8. Want Some More?
“...?”
At the mention of her own name out of nowhere, Han Su-yeon froze.
It was the kind of remark that could come off as rude to someone's face.
But the people who'd blurted it out had no room in their heads to care about that.
“Wh-what? Am I seeing things right now?”
Yoo Eun-ha said, rubbing both her eyes.
But the figure standing there remained exactly the same.
That Han Su-yeon — the one you only ever saw on TV.
Of course, Yoo Seung-su was just as shocked.
What on earth is going on?
He'd only come over to his neighbor's house for a meal, and now he'd stumbled into an encounter he never could have predicted.
He half-wondered if some colossal Gate had sprouted up in the area.
But if a Gate had appeared that would bring Han Su-yeon out personally, the whole village would already be under evacuation orders.
Besides, that rumpled, casual outfit hardly looked like something someone would wear to a battle or an official duty.
“Wow... she's so beautiful...”
Yoo Eun-ha, standing beside him, murmured in a daze.
His younger sister had always been a bit of a starstruck type.
And it never mattered whether the object of her admiration was a man or a woman.
But honestly, this time he had to admit she had a point.
I almost thought a porcelain doll had come to life and was standing there.
The siblings weren't exactly lacking in looks themselves.
They'd grown up hearing that they were a handsome pair, and back in Seoul their polished, urbane style had won them plenty of admirers.
But there was simply no comparison to the being in front of them.
He'd once caught a glimpse of a famous actress by chance, and even that had amounted to a fleeting impression — nothing like this feeling, which was the first of its kind.
How should he put it? She just didn't seem like someone living in the same world as the rest of them.
An overwhelming presence in the flesh that no camera could ever hope to capture.
Yoo Seung-su's eyes darted back and forth between Oh Hyeon-seong and Han Su-yeon.
Come to think of it, Oh Hyeon-seong's looks had been strikingly unusual when he'd first met him too.
Seeing the two of them side by side now, they looked strikingly well matched.
Apparently people said you had to share the same art style to look good together.
“Wow, so this hyung was a big shot after all.”
“I'm not a hunter.”
“?”
“No, no — wait, what exactly is the relationship between you two?”
For some reason, Eun-ha was whispering from behind him, as if hiding something from Han Su-yeon.
She sidled up close to Oh Hyeon-seong and asked.
“We just know each other.”
“Know each other? How?”
“You two know already. We used to work at the same place, and we kept running into each other until we got friendly.”
“So you're not... dating?”
“Where did that even come from?”
Oh Hyeon-seong's expression was one of pure disbelief.
At the sight of it, Yoo Eun-ha felt a flicker of confusion.
Being a devoted consumer of hunter-world gossip, she'd already run through her head, several times over, fantasies about a top-tier hunter's hidden civilian boyfriend, or a civilian spouse secretly married off away from the public eye.
And on top of that — someone who was supposedly just an acquaintance was hanging around a man who lived alone like this?
“Your Sunbae had an amazing reputation at the Bureau, you know. When I first joined, he showed me the ropes, and we just got close over time.”
“Gasp.”
Han Su-yeon had somehow drifted right up beside her, and Yoo Eun-ha sucked in a breath.
For whatever reason, the two of them now stood with Oh Hyeon-seong between them, facing each other over his shoulder.
At the sight of her smiling that soft smile, Yoo Eun-ha's cheeks flushed bright red, and after some fidgeting she finally opened her mouth.
“Um... could I maybe get your autograph?”
“Ahh, so you're the neighbors next door to Sunbae.”
“Yes, yes, that's us.”
“And how did you happen to recognize me?”
“Of course I did! I'm a real fan. Eeeek!”
Yoo Eun-ha's face, perched cross-legged on the floor receiving the autograph, was washed over with emotion.
Whatever suspicions she'd harbored at the start had long since evaporated.
Watching her, Oh Hyeon-seong let out an awkward laugh.
He'd known Han Su-yeon was famous in society, but he hadn't expected people to react quite that intensely.
