Yess & Yes

“...Hunter Kang, you've succeeded, huh.” Looking up at Pera Palace, Lee Juwon muttered.

It seemed like just yesterday that the two of them had first set up their December office in a rooftop house[1], struggling to survive on frozen pizza, and now Kang Inheon was living in a penthouse that was said to be the most expensive per pyeong residence in Korea. He had already known, but seeing the building that soared so high he had to crane his neck as much as he can to see with his very own eyes made him feel reminiscent anew.

[1] not the rich people type, more like this

But even the tight security facilities that did a part in setting the price couldn't stop Lee Juwon from breaking in. Just as he entered the tightly gated December headquarters by cutting through the reporters, he was able to easily follow the residents as they came and went inside the building.

Entering the spacious lobby, suiseki of odd colours and shapes were placed here and there, and original paintings were tastefully hung on the walls like a gallery. The surfaces of the columns supporting the high ceilings were each intricately carved, and crystal-clear water cascaded down one wall like a waterfall. 

“Money keeps being wasted...”

Swaaaa, the sound of cool water pouring down, those were all the sounds of maintenance fees pouring.

An employee wearing a neat uniform with a straight posture stood waiting like a drawing at the information corner with a flawless orchid placed, and personnel with walkie-talkies stood everywhere, but no one stopped Lee Juwon.

The golden elevator sparkled like it was made of pure gold and could only be operated with a key card or fingerprint, but no matter how expensive the price per pyeong building was, the fire emergency stairs could not be blocked. Lee Juwon boldly headed for the emergency stairs.

His triumphant steps stopped for a bit in front of the stairs.

“...Why am I out of breath just looking at it?”

Maybe it was because of the amount of spacing between storeys, but there were a crap ton of stairs between floors. With a grunt, Lee Juwon began to climb the stairs.

Just looking at the stairs made it look like it was going to be difficult, but it was nothing once he actually climbed up. As if telling him that was his current circumstance, Lee Juwon felt more suffocated.

“Phew...”

He barely made up to the top floor, but the problem was what came next.

Ding-!

In front of the firmly closed front door, Lee Juwon rang the doorbell. But there was no response.

Ding, ding, ding-!

Lee Juwon continuously rang the doorbell.

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding-!

If there was anyone inside, they would come out if they heard the noise, but the tightly closed door wouldn't open. On the 49th floor, there was only Kang Inheon's house, so no one else would come out.

Lee Juwon glared at the black door lock, but there was no way. Even if he was Lee Juwon, he couldn't possibly know the password to someone else's door lock.

In fact, there was no guarantee that Kang Inheon would be home at noon on a weekday. Lee Juwon had an obvious radius of action. He tends to stick to his office, home, and clients, but Kang Inheon was different. He could be doing his usual unpaid volunteer work, he could be meeting friends, he could be meeting a girl...

“Damn it...”

Lee Juwon blankly paced around the wide corridor. Even on the mirror-like glossy marble floor, Lee Juwon's shadow was not reflected. Lee Juwon, who was going around in circles in one spot, suddenly stopped.

Did Kang Inheon also...

...hear the obituary?

If he heard it... what did he think?

He wouldn't do the low-life act of ripping off tree bark, but was he happy like other people? Or did he make a pitiful expression while pretending to be nice?

He couldn't really imagine how Kang Inheon would react.

“I don't know...”

Well, when had he ever understood Kang Inheon?

He sighed at the thought of walking back down the 49th floor. Looking down the wide window of the corridor and wondering if he should really try jumping down, Lee Juwon paused for a moment. He felt some life signs from the silent corridor.

He moved closer to the front door and put his ear against it and concentrated.

“......”

He couldn't quite make out what it was, but there was an intermittent, tiny sound coming from the inside.

Ding, ding-!

He rang the doorbell again, but there was still no response from inside. But he couldn't turn back so easily.

“Anyhow, it seems like there's someone inside...?”

Lee Juwon took three steps back from the front door.

Phew, after a short breath, Lee Juwon strutted towards the tightly closed front door with clear steps.

When he reached the heavy iron door, he squeezed his eyes shut. And far from stopping, he took another step.

Will this work? Lee Juwon still couldn't believe this situation.

