Chapter 117: That Man's Life (Fake Si-woo Ver.)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 117: That Man's Life (Fake Si-woo Ver.)
Six in the morning, just as the sun, heralding the dawn, was preparing to rise.
In the tranquil darkness, where nothing stirred, a pair of eyes flashed open.
The man, Fake Si-woo, sighed, looking up at the ceiling as if it were a familiar routine.
“Haaah…”
At this hour, his eyes would always open without fail, even if no one woke him.
“I want to sleep more.”
You might ask, if my eyes are open, can’t I just close them and go back to sleep?
If I could, I would’ve done it long ago.
This powerful body of his absolutely refused such tricks.
Once his eyes and mind were awake, they wouldn't falter until late at night.
“Someday, a day will come when I can sleep as much as I want…”
In fact, this body's original wake-up time wasn't six in the morning, but five.
Thanks to his every effort to become lazier, he'd managed to sleep for an extra hour.
So, maybe he could look forward to waking up late in the morning someday.
Fake Si-woo, about to leave his room, stopped turning the doorknob and stepped back.
“Ah, I should wash up first.”
Not long after he'd stolen this body, he had walked out looking disheveled and gotten an earful from Han Ju-hee.
She told him not to walk around looking untidy.
She’d said that every little lax appearance like that would ruin his image.
Unable to forget that sharp scolding, he entered the en-suite bathroom, washed himself thoroughly, then put on a pair of tailored suit trousers and a shirt before leaving the room.
‘What’s for breakfast today?’
His thoughts were generally like that.
He never thought about the distant future, obsessed only with short-sighted concerns.
What's for breakfast, what should I do after eating, and so on.
He was solely focused on getting through each day, on enduring.
As he walked slowly down the hallway, he ran into Han Ju-hee, who was heading to the study with a steaming cup of coffee in her hand.
It struck him anew, but…
‘She's beautiful.’
Photos usually look better than the real person.
All the women he had met in this body had been like that.
The only difference was the size of the gap between the photo and reality; no one had ever looked better in person than in their picture.
Except for the Han Ju-hee standing before him.
‘How can she be more beautiful than her photos?’
In Fake Si-woo's eyes, everything about her seemed perfect.
Her glossy red hair, her sharp, cold eyes, her smooth nose, and her red lips.
On top of that, her full breasts and slender waist could put even a Westerner to shame.
Just looking at her made lust well up inside him.
If only he could touch her, he was confident he could spend a lifetime tangled with her in bed, never leaving.
Yes.
‘If only I could touch her…’
When he was Kim Do-jin, she was a pie in the sky, a forbidden fruit he could only look at through a monitor.
Forget about touching her; she was like a star in the sky he couldn't even dare to see in person.
That was why he'd given up his youth and stolen Son Si-woo's body, all for her.
But he'd never dreamed that she would be so distant, unreachable even in her husband's body.
‘A show-window couple… what is this…’
Who would have known?
That Son Si-woo and Han Ju-hee, known as one of South Korea's most devoted couples, were just a show-window couple.
Thanks to that, months had passed since he started living in Son Si-woo's body, yet he hadn't even held her hand once.
No, they had barely even had a private conversation.
Fake Si-woo smiled awkwardly and waved at her.
“G-Good morning.”
“…Yes.”
Leaving him with just that one word, she slipped into the study.
“…I'm hungry.”
Feeling hungry, he went down the stairs with a gloomy expression.
In the spacious kitchen, three servants were bustling about.
And he saw an unexpected person.
‘Ugh, Son Seo-yeon.’
His daughter, Son Seo-yeon, was sitting at the table, picking at her rice.
Their eyes met.
Her sharp eyes, which resembled her mother's, seemed to pierce right through him.
“D-Did you sleep well?”
“…Yeah.”
He sat across from her and began to eat.
The dishes, all made with the finest ingredients, delighted his palate.
But that was only for a moment.
Fake Si-woo, who had been enjoying his meal, lifted his head.
Just as he expected, he saw Son Seo-yeon staring intently at him.
“…Is there something you want to say?”
“No, nothing.”
…If there's nothing, then please stop staring.
