Chapter 62: A Brief Refuge, a Sudden Reunion

After driving for several hours through wide rice paddies and fields, they finally arrived at Koo Min-ah’s house.

Judging by her appearance, she looked like someone who had lived her entire life in the city…

Perhaps noticing the meaning in Sung Ji-woo’s gaze, Koo Min-ah mouthed silently,

‘What.’

Sung Ji-woo immediately backed down.

“It’s nothing.”

Koo Min-ah stopped in front of a house with a neatly painted blue gate.

“Mom, I’m home.”

She shouted as she swung the gate open.

The moment they stepped into the yard, the fresh scent of soil filled the air.

A mottled cat spotted Sung Ji-woo and immediately slipped under the wooden floor.

Wary yellow eyes watched him closely.

“Oh, you’re here?”

A middle-aged woman sitting on the wooden porch replied in a relaxed tone.

She didn’t look surprised at all by their arrival.

“…H-Hello. I’m Sung Ji-woo.”

“Welcome.”

Despite his greeting, she showed no sign of fluster, simply smiling warmly.

She felt similar to Koo Min-ah, yet completely different at the same time.

It was an unfamiliar and awkward place, but peaceful and comfortable.

The anxiety that had been weighing on him seemed to settle just a little.

“You’ve been staring at that the whole time—what are you doing?”

“You never know. Yu Hiro might’ve taken back what he said.”

“…That doesn’t seem very likely.”

Ever since arriving at the countryside house, Sung Ji-woo had been glued to the computer for a full hour.

All he saw were online posts increasing in real time—each one twisting his insides further.

Overwhelmed by fatigue, he blinked slowly.

His neck felt stiff, and his shoulders ached.

“If you’ve got nothing to do, come out.”

“Why?”

“So you can at least earn your meal.”

Koo Min-ah tossed a pair of mom-bae pants onto Sung Ji-woo’s head.

They were deep purple, covered in tiny flower patterns no bigger than fingernails.

She actually has these at home?

When Sung Ji-woo stared at her in shock, Koo Min-ah had already changed.

Thousands of floral buds were boldly asserting their presence on her lower half.

“…What are we doing?”

“Picking vegetables.”

At that, Sung Ji-woo stood up.

“What kind of vegetables?”

“Strawberries. Stop asking and come out.”

Koo Min-ah headed outside first.

As Sung Ji-woo reluctantly started changing, the door cracked open and something rolled into the room.

It was sunscreen.

“You know the UV’s strong even near sunset, right?”

*******************************

“So… this is strawberry picking?”

From what angle?

Sung Ji-woo stared incredulously at the long row of plants.

They weren’t quite trees—just green stalks leaning on metal supports, grown up to waist height.

And hanging from them were finger-sized red chili peppers in abundance.

“They’re both bright red, aren’t they?”

Koo Min-ah replied without batting an eye.

Sung Ji-woo wanted to say more, but decided his mouth would only get sore.

Still, to be honest, he’d actually been a little excited when she said they were picking strawberries.

Even though he knew it wasn’t strawberry season!

“Try thinking of them as strawberries when you eat them. They’re sweet.”

Koo Min-ah teased as she watched Sung Ji-woo blankly stare at the peppers.

The amusement in her voice made it obvious she was messing with him, and Sung Ji-woo frowned.

He tossed a pepper into the red basket.

“Are you messing with me?”

“I told you not to come.”

For some reason, Koo Min-ah seemed reluctant to let people know her home was in the countryside.

From the start, she’d insisted on calling it the “middle of nowhere.”

Even now, she seemed to exaggerate on purpose.

It was different from her usual detached, emotionally flat self.

Sung Ji-woo wiped the sweat from his forehead with his wrist.

Both hands were covered in work gloves, making it impossible to wipe properly.

It looked awkward, but he had no choice.

He’d heard horror stories about getting burned from handling chili peppers too long with bare hands.

“So how did you end up transferring from this place to a school in Gyeonggi Province?”

Now that he’d seen her family home, the question came naturally.

If her family still lived here, that meant Koo Min-ah had gone off on her own to attend school.

“Because I’m an ability user.”

She answered like it was obvious, but Sung Ji-woo’s sharp gaze didn’t let her off easily.

“If you’re an ability user, why transfer in your second year of high school?”

“You lived here before that.”

“……”

Koo Min-ah avoided answering and simply carried off the basket full of peppers.

At first, the mom-bae pants had looked ridiculously mismatched on her.

But the more he looked, the more they somehow suited her.

Maybe because her movements felt so natural, like someone used to country life.

“My mom said she’s making young radish kimchi.”

“Take some with you when you go back to Seoul.”

Koo Min-ah said it casually, clearly aware that Sung Ji-woo had no family home to return to.

She didn’t look back as she spoke.

Seeing that, Sung Ji-woo decided not to pry any further.

“Come on. I don’t know the way around here!”

**************************

Yu Hiro remained planted in the general store for hours, licking his dry lips over and over.

