Hwang Jiwoo (4)
The next day. A café in Seodaemun-gu.
Hwang Jiwoo tossed her mask aside. For the first time in ages, she had dressed up properly.
'Birds of a feather, as they say.'
The Baek Ajin she'd seen that day had looked seriously cool. Sure, her family circumstances were hard, and she didn't belong to any guild worth the name... and yet Jiwoo wanted to become someone worthy of her. Even if, for now, that amounted to nothing more than appearances.
'What on earth could this be about?'
Gulp.
Waiting quietly in the café's private room, Jiwoo swallowed hard. It was a nerve-racking moment.
The truth was, she had tested the waters with her father just the night before.
"Dad, what would you do if I had to be away from home for over three months?"
She had never once in her life spent a night away. Not even after coming of age. Which meant that accepting Baek Ajin's request meant scaling a mountain—an enormous one, at that!
"Why? What are you talking about?"
"Did you get a boyfriend or something? Because if so, absolutely not—not while I'm still breathing!"
The moment she'd so much as probed, the whole house erupted into chaos. From Jiwoo's standpoint, it was all down to her parents' overprotectiveness...
'Hah.'
She understood, though. The world had been in an uproar lately, after all. The gangs were gone now thanks to Baek Jinwoo's exploits, but her parents still couldn't quite shake the fear.
'How am I supposed to talk them around?'
Just as Hwang Jiwoo was shaking her head—
"Oh! Jiwoo!"
Baek Ajin walked in.
"You got here early."
9:50 a.m. Their appointment was for ten, so Ajin had arrived ten minutes ahead of schedule herself. But the jittery Jiwoo had been seated there a full hour before that.
This was, after all, the meeting where she'd been offered a job worth a cool billion won. Friend or no friend, her compulsion about keeping appointments had kicked in hard!
"It's been a while. Last time we didn't even get a proper hello in... And you've gotten even prettier, you know that?"
"What are you talking about? The pretty one here is you, Ajin."
The two ordered drinks and thawed the air with light chatter. Some time slipped by like that.
"...So? What exactly is this about?"
"Well, hmm... I'm not sure how this is going to sound, but. Jiwoo... you saw my brother recently, right?"
"Ba-Baek Jinwoo-nim?"
"What's with the '-nim'? He's my brother."
"I did."
He'd come over to take a photo with her, but she'd been so rigid it had barely gotten taken.
"You're a friend, so I won't make you sign some confidentiality agreement or anything... but you can't go blabbing about this offer wherever you please, got it?"
As Baek Ajin stalled, Hwang Jiwoo squirmed in her seat. What on earth was this about?
"I don't have anywhere to blab anyway. You know my only friends are you guys."
"Ahem."
Baek Ajin cleared her throat again.
Ugh.
Where was she supposed to begin explaining something like this?
Big strokes first, then.
"Straight to the point: for a hundred days, you move into Yubaek and just stay with my brother. Twenty-four hours a day..."
Baek Ajin's outrageous proposal lodged itself in Hwang Jiwoo's brain—
Pfft!
Jiwoo sprayed the iced americano in her mouth straight ahead of her.
"Wh-what...?!"
Her face went scarlet in her panic.
What was this woman saying?! Spend the night with—that Baek Jinwoo, the man she idolized? No, was she telling her to live with him?!
Jolted to her feet by sheer shock, Hwang Jiwoo quickly spotted the coffee splattered across Baek Ajin's face.
"I-I'm sorry!"
"It's fine. You were bound to be startled."
Plucking out a napkin, Baek Ajin wiped her face without missing a beat.
"Just hear me out to the end. We're going to provide you an apartment in YooBaek City. You live there properly, and—you know the Fire Dragon Mage, one of my brother's summons, right? All you have to do is stay beside her while my brother trains that summon. You can step away for a bit, but you have to be back within an hour... if the timer resets, the contract's void. Even if you fail, you're guaranteed 100 million won. Succeed, and it's a billion. So? What do you say?"
