An Ordinary Day
"Ah, shit. This is driving me crazy!"
S-rank Hunter Lee Chaerin let out a frustrated yell, raking her fingers mercilessly through her trademark crimson hair. She'd tugged so hard that strands drifted down to the floor, but the culprit herself couldn't have cared less — she just flopped around on the sofa.
"What's wrong with you? Have you lost it?"
Lee Jeong-hyeon, fresh from the shower and wrapped in a bathrobe, stared at the spectacle with open disgust. At work she wore the title of secretary and addressed Chaerin with crisp formality, but inside the home they shared, she was just an ordinary little sister.
"Hey, Jeong-hyeon. You remember that guy?"
"Which guy? You think we only meet one or two people?"
Even as she said it, Jeong-hyeon watched her sister thrash around like a fish out of water, her expression thoroughly unimpressed. The number of people an S-rank Hunter met in a single day — from clerks handling routine paperwork to organization executives and government ministers — ran from dozens on a light day to well over a hundred on a busy one.
"You know... that N/A Grade incident a few months back."
"The one that fizzled out? What about it? Ryoku and Changcheon? We already know all the S-ranks."
Jeong-hyeon rummaged through her memory but couldn't find anything noteworthy. As far as she could tell, nobody in that mess should have been enough to send her sister rolling around like a wild animal.
"The returnee. The one with the silver hair."
"Oh! That handsome guy! But was there anything special about him? Wait... didn't you go out of your way to take him home that day? Don't tell me..."
Jeong-hyeon let the sentence trail off with a mischievous look. Well... even to her, who'd seen more than her share of attractive people, he had been good-looking. But enough to reduce Lee Chaerin — an S-rank Hunter — to this in a single encounter?
"I-it's not like that! I didn't do anything! I just dropped him off and came back."
Wait. Is she serious?
Now that her sister was twisting her whole body in protest, Jeong-hyeon's eyes lit up. Then again, sometimes people were drawn to each other for no particular reason at all.
"Hmmm..."
"I'm telling you, it's really not like that!"
Watching her sister's face turn red, Jeong-hyeon put on a kindly smile she almost never wore, sat down beside her, and said,
"I'm all for it. Spring has finally come for you."
"I'm telling you it's not! I just... thought of him all of a sudden."
"Sure, sure. That's how it always starts. But did he really just pop into your head out of nowhere? You haven't been thinking about him at all?"
"..."
It wasn't the first time, if she was being honest. Not that she thought about him constantly — his face just surfaced now and then, unbidden. She'd only seen him briefly, but something about him had stuck with her.
The way he'd treated her so easily, without any of the prejudice that made people keep their distance from the Witch of Severance. And more than anything, that hand on her head — rough, somehow, and yet so warm...
"It's not like that!"
"Oh, it so is. Aigoo... the great Lee Chaerin, this adorable? The world deserves to know."
Jeong-hyeon gazed fondly at her red-faced sister. Come to think of it, Chaerin had been acting a little strange lately. Zoning out every now and then.
"But we've still got Jaehyeong to think about..."
"Jaehyeong would want you to be happy too, even from a hospital bed. Don't give me that. You have his watch number, right?"
"I gave him mine, but I don't have his."
"What? Look, if he was going to turn you down, fine — but how do you give someone your number and not get theirs back?"
"He's a returnee. He probably just didn't know how it works."
"Oho. Already taking his side over your own sister? I'm a little hurt."
"I-I'm not! I just..."
"Pfft. I'm kidding."
"You little—!"
Teasing her sister had always been fun, but today the reactions were hitting different. Not that she wasn't genuinely rooting for her. Chaerin worked nonstop — even with all that power, she still didn't have a boyfriend.
"Last I checked he was D-Rank. You sure that's okay?"
"What's that got to do with anything? And I told you — I don't like him!"
"Yeah, like you'd ever care about something like that. As long as he's a decent guy, you can just provide for him."
"That's not— I mean..."
Whatever her sister tried to say, Jeong-hyeon steamrolled right over it.
"Just go see him. I'm not saying you have to date him. You don't even understand your own feelings yet. Just talk to him a few times."
"...Wouldn't that be a lot of pressure?"
Jeong-hyeon caught the two meanings packed into that word. First: reaching out out of the blue. Second: whether it was even okay for an S-rank Hunter to do something like that to a D-Rank.
"Pressure? Please. He'd probably just be grateful you showed up. And if a guy's going to get that worked up over it, he's not worth meeting anyway."
"You think so?"
"While we're on the subject, let's go today. You dropped him off, so you know the address, right?"
It happened to be a rare day off, and it was still morning. If they got ready now, the timing would be perfect.
"Today?"
"Of course! How often do we even get a day off? If it's eating at you, the only way through is to just go."
"Even so, I need a little time to mentally prepare..."
"Hey!"
"...Fine."
"Get in here. We need to get you ready."
It was all so sudden that Chaerin tried to stall, but when her sister bellowed loud enough to shake the house, she pretended to give in and followed her into the room. She'd never cared much about makeup, so all she owned were the basics — which meant she had no choice but to surrender her face to her sister's hands.
"The trendy look right now is that fresh, innocent thing with a hint of flush, but if you try to copy that you'll just look wrecked. Let's play to your strengths."
