Chapter 135 – Next Operation (3)
“Uh?”
“Uh?”
When I came to Hongdae for a gate mission, I happened to meet a familiar face. “Howling” Min-young Oh. She, the hunter I fought against in Rookie of the Year, and the current D-class hunter, was staring at me with her headset wrapped around her like a scarf. We looked at each other blindly and awkwardly greeted each other.
“Hi.”
“Uh, hello. How are you?”
“How am I doing?”
She couldn’t make eye contact with me and gave off an awkward, uncomfortable look. I also wasn’t very comfortable with her. It was because when we met at the Rookie of the Year match, the results weren’t very good. How much Oh Min-young was teased on the Internet after Rookie of the Year ended. Now that she has come, she has been forgotten due to various issues, but for her, her memories at that time were not very pleasant.
It was clear that running into me, which made her reminisce, wasn’t a very good situation for her either.
Right before entering the gate, she worked with her brow furrowed. I smiled awkwardly beside her, preparing her gear. The gate itself was easy, so it didn’t matter if her limbs were a little out of sync.
It was by chance that I came to Hongdae today. Originally, another hunter belonging to the Black Dragon room decided to go here, but that hunter changed his schedule due to urgent family problems. Because of that, I, who had no schedule today, entered this gate as a substitute.
Oh Min-young said.
“Didn’t you say someone else was coming today?”
“Somehow it changed.”
“Okay. Let’s try our best.”
“I’m sorry then.”
“What are you sorry about? Are you sorry you won? Hey, you won because you did well. Your nickname is shit. It’s not that you didn’t fuck up.”
Anyway, it must have been true that the nickname gave her shit, she gnashed her teeth as she spoke. I said, turning my gaze to her embarrassed face.
“Yes, thank you.”
Oh Min-young giggled at those words and nodded her head. A loudspeaker was in her hand, and her bag was full of her ear plugs. She said, handing out each of her earplugs to me and the other hunters.
“Do well today.”
I took her earplugs and nodded her head.
*******
“You worked hard.”
The task was completed much easier than expected. We still had to shake her head a few times because of the deaf ears, and Minyoung Oh smiled awkwardly and retrieved her earplugs from us. Her strengths and weaknesses were clear. When using the loudspeaker, the D-class monsters were destroyed without being able to do anything, but the people next to them also suffered from the noise.
The hunters parted with a smile and avoided the spot as if they were running away. There was also a hunter who joked that he should go to the otolaryngologist. I laughed lightly at the joke and looked at Oh Min-young. She opened her bag, showing a familiar reaction to her joke, which she had also heard a lot.
After reporting the findings and distributing her reward, she turned to me and said,
“Hey, it’s over. Let’s have a light dinner together.”
“OK.”
There was no reason to refuse. I nodded her head and followed her. There was no dinner schedule today, and there were no appointments with seniors Ichie and Yoojung. I could eat about one meal. It was good to be as close as possible between hunters of the same rank, so if there was an opportunity to resolve each other in this way, we had to actively participate.
At a nearby barbecue restaurant, we sat across from each other. A magic show was in progress on the TV of the meat restaurant. Inside a hula hoop with a cloth attached, the magician’s partner was smiling and turning sexy with heavy make-up. I looked at the TV screen for a moment, then looked at Oh Min-young again.
She said while pouring me water.
“Do you drink soju? I have a performance later in the evening so I can’t drink.”
“Are you performing?”
“Huh. In the live club before here. I’m going to finish the Hunter job sooner or later.”
“You’re killing the Hunter job? Why, I don’t think this is too bad. The pay is good. You’re talented, so there won’t be many places to call.”
“There are many places to call. The other day, at a protest site, he saw me and asked me to shout slogans for an hour. Crazy bastards.”
I was blown away by her words. I took a sip of water and nodded her head.
“I will be the queen at the protest. Really.”
“Oh, I really hate that. What is a protest? Is it a bit like catching monsters by shouting? My main job is a singer. Singer. But how would you feel if you were watching the monster explode every time I screamed?”
I couldn’t imagine how it felt. So I just laughed and shook my head. Oh Min-young told me.
“And, there are a lot of things I felt after watching the terrorist incident this time. I thought I couldn’t be here.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know? What kind of hearing is the hunters who participated this time responsible? Didn’t you hear that I tried to open something like that, but it was canceled due to opposition from the association? You were there at the scene.”
“I did not know.”
Suddenly, I could feel that I was ignorant of outside news. Oh Min-young chewed on her green onion and continued her words.
“It’s no different than venting your anger because you can’t catch a terrorist group. Why do I have to be criticized for working so hard? If you sneak around the neighborhood, are there a lot of cubs who look at Hunter funny? Bastards who can’t even say a word because they get scared right away when they get caught.”
