The End of the Long Holiday (1)
October 6th.
South Korea had finally arrived at Chuseok.
The nation's great harvest festival, boasting the longest stretch of time off in the entire year. A day of happiness when everyone was resting and… there was Lee Jun.
"Haaam…."
He'd been out on a site survey since three in the morning.
And now it was already five in the evening. Poking his head into the gate for a look, analyzing the environment, investigating the mechanics in advance — all of it had eaten up a considerable amount of time.
"…God damn it."
He didn't exactly hate working, but fatigue was fatigue. And knowing that just about everyone else in the country was off enjoying their holiday made it that much harder to swallow.
"Ah, um… excuse me… are you all right?"
"…Yes, of course I am. No problems here."
Beside him was HIM's HR Team 1 Leader. Having heard rumors somewhere along the line about the Vice-Chairman's infamous reputation, she was wound tight as a drum.
Then again, maybe Kim Seong-hyun had gone behind his back and complained about him. Entirely plausible. He had teased the man quite a bit the last time they'd met, after all.
"Then again, shouldn't something like this be done by you in person?"
No way around it, really. It was the season, after all.
"Hmph. Still."
Kim Seong-hyun, as vice-guildmaster of HIM, was busy taking part in the various Chuseok events. Lee Jun had figured from the start that this would happen. For the operation to land right on top of the nation's biggest holiday — the timing couldn't have been worse.
Be that as it may.
Lee Jun had come to Gijang County in Busan, where the gate stood, ahead of the raid scheduled for two days from now.
"Well, at least the roads weren't jammed. I was half expecting to have to fly down."
"Th-that's true…."
With Chuseok upon them, he'd worried the highways would be gridlocked, but it turned out to be a needless concern. After all, the long holiday was already more than half over. By now, hardly anyone was traveling down to the provinces anymore.
"Haaam…."
With a final escaping yawn, Lee Jun wrapped up his survey of the gate. Watching the sun set far in the distance, he stretched out with a long, satisfying crack of his spine.
"Hmm, let's see… then shall we get some dinner?"
"Y-yes?!"
"You've been running the survey this whole time without eating anything, Team Leader. You must be hungry."
"I, well, I…."
Grrrrrumble—
She had clearly been about to refuse, but unfortunately for her, her stomach answered first. Lee Jun slid a smile onto his face and steered her toward a nearby restaurant.
"Taking things at a relaxed pace like this helps steady the mind, you know."
"Is… is that so…?"
"Of course."
Lee Jun ducked into a decent gukbap place and took a seat. On the restaurant's TV, a Chuseok special hunter program was playing, as if on cue. He glanced at the screen for a moment, then placed their order.
The HR Team Leader fidgeted, watching his every move. Lee Jun pretended not to notice, pouring her water and setting out her utensils.
"Ah— oh, I should have done that…."
Flustered, she took the water pitcher from his hands.
Watching her like this was pretty entertaining, he had to admit. All of this was an act, of course.
"Oh, so that's her?"
At Silhouette's words, Lee Jun sifted through old memories. What stood before him now wasn't her true form — but even that disguised version of her lived somewhere in his memory. He'd meant to track her down one of these days; he simply hadn't expected to meet her like this. He hadn't known what she'd be up to at this point in the timeline. So she'd ended up in HIM, of all places.
Whether or not the HR Team Leader sensed his gaze, she kept her head dutifully bowed, staring at nothing but the menu.
Fine. That's the story, then? Not a bad one, honestly. Might as well play along. The real contact was coming right before the raid anyway. And it wouldn't be from his side — he'd make her come to him first.
Lee Jun deliberately didn't strike up conversation, exactly as the HR Team Leader wanted. No wait — if she wanted to talk, should he be the one to speak first? The way she kept squirming looked like nothing more than a ploy to draw his attention. The ordinary Lee Jun would certainly have broken the ice to ease the mood, so this could well have been a decent read on her part. Not that it mattered — the imbalance of information was already total. She didn't know that, of course.
And sure enough.
Unable to bear the silence any longer, the HR Team Leader spoke first. She shifted awkwardly and asked,
"So… until what time will you be staying here, Vice-Chairman?"
"I'm not going back up."
"…Pardon?"
"I'll be here until the eighth, the day of the raid."
Seo Yoon and Choi Jeong-hyeon would be heading down to Busan tomorrow as well. The plan was to wait right beside the site until the raid itself. There was no reason to burn stamina on a long-distance trek on the day of the fight. Last time, in Gangwon Province, they'd done it as a day trip — but that had been with Seolwon backing them, and relatively comfortable because of it. This time they'd be raiding with almost no support from HIM, just the management staff, so staying in peak condition was essential.
"That's what I said — you'd be better off taking the support."
Nope. Not in the slightest. No reason to tip our hand. Vague, half-hearted support from HIM? Better to rely on myself and Styx's Shard.
"You're hiding Styx too? Everyone already knows it was handed down to you, don't they?"
Knowing it exists isn't the same as knowing what it does. I will never show them how I use it. That's the whole point of a hole card.
"Hmm… paranoid as hell, aren't you."
It's just common sense. What kind of fool lays all his cards on the table before playing? With Dolores and Korob around, any information he exposed would flow straight to Liberation in an instant. Absolutely nothing would leave his hands.
'Well… all of this rests on the assumption that Dolores never saw my shadow back then.'
Even so, they didn't know how he employed it. The leak had been prevented precisely because he'd hidden everything, so his read at the auction house had paid off handsomely — one stone, two birds.
And besides — he'd found the woman sitting across from him right here. There was no reason to go back up at all.