When he'd pressed his ear to the front door earlier, it hadn't felt like it was blocking him. Hunters usually surrounded their residences with a defensive barrier of their own pulse, keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings. If it's a door imbued with mana, he might be able to go through in this current state of his...

Even as he tried, Lee Juwon rather wanted the comedic outcome of hitting his head and falling back into the corridor instead of going through the iron door. If it was possible for him to come back to life like that, what's the big deal about a bit of a broken head?

"...It's a balloon flower. Isn't it pretty?"

“.....?”

"It's pretty when it blooms, but how beautiful it is when it shrivels up..."

Lee Juwon opened his eyes. The scenery in front of him was much different than before he closed his eyes.

He stood inside the front door, not in the hallway that it blocked.

"It's the same with people... It's only natural for them to wither with age..."

The quiet voice came from inside the living room.

He had succeeded in his ridiculous attempt to get through the iron gate, but he didn't feel happy at all. On the contrary, it only made his current situation clear.

Firstly, Lee Juwon stood in the doorway and called for Kang Inheon.

"...Hunter Kang?”

"If you ask me what flower I like, I can't tell you..."

“...Are you home?”

"Because the other children would be upset if I told them I like tiger lilies..."

But instead of Kang Inheon's voice, he only heard a calm female voice.

Lee Juwon was aware that this was considered extremely bad manners, whether he was a ghost or whatever, but he entered the living room.

The living room was as large as a sports field, with both walls being entirely windows, but blackout curtains were drawn across the windows like a wall, making the room dark even in the middle of the day. Only the glow of the television screen that changed colours every moment illuminated the shiny natural wood-toned floor.

A documentary[2] was playing on television. An elderly woman in a white one-piece was stroking the wildflowers in her garden while saying, “So, that's why we don't call them by their flower names, but as children...”

[2] this is an actual real KBS documentary, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDBjqPpc32w

There was no one in the living room, but the television was on, so he assumed there were people in the house. In hopes that Kang Inheon might be able to hear his voice, Lee Juwon called out to him again.

“Hunter Kang!”

However, apart from the sound coming from the television, the spacious house was silent.

Using the remote control on the table, Lee Juwon turned up the volume of the television to 100. The documentary had soothing background music, but with the sound cranked up to full blast, it was like a tearing noise.

The house was a two-storey loft, so the ceiling was high. The marble floors and walls bounced off the vibrations from the television, creating a banging sound like a concert hall.

It was loud enough to tear eardrums and make heads ring. But none of the firmly closed doors would open.

“Why did he turn the TV on if he wasn't even going to watch it?”

Lee Juwon's temper which he had repressed and held in because he was in someone else's house came out again as he threw the remote control to the marble floor. The AA batteries that had fallen out of the remote rolled across the slick floor.

Lee Juwon now acted rudely and no longer had the strength to stop and nitpick.

Bang!

The door to what appeared to be the bedroom was slammed open.

Like the living room, it was dark as night with blackout curtains covering the large window. He found a switch on the wall and flicked it on, and the room was soon bathed in artificial light.

In the large room, there was only a large bed. It was made up so neatly, without a single wrinkle, like a hotel bed, that he questioned if Kang Inheon had slept here last night.

Lee Juwon's irritation rose and he lifted the neat quilt. But sure enough, Kang Inheon was not found inside it.

“Ugh!”

Lee Juwon began to search the penthouse like he was playing hide-and-seek. He searched everywhere; the kitchen, which was not only tidy, but also devoid of any tableware, and the utility room, which he could feel no signs of life from. He climbed the stairs and searched the three rooms and two bathrooms on that floor, looking for Kang Inheon as if hunting him down. But no one was hiding, so he couldn’t find anything.

Lee Juwon who, in a fit of anger opened the closet that Kang Inheon had no way of fitting in, his drawer, under his desk, and of course, his washing machine and even his refrigerator, felt an unknown sense of incongruity. 

It was hard to put his finger on what was strange. The floor space was too large for a single person to live in, the interiors were finished with high-quality materials, the built-in furniture in neutral colours that seemed to fit perfectly, the floors were clean and dust-free, and the high, open floor plan made it an endlessly comfortable and wonderful place to live.

