Clink, Ham Seokjeong set her cup down.
"It’s been a while."
"Yes."
Silence followed. Uijae waited patiently. The once familial bond between them had grown distant over the years. She turned her head, covering her mouth with her hand as she coughed lightly. Her complexion wasn’t good. Ham Seokjeong struggled to suppress another cough.
"Have you been well?"
"For the most part, yes."
"That’s… good to hear."
Uijae’s eyes drifted to the cane leaning against the chair beside her. It was the sa one he’d seen during her press conference.
"You’ve been using a cane."
"Oh, you saw that on TV? I guess you haven’t been living in so remote mountain after all," she said with a short laugh. It felt awkward, even a simple comnt was hard to respond to. Uijae forced a smile in return. Ham Seokjeong rubbed her left knee.
"I injured it a few years ago. After that, I stepped down from the frontlines... beca an old relic left behind."
Silence again. Conversation wasn’t flowing easily. Was it always this difficult to talk with her? Uijae tried to rember, but his mories of their past interactions were foggy. He blinked.
‘Why does this feel so unfamiliar?’
This ti, Ham Seokjeong broke the silence.
"When did you return?"
"Not too long ago."
"I see."
"……."
"I won’t apologize. Even if I could go back in ti, I would make the sa choices. Sending Hye-gyeong, sending you, and asking for your help—I'd do it all again, shalessly."
"I know."
"Good."
The conversation was circling around the main issue without ever getting to it. Useless small talk repeated itself, frustratingly so. Uijae suddenly blurted out:
"Aren’t you curious why I didn’t co to see you earlier? Why I only ca now?"
Ham Seokjeong took a sip of coffee before replying.
"I’m sure you had your reasons."
"You were looking for , weren’t you?"
"Yes. When I heard that the boy who had been missing for eight years had returned but hadn’t shown his face, I wondered if you were so gravely injured that you couldn’t move. Or maybe you had lost your mory."
Uijae studied her face. Her sharp, hawk-like features had softened with age, but there was still a fierceness in her eyes. As a child, he had been afraid of that intensity. She put her cup down and stared at the black mask covering his face.
"Does that sound like an excuse to you?"
Leaning back in her chair, a faint smile appeared on her sharp face.
"Of course it’s an excuse."
"Yes, I thought so too."
Uijae let out a sigh and straightened his back.
Ham Seokjeong had been the director of the Awakener Managent Bureau since its inception. She was known for her sharp observation skills and brilliant deductive reasoning, traits she had been born with rather than gifted by her Awakener abilities. Even J, hidden behind a mask, couldn’t completely conceal his inner thoughts from her.
Ham Seokjeong calmly folded her fingers together as she spoke.
"Of course, part of my reason for looking for you was to protect you if you were unable to defend yourself, and yes, I intended to ask for your cooperation to prevent the end. But the biggest reason was sothing else."
Finally, they were getting to the point. Ham Seokjeong, staring at her two folded fingers, tilted her head slightly.
"What about Hye-gyeong? And the other Hunters?"
"……."
Aunt.
Park Hye-gyeong, Cha Uijae’s aunt, had been as close to Ham Seokjeong as a sister. Uijae swallowed hard. When he finally opened his mouth to speak, his voice cracked. Although it was masked by the voice modulator, Ham Seokjeong likely sensed it anyway.
"My aunt… and the other Hunters…."
Uijae clenched his fists tightly and closed his eyes.
"I couldn’t save any of them. I…."
"Don’t say you’re sorry."
Her firm words cut him off. Uijae looked up in surprise. Ham Seokjeong stared back at him, her expression unchanged.
"J, you couldn’t do it. No one else could have either, right?"
"……."
"You did your best. I know that. The Hunters who went in with you also did their best. Yet, this was the result."
A strange sensation swirled in Uijae’s chest. It wasn’t the reaction he had rehearsed, nor the one he had prepared himself for. Her words were entirely different from what he had expected. Unable to respond, he lowered his head again. Ham Seokjeong let out a sigh, almost as if in resignation.
"A bureau director should probably say sothing like this."
"……."
"But, well…."
She lowered her eyes and muttered softly.
"I already knew they were dead. I was the one who officially declared it. It’s been eight years, after all. And if Hye-gyeong were alive, she would have co to see long ago. I knew."
"……."
"I used to wonder… what if I had stopped them from going? I thought about it often."
"……."
