Fandom: Solo Leveling
Mods please use the f: book (category) tag
Rating: T
Length: 300 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: The title is from A Great Big Tree by Kiyoko Nagase, translated by Takako Lento, and Alien by James Harpur.
Summary: An attempt at a bit of a Cha Haein character study.

It’s not that Haein has an issue with the idea of, you know, getting married and having a kid or whatever. She knows her dad would be overjoyed to have little feet running around the house; it’s been far too quiet since she moved to Seoul for university, and then her Awakening and recruitment by the Hunter’s Guild.

(She’s not scared, but she still remembers the way her mother died.)

Jinwoo is so strong, and so dedicated; that makes her feels safe. But he doesn’t need her, or want her, and the first flush of crush hasn’t lasted past that.

Haein’s seen the way he is with that D-Rank VP of his, in his three-person guild. Jinwoo doesn’t really seem to have friends, but Yoo Jinho is probably the closest to it.

(She doesn’t want to settle for close enough.)

“Do you like being a Hunter?” her dad had asked her once. The conversation had derailed after that, the rice cooker ready or a package delivery, she can’t remember, and Haein’s not sure what she would have answered.

(No. Yes.)

For too many women, a career is only what they get to have before they get married and have children.

As an S-Rank Hunter, a career is what’s expected of her, at least until she’s forced into retirement by injury or death.

(Does death count as retirement?)

And she’s so good at it. There’s a confidence and pride in knowing she’s one of Korea’s best, in working with the Elite strike team, doing her job, being competent and admired. But she never wanted to be a celebrity.

(Beyond the glass ceiling, there’s only a pedestal.)

Haein never really got to know Min Byunggu that well before he died, but now she has his voice in her dreams.

And that’s all.