There was something that used to really fluster me when I was a kid.
My little sister crying.
And not just crying. It was when she cried because of me.
That was always so troublesome.
If Mom caught her crying, I was sure I’d get in trouble, so I would do anything and everything to fix it.
I’d apologize for teasing her.
Say sorry for hogging the computer.
Say sorry for eating the snack she wanted, then go out and buy her a new one, and so on.
Looking back now, those were all fond memories, but at the time, they were just overwhelmingly awkward moments for a kid like me.
And now…
This is really troublesome.
“O-Oppa… Oppa is…”
“I’m really fine, Seo-yoon.”
“Hic… Hic… Oppa… Oppa is… too… so s-sad… so pitiful…”
Right now, Seo-yoon was sobbing in my arms, making me feel just as flustered as I used to back then.
But I’m really okay… honestly.
Just look at this little kid.
She was always bragging that she was an adult when it came to me…
But after hearing a bit about my family situation, she hasn’t stopped crying for ten whole minutes.
And to top it off—
“Ugh… The Villain Hunter made Miss Mobia cry.”
Hearing Dream Caster bad-mouthing me outside the door made my head throb with frustration.
First things first…
Pat… Pat…
I needed to comfort Seo-yoon, who was crying her heart out like the world had ended.
After about ten minutes of comforting the crying girl—
“……”
Seo-yoon’s trembling body finally began to calm down.
I tried to talk to her again now that she had stopped crying…
…Is she seriously just falling asleep like this?
After crying her heart out, it seemed she’d worn herself out and dozed off just like that. Only Seo-yoon, now peacefully asleep, remained in the room.
Well, she did use up a lot of energy today.
Indeed, using telekinesis was no easy task. It required stamina. And Seo-yoon had been using her power non-stop for hours. Of course she’d be exhausted.
“Sweet dreams.”
Deciding not to disturb her sleep for now,
Everyone’s probably worried about me. I should head back.
I quietly got up from the bed and made my way back to the place I called home….where they were likely waiting for me.
…
Creak—
“I’m back.”
I returned home after opening the metal door.
As always, I expected Pyro Bomber and Hye-won to be concerned about me and greet me warmly after everything that had happened…
“Hey babe! You’re just in time. Come eat!”
“Y-Yes… Please have some food… right away…”
“…Hmm?”
“What’s wrong?”
“…Nothing at all.”
Hmm…
Hmmm…
What is this feeling?
Why do I feel kind of… disappointed?
I mean, I literally risked my life out there to save someone…
It’s not like I expected a tearful welcome or anything, but still…
I really have changed a lot.
Back in the day, I wouldn’t have cared at all how those two reacted.
But now, just seeing them act like they weren’t even worried about me made me feel… kind of let down.
Feeling the full weight of how much I’ve changed, I tried to act natural and walked over to the table where they were sitting.
Bang, bang
“!”
Startled by the sudden burst of fireworks, I turned my head—
Thud—
There she was… Sae-eun, the gem ability user who had been out of sight, suddenly rushing into my arms.
And with her…
“You saw that, didn’t you? You totally saw it! That was his ‘I’m sad no one checked on me’ face~.”
“…That’s not what it was.”
“Oh, please. I know everything, okay? Just a minute ago, you were trying so hard to act normal and hide how disappointed you were!”
Then Pyro pulled out a hidden cake to celebrate my return and appeared with a smile.
Before I knew it, I let out a small laugh and started accepting their warm celebration.
…
After finishing our meal,
The four of us shared the cake and chatted about all sorts of things.
And in that time, one thing stood out the most…
She really does seem better.
The expression on Hye-won’s face, as she looked at Sae-eun, had noticeably softened. That change…
“I really… really… f-forgave them… I-I did… bu-but… hngh…”
…was something I could understand thanks to the news Pyro Bomber had shared.
Apparently, all but one of the students from White High School who had bullied Hye-won in the past had died.
Even more shocking—
Their deaths hadn’t been caused by Pyro Bomber’s explosives but by mistakes made by the heroes themselves.
“Hye-won definitely let them live. The ones who killed them weren’t her. It was the heroes.”
Yeah. One of the most intense signals came from an invisible-person detector that emitted strong electromagnetic waves, which triggered the necklace-shaped bombs Hye-won had made.
The heroes, desperate to find me while I was invisible, had used all sorts of methods…
“This is what you call divine punishment~.”
It really was divine punishment.
A coincidence no one could have foreseen.
To Hye-won, it must’ve felt like divine intervention was on her side.
“……”
The look in Sae-eun’s eyes, watching Hye-won’s situation with a hint of envy, made it clear. I could sense that someday, Sae-eun would carry out a similar act of terrorism.
Why not? Just do it.
I was planning to attack the Hero Association to get revenge on the Vice President, so really, what was stopping her? I figured that once Sae-eun grew more accustomed to combat, I’d help her with her own act of terror too.
“Oh right, I need to get some drugs by tomorrow. If I buy them through Telegraph now, will I get them in time?”
It was just a question about getting drugs for the deal with V tomorrow… but what’s with those looks?
