EP.44
“Why haven’t you left work by this time?”
Seeing Lee Sooah still at the office late into the night was surprising.
“Hey, Jihoon, are you about to leave?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
I felt a bit awkward and flustered.
“Then let’s head out together!!”
“Ah… okay…”
‘What does it mean to leave together? We’re heading in different directions anyway.’
Lee Sooah and I started walking towards the subway.
“By the way, do you usually take the subway to work? Don’t you have a car?”
I remembered Yoo Hana leaving in an extremely expensive car earlier.
You don’t have to be a celebrity to drive a nice car.
Lee Sooah is at a similar level as Yoo Hana, right?
I realized I had never thought about this—Lee Sooah taking the subway?
Now that I thought about it, it was strange.
Lee Sooah is a top S-Rank hunter.
There’s no way she’d be taking the subway.
“Ah… yeah… um…”
Lee Sooah made an odd sound, as if she was flustered.
“I drove in yesterday, but I took the subway home! So today I took a taxi to work… My car is in this building.”
‘Huh? What kind of strange routine is that?’
“So, did you take the subway because you wanted to see my house? You took it for my sake?”
That definitely seemed odd.
Driving a car only to take the subway home and then a taxi back to work?
And now, why isn’t she using her car?
Is she just leaving it here?
‘Is she really trying to follow me around…?’
“No, it’s not because of Baek Jihoon! It’s for the team! Team management!!!”
She kept embellishing her reasoning with strange logic.
What kind of team management is that?
‘Does she have some interest in me or not?’
‘No, Baek Jihoon, get a grip.’
Absurd thoughts began to swirl in my mind.
Lee Sooah likes me?
That doesn’t make sense.
Not a single soul would believe it if I told someone.
Even my closest friends would laugh openly at that.
“Oh, that’s how it is! Team members are important. It’s essential to help them settle in well initially.”
“Haha… right…”
“But I have a simple question…”
“Yeah? What is it?”
“Did you talk to Yoo Hana today? Did you have a lot of conversation? Did she seem particularly attentive towards you? Did you ask her anything? Was she curious about you? Did you shake hands? I mean, you didn’t get too close, did you? What do you think Yoo Hana thinks about you? How did she seem today? Do you think you two will get along in the future?”
Suddenly, she bombarded me with questions.
She was talking almost like she was rapping, hardly taking a breath.
‘Wow, that startled me.’
I couldn’t help but flinch.
She had said she just wanted to ask a simple question, but the torrent of inquiries overwhelmed me.
And she waited expectantly for my answer.
“Uh… she seemed a bit upset at one point but appears to be okay now.”
Her expression shifted to a perplexed look after my reply.
“Really? She got upset but calmed down? Hmmm…”
“But why? Why are you asking?”
“Oh, team management! She has a pretty bad attitude and personality. I just want to make sure she hasn’t done anything wrong to our team members. I have to protect them!”
Lee Sooah smiled brightly.
“Well, her personality isn’t really that bad.”
She definitely seemed a bit off at first, but once she calmed down, she was fine.
It had to be the status ailment that was the problem, not Yoo Hana herself.
“What do you mean? That’s ridiculous! She’s really not someone good for a guy to get close to, Baek Jihoon! Get a grip. How could you even think about her?”
Suddenly, she raised her voice.
‘What? They really are rivals, huh?’
It seemed like everyone knew about the rivalry between Yoo Hana and Lee Sooah.
When Yoo Hana was active as a hunter in the Blue Guild, the competition was fierce.
At that time, they weren’t even allowed to use the term “A-Team.”
They just couldn’t settle the dispute over who would get to use “A.”
“Ha. I just don’t get why they picked you, Baek Jihoon. What on earth was the guild master thinking? That role is so underwhelming for you. Our Baek Jihoon is going through a tough time.”
“Ah, yes.”
‘Well, at least they pay well, so it’s not all bad…’
I mean, I didn’t explicitly have any aspirations to be a hunter.
It would be nice if I did well as a hunter, but I’d be satisfied just earning good money.
Becoming famous or successful isn’t everything in life.
In fact, living joyfully alongside beautiful and famous people like Lee Sooah and Yoo Hana could be a better choice.
“By the way, Baek Jihoon?”
“Yeah?”
“When are you inviting me to dinner? Today?”
“What?”
I was taken aback and found it hard to believe.
Of course, I had finished cleaning the house yesterday.
But inviting someone over within a day?
“Ah, no. I’m not prepared for today… I just got off work.”
