< Even If You Said to Rest (2) >
Yoohyun’s reputation wasn’t good, she said.
‘Is it because of blowing away the dungeon building last time?’
He had also cleanly cleared the surroundings, too. Or was it because of ignoring the Association right after the dungeon attack with just Peace? But I had blocked it back then. And talk about yesterday’s isolation center matter would’ve come out, too. And he had made it so Song Taewon evacuated people so he could go up against Noah. And it was a bit of a while ago, but during my kidnapping case, he met up with Song Taewon, too.
‘But these… are almost all because of me.’
Ah, shit.
“…In what way is it not good?”
“You really don’t do things like surf the web, huh?”
Moon Hyuna said, seeming a little surprised. And then she turned around.
“Yerim said, ‘It’s ahjussi’s vacation so he has to rest well’, but I pointlessly brought it up.”
The long legs strode along the trail. I quickly chased after her and gestured to Blue who was in front. Blue suddenly jumped forward and blocked Moon Hyuna’s path.
-Kkya kkya
“She was trained well.”
“Rather than training, Blue is focused on my movements. Thankfully. Rather than that, please tell me properly about what you already brought up.”
“I didn’t think that you didn’t know at all. What are you thinking of doing during your vacation?”
Moon Hyuna spun around on her heel again, and asked.
“I have not thought of anything. Why is Yoohyun-.”
“There isn’t anything you want to do? What about things like hobbies?”
If you talked about hobbies… I didn’t really have any right now.
“I am just going to lay around at home. And take walks sometimes. That is fine, right?”
“That’s dull, hyung-nim. You don’t look it.”
“Please just tell me about Yoohyun.”
“Since you have on that sour face, it’s cute.”
What cute. My age was thirty… or not; I was indeed younger than Moon Hyuna right now. Still, it seemed like the keyword was applied as a sunbae, but the gaze looking at me now seemed closer to treating a hoobae. I was getting curious over exactly what kind of sunbae-nim they were.
“Please stop changing the subject.”
“Should I let you know what Sung Hyunjae hates?”
“Things that are dull and boring?”
“There are things other than that.”
I was curious. But I didn’t want to keep on being pulled around. I called Blue over to my side again. The gryphon that was the size of a large dog, wagged her tail. Even as her size grew, the mischievous expression was as ever.
“The reason why I called you today is none other than because I have something to talk about regarding Blue.”
“Blue? To me?”
Moon Hyuna unconsciously tilted her body towards me. Breaker Guild still couldn’t find monster babies. It might be different if it was up to high rank, but it was uncertain when she would get a highest rank baby monster even in the future.
“Yes. It is too much of a waste to keep her here to just watch the house, and I thought that she suits well with Hyuna-ssi.”
I shook the bait with a kind smile. Originally, I was going to simply hand her over, but you brought it onto yourself, Hyuna-ssi.
“Of course it’s a waste! So hyung-nim, what do you need? Just say it!”
When I saw the brightly smiling face that would bring the summer sunlight to shame, I wanted to say that I didn’t particularly need anything and to please just take good care of the kid. She was so pleased.
“First, please tell me about what you stopped talking about.”
“Keep it a secret that I told you… or rather, even if you said you would, they would probably notice immediately. Ah, like this, I might have to go one round with hyung-nim’s brother.”
“You have an elixir.”
“There’s a lot of old people stuck to me, so I can’t use it however I wan- wait, did you just say I’m going to lose?”
“It was not something like that.”
Though Yoohyun did win. Moon Hyuna had a displeased expression, and then she opened her mouth.
“You know that we’re managing our images, right? Even if high rank Hunters make a certain amount of trouble, it’s buried over, more or less, if there aren’t any Unawakened People casualties. Even if Unawakened People get hurt, as long as you reach a good agreement, it also goes over well.”
I knew roughly about it. Just looking at the news, Hunter-related accidents didn’t come up often. Instead, they chattered on mostly about positive parts like successful dungeon attacks, shortening attack times, stable dungeon management, etc.
It was barely the 3rd year since the dungeon shock occurred, so the government wanted to appease the people. Even just the existence of dungeons was troubling, so they couldn’t add the danger of high rank Hunters on top of that, and so they just tried to hide it as much as possible.
“But lately, limited to Haeyeon Guild, they’re not hiding anything at all. It’s not like they’re chattering on about it openly on the news or something, but not only is gossip furtively circulating around, they’re even expressing concern over the Haeyeon Guild Leader in internet articles.”
