I Really Dislike It (4)
Ha, what nonsense. You said you'd listen earlier.
She had clearly promised that if I told her how I found out her secret, she'd become my friend. But asking to be considered a friend—what the hell did that even mean?
I still couldn't grasp Seol Si-yun's intent right now.
At those words from Cheon Seong, Seol Si-yun fidgeted with his fingers and replied.
"But you don't actually think of me as a real friend."
Ha! So that's what he meant.
I finally understood the implication behind Seol Si-yun's answer.
This guy was now asking me to treat him like Imir—a true friend, a real buddy.
It was ridiculous. There was no way Seol Si-yun could ever stand on the same level as Imir.
"Get lost. That's not a position for you to even think about stepping into."
My real friends are those who would stake their lives for me, people who look at me and only me. I respect them as friends.
There's no place for a guy who only sees me as an interesting toy to offer them.
Yet he was asking me to let him go? That was absurd.
Even back at Seoraksan, I kept Seol Si-yun around because he was a thorn in my side that only I could tolerate. The one and only reason?
If he died, it meant one less thank-you sacrifice later on when I needed to take down the Celestials.
But even so, letting him encroach on my real friends' territory was beyond irritating.
Placing him on the same plane as Imir? Moreover, Arthur hadn't become my real friend either in the end.
My head was already a mess just thinking about it, so I didn't want to kick him out personally. But it wasn't something I couldn't do.
I couldn't use Maegi to eject him, but with Maegi present I'd have an easier time. The absence of it didn't mean I couldn't throw him out.
"So if you've gotten it through your thick skull now, just get lost. I don't have time to deal with someone like you."
"..."
Even after those words, Seol Si-yun didn't move right away. Annoyed by his silence, I was about to stand up and physically throw him out when he carefully said,
"Then... look at me. Not as something else—just as I am. If you do that, I'll go."
"...Tsk! Got it, so now leave."
I didn't know what he meant by "look at me," but since I just wanted him gone immediately, Cheon Seong said he'd understand and waved him out. Seol Si-yun finally stood and headed for the door.
"Well then, take care. See you later."
Clang
After leaving the words "see you later" behind, Seol Si-yun walked out of the room, and Cheon Seong stared at the empty space for a moment before clicking his tongue and muttering,
"As expected, I can't stand that guy."
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The days passed quickly, and the day finally arrived when I was supposed to leave the dormitory.
Saying "go" made it sound like I was being kicked out, but as far as I was concerned, I was happy to be chased out of the dorm early.
I waited for the moment, wishing I'd been thrown out sooner.
"Bye. Good morning. Shall we walk together?"
Seol Si-yun, who had been waiting for me as I prepared to leave for school, was once again trying to stop Yuna and me from going together.
"Again? You're in the off-period too. What a coincidence. I forgot about class."
While lying through his teeth about forgetting class, Seol Si-yun showed up during my free time.
"Hey, isn't this about the weird rumors flying around lately? You and the top student..."
"What rumors?"
"The ones saying you and Seol Si-yun are..."
"No way!!"
Someone had seen Seol Si-yun, the top student, skipping class entirely just to hang out with me, and the rumors of some disgusting BL nonsense between us had exploded.
"Cheon Seong, wait—right?"
Even Yuna had asked me if Seol Si-yun was following me too much, wondering if maybe something like that was true.
I didn't know why I was even entangled in such rumors, and a part of me wanted to track down the jerk who started them and kill him. But that was in the past now.
"Yes, procedure confirmed."
"Thank you. Take care."
I no longer needed to stay in the dormitory. I had to attend classes, so I'd still have to see Seol Si-yun, but at least I didn't have to deal with him the second I stepped out the door. That was all that mattered.
Yuna had a lot of luggage, so she said she'd be slow, and I told her I'd go first, unpack, and meet her at the academy later.
With my bags packed, I headed home and stood in front of the door, my heart swelling with emotion.
Because inside was Beatrice and Hana.
I hadn't missed them—after all, I could still see them—but now I could see them whenever I wanted. That was what made it special.
I entered my password and opened the door. The moment I stepped inside, the aura of Beatrice and Hana washed over me, and Cheon Seong's steps quickened as he headed straight for the room where their presence was strongest.
Bang!
"Hana!"
Cheon Seong flung open the door to Hana's room with force and rushed inside. Seeing Hana rubbing her eyes with her tiny hands, as if she couldn't believe he had truly come, he smiled brightly and ran over to hug her tight.
"Really? Dad?"
"Yeah, Hana. Dad's here."
As Hana finished processing the situation and snuggled into his arms, rubbing her soft, chewy cheeks against his face, Cheon Seong continued the affectionate nuzzling. Hana, with her face glowing with pure joy, finally pulled him into a fierce hug and shouted,
"Waa!! Dad! Come quickly!!"
Cheon Seong and Hana clung to each other like puppies trying to rub their scents onto one another, nuzzling cheeks vigorously. Beatrice, watching from the side with elegant grace, approached them like a noble lady.
"Welcome, my dear."
"Ah, noona. I'm back."
Even though it had only been a little while since Cheon Seong had last seen Beatrice, just the fact that they were in a different place now felt like a long reunion. He smiled back at her, equally warm and genuine, and answered,
"Didn't Yuna come with you?"
"Yeah, she said she had a lot of luggage and that I should go ahead. I was only going to unpack and then head to see her."
"I see."
