The Man Who Knows Too Much
Zerk Makerberg was famous for…… …………… “Baek Sehee……” Kang Haneul gritted her teeth.
Baek Sehee stood beside me like a shield, facing off against Kang Haneul.
“Kang Haneul, what are you doing here?” Baek Sehee's voice was like a block of ice.
……She's scary. Even though I wasn't the one on the receiving end, it gave me chills.
Baek Sehee wore a smiling face, while Kang Haneul was expressionless. They glared at each other like they were about to kill one another. It wasn't a joke—the air was thick with killing intent.
I couldn't even begin to guess how much hostility was packed into those two stares.
“You've got some thick skin, don't you? No reflection at all, huh? Not content with shattering Yujin-ssi’s leg, now you come crawling back to harass him.” Baek Sehee hurled a cutting barb.
Kang Haneul bit her lip.
“No! I just…… I just wanted to apologize.”
“Apologize?” Baek Sehee tilted her head slightly. “Your apologies mean nothing. You're just doing it to ease your own conscience, like some cheap confession. Right? You don't give a damn about how the other person feels—not even a speck. That's so you.”
Kang Haneul's fists trembled.
“Oh, and one more thing. Deep down, you probably thought that if you showed how oh-so-broken you are, maybe—just maybe—he'd forgive you. You even banked on that slim chance, didn't you?”
“N-No, that's not……!” Kang Haneul raised her voice. She denied it fiercely, but there was no conviction in her tone.
“I really……” Her words trailed off. Kang Haneul stood there, unable to continue.
……She nailed it. Baek Sehee had hit the nail on the head.
I got that Kang Haneul wanted to apologize. But was it for her sake…… or mine? I…… didn't know.
I didn't want to demonize Kang Haneul the way Baek Sehee described—not because I was taking sides, but because I just hated thinking it.
I tore my gaze from Kang Haneul and studied Baek Sehee. She was protecting me. She'd just peeled Kang Haneul off me moments ago. I was grateful. But…… something felt off.
Her tone when attacking Kang Haneul was too sharp. Yes, Kang Haneul had done something unforgivable—irreversible, even. Still, something was weird.
It didn't feel like Baek Sehee was just scolding her for her wrongs. It was more like——
Mockery?
For instance, Baek Sehee's expression right now. She was smiling. I got that—Kang Haneul often smiled when she was angry too. But the type of smile nagged at me. Like the way her lips twisted ever so slightly.
Baek Sehee spoke again. “Don't tell me you spent all day wandering the Association HQ just to run into Yujin-ssi?”
“No…… no.” Kang Haneul shook her head. “I didn't even hear where Yujin was. No one told me.”
“Then what are you doing here today?”
“I got an invitation from Zerk Makerberg…… Just came to say hello for the Association's event.”
Zerk Makerberg? CEO of Feastagram? You could wonder why a mega-corp CEO and trillionaire would invite Kang Haneul. I knew the reason.
He'd been her manager. They'd never met in person. But on SNS, they acted like besties. And it wasn't Kang Haneul who reached out first—Zerk Makerberg had.
He'd suspiciously been the first to like her posts on Feastagram, even shouting her out when mentioning Awakeners. Back when I managed Kang Haneul's SNS, we'd gotten likes from Makerberg multiple times—seconds after posting.
“Zerk Makerberg…… I see.” Baek Sehee sounded mildly surprised. But it was probably an act. The hand on my shoulder had tensed up rigidly.
……? I had a feeling I knew why. Baek Sehee was pissed right now. All because she'd heard the name Zerk Makerberg.
Because Kang Haneul was chummy with a mega-corp CEO?
“Yujin-ssi. Let's go.” Baek Sehee turned to me with a gentle face, completely different from when she looked at Kang Haneul. “You're tired, right? You need to rest at home.”
“Ah, yeah.”
Baek Sehee picked up my prosthetic leg. She leaned my body against the wall.
“Hold on.” She knelt and refitted the prosthetic to my right leg. Click. The belt fastened with a snap.
“There.” Baek Sehee stood, grabbing my arm. “Let's head home.”