“Just to be clear, I’m telling you in advance. It’s for a deal. I’m not planning to use them myself.”
“…That’s what most addicts say.”
“Vi…vi…villain hu…hunter…d-don’t… be like that…”
“…….”
Now as ever—
When I speak, people never seem to believe me. It was one of those moments where I wondered if this might be some kind of ability. Like a power that makes everything I say sound like a lie.
“…Actually, I’m gay.”
“Huh… really? That makes sense; I was wondering why none of my flirting ever worked on you…”
“No, but seriously—why is it that when I say something that sounds like an obvious lie, everyone believes it, but when I tell the truth, no one does?”
“…So a druggie’s actually saying he’s gay?”
“Ughhh.”
…
♫丿丿♬~」♫♫♬♭ –
Loud music blasted through the club.
Since I’d slipped the club guard 300,000 won in cash just to get in, I was determined to find drugs here no matter what. I wandered through different parts of the club, driven by that single-minded goal.
In the movies… they usually deal in the bathroom.
I remembered a scene from The Outlaws 3, where the main detective finds drugs in a bathroom.
On a whim, I headed into the restroom, just in case…
Nope.
As expected, movies were just movies.
There was no shady character inside, no one dealing mysterious white powder.
If I ask Hye-won to make some drugs for me… No, what the hell am I thinking, asking a minor to do something like that?
I was already reaching out to contacts all over Telegraph…
But trying to score drugs by tomorrow meant we were clearly in a rush, and sellers had no reason to welcome that kind of urgency.
At the same time, if I didn’t bring the drugs to tomorrow’s deal with V, it could fall apart completely, and the stress from it all kept clouding my mind.
Come on… I said I’d pay more. A lot more. Just one damn bag of drugs…
Creak—
Someone opened the bathroom door and stepped in…
Tap, tap…
“?”
They tapped my shoulder…
And the moment I turned around, they showed me a small, transparent ziplock bag filled with some kind of white powder.
“Looking for this?”
“???”
There were a lot of problems here.
But if I had to pick the top two—
First, how the hell did this person know I was looking for drugs?
And second…
“…This is the men’s bathroom, you know?”
Why was a woman coming into the men’s bathroom?
“…You think that matters to someone dealing drugs?”
“Oh… does it not?”
“…Of course it doesn’t.”
I mean…
Isn’t that kind of… important, though?
If she somehow figured out I was here to get drugs… she could’ve just waited outside the bathroom.
“…So, are you not buying?”
“I am.”
“Follow me.”
This wasn’t the time to be overthinking. I had a chance to get what I came for. I couldn’t afford to lose it. So, I followed the woman who told me to come with her…
“Oh…”
“There’s no one here who can listen in on our conversation. So you can relax now.”
She brought me to what people usually call a VIP room. That’s when she finally got down to business.
“You came to the right place. There aren’t many out there who sell stuff as pure and clean as ours.”
“Is that so?”
“Sorry for doing a bit of research beforehand, but you’re carrying quite a bit of cash in that bag, aren’t you?”
“Yes. A little over fifty million won.”
“Hmhm… this is your first time buying, isn’t it?”
“Mm… is it that obvious?”
“For a first-timer, people usually spend around 20 to 30 thousand won. Ours is more high-end, so it’s 80 thousand.”
Wow…
Drugs are cheaper than I expected?
…
We talked about all sorts of things.
Personally, I just wanted to buy what I needed and get out as fast as I could. But the woman, seemingly tempted by the cash I was carrying, kept talking to me about this and that.
I was worried that upsetting her might ruin the deal, so I forced myself to keep listening….at least for a while.
“I don’t use it anymore, but I used to take this stuff too.”
“…Did you?”
The woman, who had suddenly confessed to using drugs herself,
She said she wanted to prove that this drug had no side effects, then made a small cut on the tip of her finger, letting bright red blood drip down.
“See how clean it is?”
She showed off her blood, claiming its purity as proof… but…
…What does that have to do with drugs and blood?
From my perspective, it made no sense; what did clean blood have to do with drug use?
“Hold on a second.”
“Hmm?”
I took the knife she was holding and pricked my own finger with it.
Puk—
“..!! What are you doing?!”
“Oh, I poked it too deep. It’s hard to control the pressure when it’s someone else’s knife.”
“What…?”
“I just wanted to compare the color of our blood for a moment.”
As I compared the blood dripping from my finger with the blood she had left on the table,
“…Since you’re not a drug user, your blood should be just as clean as mine.”
“Hmm…”
“Wait here for a bit. I’ll go get someone else. That guy uses a different drug than ours… What the—?”
“?”
The woman suddenly looked down at both of her hands.
“Why is this happening all of a sudden?”
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know, it’s just… my ability isn’t activating.”
“Oh, so you’re a villain?”
“Something like that. But not the kind that goes around causing terror or anything. You don’t have to worry. Anyway… why is this happening?”
“Could it be a side effect of the drug?”
“…Our drug doesn’t have side effects like that.”
She began insisting that her special ability had disappeared.
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