002 – Normalization of Bangdaengi
If I were to go back in time, I wonder what it would be like?
If I could return to the time before my legs were destroyed?
Hehehe… Just thinking about it sends chills down my spine.
“Of course, there’s a moment I’d like to return to. But before answering that question, could you do me a favor and take off your shoes? It’s a Western custom, you know. You enter the house with your shoes on.”
There are rules that must be followed, even if the world ends.
After hesitating for a moment, Seugal took off her shoes upon my request.
“Oof, why is your house so damp? My stockings are all wet.”
Sliiiiide…
Eventually, Seugal even took off her stockings, revealing her pale feet.
I had never seen a beautiful young woman take off her stockings before, so my heart beat wildly. I didn’t even know feet could be this white and beautiful. So stimulating…
Seugal held up the stockings she had removed, like a snake shedding its skin, and elegantly tossed them into a container.
“Is this the trash can?”
“No, it’s my cooking pot.”
“Really? Anyway, you. All abilities arise from a strong desire, did you know? Mine was no different when I last blossomed. But I don’t have the time to use this ability. I’ll be dead soon.”
Dead?
She seems perfectly fine to me.
Thinking she might really be insane, Seugal continued speaking.
“If someone could tame even that ferocious Demon Beast like family, it would be right for you to take over my last ability and chance. It’s like going all-in on a bad hand.”
“Take over? Take over what?”
“If I were to go back in time, find me and train me. It won’t be easy though, because even I think that version of myself will be tough. So, you’ll have to kidnap me and train me rigorously.”
Kidnap?
She was truly a crazy woman.
If I had to summarize all the strange things I heard today, it would probably be something like this?
“So, you’re saying, you’ll send me to the past and if I go, I’ll somehow have to kidnap you. Right? And force intense training?”
“Training, not intense training!”
Six of one, half a dozen of the other.
I, for one, am no fool.
But since she had a pretty face, I thought if I continued to agree with her, our relationship might improve—a calculated thought passing through my mind.
I really am a genius.
In fact, Seugal nodded with apparent approval as if she was impressed with me.
“Still, it’s good that you understood faster than I expected. I heard you only finished middle school, but I did a bit of research on you.”
“I may have dropped out of middle school, but I’m one of the smartest there. Why do you want me to kidnap you? Whatever it is, why don’t you just openly talk to your past self and ask for cooperation?”
“Cooperation? Absolutely not. I know myself well. And it’s best if this remains a secret from everyone. There was a traitor among the humans. I couldn’t figure out who it was, which is why we ended up here.”
Slip…
As Seugal lifted her soaked clothes, I noticed a deep stab-like scar on her sleek abdomen.
“Wow, that looks incredibly painful. What a terrible person, to have done this to someone.”
“I agree. If I hadn’t slacked off in training, the situation might have been different. So, you need to put in the effort.”
“Effort, sure. But weren’t you something famous, like the daughter of a wealthy family? Even if we go back in time, how could someone as ordinary as me meet and kidnap you?”
“That’s for you to figure out. But here’s a hint: I’m unusually weak on moonlit nights. It’s a secret I’ve never told anyone.”
I created a secret with a woman!
Is it thanks to the fan I salvaged from a pile of junk? There’s no doubt that it brought good luck.
“Alright, assuming your story is true. What’s the payment? Will you pay me what I ask for?”
That was the moment my chest started pounding.
If I got a lot of money, I could buy tons of noodles.
Ketchup too. And sausages!
As I daydreamed about such happiness, Seugal threw a spanner in the works.
“To be honest, I don’t have any money right now.”
“What? You say you want to hire me, but you don’t have money? Are you joking now? Aren’t you even going to feed me? If you don’t have money, then at least give me food!”
“I don’t have food either. I used everything I had to escape the city unnoticed by the monitors. Meeting you wasn’t easy.”
“So, in the end, you’re completely broke!”
No matter how pretty her face was, this was just wrong.
Do you take us men for fools?
“Of all the men I’ve met before, maybe they gave everything away for free, but I’m not that kind of person.”
“Malleable person?”
Swish…
Seugal slightly opened her eyes and looked around. I quickly hid the swimsuit photo book hanging on the wall behind me, but I did it so perfectly that it seemed unnoticed.
“Namjin, Hanamjin, do you not have a girlfriend? Have you ever dated?”
“What? I was very popular.”
“Alright, if you say so. Then here’s your payment for this job: two ‘softs.’ How does that sound?”
“Wha…?”
Softs? What is that?
Whatever it was, it was a word that made my brain tingle.
Is it something taught in high school or college?
As someone who only completed middle school, I couldn’t figure out what these ‘softs’ were at all!
“Anyway, I’ll send you back in time now. By the way, I can transfer my abilities to others. This is another secret no one knows. I’ll give you the 《Emotion Sight》, the ability that has been most helpful to me.”
Haaaaaa!
As Seugal placed her hand on my shoulder, my vision suddenly lit up dazzlingly.
Something definitely unusual was happening.
“Hold on! Hey! I only take payment in advance!”
Whatever ‘softs’ meant, I definitely needed to collect in advance!
Just as I desperately shouted, I regained consciousness to find myself standing in the middle of an eight-lane crosswalk.
“What is this?”
“Oh, my phone—.”
For some reason, in front of me was a high school girl bending over to pick up her phone, and to my right was a drunk driver nodding off at the wheel as a truck approached us at breakneck speed.
Beeeeep!
The driver’s bl**d alcohol level was 0.15%.
