Too Pretty for My Own Good
No matter how pretty I am, having this many people rush me all at once is a bit of a problem.
"Grab that bitch already!"
Men's voices bellowed from behind me.
Ah, clingy people aren't really my type.
People who talk badly about me are even less so.
Wearing a bitter smile, I kept running and running, thinking it over. When a person is too pretty, things like this get a little inconvenient. Wherever I go, people try to approach me somehow, so I can't help but get tired.
But… this must be the fate of those born beautiful, right?
"Hah……."
If this is the price of being excessively beautiful, I can accept it with a smile.
Yeah! Let's smile! There's a saying that fortune comes to those who smile, isn't there?
When a person becomes positive, everything starts looking beautiful. Ah, now that I'm smiling, the world suddenly looks beautiful. Of course, I'm a little more beautiful than that.
Anyway…….
"I'm starting to get tired……."
My stamina was gradually approaching its limit. How many minutes had I been running? Five? Ten?
Either way, this was a world where superpowers existed and I had abilities too, so shouldn't my physical capabilities be pretty high? Then I must have definitely been running for over twenty minutes.
Having possessed this body, my curiosity had become hard to suppress, so while running I pulled the phone from my pocket and checked the time.
Let's see… it's 1:03 now…….
Earlier when I came out of the bathroom it was one o'clock, and considering the time I spent stabbing my finger with a box cutter and such…….
"Aha! I haven't even been running for a minute!"
Apparently Elysia's stamina wasn't very good. I thought her figure was so perfect she must have worked hard to maintain it!
But it's okay!
"If you're too perfect, people actually feel distant from you!"
A person needs a few flaws to look even more charming!
Even while thinking this, the footsteps from behind were getting closer and closer. Somehow, being chased like this felt like playing tag. Isn't that pretty romantic?
I don't remember my pre-possession life in detail, but after a certain age I don't think I've ever played tag with anyone. A girl who's grown up this pretty, running around with those not-so-handsome men! This might be a precious opportunity I won't experience again in my life, so I should enjoy it thoroughly now.
"You'll never catch me!"
I stuck my tongue out at the men chasing me once, then picked up even more speed.
"That fucking bitch!"
Geez! I told you I don't like people with foul mouths!
The men chasing me also picked up their speed, not wanting to fall behind. My breath was getting short, but since the taggers were also working hard, my excitement rose on its own and a laugh spilled out.
"Ehehehehe."
"That damn bitch is laughing! Catch her already!"
"Hey, you can't catch her either, hyung!"
"You little shit talking back to your hyung?"
After running for quite a while, the place I arrived at was a large abandoned building. It used to be the gymnasium of some school that's long gone, apparently. Thanks to that, it was enormously spacious and the ceiling was ridiculously high. Old sofas, boxes for holding balls, broken glass bottles, and other discarded items were strewn about haphazardly.
This was a place I'd discovered while wandering around on the first day I was possessed, and since people never came and there were no CCTVs, it was perfect for a secret base. There was no place more suitable for hide-and-seek following a game of tag.
Having entered one step ahead of the men and having enough time to hide, I tucked myself inside a box and pulled the box cutter from my pocket.
"Hiiing… I don't like pain though……."
It's fun hide-and-seek time.
"Fuck! Where did that goddamn bitch go?"
Among the men who had chased Elysia into the abandoned building, the eldest brother Kim Mandeuk spat out curses.
"Find that damn bitch right now and drag her in front of me!"
Then he plopped himself down at the entrance. As the second-in-command, Park Chanhyeong, and the youngest, Choi Jaemin, stared blankly at Kim Mandeuk, he got angry again.
"Go find her already!"
Eventually Park Chanhyeong and Choi Jaemin sighed and walked deeper into the building. But with so many discarded items strewn about, searching together would take forever.
Choi Jaemin was grumbling about that to himself when Park Chanhyeong, who seemed to be thinking the same thing, made a suggestion.
"Jaemin, I'll go this way — you go that way."
Choi Jaemin cheered inwardly and nodded, then they split up.
I was already fucking annoyed about this.
Choi Jaemin was honestly dissatisfied with this job. From his perspective, some kids he only knew by face had died, and on this side that kind of thing was common as dirt, wasn't it? But that bastard Kim Mandeuk had called him late at night and told him to find some girl and kill her.
Fuck, does he think I'm his lackey? Why is he taking it out on me over his dead little brothers.
Someday I'll take that bastard down and take over this neighborhood.
