Don't You Dare Die on a Whim
The midday sun poured through the cafe’s enormous glass windows. People sipped their coffee as if nothing in the world could touch them. In the middle of that peaceful scene, Han Sora heard the sound of her entire life collapsing.
Yun Mija sat across from her, wearing the same relaxed expression she always did. The same gentle, grandmotherly smile. But the manila envelope she had placed on the table was anything but kind.
“The Birth Management Bureau told me this. If I don’t swallow you whole, they’ll hand these documents over to the other two guilds.”
Han Sora opened the envelope without a word. The moment she saw the papers inside, her fingertips went ice-cold.
“How…?”
Highly classified treatment records from the underground medical ward beneath Baekho Guild Headquarters. The wounds that had been so carefully hidden were now neatly compiled into a stack of documents. Her voice refused to work.
How had the Birth Management Bureau found out? How much did they know? The location of the treatment room? The full list of medical staff? Even the falsified reports she had created to conceal her mother’s condition?
Questions flooded her mind without end. But only one brutal truth remained.
Baekho had been exposed.
“So… are you planning to destroy our Baekho?”
Yun Mija did not deny it immediately. That silence alone was answer enough.
“Yes.”
No pity. No excuses. Only the coldest, most calculated judgment an old hunter who had survived for decades could make.
“Geumseong is still the strongest guild in Korea. If they absorb Baekho’s intelligence network on top of that, no one will be able to keep them in check.”
“…”
“And Cheongryong is out of the question. As you know, those thugs still reek of blood from the inside. If Baekho falls into their hands, even the guild members who survive won’t remain human.”
Yun Mija quietly set down her teacup.
“So I will eat you instead.”
The words were cruel. Yet Han Sora could not deny the faint thread of mercy woven through them.
“The day after tomorrow, I will come to take over Baekho Guild.”
“!!”
“Sign the transfer documents quietly. If you resist, I will have no choice but to mobilize Hyeonmu. And once that happens, every weakness Baekho possesses will be laid bare for the world to see.”
“…You mean while you keep me occupied, the other two guilds will make their move.”
“Exactly.”
Yun Mija’s eyes narrowed.
“And executives who surrender completely and crawl beneath another guild never meet a good end.”
Until now, Baekho had endured because everyone believed Han Yura was still alive. One of only three S-class hunters in all of Korea. A monster whose power rivaled an entire legion—or even a small hunter nation. That single existence had been Baekho’s shield.
But in reality, Han Yura was gone. Or more precisely, the Han Yura who could still fight was gone.
The moment that truth came to light, Baekho would cease to be one of the Four Great Guilds.
Information warfare? Public opinion battles? Blackmail and negotiation? Of course Baekho excelled at those. But what ultimately proved a hunter’s worth was raw strength.
When a dungeon break erupted, who could stand on the front line?
When a superior guild came crashing in, who could stop them?
Baekho had already lost the answer to those questions. Even if they miraculously blocked Hyeonmu’s takeover, Geumseong or Cheongryong—or any of the countless enemies who had once been crushed by Baekho—would descend like vultures.
If they all attacked at once, the guild members would never hold.
And Mother… Han Yura lying in that underground ward would make the perfect hostage.
After that day.
Baekho Guild Headquarters.
Deep beneath the main building—the only modern structure rising amid the vast traditional hanok village estate—inside a medical ward whose existence was not even recorded on any official map, Han Yura still lay unconscious.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The mechanical sounds continued at regular intervals, the only proof she was still alive.
Han Sora sank down beside her mother’s bed.
“Mom.”
There was no answer.
“What am I supposed to do?”
She reached out and took her mother’s hand. It was warm. She was still alive.
Yet that warmth felt crueler than anything.
“You told me to hold on until you woke up…”
Han Sora’s voice broke.
“You told me to look after Baekho for you…”
A childhood memory surfaced. Before becoming Baekho’s guild leader, her mother had belonged to Hyeonmu. She had been the sole prized disciple of Yun Mija, Korea’s first S-class hunter.
Once, her mother had been a famous hunter-turned-television personality who smiled brightly for the cameras. But she had not stayed in that spotlight long.
Because she had known.
Grandmother Yun Mija was a good person. She was strong enough to be called a pillar of the nation and carried the grace of long tradition. Yet precisely because of that, she was too benevolent. She could punish villains, but she was clumsy at crushing the very roots of evil.
In those days, Korea had not yet learned to see hunters purely as heroes. In the shadows left by war and poverty, awakened beings with power were used as enforcers for political gangsters. They ruled like provincial warlords. Fists were faster than laws.
Before they were shields protecting humanity, they were uncontrolled superhumans.
It was her mother who had stood up when no one else would.
“I will crush them thoroughly.”
The War on Crime. Under that banner, while the nation swept away criminal organizations one by one, Baekho was born in Seoul.
If Hyeonmu was the mother of Korea’s hunter world, then Baekho was the blade that cleaned its shadows. Gathering information. Seizing weaknesses. Dragging out hunter criminals who had slipped through the legal system, one by one.
Her mother had transformed the image of hunters from powerful monsters into a force that protected citizens. She had turned them into a shield recognized by the state.
That was the Baekho her mother had built.
And now that name was about to disappear.
Of course, being absorbed by Hyeonmu might not be the worst outcome. Grandmother Yun Mija had always cherished both mother and daughter. It would certainly be better than being torn apart and devoured by the other guilds.
