Three in the afternoon on a weekday. At an hour when everyone else was doing something productive—something called work—Lee Kanghyun finally dragged himself awake.
A studio apartment of roughly 320 square feet. A simple room with a bed, desk, wardrobe, and TV. This was where he lived.
For the home of a Hunter who had once stirred up controversy for supposedly paying 10 billion won a year in fines, it was remarkably shabby.
It wasn’t that he lacked money. He simply couldn’t see any value in moving somewhere new, choosing furniture, filing some kind of change-of-address paperwork, decorating the place, cleaning it, and going through all that other shit that sounded exhausting enough to kill him.
Yaaawn.
A yawn escaped him. Lee Kanghyun blinked a few times, then burrowed back under the covers. He still hadn’t fully slept off his fatigue. He intended to go right back to sleep.
What shattered his peace was a knock.
Knock, knock, knock.
He ignored it. Probably somebody proselytizing again. If he ignored people like that, they usually went away on their own.
BANG BANG BANG. BANG BANG BANG! BANG! BANG BANG BANG!
Jesus Christ. What asshole is that?
The pounding sounded like someone was trying to break the door down. Lee Kanghyun kicked off the blanket and shot upright.
Instead of opening the door, he checked the intercom.
Unfortunately, the screen on the ancient piece of junk had been dead for ages.
Oh, right. I was going to ask the landlord to get this fixed, but that sounded like too much trouble, so I’ve been putting it off for six months.
The doorbell had been broken for two years too.
Nothing in this damn apartment worked properly.
He was staring at the dark intercom screen and letting out a small sigh when the voice from outside made him freeze without realizing it.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
“Hey! Lee Kanghyun! I know you’re in there! Open the door.”
The voice was familiar.
Far too familiar.
So familiar that it sent chills down his spine.
Kang Yujun.
An S-rank Hunter beloved by every citizen of South Korea.
No. 1 in gate-clear performance for five consecutive years. With his striking looks, impeccable conduct, and steady stream of good deeds on top of that, he was a national hero who enjoyed practically limitless public trust.
To be fair, about eighty percent of the reason Lee Kanghyun could roll around comfortably at home without a care in the world was Kang Yujun’s dedication. If Kang Yujun had been just as lazy as he was, then even someone as shameless as Lee Kanghyun would have had to raid several times as many gates as he did now.
That, however, was entirely separate from the fact that Lee Kanghyun hated Kang Yujun.
No.
He found him horrifying.
The man constantly tried to persuade Lee Kanghyun to join his guild.
At first, he had been properly courteous about it and sent formal proposals. As Lee Kanghyun kept rejecting him, though, his true colors gradually emerged.
Message bombardment was just the beginning.
When Lee Kanghyun blocked him, Kang Yujun escalated to piling mail outside his apartment like a barricade.
Clearing away all those scraps of paper blocking his front door had genuinely been so exhausting that Lee Kanghyun had wanted to die.
And that wasn’t all.
The bastard stalked him too.
He would quietly hide in the alley outside the studio building, then ambush Lee Kanghyun whenever he came out to collect a food delivery or wandered outside with a trash bag dangling from one hand.
Once he got caught, a thirty-minute lecture was the bare minimum.
In other words, Kang Yujun’s quiet, serious, well-mannered, polite public persona was all fake.
Image management, plain and simple.
Lee Kanghyun had even tried threatening him once.
“I’m going to leak all this to the media, you know? ‘The Truth About Kang Yujun.’”
“Go ahead. I’m not the one who’ll get cursed out anyway. People will just go, ‘What the hell did Lee Kanghyun do to make even the mild-mannered Kang Yujun go that far?’”
Lee Kanghyun hadn’t been able to argue because it was true.
And so he had no choice but to suffer Kang Yujun’s harassment without being able to do a damn thing about it.
Still, Kang Yujun had never once forced his way inside his apartment.
Lee Kanghyun had taken comfort in that fact, at least….
He held his breath.
Pretend I’m not here. Then he’ll leave.
Unfortunately, the unwelcome visitor outside was persistent.
“If you don’t open the door, I’m breaking it down. One, two….”
“Ah, fuck.”
The curse slipped out automatically.
