Interpersonal Training
“So it’s love rather than friendship, huh?”
“Ah, no! How can you say something like that?!”
Mina waved her hands frantically, forgetting that Minji couldn’t see her through the phone. She knew Minji’s offer went beyond merely good—it was downright exceptional. With no one left to interfere so severely, the conditions were even better. Yet…
“It still feels awkward going back.”
Separate from all that, Mina found it uncomfortable to face the company employees again. Gu Gang-woo’s incident hadn’t fully blown over yet, and even if the man had been incompetent, the executives weren’t exactly eager to be fired en masse simply for their connection to her.
“At this point, aren’t there more people in the Hanshin Guild who don’t know me?”
“Sigh. I can’t deny that. To outsiders, it looks like every executive lost their job because of you alone.”
The rumors had probably spread among the employees long ago. They likely assumed she had some incredible backer. When she thought of Minji, it wasn’t entirely wrong, but plenty of practical problems remained.
“Above all, even if my rank increases, I’ll still have to enter gates with the rest of the team.”
“...Yeah, that’s true.”
Minji seemed to catch on to her worries and fell silent for a moment before agreeing. Even with higher rank or salary, the real issue lay inside the gates. People would inevitably suspect there was more to her, scheme behind her back, or burn with jealousy. She wanted to believe not everyone was like that, but years of company life had made such optimism impossible.
Setting Gu Gang-woo aside, there were the countless tasks subtly forced onto her, the boss who berated her at every turn, the baseless rumors that spread from nowhere, and the employees who swallowed them without question. Life felt like a blessing if people simply stayed indifferent instead of helpful.
“There’s no guarantee a hunter team would be any different. The atmosphere was so cutthroat it gave me chills.”
If the office workers had tightened the noose with factional wars, jealousy, rumors, and ostracism, the field workers seemed ready to trample her outright. The sharp, predatory looks from her teammates felt like being thrown into a pit of monsters. The team was a team, but the vibe made it impossible to relax and trust anyone with her back. That was why returning felt so repulsive.
“Now that I think about it, you were on Team Saber, right? Ugh, no wonder you’re sick of it.”
“What kind of place was it?”
“It’s where they gather the specially recruited or the actually useful ones. Frankly, it’s an elite team. You just happened to fit their criteria.”
Throwing a soft-hearted girl among those venomous types meant she was never going to adapt.
“Whoa.”
Listening to Minji’s grumbling, Mina broke into a cold sweat. Only now did the razor-thin atmosphere compared to other teams make sense.
“Whew, can’t be helped. Even if I placed you somewhere else, there’s no guarantee that team would be safe either.”
“Oh, so you admit it?”
“Pfft, admit it? What am I, your mom?”
Minji’s light laughter eased something in Mina’s chest, and she found herself laughing along.
“But you didn’t seem to like the idea of me working with Seok-jun.”
“Sigh. Well, it’s dangerous work, no two ways about it.”
Gates were dangerous enough, but dealing with people multiplied the risks.
“Besides, if you’re going to take chances anyway, the gate side is the better bargain, right?”
Her base salary was 550, but performance bonuses were another matter entirely. The company sold gate resources and monster byproducts on their behalf, and those bonuses often surpassed monthly or annual pay. That was why so many hunters wanted to join major guilds specializing in gate raids.
“Inside a gate, no one outside knows what happens. If even your own team can’t be trusted and you send her in only for her not to come back, what then?”
“...Yeah. Exactly.”
Just as Minji said, no excuse changed the fact that gates were overwhelmingly dangerous for that very reason. They were lawless zones. Gu Gang-woo had exploited that to target her; there was no guarantee others wouldn’t do the same when the opportunity arose.
“No matter how well you get paid, if something like that happens it’s all meaningless. That’s why I figured it’s better to leave it to him.”
“Tch, leave it to him? Am I a child?”
“It’s just an expression. And in that world, no one can match him anyway.”
Mina’s ears perked up at that.
“Do you know what kind of work Seok-jun actually does?”
“Ooh. Already running a background check on your future husband?”
“W-what are you talking about!? I’m just curious!”
“Sure~ Sure~ Whatever you say.”
Mina’s face burned at Minji’s knowing tone, but she still listened carefully.
“Mmm, sorry. This one’s not gonna work.”
“Why not?!”
