Seol Hayun (2)
“Identity confirmed.”
“…….”
“A-Class Hunter Seol Hayun, welcome to the Association…”
Freshly arrived at the Association, Seol Hayun ignored the bright mechanical voice that rang out after her hunter ID was scanned and kept walking forward.
I need to investigate Do Yeonwoo.
Ever since a few days ago, her mind had been packed tight with thoughts of that child named Do Yeonwoo.
If I lose to some kid like that, then everything becomes meaningless.
Do Yeonwoo. The elementary school hunter who had become the hottest topic in all of South Korea the moment the Hunter Association released his video.
And if the Association’s request and Chairman Han Serin’s testimony were true, then he was on the verge of becoming the youngest S-Class Hunter in the world.
“…Tch.”
If that really happened, it would deal Seol Hayun a crushing blow.
Her fame as South Korea’s youngest A-Class Hunter would be buried almost immediately beneath the sensation of the youngest S-Class Hunter being born.
Of course, it was highly likely that she would be promoted to S-Class soon as well, but even so, losing the title of “youngest” was far too painful to bear.
There’s no helping it.
The only way to break through that situation was to beat Do Yeonwoo in their exhibition match.
Sure, she wouldn’t be able to avoid criticism for winning against an elementary school child without holding back.
But that didn’t matter to Seol Hayun.
Right now, the only thing in her head was climbing to the top by any means necessary.
Because she had already lost too much, and if she lost even that goal, she felt as though she might forget the reason she was still alive at all.
-Creeeak…
Having steeled herself, Seol Hayun opened the door to the female hunters’ lounge with a blank expression.
She had already located where Do Yeonwoo was through the EP.0 video. Besides, she had once stayed in the female hunters’ dormitory at the Hunter Association for a short time in the past, so she remembered the basic layout of the lounge attached directly to it.
“Excuse me.”
After opening the door and glancing around for a moment, Seol Hayun stopped moving, took in the hunters’ gazes all at once as they turned toward her, and spoke.
“Where is Do Yeonwoo?”
And then, a brief silence settled over the lounge.
“Uh, well…”
“Uh, where was he again…?”
“Haha…”
Seol Hayun watched the female hunters exchange awkward expressions and fumble for words in the silence, and her brows twisted sharply.
...What a waste of time.
The thing she hated most in the world was wasting time for no reason.
She had already wasted far too much time in her life, which was why she pursued efficiency to an almost extreme degree, whether in hunter work or in daily life.
“If you don’t intend to tell me, then I’ll just—”
It was precisely then, while she was making a cold expression and muttering that under her breath as she began to step forward, that something suddenly sprang up from the sofa and came trotting toward her.
“H-hello…”
Then that something, after hesitating for a moment, bowed its head and greeted Seol Hayun, who had stopped in place.
“I, um. I’m…”
At the same time, Seol Hayun belatedly realized that this something was the child she had been looking for, and her eyes flew wide open.
“Do, Do Yeonwoo…”
Her whole body began to tremble little by little.
-Tremble…
After finishing his greeting, Do Yeonwoo looked up at her uneasily, and the sight of him only sharpened the image in her head.
He really did resemble her older brother when he was little.
No. It’s different.
Seol Hayun, who had been staring blankly down at Yeonwoo, quickly shook her head and repeated the thought in her mind.
This kid isn’t my brother.
Unlike her older brother back then, the child in front of her wasn’t suffering from a disease that crushed his skin all over his body.
And there was no way her brother, who had lain in a hospital bed wasting away before asking to end life support, would suddenly become young again and appear in front of her out of nowhere.
The child’s resemblance to her brother when he was little was nothing but coincidence. And the reason she was shaken this badly was because of that pathetic little hope circuit of her own making.
I killed my brother with my own hands.
Seol Hayun clenched her teeth hard and kept repeating it over and over inside her head, when a wave of nausea suddenly rose up in her throat and she squeezed her eyes shut.
“…Damn it.”
The image of her older brother, who had so often appeared in her dreams lately, so weak he couldn’t even move a finger properly, lifting a pen with his own hand and signing the consent form to end life support.
