093 – Attending the Ha Ildo Class Reunion with a Nymph! #4
Seo Yerim spoke up.
“Yu Jihyun. You don't have any materials about the Witch, do you. You might've been able to fool Ha Ildo, but not me.”
I was flustered in more ways than one.
Seo Yerim's tone had been so aggressive, so razor-sharp.
With her arms crossed, Seo Yerim's face was scrunched up so hard it looked like it might wrinkle, radiating open hostility.
Swish—.
Rrrk—.
Yu Jihyun closed her drawer.
Then she rose from her seat.
“Yerim, you're saying I'm lying? Where on earth did that come from, out of nowhere? And aren't you being incredibly rude? I'm your senior. I'm older. Could you at least show some manners?”
Yu Jihyun was a bright, audacious person.
Watching her give as good as she got against Seo Yerim's blatant hostility honestly earned a bit of my admiration—
but I had absolutely no idea what situation I'd walked into.
Before long, Seo Yerim turned to me.
“Ha Ildo. Yu Jihyun was lying. The whole Witch thing was just an excuse to lure you up to her room. She's reeled in more than five men this way. And you—you have a boyfriend right now, don't you?”
If what Seo Yerim was saying was true, it was going to hit me pretty hard in more ways than one.
Everything would hinge on how Yu Jihyun responded.
“……”
But Yu Jihyun's mouth snapped shut, as though she'd been struck squarely in a sore spot.
Her fists clenched tight and trembling, she looked distinctly unstable.
She looked about ready to lunge at Seo Yerim and grab a fistful of her hair.
I asked Yu Jihyun.
“Do you have a boyfriend right now? I thought you said you were single.”
“I don't have a boyfriend. Seo Yerim, this girl is slandering me right now.”
“Oh, really? Then what's this, exactly?”
Swish—.
Seo Yerim held out her phone to me.
On the screen was a woman who looked exactly like Yu Jihyun, arm in arm with a man wearing a face mask.
Anyone could see they looked like an affectionate couple!
“For the record, this was taken yesterday. He's some Osa Group executive's son, apparently. If that's not your boyfriend, then what is it? I'm genuinely curious, so tell me.”
“…We're breaking up soon anyway.”
Was this actually happening?
I felt the ground tilt dizzyingly beneath me in more ways than one.
So that ring on her ring finger really had been there because she had a real boyfriend!
And honestly? It was kind of riveting.
I felt like a character in one of those morning dramas Ang-ang-i sometimes watched on TV.
“I know all about how you've been trying to sweet-talk Ha Ildo now that he's doing well for himself. A doctor. A lawyer. Every man you've dated was someone on the rise. Ha Ildo! You especially need to look at this!”
Swish—.
Seo Yerim opened the drawer and pulled something out.
Yu Jihyun snapped, “Hey! Stop going through my stuff!” but she was no match for the power of an S-Rank awakener.
Seo Yerim held the unwrapped item under the faucet and turned the water on. A balloon-like object swelled up, and then water came spraying out of it in every direction.
“Look at this! There's a hole poked in the rubber!”
“…M-maybe it's just old. I should throw it out. I've been so busy with awakener duties, you see—”
“Yu Jihyun! I know exactly what you're doing—sinking your teeth into Ha Ildo so you can live off him. You haven't even done awakener work in five years! Busy with what, exactly?”
Five years without any awakener work?
Hadn't she made it all the way to B-Rank back in the day?
I had no idea. I'd skipped every class reunion and cut off all contact with my old cohort—no social media, nothing—so I was completely out of the loop.
But why?
“Yu Jihyun. You said your dream was to become the greatest awakener in Korea.”
Yu Jihyun had been talented and driven.
I couldn't fathom why someone like her would walk away for five years. But she let out a long sigh—hoo——and said,
“Because I'm sick of it. People die. People get hurt. Honestly, I just got sick of it all. I want an ordinary life. Ha Ildo, you can understand how I feel, can't you? I just want to marry someone ordinary, have kids ordinarily, and just live an ordinary life. None of us became awakeners by choice in the first place.”
“……”
It was a remark that gave me a lot to think about.
Quite a few of my old cohort had longed for an ordinary life, too.
When you're dragged into life-or-death places from childhood, watching people die and get hurt around you, of course you end up that way.
Frankly, it's not easy.
I just never imagined Yu Jihyun had been one of them.
“Yerim. Could you give us a minute outside?”
“Hey. Don't you realize this woman was trying to seduce you? Like a honeypot—latching onto the back of your neck! She was trying to stick a straw into your life! Honestly, it's laughable. She didn't spare you a glance back when you were a perpetual D-Rank scraping by, did she?”
That line about being a perpetual D-Rank scraping by made my chest sting.
Because it was true.
“If Yu Jihyun is showing interest in you, it's not interest in you, it's interest in your specs. Yu Jihyun—did you so much as text him once when he was flailing around as a D-Rank?”
“I wouldn't know about that. But Yerim, step outside for a minute. Take Keongkeongi with you.”
━Keng-keng…!
The Dog-Squirrel Keongkeongi went zipping up Seo Yerim's body, from her leg all the way to her shoulder.
Seo Yerim shot one last look back and forth between Yu Jihyun and me, then swept out of the room.
“Do whatever you want, you idiot of a pushover!”
Click.
The door finally closed, and Yu Jihyun's tightly sealed lips opened.
“Ildo. I'm sorry. This wasn't what I called you here to talk about, I swear. I really was just going to give you the Witch's materials. Really. I'm not lying. Really.”
