Chapter 262: Bastard (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 262: Bastard (4)
Shin Yu-jeong knelt before me.
“I’m sorry.”
And a sincere apology, at that.
Normally, she would have done a complete 180, shouting something like, ‘Are… are you crazy?! You’re the one who’s wrong!’
But looking back at the key words she'd thrown around today, the current situation made sense.
The improvement and resolution of our relationship she mentioned.
It meant she wanted to properly fix our twisted, misaligned relationship from the very beginning.
I asked her.
“What are you so sorry for?”
“…For hating you in high school. And for you getting bullied by bastards like Kim Jeong-hun because of me.”
She was right.
Shin Yu-jeong had hated me… no, the original owner of this body.
Hated him a lot.
If you were to ask if that's why she bullied him… well. That part is a bit ambiguous.
“That’s why I was always so prickly whenever I saw you, glaring at you and making it obvious I hated you.”
Most of what Shin Yu-jeong had done to this body was like that.
It was more like she was directly expressing the aversion she felt when seeing someone she disliked.
The point of contention here is whether or not such actions fall into the category of bullying.
“You were definitely… in the wrong back then.”
From a third-party perspective, Shin Yu-jeong’s actions at the time were wrong.
No matter how much you dislike someone, you can't do that.
You can't just glare at them for crossing paths in the hallway, click your tongue because you don't like them, or curse at them to get lost and stop hovering in front of you, right?
“Yeah… I was wrong.”
Shin Yu-jeong’s body trembled faintly as she lowered her head.
A desperation not to be hated by me, and only me, radiated from her entire being.
Should I see this as her repenting for her mistakes, or as her doing this because she wants to be loved more by me?
Since I didn't experience it myself, it doesn't really matter either way, but…
“Then tell me.”
I didn't want to just accept her apology lightly.
To be precise, it was more that I wanted to fix her chronic bad habits a little.
“What you did wrong back then, and what you’re doing wrong now.”
Shin Yu-jeong’s flaw, one that has persisted from then until now.
If she can clearly grasp this… she’ll at least be able to stand at the starting line.
“My… mistake was.”
Countless emotions flickered across her face as she deliberated. Worry, anxiety, impatience.
It seemed she instinctively realized that what she said now was more important than anything.
“……”
I waited calmly as she kept her lips sealed, deep in thought.
The time for self-reflection is inevitably long.
After all, people are fundamentally designed to be more lenient with themselves than with others.
After enough time had passed, she parted her trembling lips and began to speak.
“…Acting however the fuck I wanted. My attitude changing drastically depending on my mood.”
The corners of my mouth rose as her trembling voice brought out the correct answers, one by one.
I forced the smile from my face and asked in a blunt tone, “And?”
“Ignoring… the fact that my attitude could hurt others.”
Look at her.
“Are you sure you ignored it? It’s not that you didn’t know?”
“Yeah, I ignored it.”
This is both Shin Yu-jeong’s strength and her weakness.
“Ignoring it is worse than not knowing… you know that, right?”
“…I know.”
The girl is too honest for her own good.
In a situation like this, she could have just said she didn't really know, but she just had to honestly confess that she had some idea but chose to ignore it.
In terms of self-reflection, this honesty is her greatest strength, but when that same honesty is directed at someone she dislikes, there’s nothing more terrifying.
This is where the desperation she was feeling now became apparent.
It meant she had no room to spare, forced to scrape the very bottom of her barrel to confess her faults.
“Yu-jeong.”
I called her name, then knelt on one knee to meet her eyes.
“…Yeah.”
Placing a hand lightly on her shoulder as she stared at me and nodded like someone possessed, I asked.
“Do you know what the greatest apology a person can make is?”
“I… don’t know.”
For someone who has done wrong, the greatest apology isn’t kneeling and begging, nor is it sufficient compensation.
“It’s simply disappearing from their sight.”
“……”
To not be seen by those they have wronged.
This doesn’t just mean vanishing from their line of sight, but never showing up in their lives again at all.
By sight or by sound. In any form, not reminding them of those nightmarish memories.
Wouldn’t that be the best apology of all?
So am I telling Shin Yu-jeong to get lost?
No.
This is… just a way of scaring her.
Soothing with a carrot after using the whip is a time-honored and effective method of discipline, isn’t it?
“But if that’s what I wanted from you, I wouldn’t have brought up things like threesomes.”
In a corner of her face, which was gradually being colored by despair, a faint hope blossomed.
“My desire to be with you is sincere.”
In many ways, Shin Yu-jeong was definitely a woman I’d regret letting go.
Her future potential as a Hunter was one thing, but as a woman, she was a unique type I’d never seen before, which made me even more drawn to her.
“But if you keep acting like you do now, we probably won’t last long.”
If she truly wants to become a good Hunter, and if she wants to stay by my side, she must cultivate altruism.
It would be nice if she could get ahead with her fierce competitive spirit alone, but this society isn’t so easy.
Now that all dungeon raids are conducted in parties, harmony is the shortcut to getting ahead of others as a Hunter.
“I’m not telling you to be nice to everyone. Honestly, I don’t want to do that either.”
I’m not asking for much. No, my true feeling is that I hope she doesn’t go that far.
