The Way of Life for a Terminal S-Class Hunter - C16
$16
[What kind of person was Security Team Leader A usually?]
[He was a diligent and sincere person. He didn’t seem like someone who would do such a thing… But recently, I saw him arguing with the president often. I don’t know what it was about, but he seemed to hold a grudge.]
The interview continued in front of the factory where the fire was still not contained. They said it was breaking news, but I wonder when they found someone to interview.
“Tsk tsk, that’s a murderer.”
“Why did he set a fire instead of just dying alone?”
Someone watching TV in the hospital spoke. I wished this whole situation was a dream, but my pounding heartbeat was echoing too loudly, as if to remind me this was reality.
“Seo-heon. Is this real?”
I asked, holding Seo-heon’s hand as he came beside me and covered my ears. Even just looking at his stiff expression, the answer was already set, but I prayed for him to say it wasn’t true. It felt like everything would return to normal if Seo-heon denied it.
Please say it’s not true.
“Yes.”
But cruelly, my prayer wasn’t answered.
“Your parents, and my father, they’re all gone.”
“Did my dad kill them? Is everything they’re saying really true?”
I felt suffocated, or maybe I was breathing rapidly. Everything in my sight, except for Seo-heon, scattered like a hazy mirage.
“Woo-hyun. Look at me.”
“Hic, Seo. Seo-heon. Seo-heon.”
“Breathe slowly.”
I wanted to follow Seo-heon’s words, but I couldn’t remember how to breathe.
Finally, Seo-heon covered my mouth with his hand. My rapid breathing was instantly blocked. Even shaking my head strongly, I couldn’t escape his firm hand. Only after my erratic breathing forcibly returned to its original rhythm did his hand fall away.
“Don’t mind what others say.”
Seo-heon hugged me and patted my back. It felt like being comforted in Seo-heon’s arms at the edge of hell. I forgot reality for a moment and cried in his embrace.
***
Discharge from the hospital came quickly. Generally, after awakening, one would be hospitalized for about 3 days due to pain, but this time there was no room in nearby hospitals because of the accident.
I didn’t have the confidence to stay in the hospital longer either.
Seeing the patients being brought in made the CCTV automatically replay in my head, making it hard to breathe. Feeling like I might suffocate if I stayed here, I persuaded Seo-heon and we quickly left the hospital.
“Let’s go.”
“Are you really going to school?”
Seo-heon asked again, even though he was already fully prepared to go out. His gaze, looking down at me with folded arms, clearly showed his disapproval.
But it had already been two weeks since I stopped going to school.
During that time, I stayed at Seo-heon’s house at his suggestion. When I hazily asked, “Is that okay?”, Seo-heon laughed dryly, saying it was natural. And on the fourth day of enduring with medication, the fever that had been suppressing me broke. Even then, I didn’t have the courage to go outside.
Seo-heon’s mother seemed to only come home to sleep, busy sorting out the situation.
Despite being so busy, whenever she ran into me, she always said, “Don’t believe too much of what they say on TV or the internet, and just stay at home.” Since Seo-heon didn’t let me near the TV or computer in the first place, the aunt’s advice was forcibly accepted. Even my phone was taken away, but I didn’t mind.
‘Even Seo-heon’s mother is saying this, could it be that Dad is really being falsely accused?’
As I spent time away from media, this thought, which was initially a small hope, became increasingly concrete. As time passed, it felt like someone would come and correct that the video was some kind of error and that Dad had been falsely accused. The courage to think I could go to school also stemmed from this.
Maybe friends or teachers will understand, like Seo-heon.
“The graduation ceremony is in 3 days, whether I drop out or graduate, I should say goodbye.”
It was an incredibly naive statement, but I also wanted to end things at school myself.
However, it took less than ten minutes to realize that this was closer to a delusion mixed with hope.
“That’s the son of that family.”
“With that story all over TV these days, how dare he show his face outside?”
The gazes I received outside were not just piercing, but stinging. As if just looking wasn’t enough, I occasionally heard camera shutter sounds.
“Are you the family of the Security Team Leader?”
“Is it true that you’re friends with the deceased president’s son?”
People presumed to be reporters rushed in. Everyone’s faces looked distorted, like monsters.
“Please move aside.”
Seo-heon, who stood in front of me blocking people, said intermittently while pushing back the crowd. This situation continued all the way to the classroom. The only difference from before was that no one spoke to me. Yet, the classmates didn’t stop glancing at me.
