The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low

Black hair, white shawl. The one and only mask you couldn’t fail to recognise.

‘Isn’t this a copyright infringement?’

This was clearly a portrayal of Hunter J, Cha Ui-jae himself. Should I call it portrait infringement or mask copyright infringement? Aren’t they using a dead man’s name too freely?

In fact, it wasn’t the only place where J appeared. I don’t know if everyone thinks it’s okay to use J because he’s dead, or if it’s just because it’s a good way to explain the post-Rift era, but J was a character who appeared in all kinds of media after Jung-bin.

I didn’t think much of it when it came out in places like broadcasting, but I was strangely excited to see it in print. As a commemoration of his S-class awakening and as a royalty, the foundation should have made me one of its own. Disturbed, Ui-jae cleared his throat and motioned for Ha-eun to go to the cash register.

“Thirty thousand won.”

‘That’s the price of two bowls of haejang-guk.’

After clumsily taking the cash out of his wallet and paying, Ui-jae walked out of the bookstore with a book in one hand and Ha-eun’s hand in the other.

Since the day of the rift, prices have soared through the roof. The haejang-guk sold at the grandmother’s shop used to cost 7,000 won, but the price rose to 15,000 won due to the increase in raw material costs, which was also very cheap compared to nearby prices. ….People with a lot of money.

“Uncle.”

“Yes?”

The sound of calling him interrupted his thoughts. Ha-eun pointed a finger at his other hand.

“I’ll hold the book.”

The book was not enough for a child to hold, but he obediently held it out. Ha-eun let go of her uncle’s hand and clutched the book with both arms. She was overjoyed to have gotten what she wanted.

“Where are we going now?”

“We’re not going anywhere, Uncle is going to take you home and then we’re going to go to the store to buy dinner.”

“Huh. That’s not fun.”

I replied without hesitation, and Ha-eun pouted her lips. She looked like she wanted to go to the store with him, but he shrugged as if he had no choice.

“I can’t, I have a lot to prepare for dinner. I’ll buy you some ice cream, and you can go and eat it with your grandmother.”

“…Ugh.”

He patted the back of her head, which nodded reluctantly, and walked alongside me. He couldn’t help but notice how cute Ha-eun was walking alongside him, so he placed a hand on her small shoulder.

Cha Ui-jae, a part-time worker at Haejang-guk house, not Hunter J, had to make a bowl of haejang-guk for the hunters again today. A typical day at Haejang-guk house goes like this.

At 6 a.m., the shop opens, and hunters who have been out all night on their fifth round of drinks come in for their sixth round of drinks, or hunters who are hungover and disheveled from their night shift, cling to the door like strawberries, and then trickle in to take their seats. Most of the customers at this hour are literally zombies. The order,

“Friend.”

“Yes. Two haejang-guk.”

I used to do it this way…. Ui-jae is even thinking that maybe he should take up a third career as a zombie simultaneous interpreter.

Once the zombies have finished eating and are staggering around, the more normal customers come in. Most of them come for breakfast before work, and they are hanging on to each other’s tiredness, they’re still a gentleman.

Then there’s lunchtime, from 11.30 to 2pm. This is the best time for turnover. The customers who come in at this time are obviously hunters, so they come in like a tide and go out like an ebb.

At this time of day, some hunters would rush out of the restaurant to eat their haejang-guk when an emergency call came in. Whenever that happened, the hunters around them would look at the back of their heads in unison. The unfortunate hunter who had to leave the rabbit-like seafood soup behind could be himself tomorrow…

At the end of the stormy lunch break, Ui-jae hung a sign on the door like a knife saying it was time to prepare the ingredients. Break time was a must to trade against the gluttonous hunters. This was the time to pick up Ha-eun from school, wash the overdue dishes, and prepare the ingredients for the evening.

