Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Thank you for sending the director

Fortunately, Saebit Guild had a company car too. A compact on the verge of being scrapped, but better than none.

Driving the gray compact and arriving at the lodging, I could see Kim Eun-ji waiting outside the building.

Then, after she got in the passenger seat, I headed for the station and opened my mouth. We'll be together from here, so we need to get closer.

"Sleep well?"

"...Yes. But what should I call you?"

We had handled a gate rampage right after first meeting on interview day, so things had been hectic.

"Call me Director. The work isn't much different from a manager's."

"...Director oppa?"

"Uh... call me whatever's comfortable."

Oppa was a first. Si-u. Assistant Manager. Kim Seol-yeon's kept husband. Hearing only titles like that, and then oppa, it was oddly embarrassing, but not bad.

"First we have to do makeup and a clothing fitting. The schedule was set in a rush, so we have to hurry a little."

"Better than spending time endlessly in a room."

At Kim Eun-ji's remark, summing up Saebit Guild's miserable situation in one line until now, I answered on purpose in a lively voice.

"It's going to get incredibly busy from here. You okay?"

"I've never thought about the entertainment side, so I don't know. Gate clears I'm confident in. And speak comfortably. That's easier."

"Right. This is easier for me too. And I know the broadcast side well, so don't worry."

With ten years of experience, I don't get nervous over a shoot at this point. Glancing over while driving, Kim Eun-ji's expression was stiff.

'First shoot, so she might be nervous.'

Wondering how to ease Kim Eun-ji's nerves, I decided to just say it plainly.

"If you get nervous during the shoot, say so. I'll help."

"How?"

"Somehow. That's my job. Don't worry, do it the way you want."

This isn't a dream, right? A mutter like that came, but I couldn't catch the meaning and let it pass. From her side, appearing on TV probably wouldn't feel real.

Until not long ago, there was no work, so they couldn't even go out on dispatch. Adapting to a suddenly changed environment would take time too.

"We're here."

ABS. One of the three pillars of Korea's terrestrial broadcasters. With Nutube's arrival, it doesn't have the influence it once did.

"Let's go."

It's Kim Eun-ji's first shoot, so I should help a lot.

**

'Really. Really?!'

Kim Eun-ji swallowed, looking at the side of Lee Si-u walking right beside her.

Kim Eun-ji, an ardent fan of Lee Si-u from the time he saved her life until now.

Now Lee Si-u had become her manager, and they worked together. At that fact, her heart pounded like mad.

'Please, be quiet!'

At a heartbeat pounding hard enough to jump out, Kim Eun-ji worried. What if Lee Si-u heard and disliked it. If so, what then?

She wanted this situation, like a dream, to go on even a little longer.

'He'll help somehow. Even the way he says it is cool!'

Recalling Lee Si-u's bold promise, Kim Eun-ji's face reddened to its limit. How can he speak that manly. Because he worked ten years? Because he holds an EX-rank skill?

'No.'

Kim Eun-ji, who had been a fan of Lee Si-u for a long time, could tell. Lee Si-u was only doing it to put her at ease. Confidence in his own ability was surely one reason too.

Lee Si-u is just that kind of person.

'He called it Polarity.'

Thanks to it, she felt she had glimpsed the sight of a transcendent who could crush anyone in the world. Holding a skill that tremendous, he had lived ten years amid that persecution and disregard.

'How much did he love her.'

What kind of feeling lets you endure, even holding an ability that great. Kim Eun-ji could not imagine it at all.

Then she realized Kim Seol-yeon's foolishness at the same time.

'I won't be like that.'

In fact, even if threatened to be like that, she was sure she wouldn't. She was that ardent a fan of Lee Si-u, and she had learned in her own body how great the skill called Polarity was.

'Stupid woman.'

Even so, thanks to Kim Seol-yeon being stupid, she could work with Lee Si-u like this, so should she rather be grateful. In the middle of that worry, they arrived at the destination.

"Let's go."

Following Lee Si-u's lead, looking around the huge station she had come to for the first time, a familiar set entered her vision.

Park Jin-ho's talk show, which her mom sometimes watched back home. <​I Am a Hunter.>

The decorations done up in red, often seen on screen, and the sofas sat side by side, and at the center stood Park Jin-ho, a first-generation hunter and now a national MC.

"Oh. Miss Kim Eun-ji, nice to meet you! Si-u, it's been a while!"

As the public assessment had it, at Park Jin-ho making the air easy with a bright smile, Kim Eun-ji wore a wondering face.

Seeing in person a celebrity she had watched on screen since she was young was novel.

"Nice to meet you. You're the same as on screen."

"Ahaha. I hear that a lot. You're less nervous than I thought? Don't worry, be comfortable. Comfortable!"

"Yes."

In fact, the shoot wasn't nerve-wracking. There was no particular need to do well as a hunter.

'Just clear gates well, that's enough.'

The hunter type Kim Eun-ji hates most is the ones who put gate clears aside and only do broadcast work. Retire like Park Jin-ho in the first place.

Guys using the name hunter and only sitting around at stations are guys without the basics.

"If something comes up, give me a signal. I'll help."

If not for Lee Si-u, who had quietly come up beside her, Kim Eun-ji would have finished the shoot without any discomfort, uneventfully.

"Yes..."

