Chapter 6
After solving the Net Queen disappearance case, the next day.
- Thank you so much!
“Aww, it wasn't anything that grand.”
- It really isn't! Thanks to you, Mia and I were able to meet again like this!
On the other end of the phone was Hunter Lee Kangho, sounding excited.
It turned out Yumia had woken up.
- And, this might be a bit sudden, but I proposed!
“Oh?! Really? She said yes?”
- Yes! She said yes! Mia said yes!
Laughter came through the phone.
I could also hear Mia's voice telling him not to get carried away.
“Congratulations, truly.”
I meant it sincerely.
Congratulations welled up from deep in my gut.
- It's all thanks to you, boss. If it hadn't been for you, I never would have found Mia.
That's right, it was all thanks to me.
“Aww, you're saying that again. It was the hunter who didn't give up.”
- You're really modest, boss. Oh, right, I transferred the matchmaking fee. It feels good, getting that confirmation that everything really connected.
“I'm glad too, hearing that the two of you got together. This is when I really feel the reward of my work.”
- And as a thank-you, I added a little extra. Mia agreed too.
“Aww, you didn't have to.”
So he does know how to be grateful.
We normally charge travel expenses separately, but I'm glad he paid in advance before I even said anything.
After exchanging a few more rounds of thanks, the call ended.
I checked my account immediately through internet banking.
[Deposit: 15,000,000 won]
“Niiiceeeee-!”
“Kyaa?!”
Kim Yang, who had been sitting next to me, jumped up in shock.
“B-boss, have you lost your mind?”
“You know how to repay kindness! You sent an extra five million!”
Five million won on each side.
The matchmaking fee was ten million won in total, and they even sent an extra five million on top of that.
This is why people say you have to play in the big leagues.
“Kim Yang! Let's close up for today!”
“Huh?”
“Company dinner. A company dinner.”
“A company dinner?! Yay-!”
* * *
The jokbal place I always go to.
Kim Yang still hadn't arrived, saying they were going home to change first.
Instead, someone else was sitting across from me—.
“Auntie! One bottle of soju here too, please!”
Ryu Seoram, one of the Chilgeuk.
I called her because of my promise to buy her jokbal last time.
“You buy the soju.”
“You stingy Kim Juseon bastard. I'm buying the jokbal too. You think I'd mooch off you?”
“Big sis! Thank you!”
As expected, people have to play in the big leagues. Like Lee Kangho and Ryu Seoram, who just spent money without a second thought.
- He hit it! It's flying! Flying! It's gone! Home run~!
The baseball highlights playing on the jokbal shop's TV.
It was the scene of Daeheung Bear Force getting hit with a home run.
“Ugh, I hate seeing that.”
“If you hate it that much, then quit being a baseball fan.”
“If I don't watch, I'll just want to watch it again. That's what being a baseball fan is.”
She said it so confidently, but it wasn't cool at all.
The beastkin with fluffy white hair and ram horns, Kim Yang, came into the jokbal shop.
Unlike the clothes they usually wore, they had on ripped skinny jeans and a black sleeveless crop top.
Even so, because it was cold, they also wore a thick outer layer.
“Boss!”
She said she'd change clothes and come, but she really did show up dressed comfortably.
“Are you going to a club after the company dinner?”
“F-fashionista.”
As Kim Yang sat down proudly, Ryu Seoram frowned.
“What, did you call someone else too?”
“Kim Yang. She's an employee at our office. It's nicer when we eat together.”
“Ah, hello!”
Kim Yang bowed politely.
“The kid's speech is a little awkward. That doesn't mean the kid is stupid. And it doesn't mean any harm, so understand her.”
“Looks that way.”
Ryu Seoram washed it down with a sip of soju.
“B-boss. What kind of meat is this?”
“It's pork, so don't worry and eat.”
“Pork?”
“Ah, you don't even know basic words? I told you to keep studying vocabulary. Oink-oink, don't you know that? I mean a plump pig.”
“Ah, oink-oink? I know that. It's kind of like the boss.”
“......”
Ryu Seoram, watching from the side, burst out laughing.
“Hey, what's this? A boss who's checking his employee's reactions?”
“Don't even start. Over a few days' delay in pay—”
“Three days. Three days.”
Look at that, correcting me right away.
“Three days is a little harsh.”
“R-right?! A-and! The first company dinner was at a lamb-skewer place! I'm a sheep!”
“......Is this person crazy?”
“Ah, that's a misunderstanding! It used to be a dakgalbi place, but after it shut down, a lamb-skewer place opened there.”
As the drinks went around naturally, the atmosphere grew warmer.
Kim Yang, halfway through drinking, suddenly remembered something and held out their phone.
On the screen was the personal information of someone I'd never seen before.
“Boss. A customer came by before we closed earlier.”
“Oh? That's pretty decent.”
He was a man, and his face was at least B-rank handsome. It was taken with the office camera, but Kim Yang was so good at taking pictures that you really didn't need to see the real thing.