Lee Kanghyun bolted toward the entrance.
Sure, he could just pay for the door afterward, but even imagining the ordeal of arguing with his landlord made his skin crawl. That sounded like an obscene amount of work.
Click.
Lee Kanghyun unlocked the door and opened it only the tiniest crack—just wide enough for a single finger.
“What the hell do you want, pounding on someone else’s—”
Thud.
A hand shot through the crack.
An absurd grip forced the door open.
Lee Kanghyun considered resisting, but using strength meant moving his muscles.
That suddenly sounded annoying.
So he simply let go of the handle and stepped back.
Kang Yujun stood beyond the now-wide-open doorway.
“…….”
“…….”
A strange standoff stretched between them.
Kang Yujun stared at Lee Kanghyun with sparkling eyes.
Lee Kanghyun glared back at him with the dead eyes of a frozen fish.
Kang Yujun looked once at Lee Kanghyun’s face, then swept his gaze around the room.
“You… actually live here?”
Lee Kanghyun’s brow furrowed sharply.
“I told you not to talk to me like that.”
The media really couldn’t be trusted.
Polite and quiet Kang Yujun.
Every time Lee Kanghyun heard that description, he could barely keep himself from scoffing.
Bullshit.
Complete fucking bullshit.
“Oh, come on. Why are you being so stiff when we’re both S-rank? We’re the same age. That makes us friends. Besides, you talk casually to me too.”
“I only do it because you started it.”
“Wow. Childish. Kanghyun, what are you, an elementary schooler?”
Lee Kanghyun’s words died in his throat.
He had never been particularly good at arguing in the first place.
But trying to talk to a lunatic left him with absolutely no idea how he was supposed to respond. His mind went completely blank.
“Get out. Before I call the police.”
In the end, all he could do was tell him to leave.
Kang Yujun paid no attention.
Instead, as shamelessly as if he were visiting an old friend, he began taking off his shoes to come inside.
“Bit of a dump, but excuse me for a minute.”
Is this bastard actually insane?
It’s bad enough that he’s coming in without permission, and now he’s openly calling someone else’s home a dump?
“If you don’t have a reason to be here, fuck off. And don’t take your shoes off.”
Lee Kanghyun replied with hollow eyes, then crawled back into bed.
It had been far too long since he’d had a conversation with another human being.
And having to converse with a lunatic who couldn’t be reasoned with had completely drained him.
Despite being ordered out, Kang Yujun neatly lined up his shoes and came inside anyway.
“Kanghyun, you… ran out of money?”
“What?”
“You paid those fines like a maniac and finally went bankrupt? Is that why you’re living in a shoebox like this…? Damn….”
Kang Yujun’s gaze softened.
His eyes filled with the sort of profound pity one might direct at a puppy abandoned in a cardboard box on a rainy day.
Lee Kanghyun experienced a sincere and powerful urge to jab those eyes with his fingers.
Shoebox, my ass.
At roughly 320 square feet, this place was actually large for a studio apartment.
But Lee Kanghyun lacked the energy to argue, so he answered weakly.
“I just live here because it’s comfortable.”
“Liar. What kind of S-rank lives in a studio apartment because it’s comfortable? Are you even eating properly? And how old is that pizza box?”
Kang Yujun made a huge fuss and reached to open the pizza box sitting on the desk beside the bed.
Without getting up, Lee Kanghyun merely stretched out an arm, grabbed his hand, and irritably slapped it away.
“Stop digging through my shit and get out.”
“How is that your shit? It’s literal trash.”
Lee Kanghyun yanked the blanket all the way over his head.
It was an unmistakable declaration that he would no longer engage in conversation with this noisy bastard.
Kang Yujun didn’t care in the slightest and kept talking to him.
“Hey. Kanghyun.”
“What.”
“Stop living like this and join my guild.”
That again.
It wasn’t even surprising anymore.
Lee Kanghyun genuinely wondered what Kang Yujun saw in him that made him so desperate to recruit him.
Don’t I have a reputation as a psychopath?
Does he want a psychopath in his guild that badly?
“No.”
“I expected that, but damn, you’re decisive.”
Kang Yujun made fake sobbing noises as though wounded.
Lunatic.
