Hospitalization (2)
The chairman met my eyes and slowly opened his mouth.
"So you two really are in that kind of relationship."
"...Excuse me?"
"Baek A-young, I mean."
"Ah."
He must have seen her leaving my hospital room. She'd walked out looking radiantly happy, so if he'd caught even a glimpse of that, it was a fair assumption. But why bring it up now?
"The truth is, your public image has improved considerably thanks to what happened at the mixer. Are you aware of that?"
"...No. I only just woke up, so I haven't had a chance to check."
I almost told him the truth. But I had no idea what he was about to propose, so I kept what I knew as close to the vest as possible.
"Thanks to your performance this time, public opinion has swung our way. If we move now, the Academy can present all the evidence and steer the narrative."
"..."
"Meaning we can bury every charge that's been hanging over your head. In exchange, we'll need a corresponding degree of cooperation."
"Cooperation? What exactly are you referring to...?"
"I'll tell you once you agree."
The chairman folded his arms and looked at me with a confident smile.
The Academy taking my side... not a bad offer. It certainly wasn't bad. Which, of course, was another way of saying it wasn't particularly good either.
Public opinion had been in an uproar over what happened during the Celestial Festival attack. Honestly, I hadn't done a single thing wrong that day. Was it really fair for them to demand a price for covering something that wasn't even my fault? They were the ones who'd failed to prevent the attack in the first place.
He was Mun Su-rin's grandfather, so I'd been inclined to cut him some slack — but watching him try to squeeze every last drop of profit out of this made my stomach turn. Besides, given the current state of public opinion, I didn't need the Academy's help at all.
That said, no matter how much of a foolish old man he was, he was still the chairman of the Academy. He wouldn't move without thinking something through. So why approach it like this?
Two possibilities came to mind immediately.
The first: the chairman hadn't heard about the Shinyeong Guild exposé yet. I'd only learned about it myself about ten minutes ago, and I'd been tracking public opinion in real time — so it was entirely possible he'd come to see me without knowing.
The second: he thought I still didn't know.
As far as everyone else was concerned, I'd been in a coma, and even after waking up I'd been in poor enough shape to need further treatment. In other words, he might have assumed I still didn't have a proper read on the public mood, and rushed over the moment the exposé dropped.
The second one was more likely. He'd shown up even though visitors weren't supposed to be allowed. He might even have forced his way in on the strength of his authority as chairman.
Either way, this is irritating.
It wasn't that I couldn't understand him. Taking advantage where you can is a sound approach. But I refuse to be the one he takes advantage of.
What the hell had these Academy bastards ever done for me? Every time something happened, they tried to sweep it under the rug — and now they were pulling the same crap again. I was done putting up with it.
So I started talking, making no effort to hide my displeasure.
"Honestly, I don't think I need the Academy's help."
"...What?"
"Plenty of people are already offering to help, and frankly, this was the Academy's fault to begin with. I don't particularly feel like cooperating. I'll handle it myself."
"...So you knew everything from the start."
The chairman's brow furrowed in irritation. And despite my obvious invitation to leave, he stayed right where he was, making no move toward the door. I was about to say something to the old man sitting there staring at me when he spoke first.
"There's a saying. Even with the police around, people still live in fear of crime... Do you know why that is?"
"..."
He didn't draw on his mana. He didn't even put on a threatening expression. He simply looked me in the eye. That alone was enough to make me feel like a herbivore being stalked by a predator.
"The police, you see, only ever show up after everything is already over. The harm the victim suffers — the trauma — that stays with them forever."
He was trying to overpower me with nothing but the sheer presence radiating from a face weathered by decades of authority. Nice try. I'd be lying if I said it didn't raise my tension a little. But his opponent was me. I was Lee Ho-yeon, master of emotional control.
"Chairman. Planning on doing something? Right here?"
I looked at him and let out a small, amused scoff. Even the chairman couldn't lay a hand on me in this place.
"...There's nothing stopping me."
The chairman's lips curled up slightly, but now that I'd seen through the bluff, it didn't matter.
"Quietly killing someone and burying the body might be your specialty, Chairman, but do you really think you could cover this one up? Lee Ho-yeon, the Saint's boyfriend?"
The chairman was operating under a misunderstanding, and I needed to use that. Public opinion was on my side. He couldn't kill the central figure of this entire incident and expect to hide it. And hurting me in a building where Baek A-young was present? Even if I didn't resist at all, that was something he could never bury.
"...I can see why my granddaughter took an interest in you."
"..."
The chairman held my gaze a while longer, then let the seriousness drop from his face. He looked at me with a disbelieving little laugh.
"Still, now that I know you're dating Baek A-young, I suppose you won't be laying a hand on my granddaughter. I apologize for today. Greed got the better of me, and I tried to profit off a cadet."
"Ah... right."
The apology came so easily that I felt a little deflated. The chairman bowed his head and turned to leave the room. Watching him go, I thought:
This isn't sitting right.
Ending it like this would leave a bad taste in my mouth. It felt like I'd just taken a beating and let it go — like I'd failed to throw a counterpunch. And judging by the way he was talking, he was going to scurry straight over to Mun Su-rin and tell her that this Lee Ho-yeon fellow was dating Baek A-young, so she should forget about him. Just thinking about how much of a headache that would become made my skull throb.
I opened my mouth, aiming the words at the back of the chairman's head as he headed for the door.
His body froze. Then, like a machine, he slowly turned his head to look at me.
"What... did you just say?"
"About dating A-young. That was a lie."
Don't ask me why I said it. He's the one who came in here picking a fight. Now the situation's a mess.
