Chapter 106
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 106
Dokyun watched Eun-byeol scream and rampage, thinking that if he left her be, she wouldn't stop until she'd wrecked the entire stadium. He pulled her away and dragged her outside.
“Let go! Let go of me, you son of a biiitch!!!”
The curses didn't stop even as he dragged her away. Her eyes were rolled so far back the irises had disappeared.
“C-Calm down! Please, calm down!”
“Fuuuuck!!!”
In that moment, as she thrashed, Eun-byeol's elbow slammed into Dokyun's side. A clean hit. Dokyun's eyes shot open at the pain boring into him, and he let out a choked gasp.
“Gah!”
His body jolted.
At that, Eun-byeol belatedly realized she had hit him. She flinched and looked up at Dokyun. Her eyes fell on him gritting his teeth against the pain. A look of dismay crossed her face, and she finally stammered out an apology.
“S-Sorry...!”
Her face was a mask of distress. Seeing her flustered and at a loss, Dokyun slowly shook his head.
“I-It's fine...”
“Oh my god... I'm so sorry...!”
Her apology was filled with sincerity. Realizing her attention had shifted and she seemed to have come to her senses, Dokyun forced a smile.
“I'm really okay. So, has your anger subsided a bit now?”
“Hnng...”
At his question, Eun-byeol's body trembled again. Dokyun watched her lower her head, the blush creeping down her neck, and let out a small chuckle.
“Let's just calm down and go. I'm starting to get hungry.”
“O-Okay, should we?”
Dokyun watched Eun-byeol avoid his gaze and reply with an awkward smile. So she's capable of feeling shame, at least, he thought, nodding back at her.
* * *
As they waited for their food in a nearby restaurant, Dokyun found Eun-byeol's intense stare burdensome. She rested her chin in one hand, watching him in silence.
The corners of her mouth were turned up in a smirk, and the tapping of her fingertips revealed she was enjoying the situation.
Dokyun let out a low groan and a sigh before speaking.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because my darling is just so cute?”
At her playful words, Dokyun flinched again. She giggled and continued to tease him.
“Getting shy again?”
“A little...”
Dokyun felt a wave of exasperation. Her earlier embarrassment had vanished without a trace, and Eun-byeol, having found her rhythm, was back to teasing him.
Annoyed at being on the receiving end of it all, Dokyun tried to think of something to say to turn the tables on her, but...
“So I take it you've completely calmed down now?”
“I guess so. Just looking at my darling puts me in a good mood.”
The result was a crushing defeat.
Dokyun felt his brow furrow as he exhaled. Her smoothness was truly something to behold.
He wondered where on earth a personality like that had come from, feeling a sudden urge to crack open Eun-ah's head and take a look inside.
All the personalities were born from Eun-ah's psyche. Her deficiencies and desires manifested in the form of alters.
Eun-chae was created to perform the "good deeds" that Eun-ah herself could not.
Eun-seol was created to stop Eun-chae. Of course, that probably wasn't the only reason. Seeing as she handled all the practical matters, Eun-seol was likely born from Eun-ah's desire for a personality who could endure the reality she was trying to avoid.
Besides them, Eun-ji was a personality born from the desire to be spoiled and childish, and Eun-sam—though he didn't know why she took that specific form—was a personality created from some desire related to novels.
Following that logic, Eun-byeol must also be a product of Eun-ah's deficiencies or desires. Dokyun's curiosity swelled as he wondered what on earth Eun-ah had been thinking to produce such a smooth-talking personality.
As his thoughts continued, Dokyun met Eun-byeol's steady gaze and considered asking her.
She was a smooth operator who rarely showed her true feelings, but the emotions she held for him were clearly favorable.
Plus, recalling how casually she'd spoken with the doctor at the hospital, she seemed to know more about Eun-ah's situation than Eun-ji or Eun-sam.
Maybe I can learn something new through her. Just as he was thinking that, Eun-byeol spoke.
“Darling, are you allowed to be thinking about other things when you're with me?”
“Ah, I'm sorry.”
At her words, Dokyun flinched and apologized. Eun-byeol giggled again, shaking her head.
“You think too much, darling. Hmm? You could stand to relax a little.”
Her words came out of nowhere, a gentle jab at him. Dokyun looked at her, wondering what she meant, as she continued with a playful smile.
“Should I guess what you're thinking? Hmm, first, it's about Eun-ah, right? How can you cure her? What methods are there? And maybe, just maybe, you could find out how from me.”
At her words, Dokyun's fingertips twitched. She wasn't exactly right, but she had certainly grasped the gist of it. Seeing him flinch, Eun-byeol let out a breath full of laughter and continued.
“I mean, I don't mind telling you, but Unni wouldn't like it. You know her, right? She's such a worrier. 'What if this is too hard on him? What if he feels burdened?' She worries about things like that and just keeps putting it off.”
After saying that, she brought up her other arm and cupped her chin with both hands, looking at Dokyun.