Beatrice closed the distance between her and the Cheon Seong who was holding Hana, lifted her feet lightly, and kissed his lips before smiling softly once more.
"Welcome back, my dear."
"I'm back, noona."
Cheon Seong returned the gentle, warm smile to Beatrice's kiss and lowered his head slightly to give her a deeper, more passionate one than before.
Smack
I had finally come home.
But when I returned...
"Ah, ahahaha... Cheon Seong, sorry. Everyone wanted to come by for a visit..."
"Hello! Wow! This house is nice!"
"Sister-in-law, we'll take this!"
"Ah, hello."
"Hey."
Unexpected guests had arrived. And not just one— a whole group of them.
"Excuse me."
And why the hell are you here?
They were all absolute jerks too.
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"Whoa! Did you buy this whole house by yourself? You're amazing!"
Just like always, Yoo Hwa-young was eating her rice with four bowls at once, using her eyes to judge how much to take, and then politely finishing with dessert. The sight was so ridiculous that I covered Hana's eyes and frowned.
"Sit down. You're acting weird in front of the kid."
"What? It's fine~ I'm wearing spanx."
"For once, please realize you're a woman."
"Ah! Is something crawling on me?! Why are you hitting?!"
Before I could stop her, I struck Yoo Hwa-young with a moral hammer after she spouted nonsense right in front of Hana. She had been telling her not to act that way, so Dang Hwa-ran, who had been sitting timidly beside her, quietly handed me something.
"U-um, would you like to try this? We, we brought some excellent tea from our family estate..."
The teacup she offered looked like nothing but trouble—thick, bubbling, deep green liquid that screamed poison.
Yeah, sure, it looked bad, but there was that saying that something good for the body might taste bitter. Judging by appearance alone wasn't reliable.
But if that family wasn't the infamous poison clan of Sichuan Dang, then what?
"...Is the good tea from your family actually poison?"
"W-well, yes, but just a little will build up resistance..."
"How much is 'a little'? What kind of poison is it?"
At my question, Dang Hwa-ran smiled brightly like a puppy seeing its master and answered my water with a relieved look.
"It's blood poison. The 'little' means one drop."
Blood poison was simple: a toxin that made blood pour out uncontrollably from every pore in the body. In other words, even a tiny amount would kill ordinary people by making them bleed out.
And since Dang Hwa-ran had said the amount was one drop, she was the direct blood relative of the Dang clan. She had been exposed to all kinds of poisons since childhood, building resistance, or at the very least, the Dang bloodline that didn't tolerate poison at all.
"That's basically begging to be killed."
"Y-yes?! Really?! But if it's Cheon Seong-nim, it should be fine..."
"Even if it is, sending poison to someone's house uninvited is rude."
I wasn't sure if I could even say that, but I wondered how the Dang clan raised their kids to hand out such potent toxins so casually.
They had been steadily consuming poison for centuries, so they had natural resistance far above normal people. And because they started young, they had even stronger resistance than their baseline.
But that only applied to those within the Dang clan. For ordinary people, how could they not realize that the very poison they enjoyed as a snack was deadly even in tiny amounts?
"Ugh... then I'll drink—"
"Drink what? Are you crazy?"
Hae-sol, who had been about to drink it, had no idea what she was thinking.
It was unbelievable that a person who was only the second-ranked at the Academy—the number-one hero-training institution in Korea—would do something this stupid.
"In... in that case, it's still a little poison. It should be fine."
"Even so, you're not drinking it. And this isn't 'a little'—it's the whole thing, and you're taking it back."
"..."
"..."
Both of them looked dejected, which would have looked pitiful to an outsider, but I couldn't let Hana see that. What if she learned it and started casually handing out poison like that?
"Whoa! Sister-in-law! Aren't your friends' gifts a little too much?"
"Why did you even come?"
"What? It's normal for a friend to visit a friend's house, right?"
"No way... you at least are the sanest one here."
Kim Ha-jin had shown up empty-handed too, but at least the idiot who brought nothing was better than the others. The fact that he was loud didn't matter much.
Normally both of them looked rough when visiting someone else's house, but compared to the woman in spanx or the one offering a whole cup of poison like it was a gift to drink, they were positively saintly.
But
"Why are you the only normal one?"
Surprisingly, the most normal person among all of them was Seol Si-yun.
"Yeah, well... I just came empty-handed."
Empty-handed, sure. But the way he had quietly sat with a neatly arranged slice of cake on the table was truly unexpected.
Of course, in the past life he had been so meek he was like a robot that only reacted to fights, but the fact that he had actually absorbed proper manners into his brain was shocking.
Slyly
"Huh? Cheon Seong, where are you going?"
"Just gonna go to the bathroom real quick. The noise is giving me a headache."
Actually, I wasn't even that tired, but the current atmosphere was deeply annoying.
Especially since I'd just received a message from the one important person I needed to think about.
[The thing you asked me to investigate is done. Since I can't just end it with a message, check your messages and contact me.]
On the phone screen floated a single message, sent by
Sender: Imir
He was my trusted friend, Imir.
I hoped this information would help clear my complicated thoughts, so I called him.
And what came through the speaker was shocking news.
[The person you asked me to investigate—there is not a single trace of information on them.]
Seol Si-yun's father, the Sword God, his mother. Imir couldn't even find the tiniest scrap of info on her.
It seemed the incident I had assumed was smaller than I thought was actually far bigger than I imagined.