Head Hunter Hunting
HHH Hunter Office. "Pomi, I'm back..." Mina trudged through the door and threw herself onto the bed without even changing her clothes.
"Krrung?" Pomi seemed to find her mood strange. The little creature hopped onto the bed and pressed its front paws into her back, kneading gently. It rarely showed affection like this—its personality was far too finicky—so the gesture should have warmed her. Yet her spirits refused to lift.
"Ugh, I don't even know why I'm like this." Mina stretched her arms wide, then caught herself remembering the face she hadn't been able to see clearly under the streetlamp's backlight. Her cheeks puffed out in a pout. "I don't recall anyone ever calling me ugly before."
She let out a long sigh as Seok-jun's image lingered in her mind. Pomi's warm weight leaned against her, and she wiggled her feet restlessly until the business card suddenly came to mind. It was conveniently placed beneath the mood lamp on her nightstand. She picked it up at once.
HHH Hunter Office
The plain card with its three mysterious letters looked ordinary enough, but after everything that had happened yesterday and today, Mina refused to believe the place Seok-jun worked was anything close to ordinary.
"I should look it up." She grabbed her smartphone and opened the browser. The clean white search bar appeared, and she typed the name exactly as it appeared on the card. She scrolled and scrolled, but there was no homepage, no company listing—nothing that matched.
Disappointed, she kept browsing until she stumbled across an encyclopedia entry explaining hunter guilds. A hunter guild functioned essentially as a private military company specializing in gate raids. In Korea the major players were Hanshin, NVP, J3, and KKO.
"Now that I think about it, I had to sign a contractor agreement too." Moving from administrative work to field duty at Hanshin had meant wading through contractor exams, employment contracts, and stacks of paperwork. The guild provided high-performance equipment on the condition that it be worn at all times. Most of what she knew aligned with the common understanding: regular guilds paid well precisely because hunters had to supply their own gear.
Still unable to find anything specific about the office, she came across a short paragraph tucked inside a related article.
She stared at Seok-jun's business card again. The lack of information suddenly made sense. His office was probably closer to a PMC than anything else.
—♪
Her phone rang, the screen obscuring the text she'd been reading. The name that popped up was one she knew well, so she answered immediately.
"Mina! It's been forever!"
"Hey, Min-ji. Why is it so hard to hear your voice these days?"
"What? Are you mad at me? You're the one who never calls!"
They traded playful jabs across the line and ended up giggling like schoolgirls. Min-ji was Mina's only true friend, and the feeling was mutual.
"If I'd known it would turn out like this, I would've made sure we hung out more in college."
"Hehe. If we had, conversations like this would feel like a luxury now, wouldn't they?"
Even as they laughed, both of them knew the truth: they had always been the serious, studious type. Their friendship had begun over textbooks in the first place. The welcome sound of her friend's voice made time slip away unnoticed until Min-ji changed the subject.
"So how's Gu Gang-woo been lately? Still pestering you?"
"Gang-woo..." Mina let out a low groan. She'd complained about him so often that Min-ji already knew the whole story.
"Wait, did something happen? Did that bastard threaten you?"
"It's not just him, but..." Mina opened up and told her everything.
"That son of a— He finally crossed the line! Are you okay? Did you get hurt?"
"I'm fine. Like I said, another hunter saved me."
Talking about Gang-woo inevitably brought up Seok-jun. Min-ji's reaction was immediate.
"Don't you dare feel guilty. A guy like that deserves to die. Honestly, I'm relieved."
"Yeah."
"Yeah? What's with that tone? The problem child is gone, so why do you sound so down?"
Mina had tried to hide it, but her friend could read her like a book even over the phone.
"It's nothing."
"Nothing? That voice says 'I have a huge problem.' Come on, spill it. I'll get upset if you keep dodging."
Mina finally surrendered. She told Min-ji everything—about the incident with Gang-woo and what had happened at the school, leaving nothing out.
"Whoa, wait. Is this really Mina I'm talking to?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Our workaholic magic addict... interested in a man? That's new."
"Hey! You were basically the same! And stop calling me that!" The "magic addict" nickname had always stung. She'd spent so much time training or studying that someone had joked she was addicted to magic power, and the label had stuck.
"At least I've dated a few guys. Aren't you a lifelong solo, Mina?"
"Ugh." Sadly, it was true. Mina had always put work and ability first; she'd never dated anyone. The thrill of honing her magic had simply been too addictive since her school days.
"You never lasted long with any of them either, you know."
"Fair point."
Her clever counterattack had been brushed aside so easily that Mina felt like the only loser in the exchange.
