Chapter 34: Entangled
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 34: Entangled
Just as Seo-ho, unable to stand her vulgar voice whispering seductively in his ear any longer, was about to push her away…
“My, my. If you two are so passionately in love, it’s hard for me to return to my seat.”
A voice came from behind him.
At the sound of it, Kwak Sa-yeon peeked her head out from beside Seo-ho’s waist.
When she saw the man walking toward them, her face flushed bright red and she pulled away from Seo-ho.
Still, she clutched the collar of his shirt, as if determined not to let him go.
The owner of the voice was none other than Kwak Do-reon.
With handsome features that suited his name—which sounded like doryeonnim [young master]—he smiled at the two of them.
“Brother, when did you get here! You should have said something sooner. How embarrassing.”
“I just arrived. You two seemed to be getting along so well that I hesitated to interrupt. Now, now, let’s all sit down.”
He patted Seo-ho’s shoulder familiarly and took a seat at the reserved table.
The three of them were the only customers in the restaurant today.
Having rented out the entire establishment for the day, they could dine without worrying about anyone else.
“So, what’s the occasion? It’s not every day I get a call from you, Seo-ho.”
As Kwak Do-reon tilted his wine glass and asked, Seo-ho put down the fork he’d been twirling pasta with.
“I wanted to talk about the Tower of Revelation.”
“Ah, it’s about time you took an interest, Seo-ho.”
He stroked his chin, his eyes showing genuine interest.
Just then, a clatter echoed from Kwak Sa-yeon’s direction.
She was staring at Seo-ho, her eyes trembling violently. Seo-ho looked back at her, a question in his gaze.
“What? No way. I’m against it! Seo-ho, do you know how many people die in the Tower of Revelation? Why would you go there?!”
Seo-ho frowned at Kwak Sa-yeon’s vehement opposition.
This topic was just bait to lure Kwak Do-reon and Kwak Sa-yeon here; Seo-ho himself had no immediate interest in the Tower.
But he couldn’t understand what right she had to object.
“Well, let’s talk about that later. It’s not like you’re declaring you’re going right this second, is it? Right?”
“Yes.”
“So, Sa-yeon, you calm down too.”
At Kwak Do-reon’s words, Kwak Sa-yeon fumed for a moment before finally sitting back down.
Even so, her eyes continued to tremble with anxiety, her desire for Seo-ho not to go to the Tower palpable.
“You took a short vacation recently, didn’t you? What did you do?” Kwak Do-reon asked, changing the subject.
Seo-ho fell silent for a moment.
All he had done during that vacation was search for Si-ho, get contacted by the Returnee Association, hear the full story, and then continue the search with them.
But there was no reason to be honest about all that.
“I had some business to take care of with my sister.”
“I see. Speaking of which, I hear your sister is a hunter too, right? Why don’t you bring her over to our company?”
“She’ll do as she pleases. She’s not one to listen to me.”
At the polite refusal, Kwak Do-reon simply shrugged as if it were a shame, saying nothing more.
“By the way, I’ve been hearing talk about an artificial dimension gate lately.”
He brought up another topic as if it had just occurred to him.
Seo-ho knew all about the artificial gate.
He had learned from Baek Seol-hyang, the chairperson of the Returnee Association, what kind of trouble Si-ho had been caught up in.
She had even offered to assign a returnee to act as Si-ho’s bodyguard.
“They say it’s possible to create a dimension gate artificially. And there are rumors that Girasung might be involved.”
“They’re returnees, aren’t they?”
Kwak Sa-yeon wore a look of contempt, as if she was familiar with the story.
“Ugh, why do they keep crawling back here and causing problems? They should have just stayed where they were. They’re such a nuisance, seriously.”
Kwak Sa-yeon spouted her childish complaints without a second thought, showing no consideration for the circumstances of returnees.
Kwak Do-reon paid her no mind and looked at Seo-ho.
“I hear the Returnee Association is on the move as well.”
“That must be a big deal.”
“It is. An artificial dimension gate is something a lot of people would covet. Thanks to that, we’re warning other companies not to get involved. There’s nothing to be gained from antagonizing the Returnee Association.”
