….
"Where on earth have you been?"
Yoo Jin-Hee's voice cut through the hallway the moment her brother opened the door.
"Your school called." She grabbed his sleeve and yanked him inside before he could respond. "You were marked absent for three periods, three, Jin-Ho! Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
Jin-Ho kicked off his shoes, moving deeper into the house.
"I wasn't feeling well." he said, keeping his voice even. "I went to rest at a friend's place. I should have told the school."
Jin-Hee followed him, her arms crossed. "A friend, huh? Does this friend have a name? Maybe we can call and confirm?"
"It was Tony from my chemistry class. You probably don't know him." He kept walking toward the stairs, heading for his room. "I am sorry for not telling you. I will do better about informing the school if I need to leave."
Her voice softened a little. "...I just thought you disappeared again. Sorry for overreacting when you just visited a friend."
That shift in tone hit harder than any scolding could. He stopped halfway up the stairs and turned to face her.
He nodded once. "No, I understand."
He said quietly. "I am sorry… Noona."
He hadn't called her that in a long time. The word felt awkward, almost fragile, yet he could see how it landed, the small flicker in her eyes, the tension easing from her shoulders.
"Alright!" she said after a pause, her voice gentler now. "Just… let me know next time before you disappear somewhere, okay?"
He gave a brief nod and continued up the stairs.
Inside his room, Jin-Ho shut the door and sat on the edge of his bed, the quiet settling around him like a weight.
In just a few hours, he would be standing before the portal again, ready to travel to another world.
And by morning, the Yoo family would wake to find him gone.
He lay back on his bed, staring at the ceiling of a room that didn't quite feel like his, in a house that didn't quite feel like home, wondering if this was what guilt felt like.
He suspected it was.
….
Later, he sat at his desk, phone in hand.
He had no way to explain what he was about to do, no truth that wouldn't sound like madness.
But silence felt worse, he owed them at least an attempt at explanation.
He opened his notes app and began typing for his sister.
===
[Noona] | I got somewhere to go. I am sorry for that. This time it might take a little while. I am sorry.
===
It was pathetically short.
It didn't explain anything, didn't apologize adequately for the upheaval he was about to cause.
But it was honest in its brevity.
He didn't have better words. There were no better words for "I am leaving because I have to, and I can't explain why."
He printed it out on paper, simple notebook paper, found on his desk, and left it on his bed.
She would find it when she woke up, the physical letter felt more real than a text message, more personal somehow. She deserved that much.
Then he turned to the harder messages.
===
[Yoo Seong-jun (Father)]
===
He opened his messaging app and typed the exact thing he wrote on the note.
===
[Me] | I got somewhere to go. I am sorry for that. This time it might take a little while.
===
But now he paused, his fingers hovering over the keyboard.
But then he added something.
===
[Me] | If you were in any kind of danger and I wasn't there to protect you, and you need someone's help, contact a Hunter called Sung Jin-Woo.
===
The moment he typed the name, he felt a wave of something uncomfortable wash over him.
Stupidity, maybe. Or absurdity.
Sung Jin-Woo was an E-Rank hunter.
Barely above civilian level.
The kind of man whose greatest achievement was surviving the raids he entered. "World's Weakest Hunter" - the nickname was practically official by now.
And yet, five years from now, that same man would be something else entirely. A force beyond human measure.
But today? Today, he was just another struggling Hunter from Seoul, scraping by on pocket raids.
Telling his father, a man with money, guards, and influence, to call someone like that for help was absurd.
Insulting, even.
But Jin-Ho typed it anyway, because for him, the protagonist was the only lifeline he could leave behind.
He set a timed send on the message to his father.
It would deliver itself in exactly 40 hours, just after Jin-Ho had performed the Reverse Summon.
Now comes the last message.
The one Jin-Ho was least prepared to send, because it required acknowledging a debt he had incurred.
===
[Sung Jin-Woo]:
[Me] | Remember our deal? I will help you out now and you help me out in the future? That's still on. So yeah, don't forget about that.
===
It was the most indirect message of the three.
Because there wasn't much more to say.
