A Long, Blurred Day
Life could be strangely hazy at times.
"Yes, yes, we've received a report of a drunk individual at the SU convenience store on 305 U-seong-ro."
Lee Mina sat on a chair inside the police substation, sipping instant coffee while half-listening to the officers' conversation. A quick glance at the square digital clock showed the numbers for January 8, 2027, and 9:13 glowing bright red.
I can't believe I ended up at the police station twice in one day.
The reason she was there had everything to do with Gu Gang-woo. The police car with its blaring siren had arrived right around the time she and the stranger finished collecting all the shell casings.
The officers confirmed Gu Gang-woo's corpse and immediately slapped handcuffs on the man's wrists.
"Wait! He only did that to save me!"
Worried the man might be arrested unjustly, Mina had ridden with him to the station. All she had to do was write her statement, but he remained in the interrogation room for nearly an hour.
She was waiting with growing anxiety when—
"Miss?"
"Ah! You're out sooner than I expected?"
Surprised to see the man emerge from the interrogation room, Mina hurried over. Having experienced similar situations during her time as a B-grade hunter—handling aftermath for A-grade hunters—she could tell he had come out remarkably quickly. Even considering how lenient the system had become toward self-defense and related injuries or killings due to hunters' influence, it was still surprising. Sensitive matters remained sensitive, after all.
"Didn't you go in first?"
"How could I leave the person who saved me not once but twice?"
Seeing that the handcuffs were no longer on his wrists, she nodded.
"It went well, then?"
"It was just a formality."
"Pardon?"
When Mina tilted her head in confusion, the man let out a soft chuckle.
"Your statement helped quite a bit."
"That was only natural."
They chatted casually as they left the station. The pitch-black night air turned their exhaled breaths into white vapor, while colorful signs and LED lights shifted from white to red. Passing cars left trails of white and yellow headlights and red taillights in their wake.
"It's gotten this late already."
"Ugh, I have no idea why today felt so long."
Normally, she would have been off work long ago, lying in bed with her dog and scrolling on her phone. That made the day feel especially exhausting.
"But are you really okay? No matter what, you still killed Gu Gang-woo..."
She glanced at him cautiously. No matter how terrible the man had been, he was a high-value asset in her former guild, Hanshin. If Hanshin learned the full details, she would be in danger—but she doubted the stranger would be safe either. Besides, Gu Gang-woo was fairly well-known in the industry and occasionally appeared on broadcasts.
"There won't be any issues, so please don't worry."
Mina blinked, sensing a strange certainty in his tone.
"Something's definitely off about this."
"I'm afraid I don't follow."
She narrowed her eyes at him, certain he was hiding something, but he simply smiled innocently. If he had played dumb, she might have let it go, but his complete lack of effort to conceal anything only made her more suspicious.
"Hmm, I guess it can't be helped."
Still, she had no real justification to press him, so she was about to suggest they part ways when—
Gurgle!
The sound from her stomach left her mortified.
"T-this is, um, because so many things happened today..."
She rushed to explain, terrified he might think she was a glutton. But he simply asked,
"There's a decent snack bar nearby. Would you like to go?"
"Yes! Ah..."
Mina answered reflexively, then froze. Even though the night was cold, her face burned. She fanned herself with her hand. The embarrassment lasted only a moment.
"Mmm! This is delicious! This is how tteokbokki is supposed to taste."
She bit into a large piece of tteokbokki along with some fish cake. The spicy-sweet, rich sauce spread across her tongue, and the chewy tteok and tender fish cake melted together, washing away all the stress that had built up that day.
"It's just ordinary tteokbokki."
"That's what makes it so good!"
When she got off work, she sometimes ordered dinner. Tteokbokki was one of those meals, but—
"These days, when I order tteokbokki, most of it is stuff I've never even heard of."
Every time she ordered it, she felt strangely disappointed. At first she'd seen the red sauce and placed an order, only to find it expensive, with a huge portion. The broth was thin like soup, and it was nothing but tteokbokki—no fish cake at all. She ate it anyway, but it was nothing like what she remembered.
"It wasn't bad, but even though it was spicy, it somehow tasted bland. It felt weird."
The portion was so large she had to split it into three meals, but by then the tteok had swollen and turned mushy, making it hard to eat.
"What I wanted was the kind they used to serve in those little paper cups at snack bars for 500 won on the way to or from school."
"There certainly used to be a lot of those snack bars near schools."
"Right? Exactly!"
