Chapter 652: A Cat with Many Worries (2)

After spending the day wandering around the old Chuncheon City, that evening, I returned home.

Having finished dinner and my shower, I was quietly waiting in my room for Han Min-ah to come in, and not long after I started waiting, I heard a knock on my door.

‘Ttok, ttok.’

“…Seo, Sung Taekyung. Can I come in?”

“Yeah, come in.”

-Kkiiik.

The two knocks came after a slight pause.

The door slowly opened with a slightly tense voice.

And then, for some reason, Han Min-ah entered my room, opening the door with a somewhat gloomy atmosphere.

“Y-you said you had something to talk about…”

“Yeah.”

“…How serious is this? Is it something Jin-ah and Seon-ah shouldn’t hear?”

“I think they might get a little confused if they heard it.”

…The moment they learned their older sister was slated to receive over 5 billion won in extra income for her contribution to slaying the Basilisk, it would be a bit difficult for the twins to stay calm.

While Jin-ah and Seon-ah are more mature than others their age, there was no guarantee they’d remain composed in the face of such a massive amount of money they’d never experienced before.

To prevent unnecessary trouble, it was more rational to discuss this only with Han Min-ah.

Besides, how the hunt reward was handled was ultimately Han Min-ah’s choice, as she was directly involved in the hunt.

“S-so, what is it you wanted to talk about…?”

“……”

“Hey, Sung Taekyung…?”

“…Sorry, bringing this up with you… it makes me feel a little sorry…”

Knowing how hard Han Min-ah had struggled as a sole breadwinner since middle school, I couldn’t help but hesitate to make such a shameless request.

This was a situation where I was asking her to lend the enormous amount of cash she’d receive for the first time in her hunter career to my startup business.

Even with the justification of achieving my dream, I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmingly guilty.

…Honestly, part of me wanted to settle up separately with just Han Min-ah and then try to persuade the others.

That would certainly be easier on my conscience for now, rather than creating this awkward situation.

But if I did that, when Han Min-ah found out later, we wouldn’t be able to remain friends.

Han Min-ah, who lived fiercely without compromising her pride, no matter how difficult her circumstances.

The moment I told people like Hye-eun or Cha Yuri that I needed money for my dream, but then decided to distribute funds first based on Han Min-ah’s situation, considering her circumstances…

She would absolutely never forgive me if she found out later.

She’d likely react with something like, ‘I thought we were friends, but were you just pitying me?’

Having known each other for a long time, there were things you just knew without needing to experience them.

Rather than causing such unnecessary misunderstandings between us, it was better to settle things clearly right here and now.

“W-what’s there to be sorry about? Between us, right?!”

“……”

“It’s fine, dude! I-I kinda expected what you were gonna say anyway?! Ah, I was already starting to get ready for it!”

“…Huh?”

“S-speak comfortably, comfortably! I’ll handle telling your sisters, so don’t worry!”

…She expected what I was going to say?

Hmm. No matter how I thought about it, it seemed unlikely Han Min-ah knew about the ‘Chuncheon City Hunter Guild Plan’ that first popped into my head just this afternoon.

The moment I had an intuitive sense that she might be misunderstanding what I was going to say, but it was something I couldn’t know for sure until I heard her out.

To Han Min-ah, who was watching me with a tense expression, I quietly voiced the shameless request hidden in my heart.

“I won’t beat around the bush, just in case any weird misunderstandings arise later.”

“…Yeah.”

“The amount that’s going to come to you as compensation for slaying the Three-headed Basilisk this time, after all deductions, is about 5.8 billion won.”

“Th-that story… W-wait? 5, 5.8 billion?! 5.8 billion?!”

“Hey, hey, Han Min-ah! Lower your voice!”

“…Ah, ah, right!”

It was information that wouldn’t be strange if Jin-ah or Seon-ah fainted upon hearing it, so I quickly covered Han Min-ah’s mouth as she flustered.

But what’s with this reaction? This feeling of complete surprise?

According to the boss, Han Min-ah was supposed to know about this beforehand, wasn’t she?

