<Episode 93>
“…Hunter Lee Hyunwoo! Are you okay?”
The corners of Hunter Lee Hyunwoo’s lips slowly curled upward as our eyes met. Soon, the brightest smile imaginable spread across his face.
“I knew it would be you, Ms. Haneul.”
After uttering those cryptic words, he suddenly pulled me into his arms.
“H-Hunter!?”
Startled by the sudden embrace, I patted his broad back awkwardly. Every time he laughed, a deep vibration resonated through the chest pressed against mine.
“I’m truly relieved that I was able to recover my memories…”
His low voice sounded overwhelmingly emotional.
Only then did I stop struggling and quietly accept his joy.
After holding me for quite a while, Hunter Lee Hyunwoo finally calmed down and shared the memories he had recovered.
“So the person Hunter Lee Hyunwoo had been searching for… was me?”
He nodded.
He said that when his father left home, and even his beloved mother passed away, he had lost all motivation to live and had spent his days like a dead man.
“If it hadn’t been for the small hand of Hunter Haneul guiding me back then, I probably wouldn’t have been able to endure any longer.”
His large hand gently wrapped around mine.
The rough calluses unique to hunters who had spent years gripping swords brushed against my palm.
For some reason, it still didn’t feel real, and I stared at him blankly.
Of course, the incident he spoke of was also a vivid memory preserved in my own mind.
My parents would often close their restaurant and volunteer free meals for people who had lost their homes because of the Gates.
Sometimes it was only a day; sometimes as long as two weeks.
Naturally, after school, I would often drop by and help out with my tiny hands.
Among all those memories, the one that remained the clearest was the day I met my first crush.
Short-cropped hair.
A school uniform with worn-out sleeves.
A body so thin it looked as though it would snap if touched.
A fragile boy who seemed like he might disappear at any moment.
And the clear, deep eyes that looked back at me the moment I approached and tugged on his sleeve.
‘That person was Hunter Lee Hyunwoo?’
I slowly looked over the man sitting before me.
A mountain-like physique filled my vision.
‘How tall was Hunter Lee Hyunwoo again? I think his profile said over 190 centimeters…’
I muttered absentmindedly.
“Th-that person back then wasn’t this huge.”
At the very least, he had looked so skinny that it felt like he needed two full bowls of gukbap.
At my words, he threw his head back and laughed cheerfully.
“That was when I was living in the orphanage. After awakening, I joined the Management Bureau and trained there, so I gained muscle. Of course, I also grew taller.”
Come to think of it, the way his eyes curved gently when he smiled really did resemble the older brother from my memories.
I found myself staring at his face in a daze before suddenly realizing just how close he was.
“I-it’s really amazing! I never imagined that the person from back then was actually Hunter Lee Hyunwoo. I couldn’t have possibly–”
I rambled in embarrassment, saying whatever came to mind, when Hunter Lee Hyunwoo quietly asked:
“By the way, I arrived far too late. Were you alright after falling into the water back then? Did you recover from your cold?”
The concern practically dripping from his gaze made me hurriedly nod.
“Ah, yes! I was fine. I was just a little startled…”
To be honest, perhaps because I had fallen into the water so suddenly, my memories of that day weren’t very clear.
The next thing I remembered was waking up in my room at home and being bedridden for several days.
How excited I had been when I heard that the older boy I had a crush on had saved me.
I had poured my sincere feelings into a letter and waited day after day for him to visit our restaurant.
“…I wondered why you never came to the restaurant, but it was because you awakened. I thought maybe you never saw the letter I left. Or perhaps you read it and threw it away.”
At my words, Hunter Lee Hyunwoo frantically waved his hands.
“There’s no way! I treasured it more than anything. I even fell asleep clutching it because I was afraid I might lose it.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I spent every day with my heart racing, thinking that I would visit as soon as my graduation ceremony was over, but…”
His expression darkened.
“On the day of my graduation, Awakening Fever suddenly began. I collapsed because I couldn’t withstand the surge of mana. When I regained consciousness, several days had already passed, and my school uniform had already been sent to the dry cleaner.”
Hunter Lee Hyunwoo took out his wallet.
From deep inside, he pulled out a business card whose edges had become ragged and worn.
Most of the lettering had faded away, leaving only something like:
‘Jeong Da-eu… Sikdang.’
“I don’t remember it, but for some reason, I didn’t want to throw it away. The letter disappeared, and only the business card, which happened to be laminated, survived in this condition.”
“…This is our restaurant’s business card.”
Though most of the letters were gone, I recognized it immediately.
