The Hunter's Gonna Lay Low-Chapter 171

Fleeing the world. Betrayer.

The words puzzled Uijae as he stared at the red text. Betrayer. Running away. Running away, betrayer... Had he ever run away?

"I don't think I've ever run away..."

J doesn’t run. He had neither the intention nor the reason to do so. Running would only result in more people dying. As strange as it might sound, J had always been a shield—a wall standing against threats. Since awakening, Cha Uijae had never doubted his usefulness, not even for a second.

So why say he ‘ran away’? The pure curiosity began to gnaw at him. Scratching his head, Uijae reached out toward the tablet.

"J."

Just then, a black-gloved hand blocked his view. Sa-young covered Uijae’s mask, tugging his head back towards him. Uijae resisted at first, but eventually relented, letting his head tilt back. Sa-young's voice, as blunt as ever, followed.

"What are you doing?"

"Huh?"

"Why are you still looking at this nonsense?"

"What? Well, there must be a reason they’re saying this, right?"

"A reason?"

"Yeah, they wouldn't just make stuff up without a basis—"

Sa-young scoffed, his fingers tapping lightly against the mask covering Uijae’s eyes, making the mask tremble.

"Are you naive or just dumb...?"

"What did you say?"

"Do you think crazy people have a reason for what they do? Put the tablet away."

"Wait, I haven’t finished reading. Hey, don’t take it away."

"Put it away."

"If you take it, I'll kill you."

"Put it down."

"I'm higher ranked than you."

Sa-young gave a dry laugh. "I didn’t expect J to stoop to threatening people like a street thug Hunter, using rank of all things..."

"Ugh, we don’t even have popcorn to watch this conflict unfold... Oh, did you finish the popcorn I brought earlier?" chimed in the younger Mackerel.

Just as Uijae reached up to push Sa-young's hand away from the mask, Sa-young quickly slid his fingers into the gap of Uijae’s mask. The cold leather touched Uijae’s lashes, making him scowl.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"If I let go, your mask will fall off. Are you okay with that?"

"I’ll break your fingers."

"Go ahead, try."

"..."

Sa-young’s fingers gently wriggled against Uijae’s eyelashes, intentionally provoking him. Uijae grimaced. He knew Sa-young was teasing him because he wouldn’t actually break his fingers.

Would Uijae have done it if he didn’t know that Sa-young was that boy from his past?

‘...I probably wouldn’t have.’

It felt like he had just realized something he wasn’t supposed to.

A vein bulged on Uijae's forehead. This guy had an annoying talent for getting under his skin! He released his grip on Sa-young’s wrist, but to his surprise, Sa-young didn’t withdraw his fingers.

Preparing to grab Sa-young’s wrist again, Uijae asked, "Aren’t you going to take your hand out?"

"You’ll just yank my hand away the second I do."

Like I wouldn’t notice? Sa-young whispered smugly into Uijae’s ear. Damn it. Sa-young knew him too well. The younger Mackerel, not one to miss an opportunity, fanned the flames.

"It’s heartwarming to see our country’s top two Hunters getting along so well. Right, Hyung?"

"Y-yeah. Right."

No, it’s not!

Uijae’s mind raced. Should he drag Sa-young into the projection room, lock the door, and incapacitate him? He could do it. He was confident in hand-to-hand combat. It would be rough, but as long as he controlled his strength, an S-rank could handle it....

Thunk. Something hard tapped the top of Uijae’s head—probably the bottom of Sa-young’s mask.

"I can hear you thinking. You were just imagining hitting me, weren’t you?"

Uijae, who had been daydreaming about wrestling Sa-young into submission, responded absentmindedly.

"No, I wasn’t."

"Why are you even reading this trash? There’s no need."

"All the information is on that site, isn’t it?"

"Ugh, seriously...."

Sa-young sighed deeply. His fingers finally withdrew from the mask, and his hand, which had been pressing the mask down, fell away. Uijae blinked as the room brightened.

The Mackerels stood in front of him, their faces clean of any mischief. They had apparently stowed away the tablet without being asked. Before Uijae could berate them, he felt hands rest on his shoulders. Sa-young gently turned Uijae around, steering him toward the projection room. With another sigh, Sa-young muttered,

"Go finish watching the interview."

"...What?"

Uijae blinked in confusion. Sa-young, looking like he was dying to say anything but this, spoke slowly.

"Go watch that cute little Lee Sa-young."

"Pfft!"

"I didn’t say anything about him being cute...."

"I’ll handle the site."

With that, Sa-young gave Uijae a gentle push into the projection room. Just before the door closed, their eyes met. Sa-young’s violet eyes were filled with irritation. The door clicked shut.

