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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Vine
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Gang-so opened his eyes.
The small hand on the clock was pointing to 4, and the big hand was pointing to 6.
It was 4:30.
These days, thanks to Gang-so’s help, preparation time was shorter, so Yoo Soon-tae came down to the restaurant around 6.
But before that, Gang-so had something to do.
He sat on his bedding and circulated his energy.
It was a refreshing morning, filled with clear and pure energy.
Gang-so’s room was a small one next to the restaurant on the first floor.
After washing up in the bathroom attached to the room, Gang-so came out to the restaurant.
“…”
It was quiet.
Yoo Soon-tae, who should have come down to the first floor rubbing his eyes, hadn’t yet appeared.
This was the first time this had happened in over a month.
‘What’s going on?’
Gang-so recalled last night.
Last night, Gang-so and Yoo Soon-tae drank beer with tangsuyuk as a snack.
The problem was that the beer had escalated into somaek.
Gang-so learned for the first time that there were so many variations to somaek, a mix of soju and beer.
Foam somaek, bitter-sweet somaek, one-shot somaek, and so on.
As they drank, learning more than ten ways to make somaek, empty bottles started to pile up around them.
“I’m telling you! I love you! Gang-so! Do you know how I feel?”
“…Uh, y-yeah.”
Gang-so was bewildered by the sudden love confession.
Just then, Lim So-young came down from the second floor, sighing.
“Honey! Come on and go to bed now! How long are you going to keep drinking! And confessing your love to people again means you’re drunk!”
Lim So-young, who had slapped Yoo Soon-tae on the back, said apologetically to Gang-so,
“Hohoho, my husband tells anyone he loves them when he’s drunk. He’s a very… loving… man. Hohoho.”
For some reason, Lim So-young’s words had a chilling tone.
“I see.”
Gang-so learned about Yoo Soon-tae’s drinking habit.
And he also learned about his drinking capacity.
‘Five bottles of soju and seven bottles of beer is enough to get him drunk… He’s weaker than I thought.’
It wasn’t that Yoo Soon-tae had a low tolerance for alcohol. It was that Gang-so was too strong.
Gang-so suddenly felt worried about Yoo Soon-tae.
Tomorrow morning, Yoo Soon-tae would undoubtedly clutch his aching head, face a spinning world, and reflect on himself.
‘It will be difficult for him tomorrow.’
He decided to give Yoo Soon-tae a little help.
“It looks like you’re drunk, so come on and go upstairs to bed.”
Gang-so pretended to help Yoo Soon-tae while subtly circulating his energy into his body.
‘I only put in clear energy, so it will help with his hangover.’
Just then, Lim So-young turned to look at Gang-so.
“Ah! Uncle Gang-so, tomorrow is Yang Chun Gak’s regular closing day.”
At those words, Gang-so’s gaze landed on the sign posted in the kitchen.
Closed on the first Monday of every month.
“So tomorrow is your day off too, so you don’t have to wake up early.”
Gang-so finally understood why Yoo Soon-tae had been drinking so recklessly.
“I understand.”
As he finished his recollection, Gang-so chuckled.
“I see. Today is Yang Chun Gak’s regular closing day.”
It was a rare holiday.
And for Gang-so, holiday was a very special word.
Since he started living in the assassin organization, the word ‘holiday’ no longer existed for him.
The instructor would say, if you want to rest, then die. And Gang-so didn’t want to die.
So he couldn’t take a day off and continued his relentless training.
Until the day he brought the leader of the Heavenly Demon Cult to his knees!
However, he didn’t know what to do with the free time he had gained.
He could only stand there blankly…
Then the young girl said to him,
“You, too, mister! Are you just spacing out because you don’t know how to rest? What’s so hard about resting! Just do what you want!”
He chuckled, remembering how she looked at him with an absurd expression.
That foolish version of himself was gone now.
“Should I take a walk around the neighborhood?”
