Chapter 14: If You Don’t Know, How Are We Supposed To?

As soon as I got out of the taxi, I could see Seo-yoon running straight toward me from a distance.

“Aww, just look at you, still such a little kid.”

Well… at twenty, it wasn’t wrong to still consider her a minor.

What could kids who had just become adults possibly know?

She was still just a little one who hadn’t yet stepped out from her parents’ embrace.

Thud—

“Oppa… Oppa…”

The moment she saw me, Seo-yoon burst into tears in the middle of the street.

“If you cry here, I’m really gonna be in trouble, Seo-yoon.”

“But… Oppa, you… you…”

“I’m totally fine, I’m telling you. Look at me…see? Not a single scratch.”

“Liar… You’re lying…”

When she started crying, people around us began shooting me looks like I was the worst guy in the world.

“I’ll show you..! I’ll show you, so stop crying…!”

“S-Stop… sto…”

To prove to her I really wasn’t hurt, I turned my head this way and that…

“There, a motel. I’ll show you in there.”

I spotted a motel a little ways off.

Without hesitation, I grabbed Seo-yoon’s hand and headed toward it.

“A room, please.”

“……”

As I walked toward the motel with a girl who was sniffling beside me, I caught the motel employee’s gaze. It was a gaze that screamed suspicion.

“Ah.”

It finally hit me.

To him, I probably looked like the worst kind of guy who was dragging in a much younger girl who was on the verge of tears, like some villain.

I really look like a villain right now.

And so—

“Ah, wait a minute here… I’ll go grab something to drink. My wallet’s right here, so go ahead and pay for the room.”

I handed Seo-yoon my wallet, letting her stay behind on her own to show that she wasn’t being forced—

That I hadn’t dragged her here against her will.

***

Min-hyuk oppa suddenly walked off toward a vending machine deep inside the motel.

“…Are you okay, miss?”

Just then, the motel employee struck up a conversation with me.

“Should I call the police?”

He tossed out some ridiculous nonsense, so—

“Shut up and just give us a room already.”

“Ah… I see. You’re… someone who lives life to the fullest, huh…”

With a look of sudden realization, he handed me a key card.

I waited there for a bit until Min-hyuk oppa came back.

“Shall we go?”

With two bottles of water in hand, Min-hyuk oppa and I got into the elevator and began heading to Room 502.

Ding—

As soon as the door opened, I walked straight inside.

And the moment I stepped in…

“……!”

I suddenly remembered what the association employee had said. That the villain hunter had been injected with poison in the thigh.

I immediately tried to pull down his pants to check for a needle mark, but…

“Whoa..! W-Wait, Seo-yoon..! Seo-yoon..!!”

When I saw my flustered oppa’s face turn red… I realized.

“Ah..!”

Where we were.

And how what I was just about to do could be so easily misunderstood…

“I-It’s not what you think..! I-I thought you were hurt..!”

“Uh, r-right..! Th-That’s what it was, huh?”

***

It would’ve been a lie to say it wasn’t embarrassing.

But I knew Seo-yoon was out of it, with her eyes all swollen from crying.

“Try calming down with some water.”

I handed her one of the bottled waters I brought, giving her a moment to settle down.

Then I opened the mini-fridge by the bed, planning to store the remaining water to keep it cool, but…

“Huh, there’s already water bottles in here?”

I saw that the mini fridge had water bottles inside, left there for guests to drink.

“Seo-yoon. Since we’re drinking anyway, let’s have the cold one.”

So I handed her the chilled bottle of water.

Then, while placing the two bottles I had brought into the fridge, a thought crossed his mind.

…What a waste of money.

If I had known this, I would’ve bought something else instead of water.

“…Didn’t know that about motels.”

“Hee…”

“…Don’t laugh.”

“I-I’m not laughing…”

“If you cry and then laugh, you’ll grow hair on your butt.”

“Heehee…”

“I’m telling you, Seo-yoon, it’s not that I couldn’t date…I just didn’t. I was way too busy.”

“I believe you. Hehe…”

It seemed she finally found my joke funny, and Seo-yoon started to smile at last.

“Yeah, that’s better. You should smile. You’re so pretty when you do.”

As expected, she looked much better smiling than crying.

“And I’ll show you that I’m not hurt.”

Though the conversation had wandered here and there, the reason I came to this place wasn’t to try anything with a young woman.

It was to show her that I wasn’t injured.

Shff… slip…

I slowly took off the top I was wearing to show her that my body was perfectly fine. And then…

“Huh… w-what?”

I could see the look in Seo-yoon’s eyes. It was one of slight confusion.

“…Seo-yoon?”

“…Oppa?”

“What’s with that look? Don’t tell me… you’re disappointed I’m not hurt or something?”

“!! It’s not like that…! It’s just…! It’s just…!”

“Just?”

“…A f-friend… said she saw the oppa who was having coffee with me at the café… seriously hurt…”

“Oh, is that what it was?”

“…Yeah. She said… you hurt your leg really badly…”

“Ah… so that’s why you were grabbing onto my pants like that earlier.”

Now I understood why she had been so flustered.

Shff… shff…

I pulled my pant legs up as high as I could, all the way to my thighs, to prove that everything was perfectly fine.

Just like that.

“It’s a relief… really…”

“Yeah, kid. Now stop doubting me, thinking I’m lying.”

“I-I’m sorry…”

“No need to be sorry. It’s actually been a while since I realized how nice it feels to have someone worry about me like this. Thanks.”

