< Pretended to Forget (3) >
“Hunter Han Yoojin-nim!”
Bak Hayool shouted with a voice filled with welcome and worry. At the same time, surprise seeped into the expression of those guys on guard.
“I was wondering, but it’s really Han Yoojin?”
“Why is Han Yoojin here? I thought he was hidden away somewhere you couldn’t even see his face by the Haeyeon Guild Leader!”
“f.u.c.k, is Han Yoohyun coming here too?”
Those guys were taken aback and scanned the surroundings. Then again, they couldn’t have thought that I came by myself. But I was alone.
“Did the Haeyeon Guild Leader really come here too?”
Bak Hayool was excited, with his face smeared with his nosebleed. Did this guy still like Hunters after being hit? That was an illness.
“I am alone.”
“Sorry? But-!”
“Please just close your eyes.”
I stood to the side and used the earrings’ shield skill on Bak Hayool. Bak Hayool yelled something, but I used it to the maximum so even sound was blocked and I couldn’t hear him. It was B-Rank shielding so unless I made a mistake, not a single hair on him would get hurt. I shouldn’t use the poison, as much as possible.
“…He’s alone?”
Kim Yongjin mumbled, as if he couldn’t believe it. He sure had a lot of suspicion.
“If I wasn’t alone, someone probably would have burst out already. You all probably know, but I’m in a position of getting quite an excessive amount of protection, right?”
There wasn’t just one or two people who would be shocked seeing me do this kind of thing here. At my words, those guys were relieved.
“Did that stat F-Rank lose his mind?”
When a D-Rank tried to go over to me, Kim Yongjin stretched out his arm and blocked them.
“Wait. There has to be something for him to be that confident. Just from the fact that he followed us here without being caught means it’s not normal.”
“Still, aren’t his stats definitely F-Rank? He got certified by the a.s.sociation.”
“Even if he had a lot of equipment, he wouldn’t be at a level of a C-Rank. He’s a piece of rice cake[1] that rolled over.”
The rice cake was our Chirpie. It really rolled around well, all round and soft.
“First of all, should I say I’m happy to see you? We have a relationship where it’s our first meeting, but it’s not our first meeting.”
At my words, those guys had expressions like asking what nonsense I was saying.
“…Though I did see him on TV.”
“No, we really met for real. Actually, I regressed. I came back to the past. You’re surprised, right?”
Saying this in front of guys I had killed with my own hands 4 years ago, it really was pleasant. And it was super realistic. Yoohyun came alive so right away, that it was little ambiguous.
“It was as much as 5 years! Ah, I met you guys 4 years ago. It’s 1 year from now, and after that I never saw you guys again. Since I killed you. Since I could meet you again, I’m really pleased. You’re going to die anyways, so become my bamboo forest[2].”
Let’s just let it out refreshingly.
“……What, is he crazy?”
“I also know that I look crazy, but if you say it openly, I’ll be hurt. And you guys don’t have your heads screwed on right, either. If I’m fifty steps, you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds would be five hundred steps. Especially Kim Yongjin, you seriously crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d. I was really regretful because I killed you too comfortably that time.”
That I would get one more chance like this, thank you. If I really thought like that, then I really would seem like a crazy guy. I didn’t actually like killing people. But, while living, you couldn’t help but lose control at least once, and even though the matter with me disappeared, there was no change in that those guys ruined and would ruin a lot of people’s futures.
“Still, thanks to you guys, I came to my senses.”
After the 2nd year, I properly established myself. I couldn’t make a fixed team, but around that time, I was able to regularly save Hunters with okay abilities… wait. Thinking of, that time was exactly when MKC went under and Haeyeon had entered that empty seat.
Unlike when Awakening Centers appeared and things were chaotic, it was when there was breathing room. And I started to hear less hateful things from Haeyeon. Until the dungeon level of difficulty started to become unruly. …Was it that my little brother had placed people around me?
And the time when Yoohyun had personally run into the dungeon that changed rank, was around when Haeyeon had been established as 1st in the country and the guild leader had free time in his own way.
“Hm, people really can’t be too free.”
If he was busy fighting with other guilds, he wouldn’t have had the leisure to do something crazy like running in before the gate closed. Instead, he would have sent one or two A-Rank Hunters at most.
“That guy really doesn’t seem like he’s in his right mind?”
Along with the gazes looking at the crazy guy, I heard whispers. I felt wronged. My mind was clear, in general.
“Even though I don’t know lottery ticket numbers, it’s true that I returned to the past. What should I tell you? Is there anything you’re curious about? Should I tell you the S-Rank Hunters that will appear from now on? What about amazing-rank new dungeons? You have a lot of interest in stocks, right? Lee Dongwan, the stocks you just bought are going to become a sc.r.a.p of tissue within a month.”
This pathetic b.a.s.t.a.r.d that still muttered on and on about it one year later.
Anyways.
