Chapter 15: Just Where Do You Think You're Touching!
"...I'm exhausted."
I dragged my weary feet all the way home. I couldn't even remember how I'd gotten there. The moment I stepped inside, both arms—still loaded with those heavy bags—throbbed as if they might tear clean off.
I dumped the paper shopping bags on the floor and went straight for the sofa, collapsing face-down.
Idiot. Absolute moron...
This time, I was really going to be found out. Should I have just stayed put and played dumb? I looked like a child, after all—maybe they would have written it off as nothing more than that...
"...Right. There are plenty of young villains around here, too."
Most of them were in their late teens, but still.
My head was pounding. Why had I done it? All I had to do was stay alive.
"Why did he have to look exactly like him..."
Shin Young-hoo. The younger boy from the orphanage.
The man who claimed to be his father—rotten with drugs and liquor—had pressed a broken bottle to the child's life and demanded money from the director. It happened on a street in broad daylight. A crowd gathered, and not a single person stepped in to help. Young-hoo could only cry, terrified, in the arms of the man who called himself his father, and that same man, flying into a rage, tried to kill him.
Back then I didn't think at all. I simply threw myself in to save Young-hoo.
I used to have that scar on my arm.
I looked down at my left arm. Clean skin. Not a mark on it.
"...I suppose I ought to be grateful that at least this time, I didn't even come away with a scar."
The only thing I hate as much as dying is pain. If I hadn't had an ability, I might have hurled this frail body in there all over again.
Beep—
I turned on the TV and flipped through the channels until I landed on the news. They were talking about the villain who had appeared today.
On the screen, Starlight stood before the camera with a bright face, waving a radiant greeting.
If it's her... even if I'm found out to be a villain, wouldn't she spare me at least once?
Even if Soyeon discovered what I was, I might still keep my life if I could get word to Starlight.
Ding-dong—
Someone had pressed the doorbell.
...What?
Not a single person had come looking for this place since I arrived. A chill prickled up my spine, but I got to my feet and carefully checked the intercom.
Standing there was a woman in a white shirt—golden blonde hair, and eyes of a clear, striking amethyst.
Han Soyeon...?
On the screen her face was blank, wiped clean of any feeling. She wasn't even looking at me, and still that cold gaze sent a sweat crawling down my back.
Why? Don't tell me... she found out? She caught on this afternoon after all?
One anxiety tangled into the next. Last time it had only been suspicion. Had it hardened into certainty? Had she come to kill me?
...What do I do.
I never should have let her help me haul those heavy bags all the way to the door.
Ding-dong—
The bell rang again.
...Pretend I'm not home? Try to wait her out?
But she already knew I was inside, didn't she? Ringing the moment I got back meant she had seen me come in.
And once she knew that, barricading the door or hiding was meaningless. If Han Soyeon felt like it, she could tear that door apart like paper.
"...I'll just have to hope she doesn't kill me."
Surely all the goodwill I'd built up counted for something. I'd greeted her diligently. I'd given her plenty of gifts. At the very least, she might let me keep my life.
In the end, I decided to open the door.
Click—
"Hello..."
I greeted her with no strength left in it.
"Ah. You were in after all. Excuse me a moment."
"What?"
"It'll only take a second."
And then, without the slightest warning, she started running her hands over me.
"Wh-whaa—?!"
She shoved my hoodie up to look at my arms, kneaded at my legs, fiddled with my face.
"Wh-what are you doing?!"
Where does this woman think she's touching?!
"...Good. You weren't caught up in it."
"W-what? Wh-what is that supposed to mean?!"
I finally twisted free of her hands, wrapped both arms around myself, and demanded an answer.
"I saw you earlier, by the bus stop near the bookstore. Then I heard there'd been a terror incident there. Something they think was poison."
"...What?"
"They said a huge amount of blood was sprayed across the ground, and that touching it makes your skin blister and break down a little."
"Th-then you could have just asked me!"
"Ah. Sorry. Didn't think of that. I was worried you were hurt."
The apology didn't so much as shift her expression. And yet her brows drooped, just slightly, as if she truly was sorry.
"You usually only go to the convenience store. Why were you over there?"
"I went to buy a book."
"A book?"
"Yes. I didn't have anything worth reading."
"Fairy tales... I think I have a few at my place—"
"No, I do not! I don't read fairy tales."
Just how old did she think I was? I might look young, but I didn't look young enough for fairy tales. ...Probably.
"...Ah. Right. When I was little, fairy tales were all I ever read."
As she said it, she set a hand on my head and stroked it, lightly. The sudden touch startled me.
"...!"
Maybe because I flinched, Soyeon froze—then snatched her hand back at once. She stared at that hand for a moment before apologizing.
"Sorry... I only meant to think it, and then..."
"N-no, it's fine. I was only surprised. Really."
Putting a hand on my head unasked, or patting me down—those were rude, yes. But... it hadn't felt all that bad.
