Chapter 27
As Jehwi had said, the fan signing event was over in about an hour. While leaving the venue and moving to the waiting room on the seventh floor of the broadcasting station, Jehwi tapped the screen of his cellphone.
[You] [3:43 PM] President. After the fan signing session, we are moving to the waiting room.
[CEO Shin Siwoo] [3:43 PM] ok
Jehwi put his phone away and looked to his side.
"Those people from earlier, you must've known them."
"Kind of."
"You seemed very happy to see them?"
"Yes. I was surprised."
…No way, Ms. Hunter was? Jehwi looked at Eunha's face, then turned his head again.
The two stood in front of a door with the paper
When they opened the door and entered, they saw five hunters who had already arrived and were sitting on the sofa.
"Hello, this is the Princess of Dark Flare. We look forward to your cooperation!"
Jehwi, who greeted them on behalf of Eunha, began to unpack in the corner of the waiting room.
"The waiting room provided is definitely different since it's a broadcast planned as a special feature. I think it's five times the size of my room."
Jehwi whispered to Eunha, looking a little excited.
But then, a hunter who was sitting on the sofa while eating a catered lunch opened their mouth with a slightly blunt tone.
"This is the hunter waiting room."
There seemed to be thorns in their gaze.
"Ah, yes. I'm her manager, so I'm stopping by for a while. I'll just unpack and go to the staff waiting room…"
"No, her too."
They motioned, jutting their chin towards Eunha.
"…Yes?"
"Her, she's a concept hunter. This is the waiting room for regular hunters."
Huh? Jehwi blinked, bewildered.
"No, she's…"
"It's fine."
Eunha stopped Jehwi and left without saying a word.
'Really, who do they think they are!'
Even though she was an F-Class and wore a flashy dress, she was still a contracted hunter from Wolf! Jehwi wanted to say something to express his frustration, but he couldn't help but close his mouth when he saw Eunha's back.
'I don't know which guild they belong to, but I'll find out. I'll tell the president everything.'
In an attempt to get rid of the subdued atmosphere even a little, Jehwi smiled a little awkwardly. However, Eunha was still silent.
Jehwi gently knocked on the door and carefully turned the doorknob.
Click.
"Hello… Hm?"
The scene that appeared in front of them had a very different atmosphere from the waiting room they had just seen.
Four hunters were sitting side by side on the narrow sofa like a package of Vienna sausages, eating cup noodles.
"Ah, sit here."
A middle-aged man who noticed Eunha jumped up and gave up his seat. He was the middle-aged man who was dressed up as a clown at the fan signing event. He sat on the window sill and started to blow on his cup noodles .
"Ah, please excuse me."
Jehwi entered the waiting room and looked around for a place to unpack, but there was no free space left in the waiting room, which seemed to be less than 30 square metres.
"Ah, I… I'll be back in a moment."
In the end, Jehwi roughly piled up his luggage on a dressing table and left the waiting room with a puzzled face.
"Ah, eat this. The shoot might take a while, so it would be better to fill up your stomach in advance."
It was a small bowl of cup noodles. The food was quite different from the lunch boxes that the other hunters were eating just before.
"Here, some chopsticks."
"…Thanks."
Eunha took the cup noodles and wooden chopsticks and looked around as she held them.
Four very unique hunters sat huddled in a narrow waiting room, including a person with their mouth pierced wearing coffee-colored stockings, a Pierrot clown, and a person wearing a satgat in a cotton hanbok.*
Eunha, who was looking at them with slightly judgemental eyes, suddenly saw her reflection in a mirror.
"…"
She wasn't in a position to talk either.
The stark discrimination between 'general hunters' and 'concept hunters' didn't stop at just lunch boxes.
When she checked the scripts piled up on a desk, there were many parts that she didn't understand. She couldn't be sure since she hadn't checked all of them, but she thought it was like using concept hunters to glorify general hunters.
It wasn't just that.
Eunha put her script back in place and turned her head towards the door of the waiting room.
Some presumed stylists were busy going back and forth between the general hunters' waiting room. However, no stylist came into this cramped waiting room.
The hunter wearing stockings got up from their seat and looked out the door.
"Can… Can we get makeup too?"
A staff member who had been frantically walking down the hallway stopped in front of them.
"Ah… For the concept hunters?"
Eunha couldn't see her face, but she seemed to be smiling.
"My hands aren't free. I heard that concept hunters can do makeup for themselves, so do you need it?"
