The SSS-Class Hunter’s Garden Log Chapter 20

Hana looked into the handcart, feeling puzzled.

 

Neither the crops she had gathered nor Seo Kang-hyun was inside. 

 

It wasn’t like the handcart had grown legs. How on earth did it get back here? 

 

Just then, a pitch-black shadow fell over Hana’s head.

 

Feeling a somewhat chilling sensation down her spine, Hana forced her head to turn.

 

And made eye contact with a man standing right behind her with his arms crossed.

 

“M-my goodness!” 

 

Clutching her startled heart, Hana jumped up.

 

The one glaring at her with a serious expression was Seo Kanghyun.

 

Looking forwards, backwards, or upside down, it was definitely Seo Kanghyun!

 

“We meet again, Yoon Hana-ssi. Is this our second time?” 

 

Seo Kanghyun’s lips twisted up sideways as he stared at the fertilizer bag in Hana’s hand.

 

“No, I saw you earlier too, so is it the third?”

 

‘Seo Kanghyun? It’s really Seo Kanghyun?’

 

How on earth did he find his way here?

 

She had purposefully removed the hospital sticker attached to the handcart and brought it here just in case!

 

Hana’s mind spun. 

 

It was the first time she had such an eventful day since coming here.

 

Facing his fiercely glowing gray eyes, the back of her knees cramped.

 

The Hunter suit that perfectly fit Kanghyun’s long limbs was still covered in soft mud mixed with compost.

 

Every time Kanghyun moved, dried clumps of dirt fell to the floor with a pitter-patter.

 

The way his sharply raised eyes distorted every time that happened was so menacing.

 

A wave of belated regret washed over Hana. 

 

…Maybe she should have just left him abandoned in the Gate.

 

She was being nosy for no reason.

 

Why did she have to bring Seo Kanghyun and create this mess?

 

Meanwhile, Kanghyun took a step closer.

 

“The one who abandoned me in front of the Yangpyeong Branch, that was you, right?”

 

Hana reflexively stepped back.

 

But every time Kanghyun took a step forward, the distance between the two sharply closed again.

 

It was a movement that allowed no room for escape. 

 

“And the one who shoved me into this garden patch is also you, right?”

 

“Uh… I think you’ve got the wrong person.”

 

Hana’s back touched the wall. There was nowhere left to retreat.

 

As expected of South Korea’s top Hunter.

 

It was hard to believe he was someone who had been sprawled out like he was dying just a moment ago; Seo Kanghyun looked terrifyingly fine.

 

Kanghyun’s persistent gaze slowly landed on Hana.

 

“I don’t think so. My eye for people happens to be quite accurate.” 

 

Approaching close enough to completely block her retreat, he took the fertilizer bag that had been held in Hana’s hand.

 

It was done so naturally. 

 

It was a movement as if the bag had belonged to him from the very beginning. 

 

While Hana swallowed hard, Kanghyun attempted to slide the bag over Hana’s face. 

 

At that moment.

 

Because she suddenly plopped down, Hana’s body sank right down.

 

Having suddenly been left to put a fertilizer bag over thin air, Seo Kanghyun’s hand stopped.

 

Unable to immediately understand the situation at the unexpected movement, he blinked slowly once.

 

Soon, his dark eyebrows curved slightly.

 

“Good grief.”

 

A short laugh of disbelief flowed from Kanghyun.

 

If she had thrown a punch or even swung a skill, it would be one thing. But what was this utterly pathetic reaction?

 

It was a clumsy gesture that broke even the will to interrogate her.

 

Taking advantage of that opening, Hana tried to crawl sideways along the floor to escape.

 

However, a long leg stepped right into the middle of her escape route.

 

Leaving Hana whose path was blocked, Kanghyun plopped down just like that, squatting in front of Hana.

 

Their eye levels naturally matched.

 

“Let’s leave aside the fact that you crumpled me into a handcart and abandoned me. How did you get into the Gangnam Station Gate?”

 

“Gangnam Station Gate?”

 

Hana raised her head, pretending to be as calm as possible as she crawled, but her round, light-brown eyes rolled around instantly. 

 

Seo Kanghyun didn’t miss that reaction.

 

He slightly took off the hand supporting his chin and tilted his head sideways.

 

“I know everything, so don’t even think about telling clumsy lies.”

 

As he finished speaking, he lightly tapped his own eye. 

 

At that moment.

 

Whoosh. 

 

A red light seeped into Kang-hyun’s pupils like a spreading ember. 

 

His gray eyes slowly burned, dyeing into a deep red color.

 

【SYSTEM】 

<Skill ‘Eyes of Haechi (SS-rank)’ activated. Sees through the essence of things.> 

<Distinguishes truth and falsehood, as well as appearance, ability, and status>

 

Even Hana had heard of it before. 

 

One of Seo Kanghyun’s many skills, the Eyes of Haechi.

 

A skill that could see into the stats of monsters or Hunters, while simultaneously discriminating between true and false.

 

Hana reflexively squeezed her eyes shut.