“Don’t be like that.”
As she said, there were people who secretly looked down on Hunter. Hunters tend to avoid their seats when they get into a fight with the general public, but there were many people who tried to build their prestige by aiming for this. Oh Min-young said.
“I can’t see it like that. If you ask me to live like that, I think I’ll get frustrated and turn around. If I save up money this time and buy a truck, I’ll quit Hunter and go around.”
“Truck?”
Oh Min-young nodded her head and opened her phone to show her a picture. She saw a big truck with speakers and all kinds of stage equipment. She said, tapping her screen as if to look at the picture properly.
“Uh. This fucking big gig truck. Do you see this? I’m going to buy this and go around and perform. Cool.”
“Do you think you’re okay? There is romance.”
“Yes?”
Oh Min-young smiled and nodded her head. She then drank another glass of water and looked to her side. A hot charcoal fire came to us. The staff set the table and put the meat on without a hot sign. While the sound of grilling meat was heard, we bowed our heads slightly as if to meditate and remained silent. Oil dripped from the seasoned pork belly, and the staff skillfully stirred and grilled the meat.
“Are you going to continue living as a hunter?”
Oh Min-young said so. The employee glanced at the two of us at the word hunter and started grilling the meat again. I nodded and said.
“It should be.”
“Why do you want to be a Hunter? Honestly, that… The longer you live as a hunter, the more things you risk your life for. Except for Hunter Jang Ji-wan and Hunter Lee Hyeon-woo, who took the movie this time, S-classes are all out on dispatch duty to the provinces, so it’s hard to take care of their lives. Class A and B also often die after buying at the gate. It’s dangerous. It’s not like anyone really knows.”
I nodded and said.
“I know. I do not know. Why do I keep trying to work as a hunter? Just because you have nothing to do? Let’s achieve it as a public servant dream hunter that we couldn’t do at first. I had the same thought, but it’s not like that now. I had the idea of going only in the middle in the past. But these days, I don’t know why I want to continue working as a hunter. But is it weird? I don’t know why, but I just keep thinking that this is my calling.”
“I wish I could find a reason. Then you’ll have more fun working. So do i. When I first started working as a hunter, I hated it because there were a lot of nasty kids, the work was hard, it was annoying, and there were a lot of things I had to manage. This is it. I thought it would finance my truck, so I had a taste for it.”
“Good. If you succeed big later, send me a vote.”
Oh Min-young smiled at those words and replied.
“You still perform at live clubs? Come see if you want to see huh? If you come now, you can see my performance for the price of a drink. Don’t pay more later and buy tickets for my concert.”
“I’ll go see you when I have time.”
I nodded and said so. The staff lightly tapped the fire plate and said.
“Now that it is cooked, you can eat it.”
“Thank you.”
The Albanian’s skill at grilling meat was quite good. The harmony between the crispy outside and the juicy flesh was amazing. We naturally shook our heads slightly as we ate the meat. After eating a few wraps, I watched TV again.
Each time the magician lifted and lowered the hula hoop, the person inside disappeared and reappeared. The audience was cheering for the magical magic shown in real time. Oh Min-young said.
“Kim Joo-sung, that bastard. Would you go to hell?”
“Suddenly?”
Oh Min-young must have thought of Kim Joo-sung after seeing her magic performance. She also seemed to have a strange resemblance to the magician’s face. To my words, Oh Min-young nodded her head and added.
“How did you beat him? I even doped.”
“With experience and perseverance.”
“Ah, no luck.”
As soon as I said that, Oh Min-young shuddered as if she had seen someone giving a lecture with a self-help book. I giggled and said.
“I don’t know how I won. I was half crazy and fought. Haven’t you heard of such a story? The story of how a C-class hunter used his super strength to beat up an A-rank hunter.”
Oh Min-young giggled at those words. After we ate meat in moderation, we went out without eating fried rice.
The sun was setting. Oh Min-young said, sweeping her arms in the air that was slowly getting colder.
“Hey, the next time we perform, will you come? You can bring your girlfriend. I’ll tell you.”
“When is it?”
“The 17th.”
It was a week later. I roughly counted the days and nodded.
“I’ll go. Take Ichie and Yoojung sunbaenim.”
“…You only want to bring your girlfriend?”
I smiled silently.
“Fuck you bastard. You’re really paying for Nick. Hey don’t come Ugh…!”
Oh Min-young shook her head in disgust. She took a few steps like that and then she looked at me again and she said.
“Hey, you’re not really coming, are you?”
“I’ll go.”
The colorful shadows of neon signs were cast on the sidewalk blocks. I shook her hand at Minyoung Oh and then turned her around. She felt fortunate to be able to unravel her and her filth.
