The Hunter of the Other World Who Is Being Misunderstood – Chapter 145

Ch 145: Kim Giryeo （1）

“Mom?”

Wait, hold on. Mom? Kim Giryeo has a mom?

Well, of course, he’d have biological parents. But that’s not what I meant.

I don’t know the details, but wasn’t it said that Giryeo didn’t have any family, because of the facility system or whatever?

I was momentarily taken aback by the other person’s words.

Family. It was the most troublesome existence for a magician who had taken over another’s body.

“Um, could you perhaps provide some proof that you’re my family…?”

I cautiously asked to at least verify the truth, and the woman on the other end of the line laughed awkwardly.

She said she was Lee Hwayoung, 49 years old this year, and that I’d recognize her face immediately when we met in person anyway.

‘Lee Hwayoung?’

I flinched.

Hearing that name, a sudden jolt went through my brain.

It was a feeling of certainty. My body was signaling that the name and age matched the information of Kim Giryeo’s mother.

‘Looks like it’s real.’

I felt my memories resurfacing and readjusted the phone, when Lee Hwayoung proposed something.

She asked if we could meet briefly sometime tomorrow if I was available.

Of course, I readily agreed.

Meeting family might be dangerous in a way, but honestly, my curiosity about the body’s owner was much greater.

“Yes. Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

—Our son, he’s all grown up now, so polite to his mom, huh?

“Th, that’s! Be… because we’re outside.”

There will be many crises, but if things get bad, let’s just pretend I have amnesia.

Having finished my thoughts, I hung up the phone and looked up. And at that moment, a strange sensation suddenly occurred in the lacrimal gland of my right eye.

“Huh.”

…An Yunseung was looking back at me, shocked.

“H, hyung-nim?”

Drip.

Suddenly, clear water began pouring from one of my eyes.

The water flowing from the lacrimal gland instantly soaked my dry face.

I belatedly realized the abnormality and tried to stop it.

But I failed to control it. The tears wouldn’t stop.

Like a wound deeply pierced by a kitchen knife, body fluid gushed out uncontrollably.

The sight of me silently shedding tears with a blank expression was quite bizarre on the surface.

“Are you alright?!”

That’s strange.

I’m not sad right now. I was just on a normal call, and suddenly I’m bawling? Something’s wrong.

Then the cause of this abnormal reaction is definitely.

‘The body’s…?’

My thoughts didn’t fully form. Soon after, fragmented memories poured out like an avalanche through my half-opened eyes.

“……!”

To put it in a metaphor, it was like forcibly ripping off the doorknob of a room full of stuff.

◈◈◈

◈◈◈

◈◈◈

Memories are truly fascinating.

How do we store experiences and emotions with just a few chemical molecules?

Clear memories are like a complete painting.

Even with my eyes closed, they flicker under the dark skin.

As if a colored landscape is being projected.

◈◈◈

Kim Giryeo’s first memory is of a playground.

“Kyaaa!”

“Hahaha.”

“Ah, what the heck! Don’t be sneaky!”

A memory of watching other kids playing in groups on the colorful jungle gym from afar.

【White Light Orphanage】

Kim Giryeo was an orphan.

He was so young that he didn’t know how he got there, but at least he understood why he was there.

—Hey! Are you done talking now?

—Yeah, I’m done. You f*cker! Hit me, hit me!

His parents, who fought every single day, had divorced recently, and in the end, both of them gave up on raising him.

But life there was surprisingly satisfying.

He was lucky enough to get into a conscientious and decent orphanage.

They fed him well, and he slept well.

And sometimes, they even had cultural activity programs like movies and camps.

At this point, it felt more abundant than when he was with his parents.

They would often say they were out of money and share a 1,000 won bread from a nearby mart with their son.

Anyway.

He was able to safely enter high school with the support of the state and the shelter.

It would be a lie to say that there were no hardships in this growth process, but if he made it this far healthy, wouldn’t that be considered a success?

Kim Giryeo stood in the high school auditorium, neatly dressed in his uniform.

—Ahem, can everyone hear me? We will now begin the 20XX school year entrance ceremony.

