<Episode 111>
I blinked blankly.
Since when had I suddenly gained an aunt I never had…?
Noticing my unusual reaction, Hyunwoo asked with a serious expression.
“Haneul? What’s wrong?”
“No, it’s just…”
I muttered awkwardly while looking at him.
“Ari says she wants to visit the gukbap restaurant run by my aunt.”
“Your aunt? You have an aunt, Haneul?”
“No. That’s impossible.”
I firmly shook my head.
“My mother was an only child. I’ve never seen or even heard of any aunt in my entire life.”
Perplexed, I immediately called Ari and asked who this so-called aunt was supposed to be.
When I explained that I had no relative who could possibly be called my aunt, Ari sounded flustered.
[W-Wait a second! I definitely saw it on Starstagram a few days ago and even saved it…. I’ll send you the link right away!]
Not long after hanging up, a Starstagram link arrived from Ari.
I cautiously clicked it.
“Ha. This person is supposed to be my aunt?”
The moment I saw the middle-aged woman smiling kindly in the photo, my brow furrowed involuntarily.
The woman in the picture was none other than the landlady who had taken my parents’ restaurant away from them.
The caption beneath the photo was even more ridiculous.
(Photo)
[With Hunter Haneul’s aunt!
She was so kind and happily took a picture with me, haha. I even got to hear stories about Hunter Haneul’s childhood! Totally worth the long wait in line.
#IncheonGukbapRestaurant #HunterHaneul #AuntsRestaurant #JeongDalmeunRestaurant]
When I clicked the hashtags and searched further, it looked like she’d been pretending to be my biological aunt for quite some time.
“An aunt? Seriously? She took my parents’ restaurant, and now she’s shamelessly pretending to be my aunt?”
It felt as though my blood was boiling.
With trembling hands, I started searching for both the restaurant name and my own name on portal sites.
As I skimmed through the posts online, I gradually pieced together what had happened.
“…This YouTuber’s video was where it all started.”
After I reawakened as an SS-Rank hunter, the internet had been flooded with content about “Jung Haneul.”
Amid that frenzy, clickbait YouTubers eager for views had begun digging into my personal history.
One of them had uploaded this video.
[SHOCK] The Past of an SS-Rank Hunter – Turns Out She’s the Daughter of OOO? Gold Spoon Controversy!
A cheap thumbnail featuring my smiling face with stacks of money edited behind it.
When you actually watched the video, however, there wasn’t much substance.
[Recently reawakened as an SS-Rank hunter, Hunter Jeong Haneul has become embroiled in an unexpected “gold spoon” controversy! It turns out she was born as the daughter of a famous gukbap restaurant in Incheon and grew up with a “gukbap spoon” in her mouth!]
The monkey mascot speaking in a strangely altered nasal voice concluded with:
[Could the influence of her parents, who ran a gukbap restaurant, have contributed to her awakening as such a special SS-Rank production-type hunter? How fascinating! We’ll be back with more amazing news next time! Bye~ Ooh-ooh-ah-ah!]
The only factual information in the video was that my parents had once run a gukbap restaurant.
But viewers clearly took it differently.
➝ So where’s the restaurant?
➝ “Gukbap spoon,” lol. That’s basically a gold spoon.
➝ I’ve been to an Incheon gukbap place before, haha. It was seriously delicious. The broth was amazing.
↳ Wow! What’s the restaurant called?
↳ Jeongdameun Restaurant? It’s this place!
↳ Oh, thanks!
But my parents’ restaurant had already been shut down by the landlady.
Naturally, it wouldn’t show up on map searches.
As a result, random guesses started appearing in the replies.
↳ Ah, I guess it closed down…ㅠㅠ Can’t find it anymore. What a shame.
↳ Could it be this place? Jeongdalmeun Restaurant on Ieum 18-ro in Seo-gu, Incheon. The location seems the same.
↳ Oh! Haha, maybe they changed the name. Thanks 🙂
People had mistaken the landlady’s similarly named restaurant for my parents’ old restaurant.
Unless someone was a local resident who knew the situation firsthand, they had no way of knowing the truth.
And so the misinformation spread across the internet like wildfire.
➝ Hunter Haneul’s aunt is running the gukbap restaurant now!
↳ Maybe she took over because Haneul got too busy after awakening? That’s actually kind of touching….
