A Noona's Advice
“Mmmnya…”
It had already been about two hours since Noona and I started drinking. Ran had dozed off beside us at some point, and the two of us kept talking quietly over the sleeping form.
“So that’s how it went? That damn bitch finally forced you out of the service…”
“Yeah. Honestly, from my side of things, I feel like I ought to get down on my knees and thank her.”
“Hmm… looking at it that way, you could even say you got pretty lucky.”
With that, Noona took another sip of whiskey. A faint flush colored her cheeks, but she didn’t look particularly drunk—and neither did I.
No… if anything, the more I drank, the clearer her face became in front of me.
She still looked so lovely that it was hard to believe she was already in her early thirties. The girl I had liked ever since we were kids, the one whose feelings had deepened into something like love once I grew old enough to understand what that word meant…
And yet, in the end, we never ended up together. We each chose our own path and had to part ways.
A faint bitterness rose in my chest at the thought. I tipped back the rest of the liquor in my glass in one go.
“Haa…”
A hot sensation slid down my throat—intense, almost painful, like swallowing a ball of fire. For a second I wondered if I’d overdone it, then immediately chased it with the cocoa that had long since gone cold.
Bitter heat, then a layer of sweetness painted over it. Noona watched me rinse my insides with the cocoa and spoke with clear concern.
“You okay? Don’t gulp it down like that. You’ve already been under a ton of stress—you’ll wreck your stomach.”
“Mm… I’m… fine. This much is nothing. Back in that hellhole of a guild I put up with worse.”
“Then you should be even more careful. Are you just stubbornly enduring it?”
“Well… I’m used to it by now…”
I answered with a bitter edge. Noona’s expression turned serious.
“Haa… Lee Jinhyun. Since the topic came up, let me give you one piece of advice as your noona.”
“What… kind of advice?”
I asked, a little flustered. She met my eyes with a voice that held not the slightest trace of alcohol.
“It’s something I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time.”
She set the empty glass down and looked straight at me.
“The you I know is a truly good person… but you have this habit of trying to endure and put up with far too much. Not just this—plenty of other things, too. Way too severely.”
“!…”
Her words were gentle yet firm. Listening to them, I found myself looking back over the life I had lived until now.
Just as she said, my entire life so far had been nothing but endurance.
When I was treated unfairly.
When I never received the recognition I deserved.
When other people’s work was dumped on me.
And when I became the trash can for everyone else’s emotions.
Had any of that produced good results? Looking at my current situation, the answer was already clear.
I had silently endured everything, moment after moment… only to leave that place with nothing but wounds, and to feel genuine joy at having escaped. A hollow, empty outcome was all it had left me.
“Just because you’ve gotten used to enduring pain doesn’t mean it’s okay to keep hurting. If you keep piling those things up, all that remains are scars that never fade. Patience is important, but you can’t let it go so far that it starts wounding you. For your own sake… and for the people around you.”
“…”
Her words made me realize I needed to adjust the way I had been living.
A life spent only following other people’s demands, enduring and enduring again. Now that I knew what that left behind, I began to carve a new resolve into my mind: I would not live that way anymore.
Yeah… Noona’s right. Stubbornly enduring everything is just foolish. Like what I did to Na Jiseon at the bus stop before I came here… saying what needs to be said clearly, and firmly fixing what needs to be fixed—that’s important too. If only so I never thrash around in that kind of pain again…
As the thought settled, the sweet, mild scent of cocoa rose from the back of my throat. At the same time a quiet ease spread through me, and only then did I finally notice the alcohol beginning to take hold.
“…Thanks, Noona. I’ll make sure to keep what you said in mind.”
“Good. Please do. When all’s said and done, you’re basically family to me.”
Suyoung Noona poured the last of the whiskey into her glass and smiled. The sight of her like that suddenly seemed even more captivating than usual, and I felt my face heat up on its own.
“Looks like you’re pretty drunk. Shall we call it a night? If you don’t have a place booked, you’re welcome to stay.”
She set down the final glass of whiskey as she watched me. Feeling a little embarrassed, I answered in a small voice.
“Then… maybe I will? In this state, going out to find an inn would’ve been a bit much anyway.”
The tension drained out of me all at once, and the alcohol hit harder than expected. My head swam as I accepted her offer.
A staircase beside the café led straight up to the second-floor space she used as her home. I steadied my slightly unsteady body and started climbing; Noona followed behind me with Ran on her back.
Halfway up the stairs she spoke in a carefully cautious tone.
“Oh, right… I almost forgot to ask. Jinhyun, what are you planning to do from now on? Is there any particular job you’ve got in mind?”
“Umm… that… honestly I still… don’t really know. I only got the discharge notice the day before yesterday…”
My tongue felt a little thick as I answered. At my words, Noona asked carefully, a hint of expectation in her voice.
“Is that so? Then, Jinhyun… would you maybe like to meet my little sister once?”
“Lit…tle sister?”
I answered with mild surprise at the unexpected topic. My mind was fuzzy, but this was the first I’d ever heard that Suyoung Noona had a younger sibling.
“Yeah. It’s a bit of a long story, but… anyway, she’s been looking for people lately. And since the work you used to do was adjutant for a hunter guild, I figured it might be a pretty good fit.”
“…Really?… Well… I don’t have anything particular planned, so… that doesn’t sound bad… If it’s an introduction from you, Noona, then… gladly…”
Just then the sofa finally came into view. Strength drained from my entire body; I collapsed onto it and sank straight into sleep.
“All right, I understand. I’ll get in touch, so meet her tomorrow.”
“Mm… yeah…”
In the final moment I answered her faintly heard words as if fading out.
“I am Choi Han, newly appointed as adjutant. I look forward to working with you, Guild Master Lee Sena.”
“Yes, I look forward to working with you as well.”
Lee Sena beamed as she looked at the new adjutant offering his greetings. He was someone the government had specially selected and sent—highly regarded for his competence and assigned here on that reputation.
Yet Sena honestly paid little attention to his actual abilities. In her eyes, an adjutant’s work was obvious and limited; aside from managing entertainment-industry schedules and other simple tasks, he was little more than a formality required for operations to proceed. Without an adjutant, higher command would not even grant permission to begin a mission.
That fact aside, Sena found herself quite taken with the man standing before her. The reason was simple: his looks far outstripped Lee Jinhyun’s—there was no comparison.
If he’s basically just decoration and an errand boy, then an adjutant should look like this. See how nice it is when he’s handsome? The whole atmosphere feels brighter.
Getting to work with someone like this instead of that plain-looking Lee Jinhyun… people really do need to rise in the world, don’t they?
Lee Sena and Choi Yujin began to fill with eager anticipation for the days ahead.
In contrast, the other two S-class hunters—Seo Jiyun and Na Jiseon—along with the A-class hunters who had come out to greet him, felt a simultaneous mix of unease, worry… and pity for the poor man standing there, completely unaware of what awaited him.