5. An Unexpected Guest
Bwoom!
A cool engine note rumbled out of the sputtering old truck as it finally caught.
Oh Hyeon-seong climbed out of the driver's seat and headed into the house.
"All done, ma'am. She'll start up just fine now."
"Bless you, Hyeon-seong. And just in time, too — I was short-handed as it was. I figured you might lend a hand with the harvest, but I never dreamed you'd fix my truck on top of it. You came from the city, though. Did you work at a garage somewhere?"
"No, ma'am. I was just a civil servant. But I've had to tinker with cars a few times back in the day, so I picked up a thing or two."
"Well, I never. Such a polite young man, and handsome too — I ought to introduce you to my daughters! What on earth are you doing up in the city anyway, still a bachelor at your age?"
"Ahaha..."
Oh Hyeon-seong let out an awkward laugh.
As intended, his campaign to win her over appeared to be a roaring success. Aunt Hwang was one of the most well-connected people in the village, so her good word would go a long way toward easing him into the local community.
That she'd be swamped during the autumn harvest was something Gwon Gyeong-min had tipped him off about in advance, with exactly this in mind.
"Mm-hm, mm-hm. A first-rate husband if I ever saw one."
Yoo Eun-ha nodded solemnly from where she sat perched on the main floor of the house, a smile tugging at her lips as she munched away on rice cakes.
"Sorry, Oppa. I already finished all the tteok."
"...Are you sure you should be lounging around here? I don't have any farming to do, but your facility's pretty large, isn't it?"
"We finished the potato harvest last time, and we're past the busiest stretch, so things are quiet."
Oh Hyeon-seong settled down at the edge of the floor. After their last encounter, the siblings and he had agreed to drop the formalities. Their social standing might differ, but the age gap wasn't all that big, and when friendly neighbors came calling, it was a kindness worth returning.
"The trip to Seoul the other day was to deliver our harvested potatoes straight to a department store. And the whole advantage of an expensive facility is that it needs less labor for its size."
"So that's why you so graciously came out to help with the farm work?"
"We mooch Aunt Hwang's kimchi off her all the time, hehe."
Yoo Eun-ha lifted the remote. She flipped past a channel airing an unpopular variety show, and a news broadcast came on — an interview. A strikingly handsome man was speaking with easy confidence in front of a throng of fans and reporters.
"Whoa, Ryu Ji-hwa cleared an S-Rank gate in America again. Solo, no less. He must be raking in the endorsement deals."
Yoo Eun-ha stared at the television, mouth hanging open. She was trying not to make it obvious, but the quiet devotion of a fan was plain to see.
"Oh, right — didn't Ryu Ji-hwa work at the Bureau before joining his agency? Maybe you two crossed paths?"
"We never worked a site together, but I've seen him around."
"What... r-really? No way! What's he like in person? Is he really as handsome as he looks on camera?"
"Dunno."
Yoo Eun-ha scooted right up beside him, eyes wide with astonishment, but Oh Hyeon-seong only shrugged.
These days Ryu Ji-hwa was the marquee star of Aegis, one of the big three agencies — but only a few years ago, he had been a raw rookie. Far from being Oh Hyeon-seong's colleague or junior, he hadn't even been qualified to set foot on the same sites.
Whenever his injuries kept Oh Hyeon-seong off the field, however, he served as an instructor, training up the newer generation — and Ryu Ji-hwa had been among that batch of students. The boy had shown promise, so Oh Hyeon-seong remembered driving him through training with almost brutal intensity.
Watching that clumsy kid holding court in front of the cameras now... the world really has changed, hasn't it.
During his five years in the hospital, nothing had made the shifting world more tangible than the one captured by the mass media. From network news to current affairs and even entertainment channels, there was scarcely a program that didn't talk about hunters. Hunters who had stepped into the sunlight had become figures wielding influence not only over national power and security, but over society at large.
Though out here in the countryside, daily dramas and trot singing competitions still reigned supreme.
"Here now, you two have earned a rest. Eat up."
"Whoa, thank you!"
At some point Aunt Hwang had carried out an entire table's worth of food and set it down before them. A bottle of makgeolli, a spread of potato pancakes leading a lineup of gorgeous dishes — Yoo Eun-ha happily picked up her chopsticks.
"Not eating, Oppa? You must be hungry."
"I'll eat. I'm getting to it."
He had picked up his chopsticks, but Oh Hyeon-seong showed little enthusiasm for the food in front of him. Small wonder — ever since that shocking meal, he had been eating nothing but lettuce at every sitting. He hadn't touched so much as a spoonful of rice, and his body was beginning to register the carbohydrate deficit in earnest.
Even so, his diet hadn't changed, and this very morning he had devoured every last lettuce plant in his garden plot, leaving the bed bare.
Yoo Eun-ha, busy shoveling down soy sauce–drenched potato pancakes, glanced over at him.
"By the way, have you tried the potatoes we gave you?"
"No, not yet."
"Why not?"
"Reasons. I'll try them today."
Oh Hyeon-seong answered with a grin. The food before him might as well not have existed; he was already swelling with anticipation for what waited back home.
After that fateful meal of lettuce, Oh Hyeon-seong had ordered seed potatoes off the internet. Nothing special — perfectly ordinary potato seedlings. He hadn't toured nurseries hunting for premium stock; he'd simply bought a small quantity online from some nameless vendor.