But not everything was like the old days. Mina glanced at the menu and saw that tteokbokki now cost 3,200 won. She felt the weight of time passing. Even accounting for the larger portion, it was undeniably more expensive. Still, the taste remained the same, which was a comfort.
"They seem to sell sundae too, but do they have that other thing?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know, that thing. The flat fried thing on a skewer."
"Pikachu pork cutlet?"
"Yes! That's the one!"
Come to think of it, those had probably been sold at stationery stores rather than snack bars.
"I'm pretty sure it wasn't that price, but it was so cheap there were rumors it was made from pigeon meat."
"Pfft! We used to say the same thing. Looking back, it's such a ridiculous story."
"If hunters had been a proper profession back then, there probably would have been rumors it was monster meat."
"Whoa, that would be terrible value no matter how you look at it."
Her throat felt dry, so she tilted back a glass of soju and smiled bitterly. She was eating the same food she had as an elementary and middle school student, yet here she was drinking soju with it. Something she never would have imagined.
As the soju slid down her throat—cold yet burning—she ladled some of the steaming fish cake broth with a red plastic scoop.
"Ouch! It's hot!"
The sudden sting on the tip of her tongue made her stick it out, but she still swallowed the cooled broth in one gulp.
"Ugh, I know it's hot, but I keep forgetting."
She grumbled about why her magic power wouldn't properly protect her from things like this, then set the scoop aside so the broth could cool in the chilly air.
Then a sudden thought occurred to her: she was surprised at how easily conversation flowed with this man.
"By the way, how old are you? You don't seem that much older than me."
"I'm exactly thirty this year."
"Ah, so you're five years older than me."
Mina couldn't help but giggle.
"Hehe, I can't remember the last time I had a conversation like this."
It made sense. She rarely had anyone she could talk to so openly. It wasn't that she had no friends, but they seldom met because of their busy schedules. As for her company colleagues, Mina had always been something of a loner. For some reason, the female colleagues her age rarely got along with her. She was on decent terms with the male ones, but not particularly close. That was probably why she had thrown herself even harder into work and training.
"Mmm~ This really is the best."
She dipped a piece of fried food into the tteokbokki sauce and ate it, wiggling her feet in pure happiness.
Then she noticed the man wasn't drinking his soju. He hadn't even touched the glass she'd poured for him.
"You don't drink soju?"
"I don't particularly like it."
She stared at him for a moment before a playful idea popped into her head.
"Hehe, are you trying to get me drunk so you can do something to me?"
She looked up at him with a slightly provocative glint in her eyes. He let out a small snort of laughter.
"Is that what you want?"
"Eek?! N-no, that's not what I meant! And anyway, who answers a question with another question?!"
Even that simple remark made her face burn. She fanned herself again. She wasn't even tipsy yet.
They spent the rest of the time eating tteokbokki and fried snacks.
"This time, I'll pay."
"I can take care of it."
"Think of it as a small thank-you."
They pushed aside the red and clear plastic flaps covering the snack bar entrance and stepped back into the night streets. It was past ten and approaching eleven, so even the livelier areas had grown quiet. Most shops had closed and turned off their lights, though a few signs still glowed brightly even without their owners. Convenience stores along the way remained open as always.
"Here we are."
"I'll be heading back now."
The man turned to leave, but Mina grabbed the hem of his coat.
"Wait! Aren't you forgetting something?"
"Is there something left to do?"
"Here, take this."
What she handed him was the black plastic bag from the snack bar. As soon as he took it, the metallic clinking inside seemed to tell him what it contained.
"The shell casings. I couldn't do anything about the ones at the observatory, but I collected all the ones from the road."
"Huh."
Seeing his dumbfounded expression filled her with a strange sense of satisfaction. Soon after, he reached into his pocket and handed her something.
"What's this?"
"My business card."
The office name was the same, but instead of the alias Grizzly, it listed his real name and phone number.
"What? So you did have a proper business card after all?"
"Allow me to introduce myself properly. I'm Cha Seok-jun of HHH. Please think of me as just another run-of-the-mill B-grade hunter."
"Hmph, you're joking, right?"
What B-grade hunter in the world could casually defeat an A-grade hunter?
"Pfft. If I offended you, I apologize, miss."
"You don't look sorry at all! And I'm not 'miss'—my name is Lee Mina!"
In truth, if he hadn't introduced himself, she had been planning to do so first.
"Then I'll be going."
It had been a complicated day, but also a rather enjoyable one. She returned his farewell.
"See you next time, Seok-jun!"
Mina watched his back until he disappeared into the distance, then hummed a little tune as she headed home.
"Bomi! I'm back!"