Hunting Season
Seong-min met with the information broker once more and handed over the note Yoo Ji-ah had written.
After scanning the contents, the man’s eyes took on a strange cast.
“You’re no ordinary person.”
“Is that so?”
“The Yonggol Faction’s been completely smashed. That was your handiwork, wasn’t it?”
Seong-min gave no answer.
But the silence was answer enough.
“Something on this level isn’t hard. Give me a week and I’ll even tell you how many times he hits the bathroom.”
“We’ll meet again in a week.”
The man rose from his seat and left.
Normally he took an advance, but after several deals with Seong-min a measure of trust had formed, so he waived it. Of course, once the investigation was thorough enough, the payment would match the work.
Seong-min did not simply idle away that week either.
He trained diligently, leveled up, and focused on increasing the number of charges for his special skill, Teleportation.
The Teleportation Skill was simply that useful.
In between, he still found time to visit Yoo Ji-ah, helping her regain some stability and manage daily life.
Ji-ah’s expression remained perpetually dark.
Of course it did.
When a person has lost everything and collapsed, the mere ability to smile at all would be remarkable.
Seong-min knew that the fact she was eating and living at all was because of his efforts.
If he had not done so, she would have wasted away like a ruin.
Even after escaping that place, there had been nowhere left for her to lean on.
Without Seong-min’s help right then, she would have been forced onto the streets.
Throughout the week, while looking after Ji-ah, Seong-min also sought Hye-suk’s understanding.
She was curious, yet never asked directly.
Seong-min knew it was out of consideration for him.
The same went for Gombang Work.
At present Seong-min was not going out on those jobs.
Even with him gone, the workload itself had not immediately shrunk, so the rest of the team simply worked themselves harder to meet the contractor’s conditions.
It was not as efficient as when Seong-min was with them, yet they still kept to schedule.
The team members hoped he would return soon, but knowing it was personal circumstances they quietly trusted him and kept working.
Min-hyeok was no different.
“Is it rough?”
When Seong-min showed up at the café carrying coffee and desserts, Min-hyeok lit up with delight.
A-reum noona even more so.
“Wow… the difference between having hyung around and not is huge, you know? We don’t miss the deadlines, but the efficiency just isn’t the same as when you’re with us. Of course the connections and trust we’ve built mean the work doesn’t dry up, but hyung… when are you coming back?”
“I’ll be able to return before long. More importantly…”
Seong-min turned his gaze to A-reum.
“A-reum noona… it’s shameless of me, but there’s one favor I’d like to ask.”
“A favor… from me…?”
“Yes.”
“You have something to ask noona?”
“A situation came up.”
“What is it, hyung? Something you have to keep secret from me?”
Seong-min hesitated a moment before speaking.
“I saved someone.”
“Saved? What do you mean?”
“To explain that, I have to start with my childhood.”
For the first time, Seong-min laid out the story of his early years to A-reum and Min-hyeok.
Min-hyeok listening in silence, and A-reum as well, were both stunned.
Hyung was… an orphan.
He had never once imagined it.
This was the hyung who always took his jokes in stride and lived with a bright smile.
Yet it turned out he had grown up in an orphanage.
The unexpected revelation hit Min-hyeok hard.
A-reum felt the same.
Beginning with his childhood, Seong-min went on to recount the events of his third-grade year in elementary school.
“Wow… damn. That Jun-min guy’s personality is completely rotten…!”
The moment Jun-min’s name came up, Min-hyeok flared with anger.
A-reum’s expression darkened as well.
“Back then I didn’t smile the way I do now. The situation didn’t allow it, and I didn’t have that kind of personality either. But there was one girl who held me together.”
Seong-min told them about the class president—how she had looked after him and helped him, how she had lived her own life.
“That noona is really a good person, isn’t she?! Wow… she’s an angel! Right, noona?”
A-reum nodded.
Seong-min shared the memories he had of the class president.
“So you left during the winter break of third grade?”
Seong-min nodded.
“Wow… that must’ve been really disappointing!”
“It was.”
“So what happened after that? Did it just end with that noona?”
“From here on is recent events.”
Seong-min explained everything that had happened lately.
Hearing it, Min-hyeok and A-reum were shocked all over again.
“S-so that’s why hyung asked me… to introduce you?”
The information broker.
How had Seong-min known of the man and contacted him?
It had been through Min-hyeok.
Having once been active as a small-time operator in those circles, Min-hyeok still knew the channels. Even if he had washed his hands of it, the knowledge gained while working did not simply vanish.
“He was more capable than I expected.”
“Right. That information broker is seriously impressive. I don’t know if it’s just a rumor, but I heard he even worked for an agency that handles intelligence.”
“The NIS?”
“Just a rumor. Nothing confirmed.”
It was the sort of rumor that would naturally circulate.
The broker was no ordinary figure to that degree.
He seemed to keep a team under him rather than working alone, yet the capability was real.
“So hyung rescued that noona? The same way you saved me.”
“That’s right.”
“Wow… hyung really… isn’t ordinary, is he?”
Min-hyeok gazed at him with open respect.
This was the same hyung who had saved him.
Why would he fail to save that noona as well?
“So right now I’ve rented a monthly room and have her staying there.”
“You’re looking after her?”
“That’s the situation.”
“Now I get it… why hyung couldn’t come out to work.”