What's more, it wasn't even the season for planting fall potatoes, and he hadn't done so much as the basic plastic mulching that cultivation required. Without any preparation whatsoever, he'd just shoved them into the ground.
And yet the potatoes he planted shot up vigorously. They had flourished to full growth in a single day — a growing period shorter than the shipping time for the seed potatoes themselves.
"Harvest's done. Now, the moment of truth."
Oh Hyeon-seong sat down before the table with a resolute expression. Two bowls of steamed potatoes faced him, wisps of steam curling into the air.
At a glance they were identical, but the two potatoes came from very different origins. On the left: the premium, department-store-grade potatoes gifted by the Yoo siblings next door. On the right: pedigree-less garden potatoes, raised by an amateur farmer's own hands.
He held his breath, picked up the potato on the left, and took a generous bite. He chewed it over carefully, then nodded.
So this is what a certified, high-class potato tastes like, huh.
It was just a steamed potato, yet it was leagues better than Aunt Hwang's potato pancakes, made with so much more care. This wasn't a gap in cooking skill — it was a difference in the ingredients themselves. Unlike the wretched texture of factory-farmed potatoes or even ordinary natural-grown ones, these were far less dry and crumbly. Dipped in salt or sugar to smooth out the flaws, they tasted even better.
They still have that sloppy aftertaste particular to post-Gate potatoes... but at this level they could practically hold their own against premium synthetic crops.
No wonder the siblings had been so confident. The difference was stark enough that even people with dulled palates would notice it at once.
And yet something was still missing. These were, by any measure, top-tier potatoes — and still, the lettuce he'd eaten that morning kept circling round and round in his head.
He set down the half-eaten potato and pulled the right-hand bowl toward him. An extraordinary fragrance had been teasing his nose for some moments now. He lifted the garden-grown potato in both hands and brought it to his mouth.
...This is insane.
It hit him like a hard blow to the back of the head. This was no crude imitation, no lookalike species — this was the aroma and texture of a real potato. Every bite sent a flood of fluffy, pillowy flesh crashing into his mouth. It was so hot he had to roll it frantically around his mouth — and even that was delicious.
Have I... been living all this time having forgotten this taste?
It was a shock. If the lettuce had felt like a supporting act, the potato carried a terrifying destructive power all on its own. Looking back on his eating habits, the revelation was one stunning scene after another. Ever since humanity had been forced to compromise for survival, a numbness close to resignation had settled over everyone — but once you'd tasted the real thing, there was no unseeing it. Your eyes were opened, and they stayed open.
Oh Hyeon-seong, still mechanically devouring his potato, looked up and met the spirits' eyes.
Kyuu?
All four elemental spirits were staring at him, utterly baffled — they had never once seen him like this in their lives.
"Yeah, I know. I look ridiculous. And it's all thanks to you."
Oh Hyeon-seong chuckled and ruffled the little spirits' heads.
After planting the seed potatoes the night before, he had spent a long while observing the spirits' behavior and the state of his garden — and with his own two eyes, he had watched the entire growth process unfold. Everything the spirits had done for the crops.
The crops shot up overnight because of the spirits of life. The earth spirits devoured the turbid energy in the soil and replenished it with rich nutrients. The fire spirits wrapped them in gentle warmth, holding them at the perfect temperature, and the water spirits supplied pure, uncontaminated water.
They removed the miasma completely, delivered untainted nourishment, and tuned the entire surrounding environment to the ideal conditions for growth. No wonder the taste was incomparable — not next to factory-farmed produce, not next to crops exposed to miasma. As part of nature itself, the spirits could read a plant's condition with ease.
From the spirits' point of view, of course, they had merely helped a few pitiful, miasma-poisoned plants grow up properly. But their care was something no facility on earth — no matter how much cutting-edge technology and capital was poured into it — could hope to imitate. The result was a difference that ran from lettuce to potatoes, unmistakable and without precedent.
This isn't a matter of better or worse quality... eating this felt like eating real, uncorrupted food from before the Gate cataclysm. No — not felt. I'm certain of it.
Oh Hyeon-seong set the potato down and sank into deep thought. All this time, humanity had chosen to imitate the delicious ingredients of the past as faithfully as possible — matching flavor and texture as closely as they could to the old foods. But this was no patchwork approximation. This single potato was equivalent to a complete, pre-Gate crop; even if words failed to capture it, the difference was something no one could ever mistake.
"This... might be a far bigger deal than I thought."
At first, he had simply been delighted by delicious food. But think about it a little longer, and this could balloon into something with consequences beyond imagining.
Knock, knock!
While he was still running scenarios through his head, the sound of someone rapping on the gate handle drifted in from the yard. An unannounced visit, out of nowhere.
The siblings next door? Or Gwon Gyeong-min?
"Excuse me — is anyone home?"
A woman's voice floated over the gate. Oh Hyeon-seong started, jolting up from his seat. He went outside and flung the gate open — and came face to face with the woman standing there.
"You..."
A tall, elegant woman in a crisp, immaculate suit. But even that polished attire couldn't dilute her stunning features.
"It's been a while, Sunbae."
His longtime junior — Han Su-yeon — smiled faintly.