"Oh, no. Come to think of it, I don't think it's really necessary because I'm already wearing my stockings, haha."
The hunter who wore stockings scratched their head shyly and closed the door to the waiting room.
There was an awkward silence.
The person in the Pierrot costume who was sitting in the corner suddenly got up, trembling.
"Well, it's only for a day or two. Let's prepare soon so that we won't be late for the shoot."
It was as if they were accustomed to being treated like this. They moved in a hurry and started putting on their facial makeup.
Standing one step behind them, Eunha looked at their backs.
* * *
"Now then, the star-of-the-show rookie! Let's meet 'Windmaker'."
At the same time as the MC's introduction, a bright eye-numbing spotlight turned on.
Relative to the MC in the centre of the studio, general hunters sat on the left, and concept hunters were on the right.
The MC introduced the hunters in order from left to right.
"Where did the nickname Windmaker come from?"
A spotlight fell on Windmaker. It was the same hunter who boasted the longest line at the fan signing event.
Scattered screams erupted from the audience as their face was caught on camera.
Most of the people in the audience were seen holding fans with their face printed on them. It was a moment when Eunha felt once again that their popularity was considerable.
"It's a nickname given to me by my fans when they saw the wind coming out of the tip of my fan."
"I see. Could you show us a little bit?"
At the request of the MC, Windmaker took out a fan from their waistband. It was made of bird feathers. They gently swung it, making greenish wind draw its drafts into a vortex.
Thud, thud, thud.
A watermelon, which had been prepared several metres in front of them, was cut into bite-sized pieces.
Eunha sat in her designated seat and watched them closely.
Nature-based hunters who freely used water, fire, and wind belonged to a precious axis. In Eunha's judgement, Windmaker looked like a wind mage, but in actuality, it seemed that it was the fan that caused the wind.
"Wow, if you had swung it a little bit harder, the woman in the front of the audience would have gotten a new haircut."
Exaggerated laughter erupted from the audience at the MC's joke. There were also enthusiastic cheers mixed in.
The spotlight moved sideways. From now on, it was time to introduce the concept hunters. The first one in the order was the middle-aged hunter dressed as a dark clown. Eunha remembered that he had some fans at the fan signing event.
"The guest I would like to introduce to you this time is 'Mr. Clown'! Hello."
"Hello-pyu!"
Mr. Clown raised both hands, trembling, and uttered a strange greeting.
"Ah, yes, hello. Say, how old are you this year?"
"53-pyu*!"
He shook his head back and forth in a funny way. A sound that felt like an unconcealed puff of laughter came from the direction of the audience.
Under the ridicule that engulfed the studio, Eunha hardened her face.
'…You're the same age as me?'
It was truly unbelievable. And, he was a year younger than Yijun. The reality that she thought she had accepted a long time ago suddenly awakened in Eunha.
He was over fifty years old, but he was very skillful in using the 'pyu' talk, and surprisingly, he didn't feel even the slightest shame. She admired his professional spirit.
The MC introduced the guests in the order they were seated in. Starting with Mr. Clown, each person's turn passed one by one. The last in the order was the Princess of Dark Flare, Eunha.
"Next is the most talked-about rookie! This is the 'Princess of Dark Flare'. There's something I've always wanted to ask. Do you have a black flame dragon in your left hand*?"
The MC held the microphone in front of Eunha. Light pierced her eyes as she narrowed her brows.
Originally, she was supposed to recite the lines that fit her concept like the Pierrot clown. Eunha glanced at the script card on the desk.
"…"
Eunha, who had removed her gaze from the script card, raised her head again. The MC, guest hunters, and audience were all looking at her.
Eunha licked her lips slowly.
"…No."
Shaaa.
At Eunha's answer, the studio was engulfed in silence.
"U-um. Alright."
The MC, who was watching the PD, naturally changed the topic with their professional skills.
"Your dress is very fancy, reminiscent of the Rococo era. Where did you get it? I don't think it's from a department store… Was it from Rodeo Street? Oh, is it Dongdaemun*?"
Then, someone shouted from the direction of the audience.
"Jongmyo*!"
The hunter sitting next to her covered their mouth as their shoulders shook. With the sound of laughter swirling around her, Eunha slowly licked her lips with an indifferent expression on her face.
"…I just picked it up."
As if those words were the trigger, laughter erupted around her.
* * *
Afterwards, a break was given with the PD's permission. All of the cast members returned to their respective waiting rooms.
