They advanced, snickering.

  Soo-Jin immediately got up, panic setting in. At the same time, he slipped the food packet into his pocket. He recognized the figures standing before him and took a small step back, as though gripped by fear.

  “You’re backing off? Are you scared? You wanna run, huh? Oh, don’t worry, we don’t mean you any harm…”

  There were five of them, the same old ones. Five men leading miserable lives. Soo-Jin knew them all too well, unfortunately— they’d all grown up in the same neighborhood.

  They were all awakened at rank E. They were weak, and above all, cowardly. Being awakened, this status made them slightly stronger than a normal human, which gave them the audacity to target people like Soo-Jin, who was unawakened.

  They fancied themselves a gang, when in reality, they were just a low-level group, living off rackets and easy mockery.

  The money they earned by participating in raids wasn’t much, but it was enough for each of them to avoid sinking completely into delinquency. They kept at it purely out of sadism, needing to feel superior.

  Their favorite target was Soo-Jin because he had no parents, was weak, had no abilities, and on top of that, his delicate appearance irritated them even more.

  He had a fine, soft face, which made him appear even more fragile in the eyes of others. To them, he was the embodiment of a failure, making him the perfect target.

  He was the one they could unload all their frustrations on without fear of retaliation.

  “Oh, Soo-Jin, you thought we’d forget about you?” one of them sneered. “Your beauty doesn’t let you go unnoticed, you know. Except today, it seems like it caught the wrong eye!”

  They all burst into laughter.

  “We’ve been following you for a while. Of course, you didn’t notice — you wouldn’t, anyway. Now that you’re here, I hope you’ve got what we like?”

  They stared at him with mocking grins.

  Soo-Jin couldn’t have noticed, but he had indeed been followed at a good distance.

  His assailants had kept their distance from Cheonguk Hof, knowing that higher-ranked hunters often hung around there for a casual meal with friends.

  They couldn’t afford to be seen by either Soo-Jin or anyone else. The place was just too well-lit: even without being hunters, in such a public space, they would have been spotted. And at heart, they were cowards.

  “I already gave you money last week,” he protested.

  “Last week, huh… Let me think about it… But you know, we don’t like thinking too much. Our memory’s a bit spotty… Guys, do you remember?”

  They all laughed in response:

  “Hmm… nope, no recollection.”

  “You heard that?” the other one continued. “The guys agree with me.”

  “We’d like you to refresh our memory with a few bills.”

  Soo-Jin abruptly turned and started running, his legs shaking from panic.

  He was never a runner, nor a fighter, and the fatigue caught up with him quickly. His heart raced violently in his chest as he sprinted, hoping the darkness of the alley would offer him some advantage.

  But only a few seconds later, he heard hurried footsteps behind him. They were already there.

  These guys, stronger and faster than him, gave him no chance.

  No matter how much he zigzagged, hoping to lose them, one of them caught up to him and, before he could understand what was happening, a sharp, brutal kick struck his right side.

  His body was violently thrown to the left, crashing against the asphalt with a muffled thud. His skin scraped the ground, tearing on the rough surface, before smashing into a wall with a sharp crack that echoed through the alley.

  A harsh breath escaped his lips. The pain surged through him like a burning wave. He tried to lift himself up, his arms trembling, his ribs on fire… but as soon as he managed to rise to one knee, another blow struck his side, sending him tumbling over.

  A third strike hit him squarely in the stomach, knocking the breath out of him with a suffocated gasp.

  Soo-Jin curled up, trying to protect his face. But the blows rained down relentlessly. He had neither the strength nor the endurance to escape. His assailants mocked him, laughing at his helplessness.

  “You thought you’d shake us off like last time?”

  “We warned you that if you tried to run, you’d regret it,” the other one chuckled, landing another blow to his ribs.

  While he was on the ground, curled up, one of them knelt beside him, his gaze venomous. He started rummaging through his pockets but found nothing.

  Instead, he felt something warm in one of the pockets.

  “What’ve you got there, huh?”

  He pulled out a packet: inside, some aluminum foil. Unfolding it, he revealed a dish of jokbal, its delicious aroma spreading immediately.

  “A… meal? Are you serious?”

  “Hyeongnim, he doesn’t have any money on him. But I found a jokbal in his pocket.”

  “Is that all he has? You sure?”

  “Yeah, nothing else.”

  Their leader burst into laughter, but his eyes told a different story. He was frustrated. Disgusted.

  “We’re chasing you, and all you’ve got is this? You think we’re a joke?”

  He kicked him harder than the others.

  “You’d better have something… Fortunately, you had this on you. Otherwise, I swear you’d be in for worse.”

  “So you were just out to get some food?”

  He laughed mockingly, already digging into the dish in front of him.

  “Man, you’re really unlucky, Soo-Jin… Hmm, wow, this jokbal’s delicious!!! From now on, every meal you buy will be for us, whenever we cross paths. Got it?”

  The others grunted, some snickering nervously.

  He’d escaped the worst, simply because they found something to take, even if it was ridiculous.

  With nothing else to do with him for the night, they wandered off, still laughing.

  One of them called back over his shoulder, in a falsely affectionate tone:

  “See you next time, Soo-Jin. We love you too much to forget you.”

  Then they vanished into the alley, like satisfied shadows.

  Soo-Jin lay there for a moment. Then, slowly, he managed to get up.

  “I’m glad I grabbed an extra dish…”

  It was likely that he’d run into them. He had been right: with so little money on him, it was obvious they’d take everything he had when they saw him… and that small amount would only piss them off more. A dish to steal would always be more satisfying for their sadism than a few measly coins.

  After they left, Soo-Jin returned to the trash bin and picked up something: the gimbap meant for his sister.

  “I didn’t have time to hide it earlier…” he thought, holding the dish close to him.

  When he’d heard their voices in the shadows, he’d just had time to separate the dish meant for his sister from his own.

  He’d quietly set the gimbap down near the bin, crouching as if re-tying his shoes.

  And when he’d stepped back, it wasn’t out of fear.

  It was to hide, with the tip of his heel, the gimbap in the shadow cast behind him.

  An instinctive gesture. Almost desperate.

  They hadn’t seen a thing.

  “If they had known…” he thought, glancing at the gimbap, “I would’ve gone through all this for nothing.”

  He began heading home. A few minutes later, standing in front of his door, he pulled his hood low to hide his bruises.

  He didn’t want his sister to see his injuries. He didn’t want to worry her.

  He opened the door quietly, placed the food packet on the table, and went straight to his room without a word.

  His sister, sitting on the couch, called out to him:

  “Hey… is that gimbap? Did you manage to get some at night?”

  Soo-Jin answered without turning around:

  “Helmeonie kept one in reserve for you. She gave it to me when I arrived at her place. Enjoy. Don’t forget your meds.”

  “And what about you?”

  “Don’t worry… I’m not hungry. I’m exhausted. I’m going to bed.”

  She followed him:

  “Hey… don’t you want to eat with me?”

  Arriving at his door, he opened it, then, before stepping in, he said:

  “Don’t bother me tonight. I’m really tired.”

  “But oppa, you…”

  Click.

  He shut the door.

  She stood frozen for a few seconds, then returned to sit down, a small, sad smile on her lips.

  “I thought he’d want to eat too… Pff… Sometimes, my brother is really hard to understand.”

  On the other side, in his room, Soo-Jin stood for a moment.

  Then he staggered.

  A sharp burst of pain shot up from his ribs to his temples. His vision blurred. The world spun around him.

  And, without warning…

  He collapsed, unconscious, his arm bleeding.