Chapter 36 – Trying to Look Good

Hee-na knew how to manage her basic facial expressions thanks to her years of social life. She waved her hand as if it was nothing.

“Even Hunter Kang Jin-hyun is human, so he can make mistakes.”

Instead, she asked what she was curious about.

It was thanks to a slight sense of closeness that welled up after seeing Kang Jin-hyun coming over with coffee spilling all over the place.

“By the way, why did you do that to the blanket and pillow earlier? It wasn’t some kind of thing among hunters that I don’t know about, right?”

“No.”

At Hee-na’s question, Kang Jin-hyun spoke flatly. And he sighed quietly.

‘Ugh.’

Hee-na clutched her chest in her mind.

A handsome man’s sigh had a way of touching one’s heart. It was very good to look at.

Not knowing what the woman sitting next to him was thinking, Kang Jin-hyun slowly opened his mouth.

“……I tend to have trouble controlling my strength when I am overly tense or overly relaxed.”

“Controlling your strength?”

“Yes. That is correct. I really wanted to help tidy up the bed, but I suppose I unintentionally applied too much strength out of a desire to look good in front of you, Hee-na.”

Hee-na smiled awkwardly. She felt like she had heard something incredible.

“Out of…… a desire to look good in front of me?”

“I wanted to win your personal favor, Hee-na.”

Hee-na’s eyes widened.

“Why?”

“Out of a desire to recruit you as my exclusive chef.”

“Ah.”

Only now did Kang Jin-hyun’s strange behavior make sense.

‘I guess that five-tier lunch box really was amazing.’

Hee-na looked at the S-class Hunter who confessed that he ended up getting tense in front of her because he wanted to eat her food so badly.

“But tidying the bed was originally my job, so you didn’t have to help. And you have already won enough of my favor, Hunter Kang Jin-hyun.”

Kang Jin-hyun’s eyes sparkled.

“Is that so?”

“Of course. First of all, you are Hunter Kang Jin-hyun. Is there anyone in South Korea who dislikes S-class Hunter Kang Jin-hyun? Besides, on a personal level, you helped me in the dungeon, and you also saved my brother. You even covered up my mistake by pretending not to know, so you are an incredibly grateful person to me.”

Hee-na mobilized all the eloquence she had, and even what she didn’t have, to praise Kang Jin-hyun.

“Then are you accepting my proposal? Will you sign a contract as my exclusive chef?”

Kang Jin-hyun looked ready to get down on his knees at any moment. Hee-na waved her hands in a flurry.

“No, no. I didn’t mean it like that. I wanted to tell you that I didn’t reject the proposal because I disliked you, Hunter Kang Jin-hyun.”

“Then why did you reject it? Did I not promise you better treatment?”

Hee-na broke out in a cold sweat. This was a somewhat difficult part to answer.

“Should I say it’s such great luck that I’m a bit scared to just snap it up? There’s that.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I had no doubt that I would live like everyone else, working normally at a company, but then suddenly a Fairy Godmother appeared and promised a grand pumpkin carriage and glass slippers? Um…….”

“Pardon?”

“So, a great person like you, Hunter Kang Jin-hyun, suddenly offering such amazing treatment feels like that to me.”

Kang Jin-hyun asked as if he was truly puzzled.

“Then isn’t that a good thing?”

“But the pumpkin carriage and dress disappear once it passes 12 o’clock.”

“My proposal is not a pumpkin carriage from a fairy tale. It will not disappear.”

At this rate, it seemed like the question-and-answer session with Kang Jin-hyun would never end, so Hee-na finally spoke her true feelings.

“But I prefer being a regular employee hired by a company of a certain size. Other things can disappear at any time. In a situation where even a decent company can disappear in an instant, to go under an individual business owner……”

Hee-na shuddered as she recalled her previous company, which had been a night-shift hell.

It wasn’t a good company, but who would have known that the company she was working at normally would completely disappear overnight?

Losing her job in an instant remained a pretty severe trauma for Hee-na, who was an extreme safety-first person.

At any rate, even such stable, regular jobs had their unstable aspects.

‘So, how unstable would it be to work under an individual business owner or as a freelancer?’

Hee-na wanted to live as long, thin, and peacefully as possible. She was too scared to snap at a big bait just because she saw it.

“Then you are rejecting my proposal.”

Kang Jin-hyun spoke in a voice that sounded extremely disappointed.

“It’s not that, but more like I need to think about it a bit more……?”

Of course, even in Hee-na’s opinion, this was an amazing opportunity. Kicking this opportunity away with her own feet made no sense. Her desire for material wealth popped out and pestered her to accept the proposal immediately.

However, the safety-first person’s intuition and her 45 points of luck held Hee-na back.

‘If I get entangled with that person, I’ll end up a hundred million light-years away from normalcy!’

And generally, Hee-na’s gut feeling, which stood on end in these extreme situations (?), was quite reliable.

