Duel, Part 1
Kim Hyungkeun. Anyone meeting him for the first time would immediately feel a wave of aversion, repulsed by his heavy, bloated frame and the angry red acne blooming across his cheeks. Combined with his grating voice and aggressive attitude, Hyungkeun was practically engineered to be despised. In short, he was an outcast. A pariah, ever since elementary school. Everyone hated him, and everyone bullied him. No one ever reached out to help, and his school days dragged on like a living hell. That was, until a single ray of light pierced through his darkness.
"What do you think you're doing?! Why are you hurting someone who did nothing wrong? Stop this instant!" It was the summer of his second year in middle school. As usual, he had been targeted by the class delinquents, dragged out during class, and beaten. Just as he was despairing, thinking Ah... I guess my life is always going to be like this, a girl as beautiful as an angel appeared. Who is she...? He had never seen her before. But she was breathtaking. She was a stranger, yet he felt an overwhelming surge of gratitude. To think someone would stand up for him—someone everyone else despised. "Get away from him right now!" She saved Kim Hyungkeun. There is actually one person in this world who will fight for me. The moment he realized this, he felt a rush of emotion so profound it seemed to wash away all his past suffering.
Who on earth is she...? Why is she helping me? Could it be... does she like me? The delusions typical of a teenage boy kicked into overdrive. He wondered if she had been secretly harboring feelings for him all along, seizing this opportunity to rescue him and win his affection. Hyungkeun failed to realize that she, Han Gaeun, had acted purely out of basic human pity. In that very moment, he felt the spark of destiny. He desperately wanted to date this girl whose name he didn't even know—he wanted, with all his heart, to marry her.
"Pfft... Who the hell are you? Why are you sticking your nose in this? Unbelievable. Hey, you think just because you're a girl, we won't hit you?" "Ahhh!" But his destined savior quickly became a victim of violence right before his eyes. Hyungkeun was too terrified to save her. His opponents were a pack of hulking delinquents, and he was nothing but a weak, pathetic outcast. But then, like a true hero, a boy appeared. It was Kim Youngho, a familiar face who lived next door.
"I've trained in boxing. Don't mess with me." With those few words, Kim Youngho took care of the thugs. Watching him land precise jabs and straight punches, even Hyungkeun couldn't help but be amazed. He had often endured his mother's nagging—Youngho next door gets such good grades, so what is wrong with you!—but he had no idea the boy could fight like this, too.
"Ugh! I-I give up! Stop!" "You guys are pathetic. Don't act tough." Youngho easily chased off the gang of bullies. "You can't even fight, so why are you recklessly throwing yourself at guys twice your size? Are you the class president or something?" "But... but..." He scolded his destined girl. Even though Youngho acted cold, Hyungkeun, being a guy himself, could sense that Youngho was attracted to her.
"You're Kim Hyungkeun, right? If anyone bullies you again, tell me. I'll help you." To make matters worse, Youngho humiliated him right in front of her. He spoke with an insufferable tone, as if he were inherently superior. It was intolerable. "You should drop by my boxing gym sometime." Don't make me laugh. Why would I ever hang out with someone like you...? Stop acting so high and mighty.
The memory of that day, which Youngho held onto, was etched just as deeply into Hyungkeun's mind. Because from that day forward, Hyungkeun harbored a profound love for Han Gaeun—and an even deeper, festering inferiority complex toward Kim Youngho. Hyungkeun hung around them, putting on the facade of a close friend. But as he watched Youngho date Gaeun and eventually get engaged to her, his hatred and desire for revenge piled up, layer by layer.
Finally, on the eve of the long-awaited wedding, he invited Youngho over, having prepared a game console surrounded by eerie rumors. It was a game famous on the internet for its mystery, with reports of players vanishing without a trace. Hyungkeun had booted up the game, hoping Youngho would disappear into thin air, only to end up sucked into the game world along with him. Ha... so this is what those disappearances meant. Getting transported into a game and vanishing from the real world. Hyungkeun actually considered this a blessing. Watching Youngho marry Gaeun would have driven him insane. Just dragging Youngho to another world and ruining the wedding was enough to make him ecstatic.
But Hyungkeun's ambition didn't stop there. He wanted to thoroughly, utterly ruin Youngho and strip him of everything he owned. And so, he took his time, slowly and meticulously planning his betrayal. First, he used cheap lies to trick Youngho into accepting the Rune of Sacrifice, and then used the Love Rune to force his heart to stray toward women other than Gaeun. Watching Youngho pant after Cara, Lora, and Stella had been a source of supreme pleasure. If it were me, even if I were stabbed by the Love Rune, I would never love anyone but Gaeun. You never deserved to have her. Hyungkeun would often wear a smug, secret smile.