“That’s wise of you.”
“What can I say? It’s our job to protect South Korea,” Kwak Do-reon said with a benevolent smile.
“Brother, Seo-ho, I’m going to go powder my nose.”
Meanwhile, Kwak Sa-yeon, who seemed to have lost interest in the conversation, stood up and went to the restroom.
Kwak Do-reon watched her leave for a moment before turning his gaze back to Seo-ho.
“So, what do you think?”
“About what, sir?”
“About Sa-yeon.”
The moment he heard that, Seo-ho’s face contorted into a deep scowl.
But Kwak Do-reon continued, unfazed.
“She may be my sister, but she’s a stupid wench. Still, she has a pretty face. I think she wouldn’t be too bad to have in your collection.”
He spoke of his sister as if she were an object.
Not a shred of affection for Kwak Sa-yeon could be seen in his eyes.
“Of course, that’s not the only merit. What I want is for you, Seo-ho, to become part of our family. I’ve taken a liking to you.”
Using his younger sister as a pretext to bring Seo-ho into the JMC family.
That was Kwak Do-reon’s goal.
As an S-rank hunter, Seo-ho’s power was a massive asset, enough to stand against even returnees.
As such, Kwak Do-reon wanted to tie him down with the bonds of family.
“After you’re married, I don’t care if you throw Sa-yeon away or not.”
“…Is that something you should say about your own sister?”
As someone who also had a younger sister, Seo-ho couldn’t comprehend Kwak Do-reon’s words.
But Kwak Do-reon’s smile didn’t waver in the slightest.
“I’m being deliberately honest with you. It’s easier for you to trust me if I lay everything out in the open, rather than hiding things like some mastermind, don’t you think?”
“I would have preferred it if you had drawn a line.”
“Unfortunately, I have too much affection for the Snow Mountain Wolf. Looking at it this way, perhaps both of us siblings have fallen for you.”
He chuckled, even using the nickname Seo-ho hated. The moment Kwak Sa-yeon returned, he welcomed her as if their previous conversation had never happened.
It was a truly chilling sight, but it also revealed just how meticulous a person he was.
After the meal, Seo-ho walked out of the restaurant feeling a nausea worse than anything he’d ever felt fighting dimensional entities.
The lukewarm breeze, a sign that summer had truly arrived, only soured his mood further.
“Seo-ho, Seo-ho!”
Just then, Kwak Sa-yeon, who had followed him out, suddenly threw her arms around his.
“Heehee, leaving already? Stay and play with me a little longer.”
That was the last thing he wanted, but Seo-ho remembered Ha-chan’s request and opened his mouth.
“Instead of playing, can I ask you something?”
He dropped the formal speech out of sheer annoyance at her constant pestering to speak casually.
Because of that, Kwak Sa-yeon just beamed, looking even more pleased by his informal tone.
“What is it, what is it? I’ll tell you anything you’re curious about!”
“What do you usually do?”
Hearing his question, her eyes widened before she broke into a sly grin.
“Seo-ho, you’ve gotten really interested in me, haven’t you? Is it because of what my brother said?”
And at the words that flowed from her lips, even Seo-ho froze.
What my brother said.
She had to be referring to the conversation he’d just had with Kwak Do-reon.
“Don’t worry! I don’t care about my brother at all. All I need is you, Seo-ho. As long as I have you, the person I love most in this world, everything will be okay.”
It was the first time.
The first time he felt that Kwak Sa-yeon wasn’t just a stupid Venus flytrap.
“Seo-ho, do you want JMC, by any chance? If you promise not to do anything dangerous like going to the Tower of Revelation, I might just give it to you.”
And the first time he felt a chill run down his spine as he saw the smirk on her face.
“You…”
“Oh, right. You said you were curious about what I do every day! Let’s go, let’s go. I’ll teach you everything tonight, in detail!”
As she pressed her chest against him and pulled him along, Seo-ho watched her in silence.
Then, he happened to turn his head and his eyes met with Kwak Do-reon, who was standing at the restaurant entrance watching them.
The smile on his face was a clear sign of how much the two resembled each other, and why they were siblings.
*
“So this is Kwak Sa-yeon’s daily routine?”
