<Episode 26>
“Here, have this. Something sweet should make you feel a little better.”
“Thank you.”
To comfort Ari, who was sniffling miserably, we moved to a nearby café. The moment she took a sip of the strawberry latte packed with fresh strawberries, her face instantly brightened.
“Whoa! This is so good!”
“I’m glad. So… are you living with your grandmother right now?”
Ari gave a small nod.
After her parents died in a gate-related accident, she’d had no relatives willing to take her in, so she’d continued living with her grandmother. To Ari, her grandmother was basically the same as a parent.
“I was at school when the hospital called me. They said Grandma had collapsed again. I didn’t even know she was sick…”
Apparently, her grandmother had already known about her condition for a long time. But for the sake of her only granddaughter, she’d hidden the illness and continued going to work.
“I kept telling her not to work and just stay home and rest. But she kept overworking herself because she wanted to send me to college.”
Ari’s gaze dropped back to the floor. It looked like she blamed herself for her grandmother’s illness.
Feeling sorry for her, I gently patted her small hand.
“So that’s why you keep entering gates?”
“It’s the fastest way to make money. But once I save enough for Grandma’s hospital bills, I’m really going to quit.”
“So… please don’t report me.”
Ari glanced at me nervously as she spoke in a tiny voice.
I swallowed the complicated emotions rising in my chest and took a sip of coffee. It hurt to think that someone this young was risking her life in gates just to pay for her grandmother’s treatment.
“Does your grandmother know you dropped out of school?”
“I told her recently. She got really mad the moment she heard.”
Ari said she’d dropped out as soon as she learned how sick her grandmother was. Thankfully, once she revealed she was awakened, the school let her withdraw without much resistance.
“Besides, these days being a hunter is better than graduating from college anyway, right?”
She muttered that at least she’d awakened, even if she was only E-rank. Otherwise, she wouldn’t even have been able to work as gate bait.
After hearing her story, I felt guilty for offering her a job simply because I wanted a talented employee.
At that moment, her phone vibrated briefly.
“…Why is the hospital calling?”
Muttering under her breath, Ari answered the call. The café was quiet enough that even I could hear the conversation.
—Are you Guardian Kim Moonrye? Your grandmother collapsed just now!
“G-Grandma?!”
—Where are you right now? Can you come to the hospital immediately?
The color instantly drained from Ari’s face. Her eyes filled with tears as she looked at me. Her hands trembled slightly.
“Unni, what do I do? My grandma…”
“Let’s go together. I’ll call a taxi right now.”
I hurriedly called a taxi and took Ari with me, since she was practically in a panic. During the entire ride to the hospital, she nervously bit her nails.
“What if something happened to Grandma? She’s really all I have…”
“She’ll be okay. Don’t worry too much, alright?”
I wrapped an arm around Ari’s shoulders and gently comforted her. She buried herself in my embrace and quietly sobbed.
Thankfully, the situation wasn’t as serious as we’d feared. Her grandmother had simply tried to go to the bathroom alone, lost her strength, and fallen over.
“Ah, you scared me to death! Why do you keep falling?!”
From beyond the hospital room door, I could hear Ari crying while scolding her grandmother. I stood silently in the hallway, listening to the sound. I was truly relieved that her grandmother was safe.
As I listened to Ari’s story, my own parents naturally came to mind. They had also died in a gate accident. Sadly, I’d had no relatives to contact afterward, so I’d been forced to live alone the entire time.
‘At least Ari still has her grandmother.’
When I lost my parents, I’d just turned twenty. It was terrifying, but I was old enough to survive on my own somehow.
But Ari still needed someone to protect and care for her.
“Unni, Grandma says she wants to meet you.”
I was quietly lost in thought when the hospital room door slid open, and Ari peeked her head out. Her eyes were swollen red from crying so much.
I’d already been planning to greet her grandmother anyway. I carefully stepped into the hospital room and bowed my head politely.
“Hello. I’m one of Ari’s close unnies–”
“Oh my, if it isn’t our Haneul!”
At the voice filled with delight, I snapped my head up in shock.
“…Grandma Moonrye?”
“That’s right! What brings you here, hm?”
It was none other than Grandma Moonrye, a regular customer from my parents’ old shop.
Ari’s grandmother was Grandma Moonrye?
Ari stared at me in confusion from beside the bed.
“You know my grandma?”
“…Yeah. She was a longtime regular at our shop.”
“The bungeoppang shop?”
“No. Before that. My late parents’ store.”
Grandma Moonrye used to visit the shop constantly, but one day she suddenly stopped coming, so I’d been worried. Seeing her again like this made me genuinely happy.
“Grandma, why did you suddenly stop coming to the store? I was really worried about you.”
“I suddenly had to take care of my granddaughter, so I couldn’t help it. I should’ve at least told you.”
She beckoned me closer.
“Oh dear… that baby grew up so much…”
Her rough hand gently caressed my cheek.
‘Such warm, comforting hands.’
At her touch, forgotten memories resurfaced.
Her pressing candy into my tiny hands whenever I helped my parents at the shop.
She brought kimbap to my school sports festival in place of my busy parents.
She took me out for jajangmyeon after I got first place in my class.
