Translator: Vine
Translated At: Nyx Scans
Chapter: 106
#106. The Completed Figurine
2022.11.14.
Silvermoon Management.
"...Sunbae went to the Immortal headquarters again?"
Siwoo, who was sitting on his desk and looking through a report, slowly lifted his gaze.
"Why?"
"Um, she didn't tell me the reason specifically, but perhaps..."
Jehwi trailed off.
However, that was enough.
Siwoo lowered his gaze back to the document and muttered softly.
"The Monkey King must have put ideas into her head."
He didn't know how he had convinced her, but Sunbae had clearly decided to participate in the South Coast Gate operation.
"...She said she quit the academy, didn't she."
"Yes. By the time I heard about it, she had already quit."
Siwoo's gaze was fixed on the report, but in reality, his mind was elsewhere.
The image of Eunha smiling while brushing Siwoo's... no, Hyuji's fur, vividly came to mind.
'Why, when she liked it so much.'
His fingertips unknowingly tightened, slightly crumpling the report he was holding.
"I, I did try to persuade her in my own way, but..."
Jehwi, observing Siwoo's mood, hesitantly spoke.
She was surprisingly stubborn, so Jehwi's persuasion alone wasn't enough to change her mind.
"It's fine. Let Sunbae do as she pleases."
However, the answer that came back from Siwoo was far from what Jehwi had expected.
"Huh? B-but."
Jehwi, hesitating, eventually closed his mouth.
Because it was obvious that Siwoo would glare at him for saying something cheeky again.
Jehwi had been convinced for a long time.
That CEO-nim wanted this Hunter-nim to live an ordinary life.
If not, there would have been no reason to terminate the contract midway, even at a loss.
He wouldn't have called Jehwi out like this to meticulously inquire about her current situation, nor would he have gone through the trouble of sending her dog magazines or related books through him.
So, he thought that if Siwoo heard the news that Eunha was participating in the South Coast Gate operation, he would scold him for not stopping her somehow.
Jehwi had come prepared for that, in his own way.
However, Siwoo didn't.
At least on the surface, regardless of his inner thoughts.
"Never mind that, was there anything else?"
At the voice that reached his ears, Jehwi quickly snapped back to his senses.
"Anything else?"
...Ah.
Blinking, Jehwi quickly grasped the gist.
Siwoo was now asking about Eunha's current situation.
As always.
"Come to think of it, she recently made a friend she contacts often. Not long ago, they even went to see a movie..."
"A movie?"
Siwoo lifted his gaze from the report he had been staring at intently.
Was it his imagination?
His gaze was unusual.
"By any chance, is that friend's name Yoonho?"
A dry voice, almost devoid of inflection.
However, Jehwi saw it.
The ends of Siwoo's hair were subtly turning white.
Jehwi jumped and waved his hands.
"No, no, no. It wasn't a name like that... Um, what was it. Ahyeon...? Anyway, it was a girl's name."
"I see."
Shooo...
Siwoo's hair, which had been turning white, returned to its original color.
Siwoo, with a calm face, lowered his gaze back to the report.
Only then could Jehwi inwardly let out a sigh of relief.
"Anything else."
Siwoo, flipping to the next page of the report, spoke as if throwing out the question.
"Anything else... you ask? Uh, um..."
Jehwi rolled his eyes, desperately trying to recall Eunha's recent activities.
In the meantime, Siwoo, unable to bear it, spoke again.
"Well, is she lonely or anything?"
"Huh?"
Lonely? Who? Hunter-nim?
Siwoo glanced at Jehwi's puzzled face and muttered in a barely audible voice.
"...Hyuji."
Flip.
Flipping another page of the report, he cleared his throat with a nonchalant expression.
"Does she... ahem, miss Hyuji or anything."
"Ah."
Jehwi's lips began to twitch uncontrollably.
Though he shouldn't, he couldn't hide his pleased smile.
It was a great relief that Siwoo's gaze was fixed on the report as if nailed to it.
Jehwi tensed his vocal cords, completely concealed his amusement, and then spoke.
"Whenever she asks for pictures sometimes, I send her the ones I've saved beforehand. When the stockpile runs out, I'll ask you to take them again, CEO-nim."
"...You, you've been smiling like that often lately."
Ugh.
Jehwi flinched his shoulders.
Just how wide was his field of vision?
Siwoo, even while reading the report, seemed to have caught Jehwi's twitching lips.
Perhaps he could even see objects with the whites of his eyes.
"S-smiling like that, you say?"
"With a face like an uncle watching his nephew's cute antics."
"No way!"
Absolutely, absolutely not, CEO-nim!
Jehwi jumped.
However, a cold wind was already blowing fiercely inside the office.
"...I'm sorry."
Today too, the finale was Jehwi's apology.
Fortunately, Siwoo didn't scold Jehwi.
He merely asked in a dry voice.
"What's she doing today."
"Me?"
"No."
Siwoo's brow twitched.
"Sunbae, I mean."
About an hour ago, Eunha received an urgent call from Junhwan.
It was the joyful news that Minju had finally woken up.
According to Junhwan, so far, there were no signs of aftereffects or side effects from the treatment.
The Rose Guild had also officially diagnosed him as fully recovered.