However, it was different from the image Lee Juwon drew in his head of Kang Inheon’s space. On the way here, Lee Juwon had vaguely imagined Kang Inheon's house.

He thought it’d be in a sunny south-facing location and no buildings blocking the view, the winter sunlight would penetrate deeply into the living room, which would be filled with wooden furniture that Kang Inheon had handmade himself and would give a warm feeling. 

It seemed like on his days off, he would sit by the window and read a book while drinking rooibos tea... There was no sign of food anywhere in the kitchen, let alone herbal tea. There were only a few bottles of water in the fridge.

Apart from the furniture that looked like they were chosen by option, there was nothing at all that looked like it was personally bought by Kang Inheon. There was no sign of the owner's taste or sense of living... It was like a model house.

There was a gardening documentary playing on TV, but the actual interior of the house looked too clean and even desolate.

Lee Juwon suddenly questioned if this was Kang Inheon's house. There was no trace of him in this spacious house. It wouldn't be strange if someone other than Kang Inheon was the owner. As if it wouldn't matter if the house owner changed the next day.

Lee Juwon pulled back the blackout curtains in the living room. Before he knew it, the sun was setting beyond the window.

Suddenly, Lee Juwon felt the presence of a person and whipped his head back.

Beep, beep, beep, beep-.

He heard the sound of the door lock key being pressed outside the front door. Soon, along with the cheerful sound of the door lock being undone, the tightly closed front door opened with a clank sound.

The sensor light in the entrance hall, which hadn't been turned on when Lee Juwon had entered, lit up in response to the human presence. Under the orange light, a tall man bent down a little and took off his white sneakers.

Lee Juwon rushed to the front door as if to greet him with socked feet and shouted, “Hunter Kang?”

Kang Inheon slowly raised his head. His dark black eyes stared straight into Lee Juwon's.

Thump, Lee Juwon's heart fell as he made direct eye contact with Kang Inheon. Lee Juwon licked his dry lips and continued, "...Can you see me?"

Kang Inheon recited in a low voice as if speaking to himself, “Lee Juwon…”

“Yeah, it’s me, CEO Lee!” A wide-eyed Lee Juwon yelled, hitting his chest with his palm.

In contrast to Lee Juwon's hopeful expression, Kang Inheon's face was extremely sunken. However, since he was rarely in a good mood in front of Lee Juwon, Lee Juwon didn't notice and spoke excitedly, “As expected, are S-class hunters different? All those other bastards failed to recognize me…”

“Why did you…”

“Ah… I’m sorry for just entering your place. I had no time to spare, so…”

“Die?”

"No, I'm not dead..."

Kang Inheon stumbled past Lee Juwon without making a sound with his footsteps. He had obviously passed by close enough for their shoulders to touch, but Lee Juwon didn’t feel anything. It seemed the same for Kang Inheon.

In that instant, a chill ran down Lee Juwon’s spine. Lee Juwon who stood there in place as if frozen whipped his body around. Kang Inheon crossed the living room and headed for the second floor.

“Hunter Kang?”

Lee Juwon called out to Kang Inheon, but he didn't look back. Lee Juwon scrambled over and stood in front of him again.

“Hunter Kang, c-can’t… you see me?”

“...What about me?”

“...What?”

“What do I do?”

“Shit, what do you mean what do I do?!”

“I also…” Kang Inheon muttered to himself quietly and climbed the stairs. Lee Juwon tried to grab Kang Inheon's arm as he staggered by, but he couldn't get a hold of anything. All he could grasp was empty air.

“Hunter Kang?”

Kang Inheon's back was precarious as he climbed the loft stairs. It looked like it only took one wrong step for him to fall.

It was the Kang Inheon who stably dealt with bird-type monsters while climbing a cliff that seemed to have been cut straight down in dungeons. There was no way he could stagger like that without being seriously injured.

“Where are you hurt?”

No matter how much Lee Juwon called after him as he followed, Kang Inheon didn't look back. He kept muttering something to himself and went into a room on the second floor.

Lee Juwon felt like he was going to die from anxiety. He thought they had clearly made eye contact earlier, but they hadn't.