Occupation: Tower Floor Guide.
A tour guide who shows people from other floors around the 3rd floor.
That occupation isn't bad.
We'd need to ask separately in an interview about salary, vacation, workload, and so on.
Since he's a tour guide, he probably has to be away from home often.
“He really is still at it.”
At that moment, Ryu Seoram, who had seen me working, muttered bitterly.
“You're really going to keep doing that? What was it? Maple?”
“Meracle.”
“Haaah......”
Another long sigh slipped out.
With her head lowered, Ryu Seoram glanced at me and asked,
“Are you really going to keep doing that?”
“I've started to settle in, and I have regular customers now.”
It's been two years since I started Meracle.
I'm slowly getting established in this line of work too.
“......Just come work with me as a hunter already. If you come in as my assistant, I'll make sure your pay is good.”
Even if her voice sounded calm, you had to be careful with Ryu Seoram at times like this.
She was quite persistent.
“No thanks, what hunter? You know I gave that up ages ago.”
“Why give it up? You're the top of our class.”
Top of the class.
There had even been a time when I was proud of that. A time when I lived believing nothing was impossible.
“Just shut your eyes and come work under me. I'll take care of you. At minimum, three times what you're making now.”
“You sure like bragging about making money.”
“You like money, don't you? I don't need money. Think about your dream.”
My dream.
“An apartment of my own in Seoul.”
“Yeah, kid. If you want to buy a really killer apartment in Seoul, you'd need at least 3 billion won.”
“I wasn't asking for that much.”
“If you work with me, you can aim for that.”
I appreciated the offer.
But I couldn't accept it.
“I like what I'm doing now.”
“......”
“It's fun, isn't it? Connecting people. Pairing up people who've lived in different worlds has a certain romance to it.”
“Hah.”
A short sigh.
Even so, Ryu Seoram didn't give up.
“Living together in that goshiwon was fun too. We worked hard trying to become hunters together, didn't we? The fact that your hunter certification never got issued?! That's definitely a system error. I'll go and—!”
When I gave no reaction at all, Ryu Seoram let out a sigh, as if she were just shouting at a wall by herself.
“Haaah, fine, I get it for now. Call me anytime. I'll keep your spot open.”
“You call me anytime too, if you ever feel like getting married.”
Thwack!
“Agh?!”
Ryu Seoram, who had kicked my knee, glared at me.
Trying to smooth things over by averting my gaze, Kim Yang, who had been gnawing on jokbal bones with both hands since earlier, asked,
“Boss, are you abandoning me?”
“Abandon you for what? Don't drink too much. If you're late to work tomorrow, I'll dock your pay.”
“Th, that's unfair. If you dock my salary because I'm late, then c-conversely, if the boss deposits it late, shouldn't the money go up?”
“......”
“B-boss, answer me.”
I downed a shot of soju on the spot.
So bitter.
* * *
The next morning.
My commute was always the same.
I left my tiny one-room apartment and stopped by a convenience store.
One triangle kimbap and a vending-machine coffee.
Passing through the buildings that had risen like a steel jungle, I made my way to the office building.
There's a gukbap place on the first floor.
My regular lunch spot.
I smoked one cigarette at the smoking area out front, then went up to the second floor.
Creak.
“Boss! Good morning!”
“Oh, good morning.”
Kim Yang was already here.
They were already looking at something on their phone.
I opened the window and aired out the room.
When I sat down at my desk and opened the drawer, an old photograph came into view.
My days at hunter training school.
My fellow trainees in the photo.
After I casually put it under the other documents, just before checking today's work—.
‘I should brighten the morning.’
I took out my phone and opened the banking app.
[15,012,000 won]
The account balance naturally made me smile.
A whopping 15 million won!
Krrr! So sweet, so sweet!
For someone who'd lived on nothing but ramen, a huge 15 million won had landed in my account in just one day.
It was a bit much for just setting up one couple, but they could always make it up later with a nice wedding gift.
Anyway, love makes money.
Thud!
The door was thrown open roughly from early in the morning.
When Kim Yang and I both looked toward the entrance, there was—.
“Ah, nobody—.”
There was the old lady who'd gotten rich to the tune of 200 million won by catching the Net Queen.
“Nobody... will accept me. Even if I pay cash for the VIP course—.”
She collapsed to the floor on her knees, looking like a scene from a musical.
The hollow feeling of tragedy.
The self-loathing of having all that money and still not being accepted by another matchmaking agency.
Lenea looked up at me, eyes brimming with tears.
“I, I want to get m-married.”
Honestly, it was fucking infuriating that she'd gone to another matchmaking agency right after getting 200 million.
But for VIP-tier clients, the enrollment fee alone was at least 5 million won.
Even if she was a 1,900-year-old elf queen who had been brutally left behind by the marriage market.
Our Meracle never turns away a customer who comes to us.