A Necessary Lie
I could tell the moment I saw Yena's face.
She looked as if she was about to burst into tears at any second.
That was why I knew we needed to draw a clear line between us.
We were already over, and from now on, our only relationship should be that of a hunter and a reporter.
Drag, drag. Yena let herself be led by my hand, her footsteps so weak and lifeless it was hard to believe she was an S-rank hunter.
"Have you been well?"
As I offered the awkward greeting, a tear rolled down Yena's cheek and fell.
She had been abandoned so heartlessly; there was no way she had been doing well...
I wished she would just curse at me instead.
At least then, my conscience would be a little clearer.
But when she showed me so much proof that she still hadn't forgotten me, that she was still waiting... what was I supposed to do?
I wanted to make excuses, to tell her that I just couldn't bear to see her ruin herself because of me... but the words refused to leave my mouth.
Watching her shoulders tremble as she sobbed, I wanted nothing more than to pull her into my arms right then and there.
But I couldn't.
I had already abandoned Yena once.
I had even run away from the situation, comforting myself with the pathetic excuse that it was all for her own good.
Even though I knew better than anyone that Yena was not the type of person to strike someone first... I hadn't believed her words.
A piece of trash like me had no right to stand beside Yena, one of the nation's representative hunters.
I couldn't allow it.
A coward had no choice but to live like a coward.
"Yena, I... I like someone else now."
"Don't lie..."
"I have no reason to lie to you."
"..."
"We can never go back to how we were. So... you should forget about me too."
Today, I lied again, cutting Yena deep.
But if I didn't do this, Lee Yena would suffer forever, unable to let me go.
It was far better for her to remember me not as a sweet first love, but as a piece of trash who didn't believe in her.
Once again, telling myself it was for her own sake, I turned to leave.
As I brushed past her, the sweet scent of flowers tickling the tip of my nose, a small hand grabbed the hem of my shirt.
"Don't go..."
Yena's desperate plea threatened to tear me apart.
"...Once you've calmed down, eat before you go. The pork cutlet here is pretty good."
Gently, I pried her fingers off my shirt.
The moment Eunwoo stepped back into the restaurant, Lee Yena's legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the ground.
Eunwoo liked someone else...
Honestly, Lee Yena didn't believe a single word of it.
It wasn't that she thought he had lost his mind and was spouting nonsense; it was just that Eunwoo had always been a terrible liar.
The way his eyes avoided hers, the look of sheer guilt and helplessness on his face.
Anyone else might have missed it, but Lee Yena, who had loved him for as long as she could remember, saw right through it.
He was lying.
And that brought her a small sense of relief.
If he really had fallen for someone else, she wouldn't have been able to keep her sanity.
Even so, the death sentence—that their relationship could never go back to the way it was—was almost too painful to bear.
She had worked so hard as a hunter and consistently volunteered, all just to look a little better in Eunwoo's eyes...
Now, it all felt utterly pointless.
An S-rank hunter?
To Lee Yena, being loved as a woman by Lee Eunwoo was worth infinitely more than any title.
She gently caressed the wrist he had held just moments ago, trying to cling to the faint trace of his warmth.
Suddenly, a gentle hand began to pat her head. She looked up.
"Yena, why are you sitting here? A girl shouldn't sit on the cold ground."
Kim Ajin said as she took a seat right next to Lee Yena.
"..."
"Anyway, did something happen with Eunwoo? He left without eating a single bite of what was left."
He told me to eat before I left, but he didn't even eat himself...
Just as Lee Eunwoo worried about Lee Yena, she felt the exact same way about him.
She understood that being in the same space was uncomfortable for him, but she still wished he would eat properly...
"Sigh, fine, don't tell me if you don't want to. I can tell just by looking at your face. To think the great Lee Yena would get dumped by a guy. I guess if you live long enough, you see everything."
"I didn't get dumped..."
That was right.
She hadn't even confessed yet, so Lee Yena hadn't been dumped.
Besides, love was a battle where you only needed to win once.
Even if you got rejected a thousand times, it didn't matter as long as you succeeded on the thousand-and-first try.
Of course, Lee Yena also painfully realized that they could never go back to how they used to be.
But if that was the case, wasn't there only one solution?
They just had to move forward into a relationship where they loved and cherished each other even more than before.
Sitting around feeling depressed was nothing compared to the hell of the last seven years they had spent apart.
