The next morning, he woke up in the afternoon. The house was silent. Everyone had left for work, and though he did not doubt they would wonder why he wasn't off training, they did not think it important enough to ask him. And it wasn't. Not all Hunters trained in their free time. Some were like this, staying at home and sleeping in, waiting for a call that might never come.

Shiwoon's lunch consisted of some rice and the side dishes his mother had left in the fridge. The dishes were cold and spicy and they went well with the plain rice. After washing the dishes, he packed enough clothes for a few days and wrote a note, which he pasted on the fridge using the magnets that had been left there. They were all mementoes of a long forgotten time, the magnets. He could not remember the last time they had been touched. They were the precious legacies of his father, who had taken to buying one whenever he went on a trip, be it on his own or with their family.

He got into the car and drove to Ganghwa-do. The drive took him over an hour, not least because he had run into terrible drivers and terrible traffic.

He had booked a room in a cozy hotel near the coast. As he got off of the car, he took a look at the beach. The evening sun seemed like it was being swallowed by the ocean as it inched below the horizon. It casted a golden glow on the white sands and the people on the beach.

When he went to grab the duffel bag he had stuffed full of clothes he saw the suit and the black shoes in the backseat and he wondered why he had brought them along. He had left them inside after the incident two days prior and he had never bothered to take them out. He never wanted to take them out again. He shut the boot with a terrible thump and trudged into the hotel.

"Hello, sir." The woman at the counter said with a wide smile. She looked middle-aged and there were wrinkles around her eyes that suggested she was a happy person.

"Hello." He said politely. "My name is Kim Shiwoon. I booked a room?"

She checked her computer. A few clicks later, she turned back to him. "Yes sir, your booking has been confirmed. Please wait a moment." She walked to the wall behind her, unlocked a metal cabinet that hung on the wall, and fished out a keycard before shutting the cabinet again. "You are in Room 15, on the second floor." She bowed. "We hope you will have a pleasant stay."

The room was nothing special. He was okay with that. It wasn't a five star hotel and he wasn't paying a five star price. The important things were present; there was a bed and there was a toilet. To have a coastal view through the window was already a great luxury to him.

After putting his bag down, he went downstairs for dinner. The hotel had its own restaurant and bar - something he had especially looked out for - and the restaurant had a patio that offered a view of the ocean and its waves and the sands and the people on them. They served fresh fish, or so the sign claimed, and he enjoyed its refreshing taste.

Throughout his meal, he could hear the man sitting at the table beside him cursing. The man wore a navy blue suit and an expensive gold watch and he was on a call that had begun before Shiwoon was seated and which did not seem like it would end before Shiwoon left. The food on the man's table was only half eaten and the efforts of the wind meant that there was no longer even a wisp of smoke leaving the man's food.

From what Shiwoon could tell, the man was a high ranking person. And yet there the man was, cursing at the person on the other end relentlessly for not expecting the hurricane that had apparently hit the coasts of America.

"You've just cost me at least a billion won in stocks, you imbecile!"

He swore when he talked about business and in his anger Shiwoon heard the man blurt out details of an unamiable divorce. His unfettered rage at the world seemed to Shiwoon like the tantrum of a child who was for the first time being told no.

The sun was fully setting then, and in the dusk there was a beauty to the golden waters that was spoiled only by the angry words of the man next to Shiwoon. He sighed and asked for the bill before going back to his room, where he opened the window and stared at the ocean.

Shiwoon hated it when those in power abused their position. He hated it when those who had been given so much failed to live up to expectations. These were selfish standards, he knew, but he had always expected more. When he encountered men like the one he had just had the displeasure of sitting near, he found himself sorely disappointed.

Shiwoon shook his head. So what if he was disappointed? Was he going to try to change those men? Did he have the means to do so? Did he have the right to do so? He didn't know, and that just meant the answer was likely a resounding no. Injustice was a constant in the world of man. To fix it, one would have to exterminate the pesky human race, he thought.

He got up from his seat. He was thinking too much and that never boded well. A glance at the clock told him it was seven. Seven sounded like a good time to start drinking.

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The bar was nearly empty and the bartender was polishing the glass like he was trying to make it shine. Shiwoon didn't see any servers around, but then again it was a small bar without any tables.

"Do you serve soju here?" He asked.

"That's an odd question. Of course we do. What flavour of Jinro's do you like?"

"Green grape, thank you."

The bartender brought him the bottle of soju, with its cap already off, and a shot glass. After placing both down, the bartender went back to what he was doing.

After his third bottle of soju Shiwoon could feel the buzz. A couple of hours had passed, and yet the only other person to come into the bar was an old man who sat a few seats down and sipped at a glass of rum. The light made his white hair seem almost ethereal. And if what Shiwoon was feeling was a buzz, the old man's head must have exploded into delirium, going by his manic rambling.

"I DON'T REGRET A THING! YES, YOU PIECE OF-" he pointed angrily at the bartender, "...piece of… piece… YES, I'M POOR! BUT SO WHAT?! I'VE LIVED A GOOD LIFE!"

The bartender glanced sideways at Shiwoon. Shiwoon shrugged helplessly. What was he supposed to do anyway?

