She’s lost her sense of taste…
Oh Hyeonseong was more than a little shocked.
He had expected his ultimate technique not to work, but he had never imagined that she would be left with such severe aftereffects from her injuries.
Somewhere deep in his subconscious, he had assumed that, of all people, she would never have to suffer from the lingering effects of an injury.
He trudged outside and happened to run into Han Suyeon, who was drinking some water.
“Oh, Senior. We’re all done with the work outside.”
“Good work.”
The two sat side by side on the wooden porch.
They could see the back of Choi Jeongil, who was busily fiddling with something.
It turned out he was repairing the broken furniture himself.
Come to think of it, he did have a knack for woodworking. It had even come in handy from time to time during missions.
“Come to think of it, it’s been a really long time since you two saw each other too.”
“Even when we happened to run into each other, it was usually just a brief encounter at some official event before we went our separate ways. We got to catch up a little thanks to this.”
They were the kind of trivial conversations that would never have come up if they hadn’t met somewhere like this.
Seeing each other while working in shabby clothes was strangely refreshing.
“But… putting everything else aside, what’s with that beard?”
“He stayed at our place for a while. He got so absorbed in fishing that he ended up like that.”
“Fishing…? He still does that?”
She knew all too well about Choi Jeongil’s love of fishing.
But to suddenly take up fishing again after giving it up so long ago…
More importantly, she wondered if there was even anywhere around here to fish.
“Well… I suppose it’s better than the alternative. It really doesn’t suit him.”
“I know.”
Oh Hyeonseong burst out laughing at her comment.
Shaking his head, he stopped by the kitchen and brought bibimbap to the others as well.
Unlike Baek Jisu’s bland reaction, the food itself had done nothing wrong. If anything, it received an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response.
Choi Jeongil and Joo Jihye, sitting at the outdoor table, devoured it like it was the most delicious thing in the world.
“Wow.”
Han Suyeon, still sitting on the edge of the porch, nodded in admiration.
It truly was an incredible flavor.
This was her first time eating crops influenced by Albern, a high-ranking Spirit, so she couldn’t help but be even more impressed.
She absentmindedly emptied more than half her bowl before finally coming to her senses.
“Sorry. It was just so delicious…”
“I’d rather you react like that.”
Han Suyeon’s face reddened slightly in embarrassment.
But even so, she couldn’t bring herself to put down her spoon in front of food that was even more powerful than the last batch.
“I even got to experience punishment again for the first time in ages. That was refreshing.”
Han Suyeon rubbed her forehead as she spoke.
With her terrifying experience and flawless performance during missions, she hadn’t experienced anything like this since her days at the training camp.
Of course, she wasn’t complaining. She clearly knew the whole thing had been her fault.
Even though Oh Hyeonseong had restrained his strength, what had happened wasn’t exactly something that should have taken place inside a house.
“It’s not every day you get to see you lose your temper that badly. What happened between the two of you?”
“That…”
Han Suyeon fell silent for a moment.
Oh Hyeonseong couldn’t help but be curious. He knew the two of them had never exactly gotten along, but they had never openly antagonized each other to that degree.
They had always been more like uncomfortable acquaintances who exchanged biting but relatively friendly criticism during missions.
But the things they’d said to each other just now had been genuinely vicious.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
“…Thanks. It’s just… a lot of things happened.”
Han Suyeon sighed before continuing.
“I don’t know what Baek Jisu said to you, Senior, but it’s better if you don’t get involved with her for no reason.”
“What, are you worried she’ll take advantage of me?”
“I’m not worried about that with you, Senior. I’m saying you shouldn’t think of Baek Jisu as the person she used to be. Just as I’ve changed over the past five years, so has Baek Jisu.”
Han Suyeon had never liked Baek Jisu in the first place.
When she had first joined the unit, she had clashed with Oh Hyeonseong because she was dissatisfied with his willingness to sacrifice two people in order to save ten.
But Baek Jisu had gone even further than his methods.
She had never hesitated to resort to extreme measures if it meant accomplishing her objective, and the Han Suyeon of that time had felt a deep sense of rejection toward her.
But the Baek Jisu of today wasn’t even that anymore.
She wasn’t merely ruthless toward others because she was consumed by her objectives.
She was living a truly self-destructive life.
“People change as time passes, so I suppose that could be true. But there are some things that haven’t changed.”
“How would you know that, Senior?”
Today was the first time the two had seen each other in years.
It was far too short a time to judge someone.
But even in that short time, Oh Hyeonseong had seen something in her.
If she had really changed completely, she would’ve already used it.
Sometimes she could appear calculating and cold.
But she was also the kind of person who never forgot a debt she owed.
That was the Baek Jisu he remembered.
The wallpaper, perfectly matching the surrounding walls in both pattern and color, now looked as good as new.
After hanging around for quite some time, Baek Jisu had finished the repair work to a standard that satisfied even herself.
“…”
She nodded to herself and silently put on her coat.
It would have been natural to say at least a word to the people she hadn’t seen in so long before leaving.
But she slipped quietly out the front gate without making a sound.
However, Oh Hyeonseong was waiting for her outside.
“Senior?”
“You haven’t changed, even after all this time.”
“That’s the first time I’ve heard anyone say that.”
Baek Jisu replied curtly.
“Sorry about causing a commotion. I won’t be coming around for a while.”
“Then why don’t you tell me before you leave? That deal you mentioned earlier. You said you’d grant anything I wanted, but there must’ve been a real card you were holding back, rather than that vague promise.”
“No. There wasn’t.”
Baek Jisu shook her head.
