One Good Hit

What the hell am I supposed to do?

Park Woojin was trapped in a situation where he couldn't move forward or back. A hidden-camera report had come in out of nowhere, and then a lawyer from some ridiculously famous firm had shown up claiming to represent Dayeon, pressing him without a shred of mercy. That alone was already enough to crush him psychologically, leaving him unable to do a single thing.

And even his parents—the people he'd been certain would stand by him—had cut him off completely.

He had asked them for help. He'd asked to borrow money. He just hadn't mentioned what he needed it for.

Eunchae or Dayeon, maybe. But Dohyun?

Park Woojin's mind suddenly conjured up Dohyun's face. The new editor who had never once let himself get pushed around—who, if anything, had dragged Woojin along at his own pace.

"Fuck...!"

That furious curse was the last thing out of his mouth before the call went dead with a sharp click.

"H-hello?! Dad?! Mom!"

He stared at the darkened screen in hollow disbelief and dialed again, over and over. All that came back was a bleak, mechanical tone—the kind you only heard when someone had blocked you.

There was no other way to interpret that desolate mechanical voice. He'd been blocked. Park Woojin's face went slack with devastation.

"Wh-what am I supposed to do about the lawyer fees..."

Even if he hired an attorney right this second, the best he could hope for was shaving a little time off his sentence. And he'd blown through every last won he'd ever earned, living it up like the money would never run out. He had nothing left.

"Fuck! Choi Dohyun, that son of a bitch told my parents...!"

He had no idea how Dohyun had even gotten the number, but given that Dayeon had hired an expensive lawyer, Woojin figured he'd gotten it through her.

"These fucking pieces of shit...!"

This was hardly the time for it, and yet Park Woojin was still clinging to his pride. Even if he flattened himself on the ground and begged, they were never going to forgive him.

"Kh— wh-what do I do... Maybe I should try borrowing some money from my friends..."

But no matter how desperately he reached out, not a single person would lend Park Woojin a thing. What he didn't know was that the fact that he was a voyeur had already spread to everyone around him.

His behavior had always been terrible, so the only people he was still in contact with were in a single group chat—the one where he'd been spreading those photos around. And now, not a single person in that chat would even answer him.

"Fuck...! Motherfucker! Fuck!"

He screamed himself hoarse and hurled whatever he could get his hands on, but none of it solved a thing. Now all that remained before Park Woojin was a road to hell, overflowing with his own karma.

"It's weird, though. Park Woojin hasn't shown up here even once."

Dohyun had been taking a short break on the couch when he said it, sounding genuinely surprised. Eunchae glanced over.

"Right? I figured he'd come by at least once."

She hadn't seen this coming either. The Park Woojin she knew would have shown up once or twice to raise hell, picked up a few extra charges in the process, and turned himself into an even bigger criminal.

BANG BANG—!

"Hey, you fucking bastards! Come out! I said get out here!"

Speak of the devil. From the other side of the front door, Park Woojin's voice exploded into the apartment, raw and unhinged.

"Wow, I didn't think he'd show up this fast. Dohyun, did you use a summoning spell?"

"As if. If I knew how to do that, I wouldn't summon him—I'd send him to another world and make sure he never came back."

Dohyun and Eunchae snickered.

BANG BANG—!

"You pieces of shit! Stop laughing and come out!"

They'd been talking in the living room, so apparently every word of their little ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠joke had carried outside. Park Woojin only screamed louder.

"Wow, he's actually really loud. Should I call the cops?"

Eunchae's face twisted in a grimace. On a normal day she would have gone out there herself and driven his blood pressure even higher—she knew perfectly well he'd be too scared to actually do anything. But in a state like this, with his eyes rolled all the way back, there was no telling what he might try. Better to call the police than go looking for a dangerous situation.

"Yeah, let's file a report first."

Dohyun was thinking the same thing. You don't pick a fight with a rabid dog.

And yet. This was the same bastard who had taken hidden-camera photos of Dayeon. A part of him still wanted to land one good, proper hit.

Isn't there something useful I can use?

Something that would make the pain stick. And as if the thought itself had been read—

A quest popped into existence, right on cue.

Payback time.

A chance to properly return every ounce of irritation that bastard had piled on them.

But a 5-point reward... yeah, this one's probably no joke.

