Coincidence
Coincidence
"Aaaaaaahhh!!"
Shin Ha-ru hurled the remote toward the television.
Of course, if she threw it too hard, she might smash her brand-new UHD television, so she consciously held back as much as possible.
It still hit the wall with a bang.
"Haa... Haa..."
She was breathing hard.
Once the rush subsided, she sank onto the sofa and tried to think things through.
She had been active as the hero Stardus for several years by then.
She had first awakened sometime in middle or high school and had been active ever since, so it had already been quite a while.
She'd resolved to live as a hero who threw villains in prison to avenge her late parents.
But back then, not once had she ever imagined something like this.
Dating rumors with a villain?
"Haa..."
Shin Ha-ru sighed and headed for the fridge.
This was too ridiculous. She needed something sweet.
She automatically pulled out a cold juice carton and began drinking, then checked the name on it and grimaced.
[Minute Maid Mango]
Mango. Now just seeing the word mango conjured up that bastard Egostic.
The people who followed Egostic called him Mangostic, didn't they?
Ugh. She felt like her brain had been contaminated.
Her favorite thing was mango.
Actually, she disliked mango itself, but she loved mango-flavored things—mango juice, mango frappes, mango shaved ice, and the like.
But from now on, she'd never be able to look at mango the same way again.
Because every time she saw mango, Mangostic would come to mind.
"My brain... my brain has been contaminated..."
She felt a little down. Perceptions do sometimes shift as you go through life, but she'd never imagined they could shift like this.
"Phew..."
She decided to get some fresh air by the window.
She opened the window and leaned her head out.
A cool spring breeze washed over her.
The pale sunlight reflected off her blonde hair, creating a dreamy, almost glittering effect.
As a result, men walking down the street who happened to glance up stared blankly at her, though she had no way of knowing that.
Her mind was full. And naturally, at the center of it all was that bastard Egostic.
Egostic. She'd always thought it was a ridiculous name. Ego-Stic. Didn't it make you picture some frail old grandpa tottering along with a stick, going "ego-ego"? She'd once casually mentioned that to an older friend she was close to, but after receiving a deeply pitying look, she'd decided to keep that thought to herself from then on.
She caught herself thinking that Egoistic might sound cooler than Egostic and recoiled. Why was she helping that villain come up with a better name? She shook her head to clear the thought away.
Even so, whenever she thought about Egostic, she couldn't help but feel unsettled.
Something that was... hard to put into words.
A tangle of emotions filled her, forming a knot of thoughts she couldn't express before flaring up in her mind and fading away.
And she found that strange.
Thinking about an evil villain should have stirred hatred and loathing.
So why were these mixed emotions surfacing?
Some of the feelings in that mess were clearly not hatred or loathing.
Egostic. That man was wildly popular online.
No, not only online. He was enormously popular in real life too.
Even her close friend Chae-hyun had told her the other day that she'd joined the Mangostic Fandom.
In the department group chat, he got brought up as Mangostic now and then, and it was always in a positive light.
Everyone had watched him carry out a terrorist attack involving a train in real time, and she had wondered how they could react that way...
At first, people covered for Egostic because, once again, there were zero casualties.
Then later, it came out that every single person tied to that train was a violent criminal who'd gotten off with a slap on the wrist, and the brainless Egostic worship started up again.
There were even jokes that Stardus would've done everyone a favor by not stopping the train.
Honestly, the South Korean public's fervor for Egostic had already reached near-fanatical levels.
To a public that had been fed nothing but frustration, Egostic did not merely provide catharsis—he poured hydrochloric acid over it. The slogan "If you are Korean, support Egostic" had even become popular.
And then those dating rumors she'd just seen.
"Ugh."
She felt her face burn.
That message written in blood, his terrorist attacks—everything he had done so far.
All of it was because he li-liked her?
"That is ridiculous!"
She shouted it before she could stop herself.
Why the hell would he like her?
Because of her looks? Yeah, that had to be it. There was no other reason to like her!
Egostic had to be just another creep interested only in her looks... or so she told herself.
But there was one thing she knew for sure.
She looked down at her hand and clenched her fist.
She was noticeably stronger than before.
After she stopped the train last time, she had definitely gotten stronger.
