A Surprisingly Good Day
The depths of the alley.
The young woman he had seen at the market earlier was staring in his direction, radiating a menacing aura.
He wondered if it was some kind of threat, but if it truly were, she likely would have deployed far greater power than this.
“Are you Yuhyeon?”
Yuhyeon.
Hearing his own name spoken by another person after so long created a considerable sense of alienation.
It felt almost as if it weren’t his name at all.
“That’s correct. Who are you?”
Neither side let down their guard.
In their first encounter, he had seen a fragment of her. Now, in this second meeting, what he glimpsed went far beyond a mere fragment.
“I have no memory of an S-class Hunter like you.”
“That’s because I became an S-class Hunter after you disappeared.”
Yuhyeon—the hunter now forgotten by the public.
One of the few S-class Hunters in South Korea, and ten years ago, the man who had been regarded as the strongest of all.
Unlike most S-class Hunters who founded and ran their own guilds, Yuhyeon had operated alone. For that reason, people had viewed him as even more exceptional than the others.
That same Yuhyeon’s final chapter had begun when he set out to subjugate a gate.
He had entered an A-class gate, one that was the first of its kind to trigger mutation after mutation—an unprecedented phenomenon.
The boss’s abilities continued to evolve and change, making them impossible to analyze until the moment they were used. The first and final ability it unleashed had transported the entire gate to a completely different dimension.
In the end, Yuhyeon had been trapped inside for ten long years.
“When did you emerge from the gate?”
“...I don’t believe I’m obligated to answer that.”
“You’re right. There’s no obligation. Not if you had simply returned like anyone else.”
“I don’t think I did anything particularly special.”
Seong Ye-eun answered coldly.
“If it isn’t special to you, does that mean it isn’t special to anyone else either?”
“...That was a careless remark. I apologize.”
Yuhyeon readily admitted his mistake, but that was the end of it.
“What do you want from me?”
“Your purpose.”
“My purpose, huh. My answer remains the same.”
He had no obligation to speak.
One side needed to know. The other had neither reason nor duty to explain.
In a conversation making no progress, for any progress to occur, one side would have to create that reason.
And there was only one way to create it.
Overwhelming power.
Not through justification, but through submission.
“Hehe. It has been a long time.”
At that moment, a familiar voice drifted from the alley entrance.
Along with it came a familiar fedora.
“Park Geon-su… Guild Leader?”
“It has been a while, Yuhyeon.”
Yuhyeon had no prior acquaintance with Seong Ye-eun, but Park Geon-su had already been an S-class Hunter ten years ago.
“You’ve aged considerably.”
“Hah, it has been ten years, my friend. Since you vanished. I’d say I’ve kept myself rather well. That aside…”
Park Geon-su waved his hand once through the air, and the surging mana of the two S-class Hunters flooding the area sank to the ground and vanished.
“This is the city center, after all.”
With a hardened expression, Park Geon-su calmed the released power before withdrawing it completely.
“This is no proper place for conversation. Let us continue at my guild.”
“...Very well.”
Yuhyeon, who already knew Park Geon-su, followed without resistance. The three S-class Hunters made their way to the Sajeol Guild building.
They entered discreetly, avoiding the eyes of others.
Once the trio reached the top floor, their conversation resumed.
“So. When did you return?”
It was not a difficult question to answer, so Yuhyeon replied at once.
“I returned just moments ago.”
“I see. First, allow me to apologize that this child displayed her power before proper introductions.”
“There is no need for you to apologize, sir. It is neither something that requires an apology nor one that I would accept.”
“Thank you for saying so.”
Park Geon-su offered a gentle smile, took a long sip of the instant coffee in his paper cup, and continued.
“Now then, my friend. I’m not sure how this question will sound to you, but…”
Park Geon-su and Yuhyeon were already acquainted, and Yuhyeon knew exactly what kind of man the guild leader was.
He was not one to reveal himself lightly.
Not in the sense of being secretive, but because he carried himself with solemn gravity.
“How was your day today?”
“My… day, sir?”
It was an utterly unexpected question.
How was your day?
Was that really something to ask a man who had just returned after ten years trapped inside a gate?
Yet for some reason...
When Yuhyeon reflected on the day in response to Park Geon-su’s question, he found it had been surprisingly good.
Suddenly, the conversation he had shared with that child rose in his mind.
Yuhyeon had seen his own pre-gate and post-gate selves reflected in the little girl as she pondered whether she was a real five-year-old or a fake one.
“It was… good, I believe.”
Park Geon-su did not ask why.
He already knew the reason.
And in response to Yuhyeon’s answer, Seong Ye-eun’s wariness naturally eased.
“We feel the same.”
He had said we, not I.
It meant Seong Ye-eun felt the same way.
They had not spoken much more than this, yet Yuhyeon understood at once.
The reason his own day had not been unpleasant and the reason Park Geon-su spoke of “we” were one and the same.
“Does that restaurant hold some kind of power?”
“Did you not see it yourself?”
“I did?”