“A deal requires both sides to have something worth putting on the scales… but I don’t think anything I could offer would mean anything to you now, Senior. Forget about it.”
With that, she turned around without hesitation.
She didn’t even bother with a final goodbye.
But Oh Hyeonseong stopped her.
“Baek Jisu, how about letting go of that obsession of yours?”
“…What do you mean?”
“Don’t push yourself so hard. Even if it isn’t you, there are plenty of people who can take your place. I only learned that after coming here myself.”
The de facto highest authority within the National Security Bureau.
Baek Jisu was the one who held all the countless pieces of information flowing in from across the country and from around the world.
Because of that, she had no choice but to be tormented by all the possibilities and risks those pieces of information brought with them.
She knew better than anyone how the society that seemed to move along so naturally was actually being held together in an incredibly fragile and haphazard manner.
“Ha. If you were in my position, Senior, you could never say something like that.”
“No. I know better than anyone. You seem to have forgotten already, but things were even more chaotic in our time.”
Oh Hyeonseong let out a small chuckle.
In the early days of the Gate crisis, they had thrown themselves directly into every kind of hell imaginable.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they had seen every possible kind of disaster.
That was probably why Baek Jisu had become even more obsessed with preventing a return to those days.
But she was overlooking one thing.
Things had been precarious at times and an absolute mess at others.
Yet even in those circumstances, they had ultimately continued moving forward.
“You don’t need to think you have to deal with everything perfectly. Just keep what I said in mind.”
“…I’ll go.”
She walked away steadily, looking as composed as ever.
THUD!
Baek Jisu climbed into the newly prepared National Security Bureau vehicle.
Leaning back against the seat, she closed her eyes for a moment.
“Good work. But… is that man really important enough for the Director to personally go see him?”
“Yes. Important enough that I could talk your ears off about it.”
It was a name that many people from that era had died or disappeared alongside, leaving almost no one who even remembered it anymore.
But to the first-generation Hunters who remembered those days, he was an existence that could never be forgotten.
Oh Hyeonseong himself could serve as a justification, which was precisely why she had tried to bring him as close to her side as possible.
Conversely, that also meant he could become the rallying point for a rebellious faction.
Regardless of exactly how much of his strength he had recovered, he was someone capable of overturning even a situation where the balance had shifted completely.
For the National Security Bureau, he was a massive variable that they had every reason to fear and keep a close eye on.
“…What was I even doing there?”
Baek Jisu rubbed her face and sighed.
She knew perfectly well that there was no way he would be manipulated by such a shallow ploy.
She also knew from the beginning that the entire premise had been absurd.
And yet she had gone all the way there.
CRACK!
She crushed the listening device she’d been holding in her hand.
The unused fragments scattered across the floor.
Baek Jisu returned to the Bureau immediately.
She had to move quickly if she was going to get through her internal schedule and still handle her overseas schedule the following day.
But while she was heading to the interrogation room with an employee…
“Wait… you go ahead.”
“Yes?”
Her face had suddenly gone pale, and she hurried into the bathroom.
THUD!
Once inside a stall, she braced herself against the wall and slid down it, breathing heavily.
An excruciating pain as though her body were being pierced through.
Her uncontrollable arm trembled violently.
“Urgh…”
Dark, bloody fluid trickled from the corner of her mouth.
In the past, Baek Jisu had possessed exceptionally strong resistance to tainted energy, even among the strongest Hunters of her rank.
That was why she had always stood on the front lines in areas where tainted energy was at its strongest.
Some Gates were infused with such extraordinarily powerful tainted energy that even operatives like Han Suyeon couldn’t enter them.
Whenever such Gates appeared, she had entered those sites alongside Oh Hyeonseong, leading the way.
But back then, they hadn’t known that the amount of tainted energy they could endure was still accumulating in their bodies over time.
After years of fighting on the front lines, her body had reached its limit.
She was already being consumed from within.
“Haa…”
After the agony passed, Baek Jisu steadied her breathing.
She placed her hand against the floor, but she couldn’t even feel the cold sensation beneath her palm.
Every time this happened, she could feel her body shutting down.
The symptom caused by the tainted energy consuming her was the loss of sensation.
The first symptom to appear after she was injured during the Queen Subjugation Operation had been the loss of her sense of taste.
But her other senses had gradually begun to dull as well.
Even her sense of smell, once her most exceptional sense, was no longer sharp enough to be useful on the battlefield.
Baek Jisu emerged from the bathroom looking haggard and encountered one of her subordinates.
“I… I’ll handle the interrogation. Please, take some time to rest.”
“Just get out of my way.”
She shoved him aside and walked ahead.
Her body still creaked with lingering pain, but the color had returned to her face, and she looked completely composed again.
Even her attending physician had told her to quit being a Hunter immediately and rest.
But she hadn’t stopped for even a single day.
Baek Jisu entered the interrogation room.
RUSTLE!
Before entering the room where the interrogation subject was waiting, she pulled an energy bar from her pocket.
A dreadful food designed with nothing in mind except essential nutrients, with flavor completely disregarded.
The Baek Jisu of the past wouldn’t have even considered putting such a thing in her mouth.
But now, she actually preferred it.
Since it had no taste, she could finish a meal quickly without having to feel anything about it.
CRUNCH!
She mechanically chewed the energy bar.
But after a few bites…
Her chewing stopped.
She stood there motionless.
“…?”
Baek Jisu’s expression instinctively tightened.
A strange sensation she hadn’t experienced in an incredibly long time.
It was still extremely faint, but there was no way she could mistake it.
“It tastes bad.”