“I know. You're not even my type to begin with. I never thought you had those kinds of feelings for me either.”
Yu Jihyun's type was tall men with model-like builds and idol faces.
Up until her third boyfriend, I'd actually kept an eye on her social media and profile now and then.
Yu Jihyun cared a lot about looks.
Her taste was rock solid.
Frankly, I considered myself decently handsome, but if you asked whether I was celebrity-grade, the honest answer was no.
“Anyway, I'm sorry about all this too. Seo Yerim's always been a bit of a bulldozer. I'll make sure she gets a proper scolding. I shouldn't have bothered with the electric car, honestly. Though the electric car was nice, right?”
Seo Yerim was so blunt that she sometimes hurt people without a second thought.
Which is why I'd taken more than one major blow from her myself, believe me.
She'd be better off fixing that for her own sake.
“……”
Yu Jihyun just stood there, face flushed, at a complete loss.
And I didn't know what to say either.
Still, I'd decided there was one thing I wanted to say.
“I spent a long, long time living an ordinary life as a D-Rank. And it wasn't fun. Now I've finally got momentum again, so this time, I'm going all the way to the top.”
Back when Yu Jihyun turned me down, it had honestly been a shock.
I was young enough to fantasize that someday I'd become so incredibly amazing that she'd regret rejecting me.
So had I become amazing?
No.
Not yet!
Frankly, I had to become an S-Rank awakener, at minimum!
“……”
Yu Jihyun kept her mouth shut.
If there were such a thing as a petrified statue, I imagine this is exactly what it would look like.
“Anyway—take care of yourself!”
Swoosh—.
I couldn't bear the embarrassment any longer, and I had nothing left to say, so I bolted out of the cramped studio apartment.
“You owe me a thank-you. If you'd married a woman like that, you'd have spent your whole marriage being ground down, then divorced and fleeced to the bone in alimony and child support. Got it?”
On the ride in the electric car, Seo Yerim delivered a full-blown speech at me, flowing like water.
But my brow was furrowed.
“What do you mean, 'a woman like that'?”
“What do I mean? Women who marry for specs, not love! Couldn't care less when you're D-Rank, then the second you start making it big, suddenly she's interested. I know those types all too well!”
“You know them all too well?”
“Do you have any idea how many eyes have been on me every time I climbed from B to A to S? Ha Ildo, you wouldn't know this, but for awakeners like us, choosing your partner matters. You have to find someone who looks at your heart and your potential, not your résumé.”
For something coming out of Seo Yerim's mouth, that was a remarkably romantic sentiment.
Well, then again—her family was so absurdly wealthy that men looking to marry into her specs had probably lined up around the block.
I felt curiously deflated.
Never dreamed I'd go through all this at a class reunion, of all places.
“Ha Ildo. From now on, whenever a woman flirts with you, contact me first. I'll check whether she's a good one or not. When it comes to women, another woman can spot it a mile away! Just look at today! It worked with Cassie too!”
“……”
“Without me, your life would've been ruined! Say thank you!”
None of it sat quite right with me, but—
there was such a thing as insurance.
I decided to thank Seo Yerim, even if it stuck in my throat a little.
“Thanks.”
“That sounded not even remotely sincere. Anyway, from now on, any girl who comes near you gets screened by me first. It's because you're like a little brother to me.”
“Little brother? I'm older than you.”
“My rank's higher than yours, though.”
She had me there.
Among awakeners, money and rank made you the senior—the older sister.
After all, Seo Yerim, a 2nd-generation student, was doing miles better than me, a 1st-generation one.
Soon Seo Yerim gave a little snort—hmph—.
“Then try finding someone in your own circle.”
My circle.
At those words, a certain face drifted into my mind.
“What about Ari? Same B-Rank as me, similar financial situation. And Ari and I click perfectly on comedy. Everything I say just lands with her.”
“What? Yu Ari? Hey! That girl is three times as scheming as Yu Jihyun! Ugh, I sound like I'm bad-mouthing her behind her back, so I'll stop there—but her, absolutely not!”
Seo Yerim recoiled with utter disgust.
She must still carry that competitive fire toward Yu Ari, whom she'd always treated like a rival.
Truthfully, I thought of Ari like a little sister I doted on.
Ari was still exactly the same as she'd been back in high school.
She was so naive and pure that if I ever looked at her any other way, I'd feel like some kind of villain.
Not to mention Ari treated me like a real big brother in the first place.
She felt more like family than my actual sister did.
Sometimes I wished I could swap my little sister out for Ari.
“Anyway. Ha Ildo. I just saved you once. That makes it a debt. And there's a chance for you to pay it back. Are you free this weekend?”
“This week? This weekend I'm supposed to play with Keongkeongi and Kwang-kwangi. I need to groom Kalinoi's feathers, too. And I have to listen to all the little gossip the nymphs chatter about.”
Grrk—.
Seo Yerim scowled.
“So you're telling me you have nothing going on. Perfect, then. This week, Telos is holding an internal retreat for the company executives. 'Executives,' mind you, are basically all my uncles, aunts, and cousins. It's really a family gathering. You're coming.”
“Why would I attend a Telos executive retreat? You said it was a family thing?”
“Because I don't want to hear the nagging, that's why! And this year, there's no one better suited than you. I'll give you the script and the itinerary from the trunk later—memorize them front to back before the weekend. Got it? It's being held somewhere nice, so just think of it as a vacation! We're flying there on a private jet!”