For the record, that 100 million would come out of Baek Ajin's own pocket. As a director of Yubaek, guaranteed twenty percent of all rune sale proceeds, her assets put the average chaebol heir to shame. Being this generous to a friend cost her nothing.
Especially when that friend of hers was the bearer of the famously rare Flame Body!
Her brother had asked her. By any means necessary, he'd said—sign her.
And if the girl refused the offer?
She'd simply raise the reward.
"So all I have to do is stay beside him? Nothing else at all?"
"Yep."
"Hmm."
Hwang Jiwoo closed her eyes.
What was there even to weigh?
It was an offer with no reason to refuse. She'd get to meet Baek Jinwoo again—and be paid handsomely for the privilege, no less.
"But why me, of all people?"
"Hm?"
"Is there some special reason it has to be me specifically?"
"Heh."
Baek Ajin laughed. Her friend really was quick.
Of course that was the question to ask, of course the curiosity would arise... but Baek Ajin was a merchant too.
"I'll tell you that once you put your stamp on it."
If Jiwoo learned she was special, she might well demand a steeper price. It wasn't that Ajin distrusted her friend—she just didn't trust her all the way. A deal was meant to be firm, and thorough!
"Understood."
"Really? Then shall we sign right now?"
"No—before that."
Hwang Jiwoo shook her head.
"There's one thing I have to settle first. Once that's done, I'll come straight to your company."
Convincing her parents!
For a woman in her early twenties, a night away from home was no small matter.
"Dad."
"No."
That was a parent for you. He'd read it all off her face before she'd even opened her mouth.
"You're about to bring up the staying-out thing again, aren't you? You being a player is fine. Joining a guild is fine. Attempting a dungeon is fine too, as long as safety's guaranteed. But staying away overnight? Not yet."
"A really good job came up."
"What kind of job on earth requires you to stay away overnight? For more than three months, no less!"
"If I work for a hundred days, they'll pay me a billion won."
"A bi... a billion?"
Her father's eyes, mid-scolding, went perfectly round. Then his expression hardened into something even more resolute.
"You little—! I don't know what con artist you've fallen for, but absolutely not!"
It was talk that defied all sense. A billion won for a hundred days? That worked out to ten million won a day. What job in this world paid out ten million won a day?!
It was one of two things. A scam, or organ trafficking.
"Hwang Jiwoo. I thought you were smart, but you're a complete fool! Haven't I told you over and over? Nothing in this world comes free. This is—this is insanity! That does it. You're banned from going out for the time being!"
"Dad!"
"Not while I'm still breathing—no! Even after I stop breathing, no!"
"It's Yubaek!"
In the end, Hwang Jiwoo blurted it out.
"Hm?"
Her father frowned. What was the girl on about now?
'Yubaek? The Yubaek I know?'
The one-man management firm behind national team captain Baek Jinwoo?
"You know Baek Jinwoo of Yubaek, right? I told you before—he's my friend Ajin's older brother."
"...As if I wouldn't know that."
Her father's ears perked right up.
It hadn't been long since Baek Jinwoo entered the public eye, but by now, anyone in South Korea who didn't know his name might as well be a spy.
No—even a spy would know him.
"He's the one who personally arranged this job."
"Why would Baek Jinwoo want you? Does that even make sense?"
"I don't know either! But Ajin came by today and handed me a contract. It's nothing shady... I think it's something that would actually be of help to Baek Jinwoo-nim. Look. Here's the contract!"
Rustle!
Her father snatched the contract and began speed-reading. His eyes shook wildly the whole way through.
'Th-this was real?'
Hard to believe—and yet he had no choice but to believe it. He had known Baek Ajin was his daughter's friend since very long ago.
'I've no idea what's actually going on here, but...'
This had to be an opportunity. For his daughter, especially!
"Ahem, ahem."
Her father cracked his neck left and right. Then he looked at Hwang Jiwoo.
"Jiwoo."
"Yes?"
"Is the offer still open?"
"...Huh?"
Hwang Jiwoo stared at her father in open disbelief.
