Please Give Me A Kiss, Healer! Chapter 115

The next moment made Jiwoo swallow hard.

What am I supposed to say to explain this?

Unable to answer, Jiwoo’s eyes darted around the room.

Lee Yeonwoo smiled gently as she opened a file.

“There’s more than just this.”

“More?”

“This photo was taken at a bus stop not long ago.”

She slid another photograph across the table.

It showed Jiwoo rescuing the student who had nearly been hit by a car.

Holding the student in his arms, Jiwoo was suspended high in the air, bathed in sunlight that made him look as though he were surrounded by a radiant golden halo.

“People online have been calling you the ‘Nameless Angel.’ I guess you didn’t know.”

“…No.”

“And what else do we have… Survived an unexpected A-Rank Gate and rescued civilians. Survived a dungeon mutation and helped clear it. Oh, and more recently, Hunter Do Jiwoo was present at the mutated A-Rank dungeon in Gangneung.”

Evidence kept pouring out of her mouth one piece after another.

Jiwoo felt like he had walked straight into a trap with no escape.

Lee Yeonwoo already knew everything from the start. She wasn’t asking questions to learn the truth—she only wanted confirmation.

“And finally, we received information that Hunter Do Jiwoo commanded ant-type monsters inside the most recently discovered unidentified dungeon.”

“…”

“We believe you’re not an ordinary E-Rank Healer, Hunter Do Jiwoo. We believe you’re at least an A-Rank second awakened. One capable of summoning monsters. Am I right?”

“…”

Jiwoo said nothing, but everyone in the interrogation room understood.

The silence itself was an admission.

Haha… It’s all over now.

A hollow laugh echoed inside him.

Hiding your awakened rank and abilities was an extremely serious crime.

The future waiting for him unfolded before his eyes.

They’ll drag me to the Hunter Association. Then they’ll throw me into a hunter detention facility without even a trial. I’ll spend the rest of my life doing hard labor without a single shred of hope…

“Hunter Do Jiwoo?”

“Yes?”

Lee Yeonwoo’s voice abruptly cut off his dreadful imagination.

She smiled brightly and held out her hand.

“I look forward to working with you.”

“…Doing what?”

Being dragged to the Hunter Association?

Or wearing prison clothes and doing forced labor?

Looking utterly dejected, Jiwoo stared at the photographs on the table.

Then a single white sheet of paper fluttered down on top of them.

[Contract]

“…A contract?”

“That’s right. It’s nothing complicated, so don’t bother reading it. Just sign at the bottom.”

That sounded exactly like something a scammer would say.

Jiwoo stubbornly read every single line.

Then—

“Whaaaaaat?!”

He shot to his feet with a scream.

The contract Lee Yeonwoo had handed him…

…was a mandatory employment contract requiring him to immediately join the Emergency Disaster Response Team.

“W-What is this?! Why would I join the Emergency Disaster Response Team?”

“Why wouldn’t you?”

“No, I’m asking why I have to!”

“Because you possess an invaluable ability. Of course you should join the Emergency Disaster Response Team.”

Her answer completely missed the point.

Jiwoo decided to start with the most basic question.

“Weren’t you going to report me to the Hunter Association?”

“Report you? For what?”

“For hiding my second awakening… That’s a serious crime…”

“Who cares about that? Dungeons are far more important.”

The more he listened, the stranger everything became.

Seeing Jiwoo standing there dumbfounded, Lee Yeonwoo spoke passionately.

“Hunter Do Jiwoo, you’re talent! Genuine talent! Exactly the kind of person we’ve been desperately searching for! There’s no way we’re letting someone like you rot away in some lousy guild.”

A… lousy guild…

If Guild Master Shin Woohyuk had heard that, he probably would’ve clutched the back of his neck.

Lee Yeonwoo stepped closer and grabbed Jiwoo by the arm.

“Come on, put your thumbprint here.”

“Huh? Wait! I’m not doing it! I’m not joining the Emergency Disaster Response Team!”

“You think you have a choice?”

“A choice? Of course I—”

He was about to answer of course…

Until the two hunters standing behind Lee Yeonwoo moved.

They blocked the only exit.

Then—

“Hunter Do Jiwoo… you’re being detained.”

Three dungeon-crazed maniacs fixed him with dangerous gleams in their eyes.

We’re not letting you leave until you stamp this contract. So just give up.

Seriously… what kind of people recruit someone like this?!

And so, instead of ending up in a hunter detention facility…

Jiwoo ended up imprisoned inside the Emergency Disaster Response Team headquarters.

After being dragged underground, he was shoved into a pitch-black room.

“Don’t worry,” the hunter wearing a black helmet said in a low voice.

“It’s a perfectly livable place.”