While I got my prosthetic back on, Kang Haneul didn't move. Couldn't move was more accurate.
As I turned to leave the hallway——
Wheeeeeeee——!!
A ear-splitting alarm blared through the building. Harsh sirens echoed everywhere, and the hallway ceiling emergency lights flashed red.
Baek Sehee's phone buzzed too. She pulled it out and checked the screen.
“……Dimensional Gate rapid response team, deploy immediately.” She let out a small sigh. “Yujin-ssi, sorry. I have to go.”
“Okay.”
Baek Sehee glanced at Kang Haneul one more time. “Kang Haneul, you'll deploy too, right.” It was phrased as a question, but it wasn't one.
An S-rank gate in central Seoul? Any nearby EX-rank Awakeners had to respond.
Baek Sehee took my hand. “Yujin-ssi, go to my office for now. Wait there.”
“Got it.”
She led me down the hall and into the elevator. A few floors up, we reached Baek Sehee's office. It was neat and orderly—desk, chair, file cabinets. Seoul sprawled out the window.
“Wait here. I'll be back soon.” She patted my shoulder lightly.
“You be careful too, Sehee-ssi.”
“Thanks.” Baek Sehee smiled, then left through the door.
……………
Baek Sehee's office was quiet. Seoul stretched out the window. Far off in Jongno, Reptilians, Awakeners, and the military were probably clashing. But here, it was peaceful.
I sat on the sofa and pulled out my phone. The portal site had “Jongno Reptilians” at #1 in real-time trends. I opened a live news broadcast.
……….
Complicated feelings. Kang Haneul scared me. Honestly, I didn't even want to think about her. Facing her proved it—I hadn't escaped the violence she'd inflicted. Just talking face-to-face stressed me out plenty. Normal, given what she'd done.
But…… why? I…… Moon Yujin didn't want her dead. I didn't wish her happiness. But I didn't want her miserable either.
So in the end…… I had no idea.
Then——
Whirr. The office's automatic door slid open.
……Who? Janitor? Association staff?
I looked up. Wrong guess. The stranger was a man. Towering—easily over 2 meters. But his face…… was off. An indescribable unease. Human, but not quite. Unnaturally smooth features, eyes too large, proportions all wrong. Rude to say, but he looked like something wearing a human mask.
And his name was……
……Is this for real? For a second, I thought I was dreaming. But no. This was reality. He was real.
I knew that face. Almost no one in Korea wouldn't. He was everywhere—news, magazines, SNS.
Zerk Makerberg.
CEO of mega-corp Feastagram. One of the world's richest.
Why was he here? Ah. Kang Haneul had mentioned it to Baek Sehee—she'd come to HQ to meet him today. Explained his presence. Not why he was in Baek Sehee's office, though.
Our eyes met, so I should greet him. I shot to my feet.
“H-Hello, Mr. Makerberg.” Clumsy English tumbled out.
But——
“Do you want to know the truth?”
Makerberg spoke first. In Korean. Fluent Korean—pronunciation and intonation perfect, like he'd grown up here. Nothing like a foreigner learning the language.
But the question shocked me more. Truth? What truth?
“……Pardon?”
“You——”
“You know nothing. But you've felt it by now.” Makerberg's voice was flat. Devoid of emotion, like he wasn't human. His eerie eyes bored into me.
“That your ability manifests different powers depending on the target.”
My heart plummeted.
……My ability?
How did Zerk Makerberg know about my ability? Wait. Calm down. My ability was Harmless Cuteness. F-rank. I'd heard it during measurement. It evoked comfort and protectiveness—like seeing a small, cute animal.
Fittingly weak most times. But with Kang Haneul, it was like a miracle drug. Her rage was the backlash—and nothing medical touched it. But my ability did.
And today, it worked surprisingly well on Kim Taeyang and Glasses Guy too.
It was weird. I didn't know why. But yeah, something was off.
Makerberg kept staring. He had no expression—not blank, but like he didn't know how to make one.
“Your facial muscles, breathing, heartbeat—you're quite curious. Good. Then let me explain.”
He opened his mouth.