Soon after, a broadcast announcing the national anthem began to play.

The old wood smell of the auditorium at that time was something he still couldn’t forget.

But it’s a bit painful that the events that followed are also vividly remembered. When he became a first-year high school student, an unprecedented incident occurred in the world he lived in.

◈◈◈

The Dungeon Shock.

Yes. Everyone living in today’s era would remember it.

Monsters roamed, and the infernos seen only in movies unfolded before our eyes.

Who would have imagined that Seoul would become like this for reasons other than war?

『Breaking News. Thanks to the efforts of the new awakened one, Choi Jin（22）, the recapture operation of the northern border of Seoul on the 7th was a success…….』

But thankfully, the earth recovered its social system faster than expected due to the emergence of awakened ones.

In the early days of the Dungeon Shock, the number of gates could be counted on one’s fingers.

Around the following year.

South Korea’s educational institutions gradually returned to function, and eventually, normal school attendance was implemented.

From Giryeo’s perspective, he was only able to properly attend high school when he became a second-year student.

“Everyone, this is the first time we’re having in-person classes, right? Now, let’s slowly start the lesson.”

Eating school lunch, playing soccer with friends, and going to the orphanage to do homework after school.

If you only look at this, it’s just a normal school life.

Why does the scenery look so faded from this period of my memories?

『From: Gu Seohyeong』

『Subject: How are you?』

One day.

Giryeo, a high school student, checked his email and saw that Gu Seohyeong had sent him a message.

But Giryeo never replied to that email. No, he didn’t even open it.

‘Seohyeong…’

I’m sorry, but Gu Seohyeong wasn’t exactly a welcome person to him.

‘So Seohyeong is alive and well.’

Giryeo had always kept a subtle distance from others.

He was also introverted, and perhaps because he was teased throughout elementary school for not having parents, he always harbored a pointless inferiority complex.

Gu Seohyeong’s family seems very stable on the surface. And Seohyeong herself is quite successful as a child actor.

So how would someone like himself appear in Seohyeong’s eyes?

Wouldn’t he look pathetic, even laughable?

“…….”

Giryeo suddenly felt ashamed. Logically, he knew that Seohyeong wouldn’t be like that, but he was afraid and embarrassed, so he avoided her.

It was similar with the friends he made in high school.

After feeling his family environment was a weakness, he was always afraid of being looked down upon by others, so he didn’t easily open up.

“Kim Giryeo! PC cafe after school?”

“Can’t~ My parents told me to come home early today.”

He couldn’t relieve this difficult feeling at the orphanage either.

Those with the same wounds would only make them worse by licking each other.

Perhaps because it was a place where a lot of young kids gathered, violence between peers often occurred at the orphanage.

Giryeo, a pacifist, couldn’t help but feel out of place in a space where the powerful held the reins.

‘It’s frustrating.’

It was truly a dilemma.

Kim Giryeo felt an unknown discomfort throughout his school days.

And it was only later that he realized this was loneliness.

He thought he was fine with not having a family, but it was just self-hypnosis. His heart wasn’t growing stronger, but gradually becoming more ill.

“Ah, this is crazy.”

“Why?”

“I fought with my mom this morning. I mean, is it normal that she won’t give me allowance because I’m not going to school during the break?”

“Wow, not even a single won?”

“Ah~ I really want to leave home. Seriously.”

One cloudy day.

Kim Giryeo was listening to his classmates’ conversation next to him and suddenly became curious about his biological parents.

But he quickly dismissed the thought, thinking that it wouldn’t mean anything to find them now.

◈◈◈

And so, graduation day arrived.

“It’s been three years since we entered with the excitement of a new beginning. We are now going out into society…….”

The student body president was giving his graduation speech on the stage, when one student suddenly had a thought that something big had happened.

‘Society.’

The truth was, his grades were… not very good.

Perhaps because there was no one to guide him, or maybe he was just not smart.

Despite his exemplary behavior, Kim Giryeo’s academic achievement was somewhat low. So he gave up on going to college.

