Ch 88
Became a swordsmanship instructor at the academy
Chapter 88
After finishing the call with Se-jin, I thought for a moment, then called the vice principal to arrange a meeting and left school to meet him.
"When that bastard didn't come to the graduation ceremony, I thought it was strange but figured he was just busy. I never would have thought there was such a situation. I thought that guy had a bad personality but really cared for his daughter..."
"It's all an act. If you find it hard to believe, you can call Se-jin to confirm."
"No need. I trust Teacher Kang more than that bastard. You wouldn't come find me at this time to lie, would you?"
"That's right."
"So how can I help you?"
"I didn't come here asking for any particular help."
"You don't need help... Then why did you tell me about this?"
"Kim Dae-chan told Se-jin today that if she doesn't follow his words, I won't be safe."
"You? Are you and Se-jin perhaps..."
"You seem to be thinking the same thing as Kim Dae-chan, but as I said in the interview before, Se-jin and I are teacher and student, nothing more. Well, Se-jin isn't a student anymore now."
"Right. If you say so, then that's how it is."
"According to Se-jin, Kim Dae-chan seems to think he's found my weakness."
"Weakness? Have you been going around doing bad things somewhere?"
"I don't know either. I'm not an incredibly good person, but I haven't lived badly enough for others to easily find my weaknesses."
"Looking at you, you have a talent for making things sound complicated. Just get to the point. So what are you planning to do?"
"Since Se-jin has expressed her refusal, Kim Dae-chan will attack me in some way."
"A situation might arise where you're misunderstood, like last summer."
"Yes. That's why I told you in advance."
"So you want me to film a video again if that happens?"
"No. Vice Principal, you just need to trust me as you said earlier."
"Hmm, though it's an honorary position, I am the master of Antiroider Guild that Se-jin belongs to. If another guild tries to take a guild member through unreasonable methods, I have a duty to stop it."
Surprising. Usually he only cares about school and hardly pays attention to the guild.
"It's fine. Though this matter started from Se-jin, this is a problem between Kim Dae-chan and me."
Kim Dae-chan was the one who made the proposal first, and I was the one who accepted that deal.
And Kim Dae-chan was the one who unilaterally broke it, so it's right for me to resolve it.
The vice principal wasn't even a witness.
"Still, if Kim Dae-chan comes at you seriously, it would be too much for you alone."
I know that too.
I don't know what exactly he considers a weakness, but if they come at me seriously, there's a high possibility I'll be cornered until I can clear things up.
Maybe I'll be cornered so badly I won't even be able to properly explain myself.
Regardless of whether his character is good or bad, Kim Dae-chan is an S-rank Hunter with tremendous influence domestically and the master of a top 10 guild.
"It's fine. I'm planning to attack Kim Dae-chan first before he touches me."
"I know your confidence well, but still, the opponent is Kim Dae-chan... Are you really okay?"
So you could usually treat me a bit better?
Acting like you care now...
"I don't particularly like fighting, but I'm not the type to push my fights onto others."
***
When I opened my eyes, I saw an unfamiliar ceiling.
I pushed away the soft blanket and sat up.
Looking at the clock on the wall, it was 8:50.
I think I fell asleep past 4 AM after organizing my thoughts and making plans.
Today is a weekday, not a weekend. Usually I would have been completely late and hurried to prepare, but it's fine.
After finishing my conversation with the vice principal yesterday, I didn't return to school but came to a hotel.
It wasn't too late when the conversation ended, so I could have returned to school, but I said I would take annual leave.
Originally, teachers can't take annual leave during the semester unless there's a really urgent matter or they're seriously ill.
If one person is absent, other teachers have to substitute.
Moreover, the swordsmanship I teach has classes every day, making it even harder to miss, but I got the vice principal's permission.
Preemptive strike.
I plan to attack Kim Dae-chan first before he attacks me.
The vice principal said he would handle the annual leave, but should I have contacted the other teachers too?
I'm a bit worried.
I checked the phone on the table to see if any calls came, but it was turned off.
Was the battery low?
Anyway, at this time the vice principal would have already informed them that I'm taking the day off, so I decided to wash up first before checking.
The vice principal said he would process it as one day, but if possible, he told me to return in the afternoon, so I can't be too leisurely.
After washing my hair and cleaning thoroughly, I came out, got dressed, and turned on the half-charged phone, and was shocked.
There were over twenty missed calls and tons of messages piled up.
When I checked the missed calls, they were from fellow teachers and students from my class and swordsmanship class.
Did this guy, the vice principal, forget?
Geez, really... Of all things to forget.
He said he would handle everything himself...
I pressed back and checked the messages, but what's this?
All the fellow teachers and even students are asking what happened, saying some strange article was posted.
An article...
It seems Kim Dae-chan moved faster than I thought.
There happened to be an article link among the messages I received, so I clicked it.
[Deathpatch = Yoon Seo-won, Nam Ji-hyeon reporters. (Exclusive) What seemed like a perfect pink romance was actually a makjang drama that puts morning dramas to shame. We reveal the true face of a famous hunter.
The incident began with the post-victory interview of Kim Se-jin, who won the WHCU held in London in January this year.
In the interview, Kim Se-jin spent more than half the interview time praising Kang Shin-hyeok, who had coached her.
Due to the excessive praise, some suspected that the relationship between the two wasn't just that of teacher and student, but something more.
In fact, during the airport interview after returning to Korea, Kim Se-jin made a surprising announcement that she wouldn't join Ares Guild where her father serves as guild master, which became a hot topic. Though it didn't get much attention, there were questions about dating rumors during that interview.
Both said they were teacher and student and asked to refrain from speculation, but afterward, the two used their respective record-breaking prize money and winnings to purchase a building together in Gangnam.