“My own thoughts are a little different... but what can you do? Unni is our captain, so I have to follow her lead, right? Sorry, but I can't tell you anything. Same goes for Eun-ji and Eun-sam.”
Her words drove the point home.
Dokyun clearly understood her intention. He wouldn't be able to get any information through her.
The reason she gave was also something he could understand. In the end, it was his problem.
For a moment, Dokyun felt his head hang low. He was well aware that Eun-seol was being considerate of him, but hearing it from someone else's lips felt different.
His expression darkened with the thought, and he let out a short breath before replying.
“I understand. Everyone has their own position.”
“See? My darling is just overflowing with consideration.”
Once again, her words were teasing. As Dokyun's brow furrowed, her laughter rang out again.
“Mmm... what I'm trying to say is, while I'm here, you should just relax. It's not a problem you can solve just by worrying about it, right? You need to blow off steam like this every once in a while.”
Suddenly, Dokyun felt a smile escape his lips at her words. He realized this was her own way of being considerate.
“I'll take that to heart.”
“Talk is cheap.”
Dokyun watched Eun-byeol, who had replied in her usual smooth tone, as she began to cut the steak that had just arrived at their table. A playful smile on her face. Watching her cut the steak with a relaxed air, a thought occurred to Dokyun. Surely she can tell me this much, he thought, and posed a question.
“By the way, I heard you were the one who introduced Go Eun-sam to online communities. Is that true?”
He asked because it just didn't add up. The Eun-byeol he'd seen seemed like someone far removed from internet communities.
At his question, Eun-byeol's hand trembled. She met his gaze and fell silent for a moment as he narrowed his eyes. Averting her gaze, Eun-byeol stared at the table and spoke.
“...I-I didn't know she'd get that into it.”
“Ah...”
The words came out in stutters. A sigh escaped Dokyun's lips.
“I just felt sorry for her, writing all day long, so I showed her so she could have something to do while she relaxed... A-And, you know, there's some pretty funny stuff on there if you look...?”
“...I can imagine.”
Dokyun said, his voice filled with lament.
Right, for someone Eun-sam called her master, Eun-byeol was far too normal. Her behavior while watching baseball was another story, but aside from that, she hadn't uttered a single community-related phrase all day.
In other words, she was someone who knew how to separate herself from the internet.
Realizing this, Dokyun narrowed his eyes and stared at her.
“...Still, you know you did something wrong, don't you?”
No matter how you looked at it, she had ruined a person. She had taken Eun-sam, who might have grown into a respectable person, and turned her into a degenerate who reeked of a middle-aged man. As he spoke with that thought in mind, Eun-byeol averted her eyes again.
“...If she's happy, isn't that all that matters?”
A shameless reply. As Dokyun's face filled with shock, Eun-byeol cleared her throat and continued.
“You don't know the whole story, darling. If I hadn't done that, she would have died from overwork. Think about it. Once she starts writing, she doesn't move an inch, right? The girl completely loses her sense of time. One time, she wrote for two straight days without sleeping and collapsed. It was a good thing Unni popped out right then. If she hadn't, Eun-sam, not Eun-chae, would have been the one to finish us all.”
The words tumbled out. At first glance, it sounded plausible enough, but Dokyun remained suspicious.
Weren't humans like that? When they had a guilty conscience, their tongues tended to get looser.
She's not telling me something. He narrowed his eyes further. Unable to withstand his glare any longer, Eun-byeol finally squeezed her eyes shut and confessed the truth.
“I-I was hit with a CAS-terror attack, and it wasn't fair that I was the only one suffering...!”
At her answer, Dokyun's jaw dropped.
An idea worthy of a demon.
As Dokyun stared at her, his face filled with horror, Eun-byeol avoided his gaze and continued her confession.
“Y-You know how it is! It was so unfair! Why should I be the only one in pain? The only one suffering? S-So I got so angry, and without thinking, I just...”
The culprit behind Go Eun-sam's dark evolution trailed off, her gaze fixed on the floor.
A sense of fear at her shamelessness rose in Dokyun. He looked at her with trembling eyes.
“...Still, what's wrong is wrong.”
He sort of understood how she felt. He himself had suffered so many times.
The asymmetrical warfare of the internet communities.
Hyungnaemikkol and Ttongbanggu. And CAS.
The abyss of human malice that made one want to vomit on sight.
A demonic art that, once witnessed, contaminated the mind and made normal thought impossible.
Dokyun, too, had encountered them many times, screaming in despair. He had even resented the world.
But never once had he thought of showing it to someone else.
Dokyun made a somber face and spoke to Eun-byeol.
“You're a truly terrible person, Eun-byeol.”
“...Sorry.”
Eun-byeol's head drooped low. Dokyun just shook his head in response.
“Apologize to Go Eun-sam later.”
“...Okay.”
Dokyun picked up his knife. There was nothing more to say.
The truth, heard in an unexpected place and an unexpected situation, was a little uglier than he had imagined.
The piece of meat he put in his mouth tasted faintly bitter.