Coming from someone who looked that intimidating, it sounded twice as terrifying.

Rubbing the goosebumps on his arms, Jiwoo looked around.

Where am I?

An underground prison? It has to be…

As time passed, his eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness.

Feeling along the wall, he found a light switch.

Click.

The lights flicked on, momentarily blinding him.

When Jiwoo opened his eyes—

“W-Woooooow!!”

Before him was a suite that rivaled a luxury hotel.

“What’s for lunch today?”

The man whose face looked as pale as a corpse answered,

“Black bean noodles.”

“What about sweet and sour pork?”

“Prepared with the sauce on the side.”

“Woooooow!”

Jiwoo crouched in front of the steel door and waited patiently.

Soon, food began sliding through the small hatch beneath it.

“Thank you! I’ll enjoy it!”

“…”

Without saying a word, the man walked away.

Jiwoo picked up his wooden chopsticks and thoroughly mixed his jjajangmyeon.

Halfway through, he grabbed some pickled radish to cut the richness, then happily devoured enough sweet and sour pork to burst.

In total…

Five bowls of jjajangmyeon.

Three large orders of sweet and sour pork.

Three containers of pickled radish.

It was all thoughtfully prepared by the dungeon-crazed maniacs with Jiwoo’s enormous appetite in mind.

And that wasn’t their only consideration.

“Now that you’ve regained your memories, Father… we can finally be happy together, right?”

“Of course, Hyena. I’ll make up for everything I couldn’t do before.”

“We found it too late. The cancer has spread far too quickly. At most… three months…”

“What are you talking about, Doctor?! I only just got my daughter back!”

“Oh my goodness! Amnesia wasn’t enough, now it’s a terminal illness?!”

Jiwoo binge-watched dramas on the television mounted to the wall.

It was the recently concluded series Why Did Madam Give Cake to Her Secretary?

That wasn’t all.

This luxurious prison also served shaved ice and injeolmi for dessert…

…and chewy cheese ramen as a late-night snack.

It offered five-star hotel service.

Huh…?

This captivity… is way more comfortable than I expected.

Little by little, Jiwoo lowered his guard.

Occasionally, the dungeon-crazed trio even came to visit him.

“Come on, stamp the contract already! Don’t make me become obsessed with you!”

“You already are obsessed!”

“Hunter Do Jiwoo! Don’t make me be the bad guy!”

“You’re already the bad guy!”

Jiwoo resisted with all his might.

The standoff turned into a drawn-out siege.

 

 

****

 

 

 

On the second day inside the place that was technically a prison but practically a luxury hotel…

“The string of random attacks committed by individuals known as ‘Doppelgangers’ continues across the city.

The Hunter Association has identified the incidents as coordinated terrorist attacks carried out by anti-Hunter awakened individuals.

Security has been reinforced in cooperation with nearby guilds, and citizens are urged to report any Doppelganger sightings.”

The news anchor reported the situation with a grave expression.

Jiwoo listened with an equally serious face.

Things seem to be getting worse.

But there was nothing he could do.

Confined in his cozy prison, Jiwoo had no way of affecting the outside world.

So…

“I wonder if there are any other fun dramas on…”

He brushed his worries aside and changed the channel.

For now, he’d simply enjoy his luxurious imprisonment.

After all…

It wasn’t like any of this was his fault.

Rolling around on the bed while reading comics, he completely lost track of time.

It’s already six o’clock.

Why hasn’t dinner arrived?

Surely they didn’t forget to feed me…?

They promised garlic bossam tonight!

The later it got, the more despair spread across Jiwoo’s face.

Just as he began pacing around the steel door—

BOOM!! CRASH!! KRAAAASH!!

A deafening explosion echoed from somewhere in the distance.

The entire building shook violently.

What…? An earthquake?

Jiwoo prepared to activate an item.

With Antman’s Strength, he’d be able to escape even if the building collapsed.

Just as he braced for another tremor—

The steel door was ripped apart like paper.

A man stepped through the entrance.

Someone Jiwoo knew very well.

“Jiwoo.”

“K-Kangwoo?”

Jiwoo stared in shock.

Since he was being held inside the Emergency Disaster Response Team headquarters, he had expected to run into Kangwoo eventually.

After all, Kangwoo had said he’d come see him again before leaving.

But…

He never expected him to smash his way in like this.

“M-My TV…! Oh no, it’s completely destroyed! Do you know how expensive that was?!”

Jiwoo stared blankly at the television, now reduced to rubble.

As if entirely accustomed to that reaction, Kangwoo simply walked over the debris and extended his hand.

“Jiwoo. We have to go.”

“Is it really okay to leave like this?”

“Yeah. If we don’t leave now…”

Kangwoo frowned slightly.

“…Things are going to become a little troublesome.”