The HunterKiller members gathered and boarded the bus early in the morning on the day of their long-awaited trip. It was a 2-night, 3-day schedule, and since some of them had no travel experience, everyone packed their luggage full of belongings.
“Should take about an hour, right?”
“Yeah. We just need to walk a little after we get off, and we’ll reach the pension immediately.”
In response to Blue’s question, Red checked the location and arrival time of the pension one last time on her smartphone.
The five women, sitting in a row at the back of the bus with their luggage, felt a mix of tension and excitement as they headed for the trip.
“Yellow. Want some candy?”
Blue handed candy from her bag to Yellow, who sat by the window. She accepted it, unwrapped it, and put it in her mouth.
“Isn’t it outside? Shouldn’t we use code names instead?”
At Yellow’s words, everyone looked at her. Surprised by the sudden attention, Yellow understood what her teammates meant. For the five people, who mostly experienced bad situations as hyper-humans, calling each other by code names even outside would not bring good results.
“What should we do then?”
“We should call each other by our names.”
Pink said it lightly, but calling each other by names was more difficult than expected. They hadn’t called each other by names for at least three years, and sometimes up to five years. Calling each other by names now felt awkward because they were too used to calling each other by code names.
“Alright. Let’s just call each other by our names.”
Although everyone agreed with Red’s words, they remained silent afterward. It wasn’t easy to start calling each other by names, even if someone else started.
“Can I have some candy too, Hyang-unni?”
Red spoke stiffly like she was reading a textbook, causing all the members to freeze. Despite her effort, her face turned red like her hair color.
“It’s okay if you don’t add ‘unni’.”
Blue, the eldest sister, gave candy to the awkward-looking Red and said that despite the eight-year age gap, it felt more awkward to hear ‘unni’ than to hear her real name.
Everyone stopped when Red spoke because they all thought the same thing: as the team leader, Red’s mention of ‘unni’ meant that everyone should call her ‘unni,’ which made the members unsure of how to react.
Fortunately, Blue, as the eldest sister, said that it’s okay not to add ‘unni,’ and everyone added that it was fine. Although it was awkward, Red’s initiative helped start the conversation.
After over an hour of bus ride, they arrived at the pension.
“Um… There’s no reservation under the name Hong Yubin.”
Even though they found the right pension, they were told there was no reservation under the name. Red panicked when she heard that the reservation for a room that could accommodate five people was not confirmed.
“No reservation? That can’t be… I made sure to reserve.”
Red quickly showed her smartphone with the pension name and payment details to the owner, while Blue and Yellow looked around the entrance of the pension.
“No, it’s not.”
“Yes, it seems so.”
The two checked the surroundings and confirmed that the background of the pension they saw during the reservation was different from where they arrived.
“What happened?”
It seemed like there was a mistake somewhere. Since it was still unconfirmed, Yellow and Blue decided to wait for Red.
“Oh, this is a pension inside the island.”
“What?”
“There are pensions with the same name inside, and sometimes people get confused and go to the wrong place.”
“Really?”
Red realized they arrived at a pension with the same name as the one she reserved, and they still had to take another hour-long bus ride to reach the original reserved pension.
After confirming, Red approached the members waiting outside and explained the situation.
“I’m sorry. The reserved pension is further inside.”
Realizing they made a mistake, the members exchanged glances.
“Okay? Then shall we head back to the bus?”
While Blue tried to comfort the gloomy Red, Yellow checked the next bus time.
“The next bus will come in 30 minutes. Let’s wait calmly.”
Thinking they just needed to find the pension, the members headed back to the bus stop they just left. As they were leaving, they noticed the bus Red waited for earlier.
“Looks like that bus also got lost.”
“If we had a car, we could have gone directly.”
Pink sighed about the lack of a car, but since having a car wouldn’t change anything, they went to the bus stop.
There’s a saying that if you make a mistake, you should face the consequences. I strongly agree with this. If I hide things from the HunterKiller members and intentionally maintain my relationship with them, it will surely come back to me as a punishment someday, and I decided to accept it humbly when the time comes.
But that time isn’t now.
“Why is Spacystro here?!”
Without any weapons, the HunterKiller members stood at the entrance of the supermarket, clenching their fists and watching Luche. More accurately, they were watching me, and I hurriedly buttoned up my Hawaiian shirt.
“Bringing civilians along. Are you starting to commit crimes?”
Yubin narrowed her eyes and stared at me. Luche always wears heavy makeup during battles, wanting to appear less vulnerable. This makeup is so intense that it changes her appearance entirely, making it hard to recognize her before and after the makeup.
“You’re calling me a civilian?!”
The HunterKiller members were startled by Luche’s voice. Even though her appearance was slightly different from what they knew, they couldn’t forget her voice. Their gazes shifted to Luche, hearing her familiar voice every battle.