Was it that his public reputation was getting bad? I thought of the matters before the regression, during the Awakening Center opening. In the middle of the number of clumsy Awakened People’s casualties increasing and various side effects spreading their influence, the worsening public opinion turned its blade[1] on several guilds and high rank Hunters. Haeyeon Guild was among them. Of course, I was struck a lot, too.
But there shouldn’t be a reason for that now.
“What is said to be the objective?”
“Wouldn’t it probably be you?”
“Me?”
“You quickly cooperated with giant guilds, and continuing on from your announcement of neutrality, you’re quietly in the middle of bedrest with hardly any outside activity, so people can’t lay a hand on you, but just think. How appetizing would you be from the point of view of the Association?”
Wagging her finger, Moon Hyuna continued speaking.
“Since there’s no better bait for controlling high rank Hunters than you. On top of that, you’re stat F-Rank, so it’ll be easy to manage you. They’re probably impatient to put a leash on you no matter what? So be careful of Song Taewon. You might wake up to being behind bars, and suffer through something bad.”
“Would they go so far? There are laws. And no matter how you look at it, Chief Song is someone who goes by the law.”
“If you see it as laying down groundwork, doesn’t it seem like he would do that? The younger brother who listens quite well to his hyung-nim is really troubling lately, but he’s an S-Rank Hunter, so he can’t be stopped. Then shouldn’t hyung-nim take responsibility – something like that. Look here.”
Moon Hyuna brought up an article on her cell phone and showed it to me. The big photo that covered the screen was none other than me and Yoohyun. Peace also also in my arms. It was a photo taken on the day we walked from Haeyeon Guild to the rearing facility.
“…Isn’t this a violation of image rights?”
“You’re no different from a public figure, too.”
And then I unconsciously scrunched my eyes at her showing me the comments. I didn’t want to see.
-didn’t the haeyeon guild leader say he has a bad relationship with his hyung?
-wow he actually looks like a 20 year old lol
-han yoohyun is good looking. he’s even more good looking because he’s smiling so it’s really great~♡
-so s ranks also walk around normally
They were generally comments being surprised over Yoohyun’s new look. There was especially a lot of talk about the relationship with stat F-Rank me. Saying ‘still, he’s different in front of family, huh’. Since he was on the chilly side in public appearances. Maybe because he was conscious of his young age, his expression was rarely relaxed on the TV screen.
Continuing, an article with a photo of Yoohyun and me during the daytime on that day when he had just come out of the dungeon, was pushed in front of my eyes. Of all things, it was a photo of me blocking, standing in front of Yoohyun.
-isn’t han yoohyun’s hyung stat f rank? even though he’s s rank he’s the younger brother so he’s defending him right now?
-loool an f rank is lol
-peace is cute! peace!!!
-an s rank hunter just came out of a dungeon but he’s super calm
The comments had a similar reaction to the previous article.
“Is this also a type of fodder for saying that he changes when I’m around?”
“Probably? Doesn’t it seem so?”
“It must give good legitimacy.”
If they set things up like this and Yoohyun made big trouble once, or possibly, if it was fabricated like he had made trouble, it was perfect for driving public opinion. I didn’t like this situation, where it wouldn’t be enough even if we collaborated and combined our strengths.
“Your brother isn’t the type to quietly suffer, but he’s still young. So, hyung-nim, what are you going to do?”
“Ah, I’m in the middle of vacation.”
Moon Hyuna put on a surprised expression.
“You’re going to just leave it and see?”
“Since Yoohyun isn’t that much of a pushover.”
Even before the regression, there were a lot of various problems, but he safely grew well. It wasn’t even the filial duty addicts, and if it was matters of inter-human relationships, at the least, he wouldn’t get physically hurt. And he was a guild leader, so even if he was young, wouldn’t he be better than me, who had stayed at rock bottom the whole time?
“As for me, well, if I think it really wouldn’t work out, I’ll do something like overturn things at the last minute.”
“As expected, I really do like you.”
Moon Hyuna laughed as she smacked my shoulder. It hurt. When Peace growled, she exaggeratedly drew back and waved both hands.
“Opinions are divided inside and out of the Hunter Association, too. People who’re saying high rank Hunters need to be more restricted, are facing against people saying they need to be given more leeway. Adding onto to that, apparently the Association’s strength will be loaded onto MKC’s side.”
“MKC?”
“Yeah. The guild leader’s authority was on the smaller side anyways, but they kept on doing nonsense, so it became easy to interfere. While they’re at it, they’re probably planning on putting a leash on them and making them go against other giant guilds. Truthfully, Soodam was in posed to become like that, but they were all swept away yesterday. Eating up MKC won’t be easy either, because of Sung Hyunjae.”
