Life Reversal (1)
Once I made my decision, everything moved at lightning speed. It felt as if every preparation had already been completed, with only my choice left to trigger the rest. The scene unfolding before my eyes proved it beyond doubt.
The grand avenue leading to the front gate of the Council headquarters towered toward the sky. Amid the flow of impeccably dressed people and luxury cars, a sleek black foreign sedan sat parked at the curb. Beside it stood a man repeatedly loading luggage into the trunk. His face, etched with fatigue, belonged to Park Yoo-han, the manager of Investigation Team 5—the same man I had met just yesterday.
The items he was so diligently carrying were my belongings. Of course, I had no idea what most of them even were, but according to him, they were definitely mine. I caught glimpses of the clothes I had bought during that hellish shopping trip the other day, so his words seemed accurate. Which raised one obvious question: how had he managed to prepare this much luggage in just a few hours after our conversation?
There was no need to overthink it. Everything had already been arranged in advance. It was clear this had been prepared well before—perhaps days or even longer ago. The thought left me with an uneasy feeling. Should I call this thorough preparation, or meticulous scheming? While it was convenient not to wait, realizing that everything had been set in motion without my knowledge felt strangely unsettling. At the same time, it showed just how serious he was about this matter. Even in a situation where I might have refused the proposal, he had completed the plans with such precision. The promise that he would never treat me carelessly was likely genuine.
I was still reeling from the unexpectedly rapid turn of events when he finished loading, closed the trunk, and walked over to where I stood.
“Whew~ Finally done. Sorry for the wait. We’re ready to leave now. That must have been a tough decision… but you chose well. Personally, I also thought being adopted by him would be the best outcome. The team leader always takes full responsibility for anything he commits to, so you don’t have to worry too much.”
Wearing a crisp suit, he spoke with a playful smile. A quick glance at his face revealed how genuinely pleased he was with the current situation. Under normal circumstances, I might have responded to his friendly demeanor, but my reaction was cold.
Meeting his puzzled expression, I narrowed my eyes and spoke in a blunt tone.
“…Don’t you have something to say to me? If you keep acting like this, I’m going to feel hurt.”
Faced with my openly displeased demeanor, he looked visibly flustered. He furrowed his brow in thought, trying to recall what I was referring to. After watching him struggle for a while without catching on, I crossed my arms and voiced the suspicion—no, the certainty—that had been building in my mind.
“You knew there was a high chance I’d be adopted, didn’t you? Yet you didn’t say a word until now… That’s really too much. I trusted you.”
I muttered with a hint of disappointment and sulkiness, letting my shoulders droop. His reaction was priceless. His eyes widened and his mouth parted slightly—he clearly never imagined I would figure it out.
Of course, if the soul inhabiting this body truly belonged to a young girl, noticing it would have been much harder. But the consciousness inside was that of a fully grown adult man. With even a few clues about the situation, piecing together the bigger picture wasn’t difficult.
From everything I had gathered so far, the team leader had entrusted all matters concerning me to the manager standing before me. The fake identity and his frequent visits underground made that undeniable. There was no way he could have been unaware of the adoption plan. In fact, it was highly likely he had handled all the complicated paperwork involved as well. In short, he had deliberately hidden anything related to the adoption every time we met.
After gaping at me for a long moment, he seemed to realize excuses wouldn’t work against my sharp gaze. With a sigh, he finally spoke.
“Well… ahem, I don’t really have anything to say. First, let me apologize. When we first met, I genuinely didn’t know about the adoption either. I only received the details right after. And the team leader specifically said he wanted to tell you himself, so I couldn’t mention it beforehand. I’m really sorry if this upset you.”
Scratching his head, he tried his best to soothe my mood. While his explanation didn’t erase the disappointment, I could roughly understand the circumstances. Whether he truly hadn’t known at our first meeting was unclear, but I could believe that the team leader had wanted to deliver the news personally. Given his personality, that made sense—he would prefer to say it himself rather than have someone else relay it. Besides, when your direct superior gives an order, a mere manager like him couldn’t exactly defy it. In a world where you follow orders from above, his actions were reasonable.