“Team Three officer?”
“Yes. Why are you guys here?”
Luche was equally surprised. She came to the island to buy drinks during training, and unexpectedly met the HunterKiller members fighting each other. It would be strange if she didn’t feel surprised.
“That’s none of your business.”
“Same goes for why we’re here.”
As they faced each other warily, it felt like electricity was sparking between their eyes.
“Ahem! Let’s go.”
I silently glanced at Luche, who was about to reveal my name. Though she couldn’t see my eyes through the mask, she clearly felt my gaze and cleared her throat, pulling my sleeve and leading me out of the supermarket.
Information about Spacystro’s regular soldiers is not publicly disclosed. Wearing masks is also a rule within the organization for various operations.
Therefore, during battles, they move according to the team leader’s instructions and do not speak loudly enough for the HunterKiller members to hear. When they act collectively to prevent personal information leaks, they wear helmets or masks.
“Do you want to chase us?”
After leaving the supermarket, Luche asked and I turned around. All five members were looking at us, but they didn’t follow.
“They seem to be on a trip.”
The members had already gotten off the bus with their luggage, and Luche learned they were on a trip. But why were they here when the pension was on another island?
“Trip? Lucky you.”
Though Luche, wearing a windbreaker over her swimsuit with a subordinate carrying bags of drinks, didn’t say anything, she didn’t want to provoke a reaction either.
“Be careful. Even if you don’t fight, encountering HunterKiller isn’t a good thing.”
“Yes. We just need to be cautious until tomorrow’s training.”
Arriving at the beach with drinks, we headed straight to where the team leaders were gathered and mentioned the encounter with HunterKiller. Although I thought it might be a serious situation, Esmeralda’s reaction was surprisingly mild.
“Just let them rest. They probably came to relax too.”
“Is that okay? What if they’re trying to gather information?”
“No way. They said they brought suitcases, right?”
“Yes.”
Esmeralda shrugged her shoulders after confirming they brought suitcases for traveling.
“We came for training, and they came to relax. It’s just a coincidence. We can’t do anything rash due to the rules, so it’s best not to pay attention to each other.”
Upon reflection, it made sense. Especially considering that I knew their situation best, I realized that meeting HunterKiller members during their trip wasn’t a normal occurrence.
“Then shall we not pay attention for now?”
“Yes. Even if we meet, we can’t attack each other.”
Since we had to follow orders, we decided to follow the instructions for now.
One reason I said that Spacystro seemed to be running a pension business here was that their accommodation was located slightly inside a row of pensions. Compared to other pensions, it blended well with the environment.
With so many pensions, I thought there wouldn’t be a chance of meeting them.
But suddenly, a conversation I had with Yubin before the trip came to mind, raising a new question.
“Ms. Angelique.”
“Yes? What is it?”
Angelique, lying down, removed her sunglasses upon hearing my voice.
“What was the name of the nearest pension to our accommodation?”
“It was probably SkySea Pension.”
I sighed deeply.
The night before the trip, after packing and preparing everything, Yubin and I had dinner at my house. Before leaving, I asked her again to confirm the name of the pension.
“Yubin, what was the name of the pension we booked?”
“Hmm? SkySea Pension.”
I never imagined there would be a pension with the same name here.
Sighing deeply, I looked up at the distant gaze and the team leaders followed my gaze. The HunterKiller members, walking on the road by the beach towards the pension, were staring intently at this spot.
“This situation is really unfortunate for both sides.”
At that moment, my phone vibrated in my pocket. A single message had arrived, sent by Yura.
[Crazy. You’re on a trip and Spacystro is here.]
After letting out a sigh of relief, I raised my head. I could see Yura narrowing her eyes from afar. While she received the travel situation via text, she frowned and looked at us in person.
Despite the complex emotions, one thing was clear: getting caught here would lead to big trouble. I reaffirmed my resolve not to remove the mask and replied to Yura.
[Why are you here? Don’t pay attention unless something happens over there.]
As soon as I sent the reply, I realized something I hadn’t considered while meeting the HunterKiller members recklessly.
To avoid revealing my identity, I had given each member slightly different pieces of personal information. For example, Hayang thought I was a colleague she worked with daily, while Yubin knew me as a freelancer who had recently been busy.
During this trip, each member knew slightly different things about what I was doing. I thought I had built bridges to deceive them, but everyone knew the same information about my personal details.
Name, age, and unchangeable appearance. Fortunately, I hadn’t uploaded any photos to the messenger and had no separate photos taken, so there was no risk of sharing photos. However, if I ever revealed my identity incorrectly, I would first expose that I knew everyone before revealing my true identity.
Only then did I realize I was walking a dangerous tightrope. From now on, I resolved to be more mindful.