“Sit in my seat.”
Seo-heon sat me by the window and blocked the gazes. Even the friends who had been close to us were keeping their distance, watching the situation.
Among them, there was a friend glaring at me with red eyes.
Their father must have worked at Sewoon Enterprise too.
Ah, I was being protected by Seo-heon.
Slowly, I realized what situation I was in. The circumstances surrounding me hadn’t improved at all; Seo-heon had just made it feel that way. My head had been creating delusions as a defense mechanism.
It felt like cold water had been poured over my head.
In public opinion, Dad was still a murderer who killed many people. My way of thinking that Dad might have been falsely accused might seem like a selfish and cowardly evasion to the victims.
“I’m going to the faculty office for a bit.”
“Let’s go together.”
Seo-heon grabbed my wrist and was about to stand up with me. I shook my head while removing his hand. If I stayed like this, I felt I would only lean on Seo-heon. I needed to face reality.
“I’ll go by myself.”
Seo-heon didn’t ask twice. He just stared at me intently, as if trying to read my intentions.
“I’m okay.”
Actually, I wasn’t okay, but I walked out of the classroom, leaving Seo-heon behind. Like a scene from a horror movie, all the students in the hallway turned to look at me at once.
“Son of a murderer.”
That one phrase was the beginning.
“How can you shamelessly come to school?”
Once the protective shield was removed, the attacks came instantly. It wasn’t because my hearing had improved after awakening. These were words that people with clear hostility wanted me to hear.
Ah, I was under the illusion that I had accepted reality. I was just closing my eyes in Seo-heon’s arms.
With every step towards the faculty office, as if fleeing, gazes clung to me. The heat that had subsided suddenly surged up again.
“Huff… huff…”
Even though I hadn’t run, by the time I reached the faculty office, I was out of breath. After catching my breath while standing still, just as I was about to open the door, a conversation flowed out from inside.
“I heard Baek Woo-hyun came to school today?”
“They say he came with Kang Seo-heon?”
“Wow, I didn’t think he’d be so brazen. Didn’t Seo-heon’s father die because of his father? If it were me, I couldn’t do that out of guilt.”
“Yesterday, that news was on all day. How could he think of coming to school?”
[Your emotions are fluctuating. A-rank skill, Song of Flames, is out of control. It will burn everything it touches.]
A transparent status window appeared before my eyes. It was a notification I hadn’t seen since awakening.
“No.”
I didn’t know what was happening, but a sinister premonition that it surely wasn’t a good sign ran through my fingertips.
Whoosh-
Unfortunately, my intuition was not off the mark. Suddenly, red flames shot out from my hand and burned the door completely.
“Gasp.”
When I hurriedly withdrew my hand, the fire subsided quickly as if it had never blazed. However, the scorch marks and traces of fire were clear enough to alarm the teachers in the faculty office. Someone hastily opened the office door, and all eyes instantly turned to me.
“Woo-hyun?”
“Was that fire just now?”
I didn’t do it on purpose. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop either.
Knowing that no excuse would work, no excuses made it out into the world. Seeing me hesitantly trying to enter, the visibly perplexed teachers waved their hands in panic as if they had seen a monster.
“St-stay there.”
The students in the hallway also noticed the commotion and started whispering. There was nowhere for me to hide in this school.
“Ah… I…”
The standoff between me outside the door and the teachers inside continued for a long time. Hatred and fear towards me floated in the silence.
“Why aren’t you going into the faculty office?”
“Seo-heon.”
Once again, it was Seo-heon who pulled me out of that agony. The moment I heard his voice, life returned to my stiffened body.
I had walked out on my own feet not wanting to be protected by him, but here I was trying to rely on him again.
‘Son of a murderer.’
‘Shameless even after killing his friend’s father.’
‘Shameless bastard.’
The guilt I had tried to forget poured down like a torrential rain. The words following me weighed me down. I collapsed on the spot.
Seo-heon lowered his posture as if to help me up from my kneeling position, and I held his hand and muttered.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
On graduation day, I had planned to bring a nice gift and confess. But now, three days before graduation, the only thing I could say to Seo-heon was sorry.
I really wanted to believe it wasn’t true.
But hiding behind you was something I shouldn’t have done. You must be having a harder time than me.
I’m sorry.
The words I had prepared became tangled and turned into an ugly shape. I repeated only “I’m sorry” like a broken radio.