Seong-min turned back to A-reum.
“The situation isn’t good. I’m helping her in that state, but… the problem is the wounds in her heart are far too deep.”
On top of that, she seemed to carry heavy guilt toward the very person helping her.
“Would A-reum noona be willing to meet Ji-ah once? It might be shameless of me to ask this. Even so, I’m asking because I know the pure heart A-reum noona possesses.”
Through A-reum, Seong-min had come to understand a little of the feelings the class president had once held for him.
Right now her heart was thoroughly devastated.
To the point she could no longer smile.
To the point the girl from childhood was nowhere to be found.
She would try in her own way, yet under the present circumstances it was far from easy.
The weight of apology she felt toward him was simply too great.
“Suddenly dumping a request like this on noona, I…”
“It’s okay…”
A-reum looked at Seong-min and smiled.
“I… Seong-min… want to help….”
“A-reum noona…”
“Seong-min… Min-hyeok… saved me… accepted me… Seong-min… is a good person… so… I also… want to help… I… will meet her…”
“I’m sorry…”
A-reum shook her head.
“…Don’t… be sorry… Seong-min… the person who made me smile… I… want to meet her…”
“That’s right, hyung…! If it’s noona, she can definitely make that noona smile again! If it weren’t for noona I wouldn’t even be living like this… hehe…!”
“…Min-hyeok… wasn’t… always like that…?”
“Noona! What are you saying~!! Did I look like such a frivolous guy?!”
“…Yes…”
“……”
Seong-min smirked at the thoroughly shocked Min-hyeok.
From time to time A-reum noona delivered casual, cutting remarks that left her brother speechless.
Am I… only causing trouble for Seong-min?
Whenever she was left alone, she often sank into thought.
Mostly thoughts of Seong-min.
It was true that the Yonggol Faction no longer sent anyone after her.
Yet she had no way of knowing how long that would last.
Even if not the Yonggol Faction, the VIP side might still dispatch people.
Seong-min had told her not to worry, but worry still came.
Not for her own safety, of course.
For Seong-min.
Tears threatened to spill; she wiped them away with her hand.
Her situation was simply too wretched.
The reality that she could not survive without Seong-min’s help made her feel as though she were only a burden, and the guilt was crushing.
Seong-min claimed he had dealt with the Yonggol people, yet she could not rest easy.
Because of her, Seong-min himself seemed to have been placed in danger.
It was agony.
The next day.
On another weekend, Seong-min arrived as usual.
Only this time he was not alone.
At the sight of the unfamiliar woman entering with him, Yoo Ji-ah immediately grew wary.
Seong-min, having removed his shoes, looked at her, then at A-reum noona whom she was eyeing with open suspicion, and gave a bitter smile.
“I brought someone I want to introduce today.”
“Introduce…?”
“Yeah. A-reum noona, this is Yoo Ji-ah I told you about.”
“…Hello… I’m Han A-reum….”
A-reum clasped both hands together and offered a polite bow.
“……”
Yoo Ji-ah simply stared at her in silence.
“You don’t have to be so wary… A-reum noona is a good person. And… she’ll help you get back to ordinary life, Ji-ah.”
The meeting was so abrupt that Ji-ah felt inwardly flustered.
Then A-reum held something out.
“…This…”
Ji-ah looked at what was offered.
It was a café bag.
“…To eat… together… I bought it… from the café…”
And then she smiled brightly.
Ji-ah continued to watch her quietly.
“I was going to buy it myself… but A-reum noona insisted she wanted to get it.”
Just then Seong-min suddenly pulled out his phone.
It was ringing.
“Give me a second—I’ll take this outside.”
He opened the front door and stepped out while answering.
“……”
Only Yoo Ji-ah and A-reum remained inside the room.
Outside, Seong-min stared at the closed front door.
“Hyung, you stepped outside?”
“Yeah, I’m out.”
“So right now noona and that noona are alone together?”
“That’s right.”
“You okay with that, hyung? Leaving our noona alone with her right from the start?”
“It wasn’t my idea.”
“…What?”
“…A-reum noona asked me to do it this way.”
“N-noona did?!”
“Hard to believe, but it’s true.”
“Whoa…”
Min-hyeok sounded thoroughly stunned.
Seong-min felt much the same.
He turned his head and looked once more at the closed front door.
He had planned to ease them into conversation, yet before they even entered A-reum noona had asked him to create time for just the two of them.
“……”
Yoo Ji-ah quietly watched A-reum, now left alone with her.
Meanwhile A-reum drew closer, carefully bent her knees, and sat down right in front of the wary gaze. She took a coffee cup from the café bag.
“…I… work… now…”
“…What?”
“…At the community center… They… introduced me so I could work… so… I work hard…”
Why was she suddenly telling her about her job?
While Ji-ah wondered, A-reum peeled the wrapper from a straw and carefully inserted it into the coffee cup.
Then she took out her own cup and did the same, peeling the straw wrapper and gently setting it in place.
Ji-ah simply watched in silence.
A-reum rustled inside the bag again and brought out a macaron.
She carefully peeled away the packaging.
“…Here…”
“……?”
Holding the macaron in both hands, A-reum offered it toward the still-wary Yoo Ji-ah.
“…This… is delicious….”
With a bright, pure smile she held it out.