The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low

The next day, the Pado Guild had a meeting to decide on the Jongno 3 dungeon raiding team. Sa-young had no intention of participating, but since he was the decision maker, he had to sit in on the meeting.

With the consensus of the entire guild, the raid team was decided to be Bae Won-woo’s team. As soon as the results of the meeting were announced, Sa-young was the first to leave the room. His mind was already elsewhere before the meeting was over. As he opened the chocolate-coloured conference room door, he was greeted by Min-ki, who was waiting outside.

“Guild Leader.”

He pushed his tired face in and tried to speak first, but Sa-young beat him to it.

“Tell me.”

As Seo Min-ki swallowed hard at the straightforwardness of his words, the other guild members approached the doorway, shouting.

“What the hell, why are you standing in the way?”

“What is it, this traffic jam?”

”Are you serious?”

“Hurry up, the kids are waiting in the back.”

Sa-young stood in the doorway, causing the people in the room to shout, but the party in question didn’t even listen. He wanted to cry, and the words of the Guild Leader’s request for a moment’s respite rose to the bruises on his throat, but for his own safety, he had to hold it together.

After glancing at his guildmates, he finally complied with Sa-young’s order.

“Yes…. Park Ha-eun, age 8, parents are victims of the Anyang Dungeon. Survived alone at the age of three and almost went to a nursery, her maternal grandmother took her in and raised her.”

“Never mind that. Her unlce.”

“That’s because…. she doesn’t have an uncle.”

Lee Sa-young raised his eyebrows as if he didn’t know what that meant. Min-ki scratched his head.

“Park Ha-eun has no relatives on either side of the family to call uncles. Her mother was an only child and her father had only female siblings.”

“Then… I wonder where this uncle came from.”

“Um….”

Min-ki said, rolling his eyes.

“I guess I can’t rule out the possibility that she’s calling him uncle when he’s just a stranger. If this doesn’t turn up anything, I don’t think they’re related by blood. Here are the documents.”

Min-ki handed over a thick file. Sa-young took the file and flicked through it.

“One family, my grandmother, runs a haejang-guk house around here, and it’s been around for a while.”

Before Sa-young could say anything, he heard a voice in the conference room.

“Haejang-guk house? The one in the alley?”

“You know the place?”

Jisoo replied with an openly bored face.

“That’s vice leader’s second job.”

“Huh?”

“Vice leader~ he eats there all the time! He never gets tired of it. He goes to work once a day, but he goes to Haejang-guk twice a day for lunch and dinner… so technically, it’s his number one workplace.”

Sa-young knew that Bae Won-woo went to the same restaurant every day to eat. It’s a familiar sight in Pado, with guild members sticking their necks out when he asks to have lunch with them, but it just so happens to be Park Ha-eun’s grandmother’s Haejang-guk house.

Inside the gas mask, the corner of Sa-young’s mouth twitched. Somehow, he had a good feeling.

“Huh? Haejang-guk house? Why there?”

Just then, Bae Won Woo, who had given up on leaving the conference room and was sweeping the floor, joined the conversation.

“Bae Won-woo, do you know this Haejang-guk house?”

Sa-young called out the address in the file, and Won-woo, who had been listening, nodded. The mention of Haejang-guk house made Bae Won-woo’s voice sound a little reminiscent.

“Ah, my favourite restaurant. My sign’s up there, too. Why, are you going to try it?”

“Ugh, it’s so fucking ominous, vice leader, please step aside for a second.”

Sensing danger, Kang Ji-soo gestured urgently, and Sa-young, who had been blocking the way earlier, took a small step back. In the meantime, a redhead darted out of the conference room, and Bae Won-woo slowly walked over like a substitute. Seo Min-ki bowed his head in respect.

“That’s all I have to say. I’ll leave you to it.”

He didn’t grab Min-ki. He didn’t need to anymore. When the two hunters had left and a new target was finally in sight, Lee Sa-young spoke up.

“You’re going to Haejang-guk house again today?”

“Huh? Yes, I am. How did you know?”

“Good. Take me with you when you go.”

Over the lens of his gas mask, the corners of Sa-young’s eyes twitched. As if the temperature in the room had suddenly dropped about three degrees, Bae Won-woo felt goosebumps on his arms. Was there a guild member on this floor who still couldn’t control their abilities? He looked around, but the two of them were alone in the hallway after everyone else had left.

“What do you want?”

“Eating lunch outside.”

Sa-young was still smiling with a childlike innocence, urging Bae Won-woo. Of course, it was hard to see through the gas mask, but Bae Won-woo had seen him enough times to know.

To Bae Won-woo, Lee Sa-young was like a little brother he’d keep around Min-woo or Gow-na, and now this guy wants to go out to eat, and at my favourite restaurant?

It was very unusual for him to eat outside, even if it was only for a short time. It was also his own rule, just in case, since poison was a deadly ability regardless of friend or foe.

