Chapter 96
Terminally Ill, but It's Okay — Episode 96
Joo A-rin headed out to buy groceries around lunchtime the next day.
With same-day delivery so well established, she had wondered if she really needed to go out, but culinary expert Cheon Seo-yoon had been adamant.
You had to see and choose ingredients in person, or so she said.
She had talked her into it with such plausible words that Joo A-rin had no choice but to go.
"Where are we going?"
"Just follow me for now. I've got a regular market, so I'll lead the way."
The moment they came out of the Yongsan Station portal, Cheon Seo-yoon strode ahead with long, confident steps.
If a serious direction-challenged person was walking that confidently, it probably really was a place she knew.
Either way, Joo A-rin was the one asking for help here.
Since she was seeking instruction, she followed without complaint.
"Seafood freshness is super important, you know? You have to go to a place that gets it from the wholesale market at dawn the same day......"
Cheon Seo-yoon kept talking without pause, clearly enjoying having the upper hand.
"Food is 99 percent ingredients. If the ingredients are good, it can't taste bad. Especially octopus...... Oh, right."
Then she abruptly stopped and narrowed her eyes.
"But who are you making it for?"
"Huh?"
Joo A-rin's steps came to an awkward halt too.
"What do you mean, who? I'm just learning to cook for myself......"
"Pfft, you? You barely have an appetite. And you hate squishy stuff like octopus."
Cheon Seo-yoon suddenly leaned her face in close, her lips twitching.
"Tell me honestly. Who is it?"
"What?"
"What kind of guy is asking you to cook for him?"
"Are you going to keep saying weird stuff?"
Joo A-rin put on a serious face and feigned composure. It was a defense mechanism that surfaced when she was flustered.
"Hey, hey. There it is. That look."
But her opponent was Cheon Seo-yoon.
A friend she had grown up with since childhood.
Unlike Joo A-rin, who was vulnerable to being pushed around by so-called "gut feelings"......
"Anyway, it's definitely not Seol-hwa, and it's definitely a guy. Since you're not denying it."
Cheon Seo-yoon was only smart at times like this. No, she only used her brain at times like this.
"If he likes spaghetti, he's probably not a total macho type, and if he's asking for octopus or abalone, he seems like a guy who takes pretty good care of his body...... Whoa!"
Cheon Seo-yoon soon shouted like a kid who had figured out the answer to a puzzle.
"Baek Sa-young?!"
"Stop it. I said it's not."
By this point, Joo A-rin shouted too.
"Then Park Ha-yul?"
But the moment she flinched at that name, her shoulders twitching, the mystery ended anticlimactically.
"Whoa."
"......."
"Since when did you two get to be like that......"
"Ha, that's not it."
Maybe she should have just said it from the start.
Joo A-rin let out a deep sigh and explained the situation.
It was not goodwill, fondness, favor, affection, or anything like that. It was gratitude.
Only gratitude.
She emphasized that she felt thankful, or that it was an extension of that feeling.
"Hmm~ So that's how it was."
Maybe because receiving help was mutual?
Cheon Seo-yoon fully understood Joo A-rin's feelings.
Just last night, hadn't she herself packed up all sorts of food because she didn't know what he liked?
"But that guy probably wouldn't like something like octopus abalone samgyetang spaghetti."
"He wouldn't... like it?"
"Yeah. You'd be better off just buying store-bought sauce and making it for him. It's something he likes because of childhood memories. And......"
Cheon Seo-yoon hesitated over whether to say more, then carefully opened her mouth.
"This is purely my guess, okay?"
"......?"
"No, I mean Park Ha-yul. It seems like he doesn't have a mother. The nuance of how he talked made it sound like she went missing."
Was it because they were in similar situations?
Joo A-rin thought of the mother who had abandoned her and Seol-hwa and ran away, and let out a shallow sigh.
"Ah, missing......."
If she was going to abandon her children, she could at least live well.
That moment flashed through her mind—the moment years later when she had heard the news that she had gone missing after being involved in a strange incident.
.......
But that was all.
By now, even her resentment had worn away to the point of indifference.
"Oh, right. Ramen seasoning! If you mix in ramen seasoning, he'll like it. He said it was a recipe from his memories."
When Cheon Seo-yoon clapped her hands and raised her voice, Joo A-rin shook off her thoughts.
Then she asked.
"But how did you know?"
* * *
The moment I came out of the bakery, I called Cheol-soo.
—So anyway.
Cheol-soo explained everything he hadn't been able to fit into text messages.
First, there was nothing on the butterfly tattoo. He said he had scoured the internet but couldn't find anything.
So he had been about to give up, but on a whim, he expanded his search.
He shifted direction and looked into glowing tattoos...... and what do you know.
—It's called Good Morning Capital.......
A recently formed loan-shark operation. But in reality, a gangster organization had landed right in his radar net.
They supposedly possessed overwhelming force—at least among the underworld—enough to take over Yeongdeungpo the moment they appeared......
They were called the "Flash Gang" because they had glowing tattoos on their left forearms.
—So who knows. Maybe there's a butterfly too. Or not?
Cheol-soo finished his explanation in an uncertain tone.
"Thanks. That helped a lot."
I started with my thanks.
The probability that Yoo So-young was connected to gangsters was close to zero, but it didn't seem like completely unrelated information either.
Glowing tattoos themselves weren't common, after all.
So now it was my turn to step up.
If I went and clashed with them, dug into it, I'd be able to get more solid information.
—What's there to thank, we're on the same team. You thinking of going right now?
"I'll have to."
—I figured. Stay safe. The capital office closes at 5, so you should hurry.
