My Assigned Hunters Climb the Tower - Chapter 06

========== CHAPTER 6 ==========

“A skill only I can use? Is that… like, super strong?”

Once Go Gyeol finished his explanation, Kang Hoon’s eyes, still puffy from crying, sparkled with curiosity. The defensive attitude he’d held just moments ago was nowhere to be found.

He was finally acting his age.

“What is it exactly? The skill I currently have is…….”

Just as Kang Hoon was about to rattle off his list of skills, Go Gyeol stopped him with a wave of his hand.

“That skill, it wouldn’t be unlocked at your current level.”

“What?”

Kang Hoon tilted his head.

He knew that new skills could appear when leveling up, but no one ever knew what those skills would be beforehand. Yet, this man spoke as if he already knew everything.

“Ahjussi… do you know about my skill?”

“To some extent.”

Go Gyeol admitted it calmly. That answer brought a new wave of confusion to Kang Hoon, along with an irresistible, intense interest.

“Are you a Hunter too, Ahjussi?”

At Kang Hoon’s question, Go Gyeol shook his head.

“No. I’m a civilian.”

Instead, he gestured with his chin toward the water purifier. Lee Seong-ha was there, humming a bizarre song as he mixed coffee: “If you mix hot cocoa and coffee mix~ it becomes mocha coffee~”

“He’s a Hunter.”

“No way! Wasn’t that person a priest?”

“He quit.”

“Hey! Get your facts straight! Did I quit because I wanted to?! Didn’t I quit because of you?!”

Lee Seong-ha shouted while holding his cup. But Go Gyeol just shrugged.

“Same difference.”

“You crazy bastard… I shouldn’t have gone to XX Kindergarten…….”

Ignoring Lee Seong-ha, who was muttering as if in despair, Go Gyeol turned his gaze back to Kang Hoon.

“Your ability depends on how you use it. Just because it’s a curse doesn’t mean it’s inherently bad.”

“But every time I use it, I turn into a kid. Do you know why that happens too?”

Hope colored Kang Hoon’s voice. It was the greatest fear that had been crushing him.

“That’s called a rebound. Before that, do you know why rebounds happen?”

Kang Hoon shook his head. His face flushed slightly with shame.

“I don’t know.”

Go Gyeol let out a deep sigh. This kid, he really just awakened and learned absolutely nothing.

“What about the Hunter Bureau basic training?”

“That… it was available online, so….”

“So?”

“…I paid a friend 10,000 won to do it for me, so I’ve never actually taken it.”

Fatigue hit Go Gyeol like a wave, and he couldn’t help but rub his temples.

Lee Seong-ha, who had been listening to the whole conversation, approached while sipping his mysterious beverage that he claimed was ‘mocha coffee.’

“Go Gyeol. Can you handle this kid?”

His tone was light, but his eyes were serious. Go Gyeol replied while still rubbing his temples.

“I don’t have to handle him.”

“Hm?”

“What? You said you’d make me a Hunter, right? Were you lying?”

Suddenly sensing a nuance that suggested he was being abandoned, Kang Hoon couldn’t help but feel hurt as he asked. Didn’t he just say he’d make him a Hunter because he had a strong skill only he could use?

“No. The one who’s going to make you a Hunter isn’t me,”

Go Gyeol grinned and grabbed Lee Seong-ha’s shoulder.

“It’s you, so it doesn’t matter.”

Lee Seong-ha frowned slightly and poked his own chest with his finger.

“Me?”

“Yeah. You.”

Lee Seong-ha tilted his head slowly to the side. Then, suddenly, like a broken machine, he burst into exaggerated laughter: “Hahahaha!”

For some reason, both Go Gyeol and Kang Hoon laughed along with that bizarre sound.

For a moment, awkward yet pleasant laughter filled the living room.

But that was it.

Lee Seong-ha’s laughter cut off as if sliced by a knife. All emotion vanished from his face, leaving only a cold, straight face.

“Not doing it.”

Go Gyeol crossed his arms leisurely. What hung on his lips wasn’t a sneer, but the cold mockery of someone who had seen through everything. It was the smile of a winner.

A sharp question pierced Lee Seong-ha’s composure.

“Do you have a house?”

In an instant, Lee Seong-ha’s mind went blank. The past flashed before his eyes—the day he left home, determined to become a priest, severing ties with his family on his own.

He didn’t know then. He had believed without a doubt that if he became a servant of the Lord, a place to stay and food to eat would naturally be provided.

But now, having thrown away his priest’s robes, he was nothing more than a penniless man with nothing.

Only a wheezing sound escaped his stiffened lips.

“Ah.”

Cornered, Lee Seong-ha tried to counter. His voice was trembling pitifully.

“What, what about your house?”

As if waiting for that exact line, Go Gyeol’s eyes curved.

“You want to sleep in the same bed as me?”

At those words, Lee Seong-ha’s brow furrowed hideously.

