Déjà Vu (2)
“Hello...”
Lee Seong-jun opened the door and quietly offered his greeting. As he stepped into the Dongdae office, four men turned to look at him.
His gaze dropped to the floor—not to dodge the overwhelming stares pouring down on him, but because someone there pulled his attention far more strongly than any pair of eyes.
Sitting slumped on the floor with both palms covering his face was Choi Yeon.
Soft “heh heh” sounds leaked through the gaps between his fingers. Whether it was laughter or sobbing was impossible to tell.
“Hunter Choi Yeon...?”
“Yeah.”
The moment his name was called, the answer came right back. There wasn’t a trace of moisture in his voice.
So he was laughing, then?
“Why are you sitting like that...?”
“Because I’m so happy to see you, Seong-jun.”
Ah. So that was it.
Lee Seong-jun quickly pieced together what was going on. He didn’t believe the “happy to see you” line for a second.
Choi Yeon, still wearing his bag, slumped on the floor... and the others looking down at him with smug satisfaction...
In other words, Choi Yeon had been about to clock out and go home, only to be stopped—because of the very person who had just walked in.
“...I’m sorry. I’ll come back tomorrow—”
“Seong-jun. I’m kidding. Kidding. If I actually did that, the chief would kill me.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. Let’s just go with that...”
Thud. Choi Yeon’s head dropped again.
Seeing him so completely drained of life, Lee Seong-jun felt a natural pang of guilt—even though he had no reason to.
Should I just turn around and leave right now?
Just as he was about to sink into that useless worry, Choi Yeon dusted off his knees and stood up. He pointed toward the table.
“Have a seat over there, Seong-jun.”
“Okay.”
At Choi Yeon’s gesture, every man in the room moved.
The ones at the table rose, and Lee Seong-jun, still standing by the door, stepped forward to sit.
Among the greetings being exchanged, Cha Jae-hyeok’s face seized his attention completely.
In his entire life he had never seen a face like that. He knew it was rude, yet he couldn’t help staring openly.
Even the lead actor from the drama his mother loved would look washed-out next to that face.
“Ah—hello...”
Caught staring blankly when their eyes met, he hurriedly offered a greeting.
A slight nod.
Cha Jae-hyeok simply tipped his head once, up and down, in acknowledgment. The gesture could easily have come off as arrogant, yet the intelligent air around him made it look refined instead.
“Seong-jun.”
“Yes?”
“Why aren’t you sitting down?”
“Ah—ah, right! Sorry.”
Choi Yeon’s words snapped him back to reality, and he sat at the table.
By then Chief Kim Jaesang and Choi Heeseok had already returned to their seats, and Choi Yeon had neatly cleared one side of the table—gathering the cake boxes and coffee cups into a tidy pile.
“What brings you here? Having trouble with control?”
“No, thanks to your teaching, Hunter, I’m fine now. I don’t even need the portable extinguisher anymore.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“I even met up with some old friends and hung out for the first time in a while.”
“That’s good too.”
Lee Seong-jun laughed lightly.
The memory of enjoying himself with friends he hadn’t seen in ages brought a bright smile to his face.
Then, answering Choi Yeon’s question, he pulled out his smartphone.
“The reason I came today... is because I got a text from a hunter guild.”
“A hunter guild?”
Out of nowhere?
Choi Yeon immediately checked the message.
Summarizing the text from the unsaved number: We are Red Fang, a D-rank hunter guild, and we need a hunter who can handle fire, so we’re scouting you. Meet us tomorrow afternoon.
“......?”
Choi Yeon’s head tilted. It was genuinely strange and bizarre.
How had a hunter guild even learned about Lee Seong-jun and sent him a text? And why were the ones offering a scout so high-handed about it?
What are these guys even?
No matter how hard he racked his brain, he had never heard of a guild called Red Fang.
Choi Yeon might be indifferent to information in general, but he knew every famous guild in Chungcheong. At the very least, he had memorized the names of every guild under Seonhwa Dongdae’s jurisdiction.
“The reviews on Guild Planet look good, though.”
“You already looked it up?”
“W-well, I was curious. Ahaha...”
Choi Yeon fully understood the sheepish smile on Lee Seong-jun’s face.
Scout offers usually went to skilled hunters or promising rookies. Getting one was more than enough reason to search the place out.
