The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low Chapter 15

There are days in life when, from the moment you open your eyes in the morning, you feel unusually uneasy. For Wijae, today was exactly that kind of day.

Doesn’t everyone have days like that? Days when you wake up mid-sleep thinking, ‘This shouldn’t feel this refreshed…’ and the moment you snap your eyes open, you’re greeted by the sound of sparrows and warm sunlight. Days when you roll right off the bed the moment you get up, hurriedly get ready only to be on the verge of being late, and of all things, you bought new shoes but didn’t tie the laces, so you’re crying at the front door threading your shoelaces. Days when even falling backward would break your nose.

Cha Wijae felt this kind of ominous premonition for the first time in quite a while. He took out his phone and summoned his AI assistant.

” Nexbi, search today’s fortune.”

—Searching today’s fortune.

His AI assistant began reciting Cha Wijae’s fortune for the day in a flat, emotionless voice.

—It’s a day where even falling leaves could wound you, so you must be as careful and prudent as possible in all matters. Danger factors that threaten you are scattered everywhere. Don’t let anything slide—check carefully, and check again.

“Is this a fortune for today, or a murder warning…?”

Unlike Wijae’s wish to lighten his heart even a little, Nexbi continued delivering the unsettling fortune.

—It would be best to spend today carefully, carefully, and quietly. In the afternoon, there may be an unwelcome meeting, so how about going out for a short while?

It said a lot, but to sum it up in one line, it was saying ‘Your fortune today is trash.’

On days when an S-rank’s sharp intuition and fortune readings matched perfectly, things usually played out exactly as foretold. Today’s luck must be a bit rough. I should be careful…. Wijae rose, stretched, and resolved himself.

But there was something Cha Wijae overlooked… The point was that no matter how careful and prepared you are, fate eventually comes calling.

Just like Lee Sayoung, who had descended upon this shop today like a calamity!

∞ ∞ ∞

“Hello, hyung.”

The low, resonant, leisurely voice was familiar. Was it because the voice, though briefly heard, had been impressive? Was it because their first meeting had been so intense?

Wijae froze, holding the ttukbaegi. He didn’t want to believe his ears, but an S-rank’s hearing couldn’t have failed to properly identify a person. Moreover, the sight before his eyes perfectly matched the impression and appearance of that guy in his memory.

The gas mask, a head taller than everyone else, stood crookedly with hands shoved in pockets, looking this way.

“I received the letter you sent, hyung.”

“…”

“Hm…. You’re wearing a different apron today.”

“…”

“It suits you.”

The eyes meeting beyond the gas mask lenses were elated, like a cat placed before a toy.

It wasn’t only Wijae who was shocked by Sayoung’s appearance. The moment the gas-masked man opened the door and entered. As if a curse of slowness had been cast over the entire shop, everyone’s heads slowly turned toward the shop door.

And as if someone had pressed a pause button, everyone’s faces froze coldly. They were Hunters famous for their strong opinions, but in this moment, they were of one mind and one heart.

‘Why the hell are you here…?’

Before long, someone let out something like a groan.

“F*ck….”

‘Why would such a precious place suddenly get visited by such an unrefined person?’

‘Was that guy someone who ate out? He never eats out, does he? Isn’t he someone who doesn’t show up in crowded places in the first place?’

‘Fine, let’s say that bastard occasionally eats out too, but why here of all places!’

‘Is your life a bit boring? Why would you come to a shabby shop like this? There are plenty of other expensive, nice places?’

If the temperature of the Hunters’ sharp, heated gazes could be measured with a digital thermometer, it would easily exceed 100 degrees. If you placed a pot of water in the air, it wouldn’t just boil—it would melt the pot.

And at the center of it all stood Cha Wijae, who was more appalled than anyone but doing his utmost to manage his expression.

[Trait Poker Face (B) is activated.]

Fortunately, he had a trait that helped him manage his expression. There had never been a day he was as grateful for this fact as today. Wijae entrusted his expression management to the trait and quickly scanned his surroundings to find the culprit of this problem. And just then, a person caught his eye….

