How to Seduce S-Class Hunters with Bungeoppang - Chapter 60
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 60
The birth of Korea’s first S-Rank Hunter.
A simple sentence, yet its implications were anything but. So few nations possessed S-Rank Hunters that their emergence carried immense weight.
Perhaps it was the arrival of this long-coveted existence? The Doctor from the Management Bureau standing before Hyun-woo could barely contain his excitement, his voice rising with fervor.
“As you can see from the status window, Lee Hyun-woo—or should I say Hunter Lee Hyun-woo?—you have awakened as an S-Rank Hunter!”
“…Yes, I see.”
“You’re quite composed about this. I thought you’d be more surprised. Well, that’s fine! You mentioned your previous memories were hazy—it could be a temporary symptom. Let’s monitor your condition while we proceed with detailed examinations!”
The Doctor offered a warm smile, assuring me there was nothing to worry about. After rattling off the schedule for future tests, he left the Hospital Room, and silence finally descended.
‘This is the Hunter Management Bureau Hospital Ward…’
The Hospital Room, enclosed by pristine white walls, was filled only with the acrid stench of disinfectant. Hyun-woo made no complaint and simply closed his eyes. An overwhelming fatigue had washed over him.
Days later, once the Management Bureau determined his condition had stabilized, they revealed the fact of his S-Rank awakening to the world.
After that, the world began to take notice of him. His name was featured prominently in the news day after day, and high-ranking officials whom I’d only seen on television came to visit, lauding him as “Korea’s hope” while taking photographs.
Yet despite the passage of time, his memories remained like a murky fog. His life before awakening. It had certainly existed, but felt only hazy and indistinct.
“…Well, it doesn’t matter.”
Hyun-woo muttered flatly. There had been no one in his past anyway. Perhaps not even family.
Yesterday, someone who introduced himself as the Orphanage Director had visited and handed him a single box of belongings before leaving.
It wasn’t particularly surprising. Despite all that sensational coverage, not a single family member or relative had come to visit him.
Hyun-woo gazed out the darkened window.
A sudden awakening. And a blank in memory. All of it felt like something divorced from reality.
* * *
Confined to the Hospital Room, time crawled by with agonizing slowness.
On the day I finally heard that all examinations were complete and I could be discharged by the day after tomorrow, an unexpected Customer came to visit.
“…You’re saying you’re my father.”
“That’s right. This child in the photograph is you. Isn’t he adorable?”
Hyun-woo’s eyes were hollow as he gazed down at the photograph the man had handed him. In the picture, an unfamiliar woman and the man before him were smiling happily while holding a small child.
“I apologize for the late introduction. I’m Park Sung-chul. I currently serve as chairman of the National Defense Committee. Though, titles aren’t really what matters.”
The middle-aged man standing before him, Park Sung-chul, wore an impeccably tailored suit. He forced a smile that mingled sadness with joy.
“There were circumstances that caused your mother and me to part ways long ago. I should have come looking for you sooner, but with your surname changed, I didn’t know. In any case, I’m truly sorry for coming so late.”
A lie. Hyun-woo nodded with an indifferent expression. Unsettled by that lukewarm response, Park Sung-chul hastily grabbed the arm of the child standing behind him.
“Ah, Jae-min! You need to greet him. This is your older brother.”
“…Older brother?”
A boy of slight build was dragged out from behind Park Sung-chul. Sharp eyes and tightly pressed lips. A face disturbingly similar to his own reflection in the mirror.
When their eyes met, the boy reluctantly nodded his head. Park Sung-chul firmly wrapped his arm around Park Jae-min’s shoulders and spoke.
“Hyun-woo. Why don’t you come live with us now? If you’re willing, we’d like to make you part of our family…”
“That’s not necessary.”
Hyun-woo cut him off.
“Once I’m discharged, I plan to join the Management Bureau immediately.”
“There’s no need to rush into it like that. Let’s talk about things we’ve missed,”
“I’ve already made up my mind.”
A crack appeared in Park Sung-chul’s perfect smile. He stared at Hyun-woo for a moment, then his lips trembled as he forced them upward.
“…Yes. If that’s truly your wish, so be it. But if you change your mind anytime, contact me. Here’s my personal number.”
Hyun-woo refused to take the hastily scribbled note Park Sung-chul offered. As Park Sung-chul placed it on the table and left with Park Jae-min, silence returned to the hospital room.
“Abandoning me when it suited him, and now he wants to play father.”
Hyun-woo had his reasons for rejecting Park Sung-chul’s proposal. He pulled out the orphanage box he’d hidden beneath the bed. Among worn clothes and miscellaneous items lay a single faded envelope.
“…A suicide note.”
It was the final letter left by his mother, whom he barely remembered. The Director of the Management Bureau had said she, a C-Rank Hunter, died “honorably” in a Gate. But the truth was different.
[…Every day is hell. Park Sung-chul abandoned me so coldly in pursuit of power. I hate him so much I can’t bear it. So I’m going into a Gate to choose death.]
She had chosen the Gate as a convenient tool to end her own life.
[…My beloved child, Hyun-woo. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like without you. Isn’t that foolish? Forget about your mother who thinks such pathetic things. I only wish for your happiness. Then, goodbye.]
His name, mentioned briefly at the end. Hyun-woo traced that part with his fingertip before returning the letter to its envelope.