I’ve already realized that trying to please everyone will only make my own life more difficult.
“You need to change, at least within a very small circle.”
A question arose in her mind at my words, and she asked, “How small is this circle…?”
“For now… our party.”
We’ll be adding more people one by one, but for now, let’s start there.
The goal is to get her to a point where she might even accept a mother-daughter threesome…?
It might be a rough road… but with her current attitude, I feel like even that might not be impossible.
“I’m not telling you to fix everything. Just… don’t get upset just because you don’t like something, and don’t let that bad mood show in your attitude.”
What I want is for her to become better, not to be completely remade.
Personally, I like Shin Yu-jeong’s wild, untamed spirit.
However, I want her to be wary of the sharp reactions she sometimes shows to others, including me.
Like an untamed wild horse that still knows how to distinguish right from wrong?
Now that I say it out loud, that sounds pretty difficult.
“…I’ll try.”
Shin Yu-jeong nodded after some thought. Her face held a strong will, as if to say her answer wasn’t given lightly.
That’s enough.
If there’s one thing she excels at, it’s her tenacious grit, so she’ll struggle and do whatever it takes to change.
“Let’s consider our ill-fated past resolved for now. When I feel that you’ve truly changed, that’s when we’ll move forward anew.”
“Th—… no, okay.”
A faint dissatisfaction lingered on her face as she nodded.
But it seemed she quickly shut her mouth, realizing she wasn’t in a position to say anything else.
Seeing the girl who would have normally lashed out keep her mouth shut, I wondered if the medicine was already starting to work.
“I have a question.”
“What is it?”
“Can I… treat you like I normally do?”
“Of course. You have to.”
Her being docile like this is nice, but she’s at her best when she’s a little cheeky.
“Ah, one more thing.”
She held up one finger and added another question.
“Then… our relationship later, will we be, uh, dating?”
She wants to be my girlfriend that badly, huh.
I could grant her that much easily enough… but if I give her a definite answer now, she might get cocky.
“We’ll see how you do first.”
I chose to pull the line one more time.
At that, she pouted.
“…Can I get up now?”
“Yeah.”
Only then did Shin Yu-jeong straighten her knees and stand up. She glanced at my face before asking cautiously.
“Can I ask you for one favor?”
“What is it.”
“…If I do something wrong, please point it out. There might be things I do without realizing it.”
“Hmm, that’s not hard…”
A good idea came to mind.
“Then let’s do this.”
“…How?”
“For every mistake you make without realizing it that I point out, I get to give you a punishment.”
“A punishment? What kind of punishment?”
“That’ll depend on the situation, won’t it?”
As I answered with a grin, she furrowed her brow.
“…What kind of perverted things are you planning to make me do now.”
Huh.
How did she know?
I was planning to point out her mistakes and use the punishments to make her do various things.
“Haaah… fine, okay.”
“Oh, really?”
That’s unexpected. I thought she’d say no.
“Anyway, if I don’t… get called out, I don’t get punished, right?”
“That’s right.”
But can you really avoid being called out? I feel like I could find ten things a day.
“Anyway… I’ll try my best to fix it.”
“Yeah, good luck.”
I gave her a determined fist pump, and she chuckled before turning her back.
“I’m heading down.”
After that, she disappeared quickly down the stairs without a single look back.
* * *
Her face was burning.
The things she had done for the first time in her life felt endlessly unfamiliar and awkward.
So much so that even the buzz from the alcohol, which had been so strong just a moment ago, had completely vanished.
“Hoo…”
She let out a small sigh.
She had been slowly realizing it. That if she didn’t change, she would face trouble in many ways.
It was just that she didn’t like the idea of having to hide herself and conform for the sake of others.
But in the end, the reason she decided to change was because of Kim Do-jin.
‘I hate the thought of growing distant from him as much as I hate the thought of dying.’
Because changing was better than dying, better than growing distant from him.
‘Altruism, he said…’
In the end, it meant thinking a little more about others.
To consider how the other person might feel when she spat out harsh or unpleasant words, and to restrain herself.
Having lived her life so far with almost no filter, a difficult process was to be expected.
Click!
As she entered her house, lost in thought, Seo Jeong-hee’s nagging immediately flew at her.
“Shin Yu-jeong! Where have you been? You didn’t even answer your mom’s calls! If you’re going to be late, you need to call. Do you really have to see your mother worry herself sick?”
Faced with the affectionate nagging, Shin Yu-jeong thought.
‘What do I usually say in these situations?’
She couldn’t remember clearly since she always just said whatever came to mind, but it was usually something along the lines of, ‘I’m an adult now, what are you so worried about?’
‘…I can’t do that.’
She shouldn’t say something like that to her mother, who was worried about her daughter being late without even a phone call.
“Uh… sorry. From now on, if I’m going to be late, I’ll call ahead.”
“Eh?”
Suddenly, Seo Jeong-hee’s expression twisted bizarrely.
“My daughter is apologizing so obediently…? N-No way.”
Seeing her mother’s face, her eyes, nose, and mouth all wide open as if in great shock, Shin Yu-jeong quietly lowered her head.
‘I really have been living my life the wrong way.’
Another moment of self-reflection followed.