Chapter 35 – Tearing the Bedsheet

“Ah! Damn, you startled me!”

It wasn’t only Hee-na who was startled. The Hunter she was talking to also spat out a curse.

Indeed, it was the presence-hiding of an S-class. It was a miracle to perceive it.

“Use refined language inside the guild. Understood?”

Kang Jin-hyun warned the cursing Hunter with a stiff expression. Then, turning his head, he softened his frozen expression. This was an expression reserved for Hee-na.

“Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Pardon?”

“It seems a bit overwhelming to clean this large place with your small build, Miss Hee-na. Do you not need help?”

She didn’t need it at all. Besides, receiving the equipment advantage from the apron and headscarf, she had never once felt that guild cleaning was overwhelming.

The only problem was that her stamina was a bit lacking, but that was quickly resolved by eating some food as a snack.

“Thank you just for the thought of wanting to help. However, this is what I receive a salary to do. Besides, I like cleaning and organizing, so I don’t feel it’s that hard. I also have cleaning-related skills.”

Hee-na tried her best to decline Kang Jin-hyun’s burdensome kindness.

However, Kang Jin-hyun’s motivation was soaring to the end of the sky.

“You do not need to feel burdened. As one of the executives of the Blue Dragon Guild, I also have the duty to strive for the welfare of the staff.”

There was no way the Hunters with good hearing couldn’t hear this. Murmuring, the people whispered.

What, Kang Jin-hyun must have gone crazy.

Kang Jin-hyun did not care about their whispering. He exerted calmness worthy of an S-class Hunter.

“Do you need to organize the bed? I think I can help you with this.”

He calmly grabbed and pulled up the bedsheet. It looked like a gentle touch, but the bedsheet shrieked.

*Riiiiip!*

This was the solitary shriek of the thick lounge blanket splitting in half.

“Ah.”

Kang Jin-hyun paused, as if feeling that something had gone wrong. Then, he subtly let go of the torn blanket and gently patted the pillow.

However, that he patted it was Kang Jin-hyun’s thought, and the pillow’s stance was a bit different.

*Thud!* *Thud!* *Pop!*

The sound of hitting a punching bag rang twice, and soon the pillow gloriously oxidized with an explosive sound.

Cotton poured out shabbily between the split pillowcase. It was a brutal sight.

Hee-na lost her words for a moment, then barely opened her mouth.

“H-Hunter Kang Jin-hyun? Is something wrong?”

Honestly, she wanted to ask if he was angry, but she couldn’t bring herself to do so. It was because if you ask an angry person if they are angry, they really get angry.

Moreover, Kang Jin-hyun was a powerful Hunter who could tear a person apart with a single finger if he got angry.

“…….”

Kang Jin-hyun lowered his eyes in silence at Hee-na’s question. Somehow, it seemed a shadow had swept over his face.

“Hunter Kang Jin-hyun?”

When she called his name once more, Kang Jin-hyun stammered and opened his mouth.

“Miss Hee-na… this, it wasn’t on purpose.”

With those words as his last, Kang Jin-hyun rapidly moved away from the messed-up scene, leaving only a blurry afterimage. To put it in easy terms, it meant he had run away in a flash.

Cinderella vanished leaving a glass slipper at midnight, and Kang Jin-hyun ran away leaving a torn blanket and a burst pillow.

As if somewhat enlightened, Hee-na bent her waist and picked up the split blanket.

“…Since it’s hard to understand what just happened, I should first tidy this up and clear my head.”

The situation was quickly sorted out. She first cast ‘Comfortable Bed’ for the Hunter who said he was tired, and packed and threw away the torn blanket and pillow.

As Hee-na started her daily routine as usual, the watching gazes also scattered before long.

Indeed, nothing was strange to happen in the Hunter lounge. Besides, if it was ‘the great Kang Jin-hyun,’ it wouldn’t be strange no matter what he did.

The Hunters cleanly forgot what had just happened.

* * *

It was the end of lunch time.

Hee-na sat lazily on a bench placed in a corner of the rooftop garden, enjoying the warm sunlight. It was a state where falling asleep right away wouldn’t be strange.

‘There’s still a long time before lunch time ends, should I set an alarm and sleep for twenty minutes?’

That is, the atmosphere was so extremely comfortable that even the great Lee Hee-na, who was famous for being a diligent person, pondered over taking a nap.

Coincidentally, the spot was also secluded, so it seemed like she wouldn’t be noticed by others.

“Hup!”

It was just as she stretched widely while contemplating.

“Miss Hee-na.”

From behind a tree in a corner of the garden, Kang Jin-hyun’s face suddenly appeared.

“Kyaaa!”

Hee-na shrieked softly, startled by the sight of Kang Jin-hyun peeking out with only his face from behind the tree.

“It’s me.”

Kang Jin-hyun emerged from behind the tree and raised both hands as if telling her to be reassured. It looked like a gesture saying he had no intention to attack, so he wouldn’t harm her.

“It seems you get startled every time I approach closely.”

Kang Jin-hyun spoke as he approached Hee-na.

