"Hye-eun must have it good, right? She's got a boyfriend who aspires to be a hunter too."
"Shh! How dare you call Hye-eun nim an apprentice? She's been working as an apprentice hunter since starting high school!"
"Cut it out, no need to hype me up like that. It's not like I'm the only one who awakened anyway."
After finishing my career counseling session with our homeroom teacher a bit later than usual, I was heading home when I heard Kang Hye-eun's voice and the others from inside our classroom. My feet naturally turned that way.
She lived next door, and we were pretending to date, after all. Just as I reached to slide the classroom door open to ask if she wanted to walk home together, my name suddenly came up, freezing me in place on instinct.
"But there's Tae-kyung, you know."
-Freeze.
"I've thought about it a lot, but he really can't awaken as a hunter, right? Honestly, he tries so hard it's almost pitiful, but I've never heard of a male hunter awakening~."
"...Still, there's something cool about how hard he tries. It's a bit sad seeing a perfectly healthy guy roll around like that every day. Hye-eun, you like Sung Tae-kyung for that reason, don't you? That's why you're dating him?"
"Ah~. If it weren't for Kang Hye-eun, I'd be the one taking care of Tae-kyung! If only I'd awakened as a hunter half a year earlier!"
"Hey, hey. Don't cross the line. Hye-eun's gonna get mad again."
"But Kang Hye-eun, do you really like Tae-kyung? Or are you just dating because you're childhood friends and it happened naturally?"
"W-Well, it's like..."
I'd never thought of myself as someone who eavesdropped on conversations, but this time was an exception.
Kang Hye-eun was someone I cared about as a member of the opposite sex, after all. I couldn't help but cautiously look forward to whatever evaluation might come from her mouth.
Until now, I'd been happy with that one thing she'd said back in elementary school. But after three years, I was purely curious if she still supported my dream.
...However, the moment I heard what came out of Kang Hye-eun's mouth next, my heart started pounding in a direction far from what I'd hoped.
"W-What do you mean cool! What's cute about headbutting a rock with no talent? It's not cute at all, just stupid! I'm only dating him because he's so pitiful if I just leave him like that!"
"...?"
"If he stays like that, he'll never awaken as a hunter even if it kills him, and he'll end up an old bachelor forever hearing he's just a hunter wannabe. T-That's why, out of childhood friend duty, I'm planning to take care of him! It's not love, it's friendship... N-No! Pity, it's pity! So you guys don't ruin your lives chasing after Sung Tae-kyung either, got it?! I'm warning you!!"
"Hye-eun flipped her switch again."
"She cracks me up every time she reacts like this, heh."
...Honestly, it wasn't an unexpected reaction.
In this world, male hunters were treated this way as a matter of course. Male awakeners were like unicorns from legends, so it was natural for even Hye-eun to think I couldn't awaken.
Still, couldn't she have said even one word believing in me sincerely? A bit of bittersweet sadness was inevitable.
I wasn't oblivious to her fondness and affection for me, but what I wanted wasn't that simple affection. I wanted her trust that I could truly become a male awakener.
She'd seemed different from everyone else, believing in me all this time. Seeing her react like that filled my chest with inevitable disappointment.
'Tae-kyung's dream is to be a hunter? For real?'
'Yeah. It'll be tough, but I'll become a hunter somehow so no one like my parents ever has to appear again.'
'Then you'll go to the hunter specialist middle school nearby?'
'Yeah. Luckily, they accept male hunter aspirants if your grades are good enough. I'll get in and somehow find a way to awaken.'
'Then I'll be a hunter too! I'll go to the hunter middle school and become partner hunters with Tae-kyung!'
I'd quietly imagined a future where I'd awaken as a hunter like Hye-eun someday, becoming partners, smashing gates together, clearing dungeons side by side.
But learning she didn't really care if I awakened or not left me feeling suddenly empty.
The shock of betrayal from my most trusted childhood friend was enough to shake my resolve that "this much effort is fine."
'First or not, whatever. I just have to awaken somehow and prove them wrong.'
That day, I abandoned the idea of a regular high school from the career counseling and chose the hunter specialist high school, despite protests from my homeroom teacher and nearly everyone else.
I figured if I could just awaken somehow, I'd be able to face Hye-eun proudly again.
I had no idea back then that impulsive choice would become my worst decision, one I'd regret for years to come.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Seoul's Gangdong District Hunter Training High School.
Among the many hunter training high schools famous for their graduates awakening as hunters, Gangdong District's stood out as the most prestigious.
There were three main reasons Gangdong Hunter Training High School earned its reputation as a top school.
One: top-tier awakening facilities to test every kind of ability.
Two: the best combat-oriented faculty made up of current and former hunters who'd graduated from the school.
Three: a stepped curriculum for students with solid foundational training from middle school hunter academies.