He thought Yoo Soon-tae might worry if he wasn’t at the shop, so he tore off a piece of memo paper and carefully wrote,
Out for a walk.
He posted it on his door and was about to leave the shop through the back door when,
“Kkikyu!”
He turned around, and Kkorong was sitting on the floor, looking at him and wiggling its small ears.
Kkorong, the dungeon rat that had become a new member of their family, was only allowed on the first floor when there were no customers.
Since it was an animal certified by the Awakened Association as being hygienic, there was no problem with it being in the restaurant, but it could be disrespectful to customers.
“Why? You also want to go out?”
At Gang-so’s question, Kkorong nodded.
“Kki! Kkikyu!”
“Well, that should be fine.”
With Gang-so’s permission, Kkorong immediately climbed up Gang-so’s body and onto his shoulder.
“Let’s go.”
Gang-so opened the shop’s back door and went outside.
The fresh morning air lifted his spirits.
Even on a holiday, exercising in the morning was a habit he couldn’t skip.
Since he wasn’t working in the kitchen today, he decided to exercise by walking around the neighborhood.
Although it was 6 in the morning, some people were already up and about.
Perhaps because of the cold March weather, they walked hurriedly towards their destinations.
Tap, tap, tap-!
Then he heard someone running.
Gang-so turned around, and someone in a dark blue tracksuit was delivering newspapers while carrying a bundle of them.
“Huh? Hello.”
It was a boy with a youthful face.
He greeted Gang-so, and Gang-so remembered who he was.
“You’re the student who lives in Cheongsol Apartments, room 301, right?”
“You have a good memory!”
“My memory is quite good. So, what are you doing now?”
“I’m delivering newspapers.”
“Newspapers?”
“I have to make money.”
Gang-so could feel many emotions in the eyes of the boy as he spoke.
The strongest among these emotions was sadness.
So he was puzzled.
Although not strong, he felt a unique aura emanating from the boy, one of those called awakened.
‘Didn’t they say awakened individuals can earn a lot of money?’
Gang-so asked him,
“You’re an awakened one, aren’t you? Then why are you delivering newspapers?”
The student was startled.
“H-How did you… know?”
He asked cautiously, and Gang-so realized that there was something going on.
So he quickly made an excuse.
“I’m also an awakened one. You know the saying, ‘Awakened recognize awakened’?”
At Gang-so’s words, the student nodded.
“That’s true. I also knew that you’re an awakened one.”
“Hahaha. Is that so?”
“If you weren’t an awakened one, you couldn’t deliver jajangmyeon that fast.”
“Well, that’s true.”
Gang-so continued.
“I’m F-rank, and although I deliver jajangmyeon because I don’t want to die in gates, you seem stronger than me, even though I’m F-rank…”
“I’m still 16. A third-year middle school student.”
At those words, Gang-so remembered what he had learned during his isolated person training.
“The Awakened Association and the government have set the age limit for entering the Hunter Academy at 18 to prevent the already scarce hunters from dying needlessly. And porters also have to be 18 or older to enter gates.”
That’s right.
The student standing before Gang-so couldn’t enter the Hunter Academy even though he was awakened because of the age limit.
“And my rank is the ambiguous C-rank, so there are no guilds that support me… I’m not smart enough to get a scholarship from the Awakened Association, and I don’t have the connections either… So I have no choice. I have to make money like this by delivering newspapers.”
“I see. Sorry for asking something I shouldn’t have.”
At Gang-so’s apology, the student shook his head.
“It’s okay.”
“It’s better to say it’s not okay when it’s not okay.”
“Huh?”
“No one will believe you if you say it’s okay while your eyes are red… Anyway, I’m really sorry.”
Looking at the bundle of newspapers that the student was holding, Gang-so said,
“How about I help you with delivering newspapers?”
“I-It’s okay…”
“I took up your time by talking to you, didn’t I?”
