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Chapter 4. Receiving a Scout Offer (2)
“What a house. It can barely even be called a house.”
Having climbed onto the rooftop of a building near Doyoon’s house, Jaehyuk watched Doyoon and Taeyoon happily jumping around through the gaps in the collapsed walls with a pleased smile.
Jaehyuk casually moved the back, shoulder, and arm that Doyoon had healed for him, then grinned.
“He’s even more skilled than I expected. I really want him.”
Beep—beep—
Jaehyuk had been relaxing in satisfaction when the signal from the Hunter Watch on his wrist made him frown and stand up.
It seemed the target he had to pursue today had finally appeared…
Since I’m at it, should I also get things ready to welcome a new member?
Blink, blink.
Doyoon repeatedly opened and closed his heavy eyelids before pressing his tired eyes firmly with his hands.
“I’m crazy. I didn’t sleep a wink.”
Last night, with Taeyoon’s help, he had used the chip inside the metal case to investigate Jaehyuk’s team. Worried that it might be a scam, they had opened the information, only to discover that everything was real.
The team leader of , which was officially registered with the Hunter Association and the Hunter Administration Bureau, was Go Jaehyuk. Even the contact information he had left behind was exactly the same as the one registered with the Hunter Association.
‘Wow, I really got scouted.’
Half excited and half worried, Doyoon had stayed awake all night. He dragged himself out of bed, his body heavy with exhaustion.
“Shin Doyoon! Come out and eat!”
Right then, his older sister, Shin Nayeon, shouted from outside his room.
The eldest of the three Shin siblings and Doyoon’s older sister, she had a boisterous personality unlike the calm Taeyoon.
The moment he heard her loud voice, Doyoon hurriedly got out of bed and flung open his bedroom door.
At that exact moment, a small foot suddenly thrust through the air and came in.
“Out! I told you not to kick the door! Are you planning to break one of the few doors we have left?”
“I just hate that you’re the only one with a door. So what?!”
Nayeon, who kicked Doyoon’s door every time she woke him up before he got up himself, seemed annoyed that she had failed this time and grumbled as she headed toward the kitchen.
“Bean sprout soup, rice, and seaweed.”
It was her own little way of taking care of Doyoon, who had difficulty identifying things around him.
“Oh, that looks good. Did you make it, Noona?”
“No. Mom did.”
“…Oh? Then, is there any salt?”
“Eat it bland. They say it’s healthy.”
Even as she said that, Nayeon sat across from Doyoon and added a little more salt to her own soup.
“You should practice what you preach, Noona. I can totally see you sprinkling salt right now.”
Doyoon held out his hand, and Nayeon obediently placed the salt shaker into it.
Still, just to be sure, Doyoon took a spoonful of soup and tasted it before adding any salt.
The bland bean sprout soup lingered in his mouth, and before it could even slide down his throat, Doyoon immediately added salt.
Seeing that, Nayeon smirked.
“Huh? Where’s my food?”
Taeyoon, who had just finished washing up, hurried over to the table.
“Mom made breakfast today.”
“Ah, I need salt too.”
At Doyoon’s words, Taeyoon immediately found the salt and added some to his soup.
Nayeon clicked her tongue.
“Mom’s so scary that none of you can even say the first syllable of ‘salt’ in front of her.”
“You’re the same, Noona.”
“Exactly. Anyone would think you were different.”
“Hmph.”
At Nayeon’s mocking laugh, Doyoon and Taeyoon turned toward her.
“What was that laugh?”
“That sounded like a sinister laugh from someone who already put salt in their food. You’re totally like the mastermind in a novel, Noona. Waah!”
“Mastermind? Maaaaastermiiiiiind?!”
A spoon came flying through the air, causing Taeyoon to cover his head and hide behind Doyoon.
Fortunately, the spoon, having lost its target, ended up rolling across the floor.
Clang, clang, clang!
A heavy sound completely different from the noise of the falling spoon echoed from outside the house.
“Hey! Shin Doyoon, come out, you son of a—!”
Kim Changshik’s shout immediately followed, and Doyoon flinched.
“What? Is that guy here for you?”
“Hyung?”
Nayeon frowned and stared toward the front gate at the far end of the wide-open living room.
“Hey, isn’t that long-faced guy your high-school senior, Doyoon?”
“…I’ll go out and come back.”
As Doyoon stood up dejectedly, Taeyoon grabbed him.
“Hyung, that guy looks really angry right now. Are you sure it’s okay to go out? Should I come with you?”
Seeing Taeyoon’s dependable attitude as he tried to protect his family, Doyoon gave him a small smile.
“It’s okay.”
Doyoon calmly reassured his younger brother, then went outside after fumbling around for his shoes.
“Hey! How long are you going to make me wait? Do you know what kind of trouble we got into because you ran away yesterday?!”
The closer Doyoon got to Kim Changshik, who was angrily pounding on the front gate, the slower his footsteps became.
He really looks like he’s about to hit me. What should I do? I hate getting hurt…
“…There were circumstances.”
Unable to bring himself to open the gate, Doyoon spoke timidly.
Kim Changshik’s anger only grew more vicious.
“Circumstances? You think you’re the only one with circumstances? Huh? Do you even know that Jeho’s arm was nearly torn apart because you weren’t there? Do you?!”
“He was badly injured? I’ll go right now!”
Hearing that someone had been hurt because of him, Doyoon hurriedly opened the gate and stepped outside.
Seeing the worry-filled expression on Doyoon’s face, Kim Changshik grinned and grabbed him by the hair, dragging him outside the gate.
“Ugh.”
“You sure have a mouth on you. Huh? Do you even know who you owe your life as a Hunter to? And this is how you repay the favor I gave you? You wanna die?!”
