Chapter 39
Gru tiptoed on her toes, struggling as she pushed the door open, and hurried over to curl up in the corner of the sofa.
“…?”
Julim checked the time.
11 PM. This wasn’t the time for a kindergartener, who usually crashes by 9, to still be awake.
“Why aren’t you asleep? Did you wake up in the middle of sleep?”
Julim asked, wrapping the little bean-shaped child in a blanket.
From inside the blanket, Gru poked her head out and spoke in an overly serious tone.
“Gru… I’ve been worrying because of my Hunter life.”
Julim chuckled. Of course, it was probably something she picked up from watching another weird TV program. He thought he should definitely remove the TV tomorrow.
He rubbed Gru’s sleepy eyes, half-closed from drowsiness.
“Let’s go to bed. Want me to read you a story?”
Gru shook her head.
“Then some bedtime pats?”
Another shake of the head.
Gru just shook her head again and flopped sideways onto the sofa.
“Gru says I don’t have to worry about her.”
“…?”
Gru was not the kind to refuse being held or tucked in. She usually loved little touches of affection and often demanded them.
At first, Julim had felt awkward, but now he was used to patting her and stroking her hair, and until he got busy, he made it a point to watch over her every night.
But now she was saying he didn’t need to care?
There was no telling what was going through that small head of hers.
Shrugging off the confusion and assuming she would sleep anyway, Julim went back to lifting a stack of documents.
“Guildmaster! Gru has decided!”
“Decided what?”
Julim asked, slightly hesitant. He already knew she would say something strange at moments like this.
Maybe she had watched a labor union documentary and was now ready to make her denunciations. Why do those documentaries always come in three-part series, making the employer guardians suffer?
“No denunciations of labor suppression! Right now, it’s the workers oppressing the management.”
The company representative was really enduring a tough ordeal.
“Not that…”
“Then what?”
“Gru’s decided she won’t go to kindergarten anymore and wants to be a Hunter!”
The stack of documents slipped from his hands.
In other words, Han Gru was the one thing in his life that could never be predicted or guessed.
Wrapped in her blanket like a little caterpillar, Gru tumbled onto the bed. Carried from the study to her room, she peeked her face out from under the covers.
Julim perched on the edge of the bed and smoothed her round forehead.
“You don’t want to go to kindergarten? But you liked it until recently.”
Especially after getting her Hunter license.
Bragging and showing off seemed to be human instincts. This little human had been proudly showing off her license, never missing a day at kindergarten.
So her declaration of quitting kindergarten was all the more shocking.
Gru fiddled with the edge of the blanket and said,
“Kindergarten’s nice… but…”
She didn’t dislike it. Playing with friends was fun, and she liked her teachers.
“Nice?”
Gru hesitated, then softly said,
“Um, the kids at kindergarten…”
“Yes?”
“Don’t like Gru.”
Hearing something so serious, Julim’s expression stiffened.
“When we play princess, they don’t let Gru be the princess…”
“What are they making you do, then? Servant?”
She frowned and sulked, remembering something upsetting.
“It’s unfair…”
Julim pressed his lips together and began patting her again.
“Hey, you can just say you want to be the princess too.”
But Gru shook her head seriously.
“That’s not how it works…”
“I see…”
Maybe because Gru hadn’t gone to kindergarten long, she didn’t know much.
“Is that all?”
“No… also… Gru built a Super-Strong Saurus battleship during craft time, and it got destroyed…”
Julim frowned.
“That’s a bad thing to do.”
She nodded.
“Did you tell the teacher?”
“Yes… Harry said sorry to Gru.”
Still, it was upsetting. More than the battleship being destroyed, it hurt because of a friend she liked turning hostile.
“Why do you think your friend did that?”
“Don’t know… just suddenly…”
She had been friends with this kid, and suddenly Gru didn’t understand why he disliked her. It made her frustrated and hurt.
“Can’t you play with someone else?”
“Gru wants to stay friends with Harry…”
“Why?”
“Harry’s pretty, wants to be a princess, and all the other kids like her…”
Julim thought for a moment. Gru was probably the prettiest child he’d ever seen.
Wouldn’t the friend naturally want to stay close to Gru?
“Wears pretty dresses and Dad picks her up every day.”
“Dresses? You have plenty at home.”
He usually left picking clothes to the secretaries, as he felt awkward choosing kids’ outfits. They would buy so many designer kid clothes that the dress room overflowed, and even the sitter joked that picking Gru’s outfit was the hardest task.
“Not just dresses, but pretty ones.”
“Hmm…”
Julim kept thinking, as if facing a difficult problem.
Gru squirmed and nestled next to his thigh, sensing his worry.
It felt good to let it out, but now his mind was full of another concern.
‘Guildmaster… what if Gru becomes a bother?’
Adults liked children who weren’t a bother. Especially when busy.
Julim had spent several nights working nonstop.
Whatever the situation, he could guess she was busy.
‘She was frowning earlier, staring at thick stacks of paper…’
For someone expending magical energy like Julim, catching up on sleep was a priority, so he must be pushing himself.
‘A Supreme Hunter shouldn’t act like a baby.’
Gru hugged him tightly, then rolled to the end of the bed.
“Gru’s fine. Going to sleep now.”
She pulled the blanket over her head. He called her name a few times, but she stayed still, clam-like, eyes shut tight.
Quietly, Julim left the room.
The Next Morning
“Haah…”
Rubbing her eyes, Gru opened Julim’s door, a familiar morning routine before brushing her teeth together.
But…
‘He’s not here!’
Julim, who usually struggled to get up in the morning, wasn’t in the bed. Gru looked around the room, then ran to the living room.
Still no Julim.
‘No way…’
Was it because Gru had been a bother yesterday?
Had he left without her?
Her heart pounded.
‘I’m scared.’
Gru frowned, knocked on the bathroom door, and opened the study room door.
“Guildmaster…”
Crumpled papers crunched under her feet.
“…?”
The study was filled with scattered papers and empty coffee cups.
Julim was asleep at the desk, head resting on the table.
‘Ah… found you…’
Gru exhaled softly. The Guildmaster had just fallen asleep while working in the study.
She walked over, but the floor was littered with countless papers.
‘Oh no!’
Gru began picking them up one by one.
[Dealing with Children’s Friendships]
[Kindergarten Bullying]
[Role of Kindergarten Parents]
Columns, articles, forums, papers…
“Boost self-esteem. Encourage energy.”
Highlighter marks crisscrossed the pages.
Squatting down to read them, Gru didn’t know all the difficult words, but she could roughly understand the content.
The Guildmaster had stayed up all night researching this and had accidentally fallen asleep.
‘Because of me…’