It was the very business card that had always sat near our restaurant’s register.
Taking the worn card from his hand, I gently brushed its surface.
‘Even without his memories, he still kept it safe.’
Even I could barely identify the restaurant name from the faded letters.
There was no way Hunter Lee Hyunwoo, who had lost all memory of it, could have figured it out.
‘He didn’t stay away on purpose.’
That fact alone completely erased the sadness I had carried since childhood.
It was good that the misunderstanding had been cleared up, but…
‘That means my childhood crush was Hunter Lee Hyunwoo? No way!’
The person I had constantly begged my mother about, asking when that handsome older boy would visit again, had been Hunter Lee Hyunwoo.
The very same person whose story I had told Shin-hye while blushing was the man sitting right in front of me.
“……”
Of course, I wasn’t naïve enough to think that just because of that childhood crush, I should marry him now.
‘Ugh. Why does this feel so strange?’
I secretly glanced at Hunter Lee Hyunwoo.
The moment our eyes met, he softened his smile.
Faced with that divine visual attack, I absentmindedly thought:
‘Well, the person Hunter Lee Hyunwoo was searching for turned out to be me. Isn’t that enough?’
…Of course, the “person he was searching for” probably wasn’t a romantic feeling like my first love.
To him, I was probably just a younger sister figure from childhood whose well-being he had wondered about.
But…
‘What if it isn’t?’
‘And if it isn’t, then what? What are you even thinking, Jung Haneul!?’
My face suddenly felt hot, and I began fanning myself with my hand when Hunter Lee Hyunwoo called out to me with a serious expression.
“There is something else, Ms. Haneul.”
“Y-Yes?”
“We’ve known each other since childhood…”
He paused briefly and furrowed his brows as though troubled.
“Doesn’t it feel a bit too formal to keep calling each other ‘Hunter’? I think it might be time to reconsider how we address one another.”
“Our forms of address?”
“Yes.”
He looked straight at me.
“After all… we share a ‘special’ relationship.”
Was it my imagination?
The way he emphasized the word ‘special’ sounded oddly deliberate.
Clutching my strangely restless heart, I carefully asked:
“Then… what kind of form of address would you prefer?”
Hunter Lee Hyunwoo seemed to ponder for a moment before speaking.
“How about calling each other casually, like we did when we were young? For example… Haneul.”
Tilting his head slightly as though asking whether that would be alright, he looked at me.
It was just my name.
Why did it sound so embarrassingly intimate?
His voice seemed to echo in my ears on repeat.
“Th-that’s not possible!”
I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head.
Too much had changed for us to suddenly speak as casually as we had as children.
More than anything, it would feel awkward.
“We’ll keep seeing each other at the Management Bureau… and there are other hunters around too. If only the two of us started speaking casually, it would feel a little… uncomfortable…”
I waved my hands frantically while making excuses, and then I heard Hunter Lee Hyunwoo’s low chuckle.
Peeking through half-open eyes, I saw him resting his chin on one arm as he watched me.
“I think I’d be fine with it. But if it makes you uncomfortable, then it can’t be helped.”
He smiled gently.
“Then would ‘Ms. Haneul,’ be acceptable?”
Hmm.
That didn’t seem too bad.
After some thought, I slowly nodded.
Apparently, my approval pleased him greatly, because his entire face brightened.
“Thank you for allowing it. It feels like we’ve become closer.”
“Hahaha… me too, Hunter Lee Hyunwoo.”
“Surely I’m not the only one changing how I address you?”
Hunter Lee Hyunwoo drooped his shoulders with a dejected expression.
Using his good looks like that was unfair.
But honestly, it was impossible not to fall for it.
Forcing my reluctant mouth to move, I muttered:
“I’ll change it too! L-Lee Hyunwoo… s-siiiii…”
A low laugh escaped from him.
For some reason, all the energy drained out of me, and I slowly collapsed face-first onto the table.
Bzzzz
At that moment, Hyunwoo’s watch vibrated loudly.
After excusing himself and checking the message, a deep frown formed between his brows.
“It seems we need to go to the Management Bureau immediately. You as well, Ms. Haneul.”
“At this hour? Did something happen?”
Hyunwoo hesitated before answering.
“Do you remember those hunters who pretended to be investigators?”
“The people who threatened me by claiming a hunter had died after eating food from our restaurant? Of course, I remember. Don’t tell me the mastermind was finally identified?”
Hyunwoo slowly shook his head.
“They apparently experienced a mana rampage while inside the interrogation room.”
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