Chapter 50

050 – Pandora’s Box #1

A bustling street where many people were walking around.

A man with earphones plugged into his ears was aimlessly walking, blending into the large crowd.

“It’s already been two—Yeomra and Pinocchio. Has something like this ever happened before?”

“Getting defeated by a high schooler—this is utterly humiliating.”

“Could this be some kind of operation? They’re trying to turn us against each other.”

The noises interrupting the man’s peace through the earphones just wouldn’t stop.

The voices were filled with anxiety, rage, and fear.

“The d*ath of Yeomra is a problem. He was the one who had the key to make a compromise with the Seonam Group, something like an arson directive.”

“Are we going to be the ones left holding the blame and getting wiped out? Sons of bitches. They only use us when it suits them.”

“Shouldn’t we strike first before they get to us?”

“Shhh.”

The noisy voices inside the earphones gradually quieted down until not even breathing sounds could be heard, upon hearing the man’s soft voice.

The man enjoyed this silence.

He knew well that the truly precious moments are always short-lived.

Now, the man glanced around his surroundings.

It felt like the faces of the people who had come out onto the streets in preparation for summer were weighed down with their own worries and problems.

Because he was wearing earphones, he couldn’t hear their voices, but to Gu Se-jun, countless cries seemed to be coming from them, as if his ears would burst.

Even when he tightly shut his eyes, these cries kept echoing directly in his mind.

All sorts of troubles, concerns, and screams—such cries kept resounding.

Gu Se-jun shuddered as if to shake off those cries and muttered.

“Don’t worry. I’m thinking of meeting someone personally and having a talk.”

“Chat? With the chairman of the Seonam Group?”

“Are you stupid? Someone higher up, probably.”

“Ah, if Se-jun himself talks to them, I’m sure the problem will be resolved well!”

“Then, let’s all go back to our own positions now. Dismissed.”

Dismissed.

Following Gu Se-jun’s words, who was a top-ranking officer of the Billerns, several shadows on the street disappeared into the bright crowd.

“To repay kindness with ingratitude, huh.”

Gu Se-jun thought the time had come.

It was time to end childish villain play and become the real deal.

To do that, it would be best to head to Seugal’s penthouse.

Surely, there would be something he wanted there.

# # #

“Aaaah-.”

The sound of water coming from the bathroom was quite loud.

I had no choice but to shout at the bathroom door.

“We’re going to be charged a lot for water usage, so use it moderately!”

Beyond the bathroom door, Yu Yeo-reum was taking a bath n*ked.

I had originally intended to wash her, but her threat of “If you so much as touch my body, I’ll smash my head against the wall and d*e” left me with no choice but to let her go inside alone.

Still, I was worried if Yeo-reum, a captive hostage, might harbor other intentions, so I pressed my ear against the bathroom door and listened carefully to the sounds coming from inside.

Chap-chap-chap. Plop-plop-. Shoosh-shoosh-.

Thanks to my “emotion,” I could roughly tell which part she was washing just by listening to the splashing water.

She’s currently washing below her chest.

It must be inconvenient to wash with handcuffs, but she’s quite skillful.

Clunk.

Then, the sound of water stopped.

Rustle, rustle-.

There was a short silence as the sound of a soft towel drying her body was heard.

Creak, squeak-.

The door opened, and Yu Yeo-reum, who had tightly wrapped herself in a long bath towel, appeared in the living room. I took her to the room and carefully dried her hair with a hairdryer.

Whoosh-whoosh-.

Her hair was so long that it took quite some time and effort to dry it.

Would we have to spend such time every day from now on?

It seems too dangerous.

“Do you need to use the bathroom?”

At my question, Yu Yeo-reum flared up.

“I haven’t eaten for months, so no.”

She must be good at photosynthesis, huh?

Yu Yeo-reum grumbled, looking like she was in a really bad mood, then turned her head away.

“Your family?”

Is the family photo hanging in the living room bothering her?

Before I could answer, she coolly added something, as if she had already reached some conclusion.

“You don’t resemble your mom at all.”