Choi Yeon himself opened Guild Planet and searched for Red Fang.
“...Oh, the reviews really are good.”
“Right?”
“‘A family-like atmosphere where we grow together’...”
Skimming the reviews posted on Guild Planet, that was the overall impression. Every single one was pure praise, five stars out of five.
And that... felt a little off.
He couldn’t quite put his finger on the problem, but his head kept tilting.
What exactly is weird about this...
“...Ah.”
Choi Yeon suddenly realized.
The fact that there were only good reviews—that itself was the strange part.
Even Pakator didn’t get nothing but glowing reviews. Yet a guild barely clinging to the edge of Yuseong Intersection had perfect scores?
Of course it looked suspicious.
“Um, Hunter Choi Yeon.”
Lee Seong-jun carefully called out to Choi Yeon, who had fallen into thought. When their eyes met, he slowly asked his question.
“What should I do about this scout offer...?”
“...Your question is pointed in the wrong direction.”
“Sorry?”
“That question just now shouldn’t be aimed forward. It should circle right where you are.”
“Right where I am...?”
“Lee Seong-jun. What do you want to do?”
“Ah... I...”
Understanding Choi Yeon’s meaning, Lee Seong-jun stammered as he continued.
Choi Yeon waited calmly.
“Honestly, I don’t know... I still haven’t figured things out...”
“I see.”
“I’ve thought about becoming a hunter, but it’s an incredibly hard job, right?”
“It’s not easy, that’s true.”
“Exactly. So I still haven’t decided...”
A smile rose to Lee Seong-jun’s lips—a weak, bitter one, as if something inside him ached.
“I’m indecisive, aren’t I...?”
“......”
“I even got a tattoo because I hated being like this... but I’m still exactly the same.”
Lee Seong-jun gripped his own shoulder tightly.
Watching him, the voice of a middle-aged woman floated up in Choi Yeon’s mind.
Lee Seong-jun’s mother, scolding him that getting a tattoo wouldn’t magically make a person passionate.
As expected, mothers were right.
If tattoos could make people passionate, everyone would have one.
You really should listen to your mother. That way neighborhood events finish early. Early.
“Deciding your future path is a big deal. Of course you’re going to think it over.”
“You think so?”
“Of course. Well, deciding quickly would save you some wasted time...”
“Huh?”
“But long deliberation is still better than rushing and regretting a bad choice later.”
“...You’re teasing me right now, aren’t you? Because I made you miss going home.”
“As if. I’m being completely sincere.”
Choi Yeon answered with a gentle smile.
It might have sounded like a joke, but the advice he offered was genuine.
That it was okay for the deliberation to take time, and that finishing it quickly would be nice too.
There was also the saying that regret itself was experience, so just do it—but there was no real need to force that one, was there?
“So keep thinking it over. It’s fine.”
“...Okay!”
“Even if you deliberate for a long time, you still won’t only make choices you’ll never regret for the rest of your life.”
“Heh, I suppose not...”
Lee Seong-jun let out a short laugh.
Choi Yeon had spoken as if joking the entire time, yet that very tone made the sincerity come through even more clearly. Thanks to that, Seong-jun’s heart felt a little lighter.
“I’ll do my best to think it through carefully.”
“Good. Ah, and about Red Fang—I’ll look into them separately and get back to you.”
“Ah, would you? Honestly, I wanted to ask about that too...”
“Of course. Passing along information about the relevant guild when someone receives a scout offer is part of a Dongdae’s job.”
“Thank you so much...!”
Lee Seong-jun bowed his head deeply in gratitude. Choi Yeon waved it off.
It was for Seong-jun’s sake, true—but Red Fang also rubbed him the wrong way.
No matter how he looked at it, the reviews for Red Fang on Guild Planet made no sense.
People cursed the government behind closed doors, so how could every single review be pure praise?
And the fact that the same people who sent such a high-handed scout text supposedly had great employee reviews was strange too.
As a Dongdae hunter who had handled hundreds of complaints, he simply couldn’t believe it. Not at all.
With his business finished, Lee Seong-jun left the Dongdae. As Choi Yeon sat back down and powered on his computer, the chief asked him a question.
“What’s this about?”
“A hunter guild offered him a scout.”