➝ Reviews say it’s a real local hidden gem, lol. My girlfriend and I are gonna go next week.
Of course, some comments occasionally corrected the misinformation.
“The owner changed.”
“That’s a fake.”
But people tended to hear only what they wanted to hear.
Sure, misunderstandings happen.
Not everyone could know my family history.
But the landlady should have known better.
‘She was the one who kicked us out! If she had any conscience at all, shouldn’t she at least correct people?’
As I dug through blog reviews, the situation looked even worse.
She had been shamelessly making up stories about my childhood and my parents to win over customers.
‘Ha. She was supposedly closer to my mother than anyone else? What nerve!’
She used to bring groups of friends to our restaurant, eat huge meals, and then leave without paying, claiming that as the landlord she shouldn’t have to cover the bill.
Whenever a single bug appeared in the building, she’d storm over and scream that it was because our restaurant was filthy.
She even used to sneer at me openly.
“You’re always stuck inside the restaurant. When do you study? Don’t tell me you’re planning to inherit this gukbap place? Honestly, your life looks pretty easy.”
I had eventually begged my parents to move somewhere else.
But they always replied that the restaurant had only just started gaining popularity and that they couldn’t leave yet.
So we endured.
She had looked down on us.
Stepped all over us.
And now she was doing this?
At that moment, I heard something snap inside my head.
I shoved my phone roughly into my pocket and started gathering my belongings.
“I’m sorry, Hyunwoo. I think I need to go immediately.”
“Are you planning to visit the restaurant run by this so-called aunt?”
“Yes. She’s the person who stole the restaurant my parents protected for years. And now she’s shamelessly pretending to be family. How dare she…”
The rage surging to the top of my head made it difficult to even finish my sentence.
The dishes on the table suddenly began rattling loudly, resonating with my emotions.
“What the…?”
“W-What’s happening? Is it an earthquake?”
Voices rose around us.
I took a deep breath.
But once unleashed, my mana didn’t settle easily.
I was breathing so heavily it felt like hyperventilation.
Then a warm touch landed on my shoulder.
“I think you should stop breathing for a moment.”
When I looked up, Hyunwoo was suddenly much closer.
He placed a necklace around my neck, cold metal brushing against my skin.
It was an item that suppressed mana.
“Ah, this item…?”
“You returned it to me before. But I believe it is needed more by you than by me right now.”
The moment I put it on, the turbulent mana in the air calmed as if by magic.
Following his instructions, I held my breath and then slowly exhaled, regaining control of my breathing.
“…I’m sorry. I got too worked up.”
Hyunwoo shook his head and asked carefully:
“If you’re alright with it, would you like to use my car?”
“…You’ll come too?”
“Of course. This concerns you, Haneul. I want to help as well.”
Slowly, I nodded.
And so I got into Hyunwoo’s car, and we headed toward the place where my parents’ restaurant had once stood.
Streetlights flashed past outside the darkened window.
After driving for quite some time, familiar yet bitter scenery finally came into view.
The alleys of Seo-gu, Incheon.
“I believe it’s over there. There seems to be a crowd.”
Just as he said, a large crowd filled a wide alleyway in the distance.
It was the very alley where my parents’ restaurant used to be.
“Ha. The landlady is there too.”
At the center of the crowd stood the shameless woman herself, chatting happily with customers while wearing a broad smile.
As the car slowed and approached the restaurant, people spotted me in the passenger seat and immediately stepped aside.
“Wow, it’s Hunter Haneul!”
“Isn’t the driver Hunter Lee Hyunwoo? That’s insane!”
“Oh my god… She must be here to visit her aunt.”
After getting out of the car, I walked directly toward the woman.
The crowd parted out of curiosity, allowing me to reach my destination without hesitation.
“It’s been a while, ma’am.”
The moment I emerged through the sea of people, the woman’s cheerful expression instantly drained of color.
“H-Haneul. What brings you here…?”
“What brings me here?”
My voice turned cold.
“I heard someone was impersonating an aunt I don’t even have, so I came to take a look.”
Silence fell over the area as if ice water had been poured over it.
I could see her pupils trembling violently.
Stepping right up to her, I spoke in an icy voice.
“Are you happy making money after stealing my parents’ restaurant, ma’am?”
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