A Misguided Act of Chivalry
Even so, talking back was always an option. But as the conversation turned to Elena, Shinwoo suddenly felt an urge to see her. Of course, his goal was simply to become friends. He'd heard that friends could meet up on weekends without any particular reason. Weekends were already exhausting enough just recovering from the fatigue of the weekdays, yet there was that special bond between friends where spending time together somehow relieved even more exhaustion. The magic of weekends, one might call it. Shinwoo wanted to experience that feeling himself.
It's the weekend anyway. Might as well go hang out with her.
He had heard that the girl from Russia was living alone near the school. Still, showing up without warning would be rude. To make the best possible impression, Shinwoo bought a box of drinks, the way someone might bring a gift when visiting a patient. It was while he was wandering aimlessly around the school area that it happened.
"Elena. Come here for a moment."
"Shinwoo...?"
"Hurry!"
As if by some twist of fate, the NIS Chunsik Team had just received a withdrawal order from Yoo Han-kyung. They were on the verge of aborting the operation when, at the worst possible moment, Han Shinwoo discovered Elena's house.
He dropped the box of drinks he was carrying. A group of women who looked suspicious at first glance. Elena, clearly at a loss, surrounded by them. Though momentarily flustered, she seized the chance while every NIS agent turned to stare at him and sprinted toward Shinwoo.
"Damn it...!"
"She got away."
Shinwoo naturally pulled the running Elena behind his back. A man shielding her from danger. Whether it was from fear or from realizing what that meant, Elena had never experienced anything like it before. Her heart raced so violently she couldn't calm it down.
Meanwhile, the NIS agents who had tried to catch the fleeing Elena froze the instant they saw what stood before them. One of them spoke with a heavily agitated face.
"Wait... Isn't that... Sir Shinwoo?"
The person before their eyes right now—no, the man. He was the dreamlike existence they usually only saw through monitors. It was Han Shinwoo.
"What is this...?"
"Why is Sir Shinwoo here?"
The five agents who had been preparing to carry out their mission all fell into commotion at once. Shinwoo was glaring at them with sharp intensity, but to them it felt more like a reward. A man was glaring at them. That meant he was acknowledging their presence. They, who monitored him every day and were already far more infatuated with him than other women, felt their initial shock quickly melt into excitement.
But as if to snap them back to their senses—
"Withdraw immediately."
The delivery-person agent struck the backs of her subordinates' heads as she spoke. Lee Do-youn, leader of the Chunsik Team under the NIS Male Development Department. She endured Shinwoo's piercing gaze by pressing a taser against her own fingertips. Her thumb burned bright red from the shock, but as an NIS agent she could not pounce on a man.
"What do you mean, withdraw?"
"Because of Sir Shinwoo? Or were you planning to have him kill us himself?"
"That's not the issue."
To the regrouped team members, Lee Do-youn relayed their superior's command.
"We just received new orders. The operation is canceled."
"Canceled?"
"Come on, our Chunsik Team isn't some call taxi that cancels the moment we say so..."
"Still, if they say to withdraw, we withdraw."
They had been looking forward to sending one of those bitches off to the Yanbian region after so long. The Chunsik Team slumped like little girls who had just lost the toy they were about to buy. But orders from above were orders. The situation seemed ready to wrap up right there—until...
"Who are you people?"
The foolishly bright expression he usually wore in daily life was completely gone. Shinwoo raised an eyebrow and asked in a solemn voice. All for her sake. It was unbelievable, but a man was getting angry for a woman's sake. At that realization, not only Elena but every member of the Chunsik Team held their breath. They simply could not believe it. Especially Elena, at the very center of the incident, kept her gaze fixed on the ground to hide her flushed face and the tingling heat between her legs.
But Shinwoo, mistaking her behavior for fear, spoke in an even harsher tone.
"Trying to kidnap someone in broad daylight. Was it you who jammed the phone signal so I couldn't call the police?"
"Uh, well..."
"That's... correct?"
The Chunsik Team nodded along with Shinwoo's reasoning. They simply could not lie to a man. After all, they had already taken precautions by contacting the police in advance. Hearing their admission, Shinwoo's face twisted even further.
So they have the police in their pocket. That means they're not ordinary kidnappers. Then what the hell are they?
He thought it over but could not come up with a clear answer. There was something suspicious about them. He wanted to ask Elena, but the girl had been staring at the ground ever since. So what should he do? The answer was simple. Catch them, torture them, and make them talk.
With determined strides.
"All right, then let's withdraw to the car we—huh?"
"Am I seeing things? It looks like Sir Shinwoo is coming toward us."
"He really is..."
Had the standards for the creature known as man suddenly changed? No matter their race, personality, or physique, men were life forms whose survival instincts surpassed those of any woman. Right now Sir Shinwoo was facing a group of kidnappers in broad daylight. Any man should have run away without looking back. Yes, getting angry for a classmate's sake was already unrealistic enough, but what Shinwoo did next—
Thud.
At that sight, the Chunsik Team literally froze in place.
"Is he... taking a fighting stance right now?"
"No way. What kind of precise combat stance would a man use? Maybe he's just holding his hand out to tell us to stay back?"
"...No. No matter how you look at it, that's a stance..."