“Huh? Info already spread that fast?”
“Just a guess, but... he said he met up with friends and hung out. Probably talked about the situation then and it got around.”
“That so... Anyway, which one?”
“Red Fang.”
“...They scouted him?”
“Yes. Do you know the guild?”
“Just the name and rank.”
Choi Yeon looked at the chief with mild disappointment as he shrugged.
If the chief had known more, gathering information would have been much easier.
“But ain’t you headin’ home? Work’s done, so you can take off.”
“I’ve got something I want to look up.”
“That so?”
The chief dragged out the words the same way he stretched his lips. Satisfaction gleamed in the eyes of both middle-aged men.
Choi Yeon, however, was focused on the monitor and never saw their expressions.
“Red... Fang...”
His long fingers tapped the keyboard, and related information scrolled down the white browser window.
A few articles from online news outlets caught his eye.
One about them volunteering to clear an F-rank dungeon, another about providing free equipment rentals to new guild members.
Judging by the articles alone, they looked like a pure, upright guild contributing to the local community.
Choi Yeon found it absurd.
“These days even this kind of thing makes the news?”
Next he checked social media. The guild members were active enough that he quickly found their feeds.
Most of the posts were photos taken in front of dungeons they had gone to for volunteer work, all carefully tagged with the same phrases: #FamilyLikeGuild #GrowingTogether!
The contrast in the guild members’ faces also stood out.
The executives looked genuinely happy, while the younger members wore awkward expressions.
Choi Yeon recognized it at a glance.
Whenever they took photos at Dongdae events, wasn’t that exactly the face he made standing next to the chief?
“......”
Yeah, this is weird.
The more he looked, the further it strayed from the ordinary, so he decided to dig deeper.
“I’m going to make a quick call.”
“Yeah, go on.”
He stepped out onto the rooftop garden of the Dongdae and pressed the call button.
There weren’t many people in his contacts who might know about a guild called Red Fang.
“Hello?”
“Minseok. Are you very busy right now?”
“Not particularly. The mayor’s about to start the briefing on the Jeokryeohui.”
“Ah.”
Come to think of it, it was about that time. Originally he would have been leisurely watching it on TV while eating chicken.
“What’s up?”
“I was wondering if you know anything about a guild called Red Fang.”
“Red Fang? No. Never heard of them.”
“Figured as much...”
Kim Minseok was one of the busiest hunters in Daejeon. A lot of information came his way, which also meant a lot got filtered out.
Keeping track of every C-rank guild would take more than one body.
“Why? Want me to look into it?”
“No need to go that far. I’ll check it myself.”
“If you say so, all right.”
“Thanks. Good luck with the briefing.”
“You too, Choi Yeon.”
Click.
After hanging up, Choi Yeon dialed the next number.
[That Bastard]
—answered immediately, as if he had been waiting.
“What’s this? Yeon actually calling me first?”
“Cha Jae-hyeok. You know a guild called Red Fang? They’re over by Yuseong Intersection.”
“Where?”
“Yuseong District.”
“...Yeon, how am I supposed to know a guild all the way over there?”
“Yeah, figured.”
Nubyeok picked up all sorts of information on the streets. He had hoped maybe, but a guild in a completely different area was apparently too much.
“Want me to dig some up?”
“I’d appreciate it, but can you get it by tomorrow?”
“No chance.”
“No?”
“Of course not. It’s not even our territory.”
“...Yeah, makes sense.”
Choi Yeon nodded in acceptance.
Even with Nubyeok’s sharp ears, gathering information in a single day was nowhere near enough time.
“All right. I’ll hang up then.”
“What? Wait, Yeon—”
Click!
The complaint from the other end of the line cut off, and the contacts screen reappeared.
Even after carefully scanning the list, there was no one who might know about Red Fang.
Do I have to go check it out in person? Having a proper information broker right now would make this so much easier...
“...Huh?”
Choi Yeon made a sound without meaning to.
Come to think of it, there was one.
Not saved in his contacts, but an organization that was basically an information broker.
Tap-tap-tap...
Choi Yeon skillfully punched in the number. He had memorized it naturally from all the flyers plastered across Jung District.
After about three rings,
“Yes, this is the I’ll-Do-It Private Investigation Agency.”
The other party answered the call.