Pat, pat, pat.
"Skincare first, then base. Your skin's already good, so we barely need primer for pores or blemishes."
After nearly an hour under Jeong-hyeon's hands, Chaerin's face had transformed into something almost unrecognizable.
"Wow. You're actually really good at this."
She'd seen her sister's skill before, but seeing it on her own face made it hit differently. Even staring into the mirror, she could hardly believe it was her. It was a perfect look — subtly chic, radiating a healthy glow that complemented her crimson hair and sun-kissed, coppery skin.
"As for clothes... let's see. A dress would be overkill for a first visit. It's summer, so let's go fresh — denim shorts and a white blouse. A little sporty, a little feminine."
"This feels kind of weird."
"Who leaves a blouse untucked these days? Tuck it in, right now. There. You're done. Have a good time! And you know to bring something tasty back, right?"
Jeong-hyeon had her changed in a flash, then shoved her out the door and slammed it shut before her sister could change her mind. For a moment Chaerin's footsteps lingered in front of the door. Then they slowly faded away.
"That's right. She deserves to be happy... Jaehyeong would want that too."
The playful expression Jeong-hyeon had worn the entire time turned bittersweet as she leaned against the door and murmured to herself.
"What on earth is this...?"
Chaerin had driven herself to Karen's house for the second time, and she checked the GPS more than once. The lonely house that had stood there like a haunted mansion amid a desolate stretch of ruins was gone. In its place sat a tidy home, and there were even newly built buildings next door.
Is that... a café? Out here?
There wasn't a soul around, and yet there was a café. A fairly large one, at that. Curious as it was, that wasn't why she'd come. She got out of the car and pressed the button on the front gate.
"Who's there...? Master! A pretty lady's here!"
"Huh?"
Someone inside confirmed her face, and with a beep the gate swung open at once. Chaerin was still confused as she walked in. "Pretty lady" she understood, but "Master"? This wasn't the Middle Ages. What was that about?
"Come on in. What's up?"
She opened the front door and found the silver-haired man waiting, as unhurried and at ease as ever. The moment she saw him, the tension she'd been carrying melted away — and her true thoughts slipped out before she could stop them.
"I just wanted to see yo—"
Chaerin clapped a hand over her mouth in a panic, but even an S-rank Hunter of her caliber couldn't unsay words already spoken.
"That so? It's been a while."
Whatever Chaerin did, the man remained utterly unshaken. The atmosphere around him, the way he looked at her — it was nothing like the people who'd watched her since she became a Hunter. That ease was something new.
"Kku-ing. First time I've seen one of Master's friends. Come in."
"...Did that cat just talk?"
Chaerin dropped into a combat stance on reflex. Some monsters and magical beasts could beguile the human mind. She had to be careful.
"Ah, he's a Spiritual Beast."
"...A Spiritual Beast? I've run into a few. But he didn't even trip the detector. Some kind of special case?"
Chaerin let her guard down as she spoke. There was nothing special about it — they'd simply used a little trickery to fool the sensors. But neither the human nor the Spiritual Beast present was tactless enough to mention that.
"Oh! These are housewarming gifts."
Chaerin set down the large shopping bag she'd brought and began pulling out the contents one by one.
"What did they call these again? Fruit and plants that came over from other worlds, made into liquor?"
Toilet paper and detergent were the usual housewarming staples, but while she was picking out gifts, it had suddenly occurred to her that Karen was a returnee.
He probably misses the drinks from the world he came from, right?
She had no idea which world Karen had come from, so she'd just bought the most expensive ones she could find.
"Oh! This one's made from fruit that grows in the Demon Realm. And this is Elven."
She'd paid a steep price, but watching him light up at the sight of the bottles, she didn't regret a single coin. Besides, her sister handled the money — she barely thought about it.
"Well, since you brought them, we might as well try some. You want a glass?"
"No, I drove here."
"Yeah? Want something else, then?"
"I'll have a strawberry latte. I saw a café just now — I can go grab one."
"Just call it in ahead of time."
Samsaek placed the order on his watch, and a moment later a round object on the table started buzzing to let them know the drinks were ready.
Isn't that a café pager? What's it doing here? Can Spiritual Beasts just... use machines?
"Samsaek, deploy!"
While Chaerin was still glancing back and forth between the pager and the cat in bewilderment, Samsaek shot out through the open window. A moment later he was back, a tray with a strawberry latte clenched in his teeth, which he set down gently in front of Chaerin.
"Kku-ing. Drink up."
Chaerin had frozen in place at how fast it all happened, so Samsaek gave the cup a gentle nudge with his paw and repeated himself. Only then did she pick it up.
"Th-thanks. Samsaek, was it?"
"It's nothing."
Samsaek shrugged and pulled his own drink from the tray — a maple latte. Then he hopped onto the sofa, clamped the straw in his mouth, held the cup with his front paws, and started sipping.
Can cats even drink that? Wait, no — he's a Spiritual Beast.
Chaerin stared blankly at the sight as she took a sip of her strawberry latte — and her eyes went wide, a gasp of delight escaping before she could stop it.
"This is amazing!"
"Ahhh."
I knocked back a swallow of liquor in something like agreement, grimacing as I emptied the glass.
And just like that, amid one story after another, our special yet perfectly ordinary day began to unfold.