"But you never know, right?"
Though he looked fine on the outside, Junhwan explained that there were many things that bothered him.
Unlike the black spots that had completely disappeared after using Pixie Powder, the strange scar remaining on his neck.
And the fact that he couldn't properly remember what happened that day.
Since it was a curse of unknown origin, there was no harm in being cautious.
Corps seemed to have decided to keep the matter of the South Coast Gate secret from their master, Trickster.
They had also apparently promised support to the Association on the condition that Trickster would not be deployed.
"So, Ms. Yura, please keep that matter a secret from Master, by all means."
Even right before opening the hospital room door, Junhwan repeatedly asked Eunha.
She now knew how much they cherished and followed Minju.
Since he had recently suffered a mishap at the Unknown Gate, they probably didn't want to push him into battle again.
To them, Trickster, Minju, was 'family' before he was an S-Class hunter.
It was the same for Eunha too.
Eunha nodded as if to say, don't worry.
"Understood."
Only after receiving Eunha's firm reply did Junhwan smile in relief.
Click—
As soon as the door opened, something jumped up as if it had been waiting.
"Noona!"
It was Minju.
He was still wearing his patient gown.
"Master, you can't run like that! The IV needle will fall out again."
Suhyeon hurriedly followed and nagged Minju.
However, Minju didn't seem to hear her.
Minju looked up at Eunha, his round, acorn-like eyes sparkling.
"Noona, you came to build the figurine, right? I've prepared it already."
Ta-da!
Minju pointed to the hospital bed.
As he said, a large figurine box was placed on the bed.
"Now, everyone, get out. I'm going to play with Noona."
Minju waved his hand at Suhyeon and Junhwan.
They pouted slightly, as if a little disappointed, but left the hospital room without a word.
"Then..."
Just before closing the door, Junhwan subtly gestured to Eunha with his eyes.
A signal not to forget their earlier promise.
As Eunha nodded slightly, he smiled faintly and closed the door.
"Noona, hurry up!"
As soon as the door closed, Minju, as if in a great hurry, began to tug at her sleeve.
A look so innocent and playful that it was hard to believe he had been to the brink of death. This was the Minju that Eunha knew.
While walking as Minju led her, Eunha's gaze suddenly fell upon Minju's slender neck.
Specifically, the right side of his neck.
From a distance, it looked like a red dot.
If she hadn't heard about the scar from Junhwan beforehand, she would have thought nothing of it.
"Ah, this."
Minju, sensing Eunha's gaze, rubbed his neck.
"I must have gotten bitten by a bug while sleeping. It doesn't itch, but it swells up a bit if I scratch it."
"...Really? It doesn't hurt?"
"Not at all!"
Minju smiled brightly and plopped down on the bed.
His small hands, disproportionate to his age, nimbly began to tear open the figurine box packaging.
It seemed that, as Junhwan had said, Minju had lost about half of his memories from that day.
He remembered entering the Unknown Gate, but his memory from the middle onwards was cut off.
'In the end, we couldn't find out what he saw there, or what happened.'
Eunha mulled over Junhwan's words again.
Though he had the appearance of a small boy, Minju was nevertheless one of only six S-Class hunters in Korea.
The fact that such a Minju had returned on the verge of death clearly meant—
'Something happened.'
Eunha stared intently at the area around Minju's neck.
That scar.
That alone was the only hint.
"Why are you looking at me like that? I'm really fine."
Minju, who seemed to have been feeling Eunha's gaze all along, spoke in a bright tone without stopping his small hands from unwrapping the package.
"I heard from the hyungs. That I was very sick while I was sleeping."
Minju brought his hand to his mouth, cupped it like a conch shell, and whispered in a tiny voice.
"Noona, you got me Pixie Powder, didn't you?"
"..."
It seemed Junhwan had told him that too.
I'll repay you with something more expensive when I'm discharged.
Minju, patting his chest as if to say not to worry, opened the figurine box.
His busily moving hands, and connected to them, his thin wrists, still wore the tangerine-colored wish bracelet Eunha had previously gifted him.
He had pestered Suhyeon to re-tie it after it had broken once.
Because it had been tied roughly in a hurry, the wish bracelet squeezed his wrist so tightly that blood couldn't circulate.
"Ooh, this brilliance...!"
Minju, his eyes sparkling, examined the figurine parts one by one.
Though he looked like a young child, she now knew.
This innocently smiling boy was the master of 60,000 troops.
A small but strong leader who would willingly throw his body for his family.
Thump.
Eunha slowly lifted her hand and gently placed it on Minju's head.
"...?"
Minju, who had been engrossed in the figurine, rolled his eyes.
Pat, pat.
His curly, tangerine-colored hair rustled under Eunha's touch.
It felt like touching soft sheep's wool.
"Minju, shall we build the figurine?"
Minju blinked his round eyes as if puzzled by the sudden skinship, but he didn't push Eunha's hand away.
Rather—
"Yes!"
He smiled, his eyes curving into crescents.
When she realized it, Eunha too, as if drawn by Minju, had a smile on her lips.
A promise she thought she couldn't keep.
Eunha and Minju sat facing each other in the sun-drenched hospital room and together, they completed a magnificent warship.
