Left on Read

…or maybe that was why these kinds of misunderstandings didn't bother me in the least. If anything, they almost made me want to laugh.

Click.

Click.

A woman whose face was hidden behind a hat and mask came to a stop in front of the pharmacy.

Even ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dressed head to toe in black, right down to her heels and a long coat, she could not conceal the dense, solid muscles of her core—or the overwhelming size of her heart that had been revealed the moment she peeled off her combat undersuit after the raid.

Left on read…?

She was the wife of C-class hunter Park Sang-jin, Guild Master of the Red Flame Guild, and one of South Korea's top-tier A-class hunters: Han Ye-na.

"Ugh…"

And right now, the woman who normally radiated the easy, mature charm of an older sister had completely lost her composure, clutching her stomach from stress-induced gastritis.

But she couldn't help it.

How could you do this to me…!

Because the husband she loved, Sang-jin, had read her messages and still refused to reply.

It was the first time in the ten years since they had gotten married—and an action she simply could not understand.

Where had everything gone wrong?

…Right. It had started with two payment notifications.

The amount itself wasn't the problem.

Sang-jin was normally thrifty, but working as a hunter meant equipment and potions could easily burn through hundreds of millions of won. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠She had been the one who confiscated his card and filled his wallet with her own unlimited card, telling him to spend freely.

She had set the payment notifications to come to her phone because Sang-jin, who rarely spent anything, had once left a lost wallet sitting around without even realizing it had been stolen—until an outrageous charge went through.

But the business name written in Chinese characters was the kind she simply could not ignore.

"Drug Pharmacy…?"

Drugs.

It was a name so familiar it made her heart drop.

Morphine. Propofol. Fentanyl. The devil's medicines that hunters—whose ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bodies had been altered until ordinary drugs barely worked—eventually reached for after enduring and enduring the grinding pain of their flesh, only to become addicted.

She had still been an active hunter even when the use of narcotics for hunter pain had been legalized.

How many of her comrades had fallen into the abyss after that?

And the one who had stood by her side for eleven years, supporting her through it all, had been Sang-jin.

So at first she told herself it couldn't be.

Maybe he had lost the card again. Maybe he had bought something else entirely.

But the more she thought about it alone, the more every single circumstance pushed her toward suspicion.

Sang-jin had always suffered from herniated disc pain, yet as a tanker-class hunter his dense muscles made catheter-based nerve treatments impossible. He had pretended otherwise, but he had visited workshop after workshop hoping to fix it and raise his hunter rank.

The recent Hunter Association reviews and Hunter Gallery posts she dug up online tipped that suspicion into near-certainty.

…Of all things, the item he bought was a patch, and Sang-jin's mood was far too elevated compared to his usual serious self.

Why are the comments under his gallery post like this? And that concept post—what? They're saying it must be drugs?

And then the comments under Sang-jin's gallery post, plus that concept post from a few days ago.

For back pain… did he actually use drugs?

Crack.

…She wanted to explode and confront him, but instead she carefully pulled the SIM card from her shattered phone, slotted it into a spare she had ready, and sent a message as if nothing were wrong.

No, this is way too suspicious of me.

A reply should have come ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠by evening. It never did.

Why isn't he answering? …Ah, he must be in a raid.

Profitable dungeons often required staying inside for days during the late stages of a raid, thoroughly cleaning out every last monster so none could escape.

He had even called ahead to say he would be out of contact for a while.

But her agitated emotions refused to accept that fact.

Fwoosh—

"G-Guild Master. I don't know what I did wrong, but I'll fix it! Please, just spare my life!"

"…Forget it. Just get out."

"Yes, ma'am!!!"

Even while working, flames that resonated with her emotions erupted above her head several times a day.

"Mom, are you okay?"

"It's nothing, Hye-ju. I'm just… a little cold."

Looking at the daughter who was the perfect mix of her and her husband, she soothed herself over and over.

Our honey isn't the type to do that. She denied it again and again.

She could just ask him directly.

Hadn't his voice on the phone right before he entered the gate sounded completely normal?

Yet with no reply, the unresolved stress left her heart burning to ash and her stomach so raw she couldn't sleep.

"Ha… If this turns out to be nothing, that damn Mi-na is going to milk the 'fire-breathing dragon' jokes forever… Han Ye-na, you have to endure…!"

……

And after waiting three full days, the result was being left on read.

"……"

Which was how Ye-na found herself staring up at the shabby pharmacy sign in the outer H-Area.

The first impression of the problematic pharmacy was the absolute worst.

It sat not far from the slums where drugs were supposedly traded under the table, and on the drive over she had passed hollow-eyed, beggar-like faces sleeping on the sidewalk more than once.

Then there was the sign that boldly included the word "Drug," the shabby exterior, and the interior that looked extremely cramped.

Ding-a-ling—

After a long internal debate she finally opened the door. The interior was clean and white-toned, yet not a single medicine was displayed outside the counter.

Rrrrr, rrrrr— Whiiiiirrr—!

From the back came a massive motor noise that swallowed every other sound.

It was the sound of something being ground to pieces—a sound that sent a chill through her chest.

Calm down, Han Ye-na. If you start a fire this becomes the six o'clock news.

Imagining the headline—"Top A-class hunter Ms. Han (36) commits retaliatory arson against drug dealer…"—she turned her head toward the white wall to regain her composure.

"…Licenses?"

