Housekeeper in the dungeon

Episode 32

“Of course not……! If you weren’t good in the first place, we wouldn’t be sitting here eating meat. It’s a double entendre.”

Hee-na looked at Woo-min-a a little suspiciously, then shrugged her shoulders.

“That’s right. What’s the point when you’re being so nice to me?”

“Right? Oh, right. But don’t bring me any of those new seeds. You’ll just get yourself in trouble.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking.”

Wu Min’ah chuckled at the cool answer.

“Anyway, thanks for the advice. I’ll pack something to eat and try to talk to her in private like you said.”

Hee-na took Woo Min-ah’s advice and decided to try using the word “food” instead of “beauty” on Kang jin-hyeon.

Not knowing what kind of ripples it would cause in the future…….

* * *

Smart.

Hee-na took a break just before lunch and knocked on Hunter Kang jin-hyeon’s private office.

‘He rarely comes out of his office after a dungeon run, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding him.’

Woo Min-ah had given me the address.

“Who is it?”

A low voice came through the door. It was Kang jin-hyeon.

Hee-na answered cautiously, gripping the five-step chanhap handle tightly in her hand.

“Hello. I’m Lee Hee-na……. I’m the beautification team that fell into the labor camp together.”

She stammered out an explanation in case he didn’t remember her.

“Oh, you must be Hee-na, please come in.”

Fortunately, Kang jin-hyeon didn’t seem to have forgotten Hee-na.

“Thank God.

She breathed a sigh of relief and was about to grab the doorknob when the door suddenly slid open. Kang jin-hyeon had opened it himself from the inside.

“Oh, thank you.”

Hee-na bent at the waist in the ideal 90-degree bow that only a true Eun would make.

“No, you didn’t have to do this……. Oh, yeah.”

Kang jin-hyeon bowed back in response to the overwhelming greeting.

At the S-class Hunter’s tightening grip, Hee-na bent even deeper, and Kang jin-hyeon bowed even more in embarrassment.

For a while, Hee-na and Kang jin-hyeon bent over each other as if they were having a contest to see who could bend deeper.

“……So, Ms. Hee-na, what brings you here?”

As an S-class Hunter, Kang jin-hyeon was the first to recover his senses and ask.

Hee-na remembered Woo Min-ah’s words.

“First, feed them so they can’t bite you.

Woo Min-ah had said to shove food into its mouth somehow.

Hee-na gathered her courage and held out the lunch box to Kang jin-hyeon.

“You’ve helped me in so many ways, including saving my brother. I was wondering how to thank you, but cooking is the only thing I know how to do. ……. If you haven’t eaten yet, you might want to try a few bites…….”

Kang jin-hyeon made an uncomfortable face at Hee-na’s invitation.

According to Woo Min-ah, it wasn’t because he was overwhelmed by Hee-na’s sincerity, but because he was embarrassed that his short-tongued nature would be exposed.

“I just did what I was supposed to do, and I don’t deserve this kind of gratitude.”

“Mr. Hunter Kang, if you haven’t had lunch, would you like to take a bite here and leave?”

Hee-Na decided to push through. It was uncharacteristically brash. Her ears reddened with embarrassment.

But the thought of her livelihood hanging on her shoulders, and the value of the dungeon byproducts she might have to pay for, made her stomach turn.

“It’s just that I bought it with all my heart, and I wanted to watch you eat it for a while.”

Hee-na slipped through Kang jin-hyeon’s side. Her steps were so combative that even an S-class Combat Hunter would have been caught off guard.

She landed in front of a low tea table.

In the corner of the office was a plush sofa and a tea table. It looked like a place to welcome visitors.

“Here! I didn’t know what Mr. Hunter Kang would like, so I brought you a few things.”

Hee-na slammed the chanhap down on the table. She quickly unwrapped the furoshiki separated the five tiers of chanhap and lined them up.

In the bottom bin, she prepared kimbap for the hunters downstairs, and on top of that, she colorfully wrapped sandwiches with each ingredient.

The third floor was filled with fried chicken, a traditional Korean food. I didn’t know what flavors they would like, so I filled them with fried, soy sauce, and the usual red gochujang.

The fourth compartment was filled with vegetable bacon rolls and yubu sushi.

Finally, on the top tier, I carefully sliced the fruit into mouthwatering pieces. The apples were soaked in salted water to prevent browning and then sliced into rabbit shapes.

