The Assault (3)
"Phew."
After parting ways with Lee Ho-yeon, Mun Su-rin stopped by the training grounds. She still hadn't managed to settle the excitement of their meeting.
He said that if it was someone he knew, he could send a photo.
He'd also asked her to let him know once she got home safely. Didn't that mean he'd send a picture if she reached out first?
"Heh... heheh..."
Mun Su-rin came through her front door still giggling to herself.
"Hm? The air conditioner is on. Well, whatever."
She could have sworn she'd turned it off when she left... but these things happened. She'd probably just forgotten.
Humming under her breath as she hung her coat on the rack, a thought suddenly struck her.
"Isn't this that thing? Like... are we a thing right now?"
They'd met up, eaten together, and now they were going to send each other photos. Checking in. Asking how the other was doing. And underneath all of it, that quiet current running between them.
This was definitely a thing.
Mun Su-rin's heart fluttered as she bounced on her heels. Looking back on it, the feeling had been there from the very beginning. Her interest in Lee Ho-yeon had started at their first meeting. His face had been her type, yes — but the more she got to know him, the more she liked what was underneath, too. He was capable. Their tastes lined up.
And now she was a thing with a guy like that.
"Heheh. Hehe."
The corner of her mouth lifted as she smoothed down her hair. Then she switched her smart watch to camera mode and checked herself from every angle.
This isn't bad at all.
Not that she'd ever say it out loud... but looking like this, she wouldn't lose to anyone. She wouldn't fall behind even compared to other pretty girls.
Click. Click.
Having pulled a few thoroughly satisfying shots, Mun Su-rin couldn't keep the smile off her face as she headed into her room. Lee Ho-yeon had said he could send a photo if it was someone he knew. She hadn't missed that. Everything had to feel natural. She'd casually check in on him... while delivering her own update first. Send a picture under the pretense of confirming she'd gotten home safely, and get one of his in return.
Wait. Is this too calculated?
Come to think of it, they'd never sent photos before. Doing it out of nowhere now would be a little weird.
"No. We're a thing now. This is fine."
She hesitated for a moment, then finished talking herself into it. She'd heard that once a guy and a girl were into each other, anything goes.
Heheheh.
Mun Su-rin picked up the photographs of Lee Ho-yeon sitting on her desk. She'd been planning to throw out her whole collection today... but thankfully Ho-yeon had said it was okay, so she was going to put them back up around her room. Anyone who walked in here might have a heart attack. There would be pictures plastered on every surface. She'd meant to keep only the good shots of him, but every single photo had come out well, so the pile had gotten completely out of hand. On top of that, she'd recorded his voice on her phone — those files were stored on her smart watch.
"Heheh... heheheh... ah. I should wash up first."
She'd been so lost in thoughts of Lee Ho-yeon that she hadn't even washed her hands. For someone who normally scrubbed up the instant she walked through the door, obsessing over cleanliness, this was a mistake she would never usually make.
Mun Su-rin started to undress for a shower.
That was when it happened.
Ding—
Her smart watch chimed with an incoming message.
"Who is it?"
"...What."
Mun Su-rin's mood soured in an instant. A paparazzo — no, this was a stalker fan. None of her sasaengs had ever gone this far. The photo was one thing, but how had they even gotten her number?
Ding—
As she frowned down at her smart watch, another message arrived. This time, a video.
"...."
When she hit play, something unbelievable unfolded on the screen. The living room of Mun Su-rin's own house was being filmed. A man wandered through her home. He sat on the sofa. He turned the TV on, then off. He switched on the air conditioner that had been sitting dark, then ran his hands over the clothes in her closet and lifted them to his face to smell them.
"...."
She swallowed. Goosebumps crawled up her arms.
What the hell is this.
This was no ordinary stalker. This was — this was something she needed to report. Right now.
After looking around the house several more times, the man walked into the bathroom and shut the door. The video ended there.
"3:40?"
That was the time on the living room clock, caught in the frame as the intruder stepped into the bathroom. Mun Su-rin checked the current time on her smart watch.
"...Huh?"
Three minutes ago. This video had been sent to her the instant it was filmed.
The moment that fact landed, Mun Su-rin locked her bedroom door.
If she hadn't been lost in thoughts of Lee Ho-yeon. If she'd gone straight to the bathroom to wash her hands the second she got home — what would have happened to her?
She swallowed hard.
"Report it. I need to report this..."
This wasn't the time to freeze. Forget everything else. She had to call—
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Mun Su-rin's hand froze over her smart watch. A polite knock on her bedroom door. Of course, no matter how polite it sounded, it was a noise that should never have existed inside her own house.
She contacted the academy security team at once. Five minutes. They'd be here in five minutes.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The problem was whether she could last those few minutes.
"Won't you open the door?"
"...Who are you."
Mun Su-rin tried to talk. Just a little. She only needed to buy a little time. Then the academy security team would arrive and handle this safely.
CRACK—
But the intruder didn't wait. A massive hole punched through the upper half of the solid wood door. He had driven his fingers straight through it, then ripped the rest wide open.
"Why won't you open the door?"
"Hhk..."
A voice that crawled over the skin — and then the intruder's face came into view. Mun Su-rin felt her entire body break out in gooseflesh. The terror was so complete that even a whimper wouldn't come. All she could see through the shattered door was a grotesque skull mask.