At least now, they could meet...
It really was a case of the beacon not shining on its own base; she had never dreamed he would be so close.
Since the Attack Team had the right to attend the Vanguard meetings, she would have plenty of opportunities to run into him if she participated regularly.
In that case, Lee Yena had only one task.
To control her emotions in front of Eunwoo.
Of course, she knew that wouldn't happen overnight.
Even today, she had steeled herself before coming, but the moment she saw Eunwoo trying to run away, her emotions had flared up and her mind had gone completely blank.
I will never cry in front of Eunwoo again...
Making that promise to herself, she stood up and brushed the dirt off her clothes.
"Aw, what? I thought you'd be moping a bit longer, but you bounced back fast."
"Senior... can I tag along to the next Vanguard meeting?"
"U-Uh, sure. It'd actually be great since your presence alone would make headlines. But is your schedule okay? Even if the Attack Team has less training than the Vanguard, you guys still have a ton of other stuff to do."
"That's fine."
"Well, I'll register you with the Association then."
"Thank you."
Lee Yena bowed politely and walked back into the restaurant. Watching her retreat, Kim Ajin couldn't help but chuckle.
To think she would attend the meetings she hated so much, all because of a guy.
"Our Yena is all grown up now."
On the way back to the office.
Kim Gayoung, her lower lip sticking out in a pout, was stomping ahead of me, stretching her short legs as far as they could go.
"Hey, you're going to trip if you keep that up. Slow down a bit."
"Hmph!"
Spurred on by my nagging, Kim Gayoung began to walk even faster.
A sigh escaped my lips.
My head was already about to explode from thinking about Yena... and now she was acting up too. It was driving me crazy.
"Hey, did I do something to offend you?"
When I asked with a hint of irritation in my voice, she stopped dead in her tracks and glared at me fiercely.
Stomping right up to me, Kim Gayoung began to vent her frustration.
"I mean, seriously! Why are you so close with the Shinye Guild members, leaving me completely in the dark?!"
"It's just because I've interviewed them a lot..."
"Exactly! If you had so many chances to interview them, you should've given me a heads-up so I could assist you! What's the point of having a junior colleague if you don't use them?!"
"Hey, that's because you always complained that the Vanguard meetings were boring and ran off to chase the Attack Team members instead."
"..."
Faced with my flawless logic, her protruding lips shut tight.
"Then... what about Yena? She's not in the Vanguard."
This was the real issue, not my familiarity with the Vanguard.
After all, there were very few people in South Korea who could just grab Lee Yena by the wrist and drag her outside.
She couldn't help but notice the strange tension between us.
"...Childhood friends? I guess you could call it that. We've known each other since elementary school."
"Wow... I feel so betrayed. You kept that a secret all this time?"
"Hey, what good would it do to brag about it? You know our department head. If he found out I was close with Yena, he would've gone crazy trying to exploit it."
"True... But still, you could have told me. I wanted to apologize for the article I wrote last time..."
"You could have just contacted the Shinye Guild directly for that."
"Of course I did! But Yena declined, so there was nothing I could do."
"Hmm, I suppose so. But even if you had told me, it wouldn't have helped. I'm not exactly on comfortable speaking terms with Yena right now."
"Wait. Did you screw up or something, Senior?"
A mistake...
What I did was far too grave to be called a mere mistake, wasn't it?
As I fell silent, Kim Gayoung suddenly nodded understandingly and patted my shoulder.
"Sigh... You crossed the line of the childhood friend taboo, didn't you? I get it... How could anyone resist confessing when they have such a pretty childhood friend? I completely understand."
"Well, something like that..."
It wasn't the truth, but there was no need to tell Kim Gayoung the real story.
Letting her think I got dumped was the best option here.
"By the way, so Yena is your type. No wonder your standards are sky-high. You had a gorgeous beauty right next to you and never reacted, so I honestly thought you were impotent."
"Hey, who are you calling impotent? If I'm impotent, then every man in the world is. And where exactly is this 'gorgeous beauty' next to me?"
"Huh? Senior, are you blind?"
"No? My vision is 20/20."
"Huh? That can't be right. Look closely again!"
I burst out laughing at the sight of Kim Gayoung putting her hands on her hips and sticking her pelvis out.
"Pfft! You're going to herniate a disc if you do that."
"...Drop dead!"