WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Returned as a God ◈

Chapter 36: A New Encounter (3)

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Song Eunyoung, propped up on one arm with a sour look on her face, sighed as she watched me.

I already knew her situation from Choi Suhyun.

She'd been a victim of the great disaster seven years ago, and not long after, she'd awakened as an Awakened.

After a while, Song Eunyoung spoke.

"As you know, I don't have..."

"No god watching over you, right?"

"Yeah."

Whether or not a person had a god behind them mattered a huge amount in this industry.

Without one, you couldn't earn merit points from killing monsters or clearing dungeons.

You couldn't use any decent skills either.

No matter how strong an Awakened person was individually, there was a clear gap between someone with a god and someone without.

Which was exactly why I needed Song Eunyoung so badly.

"If you had a god watching over you, would you keep being a Hunter?"

"You seem to be under some kind of misunderstanding. I've been awakened for almost six years now. No god picked me in six whole years, so why would any god suddenly decide to pick me now?"

"That's exactly why I'm here. The god I serve wants someone exactly like you, noona."

Song Eunyoung's eyes narrowed strangely.

She called the staff over and ordered another coffee.

"That's it?"

"You showed up every single morning for a whole week just for that reason? Are you a stalker or something?"

"I just wanted to talk with you, noona."

Stalker? That was way too harsh.

Even someone like me could get hurt by that.

"I don't know who your god is, but go find someone else. Some other Hunter."

Something about this was going completely differently from what I'd expected.

Song Eunyoung drained her fresh coffee in one go and set the cup down.

She swept her hair back and uncrossed her legs.

"I don't know who your god is, but if you picked me just because I'm Unaffiliated, you've got the wrong person."

"I didn't pick you just because you're Unaffiliated. Well, that's part of it, sure. But you're also someone who never gave up on wanting to be a Hunter even while bouncing around from place to place, someone underrated compared to your actual skill, and someone who's built up a bit of resentment toward society."

"I don't have any particular resentment toward society."

"You're not denying the rest, so I guess the rest is right?"

"You're annoying."

Song Eunyoung shut her mouth and turned her head toward the window.

Hunters gathered near the main road by Gangnam Station, about to enter a dungeon that had appeared there.

Judging by their outfits, they were Raon Guild hunters.

Song Eunyoung's eyes wavered as she looked down at them.

Those weren't the eyes of someone who'd given up.

She could fool other people, but not me.

"What's the problem?"

"You know what? A Hunter's job isn't just clearing dungeons. There are way more non-Hunters in this world than Hunters. Protecting those people from monster threats, that's the reason Hunters get given power different from ordinary people... My parents used to say that all the time."

According to what I'd heard from Choi Suhyun, Song Eunyoung's parents had a pretty strong sense of duty.

Song Eunyoung bit her lip.

"So what good did it do. Spent their whole lives protecting everyone else and couldn't even protect their own kid properly. What kind of Hunter is that?"

I knew Song Eunyoung had knocked on the doors of guild after guild.

What she was saying and what she actually felt didn't match.

The seven years I hadn't known about, in Song Eunyoung's life, might have been days that taught her more about disappointment and settling for reality than hope.

"I hate Hunters."

"Funny, considering you dove in more desperately than anyone else the moment you spotted that orc. Isn't it more like you actually loved your parents more than anyone, and wanted to become a Hunter?"

"The orc was just getting in the way of me getting to work. And I'm not qualified to be a Hunter anyway."

"Who's the one handing out qualifications? The moment you awakened, you already earned that qualification. Nobody gets to lecture someone else about qualifications."

Even if that someone was a god.

Song Eunyoung's eyes went wide, like she couldn't believe what she'd just heard.

She hesitated, like she had something to say, then swept her hair back.

Her expression looked pretty complicated.

Song Eunyoung finished off the rest of her salmon salad before she started talking about herself.

"At first I wanted to become a Hunter. I thought if I became one, I might understand a little of why my parents made the choice they did. What I got back was a label. Unaffiliated. Never chosen by any god. But by now, none of that matters anymore."

"But you're an Awakened, noona."

"Nobody chose me. Must've been some kind of mistake. And I'm sick and tired of waiting, anyway."

"I want you, noona. Isn't that worth trusting, just this once?"

"Where the hell does that confidence even come from?"

Song Eunyoung frowned like she couldn't relate at all.

I let the tension drop from my shoulders and grinned.

"Good question."

Thinking it over, I realized there was nothing else I could offer her right now besides just asking her to come with me.

"Weird kid."

"Either way, it's a good opportunity for you too, noona."

"Do you even know me? What do you know about me to be saying stuff like that?"

Song Eunyoung's cold stare left me speechless.

I didn't know anything about her.

Everything I knew, I'd only heard secondhand. But wasn't that true for her too, about me?

"We can get to know each other starting now."

I grabbed Song Eunyoung's hand as she started to stand up.

Great, now I felt like some clingy boyfriend.

Sure enough, a few people at nearby tables were sneaking glances our way.

It's not like that!

Song Eunyoung slapped my hand away.

"By the way, you seem pretty close with Choi Suhyun."

"He's a future teammate too, technically."