Just when suspicion was about to turn into certainty, a few days after the building purchase article was published, Kim Se-jin suddenly joined Antiroider Guild, where Kim Man-dong, the principal of Hunter School, serves as honorary guild master, and simultaneously donated a considerable amount of 2 billion won to her alma mater, significantly diluting interest in the dating rumors.
However, since we at Deathpatch had been focusing on the dating rumors between the two, we didn't lose interest and instead began intensive coverage, soon reaching the conclusion we had in mind.
The video in question is part of CCTV footage from a pension in Gangwon Province at the end of December.
In the homecoming interview, when reporters asked Kim Se-jin how she prepared for the competition, she revealed that she had conducted intensive training with teachers as soon as winter break started.
The training camp was held at a pension in Gangwon Province and was known to include a total of 3 teachers including supervising teacher Kang Shin-hyeok.
However, as seen in the video, there was only one car at the pension, and only Kang Shin-hyeok and Kim Se-jin were captured on CCTV.
The other 2 teachers who were supposed to be training together joined 3 days later.
At the time, Kim Se-jin was still a minor, but Deathpatch had no intention whatsoever of belittling or criticizing Kang Shin-hyeok and Kim Se-jin.
The two might have really just trained, and even if there was an inappropriate relationship, Se-jin was already 18 years old and would become an adult in a few days, so if they had feelings for each other and mutually consented, there would be no legal problem.
Since they were teacher and student respectively, it might be seen as slightly improper from a moral standpoint, but Kim Se-jin is no longer a student and is a proper adult now.
The age difference between the two is also only six years, which isn't that large.
Having caused damage with false reports last year, Deathpatch was about to thoroughly verify this time when we received news that Kang Shin-hyeok had purchased a residential-commercial apartment near Gangnam Station in mid-February.
Since it was quite close to the previously purchased building, we thought it might be a place prepared for secret meetings with Kim Se-jin and began undercover reporting.
However, shortly after starting coverage, an article came out that he wasn't actually living there, and we were about to dismiss it as an investment purpose when suspicious points were discovered.
The residential-commercial apartment Kang Shin-hyeok purchased is about 38 pyeong in size with a market value of 2 billion won.
He provided such an ultra-expensive residential-commercial apartment for free rent immediately upon purchase.
The apartment has a key money deposit price of over 1.2 billion won and could receive a monthly rent of 4 million won with a 300 million won deposit, so providing it for free didn't make sense by common standards.
Investigation revealed that currently residing in the house Kang Shin-hyeok purchased are a beautiful woman who appears to be in her late twenties to early thirties and a preschool-age girl.
For us who were preparing a dating article, we couldn't help but be confused.
Some might think they could be Kang Shin-hyeok's family or relatives, but Kang Shin-hyeok has never revealed being married and is known to be from a non-Hunter school background who grew up in an orphanage.
Being a luxury residential-commercial apartment, security was considerable and there were many difficulties, but Deathpatch mobilized all capabilities to confirm several additional pieces of information.
According to witness testimony from nearby residents on the day the mother and daughter moved in, Kang Shin-hyeok accompanied them, and he appeared quite close not only to the woman but also to the child.
We also obtained information about the neighborhood where the mother and daughter previously lived, and surprisingly, the neighborhood they lived in before moving was Baeksama Village, the last remaining moon village in Seoul.
Most residents had left due to scheduled redevelopment, but Deathpatch found a resident who knew the mother and daughter and could hear their detailed story.
The woman's husband died early and she was left alone to raise the children. She rented even in Baeksama Village, and her situation was poor enough that rough-looking men who appeared to be loan sharks often visited, suggesting her late husband had left many debts.
A few days before moving, she came to say she was moving, so when asked if she was running away, she said everything was resolved and her expression was quite bright.
On the moving day itself, a handsome man came in a luxury car to help, and when shown Kang Shin-hyeok's photo, they confirmed it was the same person.
Continued in Part 2.]
Part 2 was also just content criticizing me for two-timing like Part 1, with just a few photos of me meeting Se-jin.
If I hadn't received a warning from Se-jin, I might have thought Deathpatch was conducting background investigations out of resentment from past events, but it seems Kim Dae-chan's involvement is correct.
When Se-jin and I went to the pension, I didn't feel any tailing at all, and the same during the 3 days at the pension.
It doesn't make sense for a mere reporter to tail and investigate without my knowledge, so they must have visited the pension later, which gives us the answer.
Besides us who actually went there, only Se-jin's parents would know the pension's location.
It's completely absurd speculation, but rather than getting angry, I'm actually relieved.
I thought the weakness he claimed to have might be about Antas.
Of course, even in that case I had thought about how to handle it, but this is all it is...
Ridiculous.
Though there are many curses against me in the article comments, it's not that serious.
As they wrote in their article, they've been thoroughly beaten by me before.
I had sued all the malicious commenters too.
This time there are quite a few people I could sue, but still, there are quite a few people arguing for neutrality, saying Deathpatch might be grasping at straws again and getting schooled.
I finished changing clothes, left the hotel, and made a call.
"Teacher Kang? You said you'd let me write an exclusive article today, but don't tell me it was this?"
"No. I didn't expect the Deathpatch article either."
"Then that article isn't true?"
"Of course not."
"Then where are you now? An article just came out saying you didn't come to work at school today, and there's talk going around that you've gone into hiding. If it's not true, I'll help you again this time."
"Really? I was planning to meet with you today, so I didn't go to work. I got permission from the vice principal too."
"What?"
"I did oversleep a bit, but I'm just heading out for breakfast now, so I think we can meet around 10 o'clock. Is that okay?"
"10 o'clock? If it's Gyeonggi Province, it might take some time."
"It's Seoul. Let's meet at 10 o'clock in front of Hunter Association Gangnam headquarters."