#137
Kim Min-ji, with her neat bob haircut, was a hunter who gave the opposite impression of Heo Sang-yeon. Her constantly stiff and gloomy expression and small stature contributed to this. It seemed that she, who normally lived in seclusion, had crawled out of her house for some reason.
Unlike her somewhat fragile appearance, Kim Min-ji’s power was strong. She was a long-range attack type like Yoon Pa-ran, with many abilities yet to be revealed.
It wasn’t that Kim Min-ji was deliberately hiding her power. It was just that because of her extremely reclusive lifestyle compared to other S-class hunters, there were fewer opportunities for her abilities to be shown.
As Dan Joo-hyuk was gauging her skills after a long time, his gaze suddenly shifted to the necklace Kim Min-ji was wearing. The black crescent shape reminded him of that damn stone he saw at the gate, making him uncomfortable.
Ah. Come to think of it, maybe I should bring some accessory equipment for Yoon Pa-ran.
Accessory equipment was extremely rare but highly effective, making it quite valuable. Dan Joo-hyuk had quite a lot of such accessory equipment at home. He didn’t use them much in actual combat as they tended to get in the way.
Since Yoon Pa-ran will mainly be engaging in long-range combat now, they might be useful. I should look for something suitable when I get home.
“What have you been up to lately?”
Dan Joo-hyuk, who had been recalling the list of accessory equipment at home regardless of whether Kim Min-ji was calling him or not, finally looked down at her.
Judging by her sharp tone, it seemed that Kim Min-ji’s outing today was aimed at meeting him. Dan Joo-hyuk smiled as he quickly calculated the events she might be involved in.
“I’ve been up to so many things, I can’t guess which one you’re referring to.”
So Dan Joo-hyuk leisurely provoked her. There was no reason to be generous to someone who came to pick a fight out of the blue.
“Whatever it is, do it alone without involving Sang-yeon unni.”
Kim Min-ji warned Dan Joo-hyuk as if spitting out the words. It seemed she was still stubbornly clinging to Heo Sang-yeon.
Dan Joo-hyuk mercilessly mocked that stupid appearance.
“Why don’t you tell that to Heo Sang-yeon? Ah, right. You’ve been desperately trying not to meet Heo Sang-yeon directly, haven’t you?”
Unusually, Kim Min-ji and Heo Sang-yeon had known each other even before they awakened. It was quite exceptional for acquaintances to awaken as S-class hunters side by side, and there had been a lot of research to see if there was any pattern to it.
Even after awakening, the two remained close. More precisely, they stayed close in every way except face-to-face meetings.
“Unni is too kind, always trying to help even someone like you. That’s why it’s right for me to talk to you directly.”
As luck would have it, both of them were S-class. While they might not suffer from the widespread S-class syndrome like Dan Joo-hyuk, it meant that their feelings of aversion towards each other were extreme.
It was fine for a while, but eventually Kim Min-ji and Heo Sang-yeon suffered from spasmodic syndrome towards each other. After that, Kim Min-ji extremely avoided meeting Heo Sang-yeon directly. It was the result of not being able to bear feeling such emotions towards someone close.
Heo Sang-yeon, who flexibly ignored such feelings of aversion, even covered for Kim Min-ji’s stupid behavior.
Normally, this wouldn’t have been worth paying attention to. However, today Dan Joo-hyuk found Kim Min-ji’s attitude particularly irritating.
So he suddenly asked:
“Why do you cling to Heo Sang-yeon like that? It must be hard to endure.”
As if she had heard an unexpected question, Kim Min-ji’s eyes widened. Her usually corpse-like gloomy face finally looked a bit more human.
Dan Joo-hyuk thought it was all stupid. Although the depth of sensation might differ, once you felt aversion, it tended to remain in your mind like a scar.
It was like a sense of alienation, as if a completely different soul had possessed someone you knew until yesterday. If it were just that, it could be ignored, but the sensitive senses of S-class often perceived it as a kind of crisis.
Sometimes that sense of alienation was so unpleasant and uncomfortable that it couldn’t be endured even for a moment. On the day when Dan Joo-hyuk felt intense aversion even towards Kim Sin-cheol’s parents who had taken him in, he moved out and created his own space.
So from that point on, the two S-class individuals had essentially crossed a path where they could no longer coexist, so why?
“Even if I feel that way, I want to endure it because I want to.”
Kim Min-ji answered unexpectedly quickly. It was a voice that had considerable confidence in her actions.