Hiding the truth from me was annoying, but logically, it was understandable. Remembering my own days working as a porter and having to read the mood of staffing agency staff, I could empathize with him on a human level. Even so, my mood didn’t fully improve—probably because I had come to trust this manager more than I realized. Or perhaps, as I had recently started to suspect, inhabiting a child’s body was affecting my mind as well.
As a result, my reply to his apology carried a slightly curt edge.
“…I’ll let it slide this time. But if you do this again, I won’t stay quiet!”
I tried to make it sound like a warning by hardening my expression, but the voice that came out didn’t match the intent at all. Instead of sounding intimidating, it was the sharp, cute voice of a young girl. If even I felt that way, how must it have sounded to him standing right in front of me?
Despite my fierce warning, he simply looked relieved, as if the crisis had passed. Naturally, that expression annoyed me, but there was nothing I could do about it now. I had no choice but to resign myself and adapt quickly.
“Yes, yes~ Understood. Well then, Miss Seoah! Please get in the car.”
“Eek!! M-Miss?! What are you saying in front of all these people?!”
“Huh? …You don’t like being called that? That’s strange… Hae-jin said most girls like it when you call them that. Well, if you don’t like it, there’s nothing I can do.”
At my agitated reaction, he tilted his head in confusion. Meanwhile, I felt like I had been struck on the head. Suddenly being called “Miss” in front of so many people… My face flushed so red I could barely lift my head. I also got the distinct feeling that people around us were glancing our way, which only made the heat worse.
At the same time, my mind zeroed in on the name I had faintly heard moments ago.
Hae-jin… Lee Hae-jin!!!
It was that woman. The devilish female who had dealt a massive blow to my pride as a man last time. At the same time, the trauma I had been trying so hard to forget resurfaced, shaking my composure. To think she would launch a surprise attack like this even when she wasn’t present… I had let my guard down because she hadn’t shown herself for a while. I thought she had completely lost interest in me by now, but from what he said, she still hadn’t given up. She truly was a terrifying woman in more ways than one.
Of course, given the situation, I would inevitably have to meet her a few times. But even if my impression of her wasn’t entirely bad, I had no desire to see her. Being around her somehow made me feel like my very existence was being forcibly twisted and remade, which I didn’t like at all.
If someone asked, “Weren’t you already prepared to accept the rich young lady lifestyle?” they wouldn’t be wrong. But that was separate from the fact that I still couldn’t bring myself to accept the word “miss.” The fact that we were in such a crowded place only made it worse.
After that small incident, he ushered me into the car and immediately took the wheel. Feeling the smooth, vibration-free comfort of the ride, I finally left the place where I had been confined for weeks. The destination he had mentioned earlier was… the new home where I would be living from now on.
Meanwhile, at that same moment, inside a room in the Council headquarters.
Cheon Hyeok stood by the window, watching the black luxury sedan parked on the avenue below as it began to move. While an ordinary person’s eyesight would have made the distant car little more than a dot, he was an S-rank hunter. Enhanced vision was practically a passive ability for him, so distance posed no obstacle.
Letting out a small sigh as he watched the car disappear into the distance, Cheon Hyeok thought to himself. Ideally, he would have liked to personally escort the child to her new home and introduce it himself. But there was still work left to do here, and she had already been confined in this place for far too long. Letting her out as quickly as possible had been an unavoidable choice.
Convincing himself of this, he recalled the girl who had been here just moments ago. She had a sharp, cat-like expression and an objectively cute appearance despite her small frame. Her naturally gray hair—too natural to be dyed—was her most striking feature. The sharp judgment and wit she occasionally displayed, far beyond her apparent age, had been enough to surprise him. Though her past remained unclear, making it impossible to know what kind of life she had lived, one thing was certain: she was on a completely different level from other children her age.
At first, that difference had felt slightly alienating, but now it struck him more as mysterious. Her awakened abilities were also difficult to gauge. If she could grow up in a stable environment, she had every chance of becoming a hunter who would one day surpass him.
