Hunting the Two-Headed Eight-Armed Ogre! (1)
Then my father spoke up.
“Why is our house the Apiderman’s house? Eunpa! Are you the Apiderman?”
“No. I’m a girl, Dad. If I rescued him, I’d be Apidermawoman. Snap out of it!”
‘Apiderman’ had caused a huge stir after he rescued the Kwons and vanished from the scene, leaving the cheering crowd behind. Jang Hancheol, the CEO, put up a one-hundred-million-won reward and searched everywhere, but he still hadn’t revealed his identity. That day, however, a YouTuber filed a complaint, the police started tracking the CCTV, and the result…
At that moment, Hwang Dongpa emerged from the bewildered family like a zombie, lumbering forward.
“It’s real. T-tongue… it’s really you, bro.”
“What?”
“Apiderman… is really you… you’re him! Yeaaaah!”
“What are you talking about? Hey, Geumpa. You?”
I instantly sensed we’d hit a wall we couldn’t climb.
Fortunately, things hadn’t escalated too badly.
If I could freely set waypoints, slipping underground to avoid attention was no problem at all.
In fact, this could turn out to be a stroke of luck if my charm exploded from it.
“I told you earlier, right? I’m Apiderman.”
“Huh?”
“Oppa, how?”
“No way!”
“Are you sure?”
Dongpa held up his phone in front of everyone.
The video on screen was clearly shot by the YouTuber.
It captured me leaping from the fire truck ladder and then sprinting like a maniac, shoving the YouTuber aside.
At first my face was out of frame, but once I got close to the YouTuber, it was crystal clear.
Of course, the family could tell from a distance that the guy running was me.
Then my father suddenly draped an arm around my shoulder and said,
“Geumpa, your old man already knew from the start that you’re Apiderman. You felt it too, right? That I was pretending not to know… I didn’t want the neighbors, especially your mom, to hear about it.”
“...Um, yeah.”
Mom was already on the phone, somewhere.
“Hello? Unseok-ah? Hohoho. Ah, our Geumpa? ...Yeah, right. Our son may not have studied much, but he’s always had that strong sense of justice since he was little, hasn’t he? ...Sigh, I just wanted to keep it a secret, but now… it’s all out. Embarrassing for the neighborhood.”
Eunpa stared blankly.
“No way. This is… impossible…”
Dongpa dropped to one knee, stretching both hands toward the ceiling in a full sesame money pose.
“One hundred million! One hundred million! Whee-hee. I knew it all along. My bro is gonna dig up golden treasure someday! Bro, change my computer for me!”
Damn.
I was so embarrassed I decided to finish the job quick and headed for the door in slippers.
My father, mom, Eunpa, and Dongpa all blocked me, demanding I change into formal clothes, put on socks, comb my hair, and more.
After kicking them all out, I stepped outside in a sleeveless T-shirt, shorts, barefoot, and slippers.
Cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-
Cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-
I stood in front of dozens of microphones thrust toward me, the cameras flashing.
“First, please introduce yourself.”
“I’m a university student waiting to return to school after my discharge. My name is Hwang Geumpa.”
“Why did you leave the scene without revealing your identity?”
I scratched my head and answered,
“Well… anyone who was there and knew how to climb would’ve done the same. I felt it was wrong to be cheered so much for doing what’s right.”
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