He kept checking his phone, but the message he was waiting for never came.

Gam Juan cautiously asked the guild members for help, but they were more interested in teasing him.

The Knocker Guild had long since given up on recruiting Yu Hiro, so to them, this whole situation was nothing more than entertainment.

When Yu Hiro first bolted out of the store after realizing Sung Ji-woo was gone, no one expected him to return.

But several hours later, he came back with his hair in complete disarray.

Since then, he’d been waiting in the store nonstop.

Because of that, Gam Juan couldn’t even go to the bathroom in peace.

He was suffering—truly.

Worse still, Yu Hiro sat there with the aura of someone ready to kill.

When he was with Sung Ji-woo, he always seemed gentle.

But now, it finally hit home.

This man was that Hunter HERO.

The man who had cleared the infamous X-Gate in three years—the first in the world.

“…Haa.”

At Yu Hiro’s sigh, Gam Juan flinched.

He tried to act like he wasn’t startled, but Yu Hiro wasn’t paying him any attention anyway.

Gam Juan had lived and worked alongside burly guild members for years, yet somehow, Yu Hiro felt even more dangerous than them.

‘Mr. Ji-woo… where on earth did you go?’

Gam Juan squeezed his eyes shut and silently prayed for Sung Ji-woo’s safety.

**********************

After finishing an entire batch of young radish kimchi, Sung Ji-woo collapsed, utterly exhausted.

He was pretty sure he’d only been told they were making kimchi.

Somehow, he’d ended up doing all the miscellaneous labor.

None of it was especially difficult, but everything—from cooking glutinous rice paste onward—had been a first for him.

His unfamiliarity had drained his stamina.

By the time they hung all the peppers they’d picked in the backyard, the sun had long set and the stars filled the sky.

He’d never seen so many stars in his life.

Now he understood what it meant when people said the stars looked like they were pouring down from the sky.

Dinner was a generous spread of leafy greens and boiled pork.

Sung Ji-woo devoured the meal, finally satisfying his hunger.

Midway through eating, Koo Min-ah suddenly stood up.

She’d been fiddling with her phone even before dinner, and when he’d asked, she’d said she was contacting her guild.

“You stay in touch with your guild even on vacation?”

“…Just a minute.”

She stood and went out into the yard.

Sung Ji-woo offered a piece of well-cooked pork to the cat crouched on the porch.

Yawn.

The cat opened its mouth wide, glanced at the dangling meat with a look of disdain, then turned its head away.

“He has expensive tastes.”

The refined voice from behind made Sung Ji-woo laugh awkwardly.

“Try this instead.”

Koo Min-ah’s mother handed him a can of cat food covered in ornate English cursive.

The moment Sung Ji-woo picked it up, the cat’s eyes lit up and it padded over eagerly.

“So you were hungry too.”

The creature that had ignored him all day now smacked its lips as it approached.

Annoying—but cute.

“Here you go.”

He poured the food into the bowl, and the cat immediately buried its face in it.

Koo Min-ah returned much later.

By then, Sung Ji-woo had finished eating and was writhing in agony after being tricked into biting a supposedly “sweet” plum.

“…What are you doing?”

“Ugh…!”

He silently pointed at the half-eaten plum he’d discarded.

The rough, bitter taste still burned his tongue.

Koo Min-ah looked at him like he was hopeless.

“Damn, I almost died.”

“So what took you so long?”

At his question, she replied flatly,

“The bathroom.”

She poured plum syrup from the fridge into Sung Ji-woo’s cup.

Eyeing her suspiciously, he took a cautious sip—

Then downed the rest in one go.

“It’s good!”

“Is it? Drink plenty.”

She looked at him with faint pity.

From her pocket, her phone buzzed loudly.

********************

As the night deepened, the chorus of insects filled the air.

Lying there with that as background music, the cool night breeze felt like it washed away the day’s exhaustion.

“Ah… this is nice.”

It sounded like something an old man would say, but nothing fit better for this long-awaited peace.

Koo Min-ah tossed a blanket over him.

It smelled like sunlight.

Sung Ji-woo hugged it tightly.

“I think I’ll finally sleep well tonight.”

Ever since Yu Hiro appeared, he hadn’t slept properly.

With warmth like this, he felt like he could sleep an entire day.

“Yeah. Get some good rest.”

Leaving those words behind, Koo Min-ah closed the door.

Sung Ji-woo stared at his powered-off phone for a moment, hesitating.

But he didn’t turn it back on.

For now, he just wanted to sink into this peace and push everything off until tomorrow.

“Mmm… cough, cough.”

Deep in sleep, Sung Ji-woo stirred as the cold dawn air scraped his throat.

He reached around for the water cup by his head—

And touched something that shouldn’t have been there.

Warm.

“….”

That was unmistakably human body heat.

In a flash, Sung Ji-woo’s eyes snapped open.

Cold sweat ran down his spine.

“….”

Lying beside him, breathing evenly in sleep—

Was Yu Hiro.