Because my parents had always been busy running the store, Grandma Moonrye had taken care of me often. But after my parents passed away, I became so consumed with running the shop alone that I’d forgotten all of it.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t even know you were sick. I came way too late, didn’t I…?”
“No, not at all. Sweetheart, how’s the shop doing?”
She asked kindly.
I forced a smile and shook my head.
“I closed it.”
“What? How come?”
“A lot of things happened…”
“Oh, dear. It’s alright. You’ve worked so hard, child.”
Even without an explanation, she seemed to understand what I’d gone through all these years as she gently patted my hand.
“You’ve done well. It must’ve been hard protecting the store all by yourself, hm?”
“…I’m okay. Please get some rest. I’m going to talk with Ari for a bit.”
Barely holding back the tears welling up in my eyes, I left the room with Ari.
After speaking with the doctor, we learned that natural recovery was no longer possible, and surgery had become unavoidable. If this condition continued, her grandmother might lose the ability to walk entirely, so they advised making a decision quickly.
Throughout the explanation, Ari stood there with her head lowered like a criminal. I couldn’t even imagine how heavy the burden on her young shoulders must be.
“To remove the mass of hardened mana around her knees, we’ll need high-purity mana stones.”
“You need mana stones?”
The doctor nodded grimly.
“The mana that seeps into non-awakened bodies can only be treated with mana stones. So the surgery itself isn’t the issue… the problem is obtaining the materials. We’re doing our best to secure them right now.”
So that was why the surgery cost so much. It required high-purity mana stones.
Fortunately, I still had the mana stone Ria Hunter had given me sitting in my inventory. I’d kept it because I thought it might become useful someday.
‘Grandma loved me so much when I was little. I want to repay that kindness, even now.’
With the mana stone I had, her surgery could proceed immediately.
After making up my mind, I held Ari’s hand and spoke carefully.
“Ari. I have a mana stone. I want to use it to help your grandmother. Would that be okay?”
“U-Unni?”
Ari hurriedly shook her head, saying I didn’t need to go that far for them. She said she’d already saved some money, and if she entered a few more gates, she’d be able to cover the rest herself.
I firmly shook my head.
“Let’s stop doing dangerous things like that. How sad do you think your grandmother would be if you got hurt?”
“But Unni, the surgery costs…”
“Leave that to me. But I do have one condition.”
“A condition?”
Looking into Ari’s wavering eyes, I smiled warmly.
“Once your grandmother safely leaves the hospital, would you work at my shop?”
No matter how much I thought about it, I didn’t think I’d ever find someone better than Ari.
She was smart enough to use her rank to earn money, and kind enough to sacrifice herself for her grandmother’s surgery costs.
And I wanted to repay Grandma Moonrye, who had once been almost like family to me.
“…Thank you, Unni. I’ll really work hard.”
With tears brimming in her eyes, Ari nodded. Her chest rose and fell heavily as she tried to hold back her crying, but eventually thick tears spilled down her cheeks anyway.
“Don’t cry. Everything’s going to be okay.”
“You’re crying too, Unni…”
Before I realized it, my own cheeks were wet as well. We looked at each other and burst into laughter.
Right after that, I handed over the mana stone to the hospital staff. The doctor was overjoyed after examining it and said they could proceed with the surgery immediately.
After gently hugging Ari, who thanked me over and over again, I stepped outside the hospital. The winter wind was cold, but strangely, the more deeply I breathed it in, the warmer my heart felt.
It was a precious day… the day I was finally able to give back the love I’d only ever received as a child.
***
[Grandma got moved to a regular hospital room! Once she gets discharged, I’ll come to work right away >0<]
Reading the text Ari sent me, I let out a small laugh. She’d even added a cute emoticon that suited her perfectly.
Thankfully, her grandmother’s surgery had gone well, and she was currently recovering. The doctors said her recovery progress looked excellent, which was truly wonderful news.
I shared the update with Lee Hyunwoo over text. He’d looked pretty surprised when I told him I planned to hire Ari, whom we’d met inside the gate.
[So there really was another reason you entered the gate after all. By the way, are you seriously not going to practice shooting?]
I snorted softly at his reply, which came almost immediately after I sent the message.
Ever since we’d gone into the gate together, Lee Hyunwoo had been constantly trying to convince me to let him teach me how to shoot.
What exactly was a bungeoppang shop owner supposed to do after becoming a sharpshooter?
I was smiling to myself at the message when someone slowly opened the shop door and walked inside.
“So this is the famous bungeoppang shop. Interesting.”
Hurriedly putting my phone away, I greeted him.
“Hello! Did you make a reservation?”
“No. I didn’t reserve anything. I just got curious and decided to stop by.”
Without another word, he slowly looked around the shop.
Even while baking bungeoppang, my gaze kept drifting toward him. Under his soft brown hair with slight curls were sharp eyes that somehow felt cold. The strange tension he gave off made me clear my throat and focus harder on the fish-shaped pastries.
After looking around every corner of the shop, he approached me.
“Excuse me, can I ask you something?”
He curved the corners of his eyes as he smiled faintly.
Then, before I could even answer, he asked:
“What exactly is your relationship with Lee Hyunwoo?”
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