“U-um…”
That face of the child who looked too much like her brother had overlapped with the hallucination and was now materializing far too vividly in her mind.
“Are you okay…?”
And then, right at that moment, a tiny hand gently took hold of her limp one.
“…Well.”
Seol Hayun slowly opened her eyes, and as she looked down at Yeonwoo carefully gripping the tip of her finger with a worried expression, she started to say something.
“Come to think of it, Yeonwoo and Seol Hayun… do look alike a lot, don’t they?”
“…I was just thinking that.”
“If someone didn’t know better, they’d mistake them for family…”
Then, from behind her, she heard the low murmur of the female hunters who had been watching the oddly fitting pair and now tilted their heads, whispering to one another.
“No!!!”
And in that instant, Seol Hayun violently shook off Yeonwoo’s hand and raised her voice as cold sweat drenched her back.
“They don’t look alike at all, so all of you shut up!”
Because of that, the atmosphere in the female hunters’ lounge turned ice-cold in an instant.
“Haah, haah…”
Still dripping cold sweat as she looked around the room, Seol Hayun soon spoke in a frosty voice.
“I don’t have family. Something like that doesn’t exist.”
“…….”
“So don’t go spouting nonsense and shut your mouths…”
But by the end, her voice had weakened as though she were making excuses, and in the end it faded so much that no one could hear it anymore.
“…Is that so.”
And then, at that very moment, a somewhat subdued voice came from the front.
“Hehe…”
As Yeonwoo, the owner of that voice, lowered his head with a somehow sad smile, Seol Hayun’s eyes trembled violently for a moment.
“You do know that I’m your exhibition match opponent, right?”
“...Yes.”
“Then be prepared.”
But even so, she squeezed her eyes shut, took a deep breath, and after leaving those words behind, turned around.
“I have no intention whatsoever of going easy on you, like Hunter Yu Chaerin did.”
She gave Yeonwoo a brief, icy look before stepping out of the lounge.
“…….”
After ending that short encounter, the place she rushed to was the bathroom outside the lounge.
“There’s no need for the way I speak or my voice to be alike too…”
Inside, she stood with her head bowed for a long while, then murmured under her breath.
“Hurk.”
The sound of retching began to echo through the bathroom.
“Uwaaaah…”
It rang softly through the long-empty restroom.
*****
About ten minutes later.
“…….”
With the dark circles beneath her eyes even worse than before, Seol Hayun emerged from the bathroom in a sluggish walk.
-Thud…
Then she leaned weakly against the wall and sank down to the floor.
“Haha…”
It was something she often did whenever she felt her mind beginning to crack.
“Even if I do this, nothing changes anymore.”
But the older brother who used to come sit beside her and gently pat her head whenever she was crouched there as a child was gone now.
No matter how much she broke apart, he would never sit beside her again and stroke her hair.
“Hey…”
While thinking that, Seol Hayun absentmindedly froze the wall she was leaning against, and then abruptly came to her senses at the voice beside her.
“…H-Hayun noona?”
Do Yeonwoo, who had clearly been frightened only moments ago after being threatened, was somehow crouched down beside her in exactly the same way.
“Take this.”
He reached into the envelope he had been carrying and took out some medicine, offering it to Seol Hayun.
“Don’t push yourself too hard.”
“…….”
“When your stomach hurts, you need to rest a lot…”
Then he pressed the medicine into her hand, and after a moment of hesitation, Yeonwoo gave an awkward smile.
“Hehe…”
Then, with a slightly embarrassed expression, he reached out and patted Seol Hayun’s head.
“U-um… and also.”
“…….”
“Please do your best in the exhibition match…”
After that, he glanced at Seol Hayun again, then sprang to his feet and hurried back into the lounge, vanishing from sight.
“…….”
Behind Seol Hayun, who had been watching Yeonwoo’s retreating back, the wall she had frozen was now slowly melting, water dripping down in little threads.
“Ungh…”
And from Seol Hayun’s eyes, which were still staring blankly at the wall, something wet slipped down as well.