Standing alone in the dimly lit projection room, Uijae blinked and scratched his head. He picked up the remote and hit the play button. The image of the young Sa-young appeared on the screen once more, a boy standing at the boundary between adolescence and adulthood. Yet, for some reason, it didn’t captivate him as much as before.

‘Why is he trying to hide this?’

Is there something here I’m not supposed to know? Or is he worried I’ll get hurt?

"..."

Uijae sank into the soft beanbag, tilting his head as he watched the young boy’s indifferent expression on the screen. Did Sa-young really think Uijae would be hurt by this? As if anything could hurt Cha Uijae’s heart at this point. His heart was already...

Click, click. The flashes of cameras went off. Betrayer. Ran away. Abandoned everyone and fled. Betrayer.

You left your comrades behind and fled, you dirty betrayer. Everyone is waiting for the day you pay for your sins.

For a moment, the screen seemed to turn blood red, but then it quickly returned to normal.

Uijae rested his chin on his knees. The younger Sa-young yawned softly. The tension drained from Uijae’s shoulders. Whatever. If Sa-young wouldn’t tell him the full story now, Uijae would just dig it out later.

‘I’ll just go find him and force it out later.’

No one could keep secrets in the face of Uijae’s fists. His knuckles cracked as he clenched his hands.

The room was bathed in blue light from the many flickering screens that lined the walls.

Sa-young pulled his hands out of his pockets as he walked, his image reflected from multiple angles on the various screens. In the center of the large, dark room, the younger Mackerel sat on a desk, arms spread wide in greeting.

"It’s been a while since you’ve come here, hasn’t it? Man, it was so boring without any visitors in the innermost depths of the market."

His older brother, meanwhile, was busy scrutinizing each screen, his fingers tapping at the air as if typing on an invisible keyboard. The lenses of his glasses gleamed with a bright blue light.

This was the heart of the fish market—the Mackerels' office. A place that couldn’t be found without the owner’s guidance.

Sa-young gave a disinterested nod.

"Just get to the point. I don’t plan to stay long."

The younger Mackerel grinned.

"Since when did you get so close to J, huh? Close enough to slip your hand under his mask?"

"I said, get to the point."

"This *is* the point. I mean, what kind of courtesy is it to make a request and then disappear for three months? You could’ve given us a heads-up. Information needs to be fresh. Now it’s spoiled."

"Even if it’s spoiled, you should still hand it over. That’s your job as an information broker."

"Come on, you’ve made more than a few deals with us."

Shaking his head, the younger Mackerel swept his hair back. His navy-blue eyes glimmered as he made a circle with his thumb and forefinger.

"It means the price has gone up...."

"..."

Sa-young slowly tilted his head.

"What do you want?"

The younger Mackerel smirked. He rubbed his thumb and forefinger together as if counting money.

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"I won’t even ask about your relationship with J. But where were you for the last three months?"

"Ah...."

Sa-young scoffed. Predictable. No doubt plenty of people had paid for information about his absence. Where had he been? Was he up to something suspicious?

"Seems a lot of people were curious about my whereabouts."

"Of course, you’re a superstar."

"I was sleeping."

"...What?"

The younger Mackerel’s eyes widened in disbelief. His older brother, who had been focused on his own work, lifted his head. The younger Mackerel raised his hands, ready to cover his brother’s ears as he asked again.

"Sleeping

? With whom?"

"What kind of filthy thoughts are you having...? You should get your brain cleaned."

Sa-young spat out the words.

"I was asleep. For three months."

"Sleeping for three months straight? That doesn’t seem possible... though, I guess it’s not impossible. But why?"

"I don’t know. I collapsed on what you call the Day of Change, and slept until..."

He nodded toward the younger Mackerel.

"I woke up on the day that photo was taken. Satisfied?"

"No problems during that sleep, then...?"

"I said, I don’t know."

Sa-young’s reply was curt. There was no need to tell these information brokers everything. After all, they couldn’t give him the answers he needed. Only the unwelcome guest inside his body could do that.

The two Mackerels exchanged glances. The older brother gave a nod, and the younger one clapped his hands.

"Alright. The Day of Change—it brought mutated beings from all over, as you know. These mutated beings, as you probably figured, were the result of Prometheus’ experiments and drugs. But at some point, from the lowest of places... among civilians that Hunters don’t typically pay attention to, strange conspiracy theories started spreading."

The younger Mackerel gestured, and three images appeared in front of them. A black hole turned white as it collapsed in on itself, a shadowy figure pierced through a massive whale, and civilians whispering around a Hunter license tied to a restrained mutant.

"Since the Day of Change, there’s been a growing belief that Hunters are mutating into monsters themselves."