He was calling in a favor that hadn't even been properly established yet. He was asking for help before he had delivered on his own promise.
He sent a timed message on this message too, same time as the one to his father.
He sat back, looking at the three messages laid out in front of him.
One printed letter, two timed text messages.
It was absurdly inadequate, solved nothing, and answered no questions.
It only created more problems.
But it was what he had to offer.
He was well aware that he wasn't actually solving anything with this method. He was just running away, leaving people hanging with vague promises, hoping that somehow it would be enough to excuse his abandonment.
It wouldn't be, he knew that.
But no matter how many scenarios he ran through his mind, no matter how many alternative approaches he considered, he couldn't find another solution.
Then he lay down on his bed, still fully clothed, and stared at the ceiling.
….
The next morning began like any other.
Jin-Ho sat across from his sister at the breakfast table, spooning rice and soup into his mouth while she scrolled through her phone.
The clatter of dishes filled the silence. They spoke a little, about their plans for the day, about her shift later that afternoon, about nothing at all.
When the meal ended, he stood, rinsed his bowl, and said. "I will be in my room for a while."
She only nodded, not thinking twice.
Upstairs, he closed his door softly.
He didn't pack, there was nothing to pack that mattered.
The [Pan'ku Locket] was already hanging around his neck, [Rairakku] Mask was secured and a few talismans were prepared.
He sat down and stared at his open notebook.
For the next few hours, he worked through math problems, filled out English essays, and completed assignments that would never be handed in.
When the clock hit one in the afternoon, he set down his pen.
"Thank you–
"And I am sorry."
Then he whispered the command that would change everything:
"Reverse Summon."
The shadows in his room seemed to deepen, to congeal, reality bent in a way that physics couldn't explain.
The floor under him rippled like liquid, bending the reality.
….
And then Jin-Ho Yoo, student, son, brother, was gone.
When 8 PM arrived, exactly 40 hours after he had set the timers, Jin-Ho's phone buzzed twice - two messages left his phone:
One to Yoo Seong-jun, his father.
One to Sung Jin-Woo, the weakest Hunter who would one day change everything.
And the letter?
It stayed where he had left it, folded carefully, waiting for his sister to wake and find a truth she would never understand.
….
The first thing Jin-Ho felt was cold.
A biting, liquid chill wrapped around him as his body pushed upward through the black surface, thick like oil.
He landed on one foot, the last of the black liquid sliding off him and sinking back into the earth like water disappearing through a drain.
The surface sealed beneath him, leaving no trace that it had ever opened.
A moment later, the darkness beside him stirred.
The shadows twisted, condensed, and then stood up, reshaping into the tall, silent figure of Blacky.
He straightened and glanced at him. "Good work, yet again."
Blacky said nothing, but his form dipped slightly, a gesture halfway between a bow and acknowledgment.
Jin-Ho turned his gaze outward.
The area around him resembled a courtyard of a shrine, stone pathways crisscrossing beneath faint moonlight.
Moss-covered walls rose on all sides, enclosing the space like the interior of an ancient fortress. The faint scent of sea salt drifted through the air, Tokyo Bay wasn't far.
For now, it seemed no one had noticed the strange figure who had just emerged from the ground.
He exhaled once, steadying his breathing, and lifted his hand.
The System Interface blinked into view before him.
◤-----------------------◥
[-> Pan'ku Locket:]
| Currently Available Locations: NONE
| To Be Opened:
[[Portal 001]
- Location: Tokyo Bay, Japan
- Site: Courtyard, Castle Complex
- Status: IN-ACTIVE | Will be opened in: 00D, 00H, 21M]
◣-----------------------◢
"Twenty-one minutes."
There was nothing else to do.
He didn't move, explore, or take unnecessary risks - this isn't the same Japan… It's Japan from the Hunter world.
He simply stood there with Blacky standing silently behind him.
Then, as the countdown neared its end, a new alert pulsed across his interface.
◤-----------------------◥
[Ding–! Condition for Dimensional Travel are met]
[You can press the button, to activate Dimensional Travel]
◣-----------------------◢
….
.
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
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