Seo Hyoju
Seo Hyoju is beautiful.
Pretty women are common enough. Women who have been beautiful since they were little, without a single trip under a surgeon's knife, the way Seo Hyoju is—those are not.
Third-generation heir of the Geumbit Group.
She had inherited every good gene there was to inherit. Cold and lofty at a glance, and then, when she smiled, the exact opposite of that image—bright, radiant, impossible to forget. That contrast had won her a fanbase few S-rank hunters in Korea could claim.
Not some cheap, half-baked S-minus. A proper S-rank.
An S-plus would have been better still, but even this was enough to make people envy her and look up.
She really did have everything.
Family. Looks. Figure. Money. Ability.
On top of all that, her personal YouTube channel had more than thirty-six million subscribers.
S-rank hunters draw attention all over the world, but a woman who already had everything—clean editing, and a dozen other charms besides—had gone on to earn the love of fans across the globe as well.
A celebrity more famous than the celebrities.
And the Seo Hyoju I had only ever seen in videos was sitting in our living room.
It was my first time laying eyes on her, but to Kim Sujeong she was apparently a woman of exactly that magnitude.
"Oh my god. You're seriously gorgeous, unnie. I've been a real fan forever. I love all of them—Pongpong, Kkingkking, every last one."
"Thank you."
"She looks uncomfortable. Wouldn't it be better if you just sprawled over there and kept quiet?"
"I'm so sorry, unnie. My brother never finished getting socialized, so his mouth runs filthy like that in front of people he's just met."
And yes—she really was beautiful. If I had to name the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, I could put Seo Hyoju at the top now and not be wrong.
Even the clothes, worn casual. Straight black hair, a figure just barely on display, and all of it suited her so naturally it might as well have been a single piece of fashion. A pretty face, a woman who actually cleared dungeons, and a body kept in perfect shape on top of it.
Why was someone like this here?
I'd heard from Dad, of course, that they'd been on good terms with the Geumbit Guild lately. A guild is a guild; it isn't strange for one to work at staying close with a company that distributes hunter supplies. But that only holds when the desperate party is the guild. With the Geumbit Guild, the story is a little different, isn't it?
Third in the Korean hunter guild rankings, with the Geumbit Group planted solidly behind it. Geumbit fights the Hansu Group for first and second and has the hunter market locked down across field after field. Set aside their rival, Hyunjong Distribution, and the hunter logistics firms itching to open a deal with Geumbit would still be lined up out the door.
And Dad wasn't even home. She had come to see Dad. Which meant there had been no appointment—or she had made one in the few minutes before she walked in.
"Oh dear. They say my husband's hurrying over right now. What do I do, making you wait?"
"It's all right. I'm the one who intruded, so late at night."
"No, no. Please, make yourself comfortable."
The house wasn't small, but with this many people packed in shoulder to shoulder, it didn't look spacious either. Mom was in the kitchen slicing fruit, determined to bring something out. Kim Sujeong, Lee Jihyun, and I were still in the living room, awkwardly tearing at the chicken we'd been eating, and Seo Hyoju sat behind us.
Maybe it was a mercy that Kim Sujeong was the type to throw herself at someone without reading the room at all. No discomfort showed on that face. Her poker face, I decided, was built quite solid.
If it were me, I'd be miserable.
"Would you like some chicken, at least?"
"Just shut your mouth and get down here."
How long had she worshiped this star, to not even hear the nonsense coming out of her own mouth?
"Aaagh!"
I grabbed Kim Sujeong by the hair—she was panting and fawning right beside me—and hauled her down to sit at my side.
Seo Hyoju laughed, watching.
"Oh, I'm sorry. The two of you are close, aren't you."
"Yes."
It didn't feel like a polished, artificial smile. It felt like a real one, and I understood at once what Kim Sujeong had meant—that when Seo Hyoju smiled, she bloomed, bright as a flower. A face like cold, lofty ice, and it could turn that pure and that lovely. Not that she looked unkind. The person herself felt noble, the kind of noble you don't dare approach, and a radiant smile didn't make her seem easy to get close to, either. Only, when she smiled, she gave off such good energy that I nearly smiled back without meaning to.
A face that can do that kind of work while doing nothing at all.
I was busy thinking it, and so the answer came out short. There wasn't really another answer to give. I wasn't so poorly socialized that I'd throw cold water on a compliment from someone I'd just met—No, actually, we fight like we're killing rats. And more than that, we weren't people who would keep seeing each other. What was the point of dragging the conversation out? This woman wouldn't have any interest in me anyway.
I thought that and turned my eyes back to the TV, and Seo Hyoju spoke again.
"Is he your son?"
"Me?"
"...Yes."
"What other son is there? It's just you, idiot."
"Ah. Yes."
"The son of the house is really handsome. Are you a celebrity, by any chance? Or a model, or..."
Something in it sounded sincere. I wasn't fooled.
