Don't Worry
Seong-min released the collar he had been gripping.
Thud.
"Take him."
That was all he said.
The men who had been watching with sickened faces exchanged uneasy glances, then hauled up their fallen companion and hurried out.
Only two people remained in the room.
"......"
"......"
She was still clinging to Seong-min's waist from behind.
They stayed like that for a while.
"Don't worry."
The woman holding his waist lifted her head.
All she could still see was Seong-min's back.
"I'll clear away everything that makes things hard for you."
She let go of his waist.
Seong-min turned around.
"If they won't let you go easily... then I'll clear them away too."
Her hazy eyes wavered.
"Why... why on earth are you helping me like this...? Who... who are you, really...?"
Why would anyone go this far for her?
Who was this man, and why?
Seong-min reached out.
He gently brushed the cheek of the woman staring at him with trembling eyes.
"Just think of me as a decent person... someone trying to pull another person out of a pit... someone who's been dyed in gloomy darkness."
"......"
"That's all you need to think. Nothing more."
Seong-min smiled.
Looking at the woman who watched him with ash-gray eyes, he gave her a bright smile.
He cleaned and straightened the wrecked one-room apartment, then set her mind at ease.
He already knew those bastards would not give up after this.
And he had already gone back to the information broker and asked him to dig into their true nature.
The man had asked for about two weeks; the results would come over the weekend.
In the meantime Seong-min had not merely looked after her.
He had prepared and readied other things of his own.
Not the Status Window's attributes, but the special skills.
Seong-min turned his attention to the special skills.
There were two: Escape and Teleportation.
Escape was a special skill that let him get out of any emergency. Teleportation did exactly what the name said—instant relocation.
He already had one charge of Escape ready; he had spent ten Stat Points to create it.
With the experience and levels he had gained since then, Seong-min had created the Teleportation special skill and even tested it—straight from his house to the area around the villa where she lived.
The result had been a complete success.
Amazingly, he had crossed the entire distance in a single leap and arrived here.
After that he kept banking Stat Points and poured them all into Teleportation, creating multiple charges.
For a full week he watched over her safety while grinding experience and leveling up, then funneled every Stat Point he earned into more Teleportation charges.
Time passed, and the weekend arrived.
The broker had investigated the request thoroughly. Given how well Seong-min paid him, that was only natural.
From the written report Seong-min learned the true face of the organization holding her life in its grip—and the key figures inside it.
"What are you planning to do? Those aren't just ordinary loan sharks. They're gangsters."
The man spoke with open concern. It looked as though Seong-min intended to start something.
"You don't need to worry about that."
"I'm worried about losing a client who brings in nice, steady profits."
"That won't happen, so don't worry."
"Well then—good luck."
As before, the man pocketed the fee once business was finished and left.
Alone, Seong-min read through the compiled report again.
The organization holding her was the Yonggol Faction, which controlled Cheonan and Asan. But that was not the whole story.
The Yonggol Faction, rooted in Cheonan and Asan, belonged to a larger organization above it: the Gangil Association.
The Gangil Association was said to dominate the Chungcheong region with Daejeon as its center.
A man named Seo Gang-sik had built the Gangil Association from a Daejeon base, expanding until he had pacified the entire Chungcheong area.
Seo Gang-sik himself was long dead—killed in a war with the Jungang Association—but the Gangil Association still existed, and the Yonggol Faction remained under its umbrella.
Seong-min understood exactly what the information broker feared.
Picking a fight with gangsters was never wise, and striking the Yonggol Faction that held her might bring the entire Gangil Association down on him.
But Seong-min did not care.
He knew that if he simply stood by, she would never be free.
Yonggol Faction or Gangil Association... none of that matters to me. What matters is...
That the class president no longer smiled.
Preparations were complete.
The targets were set.
He now knew that Teleportation removed any limit of distance, and as long as he had Escape he could get out of any emergency that might arise—though he doubted it would come to that.
He had also begun to feel, vaguely, just how strong a body with over three hundred Martial Power truly was.
