IH Ch 26

Chapter 26

“……”

What on earth had happened?

He’d gone to the hospital yesterday and entered the Gate after seeing it appear. Since the Gate hadn’t fully formed, its rank couldn’t be determined, but it didn’t seem particularly solid. After swiftly dealing with the manifested beasts, he found the core and destroyed it. And after that—what happened?

This wasn’t even the first time he’d woken up next to that guy in the morning like this. This made the fourth time. He should’ve recognized the problem right away when he first woke up holding the guy. To begin with, the notion of him sleeping while holding someone else was already absurd.

As his expression gradually hardened, Hwang Jae-i turned around. Seeing Dohwa sleeping peacefully without waking, he strode toward him. However, his outstretched hand did not reach him.

Clenching his hand at the last moment and pulling it back, Hwang Jae-i shut his eyes tightly and tilted his head back. During that, a faint sound continued to ring. It was the doorbell.

Despite his near-threatening warning not to be disturbed until his break was over, someone had come anyway. But Hwang Jae-i, who could guess the purpose of this visit, roughly rubbed his face with both hands and stepped out of the room.

Standing outside the door was Ahn Yuna. Judging from her slightly tanned skin and the large sunglasses covering half her face, she’d clearly been enjoying her vacation. Arms crossed and one leg cocked, she stood in a pose that screamed “I’m pissed off.” Seeing this, Hwang Jae-i immediately slammed the door—but Ahn Yuna was quicker.

She stuck her foot in the closing door and pulled it open forcefully, then pushed her sunglasses up onto her head.

“You’re supposedly doing nothing and just holed up in your house!!”

“Be quiet.”

He had no idea why she was shouting so loudly after suddenly showing up.

Seeing Hwang Jae-i wrinkle his face in genuine annoyance, Ahn Yuna looked utterly flabbergasted. She stared at him blankly for a moment before throwing the door open as if she were about to rip it off its hinges and stormed inside.

“What the hell happened yesterday? Why did you go to Cheongju? And why did you mess with the Gate? One that wasn’t even fully opened—”

The only time Ahn Yuna could truly rest was when Hwang Jae-i was holed up at home. She had thought this would be one of those long stretches of peace, so she’d finally taken the vacation days she’d accumulated but never used. She never imagined she’d get blindsided like this.

When she first heard the news that Hwang Jae-i had handled the Gate in Cheongju alone, she’d scoffed. There was no way that man would do such a thing. First, Hwang Jae-i was still officially on vacation. Second, he wasn’t the type to explore a Gate by himself. It wasn’t even a Gate that had appeared in the Guild’s territory, and no request for cooperation had come through from anywhere.

She’d been ready to laugh and say, “Do you people even know Hwang Jae-i?” But as more and more reports came in, it became clear this wasn’t a joke. Realizing that it was all true, Ahn Yuna had no choice but to rush over, vacation be damned.

“I’m coming in.”

Ahn Yuna walked past Hwang Jae-i and entered the apartment.

He had bought the entire building and used the top floor as his private residence, which was absurdly spacious. Because Hwang Jae-i had no particular interest in interior design and only kept the essentials, it felt even more expansive.

Ahn Yuna found the remote and immediately turned on the TV.

[Good morning, this is Kang Minseok with TTBC. Behind me is the site where Hunter Hwang Jae-i conducted a solo exploration, leaving only traces of the Gate.]

Around the reporter, yellow police tape marked off the area. Though the surroundings were mountainous, just over to the right was a gas station and some residential homes, with factory grounds a bit further beyond.

The roads and sidewalks, typically used only by local residents, were now crowded with people who had come to gawk at the unexpected overnight incident. Some had even climbed up the mountain, prompting police and soldiers to hold them back.

Amid the media frenzy, the reporter pointed toward a large pit beside him.

[Below, you can see a hole wide enough to fit an entire apartment building. According to a Gate expert, the Gate Hunter Hwang Jae-i explored on his own is estimated to have been at least B+ rank.]

Soon, a chart explaining how many Hunters are typically required to explore an A-rank Gate was shown on the screen. Then a man identified as a Gate expert appeared and gave an interview with a pompous air.

