Even Villains Need Someone to Watch Their Back -2-
With that long self-introduction session finally over, a brief moment of peace settled over the five non-origins. It was a grudge that had needed settling someday. As the saying goes, strike while the iron is hot; starting things off awkwardly would only make for uneasy dreams, wouldn't it?
Chae Yuha apologized for darkening the mood because of her and began pulling out the food ingredients she had bought in advance. Kim Seokho, watching her, tested the waters with a cautious remark. "You're not about to ask me to cook a celebratory feast, are you?"
"Huh? If I wasn't planning to ask for that, why would I have dragged you along, uncle?"
Chae Yuha naturally shoved the role of celebration chef onto Kim Seokho and scampered off. A full-blown chase ensued shortly after.
"Aaack!! Let me go!!"
Maybe the building was too small, but Chae Yuha was caught in no time and dragged back, flailing the whole way. And so, with Chae Yuha firmly trapped in Kim Seokho's grip as the cooking assistant, and with Kim Seokho—a ten-year veteran of the food service industry—the celebration dishes were completed one after another.
With four enhanced humans gathered in one place, the food vanished as soon as it was made.
"Huh? When did I eat this much?"
Among them, the one who had eaten the most was Seolhwa, who had only just become an enhanced human. It was a perfectly normal reaction. Until very recently, she had been a pseudo-plant human surviving on nothing but IV drips in the hospital.
"But enhanced humans are basically cyborgs, right...? Do they even need to replenish nutrients through meals?"
A.G.O, who had been picking at her food, asked timidly. Nadja, who loved showing off her knowledge, swallowed the massive mouthful she had stuffed in and answered.
"You don't have to eat. You don't even have to sleep. But if you stop doing those things, you stop being human."
"What do you mean...?"
"To put it simply, even though your body is no longer human, your brain still is. If you don't live like a human, the cognitive dissonance will drive you insane."
"Eek..."
Startled by the explanation, A.G.O began earnestly shoveling the food she had been picking at into her mouth. If someone asked whether a Vitaloid—who wasn't even an enhanced human—needed to do the same, the answer would be no.
"I'm hungry..."
In the meantime, tears the size of chicken droppings rolled down Chae Yuha's cheeks. She had done nothing but prep ingredients the entire time without getting a single taste. If she had known this would happen, she would have claimed she couldn't handle a knife instead of pointlessly clinging to the pride of a former army cook.
"Sister, say 'ah~'."
"Um, I... me too..."
Two spoons flew toward Chae Yuha's mouth. Deeply moved by her angel-like companions, she accepted each bite in turn.
"It's delicious!"
Chae Yuha was in heaven. Beside her, Kim Seokho—who had also cooked on an empty stomach—ground his teeth.
"Brother, you say 'ah~' too."
Seolhwa, noticing his mood, brought food over for him. As expected, only my sister! Kim Seokho thought, moved. But his mouth betrayed him, spitting out cold words before he could stop himself.
"It's fine. I'll eat later."
"Tsk."
Seolhwa, her feelings hurt, offered the spoon to Chae Yuha instead. Chae Yuha shamelessly accepted it again and let out a bright giggle. "Delicious!" Kim Seokho grew even sadder. What happened to a man's pride? I should have just eaten it.
And so the two cooks finally ate the dishes they made from the leftover ingredients, long after the big eaters had finished.
Kim Seokho stepped out onto the rooftop for a smoke. Chae Yuha saw him and followed.
"Why are you following me?"
Kim Seokho took a long drag from his e-cigarette, exhaled, and asked.
"Ugh, don't blow it this way."
Chae Yuha waved the cigarette smoke away with her hand. Maybe it was because she now had a woman's body, but the smoke that she had practically lived on in her previous life felt purely unpleasant now.
"Uncle, you still hate me, don't you?"
"I'll ask the opposite. How could I possibly like you? After you nearly drove one person's life straight into the abyss."
"That's fine. There needs to be at least one person like that."
"Hmm?"
Chae Yuha turned her back and headed inside. Before she disappeared completely, she left one last remark.
"So please keep watching me from the side like this, uncle. Make sure I don't unconsciously become a villain."
"......"
With a puff, the cigarette smoke drifted far away along with his sigh. It seemed Kim Seokho's tangled thoughts about Chae Yuha were slowly settling into place.
Meanwhile, Nadja had stepped outside the building to take a call. A familiar voice blasted through her earpiece.
"Research Director Nadja! What exactly have you been doing lately that has the staff sending nonstop complaints? And what the hell did you do on the orbital elevator train!"
The voice belonged to Cheon Yusil, the only daughter of Cheon Taewoo, CEO of the Cheongang Group.
"Ah, shut up. Are you my mother?"
"I told you to stay quiet for the time being! Yet you showed your face clearly on broadcast! And why didn't you send that 1st Generation who stopped the train and fainted over to our side?"
Nadja was beginning to find the voice irritating. She hadn't felt this way back at Cheongang. They had been targets of her revenge, but they were also the capital slaves funding her research. That was no longer the case.
She had sucked Cheongang dry of everything useful. She had found two of the family members she had searched for her entire life, and it looked like new friends might appear as well. Yet here was this loud woman, saying what exactly?
'Why didn't you send that 1st Generation who stopped the train and fainted over to our side?'
She was telling her to hand over her newly found sister.
"Huu..."
She had held back quite a lot already.