[Yes, that’s right.]
The next day, I listened to Seo-ho’s voice over the phone and jotted down everything he told me.
After I had him start calling me hyeong-nim, Seo-ho had asked me to speak to him casually, and I had no choice but to oblige.
Seo-ho sounded exhausted just from talking about it, as if he’d been thoroughly dragged around by Kwak Sa-yeon.
[Uh, hyeong-nim.]
At his call, I stopped writing.
[Do you have a grudge against Kwak Sa-yeon?]
He must have figured it out from the way I was talking. I gave a bitter laugh.
“Yeah, a pretty big one. She did a pretty good job of ruining my life.”
[I see.]
He fell silent for a moment, as if in thought.
[To be honest, I think it would be better for your own safety if you didn’t get involved with Kwak Sa-yeon.]
A moment later, he offered his advice, having clearly given it a lot of thought.
[But if you must settle your grudge against her…]
I could faintly hear the sound of Seo-ho clenching his fist over the phone.
[I will help you, no matter what.]
Damn, that’s so cool.
I could see why women went crazy for Seo-ho.
Everything he said sounded like it came straight out of a novel.
“Thanks. I’ll let you know if anything comes up.”
[Yes, understood.]
I smiled at his polite tone, which he maintained to the very end, and hung up.
After hearing the whole story, it seemed Kwak Sa-yeon was still a woman who lived exactly as she pleased.
Her daily routine consisted of shopping sprees at department stores and lording her power over others.
Some things never change.
“Is that Kwak Sa-yeon the one who put a curse on you?”
“Yeah. To be precise, it was probably a hunter she hired.”
Baeksan, who had been listening beside me, had a thoughtful expression on his face.
Then, as if he’d remembered something, he scowled.
“You’re tangled up with something stranger than I thought.”
“What? You know something?”
This was Baeksan from the future.
Since she was the daughter of the JMC chairman, there was a high chance he knew something.
When I looked at him with a curious expression, he brushed his bangs back out of habit and began to explain.
“If my memory serves me right, after the chairman’s son dies suddenly one day, that woman becomes the next successor.”
“Dies suddenly?”
My eyes widened at his words.
The JMC chairman’s son had to be that guy, Kwak Do-reon.
He had awakened as a hunter himself and was working at JMC.
‘Was he B-rank? He should have been pretty high-level.’
Hunters possessed superior physical abilities, which naturally made them resistant to illness and accidents.
So I couldn’t understand how he could have died suddenly.
“It’s not like I knew all their family business. I just saw it on the news back then and thought nothing of it. The problem is what happens after.”
Baeksan lowered the hand that had been sweeping back his hair and calmly continued.
“After that woman marries Ha Seo-ho, she takes him and the JMC-affiliated hunters and defects to Girasung.”
“Wait, what kind of fucked-up situation is that?”
“Yeah, just as you said, it’s a fucked-up situation.”
He wore a troubled expression, as if he didn’t know the full details either.
Seo-ho marries that woman?
No way.
I can’t give my Seo-ho to a crazy woman like that.
In that moment, another stack of rage towards Kwak Sa-yeon was added to my mental tally.
“Anyway, because of that, the hunter situation in Korea becomes a total mess. And then another problem explodes. The news of Ha Seo-ho’s death.”
“Why does my Seo-ho have to die?!”
“? Since when was he ‘your Seo-ho’?”
Baeksan gave me a look of disbelief but continued speaking.
“Whatever. With the news of Ha Seo-ho’s death, who do you think would be the most affected?”
As soon as he said that, one girl came to mind.
“…Si-ho.”
“Right. That’s when the kid’s rampage began. The crazed girl decided to annihilate Girasung, and in her hunt for them, she completely messed up Earth’s spatial coordinates. Thanks to that, dimension gate phenomena erupted all over the world, leading to a global catastrophe.”
“Si-ho did that…”
Hearing that, I realized the situation was far more serious than I had thought.
There’s something called the butterfly effect.
It’s a phenomenon where a tiny change, like the flap of a butterfly’s wings, can lead to enormous, unforeseen consequences down the line.
That was the perfect description for this situation.