Name
The boy ran along the Daejeon Stream.
He was trying to shake the footsteps closing in behind him. He ran with everything he had, yet the sound neither drew nearer nor fell away.
At the steady rhythm of those footsteps, the boy clenched his teeth.
Let the sound mock him if it wanted.
Not far ahead, light was visible. Reach that light and he would be free of the footsteps.
“Think you can make it?”
Hope was doused in cold water.
A voice rang out, and in an instant the sound was right at his heels.
Caught already?
The boy squeezed his eyes shut.
Defeat settled across his face, yet his legs refused to stop. He kept running.
The force of his feet driving into the ground forced his eyes open again.
After making it this far…!
He could not give up now. Just a little farther and he would reach the light.
Counterattack. Kick the man in the jaw and sprint with everything he had left.
Whoosh!
The moment the boy resolved himself, he heard the sound of air being sliced.
It was the sound of five small, snake-like hands reaching for the nape of his neck.
Now…!
The boy spun around in a flash.
He bent his knees, ready to leap with all his strength—
“……?”
An unexpected sight unfolded before his eyes.
Some man was gripping the pursuer’s wrist.
How had this happened?
The boy was not the only one wondering. The pursuer and the complete stranger who had stepped between them wore the same confusion.
Crack!
The pursuer yanked his wrist free of the man’s grip.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Huh? That’s what I should be asking.”
“What?”
“You try to snatch a kid in someone else’s territory and then ask who I am? That sound right to you?”
“Someone else’s territory…?”
The pursuer glanced around.
Even after being caught red-handed at a kidnapping, the word “territory” bothered him more.
Mokcheok Bridge, linking Jung-gu and Dong-gu, lay right before his eyes. That meant they were near the entrance to Seonhwa-dong.
Was there a guild that claimed this area as its turf?
No guild came to the pursuer’s mind. The only thing that surfaced was the squinty-eyed Dongdae Hunter he had seen earlier that day.
“Where are you from?”
“Huh?”
“What group are you with?”
“Nubyeok.”
“A guild with a hick name like that… Wait. Nubyeok? You mean that vigilante group?”
“Yeah, that’s right. You know us?”
“Shit. You’re telling me a bunch of vigilantes just stopped me?”
The pursuer let out a disbelieving laugh and stepped forward.
The Nubyeok member’s warning came at once.
“Stop. Come any closer and I’ll use force.”
“Use force, my ass. Do you even know who I am, acting tough like that?”
“Nope.”
“Right, right. What would a vigilante know? Hey. I’m with Jeokryeohui.”
“…Oh. That so?”
“Yeah. So quit posturing while I’m still talking nice and get out of the way!”
The Jeokryeohui pursuer shoved the Nubyeok member’s shoulder.
The shoulder did not budge. Not even a little.
“Don’t wanna.”
“Is this bastard actually insane? Hey, what are you, some executive? Got a title?”
“Nah. Just a nobody.”
“Then why the hell do you keep running your mouth? Learn where you belong and get lost!”
Shove!
The pursuer shoved the shoulder again.
Since it had not moved the first time, he put more strength into it. The Nubyeok member’s foot slid back as the pursuer’s foot advanced.
That was the moment.
Thud! The Nubyeok member’s fist slammed into the pursuer’s jaw. The shock rattled the man’s brain; he staggered, unable to keep his balance.
The Nubyeok member caught him. Otherwise his head would have cracked against the ground.
“You okay?”
“You son of a—!”
“I told you not to come closer. Why don’t you listen? Are your ears just for show?”
“You bastard…! You think you can touch me and walk away clean? I’m Jeokryeohui!”
“Yeah. Figured as much.”
Thud.
The Nubyeok member cracked the pursuer across the jaw one more time. He dumped the unconscious man onto the ground and walked over to the boy.
“Kid, you okay?”
“…….”
The boy did not answer the question.
It was not that he could not tell whether he was fine or not.
He was staring at the fallen pursuer.
At that dazed look, the Nubyeok member even started to wonder, Did I do something wrong?
A few seconds passed like that.
“…Mister, are you a B-class hunter?”
The boy suddenly threw out the question.
A B-class hunter? What kind of goblin-eating nonsense was that?
When the Nubyeok member just stared blankly at the absurd question, the boy pointed at the pursuer.
“That guy bragged that he’d killed a C-class hunter. You dropped him with one punch, so that makes you B-class, right? Right?”
