He is a legendary prison guard. - Chapter 1
Episode 1
Sujin pointed me to an Italian restaurant a three-minute walk from Cheongdam Station Exit 2. At first glance, the restaurant looked luxurious. The parking lot was lined with expensive foreign cars. Shihyeon felt a little self-conscious about her shabby outfit, but she bit her lip and entered the restaurant. The interior was even cleaner. Expensive-looking antique furniture was arranged in a comfortable manner. The walls were decorated with stylish knick-knacks, and there was no unpleasant odor from the restaurant. A man who appeared to be the hall manager greeted me politely. “Good evening, sir. Please state the name of your reservation, and I’ll show you to your table.” I had heard that restaurants like this were completely reservation-based, and that seemed to be the case. “Sujin, Soojin.” “Soojin, please wait a moment… Oh, yes, I see. Please come this way.” I followed the manager to a slightly dimly lit table by the window. There she was. Soojin Kim. “I hope you have a good time, then.” When the hostess finished her greeting and left, Sujin was the first to speak. “It’s been a while.” “That’s because you’ve been avoiding any contact.” “Yeah. What’s that?” “….” Shihyeon sat back in her seat, trying to control her excitement. She shouldn’t get excited. Getting excited first will only make you more miserable. After a few moments of silence, the waiter came in with a towel and a menu. “I’m sorry, but your order will have to wait.” Shihyeon said, and the waiter bowed and left. Silence fell again. Shihyeon looked Sujin straight in the eye. She clenched her fists tightly, trying to calm the shock in her heart. In her eyes, the intimacy that had been there just over a month ago had vanished without a trace. “How could you do this to me?” Shi Hyun groaned out the words. It was so hard to get each word out. “Why are you saying such ridiculous things? It’s so normal for a relationship to break up. How many couples break up even at this hour?” Soo-jin’s sarcasm was thin. Lee Si-hyun and Soo-jin.
They were a couple of public administration students who met in Noryangjin five years ago.
They both felt lonely in Noryangjin, which made it easier for them to fall in love with each other.
Shi Hyun was the first to pass.
She got a job as a corrections officer, which she was preparing for in her second year.
It’s natural for a Noryangjin couple to drift apart if only one of them gets the job.
But Shi-hyun didn’t want that.
He took time out of his schedule to see Soo-jin and keep his spirits up after the constant rejections.
But one, two, or three years passed, and Sujin still didn’t pass.
Still, Shihyeon sincerely encouraged her to keep trying and supported her in every way possible.
That was a month ago.
But how?
“You said you’d marry me if I got in. Was that a lie?”
“No, I meant it.”
“But why?”
“Because when things change, people change, right?”
Sujin’s mouth twitched in mockery.
“Are you this kind of person?”
Shihyeon shuddered, unable to hold back her emotions any longer.
“I didn’t think you were that kind of person, but why are you acting like this?”
“How… how could you say that?”
“You don’t seem to realize the position I’m in right now. If I married a jailer, I’d be so embarrassed I couldn’t even hold my head high.”
“What?!”
“It’s not the same; it’s not the same.”
Su-jin snorted and put her purse, handbag, and watch on the table.
“This is an Hermès purse, 5 million won; this handbag is also Hermès, 30 million won; and this watch, Vacheron Constantin, over 70 million won.”
“Is that not enough?” she says with a flourish.
“If that’s not enough, I have a Rolls-Royce, I bought an apartment in Gangnam, and your salary, I think it’s about 35 million, because I make 11 billion. Eleven billion. I’m a millionaire.”
“….”
I wonder what changed her.
Is it money? Is it power? Does it change people like that?
Or was she always this way?
“I love being an A-list awakening. I heard that the guilds and the country take special care of them, and that’s how important an Awakened is to the country these days… but they’re less than 1% of the Awakened, aren’t they?”
“It’s none of my business how you spend your money now that you’re rich, but I still owe you an apology for demeaning someone else’s precious job.”
Shi Hyun stared at Su Jin with cold eyes.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I called you a jailer. I’m sorry. Have a good time working in a cell with criminals for the rest of your life, big brother.”
“….”
Shi Hyun bit his lip hard enough to make it bleed.
He stood up, his face stiff.
“Thank you for meeting me today. Thanks to you, we can part ways without any regrets.”
“I’m glad it’s over. Don’t call me again, big brother.”
Su-jin waved her hand playfully.
◈ ◈ ◈ ◈
I wasn’t sure what state of mind I was in when I arrived home.
The plastic bag in my hand contained three bottles of soju.
I gulped them down without any appetizers.
I drank more than twice the recommended amount, and before I blacked out from the intense drunkenness, I saw something in front of my eyes.
[You have awakened your otherworldly abilities].