Chapter 48
Yoon Gaeun.
One of the direct granddaughters of Madam Yoon Mi-ja, known as the mother of Korean Hunters.
That alone meant she was already far from an ordinary freshman.
She was descended from someone who had been an active Hunter since before the Republic of Korea was founded.
Besides, the Hyeonmu Guild wasn't just a combat guild.
It was an entertainment-type guild that had Korea's entertainment, broadcasting, image-making, and advertising industries firmly in its grasp.
Perhaps because she had been born into such a family, Gaeun had been a child actress from a young age.
I hadn't known, since I wasn't interested in that sort of thing, but apparently she had once been famous enough to be called a prodigy in the acting world.
‘Why on earth did someone like that come to medical school?’
I stared blankly for a moment with the omelet rice in front of me.
Without my even asking, Gaeun began smoothly telling me about her past.
When she was young, she had naturally taken up acting.
Her family was what it was, and she had both natural looks and talent.
Standing in front of a camera had not been difficult, either.
Memorizing lines.
Creating expressions.
Drawing out emotions.
She said she had learned all that much faster than her peers.
Then, around middle school, she also became interested in the Hunter side of her family's business.
With Madam Yoon Mi-ja's permission, she went into low-level dungeons, underwent basic training, and learned what real combat felt like.
She had talent as an actress.
And potential as a Hunter.
Put simply, she was the type who could do anything at above average.
To put it unpleasantly, she was a talent freak.
Under normal circumstances, she would have continued living as both an actress and a Hunter affiliated with the Hyeonmu Guild.
But then, one day.
An incident occurred that completely knocked that smooth path off course.
It was triggered by a scene on TV.
An S-rank Hunter who had been reported to be in a vegetative state.
It was the very day Guild Master Han Yura appeared before the Life Resources Administration in perfect health.
“My grandmother told me.”
Gaeun said as she calmly cut into her omelet rice with a fork.
“She said that the person who treated Guild Master Han Yura back then was Senior Seo Jihoo.”
“Hahaha⋯ Madam Yoon Mi-ja said that?”
“Yes. She said you were tall, handsome, and had a sturdy, manly build.”
“⋯She didn't need to pass that part along.”
“And she also said it was fortunate that the matter didn't end in an armed clash between Hyeonmu and Baekho.”
“Ah, that's a somewhat important point.”
I forced a smile.
Treating Guild Master Han Yura.
The Life Resources Administration incident that followed.
And the delicate balance among the four major guilds.
To me, it had been an incident I'd been swept up in amid total chaos, but to someone else, it seemed to have been a moment big enough to change someone's life.
“I felt it back then.”
A light sparkled in Gaeun's eyes.
“A 'thrill' I'd never felt before!”
“A th⋯rill?”
“Yes! It felt like a huge meteorite had fallen into a tranquil lake.”
What kind of metaphor was that?
Maybe it was because she had been an actress. Her way with words really was something else.
Regardless, apparently having finished her omelet rice, Gaeun dabbed at the corners of her mouth with a napkin and sprang to her feet.
Then she looked straight at me.
“You were so cool!”
“Uh, huh?”
“The way you looked back then, Senior Jihoo! That's why I decided. I want to learn from you, too.”
“From me?”
“Yes!”
Gaeun clenched both hands tightly.
“I no longer want to live a life of pretending. I want to try saving people for real. I want to become a doctor who saves people.”
The summary was this.
She listened to her grandmother.
Followed the path her family had laid out for her.
And did reasonably well at whatever she did, whether acting or being a Hunter.
But after seeing me, she had found, for the first time, a direction she wanted to follow on her own.
Well, judging by her motivation, it wasn't bad.
In fact, the reason I had come to dream of becoming a doctor had been similar.
There were generally two reasons people wanted to become doctors.
Romance.
Or money.
Honestly, I wasn't fond of people motivated by the latter.
But when someone like Gaeun said, her eyes shining, “I want to save people,” I had no reason to view that negatively.
However.
Even so, there was one thing that still bothered me.
“But, you know.”
I asked cautiously.
“I treated Guild Master Han Yura about three or four months ago, didn't I?”
“Yes.”
“You saw that on TV, decided to come to medical school, prepared right away, and got into the Hunter surgery major at our medical school, the toughest in Korea?”
“Yes.”
“⋯Is that even possible?”
“Heh.”
Gaeun gave a small laugh.
“That was no big deal.”
No, it was.
It was a damn huge deal.
For one thing, I had already gotten through medical school admissions once in my previous life.
On top of that, I had even received an award related to medicine.
That was why getting into this school had inevitably been much easier for me than for other people.
But Gaeun was different.
At most, three months.
She had finished preparing for the exams, cleared the cutoff, and followed right on my heels in that short time.
Definitely.
So genius really is genius.
'If someone this smart entered Hunter medicine, I could see a promising future ahead.'
And so began the daily routine of Gaeun naturally sticking close to me.