So even if they were gangsters, even if they were vicious men—
He felt not the slightest fear.
Before he moved, Seong-min went to see her.
Since he visited every day, she greeted him as though she had been waiting.
They ate dinner together and drank coffee.
When it was time to leave, Seong-min finally got to the point.
"It'll be soon now."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you won't have to tremble in fear anymore."
"You're planning something, aren't you? That's it... isn't it?"
Seong-min did not answer.
He only smiled.
"Why... why do you always smile whenever you look at me...? Always smiling at me like that...?"
"Someone once told me something."
"What... something?"
"That she hoped I would always live smiling. That she wanted me to keep smiling no matter what."
"......What?"
She looked at him, puzzled.
Seong-min smiled back at her.
"I'll be going, then..."
He rose and headed for the front door.
"...Yoo Ji-ah."
"......"
"My name... is Yoo Ji-ah."
Seong-min did not look back.
Just before he stepped out:
"...I know, Ji-ah."
That was all he said.
Through the window she watched the car Seong-min had climbed into pull out of the alley.
The vehicle grew smaller and smaller until it vanished from sight.
That night she could not sleep.
She rarely slept well anyway, but tonight was worse.
He's planning something... He would never have said those things otherwise.
His face had been different from usual—the face of a man who had made up his mind.
The words that she need not be afraid anymore...
That meant it involved them.
The Yonggol Faction gangsters who held her life.
The anxiety kept her awake until dawn.
When the morning sun rose, Yoo Ji-ah stared at the front door.
She hoped he would simply come again today, the way he always did.
She wished for it.
But no matter how much time passed, he did not appear.
That only made her heart more restless.
He definitely knows me well.
He had known her real name was Yoo Ji-ah.
She never used her real name.
She had used a stage name.
Black Rose was only a nickname; her working name had been Yoo A-ran.
So everyone who knew her knew her as Yoo A-ran—except the core members of the Yonggol Faction.
Yet that man had known she was Yoo Ji-ah.
Who on earth was he?
Who would help her like this?
Who was he, really?
She dug through her memories again, searching for any time she might have met someone like him, climbing further and further into the past.
She searched.
And searched again.
She reached much older memories, linking them to the things he had said.
He had always smiled.
He had always smiled when he looked at her.
The words from yesterday, just before he left—
that he hoped she would live smiling.
Clutching at straws, Yoo Ji-ah kept combing through her memories, over and over.
Then, in a hazy recollection, one scene surfaced.
—I... Seong-min, I hope you always live smiling... I'm not lying.
Yes...
An old memory.
A precious one.
The last days of third grade, right before she left for America.
The boy who had always worn a blank face and lived gloomily.
The child the other kids mocked for being an orphan.
The words she herself had spoken to that Seong-min.
The moment the memory returned, Yoo Ji-ah's body began to tremble finely.
Her hands shook.
The legs she had drawn up while sitting shook.
Shock crashed through her entire body.
"Is... is it really... true...? Really...?"
Her hazy pupils quivered.
Her eyes shook as if an earthquake had struck them.
"...Is it... really... you... are you... Seong-min...?"
In the empty room her solitary murmur trembled violently as well.
She could not believe it.
She simply could not believe it.
That that man might be Seong-min.
The mere possibility was enough to drive Yoo Ji-ah mad.
Her vision blurred.
"Ugh..."
She choked back a sob, scrambled down from the bed as if crawling, and began to pace the room.
She did not know what to do; she only paced, sobbing, at the thought that the man might be Seong-min.
"Ugh...!"
She kept crying as she walked in circles.
There was nothing she could do.
The man—the man who might be Seong-min—did not appear.
The person who had been planning something to help her simply did not show himself.
"Se... Seong-min... uwaaah!... Seong... min!... Ugh!!!... Uwaaah!!!"
Yoo Ji-ah sank to the floor, covered her face with both hands, and burst into tears.
She cried endlessly, like a child...
Just like that, she wept...