Chapter 97: Date (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 97: Date (2)
The car moved forward smoothly.
I could see Yoon Ji-an gripping the steering wheel, her entire body excessively tense.
Was she nervous?
“Ji-an.”
“Yes, yes.”
“Where are we headed?”
Something felt off after I asked that.
I felt like the man was supposed to be the one to plan the date.
Ah, but maybe that’s an outdated prejudice these days.
“Well… it’s still a bit early for dinner.”
“That’s true.”
“So I booked tickets for a movie… if that’s okay with you.”
Oh, a movie.
“A movie sounds great.”
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been to a movie theater.
I think the last time was ages ago when I went alone because I didn't want to go home, only to make a hasty escape when a crowd started to form.
“Are there any interesting movies out right now?”
As I showed interest, her face brightened.
The tension in her body seemed to ease a bit, as if she were finally starting to relax.
“Ah, it’s an action movie that just came out, based on a true story. You know of him, don’t you, Do-jin? Hunter Son Si-woo.”
“…I do.”
Why did his name have to come up all of a sudden?
“This movie is an adaptation of an event that Hunter Son Si-woo experienced.”
“……”
Now I remembered.
Was it two years ago?
A film production company had contacted me out of the blue, saying they wanted to make a movie based on one of the incidents I’d been through.
The story they wanted to tell was my most painful memory.
The monster wave that began in Gangnam five years ago.
The worst disaster in South Korean history, one that caused an enormous amount of property damage and loss of life.
Honestly, I didn’t even want to speak of what happened back then.
But they persuaded me, saying it was an incident that shouldn’t be left as just a few lines of text.
They said it was necessary to inform everyone of the Hunters’ hard work and the government’s delayed response.
Only then, they argued, could we ensure a faster response if the same thing ever happened again.
I’d wondered if it was all just smooth talk to make money, but they turned out to be more principled than I expected.
So, I remember helping them out quite a bit.
I demonstrated some swordsmanship a few times to make the action scenes more realistic and shared vivid details of my experience to help them get it right.
“So it’s finally being released…”
It felt a little surreal.
I wondered how it turned out.
“Do you happen to dislike action movies?”
Perhaps it was because I was lost in thought with a serious expression.
Yoon Ji-an was glancing at me nervously out of the corner of her eye.
“Ah, no. I like action movies, too.”
“You do? That’s a relief.”
Only then did Yoon Ji-an’s expression return to normal.
I didn’t think so when I first met her, but her seemingly stoic face was full of different expressions.
She was surprisingly cute.
The number of cars on the road around us began to increase.
A sign that we were approaching the city center.
Familiar buildings started coming into view.
The skyscrapers of Gangnam.
Among them was the building used as the guild house for the guild I had created.
“I wonder if everyone’s doing okay…”
I don’t regret living in this body.
But it would be a lie to say I don’t miss any of it.
Our guild members, who had joined solely because of me.
Among them, I especially missed the executives who were in my party.
The time I had spent with them was no less than the time I’d spent with my family.
No, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call them my second family.
The reason I hadn’t set foot in Gangnam until now was partly because I had no business here, but maybe it was also because I knew I’d be overcome with nostalgia if I came.
“Do-jin? Do-jin?”
“Ah.”
Pulled from my thoughts, I snapped back to reality to find we were in an underground parking garage.
It seemed we had arrived at the theater building.
“Are you feeling unwell? If so…”
“No, I’m fine. I just had a few things on my mind.”
“Ah, I see. Well… shall we go up?”
“Yes, let’s.”
We took the elevator to the 8th floor.
Countless people milled about the spacious lobby.
Most of them were couples.
We walked with an ambiguous distance between us.
Too far to be lovers, yet a little too close to be strangers.
Then, Yoon Ji-an pointed to a kiosk.
“I’ll go get the tickets.”
“Then I’ll get the popcorn.”
“Ah, I was going to buy that, too…”
The thought that she was a good woman in many ways crossed my mind.
I’d heard that young men and women these days fight over dating expenses all the time.
A smile formed on my lips.
“Wasn’t I the one who was supposed to be treating you today?”
“Ah, was that the plan…?”
“Exactly. So let’s each buy our own things and meet back here.”
“Alright.”
After confirming she was heading to the kiosk, I made my way to the concession stand.
“W-would you like to order…?”
The employee, who had been taking the previous customers’ orders with a deadpan expression, blushed when she saw me.
Her gaze was incredibly tender for some reason.
Why was she suddenly tucking her hair behind her ear?
I tried my best to ignore it and looked at the menu, where a familiar set caught my eye.
“One couple set, please.”
“Ah, yes… I’ll ring you up.”
At the words “couple set,” her face suddenly fell.
Was she hoping I had come alone?
I felt a little proud of myself.
After a short wait, I got the popcorn and Cokes and headed to where we’d agreed to meet.
Yoon Ji-an spotted me from a distance and walked over quickly, taking one of the Cokes from my hand.
Come to think of it, I never asked what she wanted to drink.
“I didn’t know what you liked, so I got Coke. Is that okay?”
“Yes, I like it.”
Her light smile suggested she wasn’t just being polite.
That’s a relief.
“What time is the movie?”
“Um… we have about ten minutes left.”