"So our Mina wants to make this guy fall for her, huh?"
"Wh-what are you even saying!"
"Hehe. You really need to loosen up, you dense girl."
Min-ji continued, her tone turning serious. "I don't think there's anything you couldn't pull off if you went for it, but... he's the most difficult type. It's going to be a rough road."
Mina felt a flicker of unease and was about to ask what exactly made him so difficult when Min-ji spoke again first.
"And like he said, it's probably better not to get involved. If the police are commissioning them, that office is a professional PMC. They're not hunting monsters—they hunt other hunters."
Mina had already suspected as much. He'd practically shown her outright; pretending otherwise would have been stranger. As she listened to her friend's warning, she remembered what Sua had said at the station earlier that day.
"Not Peter Pan... but Captain Hook..." She was beginning to understand what the girl had meant.
"What are you talking about all of a sudden?"
"Sorry, something urgent came up. I have to go."
"Wait, Mina! Hold on—"
She ended the call. The time read nine o'clock—still early. She felt bad for cutting Min-ji off when her friend had only been worried about her, but right now that wasn't important. Mina dialed the number on the business card.
—Riiiing. Riiiing.
Click.
"Yes, this is HHH."
"Seok-jun, right?"
"Mina? What can I do for you..."
"Are you free tomorrow?"
After hearing his answer, Mina washed up, changed clothes, and went to bed. The next day arrived in what felt like the blink of an eye.
"Mina?"
"You're late!"
"I came out right on time for our appointment."
She sulked at him the moment he stepped into the unmanned café. It had absolutely nothing to do with how unfairly they'd parted yesterday. They sat across from each other at a small table once more.
"This coffee..."
"I already got it. It's an unmanned café, remember?" Of course, she'd paid for his cup as well.
"First, I wanted to apologize for yesterday."
"What exactly are you apologizing for?"
"For bothering you when I didn't know what I was doing." It had been a long time since she'd had someone she could talk to so freely. Looking back, she realized she'd dragged up every memory she had, relevant or not.
"It wasn't a bother. I rarely have anyone to talk about those things with either." He didn't seem particularly troubled by it.
"And I'm the one who should be apologizing."
"Why?"
"The truth is, yesterday's request was basically me using you, Mina." He pulled out a document and slid it across the table.
"An academic journal?" She'd seen Min-ji wrestle with similar papers during her final year of university, so she recognized the format immediately.
"It's a paper on mental-attribute awakeners." She picked it up and began reading. The research covered various aspects, but one section had been highlighted with a fluorescent marker, clearly meant for her.
Excerpt from "A Study on Mental-Attribute Awakeners"
The stronger a mental-attribute awakener's magic power becomes, the more stringent the activation conditions. However, its control is limited to civilians and B-grade hunters. Against A-grade and S-grade hunters, it only induces headaches depending on the target's resistance and magic power intensity; it has no controlling effect.
Reading it in plain language didn't sound especially dangerous, but the vast majority of the population consisted of civilians and B-grade hunters.
"So the headache I had yesterday wasn't from anemia?"
"Correct. That man used his ability on you, Mina."
Only now did she remember the timing of every headache. "Every time I received something from him..."
"Exactly. Given those conditions, his brainwashing capability was apparently exceptional. That's why I accepted the commission."
"Because you're a nullifier, Seok-jun?"
"It's a little different, but close enough. In any case, I'm sorry."
Mina listened quietly, glanced at the paper once more, then set it down gently.
"It's fine."
"Pardon?"
"I followed you because I wanted to." When he stared at her blankly, she couldn't suppress the bright smile that broke across her face. "So now that neither of us has anything to feel awkward about... shall we keep seeing each other from now on?"
"As I told you before, I'm just an ordinary B-grade hunter."
"Pfft. And as I told you before, how does an ordinary B-grade hunter beat an A-grade hunter?"
Yesterday she'd turned the question over and over in her mind, searching for excuses. No matter how she looked at it, there was only one answer.
"Please take care of me from now on, Seok-jun." Mina had no intention of letting their meeting end as a mere coincidence. That was all there was to it.
"Oh, right! I still have one question. May I ask?"
"I'll hear it first and then decide."
"It's nothing too serious. I've been wondering what HHH stands for this whole time." She could guess the office functioned as a PMC that hunted other hunters, but the meaning of those three letters had eluded her.
"In baseball, a pitcher who deliberately aims for a batter's head is called a headhunter."
"Hunter?"
"Yes. The police borrowed the term and use it for awakened criminals. Head Hunter Hunting." He gave her a small smile. "That's what the letters after the office name mean."
The three letters following the office name carry exactly this meaning.