Chapter 87

Joo Seowon let out a deep sigh and put a cigarette to his lips. In this house, the only smoking area Seo Jehyun allowed was the garden at the back of the property.

Even though he was a B-rank hunter who didn’t have to worry about lung cancer no matter how many packs he smoked a day, Seo Jehyun didn’t much like Seowon smoking. No—he just seemed to hate alcohol and cigarettes in general. Doing them himself, and other people doing them.

'What a weird guy...'

He looked like the type to be obsessed with smoking or drinking, yet he did neither. In so many ways, he shattered expectations.

'Ah, how did I get like this!'

It was driving him crazy that even the most trivial thoughts led back to Seo Jehyun. He’d been on his mind before, but lately it had gotten a lot worse.

When he calmly said Song Hwayoung would die, Seowon was sure he was a psychopathic bastard with the bottom scraped out of his humanity—then he’d see something that made him think, what kind of psychopath acts like that, and get confused again. He was exceptional at manipulating others to his will, yet he himself was bound up by various constraints.

If he were openly insane, Seowon would just avoid him, but there were one or two things that kept snagging on his conscience, which made him keep deferring judgment.

The worst part was, he was starting to worry about Seo Jehyun.

"Ha..."

He’d admit what he had to admit. Seowon wanted something like being friends with him; sometimes he worried when the guy went around doing outrageously reckless things alone; and when he said things like he’d pawned his morals, it stung to see how little he considered Seowon.

Even to himself, this whole sequence felt... insane.

'A k-kiss...'

...That was something he’d really never considered. It wasn’t just rubbing lips once; he’d even blurted the bullshit about trying a kiss.

'...I should stop thinking about this.'

It was useless anyway. Seowon swore he didn’t want that kind of relationship with Seo Jehyun. Not that Seo Jehyun seemed like he’d give it, either.

'No? I don’t want it!'

What crime had he committed to end up dating that psychopath!

He smoked and smoked, trying to digest the dizzy, vomit-worthy emotions.

Then—

Ding—

An alert chimed from his phone, which he kept with the sound on because of Seo Jehyun.

In the past, getting a message at this hour wouldn’t have been strange at all, but ever since Seo Jehyun blocked all of Seowon’s private jobs (he even had Seowon’s phone re-registered), private contacts had become rare.

'Is it Seo Jehyun?'

Thinking that, he checked the phone and saw a text from an unfamiliar number.

Do you take requests?

"What the hell?"

If he took a request now, his exclusive employer would blow his top. But more than that...

'How did they get this number?'

Since he’d halted private requests, very few places had this number.

Whoever it was, they knew Seowon took jobs, and they had his new number—whoever could do that already had serious intel. And they were requesting a “job” from him, specifically.

Suspicious any way you looked at it.

Just as his expression tightened a shade, another message came from the same number.

Ms. Yan Piquet—the client you handled—entered the country yesterday.

"..."

Yan Piquet. Entered the country.

Even with the vague string of words, Seowon’s face went rigid. Flicking the butt into the trash, he immediately made a call.

Ring... ring...

Only when the default tone had rung long enough to be dull did the call finally connect.

"..."

"Who are you?"

His voice came out stiff. But the other end gave no proper answer, only silence. Snapping back to himself in that long pause, Seowon returned to a calm tone and tried again.

"Are you someone who previously placed a request?"

He was already counting the guilds in his head that had hired him before. Someone who knew “Yan Piquet”? Someone who knew she was connected to him and could contact him directly like this wouldn’t be an individual to begin with.

'Damyeon Guild?'

He thought of the country’s number two guild, which still held a rather poor opinion of him.

"If you tell me the contents of the request and the requester’s name, I’ll review feasibility promptly and get back to you."

Of course, Seowon had zero intention of taking this job.

The other party had reached out wanting to hire him, yet still kept silent. An instinctive warning light went off in Seowon’s head.

'Should I contact Seo Jehyun?'

But then—

"Ah, sorry. I was doing something else for a moment..."

A reply at last.

The moment he heard the voice, Seowon froze. A voice he knew.

He’d never met her in person, but if you lived in Korea you’d heard that voice at least once.

"I didn’t catch that exactly—could you explain again? You need the request details and... the requester’s name?"