"Even so, there’s a big difference between a vague suspicion and hearing it confird by a survivor. I needed to hear it from you, for my own sake."
Slowly, Uijae lifted his head. He wasn’t sure why he felt this way, but he was curious about Ham Seokjeong’s expression. Her face was…
"I can finally let go."
Expressionless,
And empty.
She looked like soone who had lost sothing very important. Like an empty room.
Uijae stared at her, speechless. He wanted to say sothing, anything, but the words wouldn’t co. His mind was blank.
‘This is strange.’
Why was he suddenly thinking of Lee Sayoung?
Ham Seokjeong gripped the armrest of her chair and stood up. She walked around the table that separated them, her limp making each step noticeable. She bent down and carefully wrapped her arms around Uijae in a gentle embrace.
"Thank you. And I’m sorry."
"……."
"Welco back."
This wasn’t sothing Ham Seokjeong would usually do. Rather… Uijae blinked.
‘This is sothing my aunt used to do.’
What happens to a person when they lose the thing that held their life together?
‘Director….’
Her hand patted his back gently, much like his aunt’s had. Hesitating for a mont, Uijae eventually lifted his arms and hugged her back. She felt much more fragile than he rembered. Uijae closed his eyes and thought to himself,
‘She’ll live the rest of her life thinking of my aunt….’
The long embrace finally ended. Uijae stood up abruptly and helped the limping Ham Seokjeong back to her chair. She looked utterly exhausted as she sat down. After a short sigh, she asked,
"By the way… you seem close to Sayoung."
Damn it. She must have seen the articles. Uijae grimaced. He definitely needed to deal with those gossipmongers again. His next thought was,
‘Sayoung?’
That was an unusually affectionate way to address him. Uijae reluctantly responded.
"Uh? No, not really…."
"Really? You seed close in the articles."
"No, actually… it seems like you’re closer to him than I am, considering you’re calling him Sayoung…."
"Do you think he likes ? Not likely," Ham Seokjeong snorted, picking up her cup. The coffee, which had once stead, was now lukewarm. She closed her eyes and muttered.
"It was a few years ago, right after you entered the Rift. Both Jung Bin and Bae Wonwoo went off the grid for a few months. The last report I got from them was, ‘Sorry, I can’t return for a while. I have to take care of a child.’ At first, I thought it was nonsense."
"……."
A mory floated to the surface of Uijae’s mind.
Co to think of it, didn’t Lee Sayoung ntion sothing about staying with Jung Bin in the past? It was just a passing comnt, but Uijae rembered it clearly. Without realizing it, he was now fully focused on her story.
"A few months passed. We were already short on personnel, so losing two of our biggest assets made things even more hectic."
It must have been. Losing both Jung Bin and Bae Wonwoo, two rankers, while he was also absent—it must have been a nightmare. Ham Seokjeong sighed deeply.
"Then, out of the blue, they got in touch. They said they were coming back and bringing the child with them. I was worried about preparing a playroom for the kid, but when they showed up, they had this tall, dark, brooding guy with them. He was way too big to be called a child."
It had to be Lee Sayoung.
"And those two treated him like he was a five-centiter baby, coddling him endlessly. He looked decent enough at first glance, but his eyes were completely crazy."
That *was* Lee Sayoung!
Crazy eyes? No doubt about it. Uijae listened more intently as Ham Seokjeong chuckled.
"The kid looked like death ward over, but as soon as I ntioned Sayoung, your face lit up."
"……."
She couldn’t see his expression because of the mask,
but Uijae awkwardly touched his face anyway. Clink, Ham Seokjeong set her cup down and placed her fingertips together.
"Alright, enough chit-chat. Let’s make a deal."
"...What kind of deal?"
"It won’t harm you in any way."
Uijae swallowed hard. He had no idea what she was about to propose. Ham Seokjeong smiled faintly, but it was still an empty smile.
"Let’s et from ti to ti and talk. With ."
"Excuse ?"
"I’ll tell you stories about Sayoung that you don’t know. And you tell about Hye-gyeong, things I don’t know."
Uijae blinked in confusion. Ham Seokjeong rested her chin on her hand.
"And when you’re ready, tell what happened in the Rift. Tell about her final monts."
"……."
Uijae let out a small sigh. The director, Ham Seokjeong, smiled with an empty look in her eyes.
"What do you say? It doesn’t sound like it’ll hurt you, does it?"
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