“I did resemble my dad more when he wanted to marry mom.”

When our dad tried to marry mom, his family strongly opposed it, so he practically kidnapped her and fled. Is that what you’d call a family tradition of abduction marriage?

My dad wasn’t as capable as me, but he was a man with action and decisiveness. Thanks to that, he started many businesses but eventually ruined most of them.

He had no skills, just the action but no follow-through.

“My parents fought every day. To be honest, they weren’t exactly a happy couple, but that’s how it was. As our financial situation got worse, everyone became more anxious—”

It was like that day too.

“It was my birthday, and mom made kimchi stew with ketchup. No matter how much I liked it, it got tiring after a few months, so when my part-time job money came in, I suggested we eat out.”

What we call eating out was going to the food court at the nearby large mart and grilling some meat.

Still, it was rare for us to eat out, so mom put on makeup after a long time and dad dressed neatly, even slicking his hair with oil.

Anyone would have thought it was a harmonious family.

It looked that way, and strictly speaking, it was a relatively harmonious household.

“But while I went down to the first floor temporarily, a fire broke out. My mom and dad on the fourth-floor terrace were shouting at me to escape, but the stairs were already cut off, so there was nothing I could do.”

“…”

“Sometimes I think, if I had just stayed home and eaten the ketchup kimchi stew, what would’ve happened?”

“Or is the reason you put ketchup in your ramen as a form of repentance that you think your family experienced such great tragedies and misfortunes because you complained about side dishes?”

Over the last few days, Yeo-reum’s usually stormy expression had softened. I honestly revealed my feelings to her like that.

“No, I just like ketchup—that’s all. Besides, it’s not my fault the fire happened, right? It’s the fault of the arsonist, and the fault of whoever instructed them.”

The arsonist was Yeomra.

But there were those who had instructed him to set the fire. According to the words of Jeong Yi-seon, the class president of Class D, the Seonam Group was likely the prime suspect. They might have deliberately caused the incident for political leverage.

—A crazed Awakened One committed crimes!—

They instilled fear in the citizens, thus implementing the “Awakened One Control Bill” to strongly regulate and oppress Awakened Ones just like me. Because of that, we were required to undergo thorough DNA tests and various mental examinations at least once every six months.

Even this school’s “smartwatch” is actually used to monitor the students’ real-time locations, though there might be some margin of error.

Yu Yeo-reum said,

“Soft drink.”

“Sodium hydroxide.”

Yu Yeo-reum seemed to be starting a random word chain game, so I countered with a strong word. Thinking of words that start with ‘ryum’ would be a pain.

Indeed, Yu Yeo-reum raised her eyes like someone caught off guard.

“What are you talking about? I can drink soft drinks. Most of them can be made from nutrients, but I especially like strawberry milk. Remember that.”

# # #

“Isn’t it nice? You took a bath.”

Seugal casually tossed out the question to Yu Yeo-reum.

Even a bee armed with stingers wouldn’t seem as sharp as her.

In reality, a pleasant fragrance was wafting from Yu Yeo-reum.

It was the scent of shampoo coming from her long and flowing hair.

Had the bath swept away her unpleasant mood? Yu Yeo-reum’s expression regained its composure.

“Alright, the bath was relaxing.”

“What? What’s wrong?”

That attitude and posture seemed to irritate Seugal.

Now, Seugal was so angry that she tried her best to ruin Yu Yeo-reum’s mood.

“Look at her chest! It’s shrunk, hasn’t it? Did someone play a trick on her? Hanamjin, check her chest! It’s smaller than usual; someone definitely did something!”

Seugal was pointing at Yu Yeo-reum’s chest with my oversized T-shirt worn as a dress. It was true that her chest seemed smaller than it usually was.

What the heck is this?

What sort of trick has she pulled?

Maybe she attempted something to escape.

But Yu Yeo-reum dismissed it rudely, as if it were nonsense.

“I’m completely drained. I’ve used up all the light I had stored. When I have more charged light, my chest grows. When I’m completely drained, it shrinks to C-cup.”