"What is this? Did you just sigh? I should be the one sighing! Is staying quiet really that difficult?"
"Hey, Yusil."
"...Don't call me by my name. We're discussing business right now!"
"I'm writing my resignation letter."
- Beep.
Cheon Yusil's brain, which had been furiously spinning, came to a dead stop.
"...What?"
It was late at night. Everyone had fallen asleep. Chae Yuha, thoroughly drunk, quietly slipped out of the villain organization's temporary hideout and headed somewhere. The reason was a message from Jinhyun.
If he wasn't going to get a reply, he should have simply assumed she wasn't coming. Why threaten to wait? Chae Yuha's stomach felt ready to burst from sheer frustration. Still, she couldn't ignore it. If it was Jinhyun, he really would wait in the park until this ungodly hour.
Jinhyun appeared before the panting Chae Yuha, who had sprinted the whole way.
"Eek! You scared me!"
Startled by his sudden appearance without the slightest presence, Chae Yuha placed a hand over her majestic chest—her heart—and let out a shaky breath.
"P-please make some noise when you walk around."
"I'm sorry. Have you been drinking?"
"What does it matter to you whether I drink or not..."
"It's very dangerous for a drunk woman to wander around alone at this hour."
"You're the one who called me out here."
"You didn't have to come."
"Says the man who waited until midnight?"
They bickered back and forth. While the two exchanged their usual banter—
The park fountain that announced the hour erupted violently, shooting water high into the air. The tense atmosphere between them scattered with the sound. Jinhyun spoke first.
"Shall we sit down for a moment?"
Chae Yuha had no idea why he was suddenly acting like this, but she had come out with that kind of intention anyway. It didn't really matter one way or the other.
"Let's sit somewhere cooler."
The two figures sat side by side on a single bench. People occasionally walked past. The hourly fountain was a special sight in a city that never saw rain or snow. She wondered how he had managed to arrive at the park at precisely the hour when so many people were around. Chae Yuha felt her face growing strangely warm.
"Yuha."
"Yes?"
"Are you avoiding me?"
At Jinhyun's question, Chae Yuha naturally recalled the messages she had received from Yujin. She wasn't avoiding him. She had simply been busy lately—rescuing the younger sister of that thirty-three-year-old unemployed ex-convict uncle and saving that three-million-subscriber YouTuber who had been sniped. But she couldn't tell him the truth as it was, so Chae Yuha began crafting an excuse with her usual quick thinking.
"Ayy, why would I avoid you, Jinhyun? Did you have some reason to feel that way?"
"I heard from Yujin that you and your older sister took me to a nearby hospital."
"Mm, that's right. What about it?"
"If you took someone to the hospital, it's normal to visit or at least check in. But you left me there and never came."
"Huh?"
Chae Yuha sensed something strange in the way Jinhyun spoke. This kind of roundabout speech usually came from Yujin, not him. Only then did she realize who was behind this. Yujin, that girl, had been playing matchmaker for no reason. In vulgar terms, people called it gaslighting.
"...To be honest, I was avoiding you."
"May I ask why?"
"You got hurt because I asked for your help. I felt responsible, so I was reluctant to face you."
Jinhyun nodded as if he understood her feelings completely. He had gone through similar experiences several times. And whenever that happened, there was always something someone from his memories had once said.
"You don't need to feel responsible. I ran to help before you even asked me to, Yuha."
"Even so..."
"Then let's settle it this way. Last time at the courthouse, you helped me, didn't you? Consider this me repaying that debt."
"You can't calculate it like that. You saved me first at the restaurant, Jinhyun. I'm the one who owes a debt."
"Then the next time I'm in danger, you can come save me, Yuha."
"No, that's..."
Chae Yuha had no more words. Wait, has he always been this good at talking? She was the one who had once called the hero a "performer who makes a living by flapping his mouth."
"Aaaah! I don't know anymore! Fine, we'll do it that way!"
Chae Yuha shot up from the bench, putting distance between them, and declared.
"But you're incredibly strong, Jinhyun. Would a moment of crisis even come for you?"
"Who knows."
Jinhyun actually began seriously considering the question. Chae Yuha found it so funny that she hunched over, giggling and trying to stifle her laughter for a long while. The alcohol had hit her at just the right level. There was no moon in the sky, yet it was a rather charming night.
"But until when are we going to keep speaking formally to each other like this?"
Perhaps because of the mood, words that would never have left Chae Yuha's mouth under normal circumstances slipped out. Jinhyun was so shocked he stared at her like a mute who had swallowed honey for a long moment.
"After seeing each other's faces this much, aren't we friends now?"
"...You've had quite a bit to drink. I never expected to hear those words from you, Yuha."
"...Hehe. You're the one who spoke informally first last time, remember?"
The fountain that had been vigorously announcing the hour finally stopped.
"Ah, the fountain stopped. I'll be going now. Sorry for avoiding you. I won't do it anymore."
"Shall I walk you home?"
"Ayy, no need. Wouldn't it get awkward if you followed?"
Staggering and waving her arms, Chae Yuha gradually moved away. Jinhyun watched her quietly. Then a small voice, audible only to an enhanced human's ears, reached him.
"Contact me next time, Hyun-ah."
Jinhyun flinched and touched his ear. This time, she had gotten one over on him. When Chae Yuha briefly turned back and flashed a bright smile, it looked as if she were saying exactly that.