"Yeah? For the record, Choi Suhyun's the one who told me I wasn't fit to be a Hunter. That should be reason enough to say no, don't you think?"

Hearing that unexpected name, my mouth just hung open.

I never imagined Choi Suhyun's name would come up here. And he'd actually said something like that to Song Eunyoung?

Is he out of his mind, seriously.

And then he had the nerve to recommend Song Eunyoung to me. I couldn't figure out how that guy's brain even worked.

"Then at least exchange numbers with me. Choi Suhyun, ugh, forget about him, but I might actually be useful."

I'd spent a whole week showing up at the hotel buffet every morning just to get to this point.

There was no way I was letting Song Eunyoung slip away again here.

I practically forced my phone into her hands.

Song Eunyoung hesitated, then typed in her number.

Worried she might have put in a fake one, I called it right there on the spot.

Song Eunyoung's phone buzzed.

She turned the screen toward me to show it.

"I'll be in touch. And I'll get this."

She snatched up the bill quickly.

I had a card from Choi Suhyun anyway, so money wasn't really an issue for me.

Song Eunyoung didn't seem to care much about paying either.

"I gave you my number, so stop showing up at the hotel buffet. Come one more time and I'm reporting you as a stalker, I mean it!"

Song Eunyoung turned and walked out of the cafe first, her heels clicking against the floor.

After she left, I sat alone at the empty table.

Worried Choi Suhyun would claim he was busy again, I sent him a message asking him to call me.

A little past ten minutes later, Choi Suhyun called.

"Did things go well with Song Eunyoung?"

"You're asking me that right now? Hyung, are you seriously out of your mind?"

"What? Who's out of their mind? You?"

"Who else would it be, you!"

I clenched my fist on the table and told Choi Suhyun everything Song Eunyoung had said.

I had no idea what had happened between them, but the least he could do was tell me if something like that had gone down.

After hearing my whole account, Choi Suhyun stayed quiet for a while.

Fair enough, ten mouths wouldn't be enough to explain himself.

Song Eunyoung had taken a wound from those words that she'd probably carry for the rest of her life.

"I said something like that? When?"

"You don't remember?"

"How am I supposed to remember that?"

"So you're saying Song Eunyoung lied?"

She hadn't seemed like that kind of person. And that expression on her face had been genuinely hurt.

Choi Suhyun answered my baffled tone.

"If she says I said it, then I probably said it."

Unbelievable.

Right as I was about to lose my temper, Choi Suhyun's voice came through again.

"I remember meeting her before I joined the Association. If I said something, it must've been then. I just don't remember it."

Choi Suhyun admitted he'd met Song Eunyoung but tried to dodge around actually remembering what he'd said.

"Don't lie to me."

"Since when do you get to call your hyung a liar?"

"Want me to knock a few memories back into you? I could go over there and hit you, you know. So you're seriously going to keep playing dumb and say you don't remember?"

Under my relentless questioning, Choi Suhyun finally shut up.

You don't remember?

This from a guy with a memory good enough to recall the time some kid at the desk next to him borrowed an eraser in elementary school and never gave it back. And he's using that as an excuse now?

"Did you really say something like that?"

"I mean, I did... I just never thought she'd actually take it to heart."

Knowing Choi Suhyun's personality, of course he'd say something like that.

Even WoodWiki had it written that back then, his personality was nothing short of nasty, if anything worse than that.

He himself always went around saying he'd mellowed out a lot since joining the Association.

"Apologize to her."

"Hey, you're bringing up something from years ago? Back in my day, I heard way worse stuff than that. Back in my day!"

"Cut the 'back in my day' crap and apologize to Song Eunyoung right now. Who tells an Unaffiliated Hunter with zero self esteem that she's not qualified, right to her face? There's a limit to being crazy. No wonder you don't have a woman at your age, with a personality like that!"

"I'm plenty popular with women, actually."

"I bet you got dumped without even knowing why. 'Oppa, you don't care about me, do you? Is work more important than me? How could you do this to me!' And then you probably grabbed some poor junior and drank with them, whining, 'What did I even do wrong?'"

My full-commitment performance must have hit a nerve, because there was no answer.

I could let a lot of things slide, but I wasn't about to forgive things going sour between Song Eunyoung and Choi Suhyun before we'd even started.

"You're the one who recommended Song Eunyoung to me. So apologize properly."

"Ugh, fine. I get it. I'll do it."

After hanging up with Choi Suhyun, I slumped in my chair and stared up at the cafe ceiling.

Ugh, this is exhausting.

Not a single thing in life ever goes the way it should.

Song Eunyoung left the cafe.

She walked down Gangnam-daero, weaving through the crowd.

I said something pointless.

The conversation with that kid wouldn't leave her head.

She'd meant to brush him off with a few words and move on, but she'd ended up saying way more than she meant to, which wasn't like her at all.

Her phone buzzed.

She slowed her steps and checked the screen.

The message was from none other than the young man she'd given her number to.

[Oh right, noona.]

[My name's Kang Hangyeol.]

"What is with this kid, seriously?"

Unable to keep reading, Eunyoung muttered under her breath, at a total loss for words.

Footnotes:

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