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GM Ch16
by misacchi— Nothing happened.
Soohyuk’s voice boomed over the phone.
— Come here and convince the guild leader.
— Don’t come. You don’t have to come.
“I’ll be right there, where do you want me to go?”
Jung Seongwon stood up, holding his cell phone to his ear. In his experience so far, if Soohyuk told him not to come, he had to go.
***
After receiving the call, Jung Seongwon went to the underground parking lot of the guild building. To his surprise, Soohyuk and Minjun had driven up together after the hunter’s license practical exam and had been talking the whole time.
Instead of getting in the car, Seongwon took the two of them to the guild leader’s office at the top of the building, as it was the most secure part of the guild building.
After hearing the situation and wondering what the heck was going on, Seongwon had to seriously wonder if something was wrong with his ears.
“So if you don’t do it, you get a 10% stat drop? Permanently?”
“Yes. You have to do it nine times, and every time you don’t, you’ll get a 10% cut, up to 90%.”
It was Minjun who answered Seongwon’s question. When he told him that their stats could drop by as much as 90%, Seongwon’s heart sank; that meant an S-class would become an F-class.
“We just have to unbind it.”
Soohyuk, who had been sitting quietly, spoke up at that point. Minjun glanced over at him.
“I’ve said this several times, but a pair of active bound items cannot be unbound.”
“There must be a way.”
“Why are you avoiding reality? What is the way?”
“Why are you so cheeky like a child?”
“I’m just frustrated.”
“Really. You’re stubborn.”
“Who’s the stubborn one?”
“Aren’t you scared?”
“What’s there to be scared of? Just do it when we have to. Like I said, it’s better to do it than to have your stats go down.”
“This kid-”
“I’m not a kid.”
“A kid is a kid. Hey, say something.”
As Soohyuk and Minjun sat on the couch facing each other and bickering loudly, Seongwon ran a hand through his pounding head. He’d known for a long time that Soohyuk’s personality was difficult. But Minjun, who spoke back without any hesitation even in front of Soohyuk, was just as difficult.
When he first saw Minjun, he’d thought he was unusually calm and collected for his young age, but that wasn’t the case. When the two were put together, the synergy exploded in the strangest places.
Seongwon swallowed a sigh and uttered firmly.
“Both of you, please shut your mouths.”
“Yes.” “No, he’s acting like he has no fear.”
Once again, Minjun and Soohyuk gave different answers.
“Soohyuk-ah, no, guild leader. Guild leader, you should stay put. I’m on the same page as Kim Minjun-ssi.”
“Right?”
“Hyung!”
Seongwon looked at Minjun, feeling like a kindergarten teacher breaking up a fight between little children.
“So what do you want to do, Kim Minjun-ssi?”
“Of course we should do it. Since it is a physical union, it is by agreement of the two. I want to prevent my abilities from declining.”
Minjun replied firmly. His common sense told him that he couldn’t safely unbind a bound item, so he couldn’t understand Soohyuk’s desire to find another way.
“So why don’t you want to do it? Never mind finding another way. Minjun-ssi says he can do it.”
At Seongwon’s question, Minjun looked at Yoon Soohyuk, also curious what the real reason was. Frowning, Soohyuk glanced at Minjun, then tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“Hyung. He’s twenty.”
“What about it?”
“He’s young.”
Minjun’s eyes widened at the unexpected answer. That was the only reason?
Their gazes locked, and Soohyuk pursed his lips and muttered something about being young again.
“He’s young.”
Moreover, Minjun was stunned because even Jung Seongwon agreed with Soohyuk in an awkward tone. Originally 34 years old, Minjun barely realized he became ‘young.’ Whenever his age was mentioned, he simply reminded himself that he had a 20-year-old ID card.
Besides, being 20, he was only eight years younger than Soohyuk, who was 28. So he was not expecting to hear that he was young from him.
“Since I’m 20, I’m an adult, so there’s no problem legally.”
“There is a problem.”
“The stat drop is more of a problem.”
“Give me a break. Fine. Just give me a couple days. It’s not something we can do right now.”
“But I can do that.”
“Hey.”
“How long do you want to wait? Don’t tell me to wait until the last day because there are variables, things can change. Things can happen suddenly, you might not succeed the first time. Are you that confident?”
“I’m going crazy. Ha. I’ll call you in four days. End of story. I’m going to go first, hyung, please take him home.”
