By Zephyria Choi Goyo tried to grasp the situation with a dumbfounded expression.
Okay, some bad guys kidnapped someone. He followed them and it was an abandoned factory. He could hear the sound of people being beaten inside. Choi Goyo naturally assumed that the kidnappers were beating up a pitiful part-time worker! The instructions he received from Min-gi Seo were to monitor him as a top priority and protect him in case anything happened.
Oh dear, those cowardly Awakened bastards are even beating up an Awakened who’s almost a regular person! Choi Goyo, thinking that Awakened ethics and special laws were all dead, hurriedly kicked open the door of the abandoned factory.
But the Awakened who was almost a regular person was beating up the Awakened.
“Kkeueuk…”
Moreover, there were already several guys who had been beaten and collapsed!
Thanks to the rough kicking of the door, the cold wind from the beach swept in.
The black apron, covered in footprints, fluttered. The part-time worker casually released the guy he was grabbing by the collar. The guy, whose face was swollen like a steamed bun and bleeding profusely, slumped like a doll with a broken string. Another guy on the floor twitched.
And silence.
Their eyes met.
The part-time worker, without even looking at the hand trying to grab his ankle, stomped on it hard, and opened his mouth with a shrill scream as background music.
“Hey.”
“Nehe?”
He answered hastily, cracking his voice. Choi Goyo swallowed hard.
The black apron with a sky-blue toad drawn on it, covered in footprints, the blood on his hands, and his hair, wet and disheveled for some reason. Compared to his appearance, which looked like someone who had been kidnapped, his face was neat.
In fact, Choi Goyo was most afraid of that expression that seemed to lack any emotion. How could someone who had been beating people up until just now have such a clean face as if nothing had happened?
Wasn’t he just a regular Hanover Soup Restaurant part-time worker? He’s just a D-class Awakened at best. What is this ominous aura? His legs were about to give way. The silent part-time worker asked.
“Same gang?”
“Yes? No! Absolutely not!”
“Everyone says no when you ask them that. It’s so cliché.”
I’m saying no because it’s no! Choi Goyo felt wronged. He felt like crying, whether it was because he was wronged or because he was scared. He unconsciously retreated slowly. However,
“Don’t think about running away.”
At that one sentence, he stopped right there. The part-time worker wasn’t looking at him. He was just standing still, fixing his wet and disheveled hair. Yet, his feet wouldn’t move. Cold sweat dripped down. Choi Goyo, barely opening his mouth, tried to make excuses.
“Ah, no, I’m really…”
“Don’t waste your energy… It won’t take long to catch you.”
It wasn’t a threat, but a statement close to the truth. It felt like even if he ran away, he would be caught and dragged back here. And he would end up like the guys sprawled on the floor. Choi Goyo shut his mouth and sat down on the dusty floor. The part-time worker muttered satisfactorily.
“Good boy.”
He approached silently and squatted down in front of the slumped Choi Goyo. It was a gangster-like posture that didn’t match his neat face. The part-time worker gestured with his hand, expressionless.
“So.”
“Yes?”
“What were you going to say? Say it.”
“Ah.”
“If you don’t hurry…”
His cold eyes glanced at the guys lying around. The part-time worker was so generous that he even gave him time to speak, and kindly warned him that if he didn’t speak quickly, he would end up like those guys. Choi Goyo took out his wallet and presented his business card at the fastest speed in his life.
Wave Guild Combat Support Team 1
Rank A Romantic Opener
“I, I’m Romantic Opener from the Wave Guild!”
Eui-jae unconsciously asked back at the familiar and tiresome Guild name.
“Wave?”
“Yes! The Guild Leader sent me. To protect Eui-jae… sir.”
He never thought that the business card that Bae Won-woo had insisted he carry around would be so helpful. Choi Goyo reflected on the past days when he had acted recklessly, saying that he didn’t need such things and that his face was his business card. And he decided to repay Bae Won-woo for this favor.
Maybe Hangover Soup would be good. Choi Goyo finished selecting the menu on his own and looked at the part-time worker in front of him. The part-time worker, who had been turning the business card around, touched his forehead.
“…A Wave Guild member.”
The atmosphere suddenly changed like a sudden cold snap in the middle of a warm spring day. Eui-jae, who had been reading the business card carefully, asked Choi Goyo.
“Your name is… Romantic Opener?”
“Yes, that’s right. Romantic Opener…”
“Aha.”