 

Ah, this won’t do. Lies wouldn’t work at all.

 

Now that it had come to this, there was no loophole to talk her way out.

 

After a moment of silence, Hana changed her stance so quickly you’d wonder if she was really the person who had been crawling on the floor to escape.

 

Brushing the dirt off her hands, Hana sat up with her back straight and curled her lips into a bright smile. 

 

“Um, is your body feeling a bit better?”

 

At Hana’s change in attitude, Kanghyun’s eyebrows twitched.

 

At his cold attitude that didn’t seem like it would allow a single needle to pierce it, Hana wrinkled the bridge of her nose.

 

Her plan to pass it off cheerfully was a failure.

 

“How much… do you know?”

 

“Hmm, how much. I wonder. How much did I know again.”

 

Kanghyun, his head still resting lazily to the side, pulled his phone out of his pocket. 

 

Then his long fingers tapped the screen a few times.

 

Shortly after, a phone was thrust in front of Hana’s eyes.

 

Flash.

 

At the bright light, Hana squinted at the screen and then freaked out.

 

Because a picture of her with the bag over her head was circulating.

 

Fortunately, thanks to the barrier effect cast at the gate entrance, the image quality wavered so it couldn’t be seen clearly. But the fertilizer bag, at least, could be seen clearly.

 

“That the person who cleared the Yangpyeong Gate that opened a little while ago was you. And—.” 

 

Kanghyun pointed with his chin at Hana’s pant pockets that were bulging as if about to burst.

 

“About the part where you neatly swept up the byproducts from there?” 

 

Kanghyun withdrew his phone.

 

Hana, who had been glaring intensely as if she would pierce through the screen, suddenly ended up making direct eye contact with Kanghyun behind the display.

 

“Ah right. There was one more.”

 

Without changing his expression at all, Kanghyun only nodded his head lightly.

 

“It seems you didn’t just sneak in and out of the Gangnam Station Gate, but even made a garden in there. My, you’re quite bold. Our Yoon Hana-ssi.”

 

Thud. 

 

The corners of Hana’s mouth drooped down, and her posture collapsed sideways.

 

She was doomed. 

 

He knows everything.

 

As if this wasn’t already the worst case scenario, Popcorn popped out from the front pocket of her overalls, apparently feeling stifled. 

 

“Kkiing.”

 

A round white object whining while digging into Hana’s arms.

 

Discovering that, one corner of Kanghyun’s mouth twisted up.

 

It was a smile that made him look like he had a very nasty personality.

 

“The things I know just increased by one more. I think I saw this monster inside the Gate as well.” 

 

With a face ready to cry, Hana hugged Popcorn tightly.

 

As if it were a shield.

 

Then, she looked up with the most innocent face she could muster. 

 

“Then what’s going to happen to me now? Will I perhaps be punished?”

 

Kanghyun raised his gaze upwards as if deep in thought for a moment.

 

“Well. I’m still debating. What do you think I should do?”

 

“I absolutely didn’t do it on purpose! I really didn’t!”

 

Hana put Popcorn down and tightly clasped both hands together with determination.

 

Then she sneakily extended one index finger.

 

“…Could you please let it slide just this once?”

 

* * *

 

Unbelievable.

 

Kanghyun swallowed a hollow laugh inwardly.

 

Did she say she was Yoon Hana?

 

Despite it not even being two weeks since she registered as a Hunter, just how many Hunter laws had she been breaking so far.

 

At first, he thought some hopeless maverick had appeared.

 

The type who makes a mockery of the rules, is overconfident in their own strength, and brings trouble wherever they go.

 

The most troublesome kind that there’s always at least one of in the Hunter industry.

 

But that wasn’t it either.

 

Kanghyun quietly looked down at Yoon Hana’s face, who was hugging Popcorn and reading his mood in front of him.

 

She was definitely scared, but it wasn’t a calculating gaze either.

 

It wasn’t an expression struggling desperately not to get caught, nor a face that didn’t know what she did wrong.

 

Just—.

 

‘Ah, I’m in big trouble.’

 

It was a face containing exactly that much predicament. Without a hint of malice.

 

Kanghyun stared intently at Hana, his arms draped over his knees. 

 

‘She really… isn’t Sunbae.’

 

The more he looked, the more she resembled ‘1’.

 

But the more he interacted with her, it was also a continuous series of actions that could never be seen as ‘1’.

 

Because the ‘1’ he knew wasn’t this sloppy.

 

Yoon Hana was too human.

 

“But… how did you really find your way here?”

 

Look at that.

 

His sunbae wasn’t someone who read his mood like this.

 

So let’s not be mistaken.

 

The existence in front of his eyes was merely Yoon Hana.

 

“You ask how I found it?”

 

At Hana’s question, Kanghyun’s eyes narrowed.

 

“It’s a bit long to explain.”

 

Kanghyun recalled the sensation of waking up out of nowhere in the cramped Yangpyeong Branch office a short while ago.

 

No, to be exact, with a time difference too ambiguous to call it a short while ago.