"EXPENSIVE CARS, BIG HOUSES, APARTMENTS IN GANGNAM - THESE AREN'T THE REALLY IMPORTANT THINGS!"

As the old man continued to rave, the bartender stepped away from the counter to make a call. Was it because the bartender wasn't paying attention anymore? The old man shuffled dangerously towards Shiwoon, using his hands to drag him across the seats like a crawling zombie, except his feet were still planted on the ground.

"Hey, you punk," he said, flashing the white of his eyes as he wobbled unsteadily in place, "you looking down on me too?"

As a matter of fact, Shiwoon was looking down on the old man for drinking too much without knowing his limit. He didn't express his opinion out loud, however. "No, ahjussi. Are you okay? Do you need a glass of water?"

"Urgh, listen, listen here, you punk," the old man said, "I may not be rich but I do have my pride. What about you? Are you proud of yourself? Are you proud of your work? Are you proud of your life?"

Shiwoon blinked rapidly. The words wouldn't come out and he frowned in frustration. "You are drunk, ahjussi. What room are you in? I'll bring you back."

"Drunk? My, look at this punk, thinking his elders are so weak. You were still a baby when I started drinking!"

Not that your experience has helped you, Shiwoon thought. "Can I have your phone please? I'll call your wife to come get you."

The man suddenly turned into a meek doe. "...wife? Ah, I'm sorry, please don't let my wife know I'm drunk."

Before Shiwoon could say anything else, a woman had run into the bar with a cross face. She was wearing a set of wavy silk pajamas and looked as old as the man was. She took hold of the man's arm and pulled him away even as he protested weakly the whole time.

Shiwoon's mood was once again dashed. He wondered if this was going to be a pattern in the hotel as he returned to his room to shower and sleep.

The next morning, as Shiwoon got into the lift to go down for breakfast, he saw the old couple inside the lift. He nodded his head and bowed slightly as a courtesy and the two returned the gesture.

"I think I've seen that young man somewhere before," the old man whispered loudly to the woman. Shiwoon thought that the old man had to be hard of hearing in his old age.

The woman, who seemed to be his wife, was no better. Her voice was crystal clear in the quiet lift. "You got drunk in front of him," she said while cupping her hand to his ear.

The old man cleared his throat. "Say, young man," he said.

Shiwoon turned to face him. "Yes?"

"Do you want to join us for breakfast? I'll buy, as an apology for…" his voice trailed off as he left what could only have been 'last night' unspoken.

"Sure. Thank you, sir, mam."

The old man looked pleased with himself after that and hummed happily as the lift doors finally slid open with a 'ding'.

As they ate breakfast, an uncomfortable silence took root around their dining table. Shiwoon decided to speak up. "Say, sir, you were talking a lot yesterday about how you don't regret anything. If you don't mind, can I ask what it was about?" It did seem like it was rude to ask but he was curious and the two were people who would never affect his life after the trip anyway. There would be no harm in asking.

The old man choked on his food, coughing before downing his glass of orange juice. "Ah, yes. You see," the old man said while shaking his head, "I resigned recently from a company I had worked for for over thirty years."

That was surprising. Resigning at such an old age meant the old man had still been working in the company and that was rare at that age. Most were already retirees or tending to cafes and restaurants or some other self owned business. "Why, sir?"

The old man scratched at his cheek before turning to his wife, who shrugged. "You see, the company recently brought in a really annoying brat to be a manager and he mocked me for my lack of success in life. Said things like 'I've already achieved more in a years

than you have in thirty. As if being parachuted in means he is successful! Peh! He's just riding on the coattails of his family."

"I see. That's really unfortunate, sir." Shiwoon said.

The old man wagged his finger. "You know, things like position and money aren't everything in life." He turned to his wife. "Having a happy marriage, seeing your children grow into fine adults; these are the really important things."

"Being a good man and doing the right things mean much more in the end than material comforts." His wife chimed in while staring back into her husband's eye.

Shiwoon felt uncomfortable again. He preferred the silence to this tension charged staring scene. He picked at his food while stopping himself from looking up at the couple.

There were merits to everything they had said, however, and Shiwoon didn't neglect that. The words touched a nerve.

'Maybe… I've been thinking of success the wrong way.'

His mind returned again to the words Park Sunha had told him before he left.

'But to me, the Kim Shiwoon who would feed the stray cats and dogs, who would stop the bullies from mocking the fat and the ugly and the unfortunate, who would carry a girl on his back when she broke her foot, was already a success.'

The words seemed to resonate with what the old lady had said. Once again, it affirmed his decision to quit being a Hunter. If all he was doing it for was for the money and status, he was better off being a convenience shop worker. He had not and could not ever forget the despair of those days as a part time worker, aimlessly wandering towards an unknown future. But perhaps he had gotten the process wrong in his haste to find a job. He had forgotten what was truly important.

His lips inched slowly upwards. He saw the couple looking at him with an odd expression, as if questioning why he was suddenly smiling. Before he could justify himself, however, another man's voice cut through the conversations in the restaurant.

"THIS IS AN EMERGENCY MESSAGE! C-RANK MONSTERS HAVE BEEN SIGHTED NEAR MANI MOUNTAIN! PLEASE REMAIN CALM AND WAIT FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS!"