Chapter 21
Ding—
When I opened the convenience store door, Jeongyeon looked at me like he had seen a savior.
“Noona!”
He was clutching his phone tightly in his hand.
It looked like he had been struggling to keep someone from taking it.
I had rushed over after hurriedly throwing on clothes, and when I got there, the three delinquent boys who had been my punching bags in the alley yesterday greeted me respectfully.
“You’ve arrived, Noona!”
Jeongyeon’s eyes widened.
The tension in me suddenly dropped, and irritation and anger rushed in.
One of the boys quickly said,
“Noona, the thing is, we asked to talk directly, but this guy wouldn’t lend us his phone no matter what—”
“Shut up and tell me why you called me!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
After hearing them out, this was the situation:
The three “mackerels” who went with me to the café tonight had stopped answering calls completely, so their older brothers came looking for me.
And apparently Jeongyeon had told them that three male students came looking for me earlier tonight.
He even told them I was a woman.
‘Damn it.’
Normally, if a healthy high school boy doesn’t go home, nobody would make this much of a fuss.
“You came looking for me over something that small? They’re probably just out messing around somewhere!”
“I-I’m really sorry. My younger brother may look like that, but he always comes home on time. And our parents are very strict…”
Strict parents and an older brother who beats up his younger sibling.
What kind of family is this?
“Ha. As you can see, it wasn’t me. They came earlier, apologized, and left. That’s all.”
“…”
They glanced at each other.
Looks like they had imagined I might have held a grudge and taken revenge on the younger brother.
The older brother looked at me carefully and spoke again.
“Do you have any clue at all? He might skip school, but he wouldn’t stay out this late. None of the three are answering their phones. If my brother doesn’t come home, my father will beat me to death…”
What kind of gangster family is this?
‘Wait. If that’s true, I’m the one in danger.’
Let’s just assume they’re not actual gangsters.
Anyway, I was getting annoyed over some family drama I didn’t care about when I remembered what I heard earlier tonight.
“You know your brother dumped his problem on me, right?”
“Huh?”
Of course he didn’t know.
“Let me say it again. I didn’t beat those kids. They got kicked out of the store for trying to buy cigarettes, then picked a fight in the alley with Hwang Beomyoung’s group.”
“!”
“They got beaten badly and were too scared to tell you, so they lied and said I beat them.”
“You crazy bastards!”
“Apologize to me first.”
“I’m sorry!”
It felt forced, but my irritation eased a little after being dragged out here in the middle of the night.
At least the misunderstanding was cleared up.
The two guys behind him exchanged stiff looks.
“If it’s Hwang Beomyoung’s group…”
“What if they got taken to the hideout?”
As the three men turned serious, the mood became genuinely creepy.
I don’t know much about Hwang Beomyoung, but local delinquents clearly knew something.
“Looks like you have a lead. Then go look for them.”
“W-wait!”
I turned to leave the convenience store, but the older brother ran over and blocked me.
I gave him a look that said, Seriously?
He begged.
“Please help us! Noona is a hun—mmph!”
The guy begging me glanced at Jeongyeon, who was staring over with wide rabbit-like eyes and listening closely.
In these idiots’ heads, I’m some secret undercover hunter.
Which is completely false.
“You fight incredibly well. Can’t you come with us? It’s too dangerous for us alone.”
Looking at him beg like this, he really was his brother’s brother.
But I stayed cold.
“Why should I?”
His reckless little brother dragged an innocent person into getting beaten. He should have some shame.
Then he pulled out an envelope from his pocket, like he prepared it in advance.
“Please.”
“……”
So he does have some shame.
I looked at him.
There were still obvious bruises from when I used him as a test subject for my strength item in the alley.
The fact he came to me even after that meant he was desperate.
I took the white envelope.
Inside were twenty crisp 50,000 won bills.
1 million won.
Gulp.
“…Where is this place?”
***
In a dark alley stood a huge, luxurious two-story mansion.
Clean. Elegant. Expensive.
I came expecting some gangster warehouse, bar, or billiards hall from a movie.
This was ridiculous.
“You sure this is the place?”
“Yes. Hwang Beomyoung’s house.”
Given what I’d heard about his background, it made sense immediately.
Still…
A minor living in a huge, beautiful house like this without parents?
It really showed how powerful and rich he was.
‘I’m jealous.’
They say his mother’s family pampers him because he’s the only child of their dead youngest son.
Though he still turned out crooked.
“A while ago this house was built in the alley, and Hwang Beomyoung moved in. Since then, it’s become a hideout for underage hunters.”
“……”
The words “hideout for hunters” made me tense up instantly.
‘I’m not even a hunter.’
No matter how useful my coin market is, dealing with real hunters, especially reckless teenage hunters, is too much.
I was seriously considering throwing back the money envelope and running.
Then—
Voices.
A group of students came pouring out of the garage.
The delinquent next to me flinched.
And then—
I saw the three familiar “mackerels.”
They were being dragged out by the students.
‘They’re really here.’
I almost couldn’t believe it.
The three boys looked terrified, hunched over and trembling, as if they’d been beaten badly in the garage.
This looked serious.
‘What did they even do?’
Even I was starting to pity them.
Then the students walked closer, and I heard them talking.
One smacked one of the boys on the head and cursed.
“You little shit, so what if you know a hunter? Tell on us. Go ahead.”
“Give them their phones. Let’s see this hunter’s face.”
“Bet it’s some trash-tier hunter.”
Nope.
Not trash-tier.
Not a hunter at all.
From listening, I understood how things got here.
‘Ah… maybe I really should run.’
At this point, I even regretted letting them think I was a hunter.
The hunter students threw the boys’ phones onto the garden floor.
But the three boys were too scared to even pick them up.
“We’re giving them a chance, and they still can’t call anyone.”
“If that hunter has any brains, they won’t touch Hwang Beomyoung. Any hunter knows that. These idiots just don’t know their place.”
“Who would come looking for you? You skip so much school nobody would notice if you vanished.”
“If you died somewhere secretly, your teachers would probably be happy.”
“Honestly, doesn’t this make us heroes?”
Hehehe.
Their filthy laughter echoed through the mansion garden.
I’d seen stories online about underage hunters.
How they dodge weak laws and commit crimes and school violence.
They usually target people with dirty secrets rather than ordinary civilians.
Because when it comes to force, they’re top predators.
They look for sturdy, dirty toys to play with.
‘Regular people actually cheer this kind of thing as “righteous punishment.”’
The more I watched, the more reality hit me.
‘Ha. I seriously don’t want to get dragged into this.’
They’re all the same.
Depending on the situation, the victim becomes the bully, and the bully becomes the victim.
Just animals eating each other.
I’ve met all kinds through training—
but never gotten involved with hunters.
This is no place for a good, ordinary civilian like me.
‘I should leave before I get deeper into this.’
It looked like things were almost over anyway.
Once those reckless hunter kids let the boys go, I figured I could quietly bring them out.
And go home myself.
I reached into my jacket pocket to return the money envelope.
Then—
“You got a gun there or something?”
“!”
A threatening voice came from behind me—
No.
Right behind my head.
The three hiding with me flinched and turned around.
Then froze in shock.
‘…Don’t tell me Hwang Beomyoung?’
A massive presence I somehow hadn’t noticed until now—
stood behind me.
And cold, sharp metal touched my neck.
