The Giant Who Came Looking for Me
I never imagined the story would suddenly take a turn with a gangster showing up. Wait, but he wasn’t a complete thug. What do you even call someone who’s polite but looks like they belong in a back alley? The kind of guy whose manners are impeccable but whose face screams organized crime? …If that’s the case, there is one person who comes to mind. Nah, it couldn’t be him. No matter what, there’s no way he would have followed me all the way here. If he planned to come, he would have done it ages ago.
“Hey, Junho. You didn’t… borrow from loan sharks or anything like that, right?”
“Pardon?”
“I mean, the guy who came to collect money wouldn’t be that well-behaved, but…”
While I was lost in thought, the sight of Jia noona speaking so seriously made me… I knew I shouldn’t, but a laugh slipped out anyway.
“Pfft, haha… Ah, noona. I don’t borrow money like that.”
“Really? That’s a relief, but still. If you ever really need money, don’t you dare go to loan sharks, okay? Just tell noona instead.”
The way she said it with such genuine concern was incredibly reassuring.
“Yes, noona. Thank you. Anyway, where is he? He said he was looking for me, right?”
Maybe he had stopped by briefly and already left, and I was overthinking it? Inside the office, I didn’t see anyone besides the raid party members.
“Ah, I told him to wait in the conference room for now.”
That explained it.
“I’ll go meet him myself.”
“Wait, hey. Aren’t you scared…? He looked really burly and intimidating.”
“Well, I haven’t done anything wrong, so there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Besides, I had just received my A-rank hunter license. Unless the other party was A-rank or higher, I could simply subdue them if anything happened. There was no reason for me to feel intimidated.
I gestured that it was fine and stepped into the conference room.
A-rank Hunter License Registered
“Oh, it really is you?”
Short, neatly combed hair, a square jaw, and a massive, muscular build. His sharp features radiated charisma… though to strangers, he probably looked quite frightening. And those bulging muscles. The familiar face I hadn’t seen in so long stood before me.
“Hyung-nim! It really is you, Hyung-nim! This is Kim Junggu, coming to pay his respects! Have you been keeping well all this time, Hyung-nim!”
I could understand why the others were startled. The talk of gangsters and loan sharks suddenly made perfect sense.
“Junggu, what are you doing here!”
“I came to see you, of course, Hyung-nim!”
The giant moved closer, gazed at me with eyes full of genuine joy for a moment, then suddenly pulled me into a tight embrace.
“Now that I think about it, you were dispatched to the provinces, weren’t you, Junggu?”
Kim Junggu. A thirty-year-old B-rank hunter who stood nearly two meters tall with a massive frame. The reason a man in his thirties called me “Hyung-nim” was… well, there were circumstances involved.
I had thought there was no way he would come looking for me now. But thinking back, right before I left the Onhwa Guild, I remembered personally sending him off on that provincial dispatch.
“Yes. I was very worried something might have happened to you, Hyung-nim.”
“Thank you. I always appreciate it. But how did you get here at this hour? Shouldn’t you be at the guild right now?”
“I quit and came straight here, obviously.”
“You quit?”
Quitting the guild… Well, staying in a place with that woman must have been unbearable. Junggu and Yu Hyejeong had never gotten along; they fought constantly.
“By the way, Hyung-nim. The people outside seem quite curious…”
“Ah, should I tell them to come in?”
“Yes, of course! It would be an honor for this one’s family to be introduced to Hyung-nim’s close friends!”
Family honor? A bit much, but okay. I stepped outside and invited everyone in. They entered hesitantly, shuffling their feet.
Of course, Jiyu walked straight over without hesitation, sat right beside me, and tightly clasped my hand.
So cute… Just like a little hamster.
“Hmm? Could she be… sister-in-law?”
Junggu looked back and forth between my fond gaze at Jiyu and our intertwined hands, tilting his head as he asked.
“Oh my, sister-in-law…”
Jiyu turned shy at the title, while
“You two look perfect together, Hyung-nim!”
Junggu looked absolutely thrilled. The combination was surprisingly entertaining to watch.
Anyway, seeing two people who cared about me getting along so well was something I wholeheartedly welcomed.
“Let me introduce you properly. This is Kim Junggu. He’s thirty years old, and we’ve been close for quite some time.”
Thinking about it now, our connection really was quite unusual.
“Ooh. How did you two become friends?”
Jia noona showed great interest in the surprisingly bright and friendly Junggu, whose personality didn’t match his intimidating appearance at all.
“Well, the story of how we got close is a bit… special.”
“Nah, it’s not that special! It’s simply that Hyung-nim is such an incredible person that I one-sidedly followed him around!”
One-sidedly followed him around, he says.
“Junggu, you didn’t like me at first, remember?”
“What?! This one?!”
Everyone’s eyes sparkled with curiosity as they leaned in.
The first time I met Junggu was…
“Vice Guild Master, here is the list of hunters coming for interviews today.”
The Onhwa Guild was among the very top guilds in the country. Just mentioning its name was enough for anyone in Korea to recognize it, and it held considerable fame overseas as well. A guild of that caliber could afford to hold proper interviews.
Most guilds relied on their recruitment teams to wait at the Association and scout hunters, but Onhwa was different. So many hunters wanted to join that the available slots were strictly limited.
“This list looks promising.”