His mother—a woman he couldn’t even remember. He didn’t know if she had loved him or truly despised him.
But the tear stains scattered throughout the letter, accumulated over time, spoke clearly. Even in his hazy memories, there remained a version of himself that had loved his mother.
That’s why he couldn’t follow Park Sung-chul, who had abandoned her.
‘It’s better this way. I’ve awakened as S-Rank, so I don’t need family anymore.’
When he heard footsteps outside, Hyun-woo quickly shoved the box back under the bed. And so he transformed from an ordinary sixteen-year-old into Korea’s first S-Rank Hunter.
* * *
I collapsed onto the bed in my lodging.
‘…He abandoned him so coldly, and now that he’s awakened as S-Rank, he wants to play family.’
The past that Lee Hyun-woo shared directly with me exceeded imagination. What’s more, the moment Lee Hyun-woo began his activities as an S-Rank Hunter, Park Sung-chul abandoned his position as Chairman of the National Defense Committee and seized the Vice Director position at the Management Bureau. His scheme to reach the pinnacle of power by exploiting his son was transparent.
Lee Hyun-woo spoke calmly, saying that neither his mother nor his father existed in his memory anyway, but that very calmness made my heart ache even more as I listened.
Hearing his past, I finally understood why people had confused Lee Hyun-woo with Park Jae-min.
“…To corner Park Jae-min, I need more concrete evidence.”
There was footage of him, but it was only a blurry, low-resolution video shot from a distance. This was the result of the Hunter Management Bureau and the government banning coverage to hide their own mistakes.
But if I dug a little deeper, something would emerge. The Park Jae-min in the video looked like a child who had just awakened, showing off his newfound power.
“Park Jae-min from that time would definitely have left evidence behind.”
“Do you have some good plan?”
“…First, I need to secure my own side.”
I smiled. Conveniently, the person most desperate to hear the truth was in my shop.
“…Wait. What are you saying right now? There’s a different culprit?”
The next morning, I brought Se-ah, who had been lingering around the shop since early, up to the second floor. She let out a hollow laugh at my claim that there was a different culprit.
“I told you. I saw Lee Hyun-woo with my own two eyes.”
“What if the person Se-ah saw wasn’t Lee Hyun-woo?”
“What? That sounds like word games…”
“Just watch this video first, then we’ll talk.”
I pulled up the footage I’d seen in the Security Archive yesterday on my phone. It was a copy of the Incheon Gate footage I’d received from Lee Hyun-woo this morning.
“This is CCTV footage from that day that hasn’t been released to the public.”
Though puzzled, Se-ah leaned forward to look at the screen.
“You said the culprit who killed your fiancé was Lee Hyun-woo. But that’s physically impossible. Look.”
In the background of the screen, Lee Hyun-woo could be seen preparing to enter in front of the shimmering Gate entrance. Se-ah’s eyes wavered as she saw him.
“Lee Hyun-woo entered the Gate immediately upon arriving at the scene. As an S-Rank Hunter, he had more urgent matters to attend to.”
“B-but the person I saw was definitely Hunter Lee Hyun-woo!”
“Would you look at the corner of the screen? The man wearing the hat.”
I touched the corner of the screen, and that section expanded naturally. A man in a hat, spitting on the ground before disappearing. Se-ah caught her breath as she watched him.
“Ah! That was him. That Hunter uniform with the red emblem. I thought that was Hunter Lee Hyun-woo, but how could there be two of them…?”
“He’s someone else. You saw Hunter Lee Hyun-woo enter the Gate yourself, Se-ah.”
“Then who on earth is that person?”
At her urgent question, I glanced around. It was still early—Ari hadn’t even arrived at work yet. Still, just to be safe, I lowered my voice and whispered softly.
“It’s Hunter Park Jae-min.”
“What? That can’t be right. The Park Jae-min Hunter I know―”
“I know. He’s changed so much now. But what about him back then?”
I turned off the footage and pulled up a photograph. It was from the day Vice Director Park Sung-chul had proudly announced his son Park Jae-min’s A-Rank awakening in front of reporters.
‘Most of it’s been deleted. I barely managed to find this.’
Se-ah had no idea how hard I’d worked to find images of him from his early awakening days.
“This is….”
The newly awakened Park Jae-min in the photograph was completely different from his polished appearance now. Undyed black hair, sharp eyes devoid of any warmth. At first glance, he was so similar to Hunter Lee Hyun-woo that they were nearly indistinguishable.
I watched her reaction quietly. I thought it might be difficult for her to recognize him based solely on a blurry CCTV recording and a five-year-old memory, but―
“Ah, damn it.”
Wait? What did I just hear?
“Now that I see his face, I know exactly who he is. That bastard. Wow, how did I not recognize him? That scumbag piece of trash?”
Se-ah’s expression was utterly vicious. How many curses fit into a single sentence? And as if that weren’t enough, she continued rattling off profanities under her breath.
“U-um, Se-ah?”
Startled, I leaned back, but Se-ah quickly grabbed my hand. In her eyes, a subtle madness gleamed.
“What should I do? Just say the word. I’ll help with anything to catch this bastard.”
I smiled awkwardly and nodded. From that moment on, I began earnestly gathering evidence to expose Park Jae-min’s crimes.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————