As soon as he hung up, Cheol-soo sent the address.
[618-98 Yeongdeungpo-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, 3rd Floor]
It was a place I knew well, so I could gauge the time quickly.
I asked Reina, who was sitting on a nearby bench.
"Are you done eating?"
"Not yet.... Are we going now?"
Reina asked, clutching the yellow bread bag to her chest.
I nodded.
If I had my way, I'd move at a leisurely pace, but there was no time.
It was roughly 3:30 now. Considering the travel time, it was tight, and wasn't it 6 o'clock?
I had a promise I'd made with Joo A-rin on the spur of the moment, so I had to arrive without being late.
"Leave the rest behind. I'll buy you more next......"
"No. I'll carry it."
Reina pulled the bread bag toward herself and refused firmly.
"Okay. Well......."
She'd manage fine on her own. She was someone who could hold her own even if she just swung bread at people.
Actually, I was more worried about her striking face than her skills. There were bound to be people who recognized her.
So I asked.
"Your face. You can disguise it, right?"
Reina nodded as if she understood. Immediately after, a clear cluster of light settled over her face.
* * *
In this world where magic and supernatural abilities were mixed together, the place that felt most similar to Earth was none other than the streets.
The buildings were similar, and most of the people walking around were ordinary citizens.
And among them, Yeongdeungpo was especially welcoming.
It was the neighborhood where Yoo So-young and I had made our home after leaving the orphanage.
"This is my first time in a place like this."
Anyway, I was currently walking with Reina through the market located across from Yeongdeungpo Station.
The address pointed to a building at the far end of the market, so we had no choice but to pass through.
But was it because it was the weekend? It was insanely crowded.
The straight road cutting through the market was packed with people coming and going, and the market's distinctive air—a mix of miscellaneous noise and all kinds of food smells—tormented my ears and nose, which were especially sensitive compared to others.
Still, it wasn't bad. It was the kind of atmosphere I hadn't felt in a long time.
"Follow closely. If you get lost, it'll be hard to find you."
I warned Reina, who was looking around curiously, and picked up my pace.
After pushing through the crowd and walking in a daze, we eventually arrived at an alley with few people around.
There were no open shops nearby, and the street was full of discarded cigarette butts.
But the building standing at the center of it all was gleaming.
It was a new five-story building with only a single sign hanging on it.
[Good Morning Capital]
It was the address Cheol-soo had given me.
"Is this it? The place where the Satans stay?"
Reina narrowed her eyes, clutching the bread bag to her chest.
It was kind of cute, but her aura was quite menacing, so I explained the situation once more.
They weren't Satans, just low-quality bastards, so she needed to hold back.
Of course, if we barged in and said, "Hey, Flash Gang folks, let's see those tattoos. Whoa, they glow. How'd you get those?"
—they'd come at us ready to kill, but the goal wasn't extermination.
I'd rough them up a bit, then coax and wheedle the information out of them.
"If you're ready, I'm going in."
I strode into the capital building—no, the Flash Gang's den—without hesitation.
If I were Lee Do-hyeon, this would've been unthinkable, but right now I was Park Ha-yul.
As a terminally ill person who had survived desperately for four months, I had grown into an Awakener who could no longer be called ordinary.
I had enough skill that only a Blue Grade Demonkin would make me tense, so gangsters were nothing.
I couldn't feel any threat to my safety even if I tried.
So I strode up to the third floor and pressed my face against the translucent door.
The reason I didn't open the door right away was my characteristic meticulousness kicking in first.
I needed to get a sense of the organization's size and their boss.
I focused my eyes sharply and glared into the room.
"Hmm......."
But there were quite a lot of them.
The spacious room felt cramped with all the black-suited thugs swarming around.
Ten, twenty, thirty. Forty.......
There looked to be at least forty of them, and I could also sense the presence of Awakeners I hadn't felt from outside the building.
A few Tier 10s and one Tier 9.
That was considerable firepower for gangsters.
Well, that was probably how they'd taken over Yeongdeungpo so quickly.
It was while I was taking that brief pause.
"Is there some kind of prob— mmph!"
When Reina opened her mouth, I covered it and moved to the back, explaining with my free hand.
It wasn't that I was too scared to go in—there were more of them than expected, and there were Awakeners too. So no carelessness.
"Mmph?"
But how could that possibly be conveyed through hand gestures?
So I gave up.
They were just gangster bastards anyway. Might as well just beat them up.
According to Cheol-soo's investigation: loan sharking, smuggling, drugs, violence, etc.
They were bastards who deserved a beating.
When I lowered the hand covering her mouth, Reina spoke.
"So we just go in?"
"Do whatever you want."
I stepped aside slightly and yielded the first strike.
Reina approached without hesitation and kicked the door—BOOM—opening it in one go....... No, she destroyed it.
The guys who had been happily shooting the breeze jumped to their feet as the office door was crushed like a sheet of paper.
"What the."
"An ambush?"
"Who the hell is it?"
Forty-some pairs of eyes flashed menacingly at us, but Reina entered calmly and issued a benevolent warning.
"Those who wish to repent, step aside to the right. I will spare your lives."
It was a declaration of war befitting a saintess, in its own way.
"What the."
"Isn't that the bakery daughter from the market? Looks like she came to sell bread."
"Hey, dumbass. Who sells bread like that? She's just a crazy bitch."
But these weren't an audience who would listen.
Reina shook her head side to side, then declared as if passing judgment.
"I will slaughter them all."
Now, now. I said subdue.
I wondered if I should tell her one more time, but fortunately, Reina pulled out bread instead of her main weapon.