With these three elements perfectly in place, it was hailed as the elite of the elite. Recovery hunters were even on standby for injuries during training.
The school focused on one thing alone: completing around a thousand different hunter awakening trainings to focus on sparking even a single ability.
No matter how trivial the ability, awakening was the first step to becoming a hunter.
Swordsmanship and spearmanship for close combat.
Magic and shamanism for mystical powers.
Handling sniper rifles and bows.
Devoting to gods to unlock healing.
Taming mounts. Enhancing physical abilities. Efficient underwater combat. Awakening inner power. Manipulating gravity or electromagnetism. Mental attacks and resistance training. Beast-derived powers. Monster-extracted forces. Recombining object materials. Even summoning and controlling otherworldly beings.
It was truly a one-stop shop for awakening any hunter ability imaginable.
Of course, no one had to complete all thousand-plus trainings. Once you awakened, the rest were skipped.
Quick awakeners could work as school-recommended apprentice hunters or apply for early graduation.
Even unawakened graduates could use facilities for two years post-graduation. If you had the will, failure wasn't an option. That's partly why I chose it, figuring something would work out.
'No way I can't awaken out of over a thousand trainings.'
Sure, there were physical differences between men and women, but there had to be a limit.
Male hunter awakening was rare, but not impossible.
In the worst case, I'd try every single one. But reality wasn't as lenient as I'd hoped.
Girls I'd known since middle school found their paths and awakened one by one. Late bloomers got intensive teacher training and awakened anyway.
As classmates and even later juniors passed me by, I was still spinning my wheels in place.
...And if that were all, I'd have counted myself lucky.
The subtle sexual harassment from girls since middle school escalated in high school. By the time I couldn't physically resist even one girl, they started treating me like a sex toy.
Several would suddenly tackle me under the guise of tickling, groping everywhere.
During PE changing times, I got pantsed nearly every session in a game called "ice kakeki."
Candid photos were daily life. Some sneaky, some blatant.
My desk corner wore down faster than others. Personal items, especially long thin pens, vanished a lot. The intent was obvious.
Even dedicating every moment to training, these interruptions were infuriating distractions.
Sure, as a guy, I wasn't immune to high school girls' naughty pranks... but there were limits.
They didn't care since they'd awakened or were close, but for me with no signs, it was wasting precious time.
Teachers mostly ignored it or pretended not to see. Probably because sacrificing one boosted the class's overall success rate. Better to use a hopeless male aspirant for stress relief than waste effort on him.
Some teachers offered advice or help against the bullying, but most didn't. I can say that confidently now.
For awakening, staying was overwhelmingly advantageous, so I endured the harassment silently.
Reporting would backfire—likely I'd be transferred. And during prime awakening high school years, I didn't want police drama.
Of course, I bore the brunt alone. It spread from a few to the whole class, then grade, then school.
Thankfully, they had some conscience and never crossed the final line. No public forced reverse-rape or stripping. That was small comfort.
Those experiences made me wary of women. Not full-blown gynophobia, but I instinctively suspect any who approach boldly.
I learned this world's female hunters view men more as outlets for raging lust than original world's men view women. Especially "beast types" who couldn't control it even more.
Awakening's physical superiority, instincts deepened by life-or-death dungeon and gate fights. That bred their abnormal libidos.
Not excusing what they did, but I chalked it up to women having stronger sex drives here.
Fortunately, the group harassment faded around mid-second semester of sophomore year. It stabilized when Kang Hye-eun, busy as an apprentice hunter, started attending school regularly again.
The bullying stopping right when Hye-eun returned properly was a relief. Being seen like that by her would've mortified me forever.
Hye-eun's mother, who always worried about me, might hear. I hoped not.
No harassment didn't mean I awakened, obviously.
Three years enrolled, two post-graduation.
No holidays or weekends off, trying every training daily, yet by March 2077 at age 22, no awakening.
Three months after I could no longer attend, I became a jobless leech burning through my parents' inheritance.
"Ugh, life really sucks."
Lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, I drowned in regrets over wasted years.
If I hadn't stubbornly insisted on awakening, hadn't forced myself into hunter high school out of spite, I wouldn't be this shut-in loser now.
One overheard comment during a sensitive time snowballed this far. Without it, I'd be a normal college junior now.
Thinking back, Hye-eun's words weren't malicious. By middle school, heads mature; she just stated the obvious "men can't awaken."
Five years wasted—three high school, two after—my parents' fortune dwindled. At 22, unemployed Sung Tae-kyung achieved nothing, scrolling his phone under the covers again.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙Awakening conditions confirmed. Subject: Sung Tae-kyung has been appointed as Hunter Lust Manager effective immediately.
"......What?"
I'd been blankly scrolling my smartphone when this message suddenly popped up.
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