The crowd's murmurs faded. People turned back to their conversations, but the weight of what just happened lingered. Seungho stood frozen, Minjun's glare still burning into him.
Sangmin grabbed his arm. "Come on. Ignore him."
He led Seungho away, back toward the ice blue group. Bae Ara raised an eyebrow but said nothing. The Duke wasn't even looking—already surrounded by fans, her smile back in place like nothing had happened.
She saw. She just doesn't care.
Sangmin pulled him aside. "You okay?"
Seungho nodded. Of course, a lie. It hurt him deep. Years of past rejection dumped on him like an ice bucket.
"Minjun's always like that. Top trainee even when he was a pre-trainee, two years running. He thinks he owns the place."
"Two years?"
"Yeah. Some trainees never make it past D-rank. He's been C since the beginning." Sangmin shrugged. "Doesn't mean he's right. Just means he's good at the game."
The game.
I thought everyone was like me, just fresh from the blood.
He looked at Sangmin. Didn't say a word.
I just got into this world and I'm already getting rejected. Like an old song.
He wanted to tell him how he really felt, but couldn't.
Seungho looked at his hands. The same hands that had saved Sanghyun. The same hands that had exploded. The same hands the machine had mapped.
Seven overall. Zeros in rank. That's what they see.
Of course. A shell that doesn't move, doesn't attack. And self-explosion... I mean who wants that?!
Seungho scuffed.
"Hey." Sangmin's voice softened. "Those scores aren't final. They're starting points. Baseline. You're supposed to improve."
"Minjun doesn't see it that way."
"Minjun's an ass." Sangmin grinned. "That's his problem, not yours."
Seungho almost smiled.
Bae Ara appeared beside them. "Ceremony's wrapping up. New trainees are supposed to mingle." She glanced at Seungho. "You have fans now. Well, curious people. Same thing eventually."
Seungho blinked. "I do?"
"Over there." She nodded toward a small group watching him—Hana among them, her earlier fuming replaced with something like interest.
Bae Ara added: "the thing about fans is that they dislike seeing someone weak getting whipped more than they dislike someone who uses his strength to whip. Clearly Minjun-ssi hasn't learned that lesson yet."
She smiled, and her dimples—deep, perfect, dangerous—did all the talking.
Sangmin clapped his shoulder. "Go make your first fans, E-Class puppy."
Being a puppy wasn't what he had imagined when thinking of himself as a little animal. But right now felt good, someone wanted to take care of him.
Seungho stared at the group. Then back at Sangmin.
I have no idea what I'm doing.
He went anyway.
***
Seungho opened his screen.
Where should I go for training?
A message was blinking.
"Open message"
.
[ CONGRATULATIONS ]
[ You have now a Fandom ]
.
[ FANDOM NAME: PUPPY'S PRINCESSES ]
[ FANDOM COLOR: ORANGE ]
[ HEAD FAN: Choi Yuna ]
.
'Puppy's Princesses'?? Eww. I was hoping for something more powerful…
he sighed.
Well, they did rescue me.
Choi Yuna-ssi? Who is she? Hana-ssi had promised she would do it herself…? Well, it doesn't really make a difference. Although with her everything seems so easy. I see why Sangmin likes her....
He smiled rethinking at the previous day, when they gathered around him to console him. In one day two different groups had congratulated him for being there. It felt good.
The Duke will come to like me.
I can handle the fans, mostly girls, but also people of different ages too and gender. He liked that.
.
[ NEW MESSAGE ]
.
He waved it off.
"Stats"
Nothing had changed in the screen.
I guess if I don't train my stats won't go up.
He got up and got ready to head over to the Hunter Park Complex, to Entre's Training Grounds.
From the entrance to Entre's HQ, he took a walk that crossed a courtyard, turned again and found hidden to the side a massive building, he wondered how it was possible he had missed it from afar.
Then he heard voices.
A group of trainees clustered midway a covered walkway, near a vending machine. Red tracksuits. Minjun's people.
He kept walking. Kept his eyes forward.
"...Minjun's still pissed off. Says he'll make him pay."
"Forget it. Minjun's on thin ice. They stripped his suit."
One elbowed another.
"Still. That guy doesn't forget." Slightly louder.
"Heard he's been training twice as hard. Wants to prove himself."
"Prove what? That he's still the best? Everyone knows he is."
"what is that guy thinking with that attitude." that voice was from one of Minjun's subordinates.
I am sure it is him, I recognize his voice.
Seungho quickly eyed him from the side, his face facing forward. He couldn't resist, he had to know for sure.