Because of that, he had to leave the shelter right away, which was a headache in many ways.

‘How am I going to live alone from now on?’

He had saved up a deposit through part-time jobs, so should he first find a place near the factory and then think about it?

Kim Giryeo, having finished the graduation ceremony, walked out of the auditorium with a nonchalant gait.

The schoolyard was full of students taking pictures with their families while holding bouquets, but at this point, he had exhausted all his jealousy and really didn’t feel anything.

“Huuu…”

But who would have thought that his graduation ceremony would end like this.

“Gi, Giryeo-ya!”

Rustle.

Kim Giryeo, who had come out of the school gate, stopped in his tracks when he saw a soap flower bouquet suddenly thrust in front of him.

“D, did you do well at the graduation ceremony? Congratulations.”

“Who are you?”

“Well… who else would I be?”

And the middle-aged woman who handed him the bouquet said this.

“I’m your mom. Do you remember me?”

Wait, what?

◈◈◈

She introduced herself as Lee Hwayoung.

She also showed Kim Giryeo, who was sitting across the table, some old photos, saying that they were from when he was little.

A picture of a baby being held by a woman, looking blankly.

No matter how he looked at it, the woman in the photo looked exactly like the person in front of him.

“I’m sorry I came late, Mom.”

The woman with burgundy rouge on her lips then said.

It wasn’t her will that she had left him at the orphanage, and that she couldn’t come to see him because her circumstances were too bad.

“The world has been such a mess these days. So many people have died. And I was worried that you might have been hurt…”

And it seemed that the Dungeon Shock played a big role in Lee Hwayoung’s decision to find her son.

She explained that after experiencing a global disaster, she barely mustered the courage, thinking that if she delayed their reunion any longer, she might never meet her son for the rest of her life.

“My situation isn’t completely resolved yet, but still, Mom really wanted to see you, Giryeo.”

Lee Hwayoung, who appeared at the end of his school days.

The fellow orphans who heard this news all said the same thing.

“Isn’t she here for the settlement money?”

The 10 million won settlement money that children leaving the orphanage receive.

Sadly, there were cases where parents who had abandoned their children would come looking for them late to steal that money.

“She didn’t show her face until now, and she comes back right when it’s time for him to leave the shelter. Even if the Dungeon Shock was chaotic, this is a bit…”

“I know, right.”

“The older sister who left two years ago also experienced something similar.”

They said that he shouldn’t trust the biological mother who came looking for him.

And the person involved also agreed with this opinion.

His mother, who hadn’t visited him even once until her son became an adult, and who suddenly showed up when the support money was released, was naturally suspicious to him as well.

—Giryeo-ya, do you want to live with your mom?

But why?

Even amidst this suspicion, Kim Giryeo couldn’t bring himself to reject his family.

—Huh?

—If you don’t have anywhere to go… come to Mom. I actually found a place to live so I could live with you.

On the day of the graduation ceremony. The sentences that the other person cautiously brought up at the galbi-tang restaurant where they went together.

After explaining her circumstances, Lee Hwayoung asked if he would live with her after leaving the facility.

Kim Giryeo had decided to accept it.

Despite the numerous warnings from those around him, the loneliness that had built up in his heart made him make that choice.

Kim Giryeo decided to follow his mom because he was so desperate for affection.

‘It’ll be okay.’

If his biological mother was really after the support money as his peers said, then he just wouldn’t give her the money when the time came, right?

Besides, living with his mother would save him a lot on living expenses.

So, even for the sake of money, this was a very rational choice…

After leaving the shelter.

Kim Giryeo moved into the rented room where his mother lived.

The reunited mother and son seemed a bit awkward with each other at first. But after about a month, that gradually disappeared.

In the meantime, Lee Hwayoung hadn’t said a single word about money.

“Son, wake up and eat!”

Seaweed soup in a white household bowl, not a stainless steel tray.

How happy he was with this simple meal.

“Eat a lot~”

Kim Giryeo smiled awkwardly and picked up the metal spoon.

For a while, there was a time when he thought his dream had come true. A family living together in a small room. That was all he needed in life.