EPISODE 137

“If you don’t mind,” Yoo-seong started.

No one understood what he meant, not even President Han Kwang-ho.

“Would you like to talk to me on your way out?”

Yoo-seong wasn’t talking to the President.

President Han Kwang-ho raised his voice nervously. “What are you talking about?” He could not understand why Yoo-seong was talking to anyone other than himself. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m speaking to someone far more important than you,” Yoo-seong said without looking at the President. Instead, he was looking at the man next to him, Joo Hwan-jin.

“Ha!” At this, President Han Kwang-ho sighed coldly at Yoo-seong. “All of a sudden, you’re talking to Mr. Joo? After causing all that ruckus earlier? Have you lost your mind?” Perhaps because it was so out of the blue, but the Chairman could not even make his tone sarcastic.

“Mr. Joo.” Yoo-seong looked serious. “You may be in a security-related position, but I have nothing to say to people who clearly do not deserve their position.”

Yoo-seong did not spare even a glance for the President. “I’m talking to the person who used to be the CEO of Wind Bar, Mr. Joo Hwan-jin.”

Joo Hwan-jin skipped a breath.

‘Wind Bar. How does Yoo-seong know that name?’ he thought.

It was a long-forgotten group. Right before Yoo-seong started his hunter career, the group had been sold with the stigma of failure and debts.

“Wind Bar?” President Han Kwang-ho narrowed his eyes. “It has been gone for a long time now. What a useless story.”

“Well, that’s how it looks to you,” said Yoo-seong.

At this, President Han Kwang-ho’s patience finally ran out. He jumped from his seat and was about to yell at Yoo-seong when…

“I…” Joo Hwan-jin’s voice trembled as he turned to President Han Kwang-ho. “You are a failure, yet you order me around this way.”

“What did you just say?” President Han Kwang-ho looked back at his bodyguard.

Yoo-seong had said nothing but, “Let’s talk.”

The President knew of no meetings between Yoo-seong and Joo Hwan-jin before today.

“Mr. Joo, what are you talking about?”

However, Joo Hwan-jin did not answer.

“Mr. Joo!”

His bodyguard did not seem to be ignoring him on purpose. Instead, Joo Hwan-jin’s eyes glimmered as he looked at Yoo-seong as if they were possessed by something else.

“What is this…?”

President Han Kwang-ho turned to look at his grandson, who was standing behind Yoo-seong.

His gaze seemed to be asking for an explanation or an attempt to intervene.

However, even Han Jae-gyu seemed unable to resolve his grandfather’s frustration. He looked at Yoo-seong with a face full of anxiety. President Han Kwang-ho clenched his fist.

He did not have any inkling of what was happening. He did not understand the atmosphere right now. What kind of effect had Yoo-seong had on Joo Hwan-jin that had made it possible for him to react this way?

‘Even if you do something to Joo Hwan-jin, how could that affect me?’

He was nothing but his bodyguard.

Joo Hwan-jin was close to retiring as a hunter. To President Han Kwang-ho, he was nothing but an ornament he needed, one that had been chosen based on his value in the past.

Of course, he’d had his uses.

The Hankwang Group had acquired and bought Joo Hwan-jin’s group. Wind Bar was the predecessor of Hankwang Hunting International.

More importantly, Hankwang had money.

With any business, it was most efficient to start by acquiring a suitable skeleton rather than creating something new from scratch. Before taking him on as a part of security, the President had seen Joo Hwan-jin for the first time when Hankwang was in the process of acquiring his group.

In order to fully acquire the company’s system and skills, it had been necessary to hire a former representative for a certain period.

However, that was it.

Even so, to President Han Kwang-ho, Joo Hwan-jin was nothing but an incompetent leader who’d failed to manage his organization properly. However…

“You know, if you feel that Mr. Joo Hwan-jin is not enough, it is the same as saying that no one in Korea is lacking,” said Yoo-seong.

Yooseong had just dealt the final blow while the President was still unable to grasp the situation.

“Hey!”

It was the President’s own mouth that ended the game. Only then did Joo Hwan-jin look at President Han Kwang-ho as if he had come to his senses. “Yes, Mr. President?”

“Let me tell you what this is all about right now. Who do you think you are? You are my guard! I pay you to do as I command!”