"...Guildmaster of Haeseong?"

No sooner had he named the owner of that familiar voice than a low, gentle laugh came from the other end.

"It’s an honor to be recognized."

***

I snapped awake on reflex. The clock said just past four in the morning.

'Why did I wake up this early?'

It wasn’t like I’d been tossing and turning. I even wondered if talking so much yesterday had stressed me out.

'No? Let’s think positive.'

Even if I tore up Cheonmyeonggyo’s chapel right now, Jinhaedo wouldn’t show up just like that. It wouldn’t be bad to tail Sung Uijae and see what his purpose was.

He was a frequent face in the original anyway, so keeping moderate relations wasn’t a bad idea. Even if I didn’t like everything he said yesterday.

I stopped forcing sleep and burned time with a light workout.

After a shower and breakfast, I checked the short string of messages we’d exchanged after splitting up yesterday.

I’m meeting a broker and going to a market. Location’s B2 at A Hotel. You can find the address online.

What’s the job?

Just tell me, by feel, which one’s best. We need to be quick.

Is it like an auction?

Similar.

Sung Uijae wasn’t particularly fast at replying. Apparently it wasn’t a lie that he barely looked at the internet.

If it was something similar to an auction, then what?

'Will it be like the memorabilia auction in Shanghai?'

While I was guessing, instead of any further explanation, he sent a notice.

Be in the lobby by 10 tomorrow. I’ll pick you up.

Okay.

Doing a favor wasn’t hard, but handing two secrets over back-to-back was annoying in all sorts of ways.

'Let’s wrap this neatly.'

I’d only planned to stay one night, so I packed lightly, left my bag with the hotel, and came down to the lobby on time.

Sung Uijae was already there, sitting on a lobby sofa to greet me.

"Good morning."

"Good morning?"

Maybe it was getting up early, but it felt practically like lunchtime. I nodded lazily to his greeting and asked,

"Where’s the car?"

"Out front. We can head out now."

"Then let’s go."

No point dragging things out. I jerked my chin at him to lead the way.

Once we got in, he pulled out without having to set a destination.

"You’ve memorized the route?"

"I’ve been there already."

"Rental car?"

"Long-term. I tried to buy one, but there were all kinds of restrictions. Even if I paid..."

He clicked his tongue and smiled with a savage edge. I shot him a sidelong glance and settled back.

He kept up small talk the whole drive.

"Do you know how to drive?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Really? When’d you get your license?"

"Right after the college exam, I think... Anyway, pretty much as soon as I turned twenty."

"That’s early for Korea, right?"

Staring at the unusually chatty Sung Uijae gave me a strange sense of déjà vu.

'Kind of like an awkward dork.'

Yesterday he was raving about wanting a demonic beast side and dropping all sorts of ominous lines; today he was chirpy like he was in a great mood, rambling on and on.

"Hunter Sung, you talk a lot."

"I’ve got a few things I’m curious about, and I figured I’d try to lower your guard before I ask."

He was seriously thinking nonsense. I almost laughed out loud.

"Am I that entertaining?"

Ignoring his drivel, I said,

"So what are you curious about? Ask. If it’s something I can reasonably answer, I will."

"Yeah?"

He lifted {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} his brows and shot me a glance. I turned to face him fully and gave a little chin jerk that meant, go on.

"Then who’s the thing on your palm?"

"I don’t know either."

If I had to guess, a baby Cave Giant... but if that were it, he wouldn’t have called it a “duplicate.”

He snorted like I was lying.

"If you’re going to answer like that, why tell me to ask?"

He had the gall to complain when he’d picked a question I couldn’t answer. I chuckled, then made him a proposal.

"Then how about we do it like this?"

"What?"

"One for one. We trade questions—tit for tat."

"Mm... Then I’m losing out."

He stopped at a light and looked over at me.

"I can already predict what you’ll ask. What you’ll ask me is essential to you. What I’ll ask you is just to scratch an itch. One-for-one? Lopsided."

"And what do you think I’m going to ask?"

"‘How did you know I was a demonic-beast-fused hunter?’ Something like that?"

Well, I was curious about that—but that wasn’t the only thing I intended to ask.

I stared at him a beat, then smiled.

"The light changed."