EP.44
“Ah… I see. Then when… uh…”
“How about tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow? Sounds good!”
‘She really loves dinner.’
“Then see you later.”
I nodded.
We had arrived at the subway station.
She and I were heading in completely opposite directions.
“Oh, I’m going towards Sillim Station too…”
“Why today? You just saw it yesterday, right?”
“Uh, um, no, I just have something to do near Sillim Station today.”
“Oh, I see.”
I had unnecessarily jumped to conclusions.
“Yep…”
Clatter, clatter.
“Wow, isn’t that Lee Sooah?”
“Hey, what do you mean Lee Sooah takes the subway? No way.”
“No, it really looks like Lee Sooah.”
Just like yesterday’s reactions.
Of course, since it was an 8 PM finish, it wasn’t as crowded as yesterday.
“But I heard she doesn’t like being so exposed.”
“Who said that?”
“Manager Cha.”
“Ha. Manager Cha says a lot of unnecessary things…”
“I heard she usually goes alone and avoids crowded places.”
“Ha. That’s just Manager Cha not knowing me well. Don’t pay much attention to it…”
Lee Sooah seemed quite different from what I had heard.
‘Hmm… Am I possibly developing some Incubus traits or something?’
I couldn’t find any definitive information on my status window.
But it still seemed likely given the circumstances.
‘If that happens, wouldn’t I be able to flirt with almost every woman?’
Could it be heaven? Or perhaps hell?
I found myself daydreaming about something that sounded like it belonged in a web novel.
‘Does that even make sense?’
I was still unsure.
“Ah, we’ve arrived.”
Lost in thought, I had come to Sillim Station without realizing it.
“Then see you later!”
“Yes, yes!”
Leaving Lee Sooah, who seemed a bit flustered, I headed home.
“Phew. Now I should go home.”
Lee Sooah got back on the subway she had just exited.
‘Why is Sillim so far away? How annoying. Should I just move to Sillim?’
‘Hmm~ That might be necessary. No, I need to protect my team members, right? The new team member must have been really confused. Just throwing them into a dispatch like this…’
‘I feel like I’m not doing enough as a team leader. How can I take better care of my team?’
Lee Sooah stood on the subway, lost in thought, beginning to spiral into strange ideas.
“Hey, hey. Isn’t that Lee Sooah?”
“Hey, are you crazy? Lee Sooah is alone on the subway? And looking like that? No way!”
“No, she really looks like Lee Sooah, right? It must be her!”
“Ugh. Just because she looks similar doesn’t mean it’s her.”
I could hear people around me saying they recognized her, but for Lee Sooah, those words didn’t seem to matter right now.
“Hmm. It’s okay, it’s okay! Fighting, Lee Sooah! You can do it, moving forward! Let’s support and take care of Baek Jihoon Hunter!!! Hmm~~”
Suddenly, she began humming a tune.
“Hmm. What is this?”
Yoo Hana thought she had a strange experience today.
“What? What is happening… I feel kind of energized today…”
She began monitoring what she had filmed earlier.
“Wow, my makeup really looks good today, feels like my skin improved too… Did I get prettier…?”
“Is it because of my expression…?”
“Something feels off…”
She recalled what she had heard earlier.
“Hey, Hana, is something good happening today? Your filming went really well…”
“Hana, just like today, please keep it up. Asking why it was like that until now…”
“It was totally awesome. Really great.”
“Hmm… Could it be because of that guy…?”
Yoo Hana thought of Baek Jihoon.
Or to be more precise, it would be accurate to say Baek Jihoon hadn’t left her mind.
Her first impression wasn’t great.
‘He’s an E-Rank, right?’
‘Plus the cheesy lines he threw my way…’
He definitely sounded like he was about to harass her.
Yoo Hana was quite sensitive to these things.
The men who approached her until now had all been just like that.
“Hana, want to grab a drink after filming? I can make you feel really good.”
“I can show you a whole new world. How about we go together tonight?”
“You know I’m famous, right? I’m really good at it. I’ll take you to heaven tonight.”
They were all like that.
“Ugh… Are all men so trashy? Is that all they think about?”
She shook her head in disbelief.
“Hmm… But that guy feels different, maybe…?”
It wasn’t intentional, but he kept popping into her thoughts.
“Ugh. It’s probably just luck. Get a grip, Yoo Hana. Why are you even thinking about an E-rank hunter?”
She decided to snap out of it by slapping her cheeks.
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