It was the rumbling of her stomach that eventually woke Sua up, her eyes blinking open before she squeezed them shut again with a mumbled curse at the blinding brightness.

Slowly, she cracked one eye open, and then the other, resigning herself to the fact that yesterday’s overcast was firmly done with as sunlight bathed her room. 

Grumbling under her breath, Sua rolled out of bed, closing the blinds and pulling her clothes back on. They still smelled faintly of ogre blood, but it was not any worse than the rags she used to wear.

Reversing her steps from the previous day, Sua found her way to the cafeteria, taking a little bit of everything from the general line before slipping into a seat in the corner. 

The provided chopsticks were promptly ignored, Sua making her way through breakfast with her fingers and a spoon. She was nearly halfway done with her food before the sensation of being watched was too persistent to be ignored any longer. Glancing up, she managed to catch half-a-dozen eyes hurriedly flicking away from where she sat.

Were the hunters that didn’t need to answer questions on a television show just as curious about her?

“Do you have something against chopsticks?” Before she could consider her own question, Haneul’s cut through her thoughts as the other woman slipped into the seat across from Sua.

Sua ducked her own slightly to sip at the rest of her porridge, “I don’t know how to use them.”

“Ah.” Hanuel huffed a dry laugh, “Everything you say about yourself is a bit depressing. Please don’t tell me this is your first proper breakfast.”

She supposed the golden apples she ate in the Abyss didn’t really count as a full meal by Korean standards. “It is, yeah.”

The slight frown Haneul occasionally wore the day before appeared back on her face, “I’ll teach you how to use chopsticks somewhere private, then. The press would have a field day if they caught a whiff of that.”

It wasn’t the first time Haneul had shown a softer side, and it had Sua's blank expression softening slightly in response. “Thank you. Did you already eat?”

Haneul nodded, “I came to tell you that your bank account has been set up.” She put a small envelope on the table, “That has your civilian ID card, current ledger, account details, and your debit card.”

Sua wiped her hands clean on a napkin before picking the envelope up and peering inside, “Are you busy today, Lee-ssi?”

"I'm on-call but I get special privileges to wander around. Planning a shopping spree~?"

“Just some clothes and a phone, I’m not sure that’s much of a spree. Could you tell me a good spot?

“I’ll come with you, and I’ll even loan you something else to wear while we’re shopping. However, I have a special condition.”

Her brow twitched up slightly, "... what's the condition?"

"You have to call me by my given name~"

The condition surprised a huff of laughter out of Sua. It felt nice to have someone looking out for her now that she was navigating a vastly different Korea than the one she was used to.

"Alright, Haneul-ssi." Finishing her breakfast, Sua got to her feet to put her dishes on the cleaning rack before giving Haneul the ghost of a smile, “Lead the way.”

Haneul’s dorm was only one floor below Sua’s, a label and a mail slot on the left side of the door bearing her name in silver characters. It was just as large as her own on the inside but, where Sua’s dorm was relatively generic in terms of decoration and colors, Haneul’s was filled with pops of bright color, photographs decorating the fridge and kitchen cabinets along with cards covering shelves around the walls.

“Are you willing to wear things that aren’t black?” Haneul asked, waving for Sua to come further inside.

The darkness was like a second skin, but Sua nodded as she stepped out of her shoes, following Haneul into the bedroom. “As long as they don’t look horrible on me.”

Haneul snorted, looking through her closet thoughtfully, “I’m not sure that’s possible, with your tiny face you could be a model.”

“… aren’t they usually taller? We’re not all your height, Haneul-ssi.”

“An idol, then. It’ll still be hard to find things that make you look bad.” Haneul held out a lilac dress, offering it to Sua, “Try this.”

Accepting the dress, Sua slipped into the bathroom to change. She was quiet as she pulled her clothes off, dragging her fingers lightly over the shimmering butterflies sprouting up from the hem of the ruffled skirt. 

Even if this dress wasn't all that expensive in the grand scheme of things, it was certainly beautiful, and being offered to Sua so readily that it was almost overwhelming. “… thank you for helping me.”

“Don’t mention it, someone should have helped you way before all of this. Besides, we’re going to be hounded as soon as we’re recognized, so you should feel confident~”

“I felt confident in my clothes.”

“… confident in your appearance, not in your combat skills.”

She supposed those were two different things. Being ‘pretty’ was never much of a concern when survival hadn’t been guaranteed, and even less of a concern in a space where her only companions had been shadows without eyes or a care for the appearance of a human being. However, the dress itself was pretty with or without a wearer, and seeing as it complimented her pale skin and pink eyes, Sua supposed she could accept the moniker for herself, even if it was just for today. 

Brushing the skirt of the dress down, Sua stepped out of the bathroom with a hint of wryness on her face, “When you said hunters are celebrities, I don’t think that really sunk in until I turned on the news last night. I was hoping to see some more information about hunters but-"

“Everyone was talking about you~?” Haneul interrupted with a laugh. 

Sua nodded, rubbing at the back of her head sheepishly, "I really couldn't find a channel where other hunters were being discussed."

“You’re a massive deal: the publicity team is napping in shifts right now because the phones haven’t stopped ringing with questions about yo.”

Sua winced slightly at the last part, “I’m used to going completely unnoticed. Can we sneak out?”

“You won't get too far before being recognized.”

"Forget I said anything, I’ll suck it up and deal with it.”

Haneul clapped Sua on the back with a grin before heading for the door, “Just give them a little smile while we’re walking. It’ll become second-nature before you know it.”

"... smiling isn't my strong suit."

Haneul snickered softly, "It does look like your face isn't used to the expression, but giving it a try will still do you some good."

