<Episode 112>
The landlady’s lips turned pale blue.
She glanced around nervously, checking the reactions of the customers nearby.
“O-Oh my! What kind of manners are those, saying something like that in front of everyone? Stole it? If people hear you, they’ll think it’s true and get the wrong idea!”
Her eyes widened dramatically, as though a mischievous niece were making an inappropriate joke.
“You came to see your aunt after all this time, didn’t you? Why don’t we go inside and talk? Hmm?”
Without even waiting for my answer, she grabbed my wrist.
But I was no longer the helpless Jung Haneul who had been forced out years ago.
There was no way a mere civilian could drag around someone who had recently reawakened as an SS-Rank hunter.
The sight of her sweating profusely and straining with all her might was almost laughable.
Looking down at her with cold eyes, I curled my lips into a sneer.
“Aunt? Are you my aunt? You don’t share a single drop of blood with my mother, yet you’re shameless enough to say that.”
The people around us, who had been quietly listening to our conversation, covered their mouths and began whispering among themselves.
“What? She wasn’t really her aunt?”
“I thought she was Hunter Haneul’s aunt. That’s what the blog said….”
As the atmosphere increasingly turned against her, the landlady broke into a cold sweat and forced an awkward smile.
“Haha, didn’t I mention that before? I’m not her real aunt. It’s just a friendly nickname neighbors use for each other. You know, because we were that close~”
But the people who knew just how actively she had been pretending to be my aunt looked at her with icy expressions.
When the warm attention she’d been enjoying turned into looks of contempt, she suddenly changed tactics.
Thud.
With a heavy sound, she dropped to the ground.
Then, as if she were the world’s greatest victim, she slapped the pavement repeatedly and began wailing.
“Oh, heavens, what a miserable life I have! How unfair! Just because she’s become some fancy hunter, she’s thrown away all the neighborly affection we shared!”
“…Neighborly affection? Between us?”
“You really know how to hurt someone’s feelings, don’t you? Do you know how much I adored you when you were little? Whenever your parents were busy, I’d watch over you!”
Oh, so she wanted to bring ‘that’ up?
Crossing my arms, I let out a disbelieving laugh.
“I remember. You charged my parents 50,000 won to babysit me for a little while, and all you gave me was a cup of instant noodles. Then behind their backs, you mocked them for being pathetic.”
Her face immediately flushed red.
Apparently, she had never imagined that the child I once was would remember such details so clearly.
I glared at her.
Unable to find a response, she coughed awkwardly and hurriedly changed the subject.
“Why does something from childhood matter so much…? Anyway, that’s not important now!”
As if she hadn’t just been crying moments ago, she dusted off her backside and stood up.
Then she fixed me with a venomous stare.
“Fine. I admit I pretended not to notice people misunderstanding things. I’ll apologize for that. But aren’t you going too far?”
Without giving me a chance to respond, she launched into the speech she clearly wanted to make.
“I was just trying to keep my restaurant alive! You’ve made tons of money already, and yet because I mentioned your name a little, you come running over here and start yelling at me in front of everyone? Huh?”
“…Wow.”
I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t even find the words.
Mistaking my disbelief for hesitation, she became even more confident and began poking my shoulder with her finger.
“You can’t live your life like this. You need to learn how to share. If your parents were alive, imagine how disappointed they’d be in you, huh?”
Now she was bringing my parents into this?
At that point, I finally lost my patience and reached for the wrist that was poking my shoulder.
Or rather…
I ‘would have’.
If a handbag hadn’t come flying through the air.
Whoosh! Thwack!
The bag struck the landlady square in the center of her forehead.
“Aaagh!”
With a shrill scream, she toppled backward.
“W-Who did that?!”
Clutching her forehead, she raised her head with bulging veins visible on her neck.
I too turned toward the direction the handbag had come from, eyes wide with surprise.
The murmuring crowd parted like the Red Sea.
At the end of the path stood an elderly woman with white hair tied tightly back.
She slammed her cane into the ground hard enough to shake the earth.
Wait.
That was…
“…Grandma Moonrye?”