Not that I'm saying I liked it.
Who would enjoy someone showing up out of nowhere, groping them, and petting their head? It was only because it was Han Soyeon that it didn't feel worse than that.
...Wait. Does that make me a pervert?
If it was a beautiful adult woman feeling me up, then it was fine... No. Whatever else it was, it wasn't that.
"...Thanks. I'll be going, then."
Fortunately, her only business seemed to have been making sure I hadn't been caught up in the incident.
"Wait!"
I caught her as she turned to leave.
"Just a second. I'll be right back."
"Uh... okay."
She looked flustered, but she stopped at the entrance, just as I'd asked.
I left her there and went to the kitchen for the triangle kimbap and the drink I'd put in the fridge yesterday. Determined to take on spicy food, I'd bought two Spicy-Sour Bibim rice triangles—and nearly died getting through a single one.
If I can't eat them anyway, I might as well squeeze a little more favor out of this.
"Here. A present."
I held the food out to Soyeon, waiting by the front door. She only looked at me. She didn't take it.
"......"
"...Do you not like this flavor?"
Had I grabbed the wrong thing? Was she hopeless with spice, the same as me...?
"No. It's not that. I just..."
"......?"
"...Thank you. I'll enjoy it."
She accepted the triangle kimbap and the drink.
...Every time I look at her, I can't tell what that face is saying.
In the webtoon she had seemed fairly expressive, but the Soyeon in front of me had never once broken that blank look. If her feelings showed the way Starlight's did, that would have been nice.
Brr-beep—!
A phone rang from her pocket.
"I should get going."
"Yes. Take care."
"...See you next time."
"See you next time!"
With that, Soyeon was gone almost at once. Once I was sure she had vanished, I closed the door.
Thud—
No. I only tried to.
"To think you would invite that woman into your home before a friend... How jealous that makes me."
It would have shut—if a foot hadn't shot out from somewhere and blocked it.
After erasing the traces of her psychometry, Alice followed Yuhwa toward the apartment where she lived.
She seems to have arrived already.
Yuhwa was nowhere to be seen—not at the bus stop, and not in the park. Just as Alice was about to head straight for Yuhwa's apartment, she caught sight of someone running.
That one...
The "hero" who was supposedly close with Yuhwa.
She was an unusual person. Alice had set a spy from the Villain Alliance to dig into her, but almost nothing had come back.
If she can run without so much as disturbing her breathing, she must be quite the power.
All the spy had managed to learn was a name—Han Soyeon—and a handful of bare personal details. Even that was far too little.
"...Which means she's the one who kills villains."
Heroes, by nature, worked for the purpose of subduing villains. For them, killing was nothing more than a last resort. Perhaps that was part of why villains ran so wild. This society—this country—treated even a villain's life as precious.
Is she with that "special forces" unit the man from the field-disposal team mentioned?
Heroes who saved others and lived off the fame that followed were inevitably exposed to the media. B-Rank, C-Rank—the rank hardly mattered. Become a hero, and a certain degree of recognition came with it. But if nothing at all surfaced on someone calling herself a hero, then it was one of two things: a lie, or a cover.
"The information came from the Association, so it isn't a lie."
A faint smile touched Alice's lips.
That woman is interesting enough, but...
The sweet scent of blood, still vivid in her memory. A body wrapped in a thick reek of it, and an innocent face pretending not to know a thing. And on top of that, a golden-eyed girl who seemed to know her—and who was afraid of her.
She traced her lips lightly with her tongue.
She was thirsty. Not a thirst for blood. A thirst of curiosity.
She wanted that girl's life in her hand. She wanted to make her a slave and dig out every secret buried inside her. If she could, she wanted to learn all of it—even if the girl broke in the process.
How did she know? How had she killed that one with power so weak? What was she, really? What did she know, that she lived every day so afraid? What was her past, and was the face she wore now even real? Why did her blood give off a scent so sweet? And why—at the very moment the captured child was about to die—had she, who feared being found out every single day, used her ability to save him?
"...I'm parched."
She wanted to know all of it.
At first it had been simple interest. But Yuhwa held far too many secrets—secrets that, no matter how Alice tried, she could not uncover. She watched her. Followed her. Drew close every night. And still, she could never find out.
...Come to think of it, the girl and I are friends.
A friend, meaning someone you invite into your home so you can drive a stake through their heart.
"You do make me jealous. Inviting another woman home before a dear friend."
And by doing so, seeking to possess them. To have them.
"Was this how he felt as well—the one who drove a stake through my heart?"
At the time, after he staked her heart, she had blown his head apart with hardly a feeling. Only now did she understand him.
Well... I have no intention of driving in a stake.
Of course Alice knew that such a thing was no normal friendship. But if it meant unearthing those secrets, what did the kind of friend matter?
"I wonder. When I come to see you, how will your face change?"
Would she be startled? Would she be terrified?
Alice's eyes gleamed, bright with naked curiosity and greed.