The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 527: Nap

Han Yuhyun’s hand carefully stroked the forehead of Han Yujin, who was using his knee as a pillow. It was the same movement as when his older brother had cared for him when he’d been sick with a cold as a child. The sofa was much larger than back then, but to the two of them it felt more cramped than it had been. As if he’d completely forgotten the presence of others, Han Yuhyun’s gaze was fixed only on his brother.

“Yes, so the Guild Leader can’t answer the phone right now.”

Yerim said in a lowered voice with Chirp perched on her head.

“I don’t want to wake Mister either.”

[Understood. It seems it will be fine for a while. The response isn’t bad either. If Director Han Yujin does well, it could actually be beneficial, but…]

Seok Gimyeong on the other end of the phone trailed off. For him, it was difficult to trust Han Yujin’s abilities. The same went for countless people who had watched the broadcast. Most had at least accepted that he was qualified to participate in the party. Though there were people who insisted the claims about obtaining or stealing invitations separately were lies, they were a relative minority.

However, there was almost no one expecting Han Yujin to shine. Even people favorably disposed toward Han Yujin mostly thought this was reckless. There were voices saying they should prevent his participation out of concern for Han Yujin. That no matter how much safety was guaranteed, competing among S-ranks was too dangerous.

[Then I’ll contact Hunter Park Yerim if there are any issues.]

“Yes. I’ll text you when Mister wakes up.”

As Park Yerim hung up the phone, she looked at Han Yujin, at Han Yuhyun.

“I’m going easy on him because of Mister.”

“Our Yerim’s all grown up.”

“I’m telling you, you really can’t do without me, unnie. When it comes to Mister, he’ll throw away Haeyeon and everything.”

Since Haeyeon had been created in the first place to protect Han Yujin, it wouldn’t be strange even if he suddenly abandoned it all and disappeared. Someone might ask what about the people left behind, but Han Yuhyun wasn’t the type to care about such things.

Moon Hyunah looked down at Park Yerim affectionately.

“When I first saw Han Yuhyun, I thought he was a bit unusual, but still, for a high school boy he was quite neat so his image was fine. But after hyung-nim accepted him, it’s gotten increasingly strange.”

Before, even if he lacked social skills and was blunt, she hadn’t thought him odd. Even when he showed awkwardness with human relationships, she’d thought it was natural since he was young. But now—more precisely, Han Yuhyun beside Han Yujin didn’t really try to hide his abnormal aspects. To Han Yuhyun, that was normal behavior though.

“I didn’t really understand the young master either.”

Seong Hyunjae agreed with Moon Hyunah’s words. He too had only confirmed the surface.

“The one who created the human Han Yuhyun and fully accepted the non-human Han Yuhyun is only Han Yujin.”

“When you put it that way, hyung-nim seems strange too.”

“Hoooonestly, Mister is a liiittle strange too. That’s why Han Yuhyun is even more like that. Looking at that sight makes me lose it at least ten times a day.”

“You’ve got it rough, Yerim.”

“I thought I could end up with a foreigner, but I never dreamed I’d be living with another species.”

Just think of them as a completely different species and it’s fine, Park Yerim said.

“Multi-species could come after multiculturalism. When my elemental is born, thanks to dealing with Han Yuhyun, I think I’ll be able to treat them even better.”

“Iryn is pretty unique too.”

“Right. The way he thinks is so different from us.”

“When will the elemental be born?”

“The egg has become almost transparent. I think it’ll be born when it completely changes to look like a water droplet.”

Park Yerim smiled, saying she hoped it would be born soon. Then she turned to look at Noah.

“Noah oppa, about Liette unnie… is it okay to talk about?”

“Yes. My sister and I are also very different. I didn’t understand her well even as a child. It felt like living with a lion or tiger.”

“Right, Liette is kind of like a wild beast. And Sesung’s Guild Leader.”

Moon Hyunah spun half a turn in place and looked at Seong Hyunjae. Seong Hyunjae wore an elegant smile like a model in a photo.

“He’s like that because he’s old.”

“How harsh.”

“Getting old enough has let him perfectly pretend to be normal. When I saw Dal, the difference was stark. Ugh, creepy.”

“The face is the same though.”

“Dal is bouncier. Cuter. Have some conscience, you’re almost forty.”

“Right. Dal… oppa? felt younger.”

“I thought so too. He was more comfortable than Guild Leader Seong.”