We had the same classes.
The same practical sessions.
She had apparently even arranged her electives to match all of mine.
“By the way, Gaeun-ssi.”
“Just Gaeun.”
“Huh?”
“What kind of senior calls a junior 'ssi'?”
Gaeun was very firm.
“I came to this school because I wanted to get close to you, Senior. If I'd wanted to, I could have gone to medical school on the East Coast of the United States.”
“Ah, okay⋯ Gaeun.”
“Yes!”
Seeing her pleased smile made me feel even more tired for no reason.
Anyway, this was a first for me.
Since entering this world, I had never been entangled this closely with a younger woman.
Naturally, I was suspicious at first.
No matter whose granddaughter she was, she was still a woman.
And a college student who had only just become an adult.
There was a phrase that always came up in safety education for men, too.
Be careful around women around college age.
Young.
Impulsive.
Easily swept up in the atmosphere of a drinking party.
In fact, even during my freshman year, I had seen all kinds of things at orientation and MT trips I'd attended after upperclassmen said they would buy me drinks.
Someone who pretended to pour a drink while reaching out and ended up subdued by police.
Someone who was dragged away after closing the distance under the pretext of taking a photo.
Someone who insisted it was a confession, crossed the line, got tased, and was carried away.
There had been more than one or two of them.
On top of that, Gaeun was a former Hunter.
In other words.
A Hunter.
A college student.
A woman from a gender-reversed world.
That was the combination packed into one person.
Honestly, I couldn't help being tense at first.
But.
“Oh, Senior. So this is how you see it.”
“The angle of insertion while avoiding the blood vessels is⋯ Ah, so that's why you have to twist your wrist here.”
“To think you can save a person's life with this little blade. The person who first made a tool like this must have been a real genius!”
After watching her for a while, I could tell.
That wasn't some shallow act meant to attract my attention.
My time as a doctor in my past and present lives added up to nearly several decades.
Gaeun was sincere.
She found medicine fascinating.
She was curious about the human body.
She admired the art of saving lives.
It was that intensely shining look that students sometimes showed when they first picked up a scalpel.
The kind of look only someone who hadn't yet learned how hard, dirty, and exhausting this path was could have.
Seeing that, my suspicions had largely faded after about a week.
Of course, if she truly pursued surgery someday, she wouldn't be able to remain in a fantasy world like this.
She would lose sleep.
Get chewed out.
See blood.
Miss meals.
A life in which she wouldn't even have time to use the bathroom would be waiting for her.
Even so, I had no desire to extinguish that light in her eyes.
“Why insist on walking me all the way home?”
After the last lecture ended.
I said with a sigh.
“Please think of it as a junior wanting to stay by Senior Jihoo's side just a little longer.”
Gaeun smiled shamelessly.
Of course, the police officers assigned to escort men safely home were following us at a certain distance.
It was a sort of protective measure that had been put in place after the Life Resources Administration incident.
Even so, as if she couldn't feel safe with just the police, she trotted along right behind me every time.
“And there was something I wanted to discuss about our group assignment.”
“Group assignment?”
“Yes. But you'd be uncomfortable if we talked somewhere like a bar near the university, Senior.”
“That is true.”
Maybe it was because she had entered society early as a child actress.
Gaeun was quick to read the room, too.
Just as she said, even a bar where you could have a casual drink early in the day felt different as soon as a man walked in.
The miracle of an ordinary college bar transforming in an instant into something resembling a pickup bar.
Honestly, I didn't want to experience that.
“I feel bad that you come all the way home with me every time, though. Is there something you'd like to ask me?”
“A-ask you to do something?!”
“Yeah. Don't feel pressured; just tell me. I'll do what I can.”
It was goodwill.
Genuine goodwill.
But for some reason, Gaeun opened her eyes wide and started moving her lips.
It was as though all sorts of requests had flashed through her mind, only for her to hurriedly censor them herself.
It was then.
“Senior.”
The voice she usually used with me dropped into a lower register.
The face that had been flushed moments earlier turned cold in an instant.
Then she stepped in front of me without a word.
“Just a moment.”
“⋯?”
Only then did I notice it, too.
Toward the alley.
A dark entrance where lamplight faintly spilled out.
The female police officer assigned to escort me safely home, who should have been following just outside my field of vision, came into view.
No, more precisely⋯.
Thud.
Crumple.
Someone was slamming a police officer down onto the asphalt.
“What the⋯?”
A figure walked out from beneath the streetlamp.
A black mask.
A skintight combat uniform.
Narrow sleeves.
A short sword strapped across their back.
An unmistakable assassin's outfit, so blatant it made me wonder what era we were in.
At first, there was one.
But then.
Clomp. Clomp. Clomp.
Two.
Three.
Five.
Between the buildings.
On the rooftops.
Behind parked cars.
Even from below the sewer manhole covers.
One by one, figures wearing black masks began to appear.