“Where...”
A middle-aged man in a gray suit and glasses trembled.
When the National Assembly badge on his chest sparkled in the sunlight streaming in from the luxurious balcony, the middle-aged man finally burst out in irritation as if he couldn't hold it in any longer.
“What are you playing with these tricks!”
Flip-!
Assemblyman Yoo Dog-wan threw the newspaper that had stirred up the morning news without hesitation.
The contents of the newspaper, roughly spread out on the table, were clearly sensational.
「Shocking! Did the President Deal with Terrorists?」
「Circumstances such as bank accounts dealing with Villainerz revealed─.」
“That Seo Do-cheol, he's suddenly doing something outrageous. He's advertising something everyone already knows in the newspaper? This is poison.”
“Father, by poison, do you mean...?”
His son, Yoo Tae-yang, asked his fuming father for clarification.
Assemblyman Yoo Dog-wan, as if his patience had reached its limit, raised his voice even further.
“Rat poison! Poison that kills everyone who eats it! But I can't not eat this, can I? If I, the leader of the opposition party, stay silent, that would be strange in itself. Seo Do-cheol, is that bastard trying to use me like a hunting dog?”
It was a very sensitive and delicate issue.
Many things were closely intertwined with illegal Awakened, regardless of political affiliation.
So to speak, they were conjoined twins forcibly stuck together.
They were waiting for a better opportunity, as a hasty surgery could hurt themselves, but they never thought he would do this.
‘Seo Do-cheol, if you do this, you won't be safe either? Why? Why did you suddenly do this?’
Yoo Dog-wan was curious about what the chairman of the South-West Group was thinking. Depending on the circumstances, it wouldn't be impossible for him to play the role of a hunting dog biting the President.
In some ways, Yoo Dog-wan had also acquired a usable ‘card’.
It would be the perfect opportunity to coax the President, who was running rampant like a dog off its leash.
“Father, by the way, about what I told you last night. You said you would think about it until this morning, did you think about it?”
At Yoo Tae-yang's question, Yoo Dog-wan fell into thought for a moment.
He couldn't remember what he had talked about with his son last night.
“What was it about?”
“About finding Yeo-reum. I know someone, honestly, I don't personally like him, but I think he's a friend I can trust. What do you think about entrusting him with the task?”
“Right. We did talk about that. Anyway, where is that girl wandering around at such an important time? I brought in a stray cat and raised her, but she still hasn't gotten rid of her street habits.”
“Yes, you're right.”
“That's why one's roots are important. Education! Bloodline! Living life, I can't ignore these things. A stray picked up from the street can't get rid of its nature no matter how well you treat it.”
Yoo Tae-yang pretended to agree with his father's words and simply nodded. He knew well that his father, Yoo Dog-wan, had no affection for his adopted daughter, Yoo Yeo-reum.
The way he treated Yoo Yeo-reum wasn't like a daughter, but rather like handling a weapon.
He also vaguely knew that his father and the researchers were making Yoo Yeo-reum do ‘excessive things’ in the lab.
If there were no health problems, leaving this house might be the best thing for his sister.
“Yoo Tae-yang, go find your sister. If that crazy Nam Tae-geon loses it and declares martial law, your sister will need to use her power.”
# # #
It was shocking.
That I wouldn't receive a single vote in the popularity poll conducted at school.
“How can I not get a single vote? I'm questioning my life.”
It was pure frustration.
When I wanted to bury my face in my desk and cry, Bangdeng-i patted my back.
“Hey, Ha Nam-jjin! What kind of nonsense are you talking? It's the F-Class president election, your name shouldn't even be there! You're a D-Class student!”
“That's true, isn't it?”
I thought that by now I would have influence even in the F-Class president election, beyond the D-Class, but I guess I’m not there yet.
I need to work harder.
Anyway, after Yoo Yeo-reum and Seo Ga-eul disappeared, ‘Kim Sam-soon’ was elected as the class president in the F-Class election.
Kim Sam-soon.
Honestly, I don't know who that is.
Are they worthy of being class president?
I wasn't the only one who thought that way, as there was someone who objected to this election.
It was Wang Ja-hyun of F-Class.
“Why am I not the class president? I was the vice president, so shouldn't I become the class president in place of Yoo Yeo-reum?”
In other words, he was demanding the impeachment of the F-Class president.