“Do they speculate about who you’re dating too?” Sua asked, falling into step with Haneul as they made their way to the elevator.

“Mmm, it comes in waves since I’ve been active for seven years now. The internet still speculates a lot, but the press really only bother about it when I’m deployed in an area where they can take photos of me fighting. In-between those times, they don’t talk about me much.” She caught Sua’s relieved expression with more laughter. “Don’t get your hopes up about that happening for you. Even if we’re only one rank apart, S-ranks are in an entirely different league.”

“Just in celebrity, or is the power gap that big?”

Haneul shrugged, slipping a pair of sunglasses out of her inner jacket pocket and passing them over to Sua as they walked through the lobby of the building, “Remember how I said it’d take 20 A-ranks to take down that last golem you dismantled?”

“Now that you mention it, yeah.” The comment had gotten a little lost amid… everything else.

“In order to take you down…” Amber eyes dragged thoughtfully over Sua. “We’d probably need at least 50 based on my guess of what you’d fight like completely refreshed. So the difference between the two of us in brute power is 50 to one. Or, to put it another way, the difference in power between an A-rank and an S-rank is almost as large as the gap between an E-rank and an A-rank."

Sua eyed Haneul in return, "That's a little difficult to fathom after seeing what you did to that ogre."

"You're welcome to stroke my ego as much as you feel like~"

Security had formed a clear area directly in front of the doors, but they stepped aside to let the women pass when they slipped outside. Sua muttered a curse under her breath at how much brighter it was outside without the tinted windows, rushing to put the sunglasses on as they walked.

It took the press a disconcertingly short amount of time to recognize her, microphones immediately being shoved in Sua’s direction as the shutter of cameras was nearly drowned out by the roar of questions.

“You should give them a few bread crumbs.” Even though Haneul’s voice was a murmur, Sua was able to pick it out thanks to their proximity.

“Hunter Ahn Sua!” A woman was half-jogging sideways as she tried to keep step with them, microphone managing to stay hovering a few centimeters in front of Sua’s shoulder, “What classification did you receive?”

“I will be following the hunter evaluation guidelines and waiting for the Association’s official announcement before speaking on that,” Sua replied, glancing in the reporter's direction. “I hope you understand.”

“Have you signed on with the Association?”

That question came from somewhere behind her, and Sua shook her head, glancing briefly over her shoulder. “I’m considering an offer they provided, but I have not made any final decisions yet.”

Reaching the exit of the complex, Haneul picked up a set of keys from a waiting valet worker, unlocking the same nondescript town car they rode in the previous day. Sua was more than grateful to slip into the passenger’s seat, closing the door before any microphones tried to block its path. 

She let out a  soft sigh, leaning back in her seat, “That’s going to get exhausting.

“Welcome to stardom~” Haneul pulled away from the curb with a little laugh. “Phone first or clothes?”

“Phone first, that’ll be the most expensive.”

“If you bat your eyelashes and sign a spokeswoman deal, they’ll give you one for free~”

Sua sank lower into her seat with a little groan, “I’m not doing that.”

The shop representative making that exact spokeswoman offer as soon as they stepped into the electronic’s store was almost enough to make Sua head right back outside from embarrassment. Their compromise—a photo of Sua smiling next to the store’s sign in exchange for a discounted price on her new phone—was marginally better, even if she was forced to listen to Haneul’s teasing as they headed further into Dongdaemun.

“I bet that worker is going to get an excellent Ahn Sua bonus this year~”

Sua sighed, dragging her gaze away from the rack of clothes she was picking through as she did her best to ignore the cell phones pointed in her direction by the other shoppers, “Can’t you give it a rest, unnie?”

“Unnie?” Haneul echoed, patting her cheeks, “Do I look that old?”

She looked older than Sua at first glance, but rather than saying that so plainly, Sua opted for shaking her head. “Your birthday is online I had time to look while you were repeating jokes the whole way over here.”

“My sense of humor is delightful.”

“To you, sure,” Sua picked a black romper from the rack. “I’m going to try this one, be right back.”

“One day, you're going to actually laugh!” Haneul called after her.

Rather than acknowledge the comment, Sua slipped into the dressing room. As much as she was loath to take off the pretty dress, she changed quickly into the romper before walking back out, “What do you think?”

“I think you’re addicted to black.” The other hunter held up the bags from their last two stops, “You only got one thing in an actual color at the other places.”

Sua dragged her fingers through her hair, “It’s just… easy, I guess. And comfortable.”

"You look so pale in it, almost like a ghost. Or a vampire~"

Rolling her eyes, Sua picked the dress up from the changing room and slipped it a bag, “This should be enough for now.”

As she finished checking out, a loud beeping noise from behind Sua had her turning with a small frown, catching sight of Haneul as she slipped her phone out of her pocket. The other woman swore softly under her breath, “There’s a break at the Sahmyook Medical Center, I’ve gotta get over there.”

Sua’s brows drew down: if breaks were as rare as she was told the previous day, having two in the span of in two days was incredibly odd. “Can I come?”

“Yeah, we could use you. C’mon.”

Rushing out of the store with her, Sua asked, “Is the hospital close?”

“It’d be a ten minute drive if traffic wasn’t hell.” Haneul shoved the bags in the back of the car before locking it once more. “Any chance you can fly?”

“No, but if you go ahead, I’ll be just a second behind you.”

“I’ll hold you to that.” With a curt nod, Haneul crouched slightly before launching herself into the sky, a soft white glow circling around her body as she flew off, vanishing from sight within seconds.

Sua whistled softly under her breath, keeping track of the path of Haneul’s shadow in her mind. “That’s pretty cool.”