Her reaction clearly showed confusion, so the first step was to clarify what we both knew.

“H-how did it come out to 5.8 billion? I only thought it was around 2 billion…?”

“What are you talking about? 47 billion divided by 8 is just over 5.8 billion. After taxes and other things, it’s about right.”

“4, 47 billion? Not 40 billion?”

“Exactly, it’s a little over 47 billion. I don’t remember the exact figures from the ten-million won mark onwards.”

“……”

“How on earth did you calculate it to get 2 billion? Even dividing 40 billion by 8 should give you 5 billion.”

“W-well, since you were the party leader, you take half of the total, and the rest should be divided by seven, but I had the least role, so I lowered the amount a bit…”

…This girl, who recently hunted an A+ rank monster, why is her self-assessment so low?

It was a self-assessment pitiful enough to evoke sympathy in many ways. Even naturally placing her contribution at the very bottom among the entire party.

Not just me, but everyone who participated in that operation certainly didn’t think that way.

“I don’t know how you view your contribution, but at least I, who was the leader back then, don’t think that way.”

“……”

“It was a victory we could achieve because everyone, including you, was there. If even one of us had been missing, it definitely would have been tough.”

“W-was that so…”

“Yeah, it was.”

“Since the leader back then says so, I’ll just accept that it’s correct then…”

Han Min-ah’s expression, where her lips quirked up strangely, perhaps because she was happy that I acknowledged her skills despite feeling embarrassed about her own contribution.

For a moment, the urge to hug her tightly welled up inside me, but the atmosphere was serious, so…

I decided to satisfy the rising desire some other day and focus on continuing the interrupted conversation.

“Anyway, I was going to continue what I was saying earlier.”

“Ah, uh, yeah!”

“About the 5.8 billion won reward money that should be coming your way.”

“……Yeah.”

“…Would you perhaps consider ‘investing’ that reward money in me?”

“……Huh?”

Han Min-ah, who had been waiting with a tense expression for my words, gave a dazed response upon hearing the word ‘invest’.

As expected, it must have been quite a sudden proposition for her.

This situation, where the leader of the hunt was asking for money as an ‘investment’ from a windfall she’d likely never touched in her life.

Especially since I knew her financial situation intimately, having seen it up close.

Furthermore, I had essentially forced her, with nowhere else to go, to live with me, so in a way, I was speaking from a position of leverage.

At this shameless attitude, I wouldn’t have had any grounds to complain even if Han Min-ah cursed me out right then and there.

Still, I couldn’t just skip asking her, as this was a proposal I intended to make to everyone, not just her. And I knew Han Min-ah, as she knew her, wouldn’t immediately criticize without asking why.

After saying what I needed to say, I was expecting an inevitable refusal, but Han Min-ah showed a surprisingly different reaction than I anticipated.

“W-well, of course, I don’t mind… Ah, no, that’s not it…!”

“Huh?”

“W-what exactly does this ‘investment’ entail…? Ah, I’m not saying I’ll agree yet, but, b-but I should at least check the details…?”

…What is this unexpectedly favorable reaction?

Han Min-ah, whom I expected to naturally demand her share of the reward money due to her family situation, moving expenses, and various other reasons…

…was surprisingly reacting seriously, seemingly quite interested in my investment proposal.

‘She doesn’t seem like the type to enjoy investing large sums of money somewhere….’

For Han Min-ah, whose parents left her with nothing but debt from guarantees, risky ventures must be a kind of trauma.

Yet, for Han Min-ah to show interest, even actively, felt like…

‘It’s like… she was waiting for me to bring this up?’

The moment that thought crossed my mind, I cautiously began to speculate why Han Min-ah was willing to invest.

Reaching the hypothesis that, contrary to her past behavior, perhaps she didn’t want a situation where money didn’t come into her hands.

At that moment, a cautious conclusion about the woman before me formed in my mind.

Perhaps, deep down, Han Min-ah harbored the same thought as me.

The thought that maybe she, too, wanted to continue living together with me in this two-story house for longer.