Getting stronger was a good thing. After all, it was what she'd pursued her whole life.
"I don't know..."
She couldn't even figure out why she felt so confused, so the sighs just kept coming.
One good thing, at least, was that this whole incident had made some of her anti-fans disappear.
She always pretended she didn't care about public opinion, but she actually cared more than anyone, so the shift toward a more favorable view of her was a huge relief.
Still, it felt strange to think that her public approval had fallen because of Egostic, only to rise again because of him.
It felt as though Egostic had seized control of her life and was tossing it around at will.
And given that the higher-ups had officially designated her as the Egostic specialist, that wasn't even an exaggeration.
"Ehh..."
Just as she was feeling troubled, a call came in.
The caller was Kim Chae-hyun.
She was the upperclassman Ha-ru was closest to at college.
"Hello?"
[Hey, Ha-ru! The weather is great—want to go out somewhere?]
"Hang out?"
Hanging out.
Come to think of it, she hadn't gone out for fun all that many times.
Between studying and hero work, she'd never had enough time for just those two, let alone anything else.
But hanging out.
Hmm.
The sort of invitation she'd normally turn down.
Juggling school and hero work was already overwhelming; she didn't have the time to go leisurely hanging out.
She'd been so busy lately that she had barely spent any time in her Hero Association office. It got such nice sunlight, too.
But as it happened, she'd been feeling agitated because of Egostic lately.
The offer to go hang out sounded pretty tempting.
"Uh... sure! When should we go?"
[Right now, today! How about it? There's a festival going on! I've wanted to go for ages!]
"A festival sounds great. I think I... can make the time today. Let's meet up in a bit. What kind of festival is it?"
[An ice cream festival! Fun, right?]
"Oh, sure."
After she said that, she thought to herself.
There was such a thing as an ice cream festival in the world?
***
Seoul—buildings packed in tight, cars weaving through, people rushing back and forth.
Far beneath the city lay our underground base.
The villain who had plunged all of South Korea into terror: Egostic.
The genius hacker who could bring down South Korea's entire computer network at the touch of a finger: Han Seo-eun.
The all-purpose assistant who was great at hacking, great at housework, and even great at driving: Lee Soo-bin.
The place where the three of us gathered: Ego-Base.
It was deep underground and received no sunlight, but LED lighting stood in for it and made the place cozy.
Sometimes, staying home and resting was nice.
Had we not been living far too busily lately?
Playing the villain was not easy for someone who had once been an ordinary citizen.
The last time I did a broadcast, knowing that tens of thousands of people were watching made me a little nervous. I knew every single word I said would be immortalized in the news... The time I said "Yes!" when I saw Stardus stop the train had already been immortalized and was being used everywhere. Mostly as evidence for the dating rumors...
Those hack reporters.
Nothing if not quick on the uptake...
Anyway, drawing too much attention too often would not do me any good.
So lately, I'd just been lazing around at home.
Most of my time went toward keeping Seo-eun company.
She's a third-year in middle school with zero friends—how bored must she be...
We'd been passing the time playing board games or the Switch with Soo-bin too.
Seo-eun grumbled that those games were for babies, but whenever we set one up in the living room, she played enthusiastically. It was adorable.
Right, kids should play like kids! Staring at a computer all day can't be good for them.
So anyway, another day of lazing around.
I was watching TV and eating an apple Soo-bin had sliced for me when Seo-eun came scampering out of her room, where she'd been working on something.
She showed me something and asked if we could go there.
"Ice cream festival?"
"Yeah, I told you about it before! It's today! We absolutely have to go!"
Seo-eun spoke with her eyes shining.
Soo-bin, next to her, seemed to want to go too.
Now that I thought about it, I did feel as though I'd heard something about it.
The 13th International Ice Cream Festival... I had never heard of anything like it in the Original Work.
Beside me, Seo-eun explained that this was the festival's first time in Korea and that there would be all sorts of things to see.
I'd never heard of an ice cream festival in my life, so it was kind of intriguing.
Seo-eun was a homebody like me and loved staying indoors, so if she was the one asking to go out, she must have wanted to see it badly. Did she really like ice cream that much?
"Okay, let's go! Get changed."
I said it as I got up from my seat.
Well, nothing's going to happen, right?