Chapter 23: Telling Her about what happened with my ex

I returned to my seat with both Han Yu Ri’s coffee and mine.

“Thank you.”

When I placed the coffee in front of her, Han Yu Ri slightly bowed her head and said thank you.

Han Yu Ri had an Americano.

I had a Cafe Latte.

For me, the last memory of coming to a cafe was when I broke up with Joo Hyun.

Quite some time has passed since then.

My last memory at a cafe was quite unpleasant, which was why I generally didn’t want to go to a cafe again.

But having coffee alone with Han Yu Ri like this felt like all the bad memories from the cafe were completely gone.

Thanks to Han Yu Ri, the cafe had now become a very happy place for me.

Han Yu Ri and I continued talking while enjoying our coffee together.

“How do you know Hunter Lee Joo Hyun?”

Han Yu Ri asked about Joo Hyun.

She seemed to have been curious about it since earlier.

‘Hmm… Should I be honest?’

Joo Hyun had threatened me not to post photos of her and me together on the internet.

It’s not like there were any photos of us naked.

It’s just that, now that she was an S-class successful woman, she didn’t want photos of her taken affectionately with a C-class man in the past to spread.

Well, I felt bad about it, but I understood.

It might be the same for men, but especially for women.

Top actresses or top female idols wouldn’t want photos taken affectionately with a man they dated in the past to spread on the internet after they’ve become successful.

Because a beautiful S-class Hunter has far more fans than a celebrity.

But she only told me not to post photos, she didn’t say not to talk about dating her, did she?

The fact that we dated is already known by my friends and acquaintances anyway.

And even if the photo distribution is due to portrait rights, telling people I want to tell that we dated is my freedom.

“Ah, she’s my ex-girlfriend.”

“Ah…”

“We dated when she was E-class.”

“When she was E-class? Not when she was a civilian?”

Han Yu Ri said, surprised.

“Yes.”

“You must have loved her a lot.”

“Well, yeah.”

Han Yu Ri, of course, knew what being an E-class Hunter meant.

So she seemed to guess how much I had loved Joo Hyun.

Han Yu Ri was silent for a moment, perhaps shocked.

“To protect her, I lived with her in the E-class Hunter specific housing and fought desperately.”

“Ah… So you lived together.”

“Yes. The monthly rent there was 7 million won.

She was laid off from her company because she was classified as an E-class Hunter, couldn’t get into any company, and her family absolutely couldn’t afford to pay 7 million won per month.

There was no choice, was there?

If a C-class or higher Hunter lives together, the rent is waived on the condition that they participate in battles.

So I moved in with her.”

“Ha…”

Perhaps my story was pitiable, Han Yu Ri let out a long sigh.

“That place is where E-class Hunters are gathered, so monster attacks are immense, aren’t they?”

“Yes. Well, they invaded almost every day. So I truly fought almost every day.”

I gave a wry smile and spoke calmly.

Yes.

There was such a time.

A time when I truly fought desperately, risking my life every day, to protect the woman I loved.

“It must have been very difficult for you. I’m relieved that you’re safe.”

“Yes. I got hurt a lot back then.

And after fighting like that, I also needed living expenses, so I went out to clear Gates and fought again.

Because I had to earn money.”

I continued speaking, maintaining a smile.

It was a wry smile that came from finding it absurd even myself.

‘What is love?’

Back then, I wanted to protect Joo Hyun so much that I went through a lot of hardship.

“Gates too? It must have been difficult enough just fighting to protect that place.”

“Still, there was nothing I could do. She couldn’t earn money.

She had to stay on mandatory standby at home for 8 hours a day to prepare for battles, so she didn’t have much time to clear Gates.

So I spent 8 hours at home, defending if an attack came, and went out for 3 hours to clear Gates to earn living expenses.

That’s how I lived.”

“You must have had a very hard time.”

She spoke with a voice that genuinely sympathized with me.

“Honestly, it was a bit difficult, but it was okay because I was protecting the person I loved.

If I canceled a scheduled Gate clearing, I might lose my job, so even if I got hurt defending against an attack, I would drag my injured body and go clear Gates anyway.

If it weren’t for love, I would never have been able to endure it.”

“If you went through all that, why did you break up? Surely…”

“That ‘surely’ is probably right.

After she became S-class, she cheated with an S-class man.”

As I was talking, I started to get angry.

So I told Han Yu Ri everything Joo Hyun had done to me.

“She didn’t seem like that. Lee Joo Hyun is truly a bad person. I didn’t know Hunter Kim Joon Hyuk was that kind of person either.”

