I'm a Hunter? (2)

Something gave a great lurch, and I woke.

I wiped away a thin trail of drool and looked out the window. The bus was parked.

At the same time, an announcement was telling everyone to get ready to get off.

When did I even fall asleep...?

I had no idea when I'd dropped off, but the nap had left both my head and my mood clear. My body was another matter.

I stayed in my seat and loosened up as best I could. I waited until the bus finished parking, and the moment they announced that we'd arrived, I stood and stepped outside.

"Nnngh! Haa—"

Looking around after I got off, I saw that everyone had something in their hands. I looked down at mine. Empty.

I was going home for the first time in ages, and I hadn't bought my parents a single gift.

Hmm...

Better something they could finish quickly than an object that would just sit around. My parents had always loved walnut pastries, so I bought a box from the stall in the terminal.

"Thank you."

The purchase itself was fine. The smell of the walnut pastries was not — it only made me hungry. Come to think of it, breakfast was all I'd eaten.

Right beside me, a place was selling toast. I couldn't hold out. I bought one on the spot.

"Here, I put in an extra slice of cheese, on the house! Enjoy!"

She passed the toast over with both hands, polite as anything.

"Ah. Yes. Thank you..."

I took it. In my entire life I had never once been given something on the house, and now I had.

Toast in hand, I sat on a nearby bench, and the woman who'd sold it kept glancing my way. The attention sat heavy. Her reaction, and the free cheese on top of it — eating, I could put it together.

Is it this damn face...?

The stares, the special treatment — honestly, it was too much. Like this, the thought of riding the subway all the way home was more than my nerves could take.

Wasn't the plan, but... a taxi it is.

Settled on that, I hurried through the toast, opened the taxi app, set my destination, and called a car.

Ah. Got one.

I got up at once and headed for where the taxi waited.

"Hello."

The driver greeted me as I climbed in.

"Yes. Hello."

Once he saw I was seated, he pulled away. The taxi left the downtown streets for a main road and swung straight onto the inner ring expressway.

I kept watching out the window as we went. There really were a lot of cars.

How deep in the countryside have I been.

Nothing like this ever passed near the factory. At most, the car the boss drove, and the occasional vehicle going by. That was all.

Speaking of cars, though...

Anyone can use public transit, but with this face of mine, my heart couldn't bear it.

A taxi every single time... that'd be rough.

I could call a cab whenever I needed to go somewhere, but it wouldn't be cheap. Buying my own car was beyond what I could afford right now.

No — before that, the military.

I took my phone from my bag and checked my messages. Two and a half months until enlistment. Not much time.

No room to buy a car, and more than that, I don't even have a license.

For the time being, public transit or taxis. Those looked like my only options.

Hm?

Curtalk notifications had piled up, so I opened them. The group chat with my friends was buried under something.

Lee Sungjun, that bastard...

Scrolling through, I found photos. The last one was the outside of a motel. As if speaking for exactly how I felt, Ko Soonjae had apparently unloaded an enormous amount of swearing. All of it filtered, though.

Whatever.

Whatever my friend was bragging about, I had something even more outrageous. I decided I'd pay the bragging back double later, and turned my eyes to the window.

We left the expressway, and little by little we entered the neighborhood where I had lived for twenty years.

The first thing I saw was the elementary school where my school days had gone well. I missed it, but every close friend from back then had moved away, and I didn't know where any of them were. There were no phones then. Nothing to be done about it.

Past the school, the shopping arcade I'd used all the time came into view. I really missed it.

As we went deeper into the neighborhood, the taxi stopped.

"This is your destination."

"Ah, yes. Thank you."

"Of course. Please ride with us again."

I gathered my bag and the walnut pastries and got out. Payment, for the record, had already gone through. One of the advantages of calling a taxi through an app.

The apartment complex where I had lived for twenty years. A year away, and the scenery was still deeply familiar. My feet carried me toward home on their own.

Before I knew it, I was at the building where my parents lived. Getting inside meant entering the door code, and though I'd been gone a year, my fingers still remembered it.

"Huh. I still remember this."

I went in with a little marvel at that, took the elevator, and at last stood at our front door. Naturally. Without a thought in my head. I pressed the door lock. No response. I pressed it again. Nothing.

It's an old model, but... is the battery dead?

I had no choice but to hit the intercom. Before long, a voice came from inside.

"Yes~ who is it?"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Mom's voice.

"Uh. Mom, it's me."

At my answer the lock released and the door began to open.

Thud!

The half-open door slammed shut again, and I heard the lock catch. At the same time, a voice came from inside.

"Who are you!"

"...Huh?"

I had not expected this. I hadn't told my parents I'd awakened as a hunter. I'd been so flustered I'd forgotten to say anything at all — and I had never imagined that failing to tell them ahead of time would lead to something like this. If I were in their place, and a face I'd never seen claimed to be my son, I wouldn't have believed it either.

This one's on me.

I took out my phone and called Mom. The ringtone went off inside the house, and then I heard someone running.

"Well..."

If I were Mom, I would have reacted the same way. Even so, I had no idea how to explain this.

"Ah... that's me, so could you open the door...?"

Instead of an answer, the intercom light came on. I held my phone up to it, and voices came through.

Mom's voice and Dad's came almost at the same time, one from the phone and one from the intercom.

"No, I'm telling you — I'm your son. Kim Haseong."

I couldn't see how flustered they were, but I could imagine it well enough. It took a while, but thankfully Mom opened the door, and I could come inside.