“Let's hurry up and eat.”
The two men had already set the table in the living room.
All that was left was to lay out the lunchboxes they'd brought, so there'd been nothing to prepare — a few dishes and side plates were the extent of it.
With everyone gathered, Oh Hyeon-seong couldn't help but burst out laughing at the sight of Yoo Seung-su, seated beside him and fidgeting restlessly.
“Didn't you say you weren't all that interested in the hunter world?”
“There are degrees to everything. Do you have any idea who's sitting right across from us?”
Yoo Seung-su whispered quietly, hand cupped against his ear.
Even as he spoke, he kept sneaking glances at Han Su-yeon seated across the table.
The idea that a heavyweight hunter who walked the halls of the Blue House was sitting around this humble little table, digging into packed lunchboxes with them, was still impossible to believe.
“Is that so? I was in a hospital bed so long, I've lost my sense of it.”
Oh Hyeon-seong tilted his head, then picked up his spoon.
When she'd carried it in wrapped in cloth earlier, he'd assumed she'd just transferred some side dishes over, but inside had been beautifully packed lunchboxes.
He heard that Yoo Eun-ha, who had cooking as a hobby, had made all of it.
Just from the menu composition and the neatly arranged dishes, you could tell her skills were excellent.
Yoo Eun-ha, evidently quite proud of her cooking, said as much with a hint of boast in her voice.
Of course, Oh Hyeon-seong's palate had been utterly spoiled since he'd started eating the potatoes and lettuce from his garden.
The ingredients in those lunchboxes fell hopelessly short of that standard.
It helped a little that the siblings had used crops they grew themselves at their facility, but most of it relied on factory-produced ingredients and simply couldn't be delicious.
So unavoidably, the food wasn't tasty.
It felt, at best, like a valiant effort to hold the line — a meal whose only virtue was not ruining the appetite.
“How's the food?”
“Mm, it's delicious.”
Han Su-yeon answered with a smile in her eyes.
But she couldn't hide from Oh Hyeon-seong the stiff, awkward movement at the corner of her mouth.
She'd stuffed herself on his garden potatoes yesterday, after all.
She'd even woken up this morning nursing the hope that she might get to eat them again — only to be suddenly served something completely different. Disappointment was inevitable.
But she didn't let it show.
“Thank you for the meal!”
And so, a slightly awkward meal came to an end.
As they cleared the table, a brief standoff broke out.
“We'll do the dishes!”
“No, the freeloaders wash up. You two, go sit down.”
“He's right, we'll take care of it.”
“B-but... is it really okay for those lovely hands to do dishes...?”
“What are you saying to a woman who tears monsters apart with her bare hands?”
Oh Hyeon-seong wore an expression of utter exasperation.
Then he physically hauled the siblings off and planted them in the living room.
Once they gave up, he returned to the kitchen — only to find Han Su-yeon already standing at the sink, hair tied back, rubber gloves on.
“I picked some good neighbors. Taking care of me like this.”
“Right? After a few days with them, they seem like good kids. Being fellow Seoul transplants, I think I look out for them a little extra too.”
“Ah, so they left the city for farming too.”
“They came out here first, two years ago. By the way, Deputy Director — you somehow managed not to forget how to do dishes.”
“A hunter who can't wash dishes would be a princess, wouldn't she?”
“Good, that works out nicely. As it happens, I had something to assign you.”
“Assign me?”
Han Su-yeon looked at him, a question mark practically floating above her head.
Oh Hyeon-seong grinned.
“The potatoes you had yesterday. Want some more?”
“What am I looking at right now?”
The siblings sat side by side on the slope, staring blankly ahead.
In the distance, Oh Hyeon-seong and Han Su-yeon stood gripping hoes, turning over the earth.
Han Su-yeon. Doing farm work.
The Reaper of the White Night — the woman who had single-handedly plunged into countless S-Rank Gates and torn monsters limb from limb — was holding a hoe and digging dirt.
“...Sunbae, is this right?”
“Yep, you're doing great. Keep digging just like that.”
