Chapter 163 – Funeral (1)
“Who is your favorite character in Romance of the Three Kingdoms?”
“Yes.”
The interview location was in the middle of a minimalistic cafe with a single table. Lee Hyeon-woo, who appeared on a reading talk show program, was talking with the moderator about the newly published [Three Kingdoms]. Who is your favorite character in Romance of the Three Kingdoms? Lee Hyun-woo answered without hesitation.
“Jojo is my favorite.”
“Oh, Jojo. I really think he was a character who could only come out of chaos in the era of the Three Kingdoms. Is there a particular reason you came to like Jojo?”
Lee Hyun-woo nodded his head and smiled slightly.
“It’s a Yeobaeksa incident. Jojo, who killed Yeobaeksa due to a misunderstanding, speaks confidently even after killing his father’s sworn brother, Yeobaeksa, right? ‘Even though I might forsake the people of the world, I will not let the people of the world abandon me.’ Jin Gong got tired of seeing him and left Cao Cao, but in the end, many people gathered around Cao Cao. I think it shows the shamelessness and coolness that only Gan-woong in a difficult world can show.”
While talking, Hyunwoo Lee saw the manager behind the camera and frowned. The moderator also turned his head with a puzzled expression. The writers who were fiddling with their cell phones were whispering with surprised faces.
The news of the obituary was on their cell phones.
[Hunter Jang Ji-wan died at 3 am.]
There was more weight than the number of letters in the brief short story.
“Really?”
“Are you really dead?”
“And. It goes like this It takes only a moment to go to a real person.”
Embarrassed voices were coming and going from everywhere, as if they couldn’t believe Jang Ji-wan’s death. Since it was a recorded broadcast, both the director and the cameraman put the broadcast down for a while and were talking about this topic. They were staring at Lee Hyun-woo. Lee Hyun-woo was also checking his article with a slightly puzzled expression.
“Hey, like this… Some died… That’s amazing.”
Lee Hyun-woo said that with strength in every word, like a person who is trying hard not to make mistakes. His words were full of reactions that were really unexpected death. The cameraman asked.
“Mr. Hyunwoo. But if this is the case, only two S-class hunters will remain in Seoul?”
“Yes. It will be like that for now.”
Hyunwoo Lee nodded his head. With Jang Ji-wan’s death, the number of S-class hunters who remained in Seoul without performing local duty was reduced to two. One is Hyunwoo Lee. And the only one left is Choi Yeon-joo, an S-class hunter from [Paradise].
*******
I stretched out my hand as I floundered in bed at the sound of the phone ringing from the morning. The loud beeping sound, like an alarm, wasn’t just heard on my phone. Senior Yoo-jung’s cell phone and Seong Ha-yeon’s cell phone were ringing at the same rate. We, who had been sleeping on the bed at Ichie’s house hugging each other like an otter family, reached out to each other’s cellphones without asking anyone first.
“Hmm…”
I closed my eyes and stretched out my hand, and my hand pressed against Ichie’s cheek while he was sleeping. Ichie frowned and shook his head as he covered himself with the blanket. I stroked her hair once, got her up, and grabbed her phone.
Seong Ha-yeon and Yu-jeong seniors also opened their phones to check who was calling. The person who called me was showing the office number of the Black Dragon Room. It seemed that Hwanghwang Yoo and Hayeon Seong also received calls from similar numbers. What the hell is going on in the morning, why are you calling me like this? I answered the phone scratching my head.
“Hello.”
“Yes. Is this Jung Soo-hyun’s cell phone?”
“Yes. What happen?”
I nodded my head at the clerk’s voice, which I had heard several times. When I woke up and looked out the window, morning dew was hanging on the edge of the window, and cars starting to work in the street were starting up and spitting out fumes.
“Yes. That is… Hunter Jang Ji-wan this morning…”
I turned my head involuntarily at the news that the office clerk gave me with a muffled finish. Seong Ha-yeon and Yoo-jeong were looking at me with the same expression.
****
Jang Ji-wan’s funeral home was more modest than expected. There was a small memorial service table, and Jang Ji-wan’s portrait was staring at the front with an indifferent face. He seemed to be crying for some reason.
Jang Ji-wan’s bereaved family wore black suits and greeted the mourners with sorrowful expressions. The epaulettes on his arms and the lilies in front of the coffin felt unreal. We waited for Lee Jun-hyeok while hanging out at the entrance of the funeral home. Thanks to him who said he was a little late, we were able to put our emotions together once again on one side of the funeral hall.