Reduced to C-cup, huh? Even that surpasses the average size in Korea by a long shot. As I thought that, Seugal smiled cunningly like a wicked fox.

“What nonsense is this? Is a chest some sort of battery? She definitely used some trick during her bath. Pervert! You check her yourself! Before anything happens and you wind up regretting it!”

Seugal had a point in what she said.

It would be better to physically check rather than deal with unforeseen circumstances.

“Check her quickly.”

Seugal looked triumphant, like a detective who caught a thief.

She probably thought she had won.

On the other hand, Yu Yeo-reum looked flustered, her face turning red, but she sighed as if there was no other way and made a proposal to me.

“Fine. I’ll let you check, but if everything is okay, buy me strawberry milk before the day ends.”

She offered to allow a breast examination in exchange for strawberry milk.

It was a kind of proposed deal.

“Strawberry milk? Hey! Are you serious? Do you even realize you’ve been kidnapped? Think of your situation! What strawberry milk? For God’s sake, stop being ridiculous!”

Seugal was highly against this deal.

In this situation, my decision is—

“Alright.”

I decided to check Yu Yeo-reum’s chest and buy her strawberry milk if everything was normal. It seemed like a reasonable deal to me.

That’s how I ended up palpating Yu Yeo-reum’s chest.

Over the clothes.

Three times.

Thanks to the concept of “emotion,” I was certain that I could determine if there was anything wrong by touching three times.

When I reached out, there was an unexpected elasticity beneath my hand. Nearby, Seugal giggled.

“Our Yeo-reum isn’t going to get married anytime soon!”

“…”

Yu Yeo-reum was biting her lip tightly.

Even though she didn’t show it outwardly, the current situation clearly annoyed her greatly.

By the way, it’s the second time I’ve touched a woman’s chest.

The first was with Jin Ramyeon’s sister. At that time, I was too distracted, but it’s different now.

I am a man.

A man who does not randomly grope women.

Hence, I palpated Yu Yeo-reum’s chest three times without any bias, purely business-like.

“There’s no issue. It seems just like Yeo-reum described, that her chest enlarges or shrinks depending on the amount of light she has stored.”

“…Then hurry and take your hand off. And don’t forget the strawberry milk.”

Yu Yeo-reum confirmed our deal again while exhaling heavy breaths.

Hanamjin.

No matter what, I am a man who keeps his promises.

“Alright, one strawberry milk. Does that mean I should buy it now?”

“Hey! Wait! I want apple juice!”

At that moment, Seugal shouted.

Apple juice.

It seemed like she also wanted to drink apple juice.

“Seugal, you didn’t go through the breast check.”

“Then, should I also go through it?”

“No, you don’t need to check since there’s no reason.”

“…Wha…What? What did you say?”

Seugal’s expression turned extremely red upon being rejected by me.

Like a perfectly ripe apple.

“Name: Seugal

Possession: Expand details ☜

Condition: 《Extreme Humiliation》 – Feeling like a failure to Yeo-reum since I was rejected by a kidnapper.”

She was so angry that she was fuming, making me flinch a little. But I wasn’t going to be swayed by her expression.

Because from now on, I needed to focus on training Seugal.

“Seugal, I’ll buy you apple juice once you successfully awaken your concept.”

“Concept? You said it well. Then bring my Relic. It’s probably in my room. I can better understand the concept with it.”

Seugal’s Relic?

I thought she was referring to the Japanese sword from the Treasure Exhibition, but it didn’t seem to be that. So, Seugal also had multiple Relics?

“And, once you bring the Relic, isn’t it all set if you give me a ‘soft squishy’ once?”

“Soft squishy?”

“Soft squishy?” What is that?

It was a word that made my brain fizz. Is it something you learn in high school or college?

I, with only a middle school diploma, couldn’t at all guess what this “soft squishy” might be!

No matter what it is, if I bring Seugal’s Relic, I’ll surely find out what this ‘soft squishy’ is.

Hehehe-.

A laugh came out as if my brain had short-circuited.

Let’s head back to Seugal’s penthouse first!

This time, confidently, through the front gate!

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