When he saw Kim Changshik raise his clenched fist, Doyoon gave up on trying to escape his grip and covered his head.
“You bastard!”
With an awkward curse that didn’t even sound natural coming from her mouth, a metal baseball bat struck Kim Changshik in the back.
“Ah, shit. What the?!”
Kim Changshik released Doyoon from the sharp impact and glared at Nayeon, who stood there holding the baseball bat.
“I’m Shin Doyoon’s older sister! Who the hell are you to grab my brother by the hair in front of our house? Get the hell out of here right now!”
“Hah. You’re not even a Hunter, yet you’re stepping forward without a shred of fear and running your mouth.”
Surely he wouldn’t…
Attacking an ordinary civilian was one of the major crimes a Hunter could commit.
Even though Doyoon was anxious, he still believed Kim Changshik wasn’t that much of a piece of trash.
But anxiety won out.
Doyoon slipped free from Changshik’s distracted grip and threw himself toward Nayeon.
“Noona! Noona, go inside. Hurry.”
Nayeon’s body trembled slightly in Doyoon’s tight embrace.
She was always tough and spirited, but even she must have been frightened in a situation like this.
Doyoon tried to force Nayeon back inside the house, but then he staggered backward from the pain, as if his scalp were about to be torn off.
“Aaaaaagh!”
Kim Changshik grabbed Doyoon by the hair and pulled him back, even summoning a greatsword.
His bloodshot eyes and half-crazed expression made Doyoon’s mind go blank.
This is dangerous.
Doyoon tried to stop Kim Changshik with a trembling voice.
“Senior, you’re not seriously going to do this to a civilian, are you? That’s a crime! A crime!”
“Then you can take it all out on yourself!”
Whoosh!
When Kim Changshik reversed his grip on the greatsword and swung it as though he intended to cut Doyoon’s body in half, Doyoon thought he was going to die.
Clang!
“Who are you?!”
The tip of the greatsword suddenly dropped toward the ground, and no matter how much Kim Changshik tried to pull, the sword wouldn’t move.
“Who else? Me~.”
That lighthearted voice, like a spring breeze.
It was Go Jaehyuk’s unmistakable voice, impossible to forget even if Doyoon tried.
Why was he here?
Jaehyuk had pinned the greatsword down with its sheath. He then lifted the sheath and brought it down with mana infused into it.
Sensing the powerful mana contained in the sheath, Kim Changshik instinctively released Doyoon’s hair and stepped backward.
Jaehyuk retrieved his weapon and looked at Kim Changshik, who had avoided the attack, while brushing back his messy hair.
Then, with a broad grin, he tapped his Hunter Watch.
“A Hunter using violence? Are you an idiot who doesn’t know this means you’ll immediately go clink-clank?”
“Hah! What did I even do?! I just disciplined a team member who wouldn’t listen. You’re saying I’ll get arrested for that? Give me a break. Who gets arrested for something this minor these days?!”
Kim Changshik suddenly gave a nasty grin and pointed his sword at Go Jaehyuk.
“I’m already pissed off, so don’t make me any angrier and get lost. Before this turns into the clink-clank situation you were talking about.”
“Eee-ge-ge-ge. You’re the one who should put your weapon away. Before you go clink-clank for assaulting a precious and delicate Healer and a civilian.”
“Uhahahaha! Assault? Did I hit him? What did I do, huh? I only grabbed him. And do you have any proof that I did it? Huh? If I just say this bastard was putting on an act by himself, I’ll walk right out of here!”
Doyoon suddenly remembered that they hadn’t installed CCTV around the house yet.
If only he had known this would happen, he would have saved up money for CCTV even if they couldn’t afford to repair the house.
Seeing Doyoon’s dejected expression, Nayeon approached and pulled him tightly into her arms.
Did she think he was frightened?
Even so, the warmth of his sister’s body seemed to melt some of the stiffness in his body, making him feel calmer.
“We called the police.”
“What?!”
Kim Changshik glared irritably at Taeyoon as he walked out through the front gate.
“We reported you. The Hunter Administration Bureau’s Investigation Division will be coming to arrest you.”
Doyoon and Nayeon stared at Taeyoon in bewilderment.
They had never heard such an angry tone from him before.
Only when they saw the smartphone in his hand did they finally relax.
He was recording everything.
“Good. Now we have evidence. What should we do with this idiot?”
There was laughter in Jaehyuk’s voice.
“Ha, this is ridiculous. Everyone’s making such a fuss just because I drew my weapon. The world’s getting so damn strict! How is anyone supposed to work as a Hunter like this?!”
“I’m doing just fine.”
As Kim Changshik shouted and tried to leave, Jaehyuk blocked his path with his sword sheath.
“Wow, the only Hunters who aren’t doing their jobs properly are Head Hunters. So I guess you’re a Head Hunter too?”
“This bastard’s been crazy from the beginning. Who the hell are you to keep picking a fight with me?! Hey, Shin Doyoon! Isn’t all of this happening because of you? If you had just properly entered the Gate and healed us, none of this would have happened in the first place!”
“Blaming the Healer because you’re too weak to handle it. This is so absurd it’s beyond ridiculous~.”
“You son of a—!”
Enraged, Kim Changshik swung his greatsword at Jaehyuk.
It was a sloppy attack typical of a thug whose emotions had gotten the better of him.
Jaehyuk, as though he had been waiting for it, lightly struck Kim Changshik’s head with a spinning kick.
There wasn’t the slightest hesitation in his movements when attacking another person.
Almost as if he had taken down countless people before.
“Urgh!”
Kim Changshik crashed to the ground with a sound like a watermelon splitting open.
Jaehyuk pressed down on his back with the sheath, preventing him from getting back up, and grinned.
“There’s a limit to how stupid you can be. If you committed a crime, you should’ve run away the moment you saw me. Right?”