I also carefully cut melon and pineapple, which I usually pay a lot of money for, to fill the last layer of the bento.

The five-tiered bento box was a work of art that summarized Hee-na’s sincerity and flavor.

Kang jin-hyeon also recognized the charisma of the D-class housekeeper and hesitated.

“This is…….”

“It’s not much, but I prepared it in a small way.”

Contrary to Hee-na’s words, this bento was indeed very ‘unremarkable’.

I stayed up late last night thinking about the menu, and I filled it with a lot of thought!

I thought it was harder to pack this five-tiered bento than it was to pack 60 rolls of kimbap.

Hee-na took out the cutlery she had prepared and forced it into Kang jin-hyeon’s hands.

Even though he was an S-class Hunter, he couldn’t easily shake off the touch of Hee-na, a D-class housekeeper, because he felt the pain in her touch.

“But isn’t this too much to eat alone……?”

He mumbled and excused himself, saying it was a lot of food.

Hee-na gently soothed the S-class Hunter like she would a petulant child and pushed the chanhap in front of him.

“I know, it’s too much for you to eat, so please try one at a time.”

“Sure, just for the sake of being sincere……. Thank you.”

Kang sighed and flopped down on the couch, reaching for the pile of food in front of him.

He picked up a round roll of kimbap and shoved it into his mouth without a second thought.

As always, regular meals were too salty, sour, or empty for him.

This kimbap would be no different, he thought.

And the moment he put it in his mouth and bit into it with his molars, he got a shock that turned his world upside down.

“……!”

That’s the last thing he remembers.

The next thing he knew, he had shoved the last piece of apple in his mouth.

“Are you feeling okay?”

“……?”

Hee-na looked at him as if he had just woken up from a dream.

He was alternately looking down at the apple slice he was eating and the empty bowl of chanhap with a “What just happened?” expression on his face.

Hee-na now knew the meaning of that expression. It was a positive sign!

“My flavor skill worked!

That was the look on Woo Min-ah’s face when she grilled the meat, the look on the Hunters’ faces when they tried Hee-na’s kimbap for the first time, and the look on her brother’s face when he ate home-cooked meals.

It was so delicious that they didn’t even realize what they were eating.

Hee-na turned to Kang jin-hyeon, who was staring at the empty bowl in disbelief and spoke in a concerned tone.

“The amount was probably too much for you to eat alone, don’t you think you need some digestive medicine?”

Unfair solicitation or not, Kang ate a lot and ate fast.

He packed at least five servings in a tightly pressed package, and he finished it all in less than 30 minutes.

His S-class chopsticks were so fast that they left a lasting impression. On top of that, Kang jin-hyeon was a master at shoveling food into his mouth.

It was too fast to use the word ‘ate’. He gulped down the food like it was almost liquid.

Even though his S-class body was made of steel, he wondered if his stomach was strong enough to digest an S-class fish.

Kang jin-hyeon, who had regained his senses, put down his chopsticks in dismay and asked.

“……Hee-na, what did you just feed me?”

Hee-na answered honestly.

“A lunch box.”

“Are you sure it’s a simple lunch box?”

A bento is a bento, how can I explain it?

But Kang jin-hyeon’s eyes were too serious. Hee-na felt she had to say something, so she explained the composition of the bento.

“Yes. It’s a bento box with kimbap on the first floor, a sandwich on the second floor, fried chicken on the third floor, bacon vegetable rolls yubu sushi on the fourth floor, and fruit on the fifth floor. I made it myself.”

In response to Hee-na’s answer, Kang jin-hyeon muttered in a low voice.

“Hee-na, you made it yourself?”

“Yes. I would never have asked someone else to pack a thank-you lunch for me, so I told you before, this is food that I cooked from scratch.”

Hee-na emphasized and emphasized that this was a masterpiece made by her own hands. Only then did her next words seem to sink in.

“I cooked it from scratch.”

Why she kept interrupting herself was beyond me.

Hee-Na calculated the right time to get to the point.

“We have to settle this before the whole lunch break is over!

“Uh, I’m Jinhyun Kang, Hunter…….”

It was time to deliver her prepared line.

“Ms. Hee-Na, I have something to tell you.”

Kang jin-hyeon, who seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, struck first.

Hee-na beat her chest inwardly but answered as if she didn’t care.

“What? What is it?”