From everything he'd seen so far, the harder the quest, the bigger the payout. Not long ago, the quest to win Jiyun over had been worth 5 points—and the hidden mission on top of that had been another 5. Which meant the difficulty on this one was sitting on the high end.

So how do I screw him over?

The most obvious idea was to just walk out there with something heavy and beat the hell out of him.

Yeah, except then I might be the one getting arrested.

If Woojin threw the first punch, it could qualify as self-defense. Throwing it himself was a different problem. Jiyun would protect him, he was sure of that—but he couldn't just do whatever he wanted and assume she'd clean it up.

"Eunchae. What do you think would piss Park Woojin off the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠most? Really get under his skin."

"Huh? Where's this coming from?"

"I don't know. He's spent this whole time making our lives miserable. Just letting him walk away feels like a waste."

Eunchae blinked at him, studying the look on his face—the look of a man who was clearly already plotting something.

"What are you planning to do."

"Hit him with something. Anything."

"Hmm... well, showing him how close you are with me and Dayeon unnie would probably piss him off the most, right?"

Here he was, one step from getting arrested, and Dohyun would be strolling around looking perfectly happy with Eunchae and Dayeon. That would absolutely make Park Woojin's blood boil.

"Hmm..."

She wasn't wrong. But it would be awkward to stage, and all it would really do was make him angry. That wasn't quite satisfying enough.

"Give me a second."

He said it to Eunchae and stepped into the bathroom, then pulled the shop up in front of his eyes.

Partial Memory Eraser?

So it could wipe five full minutes of memory clean.

This is basically the system telling me to beat him with a baseball bat and then erase the memory, isn't it?

That was the distinct impression he was getting. The items that had popped up the instant he opened the shop were already different from the usual stock, and everything about the display seemed to be pointing him toward the same answer.

Alright. First I let him see me being all lovey-dovey with Eunchae to put him in a foul mood. Wait—did I already check that box?

When Woojin had been pounding on the door earlier, the two of them cracking jokes had only made him lose it harder.

So now I just have to rough him up, more or less...

Even with the system all but shoving him in that direction, the idea of personally beating another person still sat wrong with him. That much was unavoidable.

Anything that inflicts mental pain instead of physical?

If there was a way to hurt him psychologically, he'd go that route and keep the baseball bat as a last resort. He dug a little deeper through the shop.

I've got this weird feeling the system wants Park Woojin to suffer too.

If he thought about it the way he always did, the system had consistently responded to what Dohyun wanted. This time was probably no different—it had reacted to his desire.

Even so, you've got to admit this is convenient.

He only had 2 points to his name. Anything more expensive than that and revenge might have been off the table entirely. But the system hadn't left him hanging. It had even adjusted the prices so he could clear the quest and satisfy his need to get even with Park Woojin, pushing him forward from behind.

There were some fairly violent options in the mix, sure.

"Let's go with this one."

Walking out of the bathroom holding a baseball bat that hadn't existed a minute ago would have looked bizarre anyway. And he didn't particularly want Eunchae to see him as the violent type.

Same as always—the moment he tapped the item, a prompt asked if he wanted to buy it. He pressed the button marked Y, and a perfectly ordinary-looking spray can dropped straight into his hand.

"I wonder how you're supposed to use this."

He couldn't exactly test it on himself, so he decided Park Woojin would be the test subject. Dohyun walked out of the bathroom and headed straight for the front door.

"Dohyun—Dohyun, you're opening the door?!"

Eunchae's eyes went wide, but—

BANG— rattle!

"Argh... fuck...!"

He yanked the door open so suddenly that Park Woojin, who had been hammering on it with everything he had, nearly pitched forward onto his face. Dohyun did not waste the opening.

Pssssshhh—!

"AAAAAGH...! Fuck, what the hell...?!"

"Yeah. That's gonna sting."

He emptied as much of it into Woojin's eyes as he could, then—

SLAM—!

—left Park Woojin writhing on the other side and shut the door.

"What did you do...?"

"Just made things a little painful for him. Don't worry. It won't do any real damage."

Dohyun smirked and gave the spray can a little shake.

"Oh..."

Eunchae found herself thinking that Dohyun might have a crueler streak than she'd realized. Then again, inflicting a little pain on Park Woojin was...

Okay. That was badass. He's so cool.

That was about the size of it.