Yoo-seong put his hand on his forehead and shook his head. Joo Hwan-jin looked down but apart from that…

“You know what…?” Joo Hwan-jin decided to explain the circumstances to his so-called ‘master.’ “Mr. Oh Yoo-seong just showed his willingness to hire me.”

“You? What for?”

“As you know, he now possesses a lot of things with which to get ahead in this market.”

President Han Kwang-ho knew it. It was said that the Leto Group had taken the Aura and Tech that previously existed on the Korean Peninsula.

And Yoo-seong had taken it back with his own hands.

How Yoo-seong would work with those things was what everyone was currently talking about.

“Let us skip the whole story. Don’t you think I know that? What I am curious about now is why he thinks he needs you,” said the President.

“I think it’s because he thinks he can use my experience and skills. It’s also probably because he’s established some kind of an organization or institution using those ‘things.’”

“Ha!” President Han Kwang-ho said mockingly. “Just because of that? It sounds ridiculous. He talked to me as if he could do anything, and then he ends up taking one of my bodyguards?”

As if he did not need to hear any more, President Han Kwang-ho turned his head to look at Joo Hwan-jin. “Try it. I was expecting something more plausible than this…”

All of a sudden, President Han Kwang-ho stopped speaking. From his position, he could clearly see both Yoo-seong and Han Jae-gyu. They could not have looked more different.

Han Jae-gyu’s face had paled as white as a blank sheet of paper.

On the other hand, despite the smile, Yoo-seong’s expression seemed rather sad. Then, in only a few steps, one more person came into his line of sight.

It was Joo Hwan-jin.

“What are you doing?”

He’d left the President’s side and moved toward Yoo-seong.

“That’s funny,” Yoo-seong said. “It is as if you were asking a restaurant owner why he needed a chef at a restaurant.”

Yoo-seong looked away and turned to Joo Hwan-jin, who was now right in front of him.

He was a former hunter who still bowed his head. Yoo-seong knew all about him. How could he not? Although Joo Hwan-jin had become a hunter before Yoo-seong’s generation, he was an incredibly famous example in the industry.

He was the definition of bad luck, sometimes even a laughingstock.

No first-generation hunter had failed to manage their group as badly as Joo Hwan-jin. He was thought of as someone incompetent.

Actually, Yoo-seong had thought so too, at first.

However, as the years passed, the perception of Joo Hwan-jin’s failures within the industry had changed a little. Other hunters, ones considered much more incompetent, were also able to form a group and succeed.

The only problem had been that Joo Hwan-jin was ahead of his time.

Until his failure, ‘cultivation’ had involved an unacceptable level of inefficiency for the Korean industry. There had been only one route for hunters in Korea to join a prestigious group in the past: starting in a low-ranking group, hunters then moved to a higher-ranking job after long years of experience and achievement.

No matter how talented a hunter was, it was impossible to enter a first-class organization right at the start.

It was an environment that had neither Psy nor Tech. Hunters did not have a place where they could grow and improve.

Unless referring to someone born with a Psy, it was much more economical to hire an experienced professional than to raise a talented person from scratch.

Joo Hwan-jin had tried to resist this trend.

Instead of picking up career positions, he invested enormous amounts of money into hiring a larger number of first-time hunters and designing equipment and programs to train them.

‘One does not need to have their Tech right away. Just by systematizing basic deceptions and practicing repeatedly, one can develop their talent and be cultivated into becoming a great hunter.’

That had been Joo Hwan-jin’s vision.

It might have been successful if Joo Hwan-jin had only possessed the financial power to withstand the losses for a few more years.

He hadn’t.

The hunters grew steadily, but the growth had still proved too slow.

If they participated in an operation to achieve results, the cost of maintaining the Wind Bar with a variety of training equipment was too much. Eventually, the group’s profits went down.

Even the hunters who had been brilliantly “raised” by the group did not want to continue their careers with the Wind Bar. And thus, the Wind fell.

programs that had not recovered even half of the investment cost.

The principle of nurturing the foundation, which could have been useful, had been rendered meaningless.

It was not until Yoo-seong obtained his license, years later, that the leaders of “2F4T,” including Yoon Kang-chul, realized the need to train young hunters. They all remembered Joo Hwan-jin, yet no one called him a pioneer. They just remembered him as a failure.