She laughed, saying that at any moment, the Association might also get a bite taken out as well. She said that he had already taken a lot of things here and there from MKC. And that Seseong and Haeyeon were in the middle of dividing up the remains of Soodam.
“Are you just watching?”
“Even if I cut in, that will be filling up the bellies of the guys behind me. Should I just escape?”
“It is welcome anytime. Blue is here, too.”
-Kkyaoo!
At Blue replying and spreading her wings, Moon Hyuna’s expression melted again. She probably would treat Blue really well.
“What does Sung Hyunjae hate?”
I asked, sitting at the table under the pergola after walking a little, talking about Blue.
“It’s not anything big, but that person actually pays attention to himself looking too young.”
Moon Hyuna propped her chin up and smirked.
“Maybe it was annoying often because he had a baby face since before Awakening. So he purposely goes around with dignity. And his clothes and hair style is like that, too. But isn’t changing the way he talks too much?”
“He changed the way he talks?”
“Yeah. It should’ve been about a month since? Even before, it wasn’t a frivolous way of speaking, but right now, it only suits you if you’re in your forties at least. Though it’s natural as if he had always used it.”
Even if you said he paid attention to having a baby face, it didn’t seem like he had a personality where he would even change his way of talking. If it was one month, then it hadn’t been long, but it wasn’t awkward at all. It really did seem like he had always used…
‘Wait. Wasn’t it a little over a month since I regressed?’
And if it’s being in your forties, that was Sung Hyunjae’s age before the regression. Of course, it was an absurd guess to think that there was a pre-regression effect, with merely something like this.
‘They definitely said that sensitive people could feel a sense of dissonance.’
He was someone who had something like combat foresight, where you could feel the opponent’s movements one step in advance. There was no reason someone with that kind of sensation skill wasn’t sensitive.
Possibly, at the slightest chance. If Sung Hyunjae was affected by his combined future self. If he could go beyond the effect and even remember the future’s memories.
‘……That person would have much more information than me, right?’
The comparison would put me to shame. On top of that, didn’t he have a connection with the immoral person called Crescent Moon? Of course, this was all just a superficial guess.
…If it was that person, it somehow seemed like he would remember, so it was irritating.
“Hyung-nim, what’s the matter? Your complexion looks really bad?”
“Because Sung Hyunjae sucks.”
“I also agree with that.”
Did I have to check? What should I say? Do you happen to remember the future? It seemed cult-ish. It was probably better to ask why he changed his way of speaking.
“If you don’t have anything to do, let’s go out. I’ll buy you something tasty.”
“Let’s drop by the Association while we are going out.”
“You said you were on vacation.”
“I am on vacation. I am not going to do anything.”
That is, if that side didn’t do anything. Should I approach, or just leave them alone?
“Can Noah-ssi also come along?”
“That kiseungsu young man? Of course that’s good!”
“He is a person. Please do not aim for him.”
Noah-ssi did have a lot of popularity, but he had a lot of it in a weird way. He is a person, everyone.
***
The sky that was clear during the morning, rapidly became dark when lunchtime came around. It seemed like rain would fall soon.
Han Yoohyun stared at the gray sky beyond the window, and then loosened the tie tightened around his neck. He also unbuttoned the topmost button on his shirt and let out a short sigh.
He was used to holding back. But he couldn’t do anything about the stuffiness suddenly drawing close. He felt like a flame wavering quietly in a oil lamp, while a mountain that was dried up from drought was right in front of his nose. If he stepped just one foot forward, he would spread out without end.
But a fire that became bigger couldn’t return to the oil lamp. And it might possibly be after already melting down the oil lamp as well.
‘I’ll probably be able to hold back for about 5 more years.’
Mumbling to himself, he turned around. There would probably be people who would frown at his rumpled attire, but he wanted that. In order to clean up the people with nonsensical inner motives, he needed to be reasonably bothersome and lose favor.
He walked lightly toward the people who were waiting.
[1] lit. ‘the arrows of the worsening public opinion were turned toward…’ where ‘turning [one’s] arrow’ means moving the blame, attack, criticism, etc. to a diff direction. I’m p sure there’s a phrase similar to that in eng, but I couldn’t remember if it was ‘turn one’s blade on’ or ‘turn one’s sword on’ or ‘sharpen one’s blade toward’ or w/e, but anyways in eng I’m p sure you use sword/blade, so that’s why I changed it.