Morning sunlight passed through the old glass door of Jangchun Health Clinic and stretched long across the floor. It was a peaceful daily life. Stew was bubbling on the gas range, and Igyeol was cutting green onions into pieces with practiced skill.
“Hyung, I have PE today so I need to bring my gym clothes. Did you see my gym clothes?”
Hyungil, half-wearing his school uniform jacket, asked busily while rummaging through the room. Igyeol replied curtly without turning around.
“It fell under the sofa. You drop things all the time, so later you’ll be dropping your nose around too.”
“Ah, found it! Thanks!”
Hyungil stuffed the wrinkled gym clothes into his bag and plopped down on a dining chair. The kid, fiddling with his phone while waiting for the stew to finish cooking, suddenly threw out a casual remark as if just remembering.
“But hyung, on my way home from school yesterday, I think some weird ahjussi followed me.”
The sound of the bubbling pot suddenly grew distant from Igyeol’s ears. The kitchen knife that had been about to cut tofu stopped with a thud on the cutting board.
“……What was weird about it?”
Igyeol asked in a voice feigning as much calm as possible, still with his back turned.
“Just, an ahjussi wearing black sunglasses and a leather jacket was staring intently at me in front of the school gate. He was standing at a distance even when I stopped by the convenience store and came out. Well, he wasn’t visible once I entered the alley. Did he take the wrong way?”
“…Did you see his face properly?”
“No, I’m not sure. Because of the sunglasses. Why? Is he someone you know, hyung?”
Hyungil asked while sniffing the food smell without much thought. However, cold warning lights were ringing madly in Igyeol’s head. Baekya. Those bastards had finally crawled into the cracks of daily life. And into Hyungil’s route, not Yeongwon’s at that.
“No. I heard there are a lot of crazy perverts in the neighborhood these days. When you get out of school, don’t wander off anywhere and come straight home. Be careful.”
“Perverts? Ugh. I can take them all down in one shot. I have a black belt in taekwondo.”
“Don’t talk nonsense and just listen to me. What black belt? You only went for a bit when you were little.”
“Wow, this hyung is looking down on me. My kicks are terrifying.”
Igyeol snorted while turning off the pot’s heat. He warned dryly as if just brushing past it, but Hyungil just let it slide while standing up and mimicking kicks.
Igyeol frowned with a slightly anxious face. They were gradually digging into even Hyungil’s daily life. Those bastards. If they kept threatening this peace like this… it would be hard to stay still.
***
Afternoon. Igyeol headed to Miyang-dong market dangling a black plastic bag.
Although he’d set out under the pretext of buying dinner groceries, Igyeol’s nerves were wholly focused behind him.
Thud. Thud.
Two presences following at a certain distance, matching their steps the same way. They probably thought an ordinary C-rank Hunter couldn’t sense them, but unfortunately, Igyeol was sensing everything. They were Baekya’s rats. From their movements, they were undoubtedly quite high-ranking Hunters. They just couldn’t deceive Igyeol.
The corners of his mouth curled up slightly. These things… thanks for looking down on me. Igyeol deliberately turned direction into an alley densely packed with old commercial buildings with few people. The narrow paths of Miyang-dong tangled like a maze were Igyeol’s perfect front yard. Igyeol quickly turned corners through the alleys while walking, complicating his route. His walking speed was faster than usual. He could hear the pursuers’ breathing become slightly off-beat due to confusion.
‘Here.’
Igyeol slipped into a three-story red brick commercial building leading to a dead-end alley.
The two flustered pursuers hurriedly turned the corner and ran toward the building entrance. The moment they stepped foot to enter the building—
“Oh my.”
Igyeol’s deliberately exaggerated voice rang out from the third-floor rooftop railing. At the same time, a heavy earthenware planter dropped right in front of the pursuers’ feet.
CRASH—!!!
The pursuers flinched and stopped walking. Blood beaded on their cheeks and shins, scratched by fragments that flew up as the thick, heavy planter shattered into pieces. If they had taken just one more step, or if the planter had fallen 10 centimeters further back, their heads might have split open. They felt slightly chilled. The pursuers slowly raised their eyes to look up.
“Oh my, I’m sorry. My hand slipped.”
Igyeol stuck his head out over the rooftop railing. His face wasn’t clearly visible due to the backlight.
“A mistake, a mistake. Are you okay? You’re not hurt, right?”
His voice was very calm. He wasn’t even smiling. Igyeol, with his arms leaning on the railing, tilted his head to the side. He was watching their reaction. The pursuers swallowed dry saliva. The momentum had completely reversed.
“…We’re withdrawing.”
They glared at Igyeol before quietly exiting the alley. Igyeol confirmed that the bastards had completely disappeared from view before brushing off the dust on the railing.
“Should’ve left sooner….”
