Is It Eight O'Clock Already?
Seong Ye-eun looked exhausted.
Her slightly drowsy eyes suggested that the past few days had been anything but quiet.
“...Hello, Seia.”
“Unnie. You tiwed?”
“Hm? No. I’m fine.”
Not I’m not tired, but I’m fine.
Seia might not have grasped every layer of that difference, but she still understood the weight behind the words.
She knew what that small shift in phrasing really meant.
“It’s okay. Seia is here.”
Seia patted Seong Ye-eun encouragingly, though her little hand could only reach the woman’s thigh instead of her shoulder. Still, she gave it her best comforting pat.
“Hehe. That’s right. Seia’s here.”
“Welcome back. Are you here for a meal?”
“Yes. I heard today’s special is a lunchbox. I’ll take one of those, please.”
“Of course. I’ll have it ready in a moment.”
Seong Ye-eun took a seat at the table where Park Geon-su was already waiting. Seia scampered off to fetch a glass of water for her, and in the brief moment she was gone, Seong Ye-eun spoke.
“Why didn’t you order for me in advance?”
She had asked him to order for her as well, since she had planned to come to the restaurant even before he arrived. There was no way someone like Park Geon-su would simply forget. He had to have another reason.
“This way you can stay a little longer, can’t you?”
His answer was exactly what she had expected, and it was perfectly reasonable.
“I suppose so.”
“More importantly…”
Park Geon-su’s gaze had settled on the hem of Seong Ye-eun’s clothes.
It wasn’t his usual glance. Sensing the odd attention, Seong Ye-eun looked down as well and noticed crimson droplets blooming across the fabric.
“Ah.”
“This isn’t like you at all. Just how urgently did you rush here?”
“Well… I was taking care of some work beforehand. Thanks to a certain someone.”
The past few days she had stayed away from the restaurant.
Even before she knew this place existed, Seong Ye-eun had been an S-class Hunter who frequently participated in gate subjugations. While clearing gates wasn’t strictly mandatory, belonging to a guild meant she had a baseline quota to meet.
She had wanted to free up some time for a while.
“Unnie. Water.”
“Oh? Thank you.”
Seia had returned and was now straining to place the glass on the table with a little grunt.
“Have you eaten, Seia?”
“Yesss. Daddy made me steak!”
Steak, huh. No wonder there was a faint sheen of oil around her fingers.
Her mouth was clean, so she must have wiped her face properly, but it seemed her hands had been overlooked. A bit of grease had transferred to the glass, yet Seong Ye-eun didn’t mind in the slightest.
“Were you doing well while I was gone?”
“Yess. I ate yummy things and did fun stuff.”
“That’s wonderful. Unnie ate delicious food and had fun things to do, too.”
“Next time let’s do them together!”
Seong Ye-eun let out a soft chuckle.
She wondered if Seia even knew what “together” would mean in this case.
In the past few days alone, Seong Ye-eun had cleared a staggering twenty gates. That was nearly ten per day. At this rate, she wouldn’t need to enter another gate for several months.
The free time stretching out before her.
Seong Ye-eun had decided to spend it on the things she enjoyed.
She had become an S-class Hunter at a very young age and spent years focused entirely on subjugation. Before that, she had lived for her younger sister, who had since taken a faraway journey. After that loss, she had thrown herself into gate clearing for her sister’s sake.
Looking back, she had lived an incredibly busy life, always for someone else rather than herself.
It wasn’t that she hated that kind of life. Helping others meant she could prevent them from falling into the same grief she had known. She had found a small compromise with herself.
Clear the gates quickly, then use the remaining time to discover what she actually liked.
Since she had never lived for herself, she didn’t even know what she enjoyed. She had simply cleared gates and assumed that having money would be enough.
But now there was at least one thing she knew she liked.
Spending time in this restaurant.
She didn’t need to have deep conversations with Seia or eat particularly amazing dishes. Simply sitting by the window—or anywhere, really—and letting time drift by felt good.
It really was a mysterious place.
Even though you could see both inside and outside, the atmosphere made it feel as though you had stepped into another world entirely.
“Your lunchbox is ready.”
“Ah, thank you.”
The dish arrived just in time to pull her from her thoughts. Seong Ye-eun began eating right away.
She no longer doubted the flavor. It was already guaranteed, and what she tasted now were the lingering echoes of the past. Just like the first meal she had eaten here and the warmth she had felt from Seia.
…It’s warm.
Whenever she ate here, the warmth reached her before the taste did.
Perhaps that was why she loved this restaurant.
With Jungwoo’s voice announcing the meal as the final note, Seona’s Restaurant settled into a gentle, warm silence.
The soft clink of utensils, the sounds of cleaning in the kitchen, and above it all, Seia’s happy humming wove through like a bright harmony.
Mountain rabbit, rabbit~
She must have watched a documentary about Arctic hares earlier. Seia clutched a stuffed rabbit tightly to her chest as she sang.
Come to think of it, the gifts they had given her were proudly displayed on the table at Seia’s personal seat. The brooch was pinned to her clothes, while the doll, lucky pouch, and other presents sat neatly on the table. Even the brown outfit she wore today had been a birthday gift.