Continuing to grumble inwardly while halfheartedly pretending to search, he heard a small click from somewhere and stopped in place, listening carefully.
A box cutter?
That click sounded just like the sound of a box cutter blade being extended. But looking around, no box cutter was visible. Well, when you can't even see a person, there's no way you'd hear a box cutter sound. With all sorts of junk discarded around, it must have come from one of those.
"Huh? But what's that……."
Something sharp was glinting from inside a certain box. To check carefully he slowly approached and reached out to open the box lid when—
"Huh?"
Something moist got on the corner of his mouth. He dabbed it with a finger to check — it seemed like ordinary water… He tasted it lightly with his tongue and it was salty… salt water? No, tears?
The moment Choi Jaemin frowned in confusion—
CRACK!
A hard gemstone instantly grew inside his mouth, crushing his jaw and sealing it shut so he couldn't scream.
"Ugh……!"
As Choi Jaemin bent over from the terrible pain and put his hands on the floor—
Floating, floating.
"Ugh……?"
He saw a few water droplets floating in front of his eyes. And that was the last thing Choi Jaemin saw of the world.
THUNK!
"Whoa…. What is this."
Is this what Mandeuk hyung was talking about?
Standing in the center of the building, Park Chanhyeong marveled at the sight before him. A large gemstone that was translucent with a blue tint. Because it wasn't completely transparent, you couldn't really see what was inside. It was filthy hard and wouldn't break no matter what you did, and it was unnecessarily huge with irregular sharp spikes jutting out all over. The tips were quite pointed so if you got stabbed they'd easily pierce flesh, but how many people would die from being stabbed by a spike just sitting there.
Park Chanhyeong had completely forgotten that according to Kim Mandeuk's words he was supposed to find some woman, absorbed in looking at the gemstone.
"So is there a person inside this too?"
According to Kim Mandeuk, his little brother was trapped inside some gemstone. That's why he had gone berserk saying he had to find the owner of this superpower right away and kill them to save his brother.
"If he's really trapped inside this, he's probably already dead……."
Common sense said time doesn't stop inside that, so how could he still be alive? Being trapped in a gemstone like that was the same as already being dead, but Park Chanhyeong couldn't bring himself to tell Kim Mandeuk that fact.
"Sigh, I should just find that girl quickly."
Is Jaemin doing okay? Still, Jaemin was a little brother that Chanhyeong was quite fond of. Even when Kim Mandeuk ordered him around with this and that, he grumbled but worked hard. He'd been caught slacking off a few times, but it was always within acceptable limits.
Doesn't seem like she's on this side anyway — should I join up with Jaemin?
The moment he was about to turn his steps—
Shhk.
"Ugh?"
Something sharp lightly cut past the side of his neck.
"Fuck… what was that?"
Feeling the stinging side of his neck, wet blood came away on his fingertips.
"……?"
Did Mandeuk hyung play a prank?
Unlike Park Chanhyeong and Choi Jaemin who were ordinary people, Kim Mandeuk was a Level 1 telekinetic. He couldn't lift heavy things, but he could float small blades in the air.
I told him not to play pranks that could hurt people.
Park Chanhyeong clicked his tongue inwardly and was thinking he'd have a word with him when the job was done when—
"…? What."
It felt like something moist like water had entered the wound on his neck…….
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
In an instant, a blood-red gemstone tore through the flesh of his neck and burst out. Because of that, Park Chanhyeong's neck was instantly ripped apart and his head tumbled powerlessly to the floor with a thud.
But even though his neck was severed, not a single drop of blood flowed out. On the cut surface, only a blood-red crystal flower bloomed beautifully.
"These bastards take forever just to catch one little kid?"
Kim Mandeuk, fiddling with his favorite dagger, grumbled as if displeased.
"Anyway, after I catch and kill that bitch, I need to give those bastards some discipline too."
I treated them a bit well recently and now they're talking back and challenging me. I need to firmly establish the hierarchy so they properly imprint in their heads who's above and who's below…….
Footsteps.
Finally here?
Earlier Park Chanhyeong and Choi Jaemin had split up to search. Which bastard dragged her here? The one who didn't find her needs a bit more grilling.
Thinking that, he raised his head — and then his face twisted sharply. It wasn't the scene he'd imagined. Park Chanhyeong and Choi Jaemin were nowhere to be seen, and only the figure of a silver-haired girl hesitantly walking toward him on her own feet entered his vision.
"…Ehehe."
The girl scratched the back of her head with an awkward smile. While fat tears streamed down from both eyes.