However, the F-Class students seemed to think, “Hey! You'll have to step down as president soon anyway because of the trouble you caused, so let's just appoint someone who can do it quietly and steadily!”
With the disappearance of Seo Ga-eul and Yoo Yeo-reum, F-Class was split in half and in a state of civil war.
Then, what about our D-Class?
Since the newly elected president, Cheon Yu-ra, was doing a good job, it was more peaceful than I thought.
Chatter- Chatter-
Then why was the D-Class atmosphere so noisy─.
“Is it true that the President made a deal with the Villainerz?”
“There's talk of impeachment.”
“Hey, Min-cheol, your father is a member of the National Assembly, right? Did you hear anything?”
That’s how the restless day passed.
On the way home from school with my friends.
Bangdeng-i, who was constantly licking the ice cream she bought at the store, got angry.
“This is so annoying!”
“Why? Because the ice cream keeps shrinking every time you eat it?”
“That's not it! But now that I think about it, that's also annoying! Why does ice cream shrink the more you eat it? It would be nice if there was ice cream that increased in volume every time you ate it!”
Chomp- Chomp- Chomp-
Baek Yeo-ul, Bangdeng-i, swallowed the ice cream like a crocodile.
She took a piece of paper out of her bag.
“About the midterms. They said we'll be working under active Awakened for practical training, right? I ended up working with that Jeon So-mi. It's so annoying.”
Who was Jeon So-mi again?
While I was racking my brain, Chang-sik tapped me on the back.
“You mean that model girl. The one who was embarrassed by us at Seo Ga-eul’s party.”
Ah, that woman.
So Bangdeng-i ended up doing practical training under her.
It must be about exploring the 「Grand Labyrinth」.
Even our 「No Leftovers Day」 will be scattered for the midterms.
I also received my assigned practice location, and this was also problematic.
I ended up under that Jin Ramen noona.
I need to make sure they don't find out that I kidnapped Seo Ga-eul and Yoo Yeo-reum during the practical training.
“More than that, I haven’t seen Tae-seong around lately.”
Chang-sik looked around.
Our friend, Geum Tae-seong, seemed very busy these days.
Soon, Bangdeng-i asked in a small voice.
“Tae-seong is acting strange. He leaves right after school. Could it be he has a girlfriend? He’s hiding his girlfriend at his house!”
“......!”
Flinch-
Quiet Deok-sun flinched, so Bangdeng-i quickly said, "That can't be!" and patted Deok-sun's back.
But I thought there was some truth to Bangdeng-i's words.
I also had women hidden in my house, so I had to go straight home after school most of the time.
That would be the case today too.
But today, Bangdeng-i invited me to her house.
“Stop by my house today! I couldn’t fit my lunchbox in my bag because there’s more than usual today!”
Bangdeng-i’s lunchbox would become Seo Ga-eul’s daily bread.
I had no choice but to follow Bangdeng-i to her house, and the house I arrived at was very different from what I remembered.
First of all, the neighborhood was different, and the shape of the house was different.
“We moved. Our house was sold at auction.”
She meant she was kicked out of the mansion she had been living in.
The new house was not far from my house.
Meaning it was in a run-down area.
“Mom and dad are out because of work, so just come in!”
It was a house as old as the one I was currently living in.
The old and shabby yard was quite messy with jars lined up for an unknown purpose.
But Bangdeng-i didn't seem embarrassed by this old house, she took off her shoes carelessly and beckoned me.
“Come on in quickly! Hurry!”
What was there to be so urging?
Baek Yeo-ul, Bangdeng-i, went into her room.
Baek Yeo-ul even went rustle- into the bed covers.
She looked like a raccoon digging into a burrow.
“Ha Nam-jjin! Come inside here! Hurry!”
“What is it?”
It was when I took a chance and went inside the covers.
Something shining whoosh- illuminated my face.
“It’s the glow-in-the-dark spider, Kongkong-i!”
Kongkong-
The glow-in-the-dark spider, Kongkong-i, shining with dazzling light.
Even my hair stood on end.
A glow-in-the-dark spider, that's really something!
“What do you think? Amazing, right? It seems like Kongkong-i has the concept of 「Glow-in-the-dark」!”
“I didn’t expect much, but it’s really amazing.”
Even Inging-i doesn't have a glow-in-the-dark function!
I'm envious.
Anyway, Baek Yeo-ul was secretly raising a monster.