Bae Won-woo, who couldn’t help but notice, felt a tingling sensation in his heart when Sa-young said he wanted to eat lunch outside. He had subconsciously felt sorry for Sa-young, who was cautious about having people around.

“Ah- yes, yes. Sometimes you should go out and eat.”

Bae Won-woo quickly shook off the creepy sensation that had enveloped his entire body a second ago and looked at Lee Sa-young with a gentle smile. He smiled back at him with a similar smile. Though his smile was a devious one to hide what he was really thinking.

Bae Won-woo patted his chest reassuringly.

“I’m treating you today!”

“Is it good?”

“It’s delicious! If you eat it once, you’ll get a stamp every day.”

“I’m sure you’ll change jobs.”

“I’m thinking about it, asshole.”

Thus, the two dispersed to their respective offices, seeking a lunch appointment. Without knowing the minds of the hunters who didn’t want to be caught between the guild leader and the vice guild leader…

The long-awaited lunch break. Bae Won-woo led Lee Sa-young to the front of the Haejang-guk with a cheerful face. The place seemed to be more crowded since they arrived after lunch had already started. Scanning the ramshackle exterior of the restaurant, Lee Sa-young looked at Bae Won-woo with suspicion.

“Is this a restaurant?”

“Hey, don’t you trust me?”

“Yes.”

Sa-young’s suspicions weren’t entirely unfounded. The entrance to the shop was so low you could almost touch your nose to it, and the shabby exterior walls had a knack for making you feel like they were about to collapse. The dilapidated, old shop was not at all to the liking of the neat-freak.

“You can’t trust me, but you can trust my tongue.”

“What’s on the menu here?”

“Haejang-guk.”

“What else?”

“Gonggibap.”

“What else?”

“Soju, rice wine.”

“That’s it?”

Bae Won-woo shook his head, as if to say you don’t know what you’re talking about.

“Think about it. If it’s so good, you’d fight over a single bowl of haejang-guk. Have you been living a lie?”

“Yes.”

“You have too many doubts, man.”

He said that, but on second thought, he had a point. A restaurant that’s been around for a long time must have a lot of customers. With a little of his suspicions overcome, he peered inside through the glass of the sliding door.

Inside the Haejang-guk, a meerkat’s view… It was full of hunters. Not a lot of them, just a field of hunters! It was almost like a dungeon auction was being held here. Lee Sa-young gently pulled his face away from the window and looked at Bae Won-woo suspiciously.

“Why are you looking at me like that again? What is it?”

“…Are you thinking about switching guilds?”

“What the hell, how much time and effort have I put into the pado?”

“Then why are there so many hunters here, you’re the head of HB Guild’s HR team.”

Only then did Bae Won-woo realize that he was blinded by haejang-guk and oblivious to the offer of another rice cake for the hateful person.

This is a paradise for tired and hungry hunters. A knight’s shelter, a knight’s restaurant. A hunter-approved restaurant. And here I am, with my own hands, bringing this ill-mannered, lowlife guild leader, a guy who can spoon-feed you and spew poison if he feels like it?

Inside Haejangguk, a meerkat’s view… It was full of hunters. Not a lot of them, just a field of hunters! It was almost like a dungeon auction was being held here. Lee Sae-young gently pulled her face away from the window and looked at Bae Won-woo suspiciously.

“Why are you looking at me like that again? What is it?”

“…Are you thinking about switching guilds?”

“What the hell, how much time and effort have I put into the waves?”

“Then why are there so many Hunters here, you’re the head of HB Guild’s HR team.”

Bae Won-woo gave the ugly bastard another rice cake and realised what he had been forgetting, blinded by the seaweed soup.

This is a paradise for tired and hungry hunters. A knight’s shelter, a knight’s restaurant. A hunter-approved, hunter-approved restaurant. And here I am, with my own hands, bringing this ill-mannered, lowlife guild leader, a girl who can spoon-feed you and spew poison if she feels like it?

Xed.
(TL/N: the raw: X됐다)

An intense sense of foreboding washed over him, and he felt like he was blasting off into space. If he got into a fight here, he could end up on the 9 o’clock news, not just X, but already X.

Should he just leave now and go eat his one-pot lunch?

Leaving Bae Won-woo alone in his anguish, Sa-young opened the sliding door as soon as the previous customers had left and taken their turn and stormed into the Haejang-guk. It was such a nimble move that there was no time for anyone to catch him, lest they think he was the number one hunter.

Sa-young ducked his head slightly to avoid bumping into the low ceiling, then looked straight ahead, and there before him was…

“Welcome…”

The face he’d been searching for appeared, half-hidden by the mask he’d seen the night before, but he was sure of it.

A soju branded apron. A young man with a teapot instead of a ladle.

“…I found him.”

As if to prove his conviction, the young man’s face crumpled in real time. Lee Sa-young pushed up his invisible lips in a casual greeting.

“Hello, hyung.”