Seeing her treasure every single item without exception filled Seong Ye-eun with quiet pride.
“Did everything go well with work?”
“Yes, well… it had to.”
“Hoho. Of course. You won’t have any work for a while now. Any plans?”
“A plan of having no plan.”
A plan of having no plan. It was a good phrase.
Park Geon-su laughed lightly and finished the rest of his meal alongside Seong Ye-eun.
They could have stayed in the restaurant after eating, watching over Seia and surrendering to that comfortable feeling. But neither wanted to intrude on the precious private time between father and daughter.
“Thank you for the meal.”
“It was delicious.”
Just by looking at their faces, it was clear how satisfied they were with the food.
As the pair stepped outside, they noticed the cat that had taken up residence in front of the shop some time ago. It was an ordinary orange tabby—rather plump for a stray. Both Seong Ye-eun and Park Geon-su stared at it intently.
It wasn’t the usual fond look people gave to cute cats.
“It seems right, doesn’t it?”
“Indeed. That aura feels familiar.”
At those words, the cat, which had been calmly accepting Seong Ye-eun’s touch, flinched and backed away. It didn’t show hostility, but it was clearly on guard.
“Don’t worry. I already know your owner.”
Whether it understood her or not, the cat gradually relaxed.
“Oh, by the way, I hear they’re going to the circus tonight.”
“Who?”
Seong Ye-eun’s voice was thick with disinterest. Whoever went to the circus was none of her concern.
“Who else? The owner here and the little owner, of course.”
“Pardon?”
The moment she learned who it was, Seong Ye-eun’s tone changed completely.
“You know as well as I do that a circus isn’t just a circus.”
“Still, it’s a place directly managed by the association… There shouldn’t be any problems.”
There had better not be.
Because if anything went wrong, she wouldn’t stand by quietly.
“Why don’t you go with them?”
“Me… to the circus?”
“You don’t have anything else to do anyway.”
As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. She really had nothing planned.
“Well… I’ll think about it.”
Seong Ye-eun answered as if she had no interest in the circus, but Park Geon-su simply chuckled. He could already see exactly how this would turn out.
Was it because of the circus performance scheduled for that evening?
Circuses were popular with children, but the idea of a hunter-led circus was enough to make Jungwoo’s heart race. He had seen hunters display their powers on TV and elsewhere, but this would be his first time seeing it in person.
Time spent waiting always felt longer than it really was.
Yet with Seia beside him, even that slow-moving time seemed to pass more quickly.
“Daddy.”
“Yes?”
“When are we going to see the circus?”
Seia didn’t fully understand what a circus was, but she definitely knew it meant seeing things she didn’t usually get to see. Her sparkling eyes clearly showed how much she wished time would hurry up.
“Hmm… a little after eight o’clock.”
“Eight? Eight…”
At the mention of eight, Seia checked the clock.
The hour hand was pointing somewhere around the two.
“Umm…”
Seia stared at the clock for a long time.
Unfortunately, she still couldn’t tell time yet.
She understood that the hands of different lengths pointed at different numbers, but she didn’t know what that actually meant.
“What time do you think it is, Seia?”
The hour hand was near the two, and the minute hand was pointing at the six.
“Ummm…”
Seia crossed her arms and glared at the clock as if she refused to give up. The answer wouldn’t come just from staring, but she had noticed how the hands kept changing.
Her serious expression gradually shifted into one that said she had figured it out.
“The small one is moving!”
“Oh, that’s right. And then?”
The “moving one” Seia mentioned was probably either the minute or second hand.
Seia’s finally showing interest.
It was the exact moment Jungwoo’s plan succeeded.
He didn’t know at what age children usually learned to read a clock. Online sources suggested early elementary school, but he wanted to teach her before then.
Still, he didn’t want to force it. Nothing was worse than rigid early education.
“Ah, that one’s moving too!”
Seia’s eyes never left the clock. The first one she mentioned was the second hand, and the second was definitely the minute hand.
“Correct! So what time is it now?”
“Right now…!”
Seia looked at Jungwoo, then back at the clock. Her little brain began spinning quickly.
There’s a two and a six!
Those two were fine, but the rest was the problem. Because the second hand moved every single second, by the time she tried to calculate, it had already jumped to another number.
Everything changed before she could grasp it, so Seia made a bold decision.
Ignore it!
She would simply ignore the fast-moving hand. After observing carefully without looking away, she reached a very meaningful conclusion.
Even though the small, thin hand was moving quickly, the other two hands weren’t changing much.
It felt like she was getting close to the answer.
Two and six.
The short and long hands were pointing at those two numbers, so the answer was obvious.
“It’s eight o’clock!”
Seia declared the answer with confidence. Since two and six were both there, she had concluded that adding the numbers together gave the time.
But her proud expression soon began to change. Seia looked confused.
She had been certain the answer was eight o’clock, but something felt wrong.
When she had asked her dad earlier when they were going to the circus, he had said it would be around eight.
That meant…
“We’re going now?!”
The face that had been full of doubt and confusion was now overflowing with excitement. The corners of her mouth twitched upward, and her whole body seemed to bounce with joy.