Looks? Sure, I was probably handsome. If this had been my old face, I would have thought she was mocking me. But I knew perfectly well that ever since I had logged out as my Farming World character, this was a customized face I had gone to real trouble to make good-looking. Still—was it a face that warranted hearing that from Seo Hyoju?
I looked at Kim Sujeong.
"Oh, come on, unnie. Oppa isn't on that level. You see men way more handsome than him. That's far too much flattery. Hehe."
She said it with a look of pure disgust you could spot at a glance, so I turned toward Lee Jihyun.
"...Huh?"
"Am I that handsome?"
"Uh..."
At the sudden question, Lee Jihyun's face went red and her eyes fled. Then she nodded.
"...Yes. You're handsome, Boss."
"Ah. I see. Thank you. It's the first time I've heard that, so I'm a little flustered. It's nice, hearing it from a pretty person."
"You're an interesting one."
The awkwardness of the start might as well have never existed. Seo Hyoju carried the conversation on, easy and sociable, and it didn't feel forced, so I—who had meant to watch TV with an empty head until Dad arrived—had no choice but to join in alongside Kim Sujeong.
It wasn't a particularly special conversation, and it wasn't an overly private one either. The reasons Seo Hyoju had come, with a reasonable amount of business mixed in. Maybe that was why I could answer without any sense of resistance.
"I've come to offer my thanks, now that the Geumbit Guild and CEO Kim Gwangjin—your father—have formed quite a close relationship. The potions you supplied exclusively were an enormous help to us."
"Oh! You don't mean the A-plus dungeon you cleared this time?"
"The article should have gone out this afternoon..."
"Of course I saw it, unnie. I told you, I'm a subscriber and a diehard fan."
"Thank you. The mid-grade recovery potions the CEO secured for us really were a tremendous help, and the quality of everything else you've been supplying is excellent as well."
"That's right! Our dad runs his business with a conscience."
We went on like that, small talk, until Dad came bursting in, all in a rush.
"Aigoo, I'm sorry. Traffic was terrible."
"Not at all. I'm the one who contacted you so suddenly."
"I'm sorry. Kids, would you step inside for a bit?"
"No. I'm the one imposing. I couldn't ask that. It's all right."
I just wanted to go to my room and tear into the chicken.
Somehow, leaving had turned awkward. In the middle of that, Seo Hyoju and Dad sat down at the kitchen table and began to talk.
The substance was simple. The real point—the one that hadn't come up while she was talking with us.
"I wanted to ask whether you have a plan for the next potion delivery."
"Ah. I was actually going to receive them from the alchemist within the next few days and then tell you the schedule and the details... I didn't expect you to come in person."
"So there really is an alchemist under contract."
"Ah, yes. We only receive the goods. Distribution is all we handle."
Seo Hyoju's gaze flicked this way for a moment. Lee Jihyun turned her head as if something had stung her. I remembered—on the way toward the front door, Kim Sujeong's room had been standing open, and the traces of Lee Jihyun's alchemy work were still in there. She had probably caught on, more or less.
"We'll be counting on you this time as well."
The soft, bright smile felt a little more artificial than the laugh from before. And that still wasn't the main point.
"The truth is, the real reason I came to see you is to ask whether the Geumbit Guild might be able to purchase the A-rank leather top coming up at tomorrow's auction."
"...Yes?"
Seo Hyoju.
This was the real reason she—the Geumbit Group's granddaughter, treasured like gold and jade, an S-rank summoner—had sought Dad out and come all the way to the house in person. A reason like this, and it made a certain sense that she had.
"I'm sorry. I know it's a presumptuous thing to say. This isn't an offer I'm simply tossing out. These are terms we're proposing from our side."
Dad said nothing. His face had gone hard as he picked up the contract. He read for a moment, then lowered his head and thought.
It was an absurd proposal. The auction was tomorrow, and for that auction countless hunters—hunters from overseas among them—had come to Korea. Most of them had likely come to buy this very top, and she wanted it pulled from the auction overnight? Gwangjin Distribution's credibility would hit the floor that same day.
Of course, that choice belonged to Gwangjin Distribution. Items dropping off an auction list the day of, or getting added, happened often enough. That was why Seo Hyoju was proposing it. I hadn't seen the terms, but if they were enough to make Dad stop and weigh them, then the offer had to be worth that much.
On one side, the trust of other hunters he was never going to see again. On the other, climbing fully into the same boat with the Geumbit Group, just as a close relationship was beginning. The rewards written in there were surely sweet enough that even a weighing as simple as that had to be worried over in earnest.
Dad thought for a long time. Seo Hyoju waited all the way to the end. The auction was tomorrow. There was no time left to give him.
"...Haa. I'm sorry."
"It's all right."
Dad looked tormented. I had never seen that look in his eyes—not once since the day I was born.
He called me over.
"Suhyun. Let's talk for a minute."
In the room, Dad asked me.
"What do you think we should do?"