Annoying, really. Why follow innocent people around and cause trouble? No business ethics at all, seriously. Igyeol clicked his tongue and came down the emergency stairs at the back of the building. But the moment he was about to exit the alley entrance, Igyeol’s steps stopped abruptly.
At the end of the alley. Sung Yohan was leaning diagonally against the wall with both hands shoved into the pockets of his sharply creased slacks.
“……”
“……”
A brief silence flowed between the two. Sung Yohan’s gaze went toward the broken planter pieces visible behind Igyeol, then slowly moved back to Igyeol’s face.
“You said you were going shopping, but you’re causing quite a commotion.”
Sung Yohan’s voice was as calm as usual, but a cool weight was embedded within it. Igyeol shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.
“Nothing like a commotion. It’s just a mistake. Can people be perfect? We make mistakes and live on.”
“Make that mistake twice and you’ll kill someone. The planter was blatantly falling toward their heads.”
“It didn’t fall, so isn’t that good enough?”
Sung Yohan tapped the dirt and dust on the ground with the tip of his shoe.
“…Right. Since it didn’t fall, that’s good enough. Did you calculate even that?”
“My ancestors helped me. I originally have amazing luck.”
Igyeol smiled shamelessly and passed by Sung Yohan. Sung Yohan raised the corners of his mouth and smiled back. As Igyeol passed, the smile completely disappeared from his face.
Sung Yohan’s jet-black eyes persistently followed Igyeol’s back.
‘Too perfect control to call it luck.’
He’d suspected since the Dumang Mountain dungeon, but the movements were too disparate to be simply a C-rank gathering Hunter. Perfect instinct that calculated the direction of the wind, the weight of objects, and the target’s route without error. Sung Yohan’s intuition was warning him. That this man held secrets much deeper and more dangerous than he thought.
“……”
Still, did he need to dig into that right now? Sung Yohan approached the broken planter. He quietly gazed at the debris cracked and shattered to pieces. He was curious and wanted to know, but strangely, he wanted to maintain the present.
So to speak, he wanted to maintain the present that he could hold in his hands. A desire for control, hoping he wouldn’t escape, crept up, and Sung Yohan frowned for no reason.
***
When he returned to the health clinic, what greeted him was a boisterous voice.
“Hey, Boss Moon! Where’d you go, coming back now!”
Old Man Jang, the neighborhood fixture, was sitting on the wooden bench in front of the health clinic fanning himself. In front of him, a hand cart was fully loaded with heavy rice bags and dirt-covered medicinal herb bags that seemed to have just come up from the countryside.
“Ahjussi, what rice again? I haven’t even finished what you gave me last time.”
“My eldest son farmed this. Just take it. There’s too much. And I brought some medicinal herbs. These are for trade. But my back is a bit weak so I can’t carry these.”
Old Man Jang laughed heartily and looked up and down at the tall Sung Yohan following Igyeol inside.
“Oh, just in time. That tall part-timer over there! Like last time, move these rice bags and herbs to the warehouse over there. Our Boss Moon looks fine on the outside but is surprisingly weak and can’t carry heavy things.”
Igyeol waved his hand at Old Man Jang who was laughing heartily.
“Ah, Grandpa, if you leave it here I’ll take care of it myself. This person isn’t a part-timer—”
“I’ll do it.”
Making Igyeol’s dissuasion meaningless, Sung Yohan took off his luxury suit jacket without a word and hung it on a chair, then rolled up his shirt sleeves. He lightly shouldered two 20kg rice bags on both shoulders and strode toward the warehouse. There wasn’t a trace of displeasure on his face.
At the action that was now even familiar, Igyeol looked at Sung Yohan with an unamused face. Just go ahead and make it yours, the health clinic. He didn’t know what it was, but he was annoyed.
“Boss Moon really picks part-timers well. Right? You’re blessed with good people.”
Old Man Jang smiled contentedly and patted Igyeol’s shoulder.
“But Boss Moon, tell me honestly. That young man, what’s your relationship? Last time Grandma Chunja said….”
“Khack—! Kack, Ahjussi!!”
Igyeol choked on his own saliva and burst into coughs. Sung Yohan, who had put down the rice in the warehouse and was walking out brushing off dust, heard that sound and smiled faintly.
“…Not that kind of relationship. Not yet.”
At that shameless and nonchalant answer, Igyeol’s face flushed red.
“What do you mean ‘not yet,’ you crazy bastard!!”
“Hehehe! Young people these days are so open-minded~ Boss Moon, I’m rooting for you, you know?”
“Ah, Grandpa, it’s not like that!! This is all because of Grandma Chunja!”
Igyeol vehemently denied it, but Old Man Jang’s hearty laughter filled the health clinic. Sung Yohan chuckled. Somehow, he seemed to like this daily life.