"I'll keep staying in touch with Su-rin noona, too. And if things happen to work out... should I call you my wife's grandfather? Or would grandfather-in-law be the proper term?"
"Heh heh... Is there a more insolent little bastard anywhere on this earth?"
The chairman trembled as he walked toward me. Mana leaked from his body, making everything in the hospital room shudder. But I didn't stop talking.
"If you'd just look after me a little, I'd treat Su-rin noona exactly the way you want me to... So what's it going to be?"
"..."
The chairman's eyes said, What kind of bastard is this?
"I'm only asking for the reasonable stuff. Speak up in my defense to protect a cadet, hook your Academy's star student up with some artifacts, throw in a little support — how great would that be? It's a win-win."
"Hah. A cadet demanding to negotiate with the chairman. You're the first."
"So is that a no?"
"...I'll put out a statement today. You rotten little shit."
Watching the chairman's face twist into something resembling an enraged guardian lion was surprisingly entertaining. He might have been an old man, but he looked middle-aged on the outside.
"Thank you. You can see yourself out now."
"..."
The chairman slammed the door and stormed out.
Teasing old men was pretty fun, too. I added a new item to my mental bucket list: after I seduced Mun Su-rin, I'd go to the chairman, announce I'll take good care of the granddaughter you worked so hard to raise!, and then run for it. Best-case scenario — Mun Su-rin would hold him back while he blew a gasket.
"Mm-hmm. That'll be fun."
I nodded to myself, looking forward to that day.
"Yes. Handle it immediately. Circulate every piece of material we've gathered to the reporters right away, and tell them to start writing."
— Yes, sir. Understood.
"As fast as possible. Got it?"
Having left the hospital, the chairman let out a sigh and climbed into the car where his secretary was waiting.
"You're back sooner than expected."
"The matter was settled quickly."
Secretary Kim, who had worked at his side for decades. He'd gotten married recently, if the chairman recalled correctly.
"...Secretary Kim. How old is your child again?"
"My daughter, sir? She turned four this year."
"Ah... right in the adorable phase."
"Well... you live for the joy of watching them grow, don't you?"
Secretary Kim drove on with practiced ease, heading toward the chairman's residence. In the back seat, the chairman closed his eyes and recalled Lee Ho-yeon's words.
Grandfather-in-law, huh...
The truth was, his granddaughter had been growing colder toward him lately. Just ten years ago she'd followed him around calling him Grandpa~, but now that she was an adult, she wouldn't even meet his eyes. She'd been so adorable when she was little...
"Perhaps having a great-grandchild wouldn't be so bad after all."
"Pardon? I'm sorry, sir. Could you repeat that?"
Assuming the remark had been directed at him, Secretary Kim asked him to say it again. The chairman spoke.
"Secretary Kim. Suppose your daughter were of marriageable age. If she brought home Lee Ho-yeon as a son-in-law, what would you do?"
Secretary Kim was well aware of Lee Ho-yeon's promiscuous sex life. And even knowing that — would you still let her marry him? That was the question.
"Well... if it were me, I'd let my daughter marry whoever she wanted. Even if it ended badly, that would be an experience in itself. And wouldn't bringing home Cadet Lee Ho-yeon be better than some unreliable nobody? Haha."
"Hrm..."
Hearing it put that way, he supposed it made a certain amount of sense. She'd bring a man home eventually, and if she was going to, better a capable one. If she got snatched up by some ugly, talentless loser, that would be a real headache. And even if his granddaughter married Lee Ho-yeon, she wasn't the type to let herself be pushed around.
"Grandfather-in-law... a great-grandchild..."
The chairman furrowed his brow and began to seriously consider it.
The day of the terrorist attack.
Elise's mansion.
Elise had been resting when Sebas Chan reported that the mixer had been hit by a terrorist attack. She sat up in shock.
"...Lee Ho-yeon was there too, wasn't he?"
"Yes, miss. After stopping the attack, he reportedly fell into a coma. They say he performed extraordinarily."
"I see... All right. I'll look into the details myself. Go get some rest."
"Understood. Please rest well, miss."
The door thudded shut. Once she'd confirmed that Sebas Chan was heading back to his own quarters, Elise pulled up the news on her smartwatch.
She was impressed by the various accounts of Lee Ho-yeon's exploits, but what really caught her eye was the CCTV footage of him throwing his body in front of Baek A-young.
"He really is handsome, I'll give him that."
Annoyingly, infuriatingly handsome. Tsk.
Elise had already been feeling a growing sense of crisis lately. Lee Ho-yeon's smartwatch, hidden under her desk. She was still relying on it every night. And now, as if her body had learned the association, just looking at that smartwatch was enough to make her automatically wet between the legs.
"Ugh... this is so disgusting."
Hearing that Lee Ho-yeon had fallen into a coma, a thought had occurred to her: What if he dies before I overcome this sexual fixation? It was an utterly absurd thought, but Elise was completely serious.
She didn't even have a proper understanding of sex yet. If Lee Ho-yeon disappeared before she could fix this thing — this fixation where his videos and his massages were the only things that could arouse her — she'd have no way to deal with it. Of course, sexual preferences could change over time, but Elise didn't know much about that sort of thing.
"...Should I bring him something healthy when I visit?"
Elise pondered over a get-well gift, then hit upon a brilliant idea. She would install a camera in his hospital room.
A pervert like Lee Ho-yeon would obviously bring women to his hospital room. A hospital room was far easier to infiltrate than a dormitory, which meant it would be that much easier to record footage. And if she secured that footage... her nights would become considerably more plentiful.
"...I'll need to contact Scarlet."
Elise began tapping out a message to Scarlet's personal number.