What had he witnessed inside?
What Yuhyeon had seen was an ordinary diner.
A view possessing its own quiet charm from the innermost seat.
And the father and daughter whose presence embraced it all.
It had not been the first two things that made the day good.
The father and daughter who encompassed those two things had made them special, and those special things had made Yuhyeon’s day unlike any other.
It was a memorable place.
An unforgettable place. A warm and cozy one.
Seona’s Restaurant had gained quite a few regulars by now.
It had become a favorite spot where the market merchants themselves came to take their meals.
They could have eaten inside the market, yet they willingly gave up even those precious minutes of business to visit. There were exactly two reasons.
First, the food was delicious.
It suited the merchants’ tastes perfectly and consisted of the familiar dishes they had always eaten.
And the most decisive factor.
It was Seia’s presence.
The moment they heard her bright, energetic greeting—“Welcome to Seona’s Restaurant!”—the fatigue piled up over the day seemed to melt away completely.
“Thank you for the meal today as well.”
“Princess, see you tomorrow?”
Given the nature of the market, most of the customers were middle-aged or elderly.
To them, Seia was like a daughter or granddaughter.
While she continued greeting the market merchants and the people living nearby, evening arrived before anyone realized.
Today’s lunch hour had been especially busy.
Word must have begun to spread; both the market merchants and the local residents had flooded in all at once.
“Whew…”
“Huu…”
Seia and Jungwoo let out sighs at the same moment.
When their eyes met, the father and daughter smiled together, blowing away the day’s exhaustion.
Seia’s duties had now become almost fixed.
Guiding customers to their seats and taking orders.
It might still have been a little much for Seia to handle orders, but the customers wanted it.
Even if it took a long time, they looked forward to it instead.
Because it meant they could speak with her just a little longer.
However, today’s menu had been somewhat unsuccessful.
It had been chosen after listening to Choi Su-yeon’s suggestion, and also because Jungwoo wanted to make tteokbokki for Seia, but it seemed the dish did not match the surrounding commercial district very well.
“Hmm… At least we didn’t prepare too much.”
It could last a few more days, but Jungwoo refused to let it go any further than that.
“Still, just in case, let’s get some ready.”
“Daddy! Seia wants to make it too!”
Even though she must have been tired, Seia slipped out of her special seat and trotted into the kitchen, determined to help her father.
“Shall we? I was just about to make tteokbokki.”
“Tteokbokki!”
From her reaction, it seemed she had forgotten.
Well, Jungwoo had forgotten for a moment himself.
“Seia, let’s make the tteokbokki sauce together with Daddy.”
“Seia can do it really well!”
Seeing her burning with enthusiasm, it was clear she was equally determined to eat tteokbokki no matter what.
Just how well had Choi Su-yeon explained it to get such a reaction?
Tteokbokki sauce typically contained gochujang, gochugaru, sugar, soy sauce, and the like.
The problem was the enormous amount of sugar involved.
I should buy something that can replace the sugar.
It would be nice to let customers choose whether they wanted sugar or not, and to make a version without any sugar for Seia.
He should have thought of this sooner.
Why had it taken him so long?
He first took out all the ingredients that would go into the sauce, then began making it together with Seia.
He really should have prepared it earlier, but after the first wave of customers left, more had arrived before he could even start on the tteokbokki.
“All right, add the gochugaru and gochujang.”
Seia followed his actions quite skillfully.
But suddenly, a memory flashed through Jungwoo’s mind.
Unfortunately, he was a moment too late to stop it.
“Ah, Daddy…!”
“...Seia.”
The gochujang that had gotten on her finger.
Just like last time, she slurped it right up again.
“Hehe. Is it spicy?”
“It’s spicy…!”
Seia’s face was gradually turning red.
It must have been quite hot; she even began to sniffle.
And there was no milk in the house today.
“Hic!”
Seia’s hiccups started right along with it.
She gulped down the water he quickly brought her, but water alone could not tame that kind of heat.
“Hng…!”
She stuck her tongue out and fanned it with her hand, but the burn would not fade so easily.
The spiciness loved by Koreans does not disappear easily.
It creeps up subtly and lingers for a long time—that was its signature trait.
“Daddy, Daddy.”
Unable to endure the spicy heat, Seia chose one solution.
She simply burrowed into her father’s arms.
She snuggled right in and buried her face in Jungwoo’s chest.
It would not make the spiciness vanish, but if she did not do at least this, it felt like her tongue would burn to ashes.
“Haha. It was really spicy, wasn’t it?”
“Seia’s tongue hurts…”
“Let’s drink some more water. And from now on, you mustn’t slurp up anything that gets on your hand like that. Understand?”
“Yes…”
Other things might be all right, but if it had been soy sauce or vinegar on her hand, swallowing the concentrate straight would have been no easy task.
It would have been practically a punishment.
Still, as time slowly passed, Seia’s burning sensation seemed to subside little by little.
She was still hiding her face in his chest, but the redness on her slightly visible, plump cheeks had faded considerably.