“Should we, um, go sit at that table over there? Haha.”

It was Bae Wonwoo, who had entered the shop looking like death. He was checking the surroundings with the face of someone who had spilled malatang on a white carpet—someone who had done something irreversible. The moment Bae Wonwoo appeared, the Hunters’ sharp gazes immediately turned toward him.

From the Hunters’ perspective, it was as if a meteor emitting poison gas had suddenly dropped onto a shop where they had been eating peacefully!

Sayoung didn’t even seem to see the Hunters glaring at him or Bae Wonwoo’s bitter face as he walked straight to the center of the soup restaurant. Just then, at the very center of the shop, there was a Hunter who had just finished eating three bowls of hangover soup and was rising from his seat. As he gasped and stepped back, Lee Sayoung confidently sat down as if that spot were his reserved seat.

Wijae, who was clutching his forehead at the appearance of this madman who deserved to be chased out with a ladle this instant, spoke.

“Customer, the table hasn’t been cleared yet. If you could sit elsewhere….”

“No.”

Lee Sayoung crossed his long legs and clasped his hands on his knees, answering as if it were nothing.

“Take your time clearing it. I like this seat. I can see the TV well too.”

“Ah, yes….”

What are you going to do watching that tiny brown-tube TV.

Wijae repeated the sentence ‘The customer is king’ to himself and calmly settled his mind. He had to somehow get through this without making a scene, as if it were nothing. Because this isn’t my shop. If a physical fight were to break out, it wouldn’t be strange for not just the shop’s preservation but this entire street to be blown away.

Showing displeasure here was an act of digging your own grave, opening the coffin, and climbing in. Moreover, a hangover soup restaurant part-timer who knows Lee Sayoung—just his existence was suspicious!

Cha Wijae had no choice but to clean the table where Lee Sayoung sat thoroughly, then pull out a ballpoint pen and a bill from his apron pocket. Lee Sayoung, who had been staring intently at him, asked innocently.

“What’s on the menu here?”

Bae Wonwoo looked at Lee Sayoung with a wronged expression. I told you everything before we came in, you punk. That there’s only hangover soup….

Wijae answered briefly.

“Hangover soup.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes. There’s only hangover soup.”

“Hey man, I told you they only sell hangover soup here.”

Bae Wonwoo, unable to bear it, intervened as if to stop him, but Sayoung deliberately looked around the old shop and continued.

“Can you run a business with just hangover soup?”

“Customer.”

“Ah, they sell rice and soju too. But those aren’t meal menu items, are they?”

“If you’re going to complain about the side dishes, leave.”

“Ah, ahaha, we’ll just have two bowls of hangover soup, please.”

Bae Wonwoo raised his voice a bit more than before and stepped in to mediate. Wijae let out a deep sigh and roughly scrawled a 2 on the bill. And for no particular reason, he silently stared at Bae Wonwoo for three seconds.

Bae Wonwoo. A regular customer with his signature even hanging in the shop. He clocked in for lunch and dinner almost every day, and once he came, he emptied at least three ttukbaegi pots—a regular among regulars. Wijae didn’t want to blame anyone as the culprit of this unwelcome reunion with the gas mask, but for a moment, he wanted to direct his arrows at him.

Perhaps sensing Wijae’s cold gaze, Bae Wonwoo subtly avoided his eyes and fixed his gaze on the table. And for no reason, he gulped down cold water.

‘…Know that I’m letting it slide because you’re a regular.’

Wijae thought he wanted to smack that Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed, and headed to the kitchen. He knew that blaming someone wouldn’t change the situation, but in front of a suddenly exploded giant bomb, he couldn’t help but feel irritation surging up.

‘Sigh, it’s already spilled water.’

Ever since the day he escaped the Rift and dropped into the future eight years later, Wijae had developed a talent for resignation. Glaring at Bae Wonwoo wouldn’t make Lee Sayoung disappear, and whether he liked it or hated it, he was a customer who paid and ate just the same. Wijae thought so and calmed his heart.

Alright. Cleanup complete. Having finished his mind control, Wijae placed two ttukbaegi pots on the gas stove. He prayed that bastard would behave himself at least for the short time it took to boil the hangover soup.