After hearing my story, Han Yu Ri also seemed angry.

It felt a little better knowing that an S-class Hunter was angry with me.

Hey, Lee Joo Hyun.

Are you the only one who has an S-class Hunter?

I also have an S-class Hunter getting angry with me right now.

Of course, we are not in a relationship.

Still, just by confiding in Han Yu Ri and getting her sympathy, I felt a lot better.

I was grateful to Han Yu Ri.

“Although Lee Joo Hyun is a bad person, her power seems immense.”

After that, we talked about Joo Hyun’s cheating for a while.

Throughout the conversation, Han Yu Ri got incredibly angry.

I was grateful for her anger, and she was so cute and pretty.

Thank you for taking my side, Yu Ri.

Our conversation shifted from the story of the affair to the story of Joo Hyun’s power.

“Why?”

“As Geon-nim also knows, there was that incident where Hunter Kim Joon Hyuk was injured at a cafe recently.”

Han Yu Ri spoke to me with a serious tone.

Ah, I know it very well.

I was the one who hit him.

“Yes.”

“Hunter Kim Joon Hyuk announced that the injury was due to Hunter Lee Joo Hyun.

How could she, even if she is an S-class Debuffer, injure an attack-type S-class Hunter, and not just any other person, but Hunter Kim Joon Hyuk?

That means she has an incredible Debuff skill…”

Han Yu Ri said, seemingly deep in thought.

‘No, that’s not it.’

“Even I, no matter how much I buff myself with an attack power blessing, cannot deal damage even to Geon-nim.

Let alone Geon-nim, I can’t even take down a low-level monster.

But what kind of powerful Debuff could she have applied that an S-class Hunter was injured to that extent?”

Han Yu Ri continued speaking, looking serious.

I noticed that Han Yu Ri’s way of addressing me had changed from ‘Kwon Geon-nim’ to ‘Geon-nim’.

She’s dropping the family name.

Have I become a little more comfortable for her now?

Then can I call her ‘Yu Ri-nim’ now?

“Um…

That Kim Joon Hyuk, no.”

Kim Joon Hyuk bich wasn’t a ‘nim’ to me, so I automatically called him casually without realizing it.

But since I was in front of Han Yu Ri, I thought I should call him properly even if I was annoyed, so I stopped speaking.

“You can call me casually. It’s just the two of us anyway, and Hunter Kim Joon Hyuk is someone who did something very bad to Geon-nim.”

I was grateful that Han Yu Ri took my side.

“Thank you for understanding.

Still, I’m in front of you, an S-class Hunter, and even though I personally hold a grudge, he is still an S-class Hunter who protects South Korea…”

“When friends talk, they even call the president by name, so is an S-class Hunter any different?

Other people are probably calling me Han Yu Ri when they talk about me in private.

Well, please continue talking about Kim Joon Hyuk.”

As if to make me feel comfortable, Han Yu Ri said Kim Joon Hyuk’s name first.

Oh, she has a hotter side than I thought.

Thank you.

“Yes. If you say so.

There’s no guarantee that Kim Joon Hyuk was in a full magic power state as an S-class, is there?

Maybe he lowered his shield level to test something with Joo Hyun, and that’s how it happened.”

I hinted at it to give Han Yu Ri a clue.

I couldn’t bring myself to say that he lowered his shield and I was the one who hit him and made him like that.

Because Han Yu Ri had seen me defeat a 3rd-class monster, she might believe my words.

But what if she didn’t believe me?

She might think I’m a strange person.

A 3rd-class monster is indeed immense, but Kim Joon Hyuk is a much more immense being than that.

Unlike a 3rd-class monster that even lower S-class Hunters can defeat one-on-one, Kim Joon Hyuk is a man at the pinnacle among all S-class Hunters in Korea.

If I said that I, a C-class, hit him and made him like that, and she didn’t believe me?

This pleasant conversation atmosphere could suddenly break and become awkward.

I didn’t want to break this happy conversation time with Han Yu Ri.

There was no reason to necessarily tell her I was the one who hit him, and I didn’t want to gamble needlessly.

“Ah, that could be the case.

Did he experiment by deliberately lowering his shield level to check the Debuff effect?

But why did he do it at a cafe instead of the guild building, which is safer?”

Han Yu Ri asked me, looking puzzled.

“Well, I don’t know. Maybe they had a lovers’ quarrel while having coffee at the cafe?”

I wanted to quickly move past this topic.

So I just threw out a nonsensical joke at Han Yu Ri.

I could see Han Yu Ri’s eyes, peeking out, smiling.

I could feel Han Yu Ri grinning slightly.