“It’s good that we met again like this. You guys haven’t regressed so you wouldn’t know my feelings, but, it actually felt dirty that all the things I suffered through disappeared. So I tried not to think about it. At any rate, the situation changed a lot, and I decided to be well-behaved at first. Above anything else, I didn’t… I tried not to think about the fact that the people who I was involved with and who had died, were alive and walking around.”
It wasn’t just that people I was close to died, either. Thanks to that, I lived. At the same time, I even received their memories. In front of my eyes, the corpse was there, but the memories of that person thinking of me rose up in my mind. For Yoohyun, it was a portion of his whole life’s memories, so it came in spa.r.s.ely, but usually, the memories right before dying came in without fail. If it was just someone I knew to a certain extent, it was still okay.
But, if that was them worrying about me, it was really circ.u.mstances that would drive you crazy.
If they were an uselessly good person, so there were only good memories. The auditory hallucinations of my name being called, didn’t leave my ears for days and days. If I kept on remembering, it felt like I would die, so I purposely tried to forget.
But now they were all alive. How should I explain that feeling?
Unlike with Yoohyun, I had buried it inside for several years. Unlike with Yoohyun, now they didn’t even know me.
Like those guys in front of my eyes.
Should I be happy, or sad, or say that I’m sorry, or that I’m thankful? Before that, was it okay to contact them and meet them? It was thanks to you dying that I lived.
I couldn’t consult somebody about something like this, and I just went on pretending I had forgotten.
“What do you guys think? Some of them were really good people. To the point that I fell into alcohol with a heart that felt it would go halfway crazed.”
Maybe they didn’t want to listen to my words anymore, because those guys went into a combat formation. You should reply at least. Grumbling, I took out the curved knife that I got as a reward from the D-Rank dungeon.
“Drive him into the middle and catch him alive!”
Along with Kim Yongjin’s shout, the two Hunters who had shields in front of them moved toward my front. The C-Rank defense Hunter used a skill and quickly moved around to my back. I stretched out a hand and grabbed that guy’s collar and picked him up and hurled him as if throwing him over my shoulder.
Bam!
Then I stabbed the curved knife into the forehead of the shield Hunter on the left and stole the shield and threw it at the guy on the right.
Crack!
“Urgh!”
The hit shield broke, and the Hunter who was holding the shield couldn’t endure the strength and tumbled back.
“What is this!”
While the D-Rank Hunters were taken aback, Kim Yongjin tried to run away right away. The decision sure was fast.
Thorn Trap.
“Argh!”
Kim Yongjin fell forward, like a frog hit by a rock. I took out the curved knife and cut the leg of the defense Hunter struggling to stand up, and used Thorn Trap on the remaining Hunters.
“As expected, contacting them would be good? Hm? Yongjin.”
I asked, going toward the trembling Kim Yongjin.
“I remember their phone numbers, but what should I say? Since they don’t know me. But, I can’t continue like this, pretending I don’t know them. Since those people would be alive like you guys. Right now, it’s probably before they Awaken, but when the Awakening Centers form, they’ll become Hunters, and they’ll go into dungeons like you guys. In the middle of that chaotic situation.”
I nicely cut one of Kim Yongjin’s legs and released Thorn Trap.
“Arghhh! Uck, you, you, exactly what…!”
“I don’t need to take all responsibility just because I regressed. In the first place, it became things that don’t exist. Still, it’s left remaining in my memories. If I keep on pretending I forgot, I really would seem like trash.”
Then what should I do?
I used Thorn Trap on Kim Yongjin again, and took a magic stone powder bottle out of my inventory and scattered enough of it in the surroundings. The monsters nearby weren’t all caught. They would quickly come crawling out.
“I hope that we really won’t have reason to meet again.”
I sighed once and turned around. Look at Bak Hayool, that guy. I told him to close his eyes, but he still watched it all and vomited. I went toward him and withdrew the shielding.
“Are you okay?”
“…Ah, yes. I, am.”
“First, let’s leave. Monsters will appear, smelling the blood.”
“Yes, yes.”
I turned back to the road we came on, taking Bak Hayool with me.
“It would have been good if they had listened when Hunter Han Yoojin-nim was persuading them with words…”
Around when we reached the cleanly cleared gate, Bak Hayool, who had regained his energy, spoke. I wasn’t persuading them. I had unilaterally consulted them. It seemed like it looked like persuasion because he couldn’t hear.
“Please do not pay any mind. Listening to them, they were bad guys who had already harmed many people.”
“Really?”
“Yes. And this matter, please keep it a secret. Originally, I am in a position where I shouldn’t wander around like this. The hiding skill is also a secret.”
At my words, Bak Hayool had an incredibly excited expression. His recovery was too fast. Did he not feel a sense of reality yet? There were kids like this. Being fine the day of, and then crying and making fuss after two or three days.
“I did not know that Hunter Han Yoojin-nim was that strong! It was as much as two C-Ranks – could it be that you are actually stat B-Rank or higher?”
“It is not like that. Of course, my abilities are also a secret.”
“Yes!”
“You can keep the secret, right?”
“Yes! Of course!”