And a short while later, what greeted the diligent part-timer Cha Wijae was the sight of a hangover soup restaurant gone chilly.

To be precise, the tables around Lee Sayoung were empty in a circle. On the tables where customers had left, crumpled bills were placed haphazardly, and some people were loitering in front of the counter, seemingly waiting for Cha Wijae to ring them up.

Amidst that chaos, only Lee Sayoung sat serenely.

‘F*ck, who does he think he is, the eye of a typhoon?’

Startled, Wijae looked outside the door while holding the hangover soup. In the distance, he could see the backs of customers who had been happily slurping hangover soup just moments ago, now running off in a hurry.

“Excuse me!”

“I ate well―!!!”

Wijae, having set the hangover soup down on the tray, trotted out after them, but the Hunters answered in loud voices and disappeared in perfect order. They were so fast it resembled monsters fleeing from Hunters in a dungeon.

Wijae, who had been blankly staring at the empty alley, turned his gaze. In front of the shop door, Hunters waiting for seats were clinging to the wall like barnacles.

Wijae pointed to the empty seats inside the shop and spoke.

“Seats are open. Please come in. I’ll clean up for you right away.”

However, they all waved their hands and shook their heads.

“It’s okay! I’m not that hungry.”

Grrrrowl.

Your stomach doesn’t seem to think so. But the will of waiting number 1 was firm. He clenched his fists and cried desperately.

“I can wait a little longer!”

Well, if you insist…. When Wijae looked at waiting number 2, the Hunter standing second flinched in surprise and pulled out his phone, putting it to his ear. After hesitating for a moment, he soon spoke haltingly as if reading a textbook.

“Oh right! Team Leader, that thing was due today, wasn’t it! Look at me, I completely forgot! Yes, I’ll be right there!”

What is. And he’d been speaking in staccato until now, but at the end, he even performed the art of finishing with rap.

The second Hunter made a gesture of covering the speaker and whispered to Wijae.

“Oh dear, I did line up, but! I think I need to run the Team Leader’s errand first before eating. I’ve been so out of it lately, forgetting things… I’m fine, so please let the others in first.”

However, on the phone screen that had turned back on due to the proximity sensor, not only was there no phone number entered, but the wallpaper was fully visible. If you’re going to lie, at least put in the effort to press some numbers…. Wijae looked at waiting number 3 with coldly chilled eyes.

The Hunter standing third was expressionless and seemed quite calm even in this situation. Then I’ll take this customer. As Wijae thought that and looked at him, the Hunter opened his mouth.

“Can you call me when that bastard leaves? I’ll give you my number. 010…”

Cancel that. He was not calm at all.

As an unprecedented admission-refusal crisis broke out, the doubt blooming in Wijae’s heart turned to certainty. That bastard had definitely found him somehow using the ladle and apron from that night and come to cause a ruckus. Wijae, who had failed to refill a customer’s order for the first time since he started working at the hangover soup restaurant, went back inside, picked up the furiously boiling ttukbaegi, and headed to Lee Sayoung’s table.

Do you report obstruction of business to 112? But what do I do when the person causing the disturbance is a Hunter? If I call the Awakened Management Agency, will they take him away?

“Customer.”

Wijae plunked the furiously boiling hangover soup ttukbaegi down on the table with a thunk, thunk.

“Your two bowls of hangover soup are here.”

And even after finishing the serving, he stood there without moving. No matter how much of a concept-obsessed person eaten by their concept he was, he wouldn’t eat while wearing a gas mask. Just when Wijae was glaring at Lee Sayoung with a suspicious face, thinking ‘Let me see that shameless face of yours’…

A black-gloved hand reached toward the face, and Sayoung slowly removed the gas mask and set it on the table. Beneath slightly tousled bangs, purple eyes gleamed sharply. Perhaps because he had been watching Wijae the whole time too, their gazes tangled immediately.

“Your face is going to get drilled through.”

Wijae somehow couldn’t take his eyes off him. Just like that night when he first met Lee Sayoung in the alley.