Somehow his voice sounded sullen, but that was surely an illusion. Because Kang Jin-hyun’s face was expressionless as usual.

“Because you appear without a sound or rumor. It’s not because you are scary or bad, Hunter Kang Jin-hyun. I was just startled.”

Hee-na diligently blamed her own chicken heart.

“I see. In the future, I will make my presence known when appearing.”

Kang Jin-hyun nodded and stood in front of the bench where Hee-na was sitting. A large shadow fell over Hee-na.

‘Wow. How tall is he? Must be well over 180.’

Even under normal circumstances he was a tall man, but looking from a seated position, he looked even larger.

“What is it?”

When Hee-na asked, Kang Jin-hyun requested.

“May I sit beside you?”

“Yes. Of course.”

This was the rooftop garden everyone used together. There was no way it wouldn’t be allowed.

Above all, looking up at Kang Jin-hyun while seated was very awkward and hurt her neck.

“Thank you.”

Kang Jin-hyun sat two spans away from where Hee-na sat. It was neither too close nor too far. It meant it was not a bad distance for conversation.

It was Kang Jin-hyun who broke the ice first.

“I am sorry about earlier. I left the lounge in a mess and ran away.”

Hee-na waved her hands.

“No, it’s alright. There was barely anything to clean.”

Indeed, it was after she had listened carefully to the scale of accidents Hunters caused from the cleaning team members. A blanket getting torn was not even considered an accident.

“No. I was cowardly.”

“Calling yourself cowardly over just that… I am really fine.”

When the S-class Hunter Kang Jin-hyun of all people even called himself ‘cowardly,’ Hee-na began to feel this apology was a bit excessive.

“I was flustered that I suddenly couldn’t control my strength, so I ended up avoiding the problem.”

“No…”

Kang Jin-hyun sought forgiveness as if he had really committed the worst crime in the world.

“I will do anything to offer you a proper apology, Miss Hee-na.”

Talking with a momentum as if he could kill a person right now, it was incredibly burdensome.

‘What to do? Should I slap his cheek, saying the Hunter has committed a sin worthy of death?’

Hee-na rolled her eyes trying to think how to escape this situation, then found something.

And she pointed at it. Kang Jin-hyun’s gaze also moved toward Hee-na’s fingertip.

At the end of his gaze sat an instant coffee vending machine. Hee-na pointed at the vending machine and said.

“If you’re sorry, buy me a cup of coffee. Let’s call it even with that.”

Hee-na sat on the bench and watched Kang Jin-hyun’s back. A tall young man was bending his waist with a serious expression.

If she hadn’t known this was a situation where he was agonizing over which button of the vending machine to press, Hee-na would have probably thought Hunter Kang Jin-hyun was lost in serious contemplation for world peace.

“Please get me milk coffee!”

Hee-na shouted to relieve Kang Jin-hyun’s agony.

At that, Kang Jin-hyun nodded and immediately drew two cups of milk coffee. He was a person good at doing what he was told.

“It’s all done. I’m coming.”

Holding a paper cup in each hand, he began walking toward Hee-na.

And Hee-na realized in a moment that she had forgotten an important fact.

‘Ah, this man was a person who turns even a full cup of coffee into a half cup of coffee!’

During the short gap from the vending machine to the bench for Kang Jin-hyun, the tiny paper cups crumpled up and spilled coffee.

“My word… My apologies. There is almost no coffee left.”

Kang Jin-hyun apologized as if embarrassed.

However, to Hee-na, the amount of remaining coffee was not very important.

“Your hands must have been hot, are you alright?”

Hee-na jumped up from her seat, pulled out a clean dishcloth from her apron, and wiped Kang Jin-hyun’s hands.

The coffee freshly drawn from the vending machine was hot. Having spilled such coffee all over his hands as he came, it must have been quite painful.

“I am fine. This temperature is not something that would pose a major threat to my body.”

Kang Jin-hyun replied, sliding his hand out of Hee-na’s hands.

“But your skin was burning hot. It’s just that you feel less pain than others, but it must have hurt!”

Hee-na clicked her tongue and handed over the dishcloth.

Kang Jin-hyun, who looked at Hee-na for a moment, sat on the bench while wiping his sticky hands.

“…You do not need to worry too much. It was only warm.”

With that, he handed over the coffee that had little left. Hee-na carefully received the crumpled paper cup.

A mouthful of coffee was pooled at the bottom. Despite all that fuss, there was at least something left to drink.

“I’ll drink it well… Thank you.”

Hee-na tossed back the coffee in one gulp.

Kang Jin-hyun was only carefully holding his own paper cup. He seemed to have words to bring up.

“I’m embarrassed that I seem to have only shown you unseemly appearances.”

His face was expressionless, but somehow he looked quite awkward.

Hee-na remembered Team Leader Kim Hwa-soon’s words.

‘No matter what side of S-class Hunter Kang Jin-hyun you see, do not disclose it to the outside.’

Judging by those words, she had thought he would be a person with some flaws.

‘…Of course, I didn’t expect it to be this much, though.’

The Homemaker of the Dungeon