I had proven everything I needed to.

Right away, I started putting my clothes back on, then began slipping into my shoes.

“…Where are you going?”

“I came here in the middle of work. I need to head back.”

“Ah… you came because of me, didn’t you…? I’m sorry, oppa… and… thank you…”

“It’s fine. I’ll get going now. There’s still a lot of time left on the room, so just relax here and maybe watch some TV. I’ll go first.”

“Take care… I-I’ll text you…”

“Next time, don’t call me while crying.”

“Th-That wasn’t it…!”

Since we’d said our goodbyes, it was time to go thank Hye-won and Pyro Bomber for treating me.

Well… truthfully, thanking the two of them should’ve come first.

But what could I do? I’d gotten my priorities wrong.

I decided to hurry back to the two of them.

“Ah, did you check your bag?”

“My bag?”

“Yeah. Don’t go spending money like that again. Your mom’s gonna scold you.”

“…Huh?”

After leaving her with that cryptic remark, I walked out of the motel just like that.

…

Bzzzt—

Bzzzt—

Bzzzt—

Bzzzt—

“Babe, your phone’s about to explode.”

“You mean I’ve been getting a lot of texts, right?”

“Nope. I mean it’s literally about to blow.”

“…Put that down.”

“Tch.”

I shooed Pyro Bomber away, who was holding what looked like a bomb over my phone.

I had no idea why she’d been throwing a fit about me getting messages from another girl since earlier…

—

– Oppa…!

– What is this money, seriously…!

– I mean it!

– I told you I wasn’t going to take it!

– Come back and take it!

– I’m going to get mad! I really am!!

– Hurry up and come get it!

—

I had no idea how many messages had come in since I left the motel.

My phone’s not gonna survive this, Seo-yoon…

Not long after that,

The battery finally gave out.

“Haah…”

I set the phone down on the desk without much care.

Then looked over at Hye-won, who was tapping away at her computer.

It’s not Hye-won, and it’s not Pyro Bomber either…

The moment I stepped into their home, I thanked them for healing me.

But the moment they said they hadn’t done anything… everything had stayed like this.

…Then why am I okay?

Why was I the only one who seemed perfectly fine?

“Babe!! So when are we gonna fight??”

Pyro Bomber suddenly challenged me to a fight, saying she needed to confirm I was really all better.

“…Why are you so eager to fight me, anyway?”

“You were the one who said we should fight on the bed, but then you brushed it off with a mock battle.”

“I was only half-joking…”

“Wait, so should we actually fight on the bed?”

“That part wasn’t a joke.”

Ugh…

Having dealt with Pyro Bomber’s personality firsthand over the past few days,

I knew that unless I gave her what she wanted, this headache of a situation would never end.

“How would you like to spar?”

“Yes!! Hye-won!! I’m off to totally destroy the villain hunter!!”

“…Have fun.”

I agreed to have a mock battle with her, just like she wanted.

“Wanna make a bet?”

“What kind of bet?”

“Whoever wins grants one wish to the loser.”

“Sounds good.”

Determined to win no matter what and use that wish to ask her to stay quiet for just one week…

“What kind of sparring are we doing?”

“A brawl.”

Without any kind of signal, Pyro Bomber suddenly swung a punch at me. I took the hit.

“Huh?”

And swept her leg, knocking her down.

“Ugh—”

“I win.”

It was a strategy of sacrificing the flesh to break the bone.

We hadn’t meant to completely destroy the living space with our sparring.

Just as I was about to bring up the wish for her to stay quiet for just a week—

“Alright! I’m making my wish!”

“…What are you talking about? I’m the one who won, remember?”

“What are you talking about? I clearly said the winner has to grant the loser a wish, didn’t I?”

“…Ah.”

That was when I realized I had fallen for her wordplay.

“My wish is… can I just try attacking your arm once?”

“…That much is fine, I guess.”

But—

When I actually heard her wish, it didn’t sound like a big deal.

So I raised one arm so Pyro Bomber could take a shot at it—

Thunk—

“……”

Without warning, Pyro Bomber stabbed a small dagger lightly into my wrist and pulled it out right away.

Maybe it was because she was wearing a villain’s outfit…

It seemed like she just wanted to show off how weapons could be hidden in villain costumes like hers…

“I’d like to get one hit in too.”

“Then you should’ve lost the spar.”

“……..”

Haah…

Right. Pyro Bomber, of all people, made a normal-sounding request, and I didn’t question it… I was the fool.

Well, it wasn’t a serious attack, so I figured I’d just let it go as a little incident and started to lower my arm again—

“Whoa… How did you do that? Where’d you get this new power from?”

“…What are you talking about?”

She lifted my injured arm and made me point to the spot she had wounded just moments ago.

​

“Look at this.”

​

“What exactly am I supposed to—”

​

So I looked at the injured area myself…

​

“…Huh?”

​

At some point, the part of my arm that had been wounded had completely healed.

​

“Judging by your reaction, you clearly didn’t know. No wonder….it was kind of suspicious when you thanked us for healing you earlier.”

​

“…What is this?”

​

“If you don’t know, how are we supposed to?”

​

As for this sudden emergence of my body’s regeneration ability…

There was only one thing that came to mind.

…The villain who attacked Hero University had an ability exactly like this…

The only thing I could think of—

Was that I had somehow stolen that villain’s power.

Nothing else came to mind.