Strike while the iron is hot. That was always the wisest course.
'I knew she was somewhere in Korea. Who knew she'd come crawling straight to me like this?'
Knowing her, she'd probably volunteered for this pre-raid escort duty herself. It was exactly the kind of person she was.
A windfall, pure and simple.
While he was mulling that over, the food arrived before he'd noticed. Lee Jun seasoned his gukbap to taste with the assortment of salted seafood and gochujang on the table and dug in.
Ah, long-established restaurants really are in a league of their own. Ever since the gate crisis, old family eateries had been vanishing by the dozen — but this place had escaped that tragedy. A blessing, if you could call it one; the whole of Gijang County had dodged the gates entirely. Looking globally, every place with a nuclear power plant had come through the calamity untouched. Some kind of cosmic balance patch, he supposed. Maybe gods really did exist.
"See? Told you — you've got me."
You are… never mind.
"…What kind of reaction is that?"
Never mind.
"……."
Be that as it all may.
Lee Jun had no intention of watching a gate break open on this lucky, blessed patch of earth. The raid was two days out. Whatever it took, they'd come out the other side clean. The gate had been handled without incident in the previous timeline, so this time should be no different.
With that thought, he emptied the last of his gukbap. Huh — he'd gone through the whole meal without a single word, come to think of it.
Lee Jun wiped his mouth and looked across at the HR Team Leader. She was still diligently working through a bowl that was barely past halfway.
"……."
He didn't bother striking up conversation. Instead, he turned his eyes to the TV.
On screen, a Chuseok special variety show was playing, featuring a lineup of famous hunters. A few minutes in, the feed cut abruptly, and a rather familiar face filled the frame.
Seolwon's guildmaster, Yoon Seol. What on earth was she doing on a show like that?
The program itself wasn't anything special. Passable filler, nothing more — these were hunters, after all, not professional broadcasters. But the simple fact of famous hunters appearing was enough to send ratings through the roof. That was why broadcasters were falling over themselves, teeth gritted, to book them.
"Um…."
"Yes?"
While he'd been absorbed in the TV, the HR Team Leader had spoken up. She had apparently finished her meal at some point.
Lee Jun rose from his seat without waiting to hear what came next.
"If you're done, shall we head out?"
"Ah — yes…."
The HR Team Leader answered in a strangely deflated voice.
When else would he get to watch her flounder like this? Fun, if nothing else.
Lee Jun paid the bill and stepped out of the restaurant, the HR Team Leader hurrying after him.
"Um — I could at least cover what I ate…."
"No. Whoever invites someone to a meal picks up the tab."
"Ahhh… thank you…."
Thankful, is she. From a man with not a single attachment to money.
After that, the two began walking toward HIM's local branch. For a few minutes, neither said a word. Then the stifling air must have gotten to her, because the HR Team Leader opened her mouth first.
"By the way… you never go on television or anything, Vice-Chairman?"
"Me?"
"Yes — you seemed to be enjoying it so much earlier…."
So she meant the show he'd been watching at the restaurant. That had been him keeping one eye on the person across the table eating at a glacial pace, but he didn't bother correcting her. Besides, Lee Jun didn't really watch TV at all — news excepted.
"By television, you mean variety programs like that one?"
"Well, er… there's that, but also current-affairs shows and the like…."
"Those spots usually go to a fixed roster of people. Yoo Tae-sung, Han Jeong-hwan — people like that, you know?"
"Still, I'd imagine the invitations pile up around the holidays… you are the famous Vice-Chairman, after all."
What was she fishing for with a question like that? She'd taken her own share of cold treatment, so maybe she was probing a sore spot. She'd always had a bit of a twisted streak, after all — most likely that was exactly it.
"The holidays, hm…."
Answering her, at least, was no trouble. Lee Jun replied to her question without much thought.
"Events like that get old fast."
From where Lee Jun stood, it was a sight he'd watched for more than a decade. Looking back on it now, though… it didn't seem like such a bad thing. If ordinary citizens knew more about hunters and grew comfortable with them, that could only help. Understanding what hunters actually did might ease some of the everyday anxiety people carried. It was just that Lee Jun himself had grown sick of it, which couldn't be helped.
"Ah, um… hmmm…."
The HR Team Leader stammered, playing flustered — while inside, the odds were excellent that she was laughing. Right. One more thing to add to the list of things he was tired of.
Even this little performance of hers was getting hard to indulge. If she wanted something, she'd come find him directly. And that would be… probably tomorrow evening, give or take? Whenever it happened, she'd come at least once before the raid — so today, this was enough.
"We're here."
"Yes… yes?"
"Look — that's the HIM building, isn't it?"
"Ah… so it is…."
Lee Jun had booked a room at a hotel near HIM's branch. Which meant the companionship ended here. Nothing left to discuss — truly, nothing. At the very least, there would be no situation where he came looking for her.
Before parting ways, Lee Jun left her with one last remark.
"I'm staying in room 1203. If there's anything else you need to pass along, come to me there."
"Ah — yes, understood…."
With that delivered, Lee Jun turned and walked away — at a pace neither hurried nor slow. The HR Team Leader watched his retreating figure to the very end, standing in place long after he had vanished from sight.
"…Hmmmm."
Only after confirming that he'd gone inside the building did she let out a sound of vague dissatisfaction.
"What was that? He's way colder than the rumors made him out to be."
And yet.
Even as she said it, the corners of her mouth were curling upward. The slow, deliberate lick of her lips was a bonus.
Forty hours remained until the raid.
Someone with a rather different objective had begun to move.