Oh Hyeon-seong thrust his thumb up in approval.
At that, Han Su-yeon scratched her head, heaved a deep sigh, rolled her sleeves up past her elbows, and got to work.
“I never imagined I'd be doing this when I came out here.”
“No work, no food. Your batch had it drilled into you at the training camp too — don't you remember?”
“I'd rather forget, honestly. But why are we digging all this up?”
“Since I've moved out here anyway, I'm going to start farming in earnest. Time to plant crops besides potatoes.”
Oh Hyeon-seong said, bringing his hoe down with a thud.
This stretch would hold the grain crops; beyond it, he planned to lay out an orchard.
Fruit needed no elaborate preparation to taste wonderful in its own right, and it offered a flavor of a different character entirely from anything cooked.
The last time he'd eaten a proper piece of fruit was so distant a memory that he couldn't recall the exact taste anymore — but the image of it was still carved into his mind.
“Farming, huh... So everything that grows here is going to turn delicious too? Like the potatoes I had?”
“Probably.”
“Your spirits really are something, Sunbae.”
At her words, Oh Hyeon-seong's expression twitched.
Had she already figured it out?
That explained why she hadn't asked a single question about the potatoes yesterday.
If she'd tasted that flavor firsthand, there was no way she couldn't tell this was no ordinary potato.
“How did you know?”
“A spirit told me.”
Kying!
The fire spirit suddenly popped out of Han Su-yeon's shirt pocket.
It had been clinging to her like a burr the whole time.
Oh Hyeon-seong stared at it, dumbfounded.
“When did you sneak in there again?”
“Don't bully the poor thing for no reason.”
Han Su-yeon said with a sly smile.
Apparently she'd thoroughly charmed the little creature at some point.
Ordinarily, that would be impossible.
But Han Su-yeon was a bearer of a Special Constitution.
One of the rarest in all of Korea, no less — a Mana Resonance wielder.
Her gift went beyond simply storing and using mana: she could directly resonate with the mana surrounding her, sensing and controlling it. A specialist among specialists.
And among them, Han Su-yeon stood unambiguously at the very peak.
Admittedly, only Oh Hyeon-seong, as the contractor, could perfectly understand what the spirits were saying at all times.
But through mana resonance, Han Su-yeon could hold an actual conversation with a spirit too.
What's more, she was a veteran who had survived the twists and turns of career politicians — so coaxing a few naive little spirits into spilling everything was child's play.
The fire spirit, in particular, was an exceptionally poor match-up against her.
“Still, you're getting scolded when we get back.”
Kyiing!
The spirit ducked straight into Han Su-yeon's arms.
Not that it mattered.
Its contractor was standing right here — where exactly did it think it was running to?
“Just so we're clear: I came here to retire and live quietly.”
“Relax. I'm not stupid enough to go blabbing about this. I even played along with your retired-civilian act earlier. Besides, I have no interest in making an enemy of you, Sunbae.”
“A ranking power player who keeps an entire Bureau at her feet, going this easy on a washed-up hunter with a bad leg?”
“Well, I imagine anyone from our generation of hunters would feel the same.”
Han Su-yeon said with a shrug.
It was true that on matters like this, she was about as trustworthy a person as he could hope for.
Even so, he'd decided to settle things here, once and for all.
Swoosh.
Oh Hyeon-seong drew a foil-wrapped potato from inside his jacket.
Steam and fragrance rose gently from the potato, steamed to perfect doneness.
To anyone else, the smell would have registered as merely delicious. But Han Su-yeon, who knew the devastating taste behind it, felt her mouth water uncontrollably and swallowed hard.
This was beyond reason — pure instinct.
“Th-that's... low. That's just low.”
Things had turned out a little differently than he'd planned, but he'd been counting on Han Su-yeon's cooperation anyway.
He hadn't fed her a garden potato for nothing.
He'd needed a partner, and this had simply made the conversation that much easier.
“As it happens, there's something farm-related I wanted to discuss. My dear junior — let's call it a favor, shall we?”