She was a high school girl with completely strange tastes.
“He even dances when I clap! Look!”
Dum- Dum-
After watching Kongkong-i’s strange tricks like that, time passed and it was 4 pm.
When I was thinking about going home, Baek Yeo-ul said.
“We’re going to school at our practical training locations starting tomorrow, right?”
As Baek Yeo-ul said, starting tomorrow was the midterm period, so we had to go to our practical training locations instead of regular school. Baek Yeo-ul said she was going to explore the Grand Labyrinth with the Model Girl.
A party of 2nd-class explorers.
Bangdeng-i seemed to have a lot of worries as she was about to head to the Grand Labyrinth, filled with all sorts of traps and dangerous monsters.
“But what is the 「Grand Labyrinth」 anyway? It's weird that it suddenly popped- into existence.”
It is strange.
Even to me, who had returned from the future to the past, the identity of the 「Grand Labyrinth」 was hidden like a secret.
“I looked it up because of the practical training, but they say this 「Grand Labyrinth」 is actually part of the palace where someone called the Fairy King lived. The Grand Labyrinth is the fairies’ country!”
Baek Yeo-ul, Bangdeng-i’s eyes twinkled like a girl who believed in Santa Claus.
Fairies. That’s interesting.
“So, I suddenly thought, what if Seo Ga-eul disappeared into the 「Grand Labyrinth」? She was kidnapped to the fairies’ country and no one can find her.”
That was also a very interesting hypothesis.
Really.
# # #
Returning to the basement, the two girls were each lying down facing the wall.
Whenever I came here, the midterms, impeachment, and other noisy things in the outside world felt irrelevant.
“Did you fight again?”
Yoo Yeo-reum and Seo Ga-eul each had scratches on their faces. It seemed they had scratched each other with their fingernails, bitten with their teeth, and pulled each other’s hair.
Rustle-
Yoo Yeo-reum sat up.
“She ruined my blanket.”
The new blanket I gave her was tattered as if it had been attacked by a wild animal.
If she can’t have it, she destroys it─ It was a part that well showed Seo Ga-eul’s personality.
“So what!”
Seo Ga-eul growled- even though I hadn’t said anything.
I told her,
“Seo Ga-eul, we're going for a walk today.”
Today was the full moon, when Seo Ga-eul's power was particularly weak.
It meant that a month had passed since Seo Ga-eul was kidnapped.
“...A walk?”
Seo Ga-eul widened her eyes.
She then looked at Yoo Yeo-reum and twisted her lips into a smirk.
As if showing off something others couldn’t have.
Indeed, Yoo Yeo-reum seemed greatly disturbed by the mention of a ‘walk’ and frowned.
I took Seo Ga-eul out of the house.
Even though she was restrained by a leash, Seo Ga-eul smiled as if she was very happy.
“It’s been so long since I tasted the outside air.”
I took Seo Ga-eul to the abandoned factory.
Seo Ga-eul looked at me with narrow eyes.
“What, why did you drag me to such a creepy place? What are you going to do? Scary. Pervert.”
Contrary to her words, her face was full of composure.
An expression that assured me that I would never harm her.
I raised my hand towards Seo Ga-eul and slapped her cheek.
“...Ouch!”
Seo Ga-eul, who had always acted haughty even as a kidnapped hostage, let out an unsightly scream and tumbled down. It was only natural that her red eyes, filled with rage and hatred, glared at me.
“You fucking bastard, what are you doing!!!!”
“Seo Ga-eul, I’m not your guardian. I’m a kidnapper.”
Seo Ga-eul had been too comfortable lately.
Unlike her promise to cooperate with concept awakening if I brought Yoo Yeo-reum, she hadn't shed her arrogant attitude.
Did the Seo Ga-eul of the future want this?
Probably not. That's why I was willing to take on the role of the bad guy.
I would be hated by the current Seo Ga-eul, but that's what kidnappers and hostages are like.
There was also something I personally wanted to do.
“I’m going to make some rat poison too. Rat poison that kills you if you eat it. But you won’t be able to resist it. It’s a picture that needs to be in tomorrow morning’s newspaper, so strike a nice pose.”
Ding-!
I raised my phone camera and started recording a video.
Seo Ga-eul’s eyes became even more venomous.
“Yaaaak! Ha Nam-jin, you son of a bitch!!!!!”
“I can’t use this audio.”