First lesson

Eun Ha saw the Hunter from afar, near the City Walls where they agreed to meet in the early evening.

He seemed somewhat distracted, scribbling on the ground with a twig, and the fashion designer could better evaluate the style of her Teacher on Magical Affairs. Apparently, he also preferred dark clothes, in a deconstructed style that she decided to tag as more Yohji Yamamoto than anything else.

His dark hair was tousled from the wind, and looked slightly off-cut, but he seemed to have shaved today; she could no longer see the shadow of a beard under his pale skin.

Strangely, she considered him to have a peculiar and interesting style, quite different from most Korean men his own age. By the way, how old should he be? She didn't know how to judge by appearance alone, she just had the impression that it was somewhere between 30 and 40. If she could take appearance into account regarding fairies.

"Hello, Professor Shin." She bowed respectfully, stopping beside him, but without peering at what he was scribbling. She just stared at the horizon and the city lights, waiting for her teacher to acknowledge her presence.

The Hunter looked up, appraising her, and Eun Ha patiently endured the scrutiny until he rose, dropping the stick, and wiped his hands on his pants.

"Hello Jung. This hat of yours… Do you wear it because you think it's cool to look like a witch? "

Eun Ha resisted the urge to hold the wide brim of her felt hat. It was one of her favorite hats. "Oh, I wear it because it suits me."

"Uhun."

She was past the point of caring about the fact that her clothes might get attention, but she'd like to know more about a thing or two about fairies and clothes... Something she would soon clarify with Professor Shin. But a frightening thought suddenly sprang into her mind:

"Wait! Are witches considered threats? Should I worry?"

"Don't you think so? "Was his sardonic response, looking around to see if humans were too close. But right now there was no one but them in this somewhat secluded spot near the City Walls. After his comment Eun Ha got unsure if it was an empty tease or truth. Her tutor didn't even seem to be capable of that kind of humor. But right now, instead of pressing further the matter, she held out the paper bag she was carrying to the man in front of her.

He glanced at the bag with a suspicious look,

"What is this?"

"Please accept. It's something for Professor Shin. For you accepting to teach me, I'm grateful." She bowed respectfully.

He looked stunned. "What are you doing? I didn't ask for anything other than what we agreed."

"Please, Professor Shin. It is only appropriate for me doing it. I'm grateful that you agreed to teach me." She repeated.

He seemed quite refractory to her offer, but Eun Ha already imagined it might happen, and simply did as Kang Dae did earlier, pushing the gift into his hands until refusing was too rude. This man seemed to have several layers of resistance against the basic things of modern etiquette, but she supposed it was part of being a "Hunter of monsters and other threats".

"May I?" he asked, and she nodded, expectantly of what he would think of her small souvenir.

As expected, he awkwardly took the bag and peered inside, fishing for a black scarf.

"It started to get cool, so I thought about giving you something like this. I hope it can be of some use this winter," she blushed. Even though she didn't say she had done it herself, but the scarf had a tag with her brand name on it_ if he was checking on it.

"Ah, well… thank you. Very much." After bowing in thanks, he replaced the scarf he wore with the new one. "You needn't have done that."

Eun Ha smiled, putting her hands in her pocket a little embarrassed now. "Professor… What is the most urgent thing for me to know now? Can we start by it?"

Her tutor took a deep breath, and stood beside her. "Yes we can. There is something urgent, yes. Let's talk about using the magic wand. "

"Okay. "She even shifted her position to a steady base, ready to receive the wisdom that would pour over her like a cascade of light. Or so it was imagined.

"Jung, show me what you can do." The Hunter pointed a bush about twenty feet from them. "Use that bush. Make something happen there. "

The fairy girl kind of was already waiting for some kind of test like that, so she carefully pulled her wand out and aimed the bush for precision. She turned to the man suddenly,

"Right here?"

"..." His gaze just seemed to question if she was serious after being caught the night before pointing her magic wand at humans on a boulevard in an upscale neighborhood.

"Okay…" She turned back to the target, readjusting her aim.

"Uhm. Just do it. "

" Can I do anything? "

" Show me what you're capable of. "

"… "Eun Ha wasn't that thrilled to be judged on magical matters. "Listen, Professor. Remember no one taught me, I learned it all by myself. Maybe… "

" I get that. Just do it, Jung. "

" Anything I want? "

" You don't think we have all night to be here with you asking this kind of question, do you?"

" Ehh… "she complained softly. But she sighed and decided on something.

The arm that held the wand weighed and tingled as it always did when she activated the wand, and she focused her thoughts on one effect, spinning the pointed object in a small circle. A breeze lifted some debris off the ground, which got entangled into the small bush. She concentrated to cause a greater effect, and the breeze rose, taking the dried leaves and other light debris as it blew, shaking the plant noticeably.

She turned to the teacher, holding her breath.

He didn't look the least bit impressed. The Hunter crossed his arms and walked to the bush, unraveling a bigger sheet of print that had gotten caught in the branches of the foliage. He plucked the sheet of paper, catching her eye: "Is this your best, or was a fail?"

"Oh well, I didn't know what to do with the bush!" She tried to justify what seemed to be considered a poor performance. "Should I try to destroy it? I thought that was not the intention… "

He crumpled the paper into a ball and went to the nearest dumpster. Eun Ha was mortified. 'What if I'm beyond help? Is my magic spoiled somehow? It was not that easy. When things are happening it's easier; but upon a stationary object, and a bush, of all things?! How could I do something interesting?'

"Professor Shin! May I try around people? I can make very interesting things around people. I was gotten by surprise; I didn't do many things on static objects…" She watched his reaction and stopped talking as he scratched behind his ear, looking not quite pleased with what he was hearing. "But I'm here to learn, aren't I?"

"I'm was thinking to myself that maybe you weren't the potential threat I mistakenly thought you were."

"…" She gaped, her mind trying to decide if it was going to take offense or feeling relieved. "Seonsaengnim!"

"Let's start at the beginning, Jung." He cleared his throat and took the more professorial stance as possible.

"Uhum."

"Take a good look at your magic wand."

She examined her green "pen", with swirls imitating leaves over her metallic body, searching for something she didn't know about it yet.

"Your magic wand is unique."

'Of course he would say that.' She thought. She imagined the myths had some real background after all.

"And it must be protected with zeal."

'C'mon, tell me something I don't know… Do you really think I'm going to fool around with such a powerful object? It is always with me. All the time. Everywhere. Even in the toilet. Oh yeah.' She replied inside her head, but kept her mouth shut.

"And it doesn't do much good if it ends up falling into the hands of humans, for example, but that's the way it is.

"Uh?" Eun Ha didn't expect this one.

He came closer to her. He reached out with his palm upward, apparently expecting her to hand the object to him. Eun Ha was jealous of it, though. Just for a moment she thought she should give it, so he could show what he wanted her to see. But then the girl remembered that the Hunter ostensibly avoided touching her magic wand, in the night before.

"Professor Shin didn't touch my wand with your bare hands yesterday… Why?"