Dan Joo-hyuk still couldn’t understand such behavior. Why go to such lengths?
“… Because I desperately want to go back to the time when it wasn’t like this.”
To begin with, is that even possible?
Dan Joo-hyuk, who had experienced this sensation longer than anyone else, was therefore the most skeptical among S-class about this issue. He knew how meaningless and powerless such struggles were.
It had happened without fail to every human around him. Usually, the closer the person was, the more contact there was, the faster the feeling of aversion developed.
From Kim Sin-cheol’s family, who were close, to other hunters he had fought alongside until yesterday. Even the staff at the convenience store he used to visit regularly.
Before he knew it, everything had become an object of aversion.
The only saving grace was that the symptoms appeared sporadically. He could distance himself from humans only when the symptoms worsened. If a specific human was particularly problematic, he could just remove them from his sight.
The former Minister of Special Administrative Security had tried to clumsily exploit this behavior of Dan Joo-hyuk. But that only resulted in the minister’s office burning down.
“Anyway, I’ve warned you. Don’t drag unni into this.”
“…”
Kim Min-ji, having said all she came to say, threatened once more before turning around.
It was obvious she was going to shut herself back in her house. Recently, she seemed to be looking around the gates a bit, so what did she find out to come say such things?
Dan Joo-hyuk didn’t bother trying to understand Kim Min-ji. It was easier not to harbor any affection or expectations from the start.
The only solution he had barely learned in his life was one: keep a certain distance from everyone. He barely excluded the hunters he occasionally encountered from being objects of aversion by ignoring their existence.
After all, the vague sense of falling when expectations were betrayed could easily break a precarious mind.
“Hah…”
For some reason, Yoon Pa-ran’s face came to mind, but Dan Joo-hyuk consciously suppressed that expectation.
A bitter taste lingered in his mouth as if he had swallowed monster blood.
“…”
At that moment, the phone he was holding rang.
Dan Joo-hyuk quickly answered the call as soon as he saw Yoon Pa-ran’s name on the screen, without even having time to be conscious of it.
– Uh, it’s me.
“Tell me.”
– Um… The bunker here won’t open?
When he had checked earlier, Yoon Pa-ran was heading towards a low hill near the orphanage.
It seems he had gone to check the bunker there.
“I’ll be right there.”
Dan Joo-hyuk answered without hesitation. His appointment with Minister Byeon was naturally pushed back.
Dan Joo-hyuk’s steps as he left the Special Administrative Security Department building were quite light, unlike his heavy thoughts from just a moment ago.
❖ ❖ ❖
“You need to enter this initial key first for it to open. If you want, you can change this key too.”
Yoon Pa-ran looked at Dan Joo-hyuk, who had appeared like the wind, with a dumbfounded expression.
He had come straight to the mountain path where the bunker was located. Yoon Pa-ran was puzzled why he had come all the way here when he could have just explained over the phone.
Anyway, Yoon Pa-ran carefully observed the method Dan Joo-hyuk was explaining.
“Hmm. The location is a bit high.”
The panel for entering the number key was set to an adult’s height. It seemed like it would be out of reach for the younger siblings to use.
It shouldn’t come to that, but just in case.
At that moment, Dan Joo-hyuk, who had been standing quietly beside him, casually spoke up.
“I’ll install a small fixed ladder on this wall. Then the kids will be able to reach it too.”
“Huh? Oh…”
It was a comment that accurately pinpointed what he had been worrying about. Yoon Pa-ran, a bit surprised, trailed off.
As he did so, he glanced at Dan Joo-hyuk’s face. He hadn’t been able to make proper eye contact since Dan Joo-hyuk had appeared earlier.
He was wearing his usual gentle smile.
“Thanks.”
“It’s nothing.”
It was a grateful gesture anyway. Actually, Yoon Pa-ran had thought the call wouldn’t even connect, let alone Dan Joo-hyuk coming in person.
Didn’t he say he had some kind of schedule? Or was that not the case?
Two days ago, Dan Joo-hyuk had acted a bit strangely too. He had filled up his skill saying he was going into the gate right away, but when Yoon Pa-ran woke up and opened his eyes, Dan Joo-hyuk was shamelessly lying on top of him.
“Didn’t you say you were going somewhere today?”
“I have no schedule.”
Dan Joo-hyuk answered Yoon Pa-ran’s question decisively. Given his rather firm tone, it seemed Yoon Pa-ran must have misunderstood.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
