Reunion (3)
The second I stepped into the busy downtown street, I let out a full-throated scream.
The easygoing smile vanished from SolidHeavy’s face, replaced by a completely blank look of pure confusion.
“Huh…?”
Asking for help stung my pride something fierce, but I didn’t have a choice. With my current combat power, if that bastard caught me, he might snap my spine clean in half. Then I’d end up a vegetable who couldn’t play Asgard anymore, and my Challenger dream would go up in smoke.
-Thud-thud-thud-thud!
“Somebody help me!!!! A total stranger is chasing meeeeee!!!”
“Wait, what are you talking about, A-ADC-nim!”
SolidHeavy couldn’t even bring himself to say my full name. He slowed down in flustered panic, and I used that opening to put everything I had into a dead sprint, still screaming my head off.
“This early-morning human-trafficking scumbag is trying to kidnap people!!”
“W-what?! How did I suddenly become a human trafficker?!”
“You’re not?!”
“Of course I’m not!”
“Shut up! The only people who chase someone with a face that nasty are human traffickers!”
“What kind of ridiculous logic is that?!”
“You really think you’re not? Don’t you have a mirror at home? Everyone else is thinking the exact same thing I am!”
My screams pulled every eye in the area toward us. They could see it crystal clear.
A fragile girl fleeing for her life, and a heavily muscled man with a scary face hot on her heels….
There was no way to misread this. That guy’s face was straight-up criminal material. If I were a cop, I’d have pulled a wanted poster out of my pocket just to compare.
“Oh my, oh my my! What’s going on over there?”
“She says it’s a human trafficker?”
“Shouldn’t we grab him first?!”
The citizens sensed something from that murderous face and started reacting. SolidHeavy, still chasing, shouted in a panic.
“N-no, everyone! It’s a misunderstanding! I’m not a weird person!”
Yeah, right.
“Since when does a weird person get to say with their own mouth that they’re not weird?”
According to my personal big data, there was every reason to be suspicious. The kind of guy who gets sucker-punched and then donates, or suddenly flips and drops a family insult….
Anyway, he was no ordinary human. Definitely broken somewhere.
“Call the cops! Someone hurry up and dial 911 on this bastard!!!!”
I kept yelling, and the people finally felt how serious it was. Smartphones came out one after another.
“Hello? Yes, police?”
“Over here! Some crazy guy is chasing a person!”
The momentum had flipped. No matter how big and athletic you were, a whole crowd ganging up on you would make anyone panic. I eased off the gas and glanced back slowly.
“D-don’t call! Please don’t call the police!!!”
SolidHeavy was flailing his hands in genuine terror.
His reaction was way more intense than expected. Like someone who actually had something to hide. That wasn’t how an innocent regular person acted.
“Don’t tell me….”
He has one?
“A criminal record?”
Thinking about it carefully, of course he had a record. No normal person would try to get revenge after taking a clean surprise punch. He’d definitely been in and out of the police station more than once. That was why he was freaking out and begging them not to call.
“You criminal bastard!”
“What are you talking about?!”
“Y-y-you’re telling them not to call because your record is stacked, aren’t you? Caught red-handed.”
Talking while running had slowed us down a lot. We were basically power-walking and trading words now. Of course I still kept a safe distance—no telling when that anger-management case would suddenly lunge.
“I-I don’t have any criminal record!”
“Then why tell them not to call?”
“…”
SolidHeavy held his silence for a second, then—
“I am! I’m a police officer!”
—blurted out complete nonsense. I immediately spun around, put the crowd at my back, and pointed straight at him.
“This bastard!!!! Impersonating a cop!!!! That’s a serious felony!!!”
There was no washing that one clean.
“You all heard that, right?! Now he’s even impersonating the police!!!”
“W-what?! No, I really am a police officer!”
“If you’re a real cop then whip out your badge right now!”
I demanded it confidently, and the citizens piled on with me.
“Yeah! If you’re a cop, show the ID!”
“With a face like a gang enforcer’s!”
“This young lady’s handling it so well without panicking!”
SolidHeavy had zero allies here. Honestly, claiming that thuggish mug belonged to a cop was a pretty hard sell.
“I-I’m telling the truth.”
SolidHeavy looked wronged as he dug through his pockets. But the wronged look vanished in an instant. He rummaged harder, then went pale.
“Th-that is… I’m off-duty today and out exercising, so I left my badge at home….”
Okay. Situation assessed.
“Everyone!!!! Don’t let that bastard get away—grab him tight!!!!”
People swarmed him all at once. One man alone could never beat a crowd. SolidHeavy was quickly pinned to the ground by a bunch of justice-minded citizens.
“Ugh! This guy’s stupid huge! Everybody keep pressing down!”
