Episode 44
Jonghyeon, who had followed the Director to the reception room, sipped cold green tea and fidgeted restlessly.
‘What should I talk about.’
He had only come because Bori pushed him from behind. Jonghyeon had no thoughts at all.
And while he wanted to think about nothing even more, he hated the awkward silence that flowed for no reason even more.
“T-thank you for raising me.”
Such words coming from Jonghyeon’s mouth would probably be rare even if he lived an entire lifetime.
He said it while slightly reddening his face, perhaps embarrassed himself.
“Hehe. That’s not like you. Why so? By the way, it reminds me of old times.”
“Right. You really hated birthdays back then, too.”
“I was a bit angry when you kicked away with your foot the cake I had bought for you and ran off.”
Jonghyeon and the Director began chatting about old times, and Bori listened from the side as if she found it amusing.
From Bori’s position, her master’s past was something she must have been quite curious about. And the young Jonghyeon that Bori heard about was truly a headache-inducing problem child.
“You were nine, I believe. When you beat down twenty sixth-graders at elementary school who were said to be bullying you.”
“They weren’t bullying me. They were bullying Yeonga noona.”
“Ah yes, that’s right.”
The conversation went like this.
Stories of beating someone down. Stories of playing with fire and burning all the laundry. For about an hour, they spent their time on such stories and let conversation bloom.
‘So Master knows how to smile, too.’
The smiles Bori had seen from Jonghyeon were mostly snickers and sneers. Of course, when he smiled while complimenting her, it had seemed a bit genuine, but generally, this person called her master seemed like someone who didn’t know how to smile properly.
But watching Jonghyeon talk with the Director, he seemed like a completely different person from usual.
Just as the fruits of conversation were about to bloom, a little kid opened the door and came into the reception room.
“Director!! Big trouble! Jinseok and Changhyeon are fighting again!”
At the kid’s words, the Director shook his head as if having a headache and rose from his seat.
“What’s going on?”
Jonghyeon, seeing the Director’s expression, asked worriedly, and Bori answered instead.
“Ah, they’re new kids who came in recently… The two of them seem to have some grudge, they fight almost every day. Let’s hurry over.”
He was already planning to go together, but because Bori pushed him from behind, he found himself leading the way before he knew it. Since he came in such a hurry, Jonghyeon had unknowingly brought along the cold green tea he held in his hand.
The situation was more serious than expected.
The two children appeared to be between upper elementary school and first year of middle school, and already both their faces had slight scratch marks or signs of having hit each other.
“Hey! What are you guys doing!”
Before Jonghyeon could even move, Bori quickly jumped forward and separated the two. No, to be precise, she squeezed between them and pushed them in opposite directions, and the two little ones bounced away. A bit hard.
“That student. She really is a powerhouse.”
The Director seemed as if he had seen this scene more than once.
“No! Noona, why are you stopping us! He hit me first again!”
“No! He kicked my notebook with his foot and ran away first!”
The children tattled on each other as if wronged. Before anyone knew it, Bori was comforting them individually and making them reconcile.
Watching that sight, completely unexpected words came from the Director’s mouth.
“So. Where on earth did you bring such a pretty girl from? She’s your girlfriend, right?”
“Pfft!”
Hearing those words, Jonghyeon, who had been watching Bori mediate the situation while drinking cold green tea, choked, and spewed it out as if exhaling a breath.
“What do you mean? She’s just my disciple. My disciple. Please don’t say such things. If someone hears, they’ll misunderstand.”
The Director looked at Jonghyeon, who denied it rather strongly in an uncharacteristic way, with a pleased expression.
Thanks to Bori, the two were already shaking hands and reconciling, and the two who had been treated to dinner until evening prepared to leave while being sent off by the children.
“Then. We’ll be heading in now. Thank you for celebrating. Sorry for coming when you’re busy.”
“Not at all. I couldn’t properly celebrate your birthday even once. I’m truly glad to at least feed you today. Come visit often.”
After a brief hug between the Director and Jonghyeon, just as they were about to leave the orphanage, one of the little kids from earlier came to Jonghyeon and asked.
“Mister. The teachers always praise you as the most successful person from our orphanage. How did you become successful?”
At the child’s bold question, even the Director was bewildered. Of course Bori was, too. It was partly because this wasn’t a child who would ask such things, but also because with Jonghyeon’s personality, there was no way he would answer.
Unexpectedly, Jonghyeon stood still and thought.