But the real problem came afterward.
The Birth Management Bureau. Those people behind their white masks already knew Baekho’s secrets. Her mother’s condition, the existence of the underground medical ward, and perhaps even deeper weaknesses.
In that moment, Sora realized something.
As long as she remained alive, Baekho would continue to shake.
Han Yura’s daughter. Acting Guild Leader of Baekho. The final pillar holding up a crumbling guild.
Until now those titles had been shields. From this point forward, they would become leashes for the Birth Management Bureau to yank.
“Shouldn’t we protect Hunter Han Sora?”
“To continue Hunter Han Yura’s treatment, we require cooperation.”
“To stably manage Baekho’s remaining forces, Hyeonmu must take action.”
Her name and her mother’s would continue to be sold. In the process, Grandmother Yun Mija would be forced to play the villain, Hyeonmu would be cursed for swallowing Baekho, and the guild members would be trapped somewhere between traitors and defeated remnants.
And the Birth Management Bureau would simply laugh from the shadows.
She hated that.
She could endure being cursed herself. She could bear the finger-pointing that she had failed as acting guild leader.
But she could not stand for her mother to become a bargaining chip. She could not bear to watch Grandmother be dragged around by the Bureau, or see Baekho’s members turned into prey for other guilds.
“I…”
Han Sora swallowed a trembling breath.
“I am still an A-rank hunter who represents South Korea.”
She was speaking to herself.
“I cannot become dead weight that holds someone back.”
So she had decided to cut it all away. The leash the Birth Management Bureau wanted to pull. The name of Han Yura’s daughter. The position of acting Baekho Guild Leader. And the hostage that was ‘herself.’
Her mother had almost no chance of returning. Baekho had already fallen. In that case, it was better for her to disappear.
“I’m sorry, Mom.”
Tears fell.
“I… I can’t do it anymore.”
The moment she tried to strangle her own breath and end her life—
Clench.
Someone’s hand seized her wrist.
Slap!
A sharp sound rang through the medical ward.
“…!”
Her head snapped around. Her cheek stung. It hurt.
Yet strangely, the pain felt familiar. It was the same pain she had felt when her mother scolded her back when she was still alive. Every time she tried to give up on her own. Every time she wore the world’s most pitiful expression while pretending to carry the burden alone, that merciless slap had always brought her back to her senses.
Han Sora stared blankly ahead.
The person standing there was not her mother.
“What exactly do you think you’re doing?”
It was Seo Jihoo. His breathing was ragged. His hair was disheveled as if he had run all the way here, and he clutched a crumpled visitor’s pass in his hand.
“Jihoo…?”
“Do you not understand how precious a life is? Right now, at this very moment, how many people are desperately fighting to stay alive, terrified of dying, clinging to each breath with everything they have!”
“…”
“Why would someone who is perfectly healthy try to throw their life away like this!”
It was the first time. The first time a man had ever scolded her like this.
In this world, men were supposed to be protected. Beings who must not be hurt. Beings who must not be angered. Beings who must be protected unconditionally.
Yet that kind of man was now gripping her shoulders. So tightly she could not escape. So desperately that she felt shaken to her core.
“Never do something like that again.”
Seo Jihoo clenched his teeth.
“Do you understand?”
“But…”
Han Sora’s voice burst out.
“But it’s all over now!”
All the emotions she had suppressed came crashing down at once.
“I couldn’t save Mom… I couldn’t protect Baekho… From now on I’ll just be used by the Birth Management Bureau until the day I die!”
“…!”
“Wouldn’t it be better if I just disappeared? If I’m gone, at least they won’t be able to use me to threaten Grandmother! They won’t be able to force her to swallow Baekho, to hold Mom hostage, to sell my name!”
Seo Jihoo did not answer.
Han Sora grabbed his collar like a drowning person clutching at straw.
“I wanted to live too.”
Those words were the most heartbreaking of all.
“I thought… I just had to hold on until Mom woke up.”
Tears fell in heavy drops.
“But now, no matter what I do, someone gets hurt. If I hold on, the guild members get hurt. If I step back, Mom gets sold. If I stay alive, the Birth Management Bureau will keep using us.”
“…”
“So I thought disappearing would be the best thing…”
With those final words, Han Sora lowered her head.
This man would never understand. The politics of the Four Great Guilds. The threats from the Birth Management Bureau. The crushing weight of the name Baekho. He would probably grow sick of it once he heard everything. He might even feel afraid. He would surely conclude that this was no place for a fragile man to get involved.
That would have been the natural reaction.
But.
“Enough.”
Seo Jihoo was different.
“Get out of the room.”
“…Pardon?”
“And keep everyone under control. I’m starting surgery now, so make sure no one enters this room.”
Han Sora stared at him in a daze.
Those were not the eyes of the man who had just been angry with her. They were the eyes of a doctor looking at a patient. The eyes of a hero who would not back down even in the face of death—the same eyes her mother once had.
“From now on, I will make sure none of those things happen.”
“…!”
“Not the reason for you to die. None of it.”
Was it all right to feel this way toward a man? And not just any man, but as an A-rank hunter who represented South Korea?
It was ridiculous, embarrassing, and completely impossible.
Yet in that moment, she truly felt as if she had been saved.
Because for the first time, someone had told the girl who had been searching for a reason to die that it was all right for her to live.