He couldn't bring himself to say it out loud and swallowed the words.
It had been like this recently.
At first, it was hard to even see her face, but lately, she had started coming out to eat with him at breakfast time.
That would have been fine, but recently she would stop eating and just stare at him.
Even when he asked why, she would only say it was nothing. She would watch him until she was satisfied, then tilt her head in confusion before disappearing.
‘If I were in my original body, I would've gotten indigestion about 300 times by now.’
Fortunately, an S-rank Hunter's body had a stomach as strong as steel, so he didn't get indigestion.
After eating his fill, he returned to his room, put on his suit jacket, and grabbed his smartphone and wallet.
Just then, his phone vibrated, and he answered it immediately.
-The car is waiting.
“…Yeah, I'm coming out now.”
The hellish time to go to work had arrived.
“Huu…”
Fake Si-woo sighed softly as he left the room.
He was trudging down the hallway when the study door suddenly opened.
His face instantly brightened.
‘Is today a special day or something?’
To be able to see her face twice in one morning, it felt like it must be some kind of special day.
Her cold gaze turned to Fake Si-woo.
“…Your footsteps have gotten heavy lately.”
“Huh? Ah…”
Does she mean I should walk more quietly?
“Ha, haha, sorry…”
At his awkward, smiling apology, she stared at him for a moment before turning her head away.
“You haven't forgotten about this evening, have you?”
At the same time, another crisis arrived.
What was happening this evening? He searched his mind, but nothing came up.
For some reason, it felt like the memories in his head were blocked by something.
Except for a few things that surfaced intermittently, all his other memories were a complete blank.
Usually, a thought would flash like a flickering lightbulb at times like this, but today, there was nothing.
He had no choice but to ask her.
“This evening…?”
Her sharp gaze bore down on him.
“I told you a few days ago to come home early because it's the day Ju-yeon returns to the country.”
“Ah, aaah, right!”
When did she say that?
He couldn't remember, but he averted the crisis by pretending he'd just recalled it.
“You've been a little strange lately.”
“W-W-What is?”
“Everything. A man who never rested his entire life suddenly says he's taking a sabbatical. A man who used to say he'd feel restless if he didn't train every morning is now skipping training…”
His stomach clenched with each point she brought up.
Is this the pressure an S-rank Hunter exudes?
While he was wondering how to respond, she turned her back and grabbed the doorknob.
“Well, you're not young anymore, so I suppose it's possible… but I'd appreciate it if you didn't forget things like your schedule.”
“R-Right. I'll be more careful from now on.”
“…Alright, then.”
Thud-
The study door closed.
“Huuuh…”
Fake Si-woo let out a sigh of relief, having escaped the crisis.
The smartphone in his pocket buzzed loudly again.
It was obvious.
It was surely someone hurrying him to get to work.
“I'm coming, I'm coming…”
He went down the stairs at a slightly faster pace and left through the front door.
“You're here, Master!”
“Yeah, good morning.”
After a brief morning greeting with the driver, he got into the luxury sedan parked in the yard.
“We'll be departing now.”
The sedan pulled away smoothly.
Sitting in the spacious back seat, Fake Si-woo watched the scenery fly by.
‘Namdo Restaurant, Jogang Interior, Park's Sundaeguk…’
Even though they were driving at 80 km/h, everything passing by seemed to move slowly.
‘This body is truly monstrous.’
He'd been doing this for months, but it still amazed him.
And it frustrated him.
When he stole Son Si-woo's body, the thing he wanted most was Han Ju-hee.
But if you were to ask if that was the only thing he wanted, the answer would be no.
‘An S-rank Hunter.’
One of only five superhumans in South Korea.
He had wanted that immense power, too.
How thrilling would it be to snatch the power someone else had built over a lifetime without any effort and use it as his own!
“Sigh.”
But he hadn't been able to achieve that either.
What was the point of having top-of-the-line hardware…
…if he'd lost all the software to run it!
‘Though some things do come to mind occasionally…’
Strictly speaking, he hadn't lost everything.
A few simple skills remained in his head.
The problem was, even when he used them, something felt off.