As he smiled contentedly at the thought, a memory suddenly surfaced and his expression hardened slightly. The girl had asked whether he was taking her in because of her abilities. He hadn’t been able to deny it. While sympathy for her had played a part in his decision, the biggest factor had been the possibility that she could assist in the research to bring “her” back. The existence of Outsiders—beings kept hidden even from hunters—and Irregulars. Faced with the second Irregular who had appeared before him by fate at a time when nothing was yet certain, he couldn’t afford to let her slip away. If this matter were discovered by his superiors, it wouldn’t end with mere dismissal, but the potential reward was worth the risk.
Creak…
Lost in deep thought, he turned his head at the sudden sound from behind. The moment he saw the person standing there, his eyes widened slightly.
“…I didn’t expect you to come all the way here. Do you have some special business?”
“A friend came to visit, and this is how you react… Can’t I enjoy a bit of sunlight once in a while? What’s with the surprise?”
Lightly brushing off his reaction, the person who sat down in the guest chair was none other than Jeong Ha-yeon, the head of the underground research division. Since she rarely visited without notice, Cheon Hyeok stared at her with a suspicious gaze. Meeting his sharp look, Ha-yeon grimaced but raised both hands lightly as she spoke.
“Oh, look at that glare. You look ready to kill someone. Alright, alright… I just felt a bit empty thinking about the child leaving. I never showed my face, but I’ve been watching her the whole time. I guess I got a little attached.”
“Hah. How absurd. So you were planning to keep her locked underground forever?”
“Hey, why are you twisting my words like that? I agreed to let her out, didn’t I? We’ve already run every test we could, but there weren’t any meaningful results. So for now, the agreed conclusion was to wait and see while observing her growth, right?”
With a nonchalant expression, Ha-yeon crossed one leg and leaned back in the chair. Seeing her act as if this were her own living room, it was only natural that his mood soured slightly and his brow furrowed. But just as he was about to say something, she quickly took the initiative, as if she had expected it.
“Come to think of it… I discovered something interesting. It looks like you’ve already chosen a tutor for her?”
“Anyone who awakens in Korea is required to complete a certain period of ability control education at a designated institution. You know that as well as I do. So before that, it’s necessary to build at least a minimum level of skill.”
“I know that too… But why on earth did you choose ‘that woman’ of all people? Are you sure this is okay? I don’t know if the child will be able to endure it… Even if she survives that grueling training, are you really planning to send her to the Academy?”
With a disgusted expression, Ha-yeon looked at the man still standing with his hands behind his back. She had good reason for asking. The special educational institutions designated by law for teaching ability control came in various forms—public schools like any other, as well as private ones. Among them, the most popular and highest-level institution in Seoul was the private academy directly operated by the Council, commonly referred to simply as the “Academy.”
Furthermore, in line with the Council’s meritocratic principles, unlike other institutions, it boasted an extremely high barrier to entry that required passing an exam. Admission itself was something others envied, and graduating meant a direct path into the Council and an elite career track. In short, it was the pinnacle of all ability-user educational institutions in Seoul. The weight carried by the word “Academy” was immense, yet Cheon Hyeok merely curled his lips slightly as he replied.
“Well… that’s not a bad idea either. If she wants it, aiming for it wouldn’t be bad.”
“No, seriously… You’re going to send her into that massive system when we’re supposed to be hiding her abilities?”
“Our head of research here will figure something out somehow. And as long as she doesn’t suffer any fatal injuries, her special powers won’t be exposed. The Academy, like all educational institutions, is particularly sensitive about student safety, so there shouldn’t be any major issues.”
Facing Cheon Hyeok’s confident expression, Ha-yeon pressed a hand to her forehead. It seemed she would have to work quite hard to assist this man whose head appeared to be filled with flowers. Standing behind him as he continued to gaze in the direction the car had disappeared, Ha-yeon let out a deep sigh, already foreseeing the hardships ahead.