“Umm…”
“Save them…!”
“Huh? I already saved you.”
“Not me—my friends!”
“……Friends?”
Grasping the meaning in the boy’s words, the Nubyeok member’s eyes narrowed for a moment.
If that was the case—
“Guess I’d better call a Dongdae Hunter…?”
Choi Yeon climbed the stairs.
The second floor of Byeokondang still smelled warmly of bread, and Nubyeok members filled the space.
Cha Jae-hyeok sat by the window. At the next table, a young man and a boy faced each other. The young man’s surname was probably Woo.
Unlike the unfamiliar young man, the boy’s face stuck in Choi Yeon’s memory.
The boy taking a big bite of bread had been called Number 99 in the Jeokryeohui team leader’s memories.
“…….”
“……?”
When their eyes met, the boy tilted his head. He whispered something to the young man beside him, who hurriedly pressed a finger to his lips.
…Talking about the eyes, no doubt.
Leaving the familiar reaction behind him, Choi Yeon walked over and sat across from Cha Jae-hyeok.
“You’re here?”
“Where’s the guy?”
“Over there.”
Cha Jae-hyeok pointed behind him.
When Kim In-beom and the other Nubyeok members standing there stepped aside, a Jeokryeohui pursuer lay sprawled on the floor, trussed up tightly with rope.
The unconscious pursuer was the short-haired man whose face Choi Yeon knew.
“That guy…”
“You know him?”
“Just the face.”
“If even you recognize him, Yeon, he must’ve been more famous than I thought.”
“Not really.”
Choi Yeon waved a hand in denial.
He had only learned the face because of what happened that afternoon; the man was nowhere near famous.
The team leader with the massive right arm, maybe—but not this one.
“What about the kid? Did you talk more?”
“No. Just what we said on the phone.”
“He didn’t even say how he escaped?”
“Nope. I asked again after you told me to, but he wouldn’t say.”
“Hmm. I see…”
Choi Yeon nodded.
Aside from how the boy had escaped, the information Cha Jae-hyeok had passed along was already known to him.
But now they had a witness and evidence…
“City Hall should be able to move on this.”
“You’re going to report it to City Hall?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Huh. I figured you’d charge straight off to save the kids right now.”
“Talk sense, you idiot. You think Jeokryeohui is some hole-in-the-wall shop? And I don’t even know where the place is.”
“They came after us once, didn’t they?”
Kim In-beom and several other Nubyeok members flinched. These were the ones who clearly remembered what Choi Yeon had done six years ago.
Watching Choi Yeon fall silent, Cha Jae-hyeok continued.
“And we can find out where the kids are being held.”
“What? How would you—ah.”
Choi Yeon whipped his head around.
Right—the boy was here. The boy who had escaped from the place where he had been kidnapped and locked up.
Why hadn’t he thought of that immediately?
Scrape.
He rose from his seat and walked over to the boy.
“Hi. I’m Choi Yeon, a hunter with the Seonhwa Dongdae.”
“…….”
Even at Choi Yeon’s greeting, the boy said nothing.
The gaze that simply stared back held wariness.
It was not directed only at Choi Yeon. It was the same for the Nubyeok members around them.
Understandable. This was a child who had been kidnapped and subjected to human experiments…
Choi Yeon dropped to one knee in front of the boy and asked,
“Will you tell me your name?”
“……!”
The boy’s eyes went round.
Looking flustered, he turned to the young man beside him.
The young man unfamiliar to Choi Yeon had to be the Nubyeok member who had taken down the Jeokryeohui pursuer in front of Mokcheok Bridge.
The young man gave a faint smile and nodded.
“…Geon-woo.”
The boy answered carefully.
“Lee Geon-woo.”
“That’s a great name. Well, Geon-woo. How’s your body feeling right now?”
“My body…?”
“Does anything hurt? If it does, don’t hold it in—tell me. We’ll go to the hospital and get you treated.”
“I’m fine. It only hurts on the days they give the shots. If you survive, it stops hurting.”
“…I see.”
If you survive?
Choi Yeon’s eyelids trembled faintly.
The tiny tremor spread outward, turning into the sound of tongues clicking and teeth grinding among those nearby.
Still too young to read the reactions around him, Lee Geon-woo called out to Choi Yeon.
“Mister Squinty-Eyes.”
“Yeah?”
“This mister here said he’d call a really strong hunter to save my friends. Mister Squinty-Eyes, you’re that super-strong hunter, right?”