"A minute ago it was 'not even after I stop breathing'—"
"Forget breathing—should I drive you there myself? Go pack your bags, quick. Haven't I always told you? Opportunities are there to be seized."
"And a minute ago it was 'nothing in this world comes free'—"
"Hmph! How dare you talk back to your elders!"
Go, and fast! Go and endure those hundred days no matter what! And don't even think about coming back!
In front of YooBaek City's main gate.
Thud!
The car door shut.
Vroom!
Where the car pulled away, Hwang Jiwoo alone remained, standing forlorn, a giant suitcase pressed into her hands.
After she'd shown her father the contract, things had moved at a literally breakneck pace. Jiwoo was dumbfounded. Her father—who never so much as mentioned the army—had launched into military-anecdote territory, earnestly instructing her that a hundred days was nothing, and that no matter what happened, she must endure.
'Still, though.'
Rustle!
Hwang Jiwoo's expression, as she unfolded the contract, had hardened too—as if she had steeled herself for something enormous.
'A billion won... I want to give up that payment and make a new offer.'
She didn't know why Baek Jinwoo had called for her, or what value she possessed. Which was exactly why she couldn't push for more. It wouldn't land anyway—and she didn't want it to.
But.
'What if I asked for his teaching for a hundred days instead of the money?'
One hour...
No—even ten minutes would do. If she could receive Baek Jinwoo's instruction, the money meant nothing at all.
She wanted it that badly.
'Honestly.'
One look at how the rankers behaved said it all.
Baek Jinwoo's time was worth a king's ransom.
'Even if I get turned down, I have to at least try.'
Once in her life she'd failed to work up the nerve to say a single word—and regretting it once was more than enough.
Go!
She'd go and say it to his face!
'Straight to the training ground.'
If she was going to renegotiate the contract, it was better to speak with Baek Jinwoo himself, the party concerned, rather than Baek Ajin. Especially when what she wanted to ask for was instruction.
Everyone's life brings a chance, and with it the moment to seize that chance, doesn't it? As Hwang Jiwoo saw it, that moment was today.
With a firm nod, she strode boldly through the main gate.
"Hah! Hah!"
"Haaaah!"
The training ground was burning hot again. Monday had come, and the four disciples had returned to it.
All of the summons had been released and handed over to Hungyo, while the disciples threw themselves into conditioning.
"Hoo."
Baek Jinwoo wasn't slacking on his own training either.
His muscles could now govern his entire body perfectly. In terms of raw strength, that is. Now was the time to master flexibility and fine-grained control.
Breathing out slowly in a handstand balanced on all ten fingers, he began lifting his fingers away one at a time. Pinky first, then ring finger, middle finger, index finger.
And at last—
"Hngh!"
Baek Jinwoo, balanced on a single thumb, loosed a sharp cry and poured his strength in.
Whish!
His body spun a full rotation, and he landed squarely on both feet. And through every instant of it, the Geoncheongsimgong had kept turning without a single lapse.
The disciples running laps around the training ground watched, shaking their heads slowly.
'A monster.'
'That scary hyung-nim...'
'...Our Master is astounding.'
Three pairs of eyes brimming with reverence—and then Hong Ari, shooting him a sidelong glance, her face a blend of envy and sulking.
'Honestly, does the man think he's a summon or something?'
In fact, the topic was a hot one among the disciples: if an F-rank summon fought Baek Jinwoo, who would win?
As a rule, a human cannot defeat a summon.
'But what if it were Baek Jinwoo?'
'Maybe an F-rank one. If you stripped his runes away too.'
And just then—
"Um, excuse me..."
Clunk!
The training ground's door swung open.
A new face!
Hwang Jiwoo, her expression pure and earnest, slipped carefully inside with the contract clutched in one hand.
And then she froze in shock.
'Hong Ari?'
There was Hong Ari, the woman she had always looked up to—and—
'Oh Seon-young, and Ki Jaehyeok, and Kang Jiho too?'
Only now did it truly sink in.
That she had just set foot in a hallowed ground every player in the nation dreamed of.