Joo Hwan-jin himself was the same.

After his vision of the Wind Bar fell, he had completely abandoned his dream. However, today, his heart had started to flutter as it had before.

He had seen Yoo-seong’s broadcast and operation against the Octolisks. It had showcased the perfect movements, based on the basics that Joo Hwan-jin had drawn in his ideals.

Besides, Oh Yoo-seong was now in front of him.

Oh Yoo-seong wanted to hire Joo Hwan-jin.

He intended to give Joo Hwan-jin a second chance to fulfill the dream he had been unable to achieve.

“Actually, I did not come here to warn him of anything. I am a busy man.”

Yoo-seong pointed at the chairman with his chin.

And that was true.

Yoo-seong had accepted the dinner appointment not for the “President of Hankwang Group,” but for “Chief Security Officer Joo Hwan-jin who is guarding President Han Kwang-ho.”

What he’d said to the President so far had been both a warning and a stepping stone to give Joo Hwan-jin a chance. It was an opportunity to remind Joo Hwan-jin what kind of person President Han Kwang-ho was.

And indeed, Yoo-seong had proven it all: how uninterested the President was in this industry and how he thought of Joo Hwan-jin as nothing but a bodyguard.

It was as if the prey had cut off its own flesh and offered it to the hunter.

President Han Kwang-ho could not believe everything he’d just heard. “Come over here right now! You cannot do anything on your own! How do you think you’ve been making a living for so far?”

The words barely hit Joo Hwan-jin, who continued to look down.

He could tell just by hearing it, that the anger did not come from the loss of valuable talent; it was from pride hurt by having his own bodyguard turn against him.

“Look at that,” Yoo-seong whispered. “Don’t you know? What do you mean you let him earn a living?”

Joo Hwan-jin turned his head. He could see the President’s angry face.

“You’re crazy. I have raised a nobody, and this is how you repay me.”

“Did you put it up?” Joo Hwan-jin asked.

The President was caught off guard.

It was only for a moment, but Joo Hwan-jin’s voice had changed.

“Your organization was nothing! We agreed on a price. You needed the money; I needed an organization. I could always have afforded to get another! I simply bought it because of the value of your reputation, not because I appreciated the company you screwed up!”

That proved to be enough.

“Thank you, President Han.”

Joo Hwan-jin was able to shake off the last of his indecision. “Now I can leave without hesitation,” he said.

“Leave? Do you think I will allow that?”

“You already gave me your permission years ago, President Han Kwang-ho.”

The President looked as if he had been hit with a hammer on the back of his head.

“Huh.”

Acting as if he did not know a thing about it, Yoo-seong looked at President Han Kwang-ho and Joo Hwan-jin alternately.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t put any restrictions on the transfer. Did you?” Yoo-seong then asked the President. “No matter how ridiculous you are, you cannot have treated a ranker hunter just like any other worker.”

“That’s exactly what he did. Maybe he was convinced that I would not go out on my own,” Joo Hwan-jin answered.

“You’re done for,” Yoo-seong said as he shook his head with a tired expression.

Honestly, in preparation for what was about to happen, Yoo-seong had been expecting a penalty fee. This was just too easy.

As if he knew, Yoo-seong glanced at Han Jae-gyu.

Han Jae-gyu had silently watched everything unfold. He could not have done anything to stop Yoo-seong. Yet, he did not have the faintest idea what he was capable of until he saw his own grandfather fuming with anger.

“Fine. Do whatever you want,” President Han Kwang-ho said in a defeated manner. It seemed as if he just wanted to get rid of the situation. “Nothing’s going to change even if you now have Joo Hwan-jin with you. You will look nothing but ridiculous. That is all. What kind of…”

Jeeing-!

Yoo-seong’s phone rang at just the perfect moment.

“Oh, excuse me,” Yoo-seong said as he waved his hand to excuse himself and check his phone. “And I think I forgot to tell you: by my standards, you deserve to be ruined a hundred times, but I don’t need to do anything else.”

“What? You jerk!” President Han Kwang-hoo exclaimed.

“I just have to leave things as they are. You are bound to ruin yourself in no time. Look.”

Yoo-seong showed the President his phone. There it was, right on his screen.

Hankwang’s ruination.