“Should we go in and wait?”
“Yes, let’s do that.”
We showed our tickets and entered the theater.
Our seats were at the far right end of a middle row.
“Um… I like sitting in the corner seats…”
An unsolicited explanation suddenly came out.
“I like them too.”
To be honest, as long as it wasn’t the very front or back row, I didn’t think it mattered where we sat.
Sitting next to each other with only an armrest between us felt strangely surreal.
How should I put it… it was only now sinking in that we were actually on a date.
“It finally feels like a date now.”
“Huh? Ah, a d-date… yes, a date…”
Yoon Ji-an suddenly short-circuited.
It was too dark to see clearly, but I suspected her face was flushed red.
With a face like hers, I would have thought she’d been on plenty of dates. Why was she so shy?
“Ah, it’s starting.”
The already dim theater grew darker, and an image appeared on the previously blank screen.
A series of meaningless commercials played.
Bored, I turned my head and saw Yoon Ji-an focused intently on the screen.
Her expression was filled with anticipation.
She must have really wanted to see this movie.
I was curious, too.
I wondered how much of the desperation from that day had been captured.
Finally, the movie began.
It opened with a peaceful scene of Gangnam, followed by a shot of a Hunter emerging after clearing a dungeon.
Then, one by one, ominous signs began to appear.
A higher-than-usual concentration of mana, dungeons opening up centered around Gangnam.
Some researchers claimed these were precursors to a great disaster and insisted on preparing in advance, but the government refused to listen.
The nuance was that they didn’t want to spend a vast amount of money on a minor sign that could turn out to be nothing.
“Ugh.”
Watching it again made me angry.
The government had really been like that.
Despite being told repeatedly that danger could be imminent, they feigned ignorance.
It was all their fault that the damage, which could have been contained at a level of 10, ballooned to 100.
At last, the dreaded event occurred.
A massive rift tore open in the sky, and monsters began pouring out.
Starting with small monsters like goblins, progressively larger and stronger ones appeared.
Countless Hunters fought back, and many died.
Just as the tide of battle was turning against the Hunters, the protagonist appeared.
An S-rank Hunter who had been temporarily away from Seoul to clear an A-rank dungeon.
With his and his comrades’ arrival, the battle shifted back in their favor, but only for a moment.
The exhausted rift spat out one last, unbelievable monster.
[Kwwwaaaaaaah—!]
The massive beast’s roar, which sounded like it would tear through the screen, made the battlefield from that day overlap with the present.
A giant serpent roaring at the sky, Leviathan.
Estimated rank: EX.
The worst monster in history, one that even an S-rank Hunter could do nothing against.
I had to swing my sword with all my might just to pierce its scales and inflict a wound.
Every time it thrashed its body, the surroundings crumbled.
Countless Hunters had to combine their strength to form a barrier just to block the blue breath it spewed from its mouth.
A brief battle was all it took to realize it.
This was an opponent we couldn't defeat.
So I changed my approach.
I decided to send it back to where it came from.
There was already a precedent.
Behemoth, which had terrorized the entire United States before Leviathan.
Faced with an unbeatable giant foe, an American S-rank Hunter had succeeded in sending it back, using his own life as collateral.
He had used the very rift the monster had come through.
To do that, the rift, which was shrinking as if it would disappear at any moment, had to be forcibly widened.
I, too, risked my life for this.
I overloaded my mana by causing my core to rampage, then channeled all of it into my sword and swung.
The result… was just as you see on the screen.
[The rift… it’s opened up again!]
[This is it! We have to push it back into that rift!]
[Give it everything you’ve got! If not now, we’re all dead!]
Many Hunters pooled their strength to shove the beast into the rift.
Finally forced inside, the monster thrashed about as if it didn't want to go, before being completely sucked in and vanishing.
What happened after that… was obvious.
Voices censuring the government grew louder, and the Hunter who had torn open the rift was praised even more.
The completely destroyed Gangnam was quickly restored thanks to the abilities of the Awakened.
And with the seeds of hope sprouting once more, the movie ended.
As the ending credits rolled, the names of the Hunters who fought on the front lines that day appeared alongside them.
Among them was the name ‘Son Si-woo.’
“Hic…”
Was it really that moving?
Yoon Ji-an was covering her mouth with her hand, sobbing quietly.
“…Are you okay?”
I hesitated for a moment before patting her on the back.
This felt a little strange.
“I-I’m sorry. You had to see me in such a state…”
“Not at all.”
The sight of her wiping her tear-soaked eyes with her sleeve was nothing short of graceful.
“What did you think of the movie, Do-jin?”
“Me? I…”
Until just a moment ago, I had been half in doubt.
Was it right or wrong to have accepted the offer to turn that story into a commercial film?
But after watching the movie, I was certain.
“I think it was a good movie.”
My choice back then had not been wrong.
The sight of the other audience members, wiping away tears just like her, proved it.
I smiled lightly and asked her.
“You must be hungry after all that crying. Want to go get something to eat?”
“Yes, that sounds great.”
As I watched Yoon Ji-an nod readily and answer with a smile, a thought occurred to me.
They say if you laugh after crying, you’ll grow hair on your butt.
I guess I’ll have to check later.