After pondering, the student nodded.
“Then please do.”
He tore off half of the newspapers and handed it over to Gang-so, who then started delivering them.
He had already memorized all the addresses in the neighborhood for his deliveries for Yang Chun Gak.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh-!
Every newspaper Gang-so threw landed perfectly in the mailboxes, and the student, watching this, was amazed.
“Whoa! That’s amazing!”
“It’s nothing. It happens when you do it for a long time.”
“What have you been doing…”
He couldn’t exactly tell the student, ‘I used to be an assassin. It’s the technique I used to throw hidden weapons from a distance.’
“I’ve just done, this and that…”
“You must have led a hard life too, hyung.”
“Well, that’s right…”
“Oh, by the way, my name is Oh Dong-soo. What’s your name, hyung?”
“Gang-so.”
“That’s a cool name.”
“Thanks.”
Thanks to Gang-so, Oh Dong-soo finished delivering his newspapers early.
“Then I’ll get going. I have to get ready for school.”
“Yeah, be careful.”
“Okay.”
“If you have any worries, you can come by. I’m always at Yang Chun Gak. I’ll buy you a bowl of jajangmyeon using my deliveryman privileges.”
Without waiting for Oh Dong-soo’s reply, Gang-so turned around and headed back to Yang Chun Gak.
Normally, Gang-so wasn’t really interested in other people’s business unless they were in mortal danger right before his eyes.
He wasn’t the kind of person to be this kind to someone just because they were suffering from financial difficulties.
He had said that to Oh Dong-soo because he seemed unstable.
Like a small boat lost at sea in a storm.
In Gang-so’s experience, people like that always caused trouble.
‘He’s a valuable customer of Yang Chun Gak. I can’t just lose a customer.’
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Gang-so returned to Yang Chun Gak after a refreshing walk around the neighborhood in the morning air. He took the memo off the door and went into his room.
“Kkikyu?”
Kkorong looked at him as if asking what he was going to do next.
“What am I going to do? I’m going to read.”
It was a rare day off, so he had some time before breakfast.
He sat on the floor and picked up a book from the low table.
100 Classic Fairy Tales: Snow White
One side had text, and the other side had colorful illustrations.
[Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived a kind queen. The queen had a wish to have a child…]
“Infertility is a big concern, now and then.”
Muttering like that, he continued reading the fairy tale.
The book “Snow White” was quite interesting.
[The new queen asked the mirror, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who in this land is fairest of all?”]
Gang-so tilted his head.
“Huh? This mirror must be a magical tool! I’ve heard of a talking mirror where I came from, is this the same kind?”
He turned the pages one by one, and without realizing it, he became absorbed in the fairy tale.
After a while, Gang-so put the book down and muttered,
“That was a very interesting book!”
Just then, Ha-young’s voice rang out.
“Oppa! Oppa! Come have breakfast! Today’s side dish is sausage!”
“Sausage, you say?”
“Kkikyu!”
“Ah! Kkorong, you were here?”
Sausage side dish.
It was one of Gang-so’s favorite side dishes.
Since today was Yang Chun Gak’s closing day, they went up to the second floor for breakfast.
Soybean sprout soup, kimchi, fried eggs, link sausages stir-fried with ketchup and corn syrup were served on the table.
“Let’s eat!”
Yoo Soon-tae was the first to pick up his spoon, and everyone started eating.
“Ah! Refreshing! As expected, spicy soybean sprout soup is the best for a hangover!”
Gang-so looked at Yoo Soon-tae’s face. It didn’t look bad, thanks to the energy he had infused him with yesterday.
Rather, he looked lively.
Seeing Yoo Soon-tae’s face, Gang-so suddenly felt mischievous and cleared his throat.
“Ahem, I heard you loud and clear yesterday.”
“What are you talking about?”
Yoo Soon-tae tilted his head, and Gang-so grinned and said,
“Your love confession.”
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