[If a Gate appears near critical infrastructure or where many people are at risk, action is taken before it fully opens. However, the Gate in this case was in a relatively secluded location, and if it had been a higher-ranked Gate, even Hunter Hwang Jae-i would have had trouble handling it alone. If something had gone wrong while tampering with it, the damage could have been much worse—]

[Hunter Hwang Jae-i is S-rank. If an S-rank couldn’t handle the Gate, then no one else could have either, don’t you think?]

[…]

[And there’s a factory nearby, a gas station, and a children’s hospital on the other side. Just because a place doesn’t have a high population density doesn’t mean it’s not important. Are you suggesting that the residents near that Gate aren’t important? From the looks of it, if that Gate had fully opened, the whole area would’ve been decimated.]

[Hmph, that’s not what I meant to say. Now see here—are you interrogating me when I was invited to share my opinion…!]

As soon as things turned against him, the “expert” raised his voice, while the anchor of the Hunter-focused channel remained composed. It was the kind of comment that could easily be taken that way, after all.

That anchor tended to shift sides depending on the situation, and this time it seemed he was leaning toward defending Hwang Jae-i. But this wasn’t what mattered right now. Tired of listening to nonsense, Ahn Yuna changed the channel.

On another expert channel, a clean-cut man wearing glasses appeared. Smiling as he conversed with another panelist, he adjusted his glasses and began to speak.

[In my view, it’s highly likely this was a unilateral action taken by Hunter Hwang Jae-i. You’ve all heard the rumors, haven’t you? That there’s tension between the Jae-i Guild and the Hunter Association. That Chairman Kim Wi is trying to keep Hwang Jae-i in check, or that Hunter Hwang Jae-i is eyeing the Chairman’s seat.]

[That’s nothing more than rumor. The Guild Master and the Association have cooperated over the past three years on the Lee Myunghwan case.]

[Isn’t that what sparked it? If they had kept their distance, maybe nothing would’ve happened. But working together so often would naturally lead to frequent clashes. Sure, they might grow closer—but it’s just as possible that things could completely fall apart.]

He mimicked clapping hands together and pulling them apart as he laughed.

[If you think about it, it’s not even that strange. Hwang Jae-i’s family has long been rumored to covet the Chairman’s seat. His father was quite well-known, after all.]

As soon as Hwang Jae-i’s father was mentioned, the panelists’ expressions stiffened. Because any careless comment linking the father and son would be met with an immediate lawsuit.

Sensing the tense mood, the man didn’t say anything more about that and continued explaining the Gate shown on-screen. Still, since he’d already brought it up, people would start looking into it, and some would begin to think, “There really must be bad blood between Hwang Jae-i and the Association.”

It was a sly and filthy rhetorical tactic.

“That bastard still has time to run his mouth, huh.”

The man, who shamelessly spread false rumors in front of countless viewers, was named Han Deoksik. He was someone who would fabricate anything if it seemed profitable. The Jae-i Guild had filed several lawsuits against him, but since spewing nonsense kept the money flowing, he just couldn’t quit.

Hunters lost their qualifications the moment they used violence against civilians. So Ahn Yuna still hoped every day that this garbage excuse for a person would awaken as even an F-rank, just to be punched.

She flipped through a few more channels, but they were all saying the same thing. The conclusion was always, “Why did Hwang Jae-i do that?” Ahn Yuna didn’t understand it either, so she turned off the repetitive TV and turned around.

Hwang Jae-i was now sprawled out on the sofa. Dressed in sweatpants and a white t-shirt, he looked somewhat tired—but she couldn’t let him stay like that.

“Let’s go ahead and schedule something for tomorrow.”

She wasn’t asking his opinion—it was a firm announcement. But Hwang Jae-i was never the type to just accept orders. He immediately glared at her, but Ahn Yuna didn’t flinch.

“If we let these ridiculous rumors snowball, you’ll be the one bothered in the end. Just two hours—no, just give me one.”

“……”

“This wouldn’t even be happening if you hadn’t done anything in the first place?!”

She added sharply that she wouldn’t have had to rush back mid-vacation if it weren’t for him.

“……”

Seeing that expression of his made her sigh.

Even Hwang Jae-i couldn’t understand what he’d done. All this from reading a single postcard. Then, remembering the child who had forced a smile upon seeing him yesterday, he rose slowly. Sitting down in the middle of the sofa, he muttered with a sigh.

“What do I need to do?”

“……”

That came out more easily than expected. She thought he’d reject her outright and tell her to get lost.