgiveness, and become his guardian again.
Once she became an S-class hunter, support and aid would pour in from the nation and even from overseas. If that happened, perhaps curing her brother would not be impossible after all.
“Mr. Seol Hajin has already passed away.”
But that hope circuit of Seol Hayun’s was shattered to pieces by a single sentence from the attending physician, whose face had grown dark when she went back to the hospital.
“Why?”
After standing there blankly for a long time, Seol Hayun asked it in a voice that cracked at the edges.
“A few months ago, he gave up life support on his own.”
“…….”
“I truly have no excuse.”
When she heard the doctor’s answer, all she could do was collapse.
There were plenty of excuses. If she had given up her status as his guardian, there would have been no reason for them to contact her even if something like that happened.
Because she’d spent the months after her surgery hospitalized herself, she hadn’t had the strength to go see him again.
Because she’d poured almost all of the money she earned working as an A-class hunter into her brother, she could tell herself she had done all she could.
…….
And yet, no matter how many excuses piled up in her head, there was still one fact she could not deny.
…Because I killed my brother.
Again, a cracking voice leaked from Seol Hayun’s mouth as she pressed her face deeper into the pillow.
Hic….
At last, tears began spilling from her eyes, silently soaking the pillowcase once more, just as they always did.
*****
A few days after finishing the spar with Yu Chaerin.
“Whoa.”
As usual, I was sitting on the sofa in the Female Hunter Lounge, staring at the video on the phone I’d borrowed from Seong-a noona, my mouth hanging open.
[Views: 18.5 million] [Likes: 215k]
That was because the promotional video that had only just begun was already closing in on twenty million views.
Is it really okay for this to do this well…?
I was happy, sure, but I couldn’t hide how tense I felt about drawing so much attention all at once.
People work the same way with expectations and disappointment.
What if I can’t perform in the real thing and everyone ends up hating me?
What if the status window realizes it judged the wrong person and takes my ability away again?
“Hey, brat.”
“...Chaerin noona.”
“Why the long face?”
I had been hanging my head and worrying myself into a knot when Yu Chaerin’s voice came from in front of me.
“You’ve got a visitor, so knock off that expression.”
“A visitor?”
I tilted my head in confusion at her words, and then froze in place.
“Seol Hayun. Your friendly-match opponent.”
“……!”
“She came to the Association to see you today.”
I still wasn’t ready for it, but in the end, the moment had arrived for me to face my little sister Hayun again.