“I’ll pay you an annual salary—no, forget that. Just the signing bonus will be as much as the fines you’ve paid. We’ll provide housing too. You’ll get a housekeeper, and a chef will make your meals.”
That was mildly tempting.
Cleaning? Food?
Actually, that sounded kind of nice.
Even throwing away takeout containers was work.
Hell, simply opening an app to order delivery was annoying.
But the thought that immediately followed crushed the temptation.
Joining a guild meant going to work.
Waking up in the morning.
Showering.
Getting dressed.
Getting in a car.
Traveling somewhere.
Meeting people and greeting them….
“No. Going to work sounds like too much trouble.”
“You don’t have to go to work. Just lend us your name. You only need to show up a few times once in a while.”
“Even going out those few times is exhausting.”
“Haaah.”
Kang Yujun took a deep breath, apparently trying to calm himself down.
Then he pulled a document envelope from inside his clothes and tossed it onto Lee Kanghyun’s stomach.
“Forget it. Why do I even bother talking to you? This is what I came for today.”
“What is it?”
Lee Kanghyun didn’t even touch the envelope lying on his stomach.
He merely poked his head out from beneath the blanket and stared at it.
“Draft notice.”
“What?”
“The Ministry of National Defense sent it in coordination with the Association. You have to serve in the military.”
What the fuck is he talking about?
The military? Why the hell would I have to go to that nightmare?
He would have to wake up at six in the morning.
He would have to stand for roll call.
He would have to go running.
He would even have to eat at fixed times.
Not when he was hungry.
On schedule.
A regular routine? Communal living?
To Lee Kanghyun, it was practically a death sentence.
He desperately tried to deny reality, his voice trembling.
“I’m S-rank. I’m exempt from military service.”
Kang Yujun shrugged.
“That only applies when you’re actually functioning as a Hunter. You’re on the verge of having your alternative-service status revoked for failing to meet your performance requirements. If you ignore this, you’re seriously going to end up in prison, or you’ll have to emigrate.”
And you’re too lazy to emigrate anyway.
Kang Yujun deliberately left that part unsaid.
“That makes no sense. I’ve paid every single fine on time.”
“There’s a limit to what money can solve. Public opinion is terrible. Your name even came up during the National Assembly audit. They called it ‘the state of management for high-risk awakened individuals who enjoy privileges without fulfilling their obligations.’”
Those fucking National Assembly members.
Why don’t they dedicate themselves to the country instead of talking shit about me during an audit? Do they seriously have nothing better to do?
Lee Kanghyun chewed hard on his lip.
“So choose. Are you coming out with me right now to clear a gate, or are you shaving your head and going to Nonsan?”
With trembling hands, Lee Kanghyun picked up the document envelope.
A vivid red seal had been stamped onto the paper inside.
Seal of the Minister of National Defense
He squeezed his eyes shut.
“…Where is it?”
“Hm?”
“I asked where the fucking gate is.”
Despite the violent words that made it sound as though he might burst out the door that very second, Lee Kanghyun slowly climbed to his feet.
Radiating annoyance from every pore, he stripped off his T-shirt and pants simultaneously so he could change into clothes for going outside.
It was a new technique he had mastered over five years of shut-in life.
“…….”
Kang Yujun was speechless.
He had expected Lee Kanghyun to pull off his shirt.
He had not expected the pants to come off at the same time.
Frowning, Kang Yujun raised a hand in front of his eyes to block Lee Kanghyun’s body from view.
“Do you have no shame? You’re just getting completely naked in front of someone.”
“We’re both guys. Who cares?”
Tsk, tsk. What a drama queen.
Lee Kanghyun clicked his tongue.
Whether Kang Yujun clutched the back of his neck in exasperation or not, Lee Kanghyun slowly pulled on a hoodie, then picked up a pair of black pants.
***
[Hunter Registration Information]
Name: Kang Yujun
Sex: Male
Date of Birth: January 27
Height: 188 cm
Affiliated Guild: Waterglint (Guild Master)
Hunter Rank: S
Ability: Freely manipulates moisture in the atmosphere and surrounding water, and can alter its physical properties.
Total Clears Over 5 Years: 1,528 (Ranked No. 1 in overall Hunter performance in South Korea)