A super-strong hunter?
Choi Yeon wanted to ask what on earth the boy was talking about, but he held the urge back.
He did not want to look away from the boy’s eyes.
It felt like he shouldn’t.
“Yeah. That’s right.”
Choi Yeon answered calmly.
He had intended to save them from the start. The promise he had made on a little girl’s smile simply had a boy’s desperate heart added to it now.
Choi Yeon reached out.
The same fingers that had flicked the sprout on a little girl’s head now gently stroked the boy’s hair.
The boy flinched in surprise, but Choi Yeon did not stop.
“I’ll definitely save them for you.”
“Th-thank you…!”
“Good. Then—”
It’s mine, but I only listen to it in your voice…
The moment Choi Yeon rose from his seat, a sudden burst of song startled everyone.
The singer’s voice was one they all knew well.
“Modni…?”
“Who the hell is playing music at a time like this?”
“No. It’s a phone call.”
Kim In-beom turned around as he spoke.
Only then did the others realize what was happening. A call had come in on the pursuer’s smartphone, and a Modni song was the guy’s ringtone.
They pulled the phone from the unconscious pursuer’s pocket.
“For a criminal bastard, he’s pretty sentimental.”
“In-beom.”
“Ah, yes. The caller is… the team leader.”
Cha Jae-hyeok took the phone and set it on the table. He answered on speaker.
“…Pleasure to meet you, Cha Jae-hyeok.”
The singer’s voice faded, and a low male voice filled the second floor of Byeokondang.
At the tremor he felt through his hand, Choi Yeon gently patted Lee Geon-woo’s head.
It’s okay. That bastard isn’t here.
“Pleasure to meet you, huh…”
Cha Jae-hyeok drew out the words as he looked at Choi Yeon.
Choi Yeon gave a light nod.
In a situation like this, it was better to leave things to him rather than have a Dongdae Hunter step in.
“Well. I’m not particularly pleased myself.”
“Why? Feeling like you poked the wrong hornet’s nest a little late?”
“Mostly because I don’t like what you people did to the kids.”
“So Number 99 told you everything, did he?”
“Number 99?”
“That’s the name of the one you’re protecting.”
“No! My name is Lee Geon-woo!”
Lee Geon-woo cut in.
His body still trembled, but it was different from earlier, when there had been only fear. Now anger rode alongside it.
“Got some spirit, Number 99.”
“I’m not Number 99!”
“No. You are Number 99. You always have been, and you always will be.”
“Always will be…?”
“What, you thought you could just stay there forever? Wake up, Number Nine—”
“Enough.”
Cha Jae-hyeok cut him off.
His voice was flat, but his face was not.
Wearing a warm smile as he looked at Lee Geon-woo, he seemed to be saying it was all right.
“I know what you want.”
“Hmm… Doesn’t sound like a voice that’s going to give it to me.”
“You saw right. I plan to take everything from you.”
“A regrettable choice. You’ll all die, Nubyeok.”
“No. You people can’t manage that. A certain Dongdae Hunter, though—maybe.”
With that, Cha Jae-hyeok looked at Choi Yeon.
Seeing one corner of his mouth lift, Choi Yeon shook his head hard.
Why are you dragging me into this?
“A Dongdae Hunter? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Who knows?”
Cha Jae-hyeok shrugged, even though the man on the other end of the line could not see it.
The words were aimed at Choi Yeon, after all.
“More importantly, I’m Cha Jae-hyeok.”
“…I already know that.”
“Yeah. I was just confirming.”
“Confirming?”
“I should at least know the name of the man I’m going to kill.”
“…Heh, heh heh! Fine. I’ll wait. Cha Jae-hyeok of Nubyeok.”
“It won’t take long. The moonlight’s bright tonight.”
“Impressive.”
Click. The call ended first on the other side.
Cha Jae-hyeok handed the already-dark smartphone to Kim In-beom, then looked at Choi Yeon and Lee Geon-woo.
“All right. Shall we get going? To save the kids.”
As Cha Jae-hyeok rose calmly from his seat—
“You can’t.”
Kim In-beom stopped him.
The Nubyeok members’ eyes went wide. Choi Yeon, seeing Kim In-beom contradict Cha Jae-hyeok for the first time, was just as surprised.
Kim In-beom holding Cha Jae-hyeok back…
He was so startled that Choi Yeon almost opened his eyes without meaning to.