Of course, the concept hunters, including Eunha, were sent back to their cramped waiting room.
"Ha… This feels like hell."
The man in the hanbok threw their satgat to the floor.
"It's so hard to make ends meet. If I knew I'd be treated like this, I wouldn't have accepted the offer in the first place."
"Be patient, be patient. You're still getting paid a lot for appearing."
The hunter wearing stockings comforted him. They were thrown into the waiting room like it was a chicken coop and were all in the same situation.
"No, the normal hunters are getting normal questions. Why not us!"
The man huffed and trampled on his hat. The MC's question of 'How many dried persimmons can you eat?' seemed to be quite unpleasant*.
Although they were working as concept hunters, they were still fully awakened and licensed hunters.
To be treated like a toy just for the fun of the show and for the ratings was hurting their pride.
"I'm leaving."
The satgat hunter finally started to pack his belongings. The rest of the hunters only looked at him, and no one stopped him from being caught in his own anger.
"It's difficult."
The person dressed as a Pierrot clown, who had been silent all along, grabbed the satgat hunter's shoulder.
"But if you're out, the shoot might end."
Unlike when he was in front of the camera, he spoke in a normal voice. During the break, he had taken off his makeup and seemed like an ordinary middle-aged man. Except for his red striped Pierrot outfit.
"Aren't you mad? I'm sure that the second part of the shoot will be like this too."
"Who cares? If I get paid and get recognition, it'll be like killing two birds with one stone. I need to buy a padded jacket for my daughter."
"Money can be earned elsewhere. I've been to six gates this year. I'd rather risk my life in a gate compared to getting ridiculed here."
The satgat hunter trembled in anger.
"I know that well. I've been to gates too. But I can get the same amount of money from clearing 10 gates by just appearing once today."
Mr. Clown sat in front of the dressing table and smeared thick paint onto his face. His wrinkled hands drew straight lines more skillfully than anyone else.
What Mr. Clown said wasn't wrong.
Although it wasn't the same for everyone, most concept hunters weren't strong in combat.
Even if they entered the same gate, their salaries would differ depending on their rank, guild, and achievements.
In the case of a famous hunter like Windmaker, they would receive a thousand units for clearing a gate. It was an amount that would take the concept hunters gathered here five to six gates to obtain.
"So sit down. Now that you've already finished the first part of the shoot, you should stay and get the money."
"…"
The satgat hunter clenched their fist.
"Yeah. Let us be patient."
"If it really bothers you, you can ask the director to edit it."
"Ha… Shit."
In the end, the satgat hunter slumped nervously on the sofa. He knew very well that what they were saying wasn't wrong.
Meanwhile, Eunha watched them from a corner.
Tap tap.
Someone tapped her on the shoulder.
"Look. It's my daughter."
Mr. Clown smiled warmly and held out his cellphone. Eunha's eyes turned to look at the screen. On it, a girl in a navy blue uniform was smiling like the spring sun.
"Isn't she pretty? My daughter, Minji."
He blew a breath on the screen and wiped it with his sleeve.
"Since she has SATs this year, she doesn't come home until it's late at night to study at cram school. She isn't like me, so she studies really well."
Eunha stared at Mr. Clown's face as he excitedly told stories about his daughter.
"I'm going to buy her a new padded jacket before winter comes. My heart breaks when I see her shivering when she comes back from cram school every day. Which colour do you think would look good on her?"
His smile wasn't a concept.
It was the smile of a father smiling like the spring sun, just like his daughter.
NOTES:
for the concept hunter descriptions: pierrot is a character from pantomime and commedia dell'arte. satgat is the korean term for those slightly conical bamboo hats often seen in asia, and hanboks are traditional korean clothing.
for mr. clown's lines: the raw texts were 안녕하세쀼 and 쉰셋쀼. as you can see, there's a 쀼 at the end of both of them, which is pyu. it's similar to people saying hello-nya
for the role abbreviations: MC stands for master of ceremonies (basically a host) and PD stands for production director.
about the black dragon in her hand: a reference to chuunibyous/people with 8th grader syndrome
for the places the MC mentions: rodeo street is a major outlet shopping centre, dongdaemun [market] is a large commercial district
for jongmyo: a reference to jongmyo shrine, was likely used to call eunha's outfit old-fashioned
for the persimmon question: similar to "how many burgers can you eat?" which in korea is a rude way of telling someone they're a big eater.