He had vaguely guessed that he was successful, but even now, he couldn’t quite feel it. While there was something of it reaching his skin, the success he desired had not yet been achieved.
What answer should he give the child?
As attention focused on Jonghyeon with expressions of surprise at his long thinking. Soon, Jonghyeon asked the child who was waiting for an answer with shining eyes instead.
“It might be a difficult question. Can an outstanding orphan really change the world? What do you think, little one?”
At Jonghyeon’s question, the child nodded his head and said with a brightly smiling face.
“I think they can! The teachers said that in today’s world, if you just work hard, you can succeed at anything. And if I succeed, I’ll change the world. Warmly, like our orphanage.”
Jonghyeon smiled and stroked the child’s head. And he said in a voice that truly dripped with warmth.
“That’s right. That’s it. You already know the answer. So you should work hard to succeed, and if you fight with your friend for no reason and bother the Director for no reason, you’ll get scolded by me, okay?”
Of course, if an adult rather than a child had asked this, he might have asked, “What’s your standard for success? What is the success you want?” But Jonghyeon, being human too, didn’t want to break the child’s innocent heart.
“Yes! I want to become like you, too!”
With those last words, Jonghyeon and Bori returned to the car, and the child and the Director saw Jonghyeon off.
Inside the car, Bori asked playfully.
“Oh my. To think our Master had such a warm side?”
To the question mixed half with sincerity and half with playfulness, Jonghyeon returned to his usual expressionless face.
And instead of answering, he said something else.
“Ah. I don’t know. My face… feels like it’ll cramp.”
“Pfft.”
At Jonghyeon’s joke, Bori burst into laughter, and even while dropping him off in front of Chairman Lee’s house, the two kept playing around.
“Come to think of it, the New Year’s event isn’t far away.”
“Right. I should buy at least one set of clothes.”
Arriving before Chairman Lee’s residence before they knew it, the two waved and parted, and Jonghyeon drove the car back to his home.
“I’m back.”
“Ah, you’re back?”
Secretary Jang and two bodyguards welcomed Jonghyeon warmly. On the dining table was a fairly large birthday cake.
“We thought, well, since you’re the boss and all, we prepared a cake.”
Secretary Jang said awkwardly.
Unexpectedly, he seemed to be quite shy about such things.
“I already ate. I’ll just cut it, so hurry up and take some. Whew, this’ll last three days.”
Jonghyeon grumbled slightly but didn’t seem to dislike it, cutting the cake and serving it on plates, and the bodyguards and Secretary Jang began eating deliciously.
“Was there no particular problem today?”
At Secretary Jang’s question while eating cake, Jonghyeon thought for a moment and spoke quietly.
“Well. I think it’s fine. This kind of thing, too.”
It was a slightly questionable statement, but then again, when had Jonghyeon speaking that way been a rare occurrence?
Secretary Jang passed it off as nothing serious, thinking ‘I guess he just had a good time,’ and Jonghyeon didn’t say anything more.
Thus Jonghyeon was spending his birthday warmly for the first time.
★ ★ ★
“It’s been a while.”
“It has indeed. You’re still healthy? Attending such troublesome gatherings like this.”
“Hehe. You’ve gone back to your old self already.”
Chairman Lee smiled bitterly, and Bori beside him was laughing loudly instead.
If Jonghyeon was mixing in such jokes, his current mood seemed quite good.
“Didn’t you hate this kind of gathering? Secretary Jang was quite expressive about it, too.”
“Well. I do, but there are probably more familiar faces than I thought.”
“That is true.”
This place was the top floor of the V Group company building. It could be said with confidence that whoever came to this top floor as a guest could be considered a successful person.
In the dazzling lighting, waiters could be seen diligently carrying food and drinks, and political and business figures who had arrived earlier were busy conversing in their respective groups.
“Master, how do I look today?”
Bori had always worn gym clothes or simple casual outfits. But today alone, she came out wearing a dress that looked quite uncomfortable, and that appearance was truly beautiful.
“Hmm. Well, if I say you’re my disciple, no one would believe me.”
Jonghyeon substituted praise in that way.
“Ah, hello there. Oh my. Aren’t you that Hunter who appeared on the news? Nice to meet you.”
At Chairman Lee’s table, greetings were being exchanged quite busily, and among them, there were some who knew Jonghyeon.