Even though he perfectly replicated what came to mind, it wasn't satisfying.
At first, he thought it was because he wasn't used to it yet and practiced a lot, but it was still the same.
If he'd seen any sign of progress, he would have gained momentum to practice and work harder, but since there was none, Fake Si-woo quickly gave up.
That was just the kind of person he was.
“We've arrived.”
While he was lost in thought, they arrived at the guild building.
As he got out of the car, all eyes were on him.
“Wow… it's Hunter Son Si-woo!”
“Awesome, I have to take a picture.”
The murmurs of the passing citizens and the sound of camera shutters made his shoulders straighten with pride.
But it was only for a fleeting moment.
The moment he stepped inside the guild building, an unknown pressure began to weigh him down.
‘Just do what I've always done…’
Every minute, every second he spent here was a string of tension.
Why?
Because he didn't know anything.
Only one thing came to his mind.
“Chief Yoo can take care of the minor details.”
It was something Son Si-woo often said when passing troublesome tasks to his chief secretary.
If it weren't for those words, it was terrifying to imagine what would have become of him by now.
Having passed all his work onto others, he spent his time holding his breath in the guild leader's office, which was large enough to play soccer in.
He would watch people pass by through the large glass window or lie sprawled on the sofa.
His only goal at the guild was one thing.
To minimize contact with people.
He didn't know what his colleagues might find fault with, so not meeting them at all was the only way to survive.
As he did, a sense of lethargy would wash over him.
“Fuck…”
He wondered what the hell he was even doing.
To think that after gaining the body of an S-rank Hunter, all he was doing was hiding.
‘Since it's come to this, should I just live recklessly?’
He couldn't hold Han Ju-hee, it was true.
And he was taking a break from work, using the excuse of a sabbatical because he couldn't properly use the S-rank Hunter's powers.
But money and fame were still in his grasp.
If he used them to go around fucking all sorts of beautiful women….
“I'd be ruined in an instant…”
His honor would be tarnished, and his image would be destroyed.
And that wasn't all.
What if the people around him noticed something was off and suddenly decided to torture him?
“…Let's just live like this.”
It's not like I have to live like this forever.
“Just three more years.”
When the reality of his life, so far from his ideal, hit him hard with a wave of disillusionment, he had someone investigate how his original body was living.
‘At first, I thought the investigation was wrong.’
He was stunned when he saw the photos taken by the private investigator.
The fat pig had vanished without a trace, replaced by a tall, handsome man.
He'd even Awakened and gotten into Korea University.
The moment he saw that, a fire raged within him.
‘Then all of that was originally supposed to be mine!’
His world came crashing down.
And he wanted it back.
From then on, he started indulging in wishful thinking.
‘Son Si-woo truly loves his wife and daughter.’
A wife who wouldn't even look at him and a cold daughter.
It was hard to understand, but Son Si-woo still loved those two steadfastly and sincerely.
That's why he was certain.
That after three years, Son Si-woo would come to him first and try to switch their bodies back.
‘It's a happy ending for everyone, right?’
Son Si-woo gets to be with his wife and daughter again, which is great for him, and I get to become a handsome twenty-year-old Korea University student, which is great for me!
‘Yes, this is right.’
To make that happen, he needed to preserve Son Si-woo's reputation as much as possible.
It would be a problem if Son Si-woo refused to switch back because he'd ruined his image.
‘So, just three years.’
Let's just hold out until the 'Mutual Non-aggression' and 'Disclosure Prohibition' pacts I set up expire.
Just as he was steeling his resolve.
His superhuman senses arbitrarily picked up a presence outside the door.
Confident footsteps.
“Ah.”
He thought he'd be able to get through the day peacefully, but the person he wanted to see least had arrived.
Bang!
The door flew open, and a beautiful woman with a cold expression stepped inside.
A woman in a black evening dress that contrasted with her snow-white skin, clutching a dark purple parasol in one hand even though the sun wasn't that strong, strode in confidently and glared at him with a displeased look.
“To not even show respect with your queen before you… what an arrogant and impudent man you are.”
“……”
“Hurry and pay your respects to this queen!”
Here we go again.