Retire 545
by Cristae545 (Hunter Academy Side Story 12) The Fence_1
July 12th.
Honestly, I don’t like that both of the new first-years are boys.
I want a girl junior too! Last year it was fine since there were lots of older girls!!
At least Seo-hyun unni comes by sometimes, so it’s a bit better. Finally, there’s another girl besides the teacher and me. But it’s actually hard to see her. She said she was doing some kind of magic research with Teacher Chae-min, but she hardly comes back to the dorm and is always in the lab. She said she’d help me train.
But seeing her walk around like a zombie all the time, maybe being a mage isn’t all it’s cracked up to be—
“Ji-eun, want to go hiking with Grandpa?”
Yoo Ji-eun shoved her diary into her bag and dashed out of the room.
“Yes!!”
“Careful, don’t trip. Grandma made kimbap, so let’s eat it when we get to the top.”
“I’ll grab a water bottle!”
Humming to herself, Ji-eun took a water bottle from the cupboard. She put in one of Grandpa’s favorite barley tea bags and filled it with water.
Robert Blake watched Ji-eun with loving eyes. Of all the grandchildren his son-in-law had entrusted to him, he’d heard the most stories about this girl and her sister.
When he first got the call—asking what to do about suddenly having to care for two little girls—he and his wife had nearly fainted from shock.
He only learned the full story after the girls’ situation had stabilized. Two young sisters, cowed and withdrawn after growing up under an abusive father. Hong Seok-young had told him how he’d barely managed to stop the man—whom he couldn’t even bring himself to call “father”—from selling his eldest daughter, an awakened healer, to a shady guild.
If it had been possible, his wife would have flown to Korea herself to help. But it was Hong Seok-young who refused, saying he’d only just managed to earn the girls’ trust, and that they were still frightened of unfamiliar adults.
So, even though Robert and his wife had known about Yoo Hye-eun and Yoo Ji-eun before anyone else, they were the last to actually meet them.
‘Hello, girls. I’ve heard a lot about you from your dad.’
‘Uh, our dad?’
‘Does it matter who gave birth to you?’
When he gently broached the subject, standing in for his timid son-in-law, the girls were startled but didn’t seem to dislike it.
Robert cherished these grandchildren who’d come into his life late. Except for when he was very young, he’d never had so many children in the family.
They were all good kids. It pained him that they’d been dragged into things they never should have had to endure because of adults. At first, Hye-eun and Ji-eun had been awkward, but now they chatted freely. Especially after starting college and moving in with a friend, Hye-eun seemed to enjoy, if shyly, the food and care Isabella brought every week. Today, his wife had taken their granddaughter shopping for pretty clothes. Ji-eun, who had no interest in shopping, had fled in horror.
Now, instead of awkwardly tagging along with Grandma, Ji-eun was able to say what she liked and disliked. Of all the kids, Ji-eun wore her feelings most openly, and Robert hoped that honesty would stay with her. If she dreamed of living as a Hunter, that honesty might become a liability, but…
If a child could grow up as a child, that was good enough too.
“Grandpa!”
Ji-eun, already changed and ready, ran toward Robert, then veered off to another room. She pounded mercilessly on a tightly closed door.
Bang bang bang!!
“Kang Tae-woo! Hey! Get up!!”
“……”
“Don’t sleep in just because it’s the weekend!! Grandpa bought crayfish!!”
“……Ugh.”
A groan came from inside. Robert suppressed a laugh.
“I’m not going…”
“Get up!!! Hey!!”
“Don’t call me ‘hey’…”
“In America, everyone just uses names anyway!”
“……”
There was a thump as something hit the door. This scene played out every weekend.
Tae-woo had thrown his pillow in his sleep.
“Come on, let’s leave your brother to sleep and just go with Grandpa.”
“Aww. What about So-hee and I-rok?”
“They went to the movies with Hee-jae.”
“Without me?!”
“They tried to wake you, but you didn’t get up.”
“Oh.”
Ji-eun scratched her head sheepishly.
It was an old but well-kept, clean apartment. Four bedrooms. One for Robert and his wife, one for So-hee. The largest remaining room was Ji-eun’s, and when Hye-eun visited, the sisters shared it. The last room was Tae-woo’s.
When you left the front door, there was an elevator. The apartment across the hall was also home to another set of grandchildren—his son-in-law, Woo Hee-jae, and the Woo siblings.
Hong Seok-young and Woo Hee-jae tried to come home every day if they could. But as Hunters, sometimes that was impossible. When that happened, Woo I-rok would come across the hall to use Tae-woo’s room, or Robert would stay at his son-in-law’s place. Either way, the families used both apartments as if they were one home, so it never felt awkward.
‘Young? How’s the new house coming along?’
‘They’re revising the plans.’
‘Revising?’
‘When we first decided to build, I didn’t know there’d be so many kids…’
His son-in-law had thrown his head back and laughed until his Adam’s apple showed.
It wasn’t until his wife stomped on his foot that Robert realized the house had originally been designed for three people: a father, a mother, and a son.
A new house for a new family would take a little longer. It wasn’t a place to be built carelessly.
For now, these two small apartments would be home. The entryway was scattered with shoes of all sizes, and the sweet smell of cookies filled the hallway. In the mornings, everyone was busy getting ready for work and school; in the afternoons, two elementary schoolers were the first to run into Grandma’s arms.
