33 - Chapter 31: Specter of the Past
The next day, I got to see the results of what I'd done.
Jeong Yu-mi's gang won. Regrettable, but I'd figured it might happen.
Because even I couldn't control which side would win, or how it would go down.
Honestly, from where I stood, this was actually a decent outcome.
What I'd been most afraid of was Jeong Yu-mi's gang winning in a one-sided slaughter and keeping their forces intact.
But that didn't happen.
They won, but Jeong Yu-mi's side took serious damage too.
Enough that if I had the right tools, I could kill them all myself.
Thinking that, I pulled the pistol from inside my jacket and checked it one last time to make sure everything was fine.
If I get caught sneaking a gun out of school, I'll definitely get expelled.
And I'll probably get caught, odds are. You can't cover up shooting more than ten people, even if you want to.
Mass murder plus a stolen firearm means a pretty hefty sentence.
Still, I'm only D-rank, and just a hunter trainee at that, so it's likely they won't even offer me a plea deal involving the Penal Unit.
Fully aware of the catastrophe my actions would bring, I stood up and opened my door.
"Huh?"
Opening the door, I came face to face with my noona, who was awake even though it wasn't nighttime yet.
It had been a long time since I'd seen my noona awake in the morning, and it was also strange to make eye contact with her—she who normally couldn't look anyone in the eye at all.
"Su... Su-hyeon..."
"What."
My noona called my name and strode toward me. I tried to step back but failed as she grabbed my shoulder.
"Mmph...!"
She held my shoulder firmly to keep me in place and, without warning, bowed her head and kissed me. I couldn't overpower the brute strength of a B-rank mana rank, so I just went along with the kiss for a while.
"Ngh...?"
A small pill passed from her tongue to mine. She forced it down my throat. I swallowed almost instinctively.
"Wha... what..."
I could tell right away what kind of pill my noona had fed me. The effects spread instantly.
My head spun dizzily. At the same time, an immense drowsiness washed over me.
Unable to resist the violent chemical-induced sleep crashing over me, I collapsed right there.
Han Su-in looked down at her younger brother's sleeping face. Then she laid him on the bed and closed the door again.
"It's okay... I... I need to finish this..."
Composing herself like that, she crossed the living room and stood before the front door.
"Huuu..."
She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Calming her mind as much as she could, she placed her hand on the digital door lock.
"...."
Han Su-in couldn't move any further.
"Huk...! Huu...! Ha...! Haa...! Haa...! Heo-eok...!"
Her breathing grew ragged. From the hand on the door lock, her whole body started shaking violently. Her heart ached like it was about to burst.
"Eut...! Heu...! Heut...!"
Her face contorted. Tears welled up in her heavily wrinkled eyes. Her stomach cramped violently, and she felt nauseous even though she hadn't eaten anything properly.
"I must not run away. I must not run away. I must not run away. I must not run away. I must not run away. I must not run away. I must not run away. I must not run away. I must not run away. I must not run away. I must not..."
I've always only run away until now.
So.
"I can't... run... away... but.... Ah..."
Contrary to the vow she repeated in her mind, her head kept bowing down to stare at the ground. Her brain forcibly replayed memories she'd desperately tried to forget but failed.
"Eu-heuk... heuk... eut..."
In the end, Han Su-in's hand failed to unlock the door and was about to fall away limply.
At that moment.
A green hand overlapped hers on the door lock.
"Ah..."
The orc's characteristically high body temperature warmed her cold, numb hand.
"Geu-eu...! Jeo-gii...!"
The green hand that had wrapped Han Su-in's skillfully pressed the buttons to unlock the lock. With a cheerful electronic sound, the front door unlocked and clicked open.
"Hik...!"
As the door suddenly opened, Han Su-in reflexively flinched.
When she'd gone out looking for Han Su-hyeon before, it had been night. It had been a very long time since she faced the outside world in broad daylight, when darkness didn't hide her.
The pouring natural light was so bright it stung her eyes. At the same time, it felt much warmer than she remembered.
The female orc, who had opened the door in Han Su-in's place, then forcefully slapped her on the back.
That tingling shock and refreshing pain spread throughout her entire body from her back, awakening Han Su-in's frozen body and mind.
"◼◼◼."
She still couldn't understand the orc language.
