How Much?
Before he even began to worry about what to do with himself, Yu Gangmin was catching up on the modern world.
The method was simple enough. All he had to do was sprawl on the sofa with a bag of snacks and let the television teach him.
"Hmm."
The world he had returned to after sixty years was at once familiar and strange. There were channels devoted entirely to Hunters now, and Gate raids were being broadcast live as they happened. Between every program, commercials for Awakened Academies poured out without fail.
We awaken the skills sleeping inside you!
Double your physical abilities in just three months!
It was the same sort of advertisement that had been plastered across the building opposite the kendo dojo.
"A pack of swindlers," Yu Gangmin muttered around a mouthful of snacks.
Murim had had its share of those types too. Men who peddled third-rate martial arts as the greatest divine techniques under heaven. Men who hawked pills that did nothing but loosen your bowels and called them miracle elixirs that cured every ailment under the sun.
I nearly fell for it myself, back when I didn't know a thing.
Change the place, and people stayed much the same.
That was when his younger sister came out of her room.
"Oppa."
"What is it?"
"Stay in your room for an hour."
"Why?"
"My tutor's coming."
At that, Yu Gangmin tilted his head and pushed himself up off the sofa.
"You're still getting tutored?"
"I'm a senior."
"Is that so?"
"You don't even know how old your only sister is?"
Yu Gangmin had no answer. The sister in his memory had still been closer to a middle-schooler.
"My apologies."
The unreserved apology only threw her off more.
"What the hell. Normally you'd have teased me for being bad at studying."
"I'll take an interest from now on."
"Interest? Don't bother. I'll handle it myself! And before that, fix that grandpa way of talking. What's been with you since yesterday?"
A storm of nagging was just about to break when—
Ding-dong.
The doorbell rang. Yu Gaeun checked the clock and bolted for the front hall.
"That must be my teacher."
"Is it?"
Gangmin rose from the sofa. He had been about to head for his room when the front door opened.
"Hello."
A familiar voice. Yu Gangmin's steps stopped.
A young woman stood in the entryway. Black hair pulled into a single ponytail. Bandages wrapped around her right arm and palm.
Yoon Seoha.
"……"
"……"
Their eyes met in the air between them. Yoon Seoha's went wide enough to split.
"You?"
Yu Gangmin raised an eyebrow.
"What are you doing here?"
Yu Gaeun looked from one of them to the other, caught completely off guard.
"What? You two know each other?"
"No. We don't."
"That's right…… wait. Hold on."
Yoon Seoha pointed at Gangmin, her face a tangle of confusion.
"This is your house?"
"It is."
"What's your relationship?"
His sister answered for him.
"He's my brother."
"Your brother?"
"I told you before. I have a brother who runs a kendo dojo. He's never home, so I figured today would be the first time you met him. When did you even see each other?"
Yoon Seoha stared at Yu Gangmin as if the world had stopped making sense.
He was the unidentified powerhouse who had cleaved a Hobgoblin in a single stroke with a broken standard-issue longsword. And that man lived under the same roof as her tutoring student.
"That's— that's impossible."
Coincidence did not stretch this far.
Ever since that day, Yoon Seoha had gone everywhere looking for him. She had tried to get her hands on the CCTV footage, but every camera in the area had already been out of order. The Hunter Association had refused to give her anything, insisting the Hobgoblin incident was already closed with her listed as the one who had handled it. All she had been able to do was walk the surrounding streets and ask questions.
The last thing she had expected was to run into him showing up for a tutoring gig. She was still standing there, stunned.
Yu Gangmin was no less taken aback.
"The world really is a small place."
He had assumed their paths would never cross again. He had not counted on meeting her like this.
"So where did you two even meet?"
Yoon Seoha opened her mouth, but Gangmin answered first.
"We ran into each other at the convenience store yesterday. Briefly."
"That's all?"
"That's all."
He had no desire to explain the part where he had killed a Hobgoblin. Yoon Seoha looked at him with a face full of things she still wanted to say—until she saw him quietly press a finger to his lips.
She did not continue. He did not want Yu Gaeun to know. That much was clear.
"Teacher, what happened to your arm?"
"I got hurt a little yesterday."
"In a Gate?"
"Yeah. It's not bad, so don't worry."
So she was working as an F-rank Hunter and tutoring on the side. Yu Gangmin looked her over with fresh interest.
"You were clever enough to tutor, then?"
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Watching you with a sword, I never would have guessed."
Yoon Seoha's eyebrow twitched.
"Swordsmanship and mathematics are two different things."
"Is that so."
"Oppa! Stop picking a fight with my teacher and go to your room."
"Very well."
He had nothing more to say, so he went to his room without argument. Just before the door shut, his eyes met Yoon Seoha's again.
Hers said, Don't you dare run.
Yu Gangmin pretended not to notice and closed the door.
"Teacher."
"Hm?"
"You've been staring at the same problem this whole time."
"Hm? Ah—!"
Yoon Seoha snapped back to herself. She had already read the same sentence in the workbook several times over. No mathematical formula would stay in her head. Every scrap of her attention was pointed at the closed door down the hall.
"S-sorry! My arm hurts, so I can't really focus!"
"Want to just rest today?"
"No. I'm fine."
Even as she said it, she snuck another glance toward his door.
"Teacher."