No, in fact, it would be safe to say that everyone knew Jonghyeon. But they were afraid to greet him because of his personality, and rather, people who didn’t know Jonghyeon were greeting him.
And the reason people who knew Jonghyeon absolutely couldn’t act like they knew him was simpler than expected.
Because there was no better way to directly inform people than that that they had hired an assassin.
‘Well, I don’t need to worry, they’ll distance themselves on their own.’
Jonghyeon was inwardly hoping that his previous clients might try some trick to maintain a connection with him.
Of course, if they tried a trick, he was firmly prepared to utterly humiliate them. But those people were smarter than Jonghyeon expected, and no one dared to treat Jonghyeon rudely or discourteously.
‘These sly bastards only at times like this. In the past, bastards who thought of me as nothing more than a consumable just watch their words and don’t come near.’
Quite disappointed, Jonghyeon smacked his lips and called a waiter.
“Would you like to order something?”
To the waiter greeting him politely, Jonghyeon asked with an appropriate tone of voice. By now, he was quite natural at it.
“Do you happen to have cold green tea?”
“Cold…green tea? I’ll try to find and prepare it.”
Putting aside that it was cold winter, searching for cold green tea at a gathering filled with all kinds of expensive food, beverages, and alcohol.
The waiter was dumbfounded, but professional enough not to show it and left to do his task.
In truth, even while at this gathering, Jonghyeon would rather have been running dungeons. The gathering was more boring than expected.
If he ran dungeons, he would at least earn money, and if lucky, obtain some usable items. At this rate, there was no reason for Jonghyeon to have come.
Without achieving what he wanted, it was tantamount to just wasting time.
“Have you been well, Chairman? Jonghyeon, nice to see you.”
It was Manager Kim Jeongtae. As befitting a powerful figure in the Dungeon Management Committee, he had been invited proudly this time.
He probably thought that was the reason, but in fact, Chairman Lee had called him to this gathering largely because he had helped Jonghyeon during the collapse of the Red Rose Guild.
‘A position makes the man.’ That saying is quite famous.
And at this point, there were few places in Korea more suitable for that position than this one.
Knowing that, he had called Manager Kim Jeongtae, who had helped Jonghyeon, to this gathering, intending to connect him to some extent.
It was a form of reward, so to speak.
“Are you refusing to join the A-rank clear team, Jonghyeon? Secretary Jang kept saying he’d think about it and wouldn’t give me an answer.”
It was quite a direct question. However, from Manager Kim Jeongtae’s position, Jonghyeon’s attitude must have been quite frustrating.
Because the current Jonghyeon was definitely a powerhouse who could be counted on ten fingers in Korea.
“Well. I’ve been a bit busy recently. I’ll review it soon and give you an answer.”
He spoke vaguely. Come on, what was there to review about running dungeons?
You just ran them.
But Jonghyeon didn’t want to look easy, and unexpectedly, making others squirm with such things was fun.
Just as he was enjoying it fully, a man standing behind Manager Kim Jeongtae looked at Jonghyeon and spoke.
“Ahh. So you were the famous Ryu Jonghyeon these days. Hello?”
It was Gang Jeongwoo.
---------= Author’s Afterword ---------=
I did not make him attend this gathering to advance Jonghyeon into the political world. I explain this beforehand in the author’s words in case there is any misunderstanding. Haha.
Also, I read each and every one of the readers’ comments, whether criticism or praise, deeply in my heart. However, as this is my first work, there is bound to be immaturity, and even if slowly, I will gradually think of the readers’ opinions and fix what needs to be fixed.
As I said in the beginning, I am grateful for every bit of the readers’ interest. Criticism, recommendations, praise, adding it to your favorites, etc.—you can do everything you can for it.
That is how much I will work hard to repay the interest you give me whenever.
And I keep getting the chance to do consecutive uploads, but because of part-time job interviews and such, the timing keeps not working out. I’ll try my best within this week.
If I happen to secure a part-time job, the days on which I upload one chapter at a time may increase somewhat compared to the existing serialization schedule. I’ll notify you of the detailed schedule as soon as it’s set.
I want to upload two chapters consistently every day, but since I’m human too, I don’t want to create light writing that comes out easily with a tap on the head. I have no intention of writing sloppily using work or anything as an excuse. You can see this as my greed for my work.
I spoke too long. I have a lot I want to say, but there will be plenty of time ahead, so I won’t be impatient.
Dear readers who love me! I hope this April is filled with happy things. That is all.