Besides, an employer who destroyed a blanket and a pillow just because he was tense was a bit troublesome.

Unfortunately, the action Kang Jin-hyun took to win Hee-na’s favor ended up receiving negative points.

Hee-na groaned, conflicted between her greed and her intuition.

“I’m sorry, but I need more time to think. It hasn’t even been a few days since you mentioned it last time.”

“How much time do you need?”

“……A month?”

This was something she had to worry about a thousand times, but she hadn’t even worried about it a hundred times yet.

If she worried about it exactly 33 times a day for the next month, she would be able to fill roughly a thousand times, so she needed at least a month of leeway.

“Your thoughts remain the same.”

Kang Jin-hyun let out a sigh. Then, he fell into thought as he looked down at the coffee that had one sip left.

It was at the moment when her butt was starting to itch from the awkward silence. Kang Jin-hyun suddenly raised his head and stared intently at Hee-na.

“Why, why are you looking at me like that?”

It was a very burdensome gaze. His black eyes were burning with enthusiasm.

“If being hired directly under me is burdensome, how about a side job?”

“A side job?”

“Sell your lunch boxes to me.”

Kang Jin-hyun explained the alternative step-by-step.

Since Hee-na wanted a stable job, there was no need to quit the Blue Dragon Guild she was currently attending.

Instead, she was to pack a lunch box a few times a week or a month and sell it to him.

“Please do not say no to even this.”

Hee-na looked at Kang Jin-hyun with pitiful eyes.

‘How poorly must he be eating for an S-class Hunter to be begging me like this?’

At any rate, nothing tugged at a Korean’s heartstrings like not being able to eat properly. Hee-na fell into thought for a moment before nodding readily.

“Then, when I pack my lunch box occasionally, I’ll prepare one for you too, Hunter Kang Jin-hyun, while I’m at it.”

“Is that true?”

“It’s only that much, anyway.”

The sight of Kang Jin-hyun not eating properly stirred Hee-na’s emotions. So, Hee-na decided to show some human goodwill.

“If you really want to pay me, you only need to give me the cost of the ingredients.”

Packing a lunch box took a bit of effort, but it wasn’t something she couldn’t do at all.

Besides, come to think of it, Hee-na owed a lot to Kang Jin-hyun.

‘He is the one who saved my brother.’

To Hee-na, her brother Hee-won’s life was worth more than a few lunch boxes. If she considered it repaying the favor, a little bit of hard work was not a losing business at all.

Moreover, most workplaces prohibited double employment. Hee-na did not want to complicate things by receiving money from Kang Jin-hyun for no reason.

When she pointed out that part, Kang Jin-hyun suddenly made a phone call somewhere. And he finished the call so quickly that Hee-na couldn’t even make it out.

“Double employment is allowed.”

“Pardon?”

“I asked. They said there is no such clause in the internal regulations.”

It seemed he had called the company in the meantime to ask about the internal regulations. The driving force he showed in front of food was like a bulldozer.

“And eating your food for free makes no sense. My pride will not allow it. I will pay you handsomely.”

With that, he proposed 5 million won per instance. It was an absurdly high price to be the value of a single meal.

“Gasp.”

At Hee-na’s shock, Kang Jin-hyun mumbled “As expected,” and shook his head.

“It is indeed too low. Then shall we make it ten million won? Of course, more than that is also fully possible.”

Kang Jin-hyun’s love for food and concept of economy were greater than she had imagined.

* * *

“……So what happened?”

Hee-won gulped and asked. It was because the story his sister was telling was very exciting.

Quickly! Quickly!

Osaek-i, who had been pretending not to be interested, was secretly curious as well and urged Hee-na.

“What else could I have done? Isn’t that something that has to be thought about carefully? Since lunch hour was almost over, I just told him to give me time to think and came out.”

“What? He said he’d give you ten million won for a single meal, and what more is there to worry about?”

Hee-won straightened his body that had been leaning toward Hee-na and clicked his tongue.

This was equivalent to saying, ‘I’ll think a bit more about whether it’s okay to accept this,’ with the lottery winnings right in front of one’s eyes.

“Honestly, I don’t understand you. Why do you reject an opportunity to bring in big money when you worry so much about making a living? A few tens of millions of won wouldn’t even be money to Hunter Kang. If it were me, I’d just do it first.”

At her brother’s pointing out, Hee-na let out a sigh and shook her head.

“Ah, I don’t know. If you were in my shoes, you’d understand too, Oppa. It was extremely flustering.”

“Sure, I know very well how timid you are, Lee Hee-na.”

At Hee-won’s sarcasm, Hee-na countered loudly.

“It’s called being cautious! Unlike a certain someone who runs off anywhere just because they offer money!”

The siblings squabbled like that for a while.

Osaek = Pursuit of peace and harmony.

The snail soon lost interest and slipped inside its shell. That was when it happened.

Fwip!

The light bulb that was illuminating the house lost its light in an instant.

The Homemaker of the Dungeon