“One of my allies is asleep…”

Seong Hyunjae looked toward Chief Song Taewon standing silently by the entrance. Song Taewon quietly averted his gaze. Moon Hyunah, who had been laughing softly at the sight, brushed back her hair.

“We can’t help hyung-nim.”

At her words, the light atmosphere suddenly grew heavy.

“We can only help with cleanup at best. Directly reaching out is impossible. That would make it all for nothing. It reminds me of when hyung-nim offered to help me before.”

The positions had reversed from back then. Moon Hyunah gave a bitter smile.

“In the end, right now hyung-nim has become something like an F-rank representative. Whether he wants to or not.”

If Han Yujin succeeded, it would become “F-ranks can do it too,” and if Han Yujin failed, it would become “F-ranks are F-ranks after all.”

“Rank discrimination is pretty severe. I still don’t know the details, but just looking at Mister, there were lots of people who looked down on him.”

“Yeah. But this gets complicated if you go deep. When Awakeners and ranks appeared, other forms of discrimination actually eased up.”

It had only been about four years since Awakeners appeared. But related research was active in various fields.

“There’s plenty of discrimination based on race, nationality, gender, class, and so on. And once something is fixed, it’s not easy to overturn. Once you belong to a lower group, you’re placed in a socially disadvantaged position. For those in lower groups to move up requires far more effort than those in upper groups.”

In developed countries, average levels of education and living sometimes belonged to the upper class in underdeveloped countries.

“But Awakening has no such discrimination. You can enter the world’s top 1 percent overnight. Though social conceptual discrimination still remains, the likelihood is high that in the future people will only look at pure rank.”

Moon Hyunah shrugged her shoulders slightly.

“So there are quite a few people interested in Awakeners and social equality, but…”

“It’s nearly impossible for discrimination itself to completely disappear.”

Seong Hyunjae said.

“Just as the class system disappeared and wealth became the new hereditary rank. Unless people’s abilities become equal and resource distribution becomes perfectly fair.”

“It’s a difficult problem. However, because Awakening rank isn’t fixed to specific groups or hereditary, many consider rank discrimination preferable.”

An S-rank could pop out from an F-rank household, or vice versa. Even now, there were quite a few cases of families with various ranks.

“…Anyway, all we can do is cheer Mister on.”

Park Yerim said glumly.

“Even if we could help, we’d have to be careful.”

“Right. As long as we’re S-rank.”

“We should just not care about all that! I still don’t really get it. I mean, I’m not completely clueless, but I don’t understand. We had bullying too, and compared whose house was where and what parents’ jobs were, and I got picked on for not having parents.”

“Which bastard was it?”

“I won the fight! Anyway, I don’t get why people do that. I’m S-rank now and living really well, but I have no intention of discriminating against people who aren’t.”

Moon Hyunah spread both arms wide and pulled Park Yerim into a hug. At the momentum, cheep, the baby bird floated up gently, and Moon Hyunah’s hand roughly ruffled Park Yerim’s hair.

“Our Yerim is completely right!”

“Unnie, it hurts!”

— Cheep.

Chirp, who had been floating around, landed on Seong Hyunjae’s head.

“It’s idealistic talk. But because all sorts of problems exist, change also occurs. A perfect world would only stop moving.”

“Look at that twisted guy. Isn’t it just because it’s boring?”

“It would be dull too.”

Seong Hyunjae turned his gaze to look at Han Yujin. It was quite an affectionate look.

“Being asleep isn’t bad either. But still, isn’t the moving figure most beautiful?”

“Someone sew up Seong Hyunjae’s mouth. You just like it when you’re having fun.”

“Not at all. Though of course Han Yujin does make me happy.”

Seong Hyunjae approached the sofa and reached toward Han Yujin. Han Yuhyun, his eyes still fixed on his brother, swatted Seong Hyunjae’s hand away. It was an attitude as if a mosquito had flown toward his brother. Seong Hyunjae reached out again, but it was the same.

“Hunter Seong Hyunjae, let him sleep.”

Song Taewon, unable to watch anymore, stopped him.

“I have no intention of waking him, of course, but I’m jealous of the young master.”

“Don’t even pretend to be jealous.”

Seong Hyunjae approached Song Taewon with a mischievous look. Song Taewon looked at Moon Hyunah, and Moon Hyunah reached out to grab the back of Seong Hyunjae’s neck.

