Did you hear that?

A million thoughts raced through his mind in that brief moment. But before he could, he made eye contact with Lee Sa-young. He craned his neck to look at him. The shameless attitude of not caring about Jung-bin, who was sitting perfectly still in front of him, made him want to put his gas mask on backwards so that he couldn't see anything.

He was the one who had used the object to invade the separate room, so this time he was the unwelcome guest. If he made too much of a scene, he might attract Jung-bin's attention.

Luckily, he has a great excuse... Haejang-guk! In the excitement of the story, Ui-jae forgets for a moment, but as a part-time employee of Haejang-guk, he has to serve the two enemies.

Ui-jae sneaked out of his seat under Jung-bin's watchful eye, and after pretending to give Lee Sa-young the middle finger, he uttered the words.

"Fuck you.

And casually turned and walked towards the kitchen. Kek, he heard a small laugh. Along with Jung-bin's questioning voice.

"Lee Sa-young?"

"No, nothing. Could it be another unregistered person?"

"There's a Hong Ye-sung equipment auction coming up, so I'm sure some people have entered the country, but there's no way someone of his caliber would cause such a ripple. He'll come and go quietly."

Jung-bin replied firmly. He seemed to suspect that the culprit in this situation was an amateur, a rookie, a newly awakened madman. It was unfair that he had become an 'amateur, newbie, and weirdo'. Information didn't travel so fast when he was on active duty. A faint voice offered another possibility.

"You know, the S-rank that woke up a few months ago."

There are three S-ranks in this room alone, and there's another one who awakened? Why are there so many S-ranks in a small piece of land in Korea? After all, the security of the motherland was well maintained even without his trust. After a moment of silence, Jung-bin spoke in a somber tone.

"He's... As you know, he's a minor, and it's a critical time, so he can't afford to do that. He's not even a fighter."

"Oh, he's a senior in high school."

"Yeah. He's about to take his SATs. I'm sure he'll have time to watch one more special SAT lecture before he goes into the rift."

"Well... let's just say that."

There was a rustling sound as if he was adjusting his posture. Ui-jae listened as he poured the now finished pot of Haejang-guk onto a tray. Would he reveal everything? A small part of him was getting nervous.

If he admitted that the owner of the mana stone was the same as the unregistered man he'd met, and if he revealed that the unregistered man was Cha Ui-jae.

To have this hard-won peace of mind taken away from me.

The hand holding the tray became stronger and stronger. Then Sa-young spoke slowly.

"I haven't found it yet either."

The words were light enough to hide the blow. Ui-jae's eyes widened and he stared into the hall. Jung-bin's voice followed, sounding disappointed.

"If you haven't found him yet... ...."

"Well... .... Maybe he's just a decoy set up by some bastards back there."

"I can't rule out that possibility."

When Jung-bin nodded his head in agreement, Sa-young gestured once in the air with his chin.

"If we're done talking, why don't we get this out of the way?"

"Sure. Even if we talk more... I don't think we're going to talk about this at Haejang-guk House."

There was a snap of fingers. Ui-jae followed, grabbing a tray and leaving the kitchen. The hunters around them bowed and glanced at them, so they must have unlocked the item. Ui-jae walked over, not too slow, not too fast, and put the pot on the table.

"Here are two bowls of Haejang-guk."

"Oh, thank you."

Jung-bin bowed politely and took the spoon. Ui-jae looked at Sa-young. He completely ignored him, as if he hadn't spoken to him at all.

"Thanks for the delicious food."

"Yes, thank you."

When you have eaten, leave quickly. Watching the hunters rush in and out, swallowing their afterthoughts, Ui-jae counted the bills he'd received, then looked at the autograph sheets on the wall and asked.

"Are these the autographs of the regulars?"

"What? Ah, yes."

"Hmmm..."

Most of them stamped their attendance every day, so you could say they were regulars. When Ui-jae nodded, Jung-bin grinned.

"Haha, how many times do you have to come before you can get an autograph, so you'll have to come often."

No, don't come. Don't come again.

He knows he's just being polite, but he wishes he wouldn't come. With a sincere prayer, Ui-jae said goodbye to Jung-bin. Lee Sa-young, who had arrived silently, also disappeared. Only after the two S-ranks had left, peace returned to the shop and to Ui-jae's heart.

He had just finished his work, put on his pink rubber gloves and filled the dishwasher with water. His tired body was leaning over the sink, listening to the sound of the water, when he heard a click, click, click. It was barely audible to his ears. Soon the click, click, click began to sound regular. He turned off the faucet and craned his neck to see the source.

A gas mask was tapping his fingertips against the glass of the sliding door.

It was a scene from a B-movie disaster or horror film that would have had the protagonist screaming, but in his eyes it was a demonic visitor interrupting the closing. Instead of screaming, he spoke in a voice that could be heard outside the door.

"The store is closed-"

The gas mask pressed his forehead against the glass door, cutting him off.

"I'm here to tell you something."

"We're out of business."

"You'd better listen to this.... Unless you still want to see Jung-bin tomorrow."

At his half-threatening words, Ui-jae flew to the door and grabbed the doorknob with a rubber-gloved hand. It was just the two of them now, so there was no point in bothering. His eyes burned into the gas mask.