In truth, his original plan was to defeat the Demon King and return to Earth within the one-year limit before the Love Rune's effects wore off. But things had gone awry. The Demon King splitting his soul among the Four Heavenly Kings was a variable Hyungkeun had never anticipated. Thus, he altered his plans. Since manipulating Youngho with the Love Rune was no longer viable, he decided it would be better to simply kill him. There was no longer any need to hide, nor any obstacles in his way. All that was left was to unleash the hatred he had nurtured like a wild dog for all these years directly at Youngho.
"So... that's why you betrayed me? You crazy, insecure piece of shit?"
"Insecure? Who's insecure around you?"
"You're asking because you don't know? Fuck, you really are completely oblivious. You're nothing but a piece of trash who betrayed his friend out of pure jealousy."
Even after hearing the truth from Hyungkeun's own mouth, my rage didn't subside in the slightest. Part of me had wondered if he had some unavoidable reason, but it wasn't that at all. Jealousy. That was his sole motivation.
"You plan to kill me and go back to Earth?"
"Yeah."
"And you think Gaeun will ever spare you a single glance?"
I had once talked to Gaeun about Hyungkeun. She had described him as 'a bit of a pitiful guy.' For a woman, that kind of perception was fatal. It meant she could never, under any circumstances, view him as a romantic interest.
"I know that, Youngho. I know Gaeun doesn't like me."
"Ha! Once she finds out you killed me, she won't just dislike you—she'll utterly despise you. You piece of garbage. Enjoy living in a hell where the person you love never looks back at you."
"Don't jump to conclusions, Youngho."
"What?"
Hyungkeun flashed a sickening grin and opened his palm. A heart-shaped ancient glyph materialized in the air like a hologram.
"Did you seriously forget about this?"
"You bastard. Don't tell me..."
"Heh... That's right. The Love Rune."
A legendary rune that forces the target to fall deeply in love with the first person of the opposite sex they see.
Kim Hyungkeun was, without a doubt, subhuman trash.
"You've felt it yourself, so you know its power better than anyone."
"What are you planning to do with that? Don't tell me..."
"What do you think will happen if I use this on Gaeun? She'll fall madly, desperately in love with me."
"Don't you dare, you lunatic!" I screamed, thrusting my head through the iron bars like a madman. "Just kill me instead, you motherfucker! Don't you dare lay a single finger on Gaeun! Never!"
"Oh, I'm still going to kill you. And once you're dead, Gaeun and I will live happily ever after."
"AARRGGHH!!!"
I wanted to kill this son of a bitch. I wanted it more than anything I had ever wanted in my life. The image of Gaeun's beautiful face flashed in my mind, tearing my heart to pieces.
"Gaeun! Gaeun would never lose to a cheap trick like that! She'll be fine, even if you use that rune on her...!"
"Are you sure about that? From what I've tested, personal feelings are completely powerless against the rune's might."
"What the fuck are you talking about, you piece of shit?!"
"I'm talking about Princess Isabella."
Isabella? Why was her name coming out of Hyungkeun's mouth?
"Just in case, as a little insurance policy, I used the Love Rune on Princess Isabella last night. And wouldn't you know it? She was absolutely devoted to me today."
"What?"
"I didn't even have to ask. She went ahead and threw away your smartphone all on her own. Heh..."
"Then... Isabella betraying me... was all because of you?"
"I didn't give her any specific orders. I was actually surprised when I heard you had recorded us. But Isabella, being so deeply in love with me, took it upon herself to neutralize your trump card."
"You... you bastard! That's not love, you brainwashed her with the rune, you son of a bitch!"
"Bwahaha! So what if I did?! Ahahaha!" Hyungkeun let out a grating, obnoxious roar of laughter.
"You're going to die tomorrow! I'm going to rise to glory as the Hero! I'll take my party, slay the Four Heavenly Kings, and return to Earth! Once I'm back, Gaeun and I will grow old together, showered in her absolute love! Hahaha! Do you get it now, you dumbass? This is the difference between you and me!"
"You... mother... fucking..."
They say that when pushed into a corner, humans can tap into superhuman strength. It seemed that very power had been slumbering inside me. The sheer, unadulterated rage I felt toward Hyungkeun swelled my forearms to their absolute limit. Before I even realized what I was doing, I was tearing the iron bars apart with my bare hands and breaking out of the cell.
"I won't let you get away with this, you piece of shit!!!"
"Ugh!"
The moment I burst free, I drove my fist straight into Hyungkeun's cheekbone.
"Y-you... where did you get this kind of strength...?"
"Shut your fucking mouth, you pathetic loser! Grit your teeth, because I'm going to beat you to a bloody pulp!"
Hyungkeun tumbled backward, landing hard on his rear, but a single punch was nowhere near enough to quench my fury. Determined to beat him within an inch of his life, I lunged at him.