He could face a sentence of one to two years in prison or a fine of up to ten million won.
How did I know this? I didn’t want to know at all.
“This is where my leg was crushed! Did I really come back to when I was 19?”
This was a situation I had dreamed about and replayed countless times.
What’s different this time?
「Name: Kim Mandeuk
Condition: 《Drunk》 – Extremely intoxicated. Completely dysfunctional.
」
「Name: Baek Yeo-ul
Condition: 《Suspicious》 – She suspects the man standing behind her might be peeking at her bottom while she picks up her phone.
」
Strange text appeared in my vision.
Is this the effect of the 《Emotion Sight》?
In any case, through some bizarre process, I returned to the turning point of my life: 19 years old, the spring of my life. Five seconds before an alcohol-fueled truck accident.
The previous me, overconfident in my ‘strength,’ attempted to grab the girl and leap in the opposite direction, causing a problem.
When the high school girl I held screamed “You filthy pervert!” and created an uproar, I lost my balance and fell.
As a result, my left ankle was crushed beneath the truck’s tires.
How often had I regretted that day?
But now!
I have been given a second chance!
“Disappear from my life, you heavy bangdaengi woman!!”
Pang!
I kicked the high school girl’s bottom with all my might.
“Ughhhhaaack!”
The high school girl flew through the air like a soccer ball and landed somewhere across the crosswalk.
Startled by the sight, the truck driver slammed on the brakes and crashed the truck into a nearby tree.
Squeeeek! Roaaaaar!
“Hey! What’s happening? It’s an accident! Accident!”
“Call 119! 119!”
“Yeo-ul! Are you okay? Yeo-ul! Hey! What in the world are you doing? Kim Director! What are you doing? Catch him!”
“Haha! This is it! This is what I did! I finally kicked that bangdaengi woman!”
Gyoomchit! Gyoomchit!
Just like a soccer player celebrating a World Cup goal, I swung my hips back and forth and then dashed away as fast as I could.
# # #
The world fell apart when I turned 20.
Now it is spring when I am 19.
I trembled at the sight of the buildings still standing tall with cars zooming smoothly beneath them.
The world hasn’t fallen apart yet—!
“Car exhaust fumes spread murderously, people on the streets smoke casually, and even the ajummas feed cats recklessly!”
The sight of neighborhood cat ladies was overwhelming with joy.
Drip drip!
What an incredibly beautiful sight this is!
After the world ended, all the cats were eaten by starving people, so they disappeared!
“Cat ladies, I love you!”
Please keep feeding the strays!
There will be plenty to eat later!
No, that’s not it.
There’s someone else deserving of my fiery love.
“Seugal, my goddess! My light! From now on, any insult to Seugal is an insult to me.”
I thought she was just a pretty face with a penchant for psycho and exaggerations.
Sending someone back to the past was impressive though!
Thanks to her, I not only protected my legs but also got to enjoy the fresh scent of exhaust fumes.
Most importantly, I have my ‘home.’
The dilapidated countryside house left by my parents when they passed away.
In this backward town, so depopulated due to low birthrates that redevelopment has no prospect, and where even foreign workers looking for cheap rooms avoid, lies my old home.
“And there is always a key in my left pocket!”
Janglang.
Where is there a house without a door lock in today’s world?
Right here!
I passed through the alley littered with discarded trash, opened the yard gate, and entered my house.
An old, flat-screen TV and framed family photos hung on the wooden floors of the living room.
A broken air conditioner replaced by the fan I had running all summer, and a high school uniform that I hadn’t worn since my first year now appeared in my sight.
Click. Whoosh.
As I grabbed the string and turned on the wall-mounted fan, my legs went limp, and I collapsed.
The mere pulling of a string and the fan blew such refreshing air!
“This is life.”
In the kitchen, I found about a single box of ‘Jjim Ramen.’
Would General Guan Yu, heading to a water park, feel as happy as I do?
“Ramen party!”
As I acted like a spirit possession and excitedly boiled water in the pot, I suddenly felt like I had forgotten something.
Not enough ketchup?
No, what I forgot was—
“—Seugal.”
Seugal herself had asked me to kidnap her.
I had done various odd jobs for money, but requests like this one—to kidnap oneself—are rare and belong to a category as bizarre as the request from Deputy Manager Kim Jang-dong, who wanted to be tied up with ropes and whipped.
I turned on the computer, which was working quite normally, and began searching for ‘Seugal.’
「Seven years ago, awakenings began to manifest out of nowhere. Is this the birth of a new humanity?」
「With the results from the test of Seugal of Seonam Group coming back positive, Korea’s 1193rd Awakened One is born—」
「The government is formulating measures as genetic mutations begin to surface among teenagers—」
Even back then, Seugal was already famous.
“She’s the same age as me?”
But despite being the same age, Hanamjin, the orphan living in the run-down countryside house, and Seugal, the daughter of a conglomerate, were worlds apart in their circumstances.
Like the difference between a stray cat put down for being ugly and a pedigreed cat welcomed into wealthy homes? Frankly, it’s even more than that.
“How do I kidnap a girl like that?”
Headache inducing.
Should I just outright ignore it?
“But this world will end eventually. And for the world not to fall apart completely, I heard that Seugal needs to train hard. That is… if I want to continue living happily for a long, long time, I must kidnap Seugal and train her as a warrior.”
Can I do it?
To be honest, I felt confident that I could.
After all, I’m the man who even tamed the ferocious Demon Beast called Yining, right?
“Before that, a ramen party first!”