It was Grandma Moonrye.
Ari’s grandmother and one of the oldest regular customers of our gukbap restaurant.
The gentle old woman I knew was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, she radiated the furious presence of a raging tiger.
“Aunt, my foot! You’ve got a mouth wide open just to pour out lies, don’t you?!”
Behind her came a flood of familiar faces.
The beauty salon owner with the curly perm.
The real estate office owner dressed in flashy hiking clothes.
The interior design shop owner wearing a work vest.
Even the sign shop uncle.
They were all long-time fixtures of this alley, people I’d known since childhood.
“It really is Haneul! It’s been so long. I’m so happy to see you again.”
“Oh my goodness! I’ve only seen you on TV. You’re even prettier in person!”
They greeted me warmly for a moment.
Then they immediately pointed accusing fingers at the landlady sitting on the ground.
“Grandma Moonrye told us to come out here, so we rushed over. What kind of mess is this?”
“Seriously. She’s Haneul’s aunt? She should at least wipe the saliva off her mouth before telling such lies!”
The beauty salon owner crossed her arms and clicked her tongue.
The color drained from the landlady’s face.
“N-No… that’s not what…”
Grandma Moonrye strode forward, picked up the fallen handbag, and barked:
“Blinded by money, weren’t you? You stole a perfectly good restaurant from hardworking people! You deserve divine punishment!”
“Y-You old hag, have you lost your mind?!”
As the landlady tried to argue back, the real estate office owner stepped forward.
“Lost her mind? Hardly. I’m the one who handled that contract back then.”
She snorted in disbelief.
“You were the one who said that if they couldn’t raise the deposit, they should get out immediately! Haneul was practically begging you for more time, and you didn’t even blink before kicking them out!”
“W-When did I ever–?!”
“When? Back then! I felt so bad about it that I personally searched for a suitable vacant space where Haneul’s family could move! My husband can testify to that!”
The landlady’s mouth opened and closed soundlessly.
The faces of the onlookers turned to shock.
“Oh my god… she really forced them out?”
“That’s absolutely vile.”
As the murmuring grew louder, the increasingly desperate landlady started blurting out anything she could think of.
“B-But I paid for the facility rights! I bought the pots and all the equipment exactly as they were!”
“Bought them, my ass.”
This time the interior shop owner cut in.
“Wasn’t that because you wanted to copy the previous restaurant exactly? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how many times you begged me not to touch the interior and leave even the old worn-out parts unchanged!”
“That’s right. You also insisted that the signboard be made exactly the same as the old one.”
Even the sign shop owner joined in.
Faced with the vivid testimony of the neighborhood residents, the landlady became completely speechless.
The crowd’s murmuring only grew louder.
“Damn… all her lies got exposed.”
“My friend wanted to come here too. I need to tell them immediately.”
As someone pulled out a smartphone and started recording, notification sounds from video recordings began ringing out all around.
The landlady’s face turned deathly pale as she hurriedly covered it.
“D-Don’t film me! This is a violation of my portrait rights! Huh?! Stop filming!”
She reached toward nearby people as though trying to snatch away their phones, but even that failed.
In the end, still covering her face, she fled the scene like a criminal escaping justice.
The sight of her retreating figure was so pitiful and ridiculous that I almost laughed.
“Shall I stop her?”
Watching her run away, Hyunwoo asked in a low voice.
If I simply nodded my head, it seemed he would drag her back immediately and force her to kneel before me.
“It’s okay. Her restaurant is still here. It’s not like she has anywhere to run.”
Besides, there was something more important in front of me.
I looked at the neighborhood residents who had appeared like heroes from a movie.
My chest swelled with gratitude for their unexpected help.
“Thank you all so much for helping me…”
I was about to bow my head in thanks when…
“Oh, our Haneul! I’ve only seen you on the news, and seeing you in person makes me so happy! Come here and let me hug you, okay?”
Before I could even finish expressing my gratitude, the beauty salon owner wrapped me in a crushing embrace that squeezed my ribs.
‘I–I can’t breathe…!’
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