The Porter (1)
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“It looks like I’ll be comforting you over dinner,” Min-jong said, as he stood beside Seung-ho. Eun-hye was nowhere to be found.
“What… I didn’t even want to be here, but I’d feel sorry for her if I didn’t come.”
“It’s been a while,” Min-jong said as he looked at the people passing by around them.
“Yeah,” Seung-ho agreed. “I think I’ll just go home.”
“No, where are you going? She’ll be here soon!”
At the end of Min-jong’s words, they saw Eun-hye walking up the subway stairs in front of them.
She looked embarrassed. “Sorry, I’m very late.”
“No, you came three minutes early,” Min-jong assured her. “Let’s go.”
Min-jong took the lead. Seung-ho followed him, and Eun-hye walked silently beside him
Eun-hye’s lips sometimes moved, as if she wanted to say something, but she couldn’t let it out.
Seung-ho looked at her and wanted to speak, but he remembered Seong-ah teasing him about an aunt, and chose to be silent, too.
Min-jong led them to a quiet Korean restaurant.
Seung-ho sat on a cushion, and had a small talk with Eun-hye, asking her how she has been, as the food gradually came out.
The food served in elegant bowls looked appetizing with their colors and teased their noses with a delicious scent.
As they ate little by little with chopsticks, Seung-ho looked at Eun-hye beside him. It was as if she was trying to say something.
At that point, Min-jong reached out and grabbed Eun-hye’s hand.
“Seung-ho, the reason we invited you to dinner is because Eun-hye and I had something to say to you.”
Seung-ho, surprised, looked at them holding hands. “What?”
Min-jong continued. “We would like to tell you that we are getting married.”
Eun-hye shyly blushed as Min-jong’s words came out.
Seung-ho remembered how Eun-hye looked as they walked as if she wanted to say something.
He thought it was something else—what a big misunderstanding.
He sighed with relief as the couple smiled at him.
“I know that you are the one who came back from the gate. I will keep it a secret, too. Min-jong didn’t know that I knew, but don’t you think I won’t know what my boyfriend is working on? What a joke,” Eun-hye lowered her voice as she told them.
Min-jong made it a secret to her, but Eun-hye understood why.
“Eun-hye, thank you for understanding”, Min-jong said.
“I was a little sad when you didn’t tell me, but of course, we should keep it a secret.”
As Seung-ho watched them hold hands and stare at each other’s eyes, he felt like he should disappear right away and leave the couple.
Suddenly, Eun-hye clapped her hands and gave Min-jong a warm glance.
“Would you like to meet other girls? I have a few good friends in mind,” she said.
Seung-ho’s voice was weak as he replied. “Not now…”
Apparently, Min-jong told Eun-hye that Seung-ho seems to be lonely and wants to build a family.”
Min-jong caught their attention. “The food will be cold. Let’s go eat!” he said brightly.
They dug in happily.
After the meal, Min-jong wanted him to come with them, but Seung-ho said he had something to do.
He’s not really busy but wanted to have the couple get time for themselves.
He watched them walk for a while, holding each other’s hands, as he stood in front of the subway stairs.
Suddenly, he felt something odd. He expanded his senses to trace where it was coming from.
The strange feeling disappeared immediately as he expanded his senses, and he couldn’t find out why he felt that way.
Seung-ho scratched his chin awkwardly as he thought about it, and decided he might have been mistaken.
He went down the subway stairs, surrounded by people passing by.
* * *
The target’s sense seems to be better than I thought…
I judged it to be AA, but I think it might be higher.
* * *
“Thank you, brother.”
Lee Min-ju tried to bring Seong-ah to Seung-ho’s house, but she was extremely anxious about going out. They asked Seung-ho to come to their house instead.
Sia is still in school, while Min-ju needs to go to work. They couldn’t leave Seong-ah alone.
Seung-ho walked towards the door.
Seong-ah asked him immediately. “Uncle, are you going away?” Her uncle is like a bodyguard and a calming presence to her.
“No, Seong-ah. He’s just going to buy food to eat when he watches TV. Go to your room and change your clothes”, Min-ju answered.
As they watched Seong-ah go up to her room, the siblings sighed heavily.
“The doctor said that her mental state is not that good yet… if left alone…”
Seung-ho didn’t need to hear the end of the sentence to understand what her sister was saying.
“It’ll just be for a while, huh? Brother…”
“Okay.”
“Okay, go out and buy anything you want.” Lee Min-ju started to take out money from her wallet, but Seung-ho stopped her and started to go out the door.
“Uncle, buy me some banana cookies!”, they heard Seong-ah’s voice from upstairs.
“Okay!” Seung-ho yelled as he went out of the apartment.
As he went down inside an elevator, he was thinking about getting a job.
He recalled the pamphlet he saw at the Hunter Association. He took out his phone and looked for the official Hunter app in Play Store.
There were a lot of apps that popped up. He began to install them one by one as he went inside the nearby convenience store.
Banana cookies, popcorn, and jerky, and four cans of light beer.
Holding the paper bag in one hand, and checking the newly downloaded apps one-by-one, he walked back to the apartment.
Seong-ah was waiting for her when he went down the elevator.
She looked like a kitten hiding in a gap between buildings and looking for food.
She immediately took the paper bag and got a banana cookie out.
Then, Seung-ho went to the sofa and turned on the TV.
Lee Min-ju was busy putting on makeup and preparing to go to work.
Seung-ho asked her. “When is Sia coming home?”
“Half past five? Six hours?”
“Okay.” He sipped at his beer while he looked at the official app. Seong-ah gradually came closer to him.
“Uncle, are you doing?”
Seong-ah put her face over Seong-ho’s phone and looked shocked at what she saw.
“The Hunter Association Official Community? Are you going to be a hunter?!”
“What?!” Lee Min-ju was also surprised. “Are you crazy? Do you want to die?”
“Uncle, don’t. Huh? Why are you trying to do something dangerous?”
It’s been a long time before he was able to calm down his sister and his niece.
“I’m going to be really safe.”
“How? You are D-class, brother.”
“Yes, are you going back to being a porter again?”
Seung-ho laughed at their worried faces.
“Okay, I’ll have myself re-measured, and I will go to gates below the gate recommended by the association, what do you think? Seong-ah, didn’t I come back alive from the gate?”