But she could feel what she was saying. She understood it with her heart, not her head.
Before she knew it, the trembling had stopped. Her heartbeat returned to normal. The tears stopped, her vision cleared, and her restless heart calmed down placidly.
"Ha."
With a light laugh, Han Su-in looked at the female orc and spoke.
"I'll be back."
Her footsteps as she went out were still full of hesitation and awkwardness. Nevertheless, she did not stop.
"Huh?"
Jin Seo-yun, who had been blankly walking down the street without much thought, turned her head almost instinctively.
"Isn't that Su-in?"
Of course, the last time she'd seen Han Su-in was in elementary school, so she couldn't be sure.
But if her friend from memory had grown up as she had, she thought she would look exactly like that.
So Jin Seo-yun unconsciously started following the receding back and began to wonder whether to speak or not.
*
Jeong Yu-mi was enjoying a rare moment of leisure.
There had been damage, but regardless, she had succeeded in driving out the old remnants and seizing control of this region.
When she reported this to the Gang Boss, she was extremely pleased and even said she would come in person to commend them.
"My life's gonna be smooth sailing from now on. Unlike those loser bastards just scraping by on their salary, I'm gonna live with style."
It was the kind of delusion commonly had by inexperienced students or newbies in the workforce. Jeong Yu-mi scrolled through her phone gallery, imagining the rosy future ahead.
What she was looking at now were the photos of Han Su-in's younger brother that she had taken the other day.
"What are you looking at?"
When someone interrupted her, Jeong Yu-mi, instead of hiding the photos, showed them off.
"Pictures from when I fucked the younger brother of that loser bitch I know."
Jeong Yu-mi's colleague also giggled and snickered at the naked photos of Han Su-hyeon.
"Crazy bitch, how much did you fuck that kid?"
"What the fuck. That rag of a bitch was dying from pleasure just from a few strokes."
The other gang members who had been lounging around idly also reacted to the conversation between Jeong Yu-mi and her colleague and crept closer.
"What is it? What are you looking at?"
"What? When did you take these?"
Before long, the whole gang gathered, passing around Han Su-hyeon's naked photos and spouting vulgar jokes.
As the abandoned warehouse they were recuperating in grew rowdy.
Someone opened the unlocked door and stepped inside.
"Huh?"
At the sound of the warehouse door opening, all eyes turned toward it.
Where their gazes gathered, a woman stood, silhouetted by the backlight.
"What's that now?"
The woman's name was Han Su-in.
"Hmm?"
Perhaps because she used to be the bullies' target, Jeong Yu-mi among the gang was the first to recognize the sudden visitor and smiled as if pleased.
"Look who it is."
Jeong Yu-mi stood up with a crooked smirk.
"Su-in, it's been a really long time."
"...."
As the gang's leader, Jeong Yu-mi, stepped forward pretending to know her, the others didn't bother to step in and just watched the situation.
"Did you like the pictures I sent you? Since I figured you'd never see a man's body in real life until you die, I sent you your own brother's body. Aren't you grateful?"
Even with Jeong Yu-mi's blatant provocation, Han Su-in doesn't answer. She just stands there silently, glaring at her.
'This bitch has gotten bold after a few years.'
Jeong Yu-mi didn't like that attitude. A bitch who couldn't even make eye contact in middle school. Now she not only dares to look me straight in the eye but also ignores my words?
"Hey."
So she wiped off her smile and switched to a cold expression.
"Answer."
"...."
Huh? Look at this?
Even so, as Han Su-in didn't seem intimidated on the surface, Jeong Yu-mi's pride genuinely started to get hurt.
"Fuck, embarrassing me. This loser bitch."
There were many eyes watching, and she wouldn't have held back even if there weren't.
Jeong Yu-mi strides purposefully toward Han Su-in.
In response to that action, Han Su-in also takes a basic boxing stance.
"Oho? Looks like you learned something somewhere?"
Seeing that, even the slight unease Jeong Yu-mi had felt from not knowing what the opponent was relying on completely vanished.
"Did you watch some cartoon about a loser learning martial arts and beating up bullies while I wasn't looking?"
'Yeah, that's what I thought.'
As the distance became close enough, Jeong Yu-mi pulled her clenched fist all the way back.
"Don't open your trap. Your teeth will break."