072 – Peanut Allergy is the Worst Weakness
Bangdaengi said that until middle school, Seugal had been such a virtuous model student that she hadn’t once uttered a curse word.
Model student and Seugal…
It was a hard image to imagine when looking at the girl who had daily fits of unpredictable behavior, but the idea made sense when considering she might have been putting up a front all along.
The important part was that Seugal’s facade had once been shattered dramatically.
It happened during a math field trip in the second year of middle school.
Some children, including Baek Yeo-ul, turned off the lights of their dormitory and jumped Seugal.
It was supposed to be a harmless prank.
But the moment they grabbed Seugal and began to tickle her sides…
“Ahak, sh*t!”
Profane language burst forth, something no one would have expected from the demure Seugal.
I could almost visualize the atmosphere turning tense instantly after that. It was as if I had been there myself.
Seugal was extremely ticklish.
“Everyone has their weaknesses. However, what matters is how one endures and overcomes them—it’s all part of the training.”
Being ticklish was quite a crippling weakness in the destroyed world. It was on par with the worst weakness, the infamous “peanut allergy.”
Therefore, over these next ten days of detention, I decided to help the girls fully overcome this weakness.
“Seugal, are you ready?”
When I asked, Seugal, sitting cross-legged and taking deep breaths, opened her eyes and countered.
“Rather than asking me, are YOU going to keep quiet? If I can endure being tickled for fifteen minutes without laughing, you have to keep your promise and grant my wish.”
“I, Hanamjin the man, will not break my word or any contract. No matter how much you cry and beg, it won’t change anything.”
“We don’t have any intention of crying or begging. And who cares about your so-called purity!”
Seugal flared up.
But Yeo-reum placed a hand on Seugal’s shoulder.
“Don’t fall for such obvious provocation. You need to calm down. Remember, ticklishness is simply a neural signal sent by the brain, nothing more.”
Seugal’s determined attitude was evident. She seemed like a gambler who had bet everything on a horse with an unusual name at the racetrack.
The start of this weakness overcoming training.
“Then Seugal, lie down on the bed.”
“Don’t say it like a pervert.”
“Lie down, ing.”
“…Ugh, you’re serious about this?”
Seugal lay down neatly on the fragrant bed. It was almost reverent, solemn, and precise – like the sacrificial offering of a maiden to the Aztec God of Fertility, Tezcatlipoca.
However, as I took a step closer, Seugal’s expression suddenly twisted and she exploded in laughter.
“Huff! Hahaha!”
She was laughing even before the tickling had begun.
And then, with a red face, Seugal became furious.
“Hey! That doesn’t count! We didn’t say ‘start’ yet! And making weird faces is a foul, so stop it!”
“I agree, invalid. And I wasn’t making a weird face.”
The game reset.
When I, with earnest intent, approached Seugal lying peacefully on the bed…
“Huff! Hey! Don’t try to make me laugh!”
“I’m not trying to make you laugh. This is just the face I was born with.”
“No, it’s not just your face…”
“I’m serious.”
This was time secured from our detention for the purpose of training; would it not be foolish to waste it on jokes?
“Hahaha! Hahaha!”
Nevertheless, Seugal laughed, her cheeks turning completely red, and even got angry with me.
“Hey! Quit it, I said!”
“What am I even doing?”
Even Yeo-reum, who had been observing the scene, snapped at Seugal.
“Hey, Seugal, take it seriously. Hanamjin, stop messing around with her.”
But what did I even do?
I was wronged!
What could I possibly do if Seugal starts laughing just from looking at me?
But I could somewhat understand Seugal’s feelings.
A handsome man can naturally make a woman smile just with his looks, after all.
This is the destiny of “Brad Pitt” Hanamjin, I suppose.
…
#
…
Since Seugal couldn’t stop laughing whenever she looked at me, there was no choice but to cover her eyes with a blindfold.
But a new problem arose.
“Hahaha! Ha ha ha haaa!”
Now, even before my approach, Seusal would burst into laughter with her eyes covered. She started pinching her thighs and biting her lips after about five minutes.
“…”
Seugal was now completely motionless.
Like a statue.
She was ready, perhaps.
As I approached her and lightly poked her side with a finger…
“Jin Hanam.”
“…”
Seugal tightened every muscle of her body to suppress the laughter bubbling between her lips. Her forehead was even turning red with effort.
Not bad.
“Ho, resisting, are you?”
Instead of her side, I focused my attention on her leg, where Seugal, wearing stockings and white socks, had her feet hidden. I slid off the white sock, revealing her foot cloaked in black stockings.
“What, what are you trying to do! You freak! Why take off my sock!”
“Are you afraid of me?”
“Shut up!”
The foot, often called the second heart, is a concentrated area of nerves. And for someone who wears stockings daily, the sensation seemed to be well-circulated and warm.
So how would the sensitivity be?
“Ticklishness x 100.”
Gentle rubbing of my finger on Seugal’s sole led to a surprising reaction. Seugal bounced off the bed like a shrimp and started convulsing.
“Hahaha! Ahhh! Aaaaaah!”
Laughing while being angry, what talent!
Ultimately, Seugal couldn’t endure even five seconds, let alone fifteen minutes.
Yu Yeo-reum watching this scene, covering her face, was quite understandable.