Finally, there’s dinner time, from 5pm to 10pm. Lunchtime is busy too, but Haejang-guk house is actually much busier in the evening. Otherwise, it’s not much different from the previous hours, but it’s not usually a hassle to deal with the hunters who will try to sell you just one more bottle of soju.

I sighed as I watched them hide their empty bottles so they could have one more. The repertoire is all the same, and the only trick is to put it in your inventory. What’s the psychology of ordering soju when you can’t even get drunk since they’re awakeners anyway?

“Whoo….”

And now, 10.20pm. After shooing away the last customer who refused to leave, brandishing a stainless-steel ladle, the restaurant returned to its usual bustle. Ui-jae, who was clearing tables, stretched his back and let out a long sigh. You’ve worked hard today…

After wiping down the table, sweeping the floor, and washing the dishes, he grabbed the basket of whole garlic from the corner of the kitchen and sat down at the table next to the counter. Having spent most of his time in a single room that doubled as a storage room attached to the Haejang-guk house, closing and opening preparations had come naturally to him.

Rustle, rustle. As he expertly peeled the garlic, he suddenly thought.

‘This life isn’t so bad.’

A life where you don’t have to run around to answer the bureau’s calls, where you don’t have to wrestle monsters, where you can just sit still and chop garlic. I didn’t have this luxury. Maybe this is the life I’ve always wanted….

In the midst of this relatively peaceful life, a recent concern for Ui-jae has been the health of the grandmother’s legs. Her mobility had been deteriorating for the past month, and she had been doing most of the work in the shop. She should go to the hospital and get it checked out, but what if she needs surgery?

Ui-jae heaved a sigh of relief. It’s not easy to take a day off work when the business is so busy, and it’s even harder to raise the money for the surgery. J lived a good life without worrying about money, but not Cha Ui-jae. After deciding to live a quiet life, he donated all his money to the West Sea Rift Foundation. Even with the monthly donations, it wasn’t enough to pay for the surgery.

He frowned and peeled a clove of garlic, thinking.

‘If all else fails, I could sneak around the dungeon… sell something.’

Most by-products from the dungeons fetch a decent price, so it might help pay for the surgery. As Ui-jae was thinking about where and how to drill in his head, the phone on the counter rang for some reason at this hour. Ui-jae held the receiver to his ear and continued to chop garlic.

“Yes, it’s Haejang-guk house.”

We often get calls asking if we can deliver to the restaurant, so as usual, I was about to answer that we’re closed and don’t usually deliver and hang up. However, the unexpected voice that followed stopped him in his tracks.

-What do we do, Ui-jae…

“Grandma?”

It was grandmother. The slight tremor at the end of her voice was unnerving. Ui-jae held his breath and waited for the next words. After a while, grandmother’s voice came out from beyond the receiver.

-Ha-eun is gone.

“What? Ha-eun is gone?”

Ui-jae panicked and quickly fixed the receiver. The old woman was having a hard time calming down.

-Ha-eun is nowhere to be found, what do we do. I don’t know when she left without mice or birds knowing. The world is so scary these days, and she went out alone….

Ui-jae glanced at his watch. 10.20pm. It was too late for a child in the lower grades of elementary school to be wandering around alone. Bad thoughts popped into his head, but he pushed it away.

“I’ll call the police first, and I’ll go out and look for her, but for now, just rest. I’m sure everything will be fine.”

Ui-jae put down the knife and garlic and spoke deliberately brightly. Grandma asked worriedly.

-Aigo, yaya…. Is it really fine?

“It’s fine, don’t worry too much.”

-Carefully. Ha-eun couldn’t have gone that far, could she? You shouldn’t have come in so late, either, okay?

“Okay. I’ll call you later.”

After I hung up the phone, I remembered Ha-eun’s happy face when she bought the book. Ui-jae’s face as he prepared to leave was stiff, unlike his voice earlier. He was saying that everything would be fine, but he was also reassuring himself.

Ui-jae, wearing a mask, strode out of the store. Then he locked the door and hung a red closing sign. The night air was quite cold.