Three framed certificates stood out on the wall.

A pharmacist license, an alchemist license, and an Awakened registration certificate.

But the more carefully she examined them, the more the age and the face in the ID photo made no sense.

Nineteen years old?

ID photos were supposed to be unflattering no matter how you took them, yet why did that face look so childishly young?

With a face like that, claiming to be a freshly adult nineteen-year-old whose birthday was in February…

No—more than that, she had awakened as a pharmacist, an alchemist, and a Drug Master who handled drugs?

"…Is this real?"

She couldn't believe it, yet when she checked the Awakened registration once with mana eyes and again with a low-grade appraisal skill, it was an unaltered genuine article.

Whiiiiirrr—….

But her flustered mind was given no time to process any of that information before the motor noise beyond the counter suddenly stopped.

In its place came a clear, ringing voice.

"Alright… the Heroshi Grass and Mana Herb stems are all ground up nicely. Now I'll put this in a pot with pure water and boil it to draw out the medicinal properties to the absolute maximum!"

It was not the sultry, decadent voice of some nine-tailed fox seductress smoking cannabis from a long pipe that she had imagined luring Sang-jin— it was a young, cute voice that could never have been forced.

"Hum hum hum~"

The little humming tune even resembled the theme song of an animation that had recently exploded in popularity among elementary school girls, making her think no matter how she looked at it that this person was the same age as her own daughter Hye-ju…

"Huh? Is someone here? Just a moment!"

Wait a second—why did that voice sound familiar?

Pitter-patter.

And the girl who emerged from behind the partition beyond the counter looked exactly the way her voice had sounded.

Dark, innocent eyes, a round little nose tip, and a bright, wrinkle-free smile that suggested she was always laughing.

With the eyes of someone whose fire magic had climbed so high she stood on the threshold of the transcendent S-class and had grown close to the spirits themselves, Ye-na confirmed the girl was unmistakably human.

Not only was she ridiculously cute—her soul was so pure and clear, like that of a newborn baby, that Ye-na had thought once before she would never be able to forget it. It was the same child she had seen at the market.

People with souls like that were born with inherently good natures.

"Oh? Are you a hunter? Did you come to buy medicine??"

And yet the name Han Sia, exactly as written on the certificates, was neatly embroidered on her custom-fit pharmacist gown.

She was even holding a blender in her hands.

Half-doubting, Ye-na asked,

"Are you the Drug Master who runs this pharmacy… is that right?"

"Yes!"

The bright, almost happy instant reply left Ye-na completely unable to collect her thoughts.

Gurgle—

Ugh, the stress gastritis again.

Days of sleepless nights, no food, and now this overload of information.

Hoo, hoo. After a few deep breaths, Ye-na—having lost all normal judgment—strangely connected what she was seeing with the problem that had been consuming her.

What she saw in front of her? A cute little girl around her daughter's age.

The problem that had caused her gastritis? Sang-jin buying drugs here and then leaving her on read.

This was Sang-jin's fault for leaving her on re— no, that wasn't it.

He would contact her after the raid ended.

…The real problem was that no matter how young and cute she was, and even if she had a related Awakened job on her license, a child had sold drugs.

"Customer. You look like a combat type, and the patches I make myself are incredibly effective. Since you're my second official customer, if you buy a patch I'll throw in a sample of the hunter-exclusive menstrual cramp medicine that's almost finished as a little service—just wait a tiny bit!"

See? Even now she was pitching painkillers—menstrual cramp medicine, of all things—as a sales tactic.

Yet according to the Hunter Association records the pharmacy had only been open for a month.

And since she had permits for both a workshop and a pharmacy, she could easily make a living without selling drugs at all.

She said I was the second customer.

Right. She just needed to guide the child before she sold any more drugs.

It was the incompetent Association's fault for rubber-stamping the permit. The cute, kind little girl who had studied hard all the way to nineteen had done nothing wrong—she had simply awakened to a strange job that handled drugs…

…Wait, something feels off about that?

"Customer? You don't look very well—"

Anyway.

If Ye-na could have seen a status window, something like [Status Abnormality: Mental Confusion] would have been written there. Completely failing to notice the contradictions in her own thoughts, she decided she still needed to educate the girl, so she bent her knees slightly to match the child's eye level across the counter.

And she said,

"Kid…!"

"Yes?"

"…E-even if drugs are legal for hunters, you can't just casually recommend them like that…!"

Faced with those eyes full of absolute conviction, Sia nodded.

Eheh, of course this is just my luck.

Maybe it was because she had already tasted the abyss of malice while browsing the Hunter Gallery that morning, or maybe it was because making medicine while recording a video had helped her organize her thoughts—either way, instead of panicking and denying everything, she was able to answer with the relaxed customer-service smile she had learned during practical training.

"I completely agree with you, customer."

"…Huh?"

As if she had hit the pause button on a video, the customer froze with a creak at the unexpected answer.

Seizing that opening, Sia dashed into the preparation room and brought out the phone that was still recording.

"No…!"

"Shh."

Before the customer could recover from her stun and say anything, Sia raised an index finger to stop her and instead held up the phone screen.

"I was recording a video until just a moment ago."

She stopped the record button and rewound to the beginning. The opening of the video was filled with her own chubby cheeks as she had leaned in close to check the camera view.

"Let's watch this together and then talk."

Click.

The me inside the video began to move.