An overt sense of disgust, as if he’d seen something rotten, spread across his face. Go Gyeol enjoyed the reaction and continued. His voice was soft, but every word was a chain binding Lee Seong-ha.

“You can’t sleep on the floor. I don’t have extra bedding for you. Besides, you’re going to just leave a runaway high schooler alone? A kid who doesn’t even know his own strength? You, a former priest?”

Go Gyeol paused for a moment, then delivered the finishing blow.

“Didn’t you sing about wanting to help youth welfare until a few years ago?”

“……!”

Lee Seong-ha finally grabbed his head with both hands. He had no choice but to swallow the retort rising in his throat. Everything was true. The fact that he had nowhere to go, the fact that he used to preach those ideals, and above all… the fact that he realized the danger of this boy, Kang Hoon.

A Curse Hunter.

Who knew what he might do if he wielded that power recklessly? Plus, he already had a record.

Ignoring this situation would be an act of denying his entire life as a man of the cloth.

“Haa…….”

With a long sigh, Lee Seong-ha acknowledged his defeat and looked up. His gaze turned toward Kang Hoon, who had been standing there, having forgotten how to breathe under the tense atmosphere between the two men.

He raised a hand cautiously.

“I… I live alone, but I do have a room.”

“It’s probably a studio apartment. I don’t share a bed with men.”

“No, it’s not small. It’s a 42-pyeong apartment. There are… four rooms.”

Kang Hoon added, reading the room.

“If you help me become a Hunter, you don’t have to pay rent.”

“Fine.”

Lee Seong-ha’s low answer dropped heavily to the floor. It was the moment a strange cohabitation was decided.

Go Gyeol clapped his hands briskly, clearly satisfied that everything was going according to his plan.

“See, I told you? Former priests are soft-hearted; they can’t ignore a lost lamb.”

“Shut up.”

Lee Seong-ha growled, but the feather-light threat didn’t land a single blow on Go Gyeol. He just shrugged. It was the composure of someone who had set the board, moved the pieces, and completed the picture he wanted. Only Kang Hoon, who had suddenly lost his biggest bargaining chip—his ‘house’—could only roll his eyes at the cold air flowing between the two men.

“Well, shall we get going? I’ll drive you two.”

Go Gyeol’s car glided silently over the road. Aside from the comfortable ride, the air inside the car was as tense as a blade.

Lee Seong-ha, sitting in the passenger seat, rested his chin on his hand and stared fixedly out the window, his mouth shut tight. His profile was like a solid stone statue.

Kang Hoon, sitting in the back, pressed his body against the seatback, not moving an inch, as if he’d forgotten how to breathe.

It was Go Gyeol who broke the suffocating silence, as always.

“Since you’ve stepped back into this world, why not contact your family?”

“…Mind your own business.”

“I heard your grandfather isn’t doing so well.”

At the casually tossed words, Lee Seong-ha’s shoulders stiffened like stone. A minute crack appeared in the expression reflected in the window. But in the end, there was no answer.

Soon, the car entered the underground parking lot of a flashy, brand-new apartment complex.

Throughout the elevator ride to the high floor, Lee Seong-ha looked miserable.

Even though he was heading to his own home, Kang Hoon was fidgeting and watching Lee Seong-ha’s reaction, like a man being dragged to the gallows.

“We’ve arrived.”

As Kang Hoon carefully entered the code into the digital door lock, the heavy front door opened with a cheerful melody.

The scene that unfolded inside was like a page from a magazine. Past the spacious entryway, a living room decorated with luxurious materials came into view.

A minimalist interior without a single flaw, and a distant night view of the city through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Everything was perfect, but there wasn’t a shred of warmth to suggest people lived there.

Lee Seong-ha’s first question wasn’t about the house, but about its owner.

“How long has it been since you were home?”

Kang Hoon flinched at the sharp question.

“Four months.”

Lee Seong-ha didn’t ask further and crossed the living room toward the hallway.

Kang Hoon hurriedly followed behind him. In the hallway, there were three identical doors lined up. Lee Seong-ha grabbed the doorknob of the last room without hesitation and turned it.

Inside, there was only a bed frame that looked like it had just been assembled and a desk. It was a guest room that had never held any warmth.

“I’m taking this room.”

It was a unilateral notification.

“Well, mission accomplished!”

Go Gyeol, who had been watching the situation, declared with satisfaction.

“I’ll be going now. Hoon-ah, that ahjussi is surprisingly nice, so butter him up. Lee Seong-ha, don’t starve the kid. You have to earn your keep.”

Go Gyeol disappeared out the front door with a mischievous smile.

Slam. The sound of the door closing echoed unusually loudly in the empty house.

An awkward and heavy silence descended upon the living room.

Now, they were truly left alone. A former priest who was a total stranger, and a current high school Curse Hunter. It was the beginning of a bizarre cohabitation.