“Everyone, it’s a misunderstanding!!!”
SolidHeavy thrashed. I piled on too, hammering his side with my fists.
“Misunderstanding my ass! Stay still!”
Left! Right! Even I had to admit they were pure pillow punches. But they weren’t completely useless—his resistance dropped a little. At the same time, a police car appeared in the distance.
“Cops are here! Everybody clear a path!”
The cruiser screeched to a stop and a veteran-looking officer jumped out in a hurry.
“What’s going on here!”
The scene looked bad enough that he sprinted over. I seized the moment and started explaining.
“Officer! Over here! This vicious criminal tried to kidnap me!”
More precisely, he tried to drag me somewhere quiet and beat the crap out of me. Classic revenge assault.
“And just now he even claimed he was a police officer! Total scumbag of scumbags! All the people around here heard it, so he can’t deny it!”
“Kidnap? Impersonating an officer? Hah, everybody step back for a second. Let’s get the cuffs on first.”
Exactly. This guy was no ordinary thug. Cuffs first, questions later.
-Sneak-sneak
As the crowd parted, SolidHeavy was revealed lying on the ground. No matter how strong you were, numbers always won. Even Xiang Yu got completely wrecked by Liu Bang, after all.
“…Huh?”
Right as the officer was about to cuff him, he suddenly tilted his head, bent down, and took a closer look at SolidHeavy’s face. Then he muttered in pure disbelief.
“You… don’t tell me you’re Eun-woo…?”
SolidHeavy forced his head up with effort. He staggered to his feet and—
“Seonbae-niiiiim…!”
“You crazy bastard, why are you getting piled on first thing in the morning? And look at the state of you.”
“I-I got misunderstood by the citizens…. Hic….”
SolidHeavy was actually sniffling, totally mismatched with his look. Maybe he was secretly the sensitive type under all that muscle… but that wasn’t the important part.
“W-wait a second. Officer? What did you just…?”
“Hm? Young lady. You must’ve been scared. Sorry about that. This guy’s face is a little on the vicious side, but he’s a real cop. No impersonation.”
….
“Eh.”
What now.
The surrounding stares were starting to burn.
Steaming white rice.
SolidHeavy stared blankly at the rising vapor.
This was a disaster. Everything that happened today.
He looked past the steam. Across the table sat the woman who used the ridiculously masculine ID BigMuscleADC, wearing an extremely awkward expression.
“A stalker bastard who turns out to be a cop… South Korea’s public safety is completely fucked.”
The two of them had cleaned up the mess as best they could and ducked into a nearby restaurant. But the misunderstanding still hadn’t fully cleared.
“That’s not it! It’s a misunderstanding, I swear!”
“Misunderstanding? Then why the hell were you following right behind me this whole time?”
“That’s….”
SolidHeavy’s words died in his throat. How was he supposed to answer?
I can’t just ask if she’s streaming while getting abused…. And saying I was worried about her health at this point feels weird too….
Rash words were forbidden. From everything he’d observed so far, she was far more sensitive and prideful than she looked.
“Well… ADC-nim, you play so flashily in-game that….”
“Flashily?”
“Yes. You’ve made a lot of enemies without meaning to, haven’t you? I was worried someone holding a grudge might try something bad.”
Was that good enough?
SolidHeavy carefully checked her expression, but she only looked completely unimpressed.
“Why would you worry about me?”
“Pardon?”
“What are we to each other? Complete strangers, right? Am I wrong?”
…Her guard was sky-high. From the way she spoke, she seemed convinced he was out for revenge over the past. All of it was a misunderstanding. He was worried about her fragile state more than anything that had happened before.
“No matter how I look at it, you’re shady. You approached me with ulterior motives, didn’t you? That face of yours is exactly the type to roundhouse kick someone the second they let their guard down.”
“I-I don’t do things like that! And what kind of face is that even supposed to be?!”
“….”
While he quietly endured her sharp glare, the food arrived. The restaurant’s main dish—spicy stir-fried pork. Even with the plate right in front of her, she never took her eyes off him.
“Anyway, you’re suspicious.”
He had no idea why, but he’d heard that a lot. That his tone invited misunderstandings, that his face looked scary. In reality he just really liked helping people.
“So from now on, don’t act like you know me. Even if we run into each other on the street, just keep walking.”
“….”
This prickly hedgehog attitude.
His gut told him she was almost certainly in a pretty rough situation right now.
This razor-edged defensiveness might actually be a cry for help from someone standing at the edge of their life.
“…Still, we’re residents of the same neighborhood. Can’t we at least exchange greetings when we pass each other?”
“No. You and I are extremely awkward. Don’t even say hello.”
A total iron wall. But he had zero intention of giving up.
No matter what happens, I have to help her.