"Then why'd they take his flames?"
Oh, his tracksuit.
He almost smiled.
A pause. Then, lower: "Politics. You know how it is."
Seungho passed them. Didn't look. Didn't slow.
They watched him closely as he passed by them. Then the talking stopped.
He felt their eyes on his back. Burning.
Minjun. Always Minjun.
As he got through the door of the building, He was upset. All the warmth and excitement from earlier evaporated. Washed out with a single wiping move.
What now?
The old claw grabbing his throat tight at the base. He suddenly couldn't breathe properly.
It is back.
It had been gone for so little, that strangling sensation, and yet he had gladly forgotten it.
Is it here to stay?
He came to a halt, and stared at the floor, pondering what he was going to do about it.
A slap on the shoulder. "Finally you made it!"
"Sangmin…"
His brain zoomed in into reality again.
Hyperfocus!
That sinking feeling had vanished.
He smiled.
Yes, I am a hunter now.
"Hmm, I saw some trainees with red tracksuits, I mean what happened to Kwak Minjun-ssi?"
He lowered his voice as not to invite bad omen.
Sangmin played along and lowered his voice too.
"Oh, he got his idol rank demoted by one. Now he is E-rank. And he is not happy about it, as you can imagine."
Sangmin didn't look worried. But Seungho was.
"I see." He straightened.
"Is that what you are worried about?"
Sangmin laughed.
"You know Minjun-ssi has always had this problem. With fans, he doesn't think of fans, of how it looks in their eyes. If not yesterday it would happened in another way with someone else. Don't worry."
"What a relief!"
"I mean, he will most likely try to make you pay."
"Ehh?!"
"But someone else will annoy him before he exacts revenge on you. Soon enough he will be thinking of something else. Ignore him."
Sangmin said with his hands in his pockets and nodding up and down like it was an acknowledged fact.
"Besides, what about a joint event? Hana asked about it?"
'Hana'? No honorific? Well, they probably know each other rather well. (Lack of honorific signals a rather intimate or familiar relationship.)
"With Choi Yuna-ssi?"
"Yes, she will message you, she has been out of the country. Let's do it, it will be fun." Sangmin smiled.
Seungho blushed.
"She is Hana's sister. Besides, you'll like her. She is sweet."
Seungho smiled, he really wanted to share his taste with his fans.
***
Seungho looked through the glass windows. The place looked like the arena pit at the ex-hunter's fight, the Enclosure Center. Just more modern and refined. All surfaces smooth and tight. Seungho knocked a wall, it sounded empty, and yet those walls could withhold such powerful blasts.
Inside weapons got pulverized in an instant.
Memories of the bite flashed in his mind.
This is nothing like it. This is far worse. The power and the blasts.
He got excited. He growled again.
Why am I not scared? I should be.
This warmth...
Seungho laid his palm on the glass. He could sense different levels of mana levels. He closed his eyes, they were distinct. The Mana levels. Like signature.
Someone approached him from behind.
Seungho took his hand off the glass by instinct, but didn't turn to look at him.
"What did you see?"
It was an older man, authoritative. Seungho deduced from the man's voice.
"What do you mean, Ajeossi?" (Ajeoussi = Mr.)
"What can you see with your hands?"
"Mana can whisper." Seungho surprised himself at that description.
"Good."
Seungho turned. The man was gone.
He spun looking for the old man. He wanted to ask him questions.
He understood what I meant? Who was he?
Instead she was there. Waiting. Arms crossed.
He approached her, trying to stand straight. Tried to look like he belonged.
"You." Her voice flat. "Not today."
He blinked. "What?"
"You need stamina. Your powers need to settle. You're not ready to train with me."
"Then what do I do?"
She shrugged. "Figure it out."
"That's it? Just, figure it out? How?"
She looked at him then. Really looked. Her eyes were ice blue, and for a moment he thought he saw something behind them. Pity? Annoyance? Worse?
Try harder. Belong.
"You survived the Apelox. That means something." Her voice was flat. "But it doesn't mean you're ready."
She turned away.
"Come back when your numbers are higher. When your aura stabilizes."
A pause.
"When you're worth my time."
She walked off. The conversation was over.
Seungho stood there. The old familiar feeling crept back—the one from the office, from the static years, from every performance review he'd ever sat through.
Rejection.
She doesn't want me here.
He looked at the other trainees. They were watching. Some looked away quickly. Others met his eyes with something like satisfaction.
They know. Everyone knows.
Minjun-ssi will have a blast.
It stung.
A moment later, he released his fists, and stopped biting his lip.
Wait, why do I care?