Chapter 56
Chapter 56
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: EP.56
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Right after the battle ended.
Heroes and rescue workers bustled about amid the dust clouds rising over the rubble.
But their gazes were all fixed on one spot, as if by prior agreement.
It was where Min Seola and I were standing.
"...No way."
One of the heroes cleaning up the scene gaped vacantly.
"Seola-nim was always strong, but that strong? What the hell was that final blow just now...?"
"Wasn't that because of that guy over there?"
His colleague nodded toward me and whispered.
"Did you see it earlier? The mana wave changed the instant that guy hugged her."
"I did. Something like wings sprouted, right?"
"No way, is that guy the 'Holy Man,' the male counterpart to the rumored 'Saintess'?"
I ignored the bizarre terminology.
'My face is already out there, and now I'm being treated like a walking totem.'
That was when it happened.
A heavy footfall echoed, and a massive shadow fell over me.
'What the...?'
I looked up to see a muscular, hulking male hero standing before me with a resolute expression.
"Um..."
He extended a hand the size of a pot lid.
His eyes sparkled with an intensity utterly at odds with his build, to the point of being overwhelming.
"If it's not too much trouble, could you give me a hug too? I've been having bad muscle pains lately..."
"...Pardon?"
*
The same time.
Choi Yura's living room.
"Pffft!!!"
Choi Yura spat out the beer she was drinking.
She didn't even wipe the beer dribbling from her mouth as she stared holes into the TV screen.
[Breaking news. Hero Min Seola, who subdued a villain in the city center, has become a hot topic after being caught embracing a man of unknown identity.]
On the screen, in the middle of the ruined battlefield.
Min Seola was holding some guy close, like he was precious to her.
And the moment his face filled the close-up, Choi Yura's eyes nearly bulged out.
"Cough! Cough! Isn't that Kim Seonghwa?!"
No mistake.
It was that arrogant punk who had notified her of five days' leave last weekend, citing "personal reasons."
"Hah... unbelievable."
Choi Yura let out an incredulous chuckle.
"'Personal reasons,' my ass. So that's what you were up to—dating?"
She snatched up her phone from the table.
The text from Kim Seonghwa.
"Wow, get a load of this guy. I thought something serious had come up for the week, but no—you were trailing Min Seola around on dates?"
Absurdity outweighed any sense of betrayal.
And soon, another question flooded in.
"Weren't you going on about how you just got lucky help once? Said you weren't close or anything. Bullshit."
The look in Min Seola's eyes on screen wasn't for some random "citizen she helped."
It was the gaze of a woman in love, staring at the man she'd give everything to protect.
And then, the sight of her embracing Kim Seonghwa and soaring into the sky.
"If you're not close, what—married?"
Choi Yura crushed the beer can in her grip.
Her narrowed eyes glared at Kim Seonghwa on the screen as she muttered.
"Fine, Kim Seonghwa. Looks like you've landed yourself a huge backer, huh?"
But this was still the office.
No matter if he was the number one hero's boyfriend, he was still her subordinate.
'Just wait till you show up for work.'
*
That day, at a bar in Seoul.
This noisy spot, filled with chatter and clinking glasses, was Kim Seonghwa's college alumni gathering.
"Hey! Cheers! Cheers!"
"Yerin's here today too—drink up, drink up!"
The male alumni, buzzed on booze, raised their voices.
Their talk naturally shifted to wondering about absent friends.
"But Seonghwa still didn't show in the end?"
"Duh, obvious."
One alumnus slammed down his soju glass and added,
"People who skip reunions fall into two categories: the real successes too busy to come, or total losers with no face to show."
Another chewed on snacks and chimed in.
"Kim Seonghwa's definitely the latter. Office drone life—what's so busy about pretending to be fancy?"
"Right. Hey, if he was doing well, he'd show up bragging even if we told him not to."
They kept ripping into Kim Seonghwa, who wasn't even there, like he was bar food.
At the corner of the table.
A woman with long straight hair and a pure, innocent look quietly sipped her soda.
"Yerin-ah, why just soda when there's booze?"
"I'm not big on alcohol..."