I didn’t have good feelings for Jang Ji-wan. But that didn’t mean we wouldn’t go to the funeral home. No matter how broken the Black Dragon Room was, it was definitely a guild whose name still remained, and it was also a team that had been busy trying to catch Kim Hyun-ki together until a while ago.
Although Jang Ji-wan was humanly trashy and old-fashioned, it was also true that he contributed to society as an S-class hunter. Ichie rubbed his eyes and looked around, while Seong Hayeon glanced briefly at the nearby smoking room and then clicked his tongue. Senior Yoo-jeong tried to yawn, but she held back and closed her eyes tightly.
If you look around, you can see a wreath with the mark of a fairly famous guild and celebrities in the industry bowing. I had to turn my head at the sound of footsteps on the stairs. Red hair caught my eye. I saw a woman with her coat thrown over her shoulders like a cape as she stepped into her funeral home with her nonchalant face.
She was quite tall, and as tall as she was, she was in great shape. Black stockings wrapped around her strong, straight legs, and her skirt was tight enough to accentuate the line of her hips. Her black outfit gave a strict yet strong impression.
Her hair, combed down as neatly as her dress, was so soft that it swayed limply to the hem of her coat.
Seong Ha-yeon looked at her and blinked her eyes, and senior Yoo-jeong also looked a little surprised to see her. Hunters and people in the hunter industry who came to her funeral home and had a simple meal looked at her woman with their eyes wide open.
I didn’t know who she was, so I asked her senior Yoo-jung in a low voice.
“Who is it?”
“You are Choi Yeon-joo Hunter. Choi Yeon-joo of the [Paradise] Guild. She was famous for not doing much outside activities, but today she came out.”
Contrary to her arrogant impression, Choi Yeon-joo Hunter greeted the bereaved family with a very polite and polite attitude, and comforted them by holding her family’s hand tightly. A pitiful light flashed intermittently across her face. She bowed in front of her portrait and refrained from her family’s request to eat and then moved on again.
As Yeonju Choi was about to leave, I met her eyes. Strangely, she felt that she knew her. It wasn’t like I had recently met her or that I had seen her somewhere. I had a feeling I knew her very well.
Yeonju Choi stopped walking, looked at me, then tilted her head, she said.
“Are you Jung Soo-hyun?”
She had a lithe voice and slow manner of speaking for her expressionless face. The way he looked at me was like a judge judging contestants. I said, shrinking a little at her figure.
“Ah yes.”
She looked at me piercingly and then she said.
“It’s a lot of trouble.”
She told me so I smiled awkwardly and nodded her head. Yeonju Choi passed by her as if she would not listen to my answer. It smelled faintly of perfume.
“I waited. Sorry for late.”
And a beat later, Lee Jun-hyeok showed up. He was wearing a neat suit and a neat wig. Behind him, Cho Hwa-hwan was coming down with the name ‘Hunter Lee Jun-hyeok and all others’. Lee Jun-hyeok stared at Cho Hwa-hwan in silence and urged us on.
“Let’s hurry.”
We silently stood in front of Jang Ji-wan’s portrait, bowed briefly, and exchanged greetings with the bereaved family.
That evening. A short news story came to mind that Kim Hyun-ki’s body, which had no bereaved family, was classified as an unrelated body and cremated.
****
“Jiwan Jang is dead.”
Choi Soon-Hong sat down in a corner of the hiding place and rattled his glass. In front of him lay his favorite Chinese liquor. Choi Soon-hong recalled the time he blew away Jang Ji-wan. How thrilled it was to see Jang Ji-wan writhe in pain. But after defeating him, Soonhong Choi soon lost his smile.
People who talk about qualification controversy saying that Jang Ji-wan lost to Class C. People who laugh at Jang Ji-wan’s situation.
Everything was not like other people’s business.
“Isn’t it strange? I thought revenge would be fun.”
Even after hearing that Jang Ji-wan had died, he couldn’t help but laugh. He was the one who thought he would dance at the funeral, but he couldn’t. No one answered Choi Soon-hong’s question. He wasn’t expecting an answer either.
“Oddly enough, I don’t enjoy it at all. Why? Why?”
Soonhong Choi felt that something was going wrong. Even when people are dying and innocent people are being swept away, he believed that if only Zhang Jiwan were killed, everything would be resolved. However, when he felt that a hunter he had seen his face for decades had died, the feelings that came to him were not exhilaration but futility.
A terrible sense of futility.
Choi Soonhong thought.
After defeating Lee Hyeon-woo, can this futility be washed away?
Could it be?