"Is that you?"

He meant it was you who called for Jung-bin. A harsh voice seeped through the crack in the door.

"Is it me?"

"......."

"Technically, you're the one who called him here."

"I thought I heard you say you were looking for me."

When Ui-jae tried to question him with an unbelieving look, Sa-young answered as if he didn't know what he was talking about.

"Even if you hadn't thrown a nuclear bomb at the tomato market, he wouldn't have come all the way here."

"What the hell's a tomato market got to do with me?"

The gas mask glared at Ui-jae through the glass.

"Don't you realize the gravity of the situation yet?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Cha Ui-jae decided to remain impertinent. The black glove that had been tapping on the glass stopped moving.

"Okay. Keep pretending that you don't know who's coming, you'll have to."

"......"

"If you're not going to open the door, can I just melt this?"

"Go ahead. I'll call the authorities right away."

"It's sad that you keep looking for Jung-bin.... when I'm the one in front of you."

It was a noble threat that if he wanted to see Jung-bin, he would call him right away. Ui-jae finally opened the door. There was no way he was going to bring Jung-bin back here after he'd barely fed him. Sa-young took off his gas mask and ran his hand through his hair as soon as he entered.

"They'll keep coming back, those bastards."

After calling Hunter Jung-bin, South Korea's third-ranking S-rank official, "those bastards," Sa-young popped a peppermint candy on the counter into his mouth. His pale cheeks puffed up to follow the shape of the candy. Sa-young had an uncanny knack for making horrible sounds sound casual. Ui-jae shuddered.

"Don't make horrible noises."

"Yeah, well, if you're going to post it, you should have posted it on Used World or Thunder Market or something."

Sa-young slumped back in his chair and continued his nagging in the guise of advice.

"In the end, it's also good to make this division by putting it on a local tomato market.

"It's not me."

"Okay, then. Not you, but the madman with the tomato market."

"Be nice. He didn't know what he was doing."

"Every hunter I know has a tomato market, and a lot of them are trying to track down the owner."

"......"

"Advertising on Tomato Market for a price that's practically free, and with a fancy local certification. I guess he wanted to advertise that he was here."

"I'm sure he regrets it."

"Does he? He didn't look like it."

Sa-young didn't say a word, and for some reason he seemed to feel bad. But this was clearly a deliberate mistake, and I couldn't tell him to shut up in front of his puffy face.

At the last minute, Ui-jae thinks of many ways to get rid of the unwanted guest, but then he changes his mind.

At the moment, Lee Sa-young is the only one who knows that Cha Ui-jae has hidden his powers. In other words, he's the only one who can help him lead a quiet life in this situation. What the hell, why not use the intelligence of the number one hunter? After all, isn't this guy an established hunter?

He folded his hands and called out to Lee Sa-young in an unprecedentedly polite manner.

"Lee Sayoung-ssi."

"Why are you using all the honorifics, Hyung? You've eaten five thousand more bowls of rice than I have."

The back of his head was long and dirty. Ui-jae decided to drop the respect right away.

"Shut up. Anyway, I have to talk to you."

"Hmmm..."

"I have a friend who made a big mistake..."

Lee Sae-young looked up with a very serious face as he listened to the story. I don't know if he was really listening or just pretending to. But then he added the most important words.

"He didn't realize it was a big mistake."

"Yeah."

"He didn't realize it would be so big."

"Oh."

Ui-jae sympathized and said that he didn't feel sorry for Sa-young at all.

"By the way, Hyung, did he have any friends?"

"There is, what do you know."

When Ui-jae shook his fist in the air, Sa-young made a mock zipper movement with his mouth, then clasped his hands together to cover his mouth, set his jaw, and rolled his eyes. His beautiful face was filled with the playfulness of an interesting toy.

It was almost like a gesture of deception, even though it was an obvious lie. As if living up to his expectations, Ui-jae spoke shamelessly.

"He must have made a bigger mistake than I thought. There are all kinds of flies everywhere."

"Ugh, that's too bad."

"But he wants to fix his mistake as quietly as possible. No one will know."

"Why?"

Our eyes met. A mischievous look crossed his face and he replied.

"Because he wants to live quietly."

"Aha..."

"......."

"I want to live quietly, huh."

There was a short silence, and then, crunching his candy, he laughed softly.

"I like that very much."

He got up without a sound and backed away. A long shadow fell over his robes. A low voice whispered, as if chanting an incantation.

"Let's make a deal, us."

"....."

"I'll clean up your mess, Hyung."

Suddenly the topic was about him again instead of his friend, but Ui-jae didn't keep quiet anymore.

"It won't be for free."

"Of course not. It's a deal."

"What do you want?"

At the reversed eye level, Ui-jae stared into Sa-young's face. There was no telling what terms would come out of this madman's head. It could be a request for help with a job, a dungeon raid, or a request to join the guild.

The finely crafted face seemed to offer terms of trade that were as terrible as they were infallible. At worst, he might ask you to kill someone. If he made such a demand, I would have no choice but to refuse and find another way.

But Sa-young's offer came as a surprise. He held up an index finger and said.

"An unknown person."

"......"

"One whose existence no one knows."

Lee Sa-young smiled an angelic smile.

"I want my Hyung."