I quickly scanned the list and nodded. Naturally, I was the one leading the interviews. I asked questions, listened to their answers, and took notes.
“Mr. Kim Junggu, your application states that your reason for applying is ‘to live properly.’ Could you explain exactly what you mean by that?”
That was how I first met Junggu. He wore an even more intimidating expression back then than he does now. Of course, it was just nerves, but while others shrank back at first glance, I remained perfectly calm.
“It means exactly what it says. I want to use my strength in the right way and become someone I’m not ashamed of.”
I smiled faintly at his answer, checked off a box, and asked him a few more questions.
‘This interview… was tough.’
That was Junggu’s first thought after the interview ended. But strangely, it also gave him a spark of hope.
A thirty-year-old hunter with no experience. That didn’t mean he was a rookie who had only recently awakened. He had awakened inside a prison.
Junggu had lost his parents at a young age and was raised by his grandmother. She had treasured him, but she passed away when he was about to enter middle school. The remaining relatives didn’t welcome his presence.
While bouncing between homes, one day—
‘Ugh, you useless freeloading bastard!’
He punched his cousin who had said those words. Already over 180 centimeters tall in middle school with a large build, his fist sent two of his cousin’s teeth flying and knocked the boy out cold.
‘He really is a freeloader! Why did you hit our son! We took in trash like you and this is how you repay us?!’
That was the day he left his relatives’ house for good. The one who took him in when he had nowhere to go was a gang. By the time he turned twenty, he had already dropped out of school.
‘Hey, don’t you think you should pay for all the food we’ve given you? The boss is getting arrested. Take the fall for him.’
Only after he took the blame for the gang boss’s crimes and went to prison did he finally come to his senses. He realized what a pathetic life he had lived.
Of course, since he hadn’t been an adult yet, the organization hadn’t asked much of him. But simply having been part of it made the world look at him with disdain.
‘Grandma, I’m sorry. It looks like I won’t be able to meet you even after I die.’
How could he face her again after living like this? While he tormented himself with those thoughts, the world suddenly changed, and Junggu awakened as a hunter.
The moment he gained his powers—
‘Yes. This is my chance. The chance Grandma gave me.’
That was how it felt to him. A chance to live helping others with these abilities and eventually meet his grandmother with his head held high. After serving as a model prisoner and receiving a reduced sentence, Junggu was released after ten years. The first thing he did was apply to guilds.
But even though the world had changed, there was no opportunity for someone with a criminal record. Every guild looked at him through colored lenses. No one even bothered to ask him a single question.
But this time felt different. He was asked the same questions as everyone else, and for the first time, he could speak the answer he had prepared.
Just receiving that opportunity made the Onhwa Guild the one place he desperately wanted to join. When he received the acceptance call, it felt like he had the whole world.
It must have been that man—the one who had smiled gently and asked him questions—who gave him this chance.
“Who was the person who accepted me?”
He naturally thought that and wanted to confirm it.
“Ah, that would be Vice Guild Master Junho…”
“So his name is Junho. Thank you.”
Being chosen was certainly something to be grateful for, but that alone wasn’t enough to earn his respect. Junho handled every aspect of the Onhwa Guild’s operations. It was no exaggeration to say that the clean, top-tier Korean guild known as Onhwa had been built single-handedly by Han Junho.
That was why he came to respect him. But something felt off. Being S-rank was impressive, but the man constantly bowed and scraped to a Guild Master who was only S-rank in name. He knelt without hesitation in front of the guild members and endured all kinds of verbal abuse without fighting back.
It didn’t make sense.
“Why do you just take those kinds of words?”
One day, overcome with curiosity, he had asked Junho directly.
“Well, because my only goal is to make Hyejeong… no, the Guild Master, the best.”
The expression on Junho’s face as he said that was filled with affection. That was when Junggu realized that his idol was in love with the arrogant Guild Master.
And he hated it.
He hated seeing the person he respected becoming a laughingstock, unable to fight back even once.
“Giving in to everything like that isn’t love.”
“I know. But I have no choice but to do it this way.”
“…I didn’t know you were this frustrating.”
He was disappointed. Terribly disappointed. He told Junho that every time they met. But that didn’t make his admiration for the man disappear. So he pretended otherwise and defended him, which led to frequent fights with Yu Hyejeong and her group.
“Junggu, if you keep talking back like that, it’ll only hurt you. Please stop.”
Yu Hyejeong was an S-rank hunter after all—a completely different level of power. The fate of a B-rank hunter who defied her was practically set in stone.
Even so, Junggu didn’t stop.
“Hyung-nim.”
“Yes? Why are you calling me Hyung-nim…”
“I respect you, Hyung-nim.”
“No, Junggu, I’m not your…”
“That’s why I don’t want to see you like this. You are not someone who should be bowing your head to anyone, Hyung-nim.”
Junggu’s words weren’t entirely without effect. Junho wanted to change too. Loving Yu Hyejeong without being loved in return was painful.
“But if there’s even a 1% chance that changing would mean losing her… then I’d rather live like this.”
To Junho, Yu Hyejeong was absolute love. But Junggu had also become a precious person—the first to take his side and fight for him. So the method Junho chose to protect them both was to keep Junggu and Yu Hyejeong from clashing. He sent Junggu away on provincial dispatches and business trips.