3-Year-Old Friend (4)
3-Year-Old Friend (4)
Dohyun turned on his phone's voice recorder.
Perhaps because he had started recording in the middle of the conversation, it didn't contain everything Dohyun had wanted.
However, it definitely contained the testimony that Su-a had isolated A-yeon for three years.
"...So, that's how it is."
A-yeon listened to the recording again without a word.
She listened to it three times.
Dohyun thought A-yeon would be deeply hurt.
To be betrayed by a friend of three years.
Changing the perspective, if he imagined himself being heavily betrayed by Yoon-seo, just the thought alone would cause him internal damage.
However, contrary to his expectations, A-yeon's voice didn't shake at all.
"Is that so?"
"...Are you okay?"
"Hmm. I was a bit surprised, though."
So, all the bad things that had happened since high school were caused by Su-a.
She had thought they were close friends until now.
She was the most precious person after Dohyun, and the only friend she had known for three years.
If she had realized that fact before reuniting with Dohyun, she would have been quite shocked.
But today was one of the best days in her twenty years of life.
Even if she tried to feel bad about the betrayal by Su-a, just having her brother in front of her, worrying about her, was enough.
A-yeon became happy instead.
There was an insurmountable wall between the first and second most precious people in her life.
"Thinking about it again, I don't think she was such a precious friend after all."
Moreover, A-yeon had already experienced betrayal by her parents.
Now was better than the time with her mother, whom she had lived with for over a decade.
Her life was already the worst anyway.
Even if something bad happened again, she could just shrug it off, thinking, 'Well, that's how it's always been.'
It was the same logic as someone with hundreds of scars not crying and screaming just because one more was added.
"...Even so."
"Well, I can just cut ties with her."
Above all, only Dohyun was in A-yeon's eyes right now.
The six years of accumulated guilt, longing, and gratitude.
A heart bordering on fanaticism toward her life's savior.
A-yeon felt like she could jump out the window if Dohyun told her to die right now.
"You know, Oppa...."
She wanted to convey this feeling right away. Before her brother left for somewhere else again, she wanted to pour out everything she wanted to say.
Sorry, thank you, love you.
But she wasn't ready yet.
A heart in shambles due to a sudden reunion without even a warning.
Her lips hesitated.
She had to say something quickly.
"There was something I wanted to say...."
Dohyun also had a lot he wanted to say.
But he didn't want to share their feelings while there was still an intruder in the house and things weren't finished yet.
"...Let's talk later for now."
"Huh?"
"Let's call the police and sort out the situation. We need to get that guy out of the house."
According to the conversation he heard earlier, there was still an intruder left who would soon break into the house.
-Ding-dong
A few seconds after the doorbell rang.
Su-a opened the front door and entered with a very urgent expression.
Her eyes were filled with worry.
But from the perspective of A-yeon and Dohyun, who already knew the truth, it just looked ridiculous.
"A-yeon-ah, are you okay!?"
The house was silent.
Su-a noticed the unusual atmosphere and hurriedly rolled her eyes.
Jin-ho covered in blood. An unknown man with blood on him. And A-yeon, who was looking at her with cold eyes for some reason.
"...Who are you?"
Su-a asked the man.
"...I'm A-yeon's brother."
You f*cking bitch.
Dohyun wanted to start with a string of profanities, but he had already calmed down, and above all, since A-yeon was behind him, he swallowed his words and spoke calmly and composedly.
"...A f*cking bitch?"
"Ah."
But it seemed it had come out of his mouth.
Dohyun had been too angry.
"Swearing at someone you've just met, what is this all of a sudden...."
Su-a was flustered for a moment.
The line she had forgotten, hidden by the swear word, surfaced.
'...Wait. Brother?'
Did he just say brother? The man Seo A-yeon had been so protective of?
Why did he appear so suddenly?
The owner of the door to A-yeon's heart that she had hated and been jealous of so much.
She didn't know what he had been doing until now.
It was incredibly uncomfortable, but she tried to act calm and spoke in a soft, friendly tone.
"The one who left A-yeon behind... and left the house for six years."
She hid the hostility underlying her tone.
"What have you been doing to suddenly appear like this...."
What kind of acting stance should she take?
An attitude of accusing him of abandoning A-yeon?
Or would it be better to be thankful for protecting A-yeon?
The former seemed easier. The feeling of anger came naturally without having to act.
If she mixed the latter and the former in a strange way and sowed discord between the two over a long period of time...
Wait.
The other person definitely shouldn't know her.
Why is he taking such a hostile stance?
Even swearing at their first meeting.
On the surface, she should be A-yeon's best friend and benefactor.