Only, because Lee Si-u, the one person who made Kim Eun-ji nervous, was with her, her face had dyed pure red.

"All right! Then we'll start the shoot!"

The moment a middle-aged man who looked to be the main PD shouted, the shoot proper began.

**

"Heh. Friday evening is chicken and beer."

B-rank Hunter Kim Eun-ha, as always, finished a gate clear, sat on the sofa, and turned on the TV.

Friday evening, 6:30. The time the TV program she faithfully watched began.

At this hour on this day, watching TV with chicken and beer was her only pleasure.

[All right! Today's guests are a world first! The very ones who killed a demon! Saebit Guild's Hunter Kim Eun-ji and Director Lee Si-u!]

"Whoa. They already booked them and filmed?"

She knew through Vethun-gal that there was a hunter who had killed a demon, but she hadn't known a station would book them this fast. Kim Eun-ha looked at the screen with a keen face.

Then Park Jin-ho pointed at the girl sitting on the left sofa and smiled.

[So! You've suddenly drawn interest from the whole world. How is it?]

[It's just whatever. I hope a lot of gate-clear requests come in.]

[From what I see, you're a second-year, and you haven't done many gate clears?]

Black bob, violet eyes. Half-lidded eyes. Snow-white skin. A straight nose and lips like cherries. At a beauty she hadn't seen in a long while, a smile formed at Kim Eun-ha's mouth.

"Kya. Really pretty. We're both hunters, so why does she look like a princess?"

Even Kim Eun-ha, a woman, found her beautiful. She would surely hold tremendous popularity from today on. Looks enough to give that certainty.

[This is the first time. Requests hardly came in.]

[What? Gate handling has been late lately and it's been difficult, and a hunter of this skill had no requests?]

"Aigo. She got marked, I guess."

Kim Eun-ha gave a bitter smile, watching the naked truth of the hunter industry laid bare. Park Jin-ho came from hunters too, so he would know.

What choice would he, a national MC, make. Help Kim Eun-ji and expose the industry's wrongs. Or slip past it with a soft way of speaking.

Kim Eun-ha, watching the screen with a keen face, then had no choice but to burst out laughing at a development beyond her expectation.

[The truth is, it happened because of a hunter with no ability who mistakes himself for talented.]

"Puha! For real? They aired this without editing?!"

Kim Eun-ha clutched her stomach and burst out laughing at the black-bobbed girl's refreshing mouth. A bold character rare in times like these.

[Haha. There are those now and then. Guys like that. An incompetent colleague is scarier than a powerful monster.]

[Right. So it's a relief. Our guild has no incompetent hunters. Unlike our director's old workplace.]

"Hm? Lee Si-u's old workplace? Come to think of it, why is he there?"

Kim Eun-ha had put in her years in the hunter industry, so she couldn't not know Lee Si-u. But Lee Si-u belonged to Deungcheon Guild?

Lee Si-u's first guild is Deungcheon Guild. He had never moved to another guild. And now he's with that girl?

Kim Eun-ha turned it over and over, and in the end grasped the truth.

"Whoa. Calling out Deungcheon Guild this openly?"

Not a large guild, but still a mid-sized one, Deungcheon, and if you make an enemy of it, a single hunter has a hard time bearing it. But.

"A hunter who subjugated a demon alone, what's there to fear. I'm jealous."

A mere Deungcheon Guild could not harm that girl. At least from this moment on.

[Well! A hunter who speaks this far makes it feel even more refreshing? Before we go into the main segment, is there anything you'd like to say last?]

[Mm...]

A bob, violet eyes. Eyes slightly lidded. The beauty with a dreamlike air from that worked her lips a moment, then looked straight at the screen and raised one corner of her mouth.

[Thank you. For sending the director.]

"Wa! Hahahak!"

Kim Eun-ha, bursting into laughter at Kim Eun-ji's bomb of a remark, then even coughed and clapped.

-Clap clap!

"Insane! Today is the most fun ever!"

She couldn't enjoy this mood alone. Kim Eun-ha immediately picked up her phone and accessed Vethun-gal. The board was already full of talk about Kim Eun-ji and Kim Seol-yeon.

"Keh keh. That bitch acting all lofty like she was something was ugly to watch."

As if I'm different from you, barely talking, eating separately. And even changing the personnel for a gate clear on the day itself, as she pleased.

The assessment of Kim Seol-yeon in the hunter industry was not that good. In fact all high-rank hunters are arrogant, but.

[Title: Miss Seol-yeon. Thank you. Your ex-boyfriend is the absolute best! ><​]

[Title: Seol-yeon, my dream is me. Not you. Idiot lol]

[Title: Lee Si-u's a capable man. Kim Seol-yeon got older, so look at him switching to young Kim Eun-ji without a look back.]

[Title: Where'd that Seol-yeon Mom go? She was soul-shielding, then suddenly vanished.]

[Title: Logically explaining why Kim Seol-yeon is still active.

[ ]

- Author: Seol-yeon, disappointed? It means you're washed up now, so retire!

└ Anon (885.56.1): lolololololololol]

At the lineup of lines that burst dopamine from the titles alone, the corner of Kim Eun-ha's mouth rose beyond her control.

"Wa. How long since an incident like this."

In a hunter world that had gone slack, large-scale incidents were bursting one after another.