A skull mask...
"A skull mask?"
A familiar mask. There was no way she wouldn't remember that face.
"Ho-yeon..."
It was identical to the mask worn by the one who had attacked Lee Ho-yeon.
"...."
The instant she heard the Demon's words, Mun Su-rin's mind went cold. This emotion was rage. Just as extreme fear steals your voice, extreme rage makes you calm. She had experienced both today.
I have to go.
She had to get to Lee Ho-yeon. She had to save him, as fast as she possibly could. The fear, the shock, the panic that had filled her body — all of it vanished. What she needed to do now was go to him.
"Keh-heh. Shouldn't you be more worried about your own safety than Lee Ho-yeon's?"
"...."
CRACK—
A fissure split across the skull mask of the Demon mid-sentence, and the whole thing broke in half.
"...When did you—?"
An S-class Demon, and he hadn't even registered the sequence of actions. Something was wrong here—
CRUNCH— CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—
"Ghhk...?!"
Pressure slammed in from every direction as every object in the house launched itself at the skull-masked man. His durability wasn't so low that household appliances would hurt him — but the mana wrapping those objects was another matter entirely. Mana flying at tremendous speed, compounded by raw physical force. On top of that, the mounting pressure felt like it would shatter his bones. The real problem was that escaping it was nearly impossible.
"What the hell is this..."
This was nothing like the intel. If she'd been this strong, they would have gone in for a surprise kill. This was an opponent they should have gone all-out against from the start, client's request be damned.
Mun Su-rin herself hadn't noticed, but her awakening had already begun. It wasn't some dramatic experience or sudden flash of enlightenment. But Mun Su-rin had always been a genius. Her level had already been sufficient — she'd simply never had a catalyst. The crushing weight of being student council president. The constant, suffocating attention of everyone around her. Something more important than all of that had appeared, and she could finally let everything else go.
They'd only just started being a thing.
Who the hell gave you permission to lay a hand on Ho-yeon.
I arrived at the dormitory quickly, thanks to Rebecca's help. By using the absurd trick of applying Acceleration to the space inside a Rune Barrier, we'd cut the travel time down to almost nothing.
"...Looks fine from the outside."
The dormitory appeared normal at a glance. But getting a little closer, I could tell. I could feel Liliana's mana.
"There's a barrier up. That's mana I don't recognize."
Rebecca must have sensed it too — her eyes narrowed slightly.
"Yes. It belongs to someone I know. We need to get inside. Now."
I headed for the dormitory as fast as I could.
Ding—
"Liliana! Nam Da-eun!"
I threw the door open hard enough to take it off its hinges and stormed in without even kicking off my shoes. And then I saw it. The carnage the barrier had hidden from the outside.
Windows and walls smashed to rubble. A shredded bed, a wrecked television, a refrigerator torn apart — every appliance in the place destroyed. The fridge, the wardrobe, all of it split clean in two.
And most importantly...
In the middle of the living room, a Demon lay bound in Liliana's mana, all four limbs severed. A familiar skull mask sat on the floor beside him.
"...What."
Unable to hide my shock, I looked at the two standing next to him. Liliana, relatively clean aside from the blood splattered across her, and Nam Da-eun, who was absolutely covered in it.
"Oh, you're here? We took him down. Pretty good, right?"
"...Don't look too hard. The blood's not a good look."
"...."
Had I been worried for nothing? No — rushing over had still been the right call.
"Thank god."
I let out a long breath and walked toward them.
"Haa. Thank god. I was really worried."
"Heheh. Like I'd ever lose."
"I'm covered in blood. Don't hug me..."
I ignored Nam Da-eun and pulled both of them into my arms. This time, it had really almost gone badly. I was so grateful they were alive. So relieved.
"Where's Da-hee?"
"...It was too ugly to look at, so Miss Liliana put her to sleep with magic."
"Yeah. Not great for a kid to see. Anyway, I'm just really glad. Thank you both for handling it. You too, Da-eun. You too, Liliana."
"If you're grateful, then tonight... you know?"
Liliana poked me in the chest, sending me a thoroughly suggestive look.
"Sure. Whatever you want. Anything you want."
If she was saying stuff like that, she couldn't even be hurt.
"...Me too."
"Yeah. Of course. You too, Da-eun."
Nam Da-eun slipped that in quietly, and I didn't leave her out. I held them both, still flooded with relief, when a voice spoke up behind me.
"If it's tonight, I can join in too, right?"
Rebecca.
"Eek! Who is THAT?!"
"...Ho-yeon. Come over here."
The two of them seemed startled by Rebecca's sudden appearance. Liliana ducked behind me, and Nam Da-eun pulled me toward her. Well — anyone seeing that red-haired witch for the first time would be shocked. Especially since she'd just stepped out of thin air.
"It's okay, girls. This is someone I know."
"Someone you know? What does she do?"
Liliana was still rattled, speaking from behind Nam Da-eun.
Rebecca. How was I supposed to introduce Rebecca? I'd only met her today, honestly.
"Uh... she's my magic teacher."
"I need your boyfriend's semen."
"...Please don't put it like that."
I'd been agonizing over how to introduce her, and she just had to go and say that. She wasn't some semen thief.
"What? It's true."
Haa.
I started explaining Rebecca to Liliana and Nam Da-eun, who were staring at her with their eyes wide open.