His words were confident. I sent Bak Hayool a smile that said I would trust him. Of course, I wouldn’t actually trust him.
I decided to take Bak Hayool and use him, but I naturally couldn’t until I checked what kind of guy he was. In order to do so, I purposely showed him.
The plan had changed slightly, but I was originally thinking of showing him just the hiding and Thorn Trap skills.
If I directly came and helped and even told him about skills that others didn’t know, obviously his mouth would be itchy. On top of that, he was a celebrity who met with a lot of people, and spent his time buried in countless words. It was an environment where he would want to thoughtlessly talk about the things he knew.
‘It became a bit more of a dramatic situation than planned, so his lips would also get looser.’
If he couldn’t hold it in and spilled, then that was the end of that.
Right now it was that I was inside the impenetrable security of Haeyeon Guild. While coming here, I didn’t release the hiding skill at all. I had ridden the bus while continuing to hide my appearance. Besides Bak Hayool, the witnesses would have their mouths shut with death, and whatever he talked about, all would be dismissed as lies.
‘If his lips stay closed, it’s a pa.s.s for now, or just end with using him for special skill public relations.’
It was three A-Rank special skills, so at minimum, about one of them would be useful. It would be good if it was worth the hard work.
“I really do not know what to say to express my thanks. I had thought that all Hunters were good people. They are people who protect us so that dungeons do not burst open!”
……It might be that it wouldn’t be worth the hard work. Bak Hayool continued speaking, smiling softly.
“Can I call you hyung? You are five years older than I am. I am twenty years old.”
“Ah, yes.”
He was the same age as Yoohyun, but why was he this different? Though twenty was still young, but still.
“Exchanging contact information-.”
“It is not possible yet. Please also delete the messages when we get out of the dungeon. It is better to completely erase the evidence related to Awakening brokers.”
We should part after I checked that he deleted the messages. Were they able to be recovered? Though I didn’t say that I would directly go to save him.
“For the time being, you also cannot contact me. If we are caught, it would become bothersome in various ways.”
At my words, Bak Hayool had a face like an abandoned dog.
“For how long?”
“For about two weeks. I will just contact you first.”
“I will keep your secret and diligently wait for you. Please definitely contact me. Do not forget me. Please.”
How long did we know each other that he was so eager? It seemed like it would get through right away if I said the keyword.
“I will put up shielding for you, so please wait here quietly. I will finish the dungeon attack and come back.”
“Yes, hyung! Please be careful!”
Seeing the bright appearance of him smiling widely and waving both arms, a sigh automatically slipped out. He really wasn’t it…
I safely came back and washed and changed clothes. In the meantime, the number of social media followers had pa.s.sed units of ten thousand. There was also a lot of foreign languages among the comments. I erased the messages between me and Bak Hayool, and uploaded a video of when Peace was young.
There were texts from Yoohyun and Yerim as well.
[Hyung, you have social media?]
[Ahjussiahjussiahjussi!! Please follow me back!]
It looked like Yerim also was on social media.
[yup]
[Tell me your account.]
I sent replies and then fiddled with my cell phone for a while. I slowly pressed the number that I still remembered. It rang for a moment, and soon the call was picked up.
[h.e.l.lo?]
It was a familiar voice. It was a voice that I wouldn’t have heard ever again. I had thought that it became dim in my memories, but it drilled clearly into my ears.
‘Deceiving, what deceiving! At any rate, I don’t have a team either.’
‘It’s okay. Don’t pay it any mind, Yoojin. It’ll all pa.s.s.’
Even one or two things I had buried away came to mind. I didn’t know my memory was this good. It would be awkward to cry anew, so I smiled.
“I apologize. I called the wrong number. …Have a good afternoon. Always.[3]”
I hung up.
Then, for now. I should do something about the Awakening Centers that would be set up soon. If that chaos occurred again, I wouldn’t be able to leave it be.
[Yoohyun, do you have time? I have something to talk about. It’s important.]
[Is it urgent? There’s a guest here right now.]
[Who?]
For a moment, there wasn’t a reply. Then, a text came from an outrageous person.
[It’s okay with me, so come up and let’s talk.]
It was the Seseong Guild Leader. Then, Yoohyun also sent a text.
[You don’t have to come.]
[No I’ll go.]
Since he was a related person. It would be better to have two, rather than one.
[1] ‘rice cake’ is used metaphorically to mean sth really good, so a better tl would have been sth like ‘a piece of gold’ or sth like that, but I left it lit. bc of the following sentence abt chirpie.
[2] ok so not sure what he means here. Namu wiki says that ‘bamboo forest’ is field-related internet communities where you anonymously complain abt your job, and for college students, it’s an internet community page where you can gossip anonymously abt students at your school; think like yikyak, or my college had a ‘[redacted, my college’s name] confessions’ facebook page. So from context, maybe he’s saying ‘be my secret confessions group since y’all are gonna die and take my secrets to the grave anyways’.
[3] this kind of sounds weird in eng, but my dad said that while it’s not sth you usually say, it sounds fine/normal/okay