Choi Goyo, feeling a bit intimidated by the interview-like atmosphere, answered with a lot of energy, without realizing it. It was the first time he had been so nervous since he had a 1:1 conversation with Lee Sa-young during the Wave Guild’s final interview.
While Choi Goyo was thinking about this and that, Eui-jae suddenly held out his blood-stained hand. Choi Goyo quickly started to think like a new employee watching his boss. What is it? What does he want? Does he want something to wipe his dirty hands with? Did I bring a handkerchief?
Cha Eui-jae continued naturally, as if he didn’t expect to receive anything.
“Romantic Opener.”
“Yes? Yes.”
“Are you quick-witted?”
“Yes?”
In fact, if he were quick-witted, he wouldn’t have just said “Yes?” so blankly. Still, answering quickly is Romantic Opener’s strength. Eui-jae chuckled.
“Well… it’s okay if you’re not.”
Immediately after, Eui-jae suddenly lowered his head. It was a very theatrical action.
“Now, as you can see, I’m in a pretty bad mood right now.”
So… I want to hear an explanation of how this happened… But Eui-jae’s performance was effective. First of all, the blood on his hands was intense, adding to the tension. Choi Goyo nodded busily.
“Yes. You look like it.”
“I was about to close the store and take a break when those crazy brats kidnapped me.”
That’s a lie. Eui-jae wasn’t kidnapped, he just ran over and asked to be kidnapped. Choi Goyo had directly witnessed his movements and all his actions until just before he was kidnapped, but he agreed for now.
“That’s terrible.”
“Not only did those bastards kidnap me, but they even kicked me because I was slow to answer. They hit people with crowbars. They hit people with nail-studded bats.”
“Those trashy bastards!”
To be clear, Choi Goyo wasn’t particularly empathetic. In other words, he’s the kind of person who would say, “Dry shampoo? Is it good?” to a friend who says, “I’m so tired every morning, so I bought dry shampoo.”
But Choi Goyo was different now. He was awakening the empathy he had sold off in his childhood from his core and empathizing with Eui-jae to the best of his ability. When Choi Goyo’s reaction was good, Eui-jae grabbed the hem of his apron, which was covered in dirt footprints, with his thumb and forefinger and held it out as if to show it off.
“You see these footprints, right?”
“Oh my god, how much did they hit you?”
“Don’t even mention it. They hit me a lot.”
“Those sons of bitches. They should be fed to piranhas!”
Of course, Cha Eui-jae looked perfectly fine, considering he claimed to have been “hit a lot”… But what was important to Choi Goyo now wasn’t the truth. Isn’t there a saying that the dead have no words!
Choi Goyo nodded his head with all his Soul, mechanically. Fortunately, the young man in front of him seemed to like his enthusiastic reaction, and he sighed deeply, rested his chin as if covering his cheeks, and continued the story.
“So I disciplined the kids a bit.”
“…Oh, you did.”
The faces of the guys twitching on the floor were all swollen like steamed buns to the point where they couldn’t be recognized. If this is the level of “disciplined a bit,” what happens when they’re properly disciplined…?
For a moment, Choi Goyo felt a chill down his spine, but he soon turned away. After all, it wasn’t him who was beaten up, but these guys who were passed out on the floor. Even when the blood-dried fingers struggled to twitch and attract Choi Goyo’s attention, Choi Goyo simply closed his eyes.
And he thought. To keep alive the crazy brats who kidnapped and beat him up. What a merciful act! If it were Lee Sa-young, he would have melted them away without a trace. Thinking that way, Cha Eui-jae in front of him began to feel like a living Buddha.
Choi Goyo nodded mechanically and said what he felt without exaggeration.
“You are truly merciful.”
“Yes. So, Choi Goyo.”
“Yes!”
“Could you please shut your mouth?”
“Yes?”
A cold smile was already on Eui-jae’s face as he said that. It wasn’t just a cold snap, it was like the frozen surface of a lake somewhere in Siberia. When Choi Goyo couldn’t follow the leap of logic and stared blankly, Cha Eui-jae sighed briefly and began to educate him at eye level.
“I don’t have the ability to erase memories cleanly.”
“……”
“If I want to erase them, I have to use physical methods…”
He clenched his fist with his blood-stained hand and gently raised the corners of his mouth. But when Choi Goyo saw that face, he turned as pale as when he saw the horrific scene.