-Pat
A-yeon pressed the button on the phone she was holding.
- Is it possible for you to sell it to me later after A-yeon is done with it? I can give you ten million won.
- Wake up from your dream. I don't know about other women, but why would I be crazy enough to give you the work I spent three years on? Just be satisfied with the photos.
- Tsk.
- Go up slowly and do as I say. The payment is what we talked about earlier, right?
- Are there no women left these days?
- I don't date because I only look at A-yeon.
One recording played without any response announced the end of the conflict in vain.
...She was caught.
That conversation was a secret one they had behind the apartment earlier.
Why was that recorded?
Did he notice that Jin-ho was going to betray her?
'If it's his recording, I could claim it's a fabrication....'
The model is different.
It's not A-yeon's, and it's not Jin-ho's.
It's that man's phone.
'He recorded it in hiding? Where....'
To ensure no evidence was left, she had conveyed conversations with Jin-ho verbally.
No messages, no calls, no records left.
She had checked that no one was around before talking.
She had prepared for three years thoroughly so that she would never stand in court. So that her actions would never be discovered by A-yeon.
But she was caught in vain.
What Su-a overlooked was what Dohyun had been doing for two and a half years.
Yoon-seo, a genius who performed as an evasion-type tanker in the Thief class.
And Dohyun, who had a genius talent for understanding things.
In Phantastia, where most people form 5-6 person parties for combat, the reason the two of them could earn money as a 2-man party for 1000 days was due to their groundbreaking stealth abilities.
There is a monster.
Hide.
Cast a buff spell and ambush.
That's how they saved on potion costs.
Hide again.
The combat process of repeating hiding, hiding, and hiding.
By reducing the number of party members, they increased their income, and by hiding, they minimized the risk during combat.
The result of repeating that for nearly three years is this.
Compared to monsters with highly developed senses, following two people without being caught was easier than pie.
That's why neither Jin-ho nor Su-a noticed.
Even if Dohyun is the type to get caught by others when just following a suspicious person.
If he sets his mind to it and hides, the target wouldn't know even after a week.
From Su-a's perspective, who didn't know that fact, it was just absurd to have her secret conversation overheard by a mere civilian.
'Did I let my guard down? I should have checked the surroundings enough....'
Damn it, it's all or nothing.
Su-a opened her mouth.
"A-yeon-ah, are you believing what that man is saying right now?"
"...What?"
"It's been nearly six years. He's a person who didn't look for you even once in the three years since he was released from prison. He's not even your brother by blood, so he's a stranger, a stranger. But are you going to believe him instead of me, who has stayed by your side for three years?"
A-yeon tilted her head.
"But there's a recording?"
"That recording is a fabrication. Still don't get it?"
It was sophistry. A logic that sounded strange to anyone.
A-yeon asked as if she were quite dumbfounded.
"Why do you think my brother would do that?"
"That's obvious."
Su-a quickly used her brain to make up a reason.
"Your brother is a murderer."
"...."
"An ex-convict and a middle school dropout. He can't get a job, so he must have no money, and he came to borrow money from you, the only person he knows."
Dohyun was flustered for a moment.
'What the hell is this guy.'
It's predictable that an ex-convict and middle school dropout wouldn't have money and couldn't get a job. But to spit that out in one second without a single slip...
Actually, Su-a's words weren't entirely wrong either.
Just a few weeks ago, he was running around everywhere to earn surgery money for Yoon-seo.
He had contacted his biological mother, Baek Ha-rin, and everyone he could reach.
If the situation had hit rock bottom, Dohyun might have even called A-yeon.
"But since I'm here, he's trying to get rid of me. You know me, too. With my personality, I'm the type who would tell you never to lend him money."
"...."
"AI technology is going crazy these days, couldn't he have just forged it with that? I could make a recording like that in 30 minutes."
Su-a had always simulated how to sow discord between the two if Dohyun appeared.
It was a method she was originally going to try slowly over a long time, but given the situation, she had to rely on momentum.
If Dohyun and A-yeon weren't on good terms, Su-a's nonsensical logic might have had some subtle credibility.
Even if they were on good terms, the other person was a criminal who had gone into hiding for six years.
Considering that A-yeon had been bringing up her brother less lately, it might have worked.
But A-yeon hadn't told Su-a one thing.
"Su-a-ya."
"I could be right, couldn't I?"
That the murderer was actually herself, not Dohyun.
"Don't talk sh*t."
She was a friend she had already decided to cut ties with.
She was angry, but she held it in because Dohyun was there.
But insulting Dohyun, her brother?
"...Huh?"
The first time she had ever heard A-yeon's angry swearing.
It was the moment Su-a's world collapsed.