And not just any stance—an extremely precise one belonging to a trained professional. It was proof that a man was initiating a real fight against women, not mere common assault. That fact planted question marks in the minds of every Chunsik Team member, including leader Lee Do-youn.
A man, fighting? Men were creatures who collapsed from stomach pain after eating a single piece of chocolate. Creatures who burst into tears regardless of age if they accidentally bumped shoulders. That was what a man was!
Thump. Thump.
An unknown sight. An opponent they were certain they would never face—not now, not ever. The NIS Chunsik Team. Every one of them was a combat genius personally selected from across South Korea. They were always hungry for battle, always seeking the strong. Catfights were an indispensable part of their daily routine. But this was not even a fight between women. This was a battle between man and woman where the man was not being beaten one-sidedly. No matter how professional they were, it was impossible to suppress their instincts any longer.
The man would receive my punch. In turn, I would receive the man's technique. It was thrilling.
...This wasn't good. Their thinking was growing dull.
"Leader, I can't hold it anymore..."
"What? You don't mean..."
"I'm sorry. But what can I do? The panties I'm wearing right now are completely soaked, pad and all."
With the last shred of her instinct, the subordinate and comrade left those final words. At her confession, Chunsik Team leader Lee Do-youn swallowed her tears.
You idiot... I've been soaked for a while now and have been holding it in...!
But it seemed this one could not endure. Looking around, she saw that all her subordinates' pants were wet as well. They had grown so excited they had already climaxed.
The Chunsik Team agent who had lost all reason stood boldly before Shinwoo. Her dream was to be beaten to death by a man. Yet with her physique—standing at two hundred and ten centimeters tall, weighing one hundred and thirty kilograms, with a muscular build and body fat percentage trained below ten percent—how could a frail man possibly kill her? Still, if things went well today, that wish might actually come true.
"Here I come!"
Her specialty was wrestling. Once she grabbed her opponent, the match was over. With that belief, she charged at Shinwoo in a low stance.
But unlike her excellent charge—
Crack.
The match ended far too easily.
"Urk."
"Good..."
The sweet torture of hope that she might grab hold of Sir Shinwoo's unmanly yet reliable body. Before that hope could be realized, a kick landed against the side of her neck. A Brazilian kick that altered its trajectory mid-motion. No matter how tough a person was, they rarely trained their neck. Recalling his past life, Shinwoo had seen through that weakness. She was not dead, merely unconscious, but the fallen NIS agent's face looked blissfully happy even as she foamed at the mouth.
"Whew. All right, next."
Shinwoo said, turning toward the remaining five.
On the other hand, the five watching Chunsik Team members were speechless as they stared at their fallen comrade. Elena behind him was no different.
A man...
Against a woman...
Won in a fight?!
They had witnessed an event that defied all human common sense. A strong man? Had such a man ever existed in human history? They said that in a cave without a tiger, the fox becomes king. Before the females who thought themselves strong, a male who was inherently stronger had appeared. Their bodies began to burn like beasts in mating season. Not to mention Elena. Even the NIS agents, including leader Lee Do-youn, were on the verge of losing their reason.
What was it again? The pride of a first-year queen? Or the self-esteem of being an agent of the Republic of Korea's National Intelligence Service? To hell with all of it. Right now they simply wanted to spread their legs before this strong male. As females standing before a superior male, the forgotten duty of a woman rose within them like ovulation itself.
But just before Shinwoo could pounce on them from front and back, what brought them back to their senses was none other than—
"Sir Shinwoo! Where are you going when I haven't even finished speaking?!"
It was Yoo Han-kyung, who had driven her personal vehicle between Shinwoo and the Chunsik Team. More precisely, it was the woman who had stabbed her own thighs roughly three times with a knife in order to maintain her sanity.
"Whew. Whew. I even... ordered more... chocolate cake..."
"Ms. Yoo Han-kyung? ...Are you all right? You look very pale."
"Whewww. I'm... fine... But there seems to be some... misunderstanding..."
"Misunderstanding?"
"Team Leader! Your leg...!"
Yoo Han-kyung stepped out of the car to calm everyone on both sides. The moment she did, blood poured from her legs like a waterfall. Elena screamed at the sight. Shinwoo was equally shocked. The Chunsik Team agents, her own subordinates, were no exception. Everyone regained their senses and rushed toward their collapsing team leader.
"Ms. Yoo Han-kyung! What on earth happened?!"
"Huk, huk. It was simply... something I did to uphold my beliefs until the very end..."
But even as she spoke, Yoo Han-kyung eventually lost consciousness and collapsed. The Chunsik Team hurriedly laid their team leader down properly and began applying pressure to stop the bleeding. Along with their worry, a surge of respect for their team leader rose within them. For one thing, the formal pants she wore were not wet at all and remained perfectly proper. Moreover, instead of her eyes rolling back at the sight of a strong man, she had shown the decisiveness to rush over and resolve the situation, along with the judgment to maintain her reason. The subordinates swallowed their tears as they looked at the one among them who had not gone into heat over Shinwoo.
Meanwhile, staring at the women who had been his enemies only moments ago...
"...What is this?"
Shinwoo stood there, utterly bewildered, together with Elena.