Soohyuk jumped to his feet and strode out of the guild leader’s office. Minjun decided to understand Soohyuk; it seemed like he was more delicate than he seemed. If he was worried about his age, he needed time to prepare himself mentally.
“Hunter Kim Minjun.”
“Yes.”
At Seongwon’s call, Minjun straightened his posture.
“Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“What? Oh, doing it? It’s okay, there’s no other way.”
Looking at Minjun’s nonchalant response, Seongwon felt like he could somehow understand Soohyuk’s feelings.
As Minjun said, the best way to solve the problem was to just do it. But he wanted to tell Minjun, a 20-year-old with an innocent face who didn’t seem to know of worldly affairs, that he’d be in trouble if he lived like that. There were many bad people in the world, and if he was too nice, he’d be looked down upon. Since Soohyuk was in the wrong in the first place, he should be boldly demanding compensation.
To put it bluntly, it was as if Minjun was holding Soohyuk’s leash. Soohyuk had more to lose than Minjun, so even if Minjun made unreasonable demands, he had no choice but to comply. And yet, Minjun didn’t set any conditions.
He couldn’t tell if Minjun just didn’t realize it yet, or if he really didn’t want anything in return. But he had been dealing with people for a long time, and Jung Seongwon had a feeling: Minjun really didn’t care much for it.
“Hunter Kim Minjun. Let me begin by thanking you for making the big decision as vice guild leader for the June Guild. I’m sure the guild leader will take full responsibility for this matter. It wasn’t his intention, but it was his mistake.”
Like a grown-up who’d been in society for a while, Seongwon mentioned compensation anyway. The key point was that Soohyuk was responsible. As one of only six S-class hunters in Korea, he was wealthy enough to guarantee that Minjun would be fed.
“The guild leader said four days, but please make sure it’s not too late.”
“I’ll keep an eye on him. And since this is Soohyuk’s mistake, I’ll make sure things are repaid properly.”
Jung Seongwon eventually had to bring up the topic of repayment towards Minjun, who still seemed to have no intention of asking for anything in return. He felt like if he made a mistake, he would become a person who took advantage of a 20-year-old.
“Oh, it’s okay, it’s just an accident. Oh, shouldn’t we have a non-disclosure agreement or something?”
“I’ll save that for later. Since this was an accident caused by the guild leader, we need to talk about compensation.”
“Yes.”
“I was originally going to talk to you today about your guild membership contract, but since the guild leader is not here, we’ll have to postpone it until later.”
“Ah… yes.”
When Seongwon explained that he wanted to sign him as soon as he finished his hunter’s license practical exam, Minjun was quite taken aback, not expecting them to be so quick.
“Are you going to go home? I’ll give you a ride.”
“There’s a subway station right next door, I can get there by myself.”
“You know hunter Jung Jinwoo, the guy who delivered your Lunar New Year’s gift? He knows where you live, so you can return home comfortably.”
“Alright.”
With the responsibilities clearly laid out, Seongwon gave Minjun his business card and sent him off as a guest of honor. He then set out to find Soohyuk, who was probably somewhere in the guild building.
Usually, Soohyuk spent his time in the training room, if not in the guild leader’s office. Today, however, he wasn’t there, but standing in the rooftop recreation park.
“He has gone back.”
“There he goes.”
A black sedan drove by as Soohyuk watched. The June Guild building was on the 15th floor. Seongwon, a B-class hunter, could just barely make out the license plate of a car in the distance. It was the official car Minjun was riding in.
“Good eyes.”
“What did you say?”
“I said we’d compensate him, since you caused the accident.”
“Good work. I need you to get me a list of known experts in this field, or at least a list of workshops. I’ll do whatever it takes to unbind it.”
As an S-class hunter, it wasn’t hard to get a meeting with a hunter or workshop in Soohyuk’s name. However, he had never been able to unbind an active item before. It was hard to understand Soohyuk’s reluctance to go back when the immediate solution was so close at hand.
Although Soohyuk was generous with children, he was fundamentally a goal-oriented person. He would do anything to get to his goal. He had committed quite a few legally-questionable acts. It was a strange thing to see a man who could be so cold-hearted without blood or tears suddenly become so conscientious.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“What?”
“You have no conscience.”
Soohyuk remained silent in the face of the scathing remark. It wasn’t that he had no conscience at all, but it was true that it was thin. Nevertheless, honestly, sleeping with a stranger to prevent his stats from dropping was nothing.
Unless the other person was Minjun.