She protested when Minji spoke as if she would explain only to refuse.
“There are more than one or two complicated matters. You’ll be at the same office now anyway. Just ask him to tell you later.”
She still wanted to hear about him.
“More importantly, you got home safely last night, right?”
“Y-yeah!”
The memory of the motel flashed through her mind and she flinched, but she managed to keep her voice steady.
“Ugh, I really shouldn’t have asked him if I knew this would happen. Then again, there wasn’t anyone else I could ask.”
Minji seemed to pull the phone away for a moment, muttering to herself, before letting out a resigned sigh.
“Anyway, our Mina. How far have you gone?”
“How far?”
“Aish! So frustrating! You were in the talking stage, right? I’m asking how far it went! At least a kiss? Or did you two passionately roll around in bed?”
“Eek?!”
Snickering laughter kept spilling from the smartphone, but when Mina froze, unsure what to do, Minji’s laughter abruptly cut off.
“Wait, Mina? Mina!”
“Y-you called?”
At her response, Minji’s voice dropped as if she had become certain.
“By any chance… you did it, didn’t you?”
“Wh-what are you saying?!”
“You did.”
Despite Mina’s attempt to play dumb, Minji drew the conclusion firmly.
“Minji! That’s—”
“Wow, damn! I knew he was the type to do whatever he wanted, but the second he got the chance he stripped you naked?”
“S-stripped me naked! Treating a person like some kind of food…!”
“So you didn’t?”
Faced with Minji’s bold counter-question, Mina shut her mouth. After all, remembering last night only brought back memories of being tormented and tossed around by Seok-jun the entire time.
“Goodness gracious. This girl. Falling for it so innocently—what are you going to do?”
“W-what do you mean, what am I going to do! …We decided to date, that’s all.”
She had only guessed it was allowed since office romance was supposedly free.
“Tsk. Well, it does sound ridiculous that someone like you stayed not only a virgin but completely single until now.”
“I just wasn’t interested in anyone.”
“Doesn’t that just mean you were only interested in him?”
“Agh! Really! If you keep teasing me, I’m hanging up!”
When Mina flailed her legs in embarrassment, Minji snickered again.
“I was going to hang up anyway—something came up. Tell that man if he makes our Mina cry, he’s dead.”
The call ended right after.
Mina stared blankly at her smartphone before yanking the blanket over her head.
“Aghhhhhh! Seriously!!”
“Grr.”
Ppomi, busy gnawing on a snack, watched her with genuinely pitying eyes, but Mina, buried under the covers, had no way of knowing. Exhausted for multiple reasons, she kept grumbling until she unknowingly drifted off, sleeping the rest of the day away.
“Seok-jun? When did you get to my house?”
The next day, remembering Seok-jun’s instruction to come to work, Mina hurriedly dressed and prepared to retrieve her equipment from the repair shop. That was when she spotted him parked right in front of her building.
“I came to pick you up just now.”
“I, um, I haven’t picked up the equipment I left for repair yet.”
She had unintentionally wasted the entire previous day sleeping.
“That works out perfectly.”
“Huh? What do you—”
“Today it would be better to wear training clothes instead of bringing equipment.”
He had come both to tell her that and because there was somewhere they needed to go. Thanks to him, Mina rode in his car, stopped by the repair shop along the way, and retrieved her gear. When she had dropped the equipment off, the owner must have remembered the incident with Su-ji’s magic power; he kept bowing and apologizing profusely, making it hard for her to stop him.
“But why do I need training clothes all of a sudden?”
Mina asked as they drove somewhere in his car. Her other clothes still didn’t fit properly, and the only new addition to her closet was a single dress she had no use for. Fortunately, the training outfit—made for comfort—fit perfectly even though she had bought it long ago on a whim and forgotten about it.
Should I have bought a looser size?
The material clung to both her top and bottom, so without the jacket she would have felt rather embarrassed.
“I want to test how well you can adapt to my line of work, Mina.”
“A test?”
The car soon stopped in a parking lot. When they stepped out, a large building loomed before them.
“What is this place?”
“It’s an awakeners-only gymnasium.”
A short while later, Mina found herself dangling in midair, bound by ropes conjured from his magic power.
“Hm. Your reaction speed isn’t bad, at least.”
“Um… by adaptation, you meant combat training?!”