Stepping into the entryway, I saw the home I'd missed, and Mom's face, and Dad's.

"Uh... son?"

"S-son?"

Both of them wore exactly the expressions I'd expected.

"What's wrong, Mom, Dad? Ah. Before that — walnut pastries."

I held them out, and Mom took them.

"Uh.... No, more than that — we haven't seen you in a year... you've gotten... so tall?"

"R-right? No, more than that, your face, too..."

I understood perfectly well why they were rattled. Standing around in the entryway like this didn't seem right.

"Let's sit down and talk first. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Y-yeah... we should."

"R-right. Let's."

I set my bag down, took off my socks, washed my hands and feet, and only then sat at the kitchen table. From the look of the kitchen, the cooking was finished — all that was left was to set it out. We didn't eat right away, though. Mom, across from me, spoke first.

"So, son...? That look of yours?"

"The truth is, the night I quit the company I went to sleep, and... it seems I awakened as a hunter."

At that, my parents looked at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠each other, and this time Dad was the one who spoke.

"Your old man may be getting on, but I've heard plenty of hunter stories. Is it really like that...? The face, I could almost accept, but... you got taller, too?"

I hurriedly pulled out my phone and showed them the hunter list I'd seen before on Leafwiki.

"I was shocked at first, too. Look. Apparently it happens."

Mom took the phone and read through the article.

"I'm telling you, I woke up looking like this and completely lost it."

Dad spoke.

"Then why didn't you say anything?"

"...I forgot."

"..."

From the look of them, they'd gone straight past surprise and into pure bewilderment. Awakening as a hunter isn't a choice, any more than enlistment is. It hadn't happened because I wanted it, but I brought up the old story anyway.

"I suffered so much over my height, remember? So isn't what's happening now a stroke of luck?"

After I started middle school, for a short while I'd been teased in class because of my height. After that, I did exercises to grow taller. At the time, that was the best I could do.

"...Yeah. This is definitely our son."

"I'm sorry..."

"It's all right."

I don't think this was my parents' fault. Not in the slightest.

Once they understood everything, my parents treated me the way they always had. For them, too, it was a joy — the son who had suffered so much over his height had grown up proper like this.

"How is it, son. Good?"

"Really good."

Apparently I had missed Mom's home cooking terribly over the past year. When I first lived on my own, I'd ordered almost everything or made do with packed lunches.

"Here. Son."

Then Dad brought over a can from beside him. A beer can.

"Honey! What do you mean, beer for our son!"

"Ah, he's an adult now. A grown father and his grown son drinking beer together — that's been my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dream!"

For all that shouting, Dad darted behind me so Mom wouldn't hit him.

"It's fine, Mom."

"What do you mean, fine! Confiscated! And you, honey — two cans a month from now on!"

Regardless of what I wanted or what Dad wanted, Mom shut it down. Very easily.

"Ah......"

Dad couldn't put up the slightest resistance. The beer can was taken from him. At the same time she landed one on his back, and one on mine.

"You're his son! Don't you drink just because your father says to!"

"Yes......"

I declared surrender, too.

After that I ate with my parents, and we passed the time talking about everything that had happened over the year. They had work tomorrow, though, so we had to end the conversation and start getting ready for bed. I went to my room to get ready as well.

"Whoa..."

Back in my room for the first time in ages, and it was exactly as it had been a year ago. Mom came over.

"Even with you gone, I didn't touch a single thing in here. And I put your things back where they used to be."

The stuff I'd sent by parcel was in its proper place, too.

"Thanks."

"Thanks, nothing. But you're not planning to sleep like that, are you? Brush your teeth and wash up."

"Obviously."

A lot had happened since morning. Of course I needed to wash.

"But the clothes... what do I do?"

Everything I'd outgrown and sent home no longer fit. I'd have to throw it all out.

"Hmm... should I hand-wash what I'm wearing and run it through the dryer?"

If I had nothing else, I'd have to wear what I had on. Except until then, I'd be wearing nothing.

"Ah. Right. I've got a dress shirt I can wear until it's done, so could you?"

"All right."

I took my top off right away, and Mom stared at me with an utterly stunned expression.

"Mom?"

"S-son?"

Thinking about it, before I lived alone this had been natural — but thinking again, doing it after a year apart was embarrassing.

"Th-this..."

Contrary to what I was thinking, Mom pressed a hand to my stomach.

"Ah. When I awakened, well..."

I'd given up exercise after high school and hadn't done a bit of it since. With no exercise, I shouldn't have had any muscle at all — but when I awakened as a hunter, a set of abs I'd never once had, ridged clear as a chocolate bar, had appeared on my body.

"Whoa..."

Mom doing that made me embarrassed for no good reason.

"P-please, hurry!"

"R-right."

I handed her the shirt I'd taken off and sent her on her way. I opened my bag, took out the dress shirt, and put it on.

I thought I might finally catch my breath, and then Dad, fresh from the shower, appeared.

"Whoa~ our son's a full-on model!"

All I'd done was put on a dress shirt and black trousers, and the result could put a professional model to shame.

"You're making me self-conscious for nothing..."

"No, it's really something. You could model, you know?"

With this face and this build, starting as a model instead of a hunter would be incredible. But modeling didn't suit my personality, and I'd already decided.

"I'm not modeling. I'm going to work as a hunter."

At my answer, Dad looked at me with an enormously flustered expression. Too late, I realized I'd made a mistake.