She'd always been popular even before awakening, but her shy, introverted nature made these gatherings uncomfortable.
Still, she'd dragged herself here under pressure from the alumni.
"We've got Yerin here, so we're good. Right?"
One alumnus flattered her.
"Yerin-ah, congrats on awakening recently. You're on a whole different level from a guy like Kim Seonghwa."
"Ah... thanks."
Yerin smiled awkwardly.
'Seonghwa didn't come, huh...'
The name they'd been tossing around kept nagging at her.
Because it reminded her of what her sister had said a few days ago, after returning from a kidnapping.
The name of the benefactor who saved her sister.
She'd assumed it was a coincidence, same name.
Lee Yerin's judgment seemed reasonable.
Her classmate had awakened, and that same classmate saved her sister?
Such coincidences belonged in dramas.
'They say reality's sometimes more dramatic than fiction, but if it's really him, that's not coincidence—it's fate.'
Just then, the large TV on the bar wall switched to breaking news, drawing eyes.
"Sudden breaking news? Another villain?"
"Nah, they don't usually break for that anymore. Villains pop up every day."
Some patrons paid attention, others kept chattering indifferently.
[An unprecedented mass villain breakout has occurred. And at the center of it...]
People gradually sensed the gravity and focused on the news.
How much time passed?
[An S-Rank villain who appeared at Hero Association Headquarters has been subdued by Hero Min Seola! The scene is quickly...]
"Woooah!"
"As expected of Min Seola! She's in a class of her own!"
Cheers erupted in the bar.
The alumni raised their glasses too.
But the announcer's next words flipped the mood.
[Rumors are spreading that Min Seola received help from a man during this battle, quickly becoming a hot topic.]
"Huh? A man?"
"Help? Min Seola needing help? Who helps the number one?"
"Guess she finally found that sidekick she was looking for."
The screen switched.
High-def footage from a helicopter.
Min Seola stood in the middle of the ruined street.
A man was cradled in her arms.
And as the camera zoomed in, his face filled the screen.
"......!!"
One guy's hand froze mid-sip.
Silence fell over the rowdy table like a bucket of ice water.
"...Am I seeing things?"
One alumnus rubbed his eyes and checked again.
"Hey... that's..."
"Kim Seonghwa...?"
"Yeah...?"
Trembling voices followed one by one.
He looked a bit more mature and handsome than in college, but those indifferent eyes and features—definitely Kim Seonghwa.
"Nah, no way. Why would he be there? Must be a lookalike."
One tried to deny it.
"Right? Kim Seonghwa with the number one hero? Ridiculous."
But on screen, the man had his arms around Min Seola's waist, locking eyes and smiling with her.
That natural intimacy, and her honey-dripping gaze at him.
"No, but he looks exactly the same..."
The alumni were struck dumb.
The guy they'd just been trashing as "too ashamed to show" and "a nobody" was on the news, embraced by Korea's top woman.
"...No way."
The shock and sense of loss killed their taste for booze.
Amid the chaos.
The most stunned was someone else.
Lee Yerin, sitting in the corner.
'Wh-what...'
She gripped her soda glass, eyes wide as if sucked into the screen.
'It was real...?'
Her lips quivered.
'The one who saved unnie...'
The Kim Seonghwa her sister mentioned. The one she knew. The guy with Min Seola on the news.
The pieces clicked like puzzle bits.
'...It really was Seonghwa.'
Lee Yerin's heart began pounding.
Her sister Iron Heart's flushed face when she got home.
Her cheeks turning red at the mention of Kim Seonghwa.
And now, Min Seola on screen holding him with desperate affection.
'What kind of power does he even have...'
Her sister, the number one hero.
Korea's top S-Rank and A-Rank heroes were clinging to her classmate.
He clearly had some special power.
'Even unnie couldn't escape the kidnapping, but Seonghwa saved her...'
Yerin's eyes sparkled with curiosity.
Her introverted nature meant she never initiated contact.
But not this time.
'I wonder...'
She carefully picked up her phone from the table.
Scrolled through contacts.
Her finger stopped dead at a name she hadn't messaged since graduation: Kim Seonghwa.
'Should I message him after all this time?'