Woo I-rok, who had to quit taekwondo after awakening, went hiking with Grandpa, and Sophia went to piano lessons with a new friend.
In the evenings, grandparents and grandchildren gathered around the same table. Now that things had settled at school, even his son-in-law and eldest grandchild joined them more often. On weekends, Tae-woo and Ji-eun came over.
People with no blood ties became family.
Robert and Isabella treasured those moments.
“Come on, let’s go, Grandpa!”
Ji-eun grabbed Robert’s big hand and pulled him toward the door, but not before giving Tae-woo’s door one last kick for good measure.
Bang.
“……”
“…Oh. You’re awake?”
Ji-eun grinned awkwardly at Tae-woo, who opened the door with a bleary face.
Tae-woo glared at Ji-eun, then greeted Robert.
“Have a good hike…”
“Should I bring you something back?”
“No… it’s fine… I helped Grandma make the kimbap at dawn. There’s watermelon in the fridge, too, she said you should eat that…”
He’d said he’d go to France after graduation, but lately Tae-woo was buried under an unprecedented pile of assignments. Robert was sure he’d been working until sunrise, so he gestured for Tae-woo to get more sleep.
Tae-woo yawned. Behind him, his room was a mess: crumpled bedding, a laptop still on, stacks of dungeon manuals and monster photos from school.
And decorations unrelated to any of that—a teddy bear bought on an outing with his sister, a movie poster from the theater, a cap he’d gotten with his school seniors.
At first, it had been a barren space with just a bed and desk. The empty room had become full of personality thanks to the kids’ touch.
The rooms weren’t big, but for kids who’d never had a proper home, even that small space was enough. Watching them fill their rooms with things they loved, after all they’d been through…
‘Um, excuse me…’
‘Yes?’
‘…Never mind.’
His daughter, always shrinking into the corners, shoulders hunched, afraid to draw attention.
‘Dad! I’ve decided!’
‘Decided what?’
‘I’m going to Korea!’
‘Korea? Where’s that? Didn’t you say you got into the newspaper you wanted?’
‘I want to be a Hunter journalist.’
‘In Korea?’
‘Yeah. Thanks to you and Mom, I can call myself a Hunter expert. Korea’s still behind in that field… But there are Hunters there who are getting noticed! One’s active in Europe now—not a big-name yet, but with a few more years of experience, I’m sure they’ll be huge. I’m going to get that interview.’
She’d grown into someone who could speak with such confidence, barely pausing for breath.
It felt like those years were repeating themselves.
‘Just let your sister do what she wants. Otherwise, she’ll sneak onto a plane and go anyway.’
‘Hey! I wouldn’t go that far…’
‘Wouldn’t you?’
‘…I can’t say I wouldn’t.’
‘You don’t want to say you’re leaving because you know you’ll miss her. Go tell Mom and Dad you’ll keep in touch.’
‘Ah!’
‘How did you even graduate college with that head?’
‘You’ll miss her too, right?’
‘…What nonsense.’
‘I’ll keep in touch!’
‘Ah, geez!’
His beloved daughter, who’d run to her parents, bouncing, hugging her brother tight despite his protests. His proud daughter. His son. His children, gone too soon.
You can become family even without a drop of shared blood. He’d chosen to become family, chosen to adopt.
So how could these children not be his family?
“Have a good hike…”
Tae-woo, forgetting he’d already said goodbye, bowed again. Rubbing his sleepy eyes, he even came to the door to see them off, though he looked a little guilty about not joining them.
“I’ll go with you next week…”
“Hiking?”
“Yeah…”
“Next week is next week, today is today!”
“Oh, your brother’s got a lot of assignments lately, it’s understandable. Don’t be upset, let’s all go together next time, okay?”
Ji-eun, feigning reluctance, let herself be pulled away by Robert.
What Robert Blake liked most about Korean apartments was that you could easily access some pretty rugged mountains right from your home.
Neighbors he’d gotten to know said it was just a “neighborhood mountain,” but to Robert, who’d grown up in America, it was amazing to have such high mountains in a residential area.
If you weren’t used to mountains, even an Awakened would have struggled at first.
It was a perfect mountain for building stamina. Even though he was a bit out of breath, Robert couldn’t hide his pride as Ji-eun kept up easily. The trail was steep, but the summer heat made it harder, too.
“Whew! Grandpa, do you hike here every day?”
“Not every day.”
As they neared the summit—
Robert stopped to catch his breath and handed Ji-eun the water bottle. A few local hikers recognized him and waved from a distance.
“I get bored after you kids go back to school, so I come out here sometimes…”
“So that’s not every day?”
“Maybe it is.”
Robert chuckled. Ji-eun stared at him, round eyes blinking.
“Grandpa.”
“Hmm?”
“I heard you were a famous Hunter in America.”
“I was a Hunter, but not a famous one.”
Soldiers shouldn’t be famous. Some might call it an old-fashioned idea, but Robert had never changed his mind about that.
“Come on. The principal said I should learn from Grandma and Grandpa, because you’re both amazing Hunters.”
“Do I seem amazing to you, Ji-eun?”
“Well, you do seem pretty amazing, putting up with Woo I-rok’s attitude…”
Ji-eun burst out laughing.
But she soon stopped, and, trying to sound casual but betraying her nerves, scuffed her feet and asked,
“Grandpa.”
“Mm.”
“If your child was a Hunter, would you want them to quit?”