"Hm?"
"Are you interested in my brother?"
"What?"
Yoon Seoha nearly jumped out of her chair.
"You've been staring at his room this whole time."
"Not like that!"
"Then like what?"
"That's……"
How was she supposed to explain that she wanted to learn the sword from the man who had split a Hobgoblin in half? In the end, Yoon Seoha dodged the question.
"Let's just do the problems."
"Hmph."
Yu Gaeun gave her a suspicious look, but she did not press. She was, after all, someone who respected privacy.
Two hours later, Yoon Seoha packed her books and workbooks into her bag.
"Review what we covered today before the next session."
"Okay."
"If there's a problem you don't get, take a picture and send it to me."
"Got it. Get home safe."
Yu Gaeun looked tired. The moment the goodbyes were done, she went straight to her room.
"……"
Yoon Seoha lingered in the entryway, pretending to put on her shoes. She waited, but Gangmin's door did not open. In the end she went to it herself and knocked.
Knock, knock.
"Could I have a word?"
No answer.
"I know you're in there."
A moment later the door opened. Yu Gangmin stood there looking put-upon.
"What is it?"
"I have questions about yesterday."
"I have nothing to say."
He moved to shut the door. Yoon Seoha jammed the gap with her hand.
"I do."
"Didn't you already explain everything to the Association?"
"This isn't something I need to tell the Association. It's something I need to tell you."
"Take your hand off the door. You'll get hurt."
Yoon Seoha pulled her hand back. Instead she planted herself squarely in front of him so he could not slip away.
"How did you do it yesterday?"
"Do what, exactly?"
"All of it. How did you stop a Hobgoblin's axe with your bare hands? How did you cut down a D-rank monster with a broken sword?"
"I blocked it, then I cut it."
"That's your explanation?"
"It's the truth."
Yoon Seoha thumped a fist against her chest in frustration.
"Then what about what you told me?"
"Your form was wretched, so I corrected it a little. That's all."
"A little?"
Yoon Seoha opened her status window. Yu Gangmin could not see it, but a new skill was clearly displayed before her eyes.
"I heard those few words from you and killed five goblins by myself. I even gained a new skill."
"Intimidation, was it?"
"That's right."
"I didn't give you that."
"Then what did you do?"
"I merely drew out what was already inside you."
Yoon Seoha closed her mouth. Yu Gangmin thought back to the way she had moved in the convenience store. At first she had not even known how to hold a sword. But every time she heard an instruction, her stance changed. She grasped the next movement on her own before he had even finished explaining.
It was a martial talent rarely seen even in Murim.
"You have talent."
"I do?"
Yoon Seoha's eyes went wide. It was the opposite of everything she had been told until now.
You have no talent. F-rank is your ceiling. Nothing will change no matter how hard you try. The instructors at the Awakened Academy had said so. So had the party members who had entered Gates with her.
The man in front of her was the only one who said she had talent.
"Then please teach me."
Gangmin did not hesitate.
"No."
"Why not?"
"It's a bother."
The answer was almost painfully honest. Yoon Seoha stared at him, incredulous.
"This is a matter of a person's entire life."
"It isn't mine."
"You said I could get stronger."
"Having talent and my needing to teach you are two different matters."
"Just once, even—"
"No."
Gangmin moved to close the door again. Yoon Seoha spoke in a rush.
"I got kicked out of my party yesterday."
Yu Gangmin's hand paused.
"They said I was too weak. That they didn't need me."
Yoon Seoha looked down at her bandaged hands.
"I've been trying ever since I awakened as F-rank. I spent almost everything I earned on the Awakened Academy. And nothing changed."
"……"
"Until yesterday, I was really going to give up."
Yoon Seoha looked him straight in the eye.
"But after I listened to you, I killed a monster for the first time without using a skill. I even gained a new one."
Her voice trembled, just a little.
"For the first time, I thought I might actually be able to get stronger."
Gangmin said nothing. There was a desperate light in Yoon Seoha's eyes. He had seen that look countless times in Murim. The ones who wanted to grow stronger. The ones who wanted revenge. The ones who wanted to protect something. It was the look they wore when they came to him begging for instruction.
But Yu Gangmin had no desire to be tangled up in that life again.
"Find someone else."
"It has to be you."
"I intend to live quietly now."
"What does teaching have to do with living quietly?"
"Take a disciple, and trouble always follows."
He was certain of it. Every time he had taken a disciple in Murim, problems had come with them. Taking a student meant taking on every grudge and karmic tie that student carried. In this life, he had no intention of teaching anyone.
"I refuse."
Yu Gangmin's voice was final.
"Go home."
Yoon Seoha bit her lip. How was she supposed to change his mind? Pleading had not worked. Telling him he would be wasting her talent had not worked either.
Then she remembered the conversation she had had with Yu Gaeun during a break.
"Anyway, we're in real trouble now. The dojo's completely shut down. I don't even know if I can keep getting tutored. I might have to pick up a part-time job myself."
Yoon Seoha spoke carefully.
"I'll pay you."
Yu Gangmin, who had been turning back toward his room, stopped.
"Money?"
"Yes. I'm not asking you to teach me for free. I'll pay a training fee."
Yu Gangmin turned slowly to look at her. The irritation that had filled his eyes a moment ago was gone.