After that, light conversation continued, occasionally heavy conversation. They were all S-rank Hunters whose every minute was worth its weight in gold. Yet they let time pass by as they waited. As if they could willingly give not just today but two days, three days, or even more.

“Yerim, you froze the gaps between the Jenga blocks.”

“No I didn’t. It’s the civil servant ahjussi’s turn.”

“…”

“As expected, even Chief Song Taewon found it too much.”

“Look, look, there’s a wet mark here.”

“Ah, I really didn’t. Right, Noah oppa?”

“From what I saw… it was a structure that shouldn’t have held.”

“The young lady’s control ability grows more dazzling by the day. It was very natural.”

“Sometimes even Han Yuhyun doesn’t notice— ah, it’s not me. This is unfair.”

Though Park Yerim grumbled, she straightened her shoulders. Freezing moisture in the air so slightly and delicately that even the most sensitive S-rank would have trouble noticing it. Accordingly, the power was only enough to briefly fix light wooden blocks.

“How’s Mister?”

At Park Yerim’s question, Han Yuhyun, who had been continuously looking at his brother without getting tired, answered quietly. His head was still not raised.

“He seems about to wake up. He moved a little.”

“When Mister wakes up, let’s eat lots of delicious things today. Ice cream, macarons, whatever.”

“Okay.”

A little more time passed, and Han Yujin opened his eyes. Seeing his softly smiling brother, he smiled along drowsily.

“Hyung, you’re awake?”

“…Yeah. Just now.”

Han Yujin’s expression froze for a moment, then he bolted upright. Flustered, he made eye contact with the people looking at him and flinched, stopping his movements.

“Um, before I fell asleep…”

“Mister, is there anything you want to eat?”

“…Huh?”

“Aren’t you hungry, hyung-nim? Let’s go to the villa and eat. Seong Hyunjae says he’ll cook.”

“Breaker’s Guild Leader says he will too.”

“I’ll help too. Should we call Myungwoo hyung? He’ll definitely come. He called earlier.”

Han Yujin blinked vacantly. Han Yuhyun reached out and put his arm around his shoulder.

“Did it go badly? Is that why…”

“No, not at all! Everyone accepted hyung-nim’s attendance.”

“Team Leader Seok says there’s nothing special. He said he’d contact us if there was, but it’s quiet.”

“There’s no problem with the Awakener Management Office or Hunter Association. The Association received it positively.”

Han Yujin’s head tilted. He couldn’t quite tell if it was real or if they were trying to comfort him. Still, seeing even Song Taewon say that, it seemed to be the former.

“Then, so…”

— Cheep!

“Right, Chirp. Noah, if it’s okay with you, while you’re bringing Myungwoo, could you bring our kids too?”

“Let’s go together, Noah oppa. I want to bring Mar too. Unnie, your villa has a pool, right?”

“Yeah. A big one.”

“Then I’ll be back.”

Park Yerim walked toward the door with Noah, then turned back again saying, “Oh right.”

“Mister, you were cool.”

“Huh? Uh, thanks.”

“Me too, Yujin. You were cool.”

“…Yes, thank you.”

After the two left, Han Yujin rolled his eyes thinking “but it wasn’t at all.” Han Yujin’s fist, which had been clenched tight without realizing it, loosened slightly. Moon Hyunah took out her phone saying she’d arrange food ingredients.

“I’ll make whatever hyung-nim wants to eat. Just say it.”

“Well, for me… Yerim likes meat.”

“Barbecue is a given! I mean you, hyung-nim. Not Yerim or the young master, but you.”

“I’m really fine with anything.”

“Hyung can’t eat fishy things well. He prefers Korean food to Western, but he likes bakery items.”

“No, I don’t really like bread… I just eat it because it’s there.”

“Good, non-fishy Korean food.”

“Ah, Chief Song likes sashimi and such! You’ll come too, right, Chief Song?”

“…Yes. I believe attending would put my mind at ease.”

“Aw, don’t be like that, just relax.”

“Are you not going to ask me?”

“You said you’d cook, Seong Hyunjae. Of course you have to come.”

With a much brighter face, Han Yujin got up. He reached to take out his phone, then put it back.

“Let’s turn off phones today.”

Seong Hyunjae opened the door, and Moon Hyunah stepped forward as if to guide them. Han Yuhyun followed behind Han Yujin as he walked out. Everyone left the room, and Song Taewon closed the door last.