“Name: Yu Yeo-reum
Attributes: Expand Details <<
Status: 《Despair》 - The rare opportunity has slipped away, leading to frustration. She’s deeply disappointed in Seugal."
"Seugal, you failed."
"But, do it again! Again!"
"If you want another try, give me some cuteness."
At my words, Seugal's expression hardened, but when Yeo-reum shouted, "Hey, Seugal! Grab the chance!", Seugal gritted her teeth and twisted her body.
"Uhn, uhn, again ing..."
"Boring compared to what I expected."
"You b*stard!!"
The repeated attempts turned out the same way every time.
Seugal would burst into laughter and start convulsing the moment my fingers touched her.
"Seugal, are you going to mess things up just by not being able to handle a little tickling? I'd thought better of you by now. Truly disappointing."
Seugal flared up at Yeo-reum's contemptuous gaze.
"Hey, do you think this is easy?"
"I don’t experience ticklish sensations. I'm used to enduring torture."
Yeo-reum had endured numerous experiments at an illegal and secret research facility from a young age.
It was understandable that she wouldn't even cry out from ticklishness or minor pain. But how about this?
"Quieee."
I took Yining out from my bag and extended it toward Yeo-reum, who freaked out, backing away and sitting down hard with a thud.
"C, clear out!"
Yeo-reum was weak against demon beasts.
Even “Yining,” which simply loved eating—considered an emergency food supply—was too much for her. An awakened one being afraid of demon beasts was indeed a big problem.
It was akin to a swimmer being scared of water.
"Yeo-reum, everyone has their weaknesses."
Meaning, overcoming one's weaknesses is what deserves applause, not mockery for succumbing to them. Reflecting on her own situation, Yeo-reum seemed to have no words and tightly pursed her lips, glaring at Yining.
"Yingying yaiing."
Yeo-reum's fear of demon beasts and Seugal's ticklishness.
Could they overcome these within the next ten days?
Now, my eyes turned to the box owned by Seugal.
Name: The Guardian's Box of the Fairy King
A box cherished by the Fairy King of the Great Labyrinth. It can store everything in the world.
Attributes: 《Hope Lv.3》 - Contains hope equivalent to winning a top lottery.
It looked exactly like the box that made Jin Eun-byul behave strangely.
Could there really be two such items?
"Seugal, when did you come into possession of this box?"
"From first year of high school. I took it from the Treasure Exhibition."
Of course.
Could the item that was once with Jin Eun-byul have somehow made its way to Seugal through certain channels?
Suddenly, my curiosity surged.
"Usage?"
"It's a box, right? You can put things in or take them out. In my case, I use it to isolate concepts I've awakened to unintentionally."
"Put and take concepts?"
If the concept of ‘Demon’ resided within this box and was acquired by Jin Eun-byul...
Could that be why she became a maniac?
That makes sense.
This made my interest in the maniacs, who are human yet cannot be called humans, rise.
They concealed their true identities thoroughly. Even I only discovered after returning to the past.
If there's a link between the sudden end of the world and these creatures?
Did Seugal in the future warn me, "Don't reveal the fact that you've returned to the past unless it's absolutely necessary. There was a traitor." because she feared those masquerading as humans - the 'maniacs'?
The pieces of the puzzle were falling into place.
One important piece.
There was still one crucial piece missing...
I vaguely remembered a story Seugal had told.
"Seugal, you said you felt something was off about Jin Eun-byul from the start?"
"Yeah."
"Did you also sense that ‘off’ feeling from the person behind this door?"
"Yes. I just know, it's like an uncomfortable gully."
Is that it?
The missing piece clicked into place.
Could Seugal detect 'maniacs'?
Then, the attempt by the maniacs to m*rder Seugal in the future—thinking about it this way, everything started to make sense!
"Seugal, if I were to ask you to find people who radiate the ‘uncomfortable gully’ vibe like Jin Eun-byul, could you do it?"
"I don't know. Might work if I try. But frankly, Hanamjin, you're pretty strange too. Honestly, you're crazier than Jin Eun-byul. You freak pervert! Give me my sock back!"
Swish! While Seugal retrieved her sock from my pocket, a proposition formed in my mind.
Main Proposition.
[Seugal can detect maniacs.]
If this proposition is true, then Seugal’s future self saying confidently, "If only my past self had trained properly, everything could have been prevented," would make sense.
If the reason future Seugal needed to awaken the concept of 'emotion' was to identify these unknown beings, then the logic fits perfectly.
The chill running down my spine at my own reasoning skills!
Of course, this is merely a hypothesis.
But it seems worth experimenting with.
"Seugal, there's something I need you to do with me tonight."
"Go out? Tonight? It’s not even a full moon!"
Seugal's eyes sparkled mysteriously.
Her inner thoughts didn't need the power of 'emotions' for me to understand.
"What if I run away during the outing?"
"Impossible, you can't. You have another weakness beyond ticklishness, one so crippling that it makes 'peanut allergy' look trivial."
"What weakness? And what's this peanut allergy nonsense? Are you joking around?"
Seugal looked at me as if I was crazy when Yeo-reum, who had been nervously gnawing on her thumbnail, asked in a subtle voice,
"Only Seugal is going out? What about me?"
"Stay here, Yeo-reum. Don